A cliffhanger at the end of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story article appears to set things in motion for the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Reality Fracture.
In Episode 7 of the Lorwyn story written by Seanan Mcguire, the wayward Strixhaven students return home for a bollocking by Liliana. Immediately after that, who should stride into the room but a second version of the necromancer antihero, dressed all in white. What does it mean?!
Well, since the MTG release schedule for next year only has three in-universe entries, there aren't many sets where this plot point could be resolved. And it seems obvious that this has something to do with Reality Fracture. It's the most mysterious set on the calendar, and big, vague promises have been made about how innovative it is, but concrete details? There aren't many.
However, some fans were already convinced this set would be a 'What If?' type set, with alternate versions of well-known characters and worlds. If that's the case, a mono-white Liliana would fit right in.
Here are the clues. Firstly, we know Jace has engaged in some multiversal fuckery in his failed(?) attempt to reset everything. Secondly, the Magic website's page for Reality Fracture has the tagline "The multiverse meets its match". And finally, there have been rumors swirling around about this idea for almost a year.
Reddit threads from months ago claim that WotC put out a survey discussing a plot point where Jace creates an alternate universe. This included a different version of Strixhaven with schools based on the allied color pairs, and a healer Liliana. Apart from fans claiming to have seen it, we've seen no evidence of this survey, but a Liliana clone clad in white does lend some weight to one of its claims.
More importantly, perhaps, Rosewater revealed in February this year that "a 'what if?' set is on the shortlist". But interestingly he also added that "it wouldn't mess with the color pie".
Personally, I'm thoroughly convinced that this is what Reality Fracture will be. Wizards has explored similar ideas before with Planar Chaos in 2007, and it's even a great thematic fit after Lorwyn Eclipsed, since that plane has two versions of its world and characters.
Since we're going to Strixhaven second in 2026 (after a brief turtles excursion), I expect any mono-white Liliana card will appear in that set, since we know that's where the character is right now. Wizards also said it's switching to two MTG planeswalker cards per set, so it'll want to conserve slots for other alt-characters in Reality Fracture.
That's assuming I'm not way off base here. Perhaps Liliana just looked in a mirror and didn't realize it. And she's in white because… she's getting married? Yeah!
Come speculate with us in the Wargamer Discord!