Nahiri vs Sorin
Lore forum
Posted on April 4, 2019, 7:01 a.m. by Boza
We have a side dish to the main event - Nahiri vs Sorin round 3. A history:
Round 1: Nahiri wakes up after a slumber and notices that the Eldrazi were rampaging Zendikar. She tries to call Ugin and Sorin, but nobody picks up. Nahiri goes on Innistrad, finds a very dismissive Sorin and repeatedly asks for assitance. Sorin refuses and even locks up Nahiri in the Helvault . Once Liliana of the Veil breaks that to kill Griselbrand , she frees Nahiri as well.
Round 1 goes to Sorin.
Round 2: Nahiri, the Harbinger instigates all the events of Shadows over Innistrad block, out of revenge for round 1 and after seeing Zendikar ravaged by the Eldrazi. She lures Emrakul to Innistrad, then proceeds to wreck havoc on the plane, up to and including the culling of Markov clan.
Sorin is pissed and fights her. The fights ends at a stalemate, but in the final moment Nahiri seals Sorin in a stone block and planeswalks away to do... something currently unknonwn.
Round 2 goes to Nahiri.
Round 3: The two are lured to Ravnica by Bolas and start fighting as depicted on Single Combat .
Who wins round 3?
I suspect Sorin will prove victorious, as he has proved the more powerful in the past two fights--as ZendikariWol mentioned, Nahiri's victory was a final act of desperation when Sorin's teeth were literally around her neck.
Card design and rarity also reflects the story some, and, while there are other factors, you can generally derive some semblance of the story based on whose cards are printed at what rarities. Here, Sorin is printed at Rare; Nahiri at uncommon. I think that indicates Sorin will come out on top, but it's not ironclad evidence.
I also suspect Sorin is the more popular planeswalker, likely in part because vampires and Gothic horror is generally in vogue. He also is a fundamental character to Innistrad and has no suitable replacement, while Nahiri's role as Zendikar's protector could fall on Nissa.
I am not going to go so far as to say either will die in this set, but I think smart money is on Sorin winning in one form or another.
April 4, 2019 9:27 a.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #4
My prediction is that Sorin will win but Nahiri won't die. They'll probably be interrupted by Ugin or simply main plot events that will force them to stop and, since bolas at this point wants everyone's spark, to cooperate.
April 4, 2019 11:18 a.m.
I am personally rooting for Sorin, because he is effortlessly cooler, but I like the idea of Ugin interfering as a mediator.
Now that we have established that Sorin is historically stornger, I think he will easily overpower her, but Nahiri has the makings a future villain and I do not think she will be wasted. Not without learning what she did after she planeswalked away from Innistrad.
April 4, 2019 11:23 a.m.
I vote Sorin (probably has my vote for strongest walker after Bolas/Ugin)... he has been around forever; dueled Liliana when she first arrived on Innistrade and won easily according to her testimony to Jace in the SOI story...has the ability to create something as powerful as Avacyn, Angel of Hope .... I honestly dont really know what Nahiri could really bring to a no holds barred deathbattle/round 3 outside of a win though a technicality/circumstance.
April 4, 2019 11:24 a.m.
I expect Sorin to win, he was already annoyed, now he's very angry and an exceptionally powerful walker. I also expect Nahiri to be killed, but it may be interesting to see something like Ugin just taking off with her for some R&R so Sorin can help deal with Bolas
It would be great to see them fighting the entire war to the point of exhaustion, only to look up to see everything is over and be very confused at what happened.
April 4, 2019 12:03 p.m.
ThoAlmighty says... #8
I'm personally curious about what Ugin's involvement in the conflict is. His reason for ghosting Nahiri was pretty valid; he was dead. In the current timeline, though, we don't know what he was doing (recovering?). He was sitting in his Sanctum on Zendikar during BFZ block, but presumably if he was there he would have helped Nahiri when they got out the first time. He also didn't trap her in a silver monolith, so she's probably less angry at him, but he still bailed on her. Ugin has his hands full with his brother so we probably won't see him intervene, but he is present and is involved.
ZendikariWol says... #2
Round 2 was a fluke- a last-ditch surprise attack after Nahiri had lost the battle, and while a win is a win, it also means that perhaps Sorin may be a little more perceptive this time around. I think Nahiri is unlikely to emerge having won the fight.
April 4, 2019 9:08 a.m.