The official Strixhaven: School of Mages preview stream may be scheduled for Thursday, but that didn’t stop Wizards of the Coast from previewing two of the set’s Planeswalkers today.
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First, Day9 showed off Kasmina, Enigma Sage. Kasmina originally appeared in War of the Spark as Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor, where she was introduced as a leader of an ancient order of Planeswalkers who is searching for the means to identify unsparked Planeswalkers.
She appears to have graduated from mentor to sage since we first met her while gaining a second color. Her new Blue/Green color identity matches her to the Quandrix college of Strixhaven, which is full of students that study “patterns, fractals, and symmetries to command power over the fundamental forces of nature.”
Then, Danny Trejo revealed Professor Onyx—who has a type line that reveals that her true identity is Liliana Vess. Since Onyx/Liliana is mono-Black, we don’t know if she aligns herself with Silverquill or Witherbloom—the two colleges with Black in their color identities—or if she even identifies with any of the colleges.
We last saw Liliana in the War of the Spark: Forsaken novel where she was being hunted by Kaya for her role in Bolas’s attack on Ravnica. Kaya’s mission was to kill Liliana, but she eventually allows Liliana to live in order to help her on her path to redemption. Liliana gives up the Chain Veil, moves to Fiora, and takes on a new identity, Ana Iora.
Has Liliana taken another identity in Strixhaven to continue hiding from the various factions that want her dead? Does she know that she’s Liliana, or does she actually believe that she’s Professor Onyx? We’ll have to wait and see!
The Strixhaven: School of Mages preview stream kicks off on Thursday at 12 PM Eastern on twitch.tv/magic.