Heliod: Making White Decks Great Again, now Combo-free!

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 3 years ago

Heliod, Sun-Crowned: Making White Decks Great Again


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Introduction

White decks have been the laughingstock of the commander format for too long. Under the new leadership of new Heliod, we will usher in a new order of life-gaining and prosperity.

Full disclosure: I was inspired to make this deck by a video from the JumboCommander YouTube channel. Feel free to check out all of DJ's other awesome content on YouTube.

This deck aims to do one thing white does very well: gain life. It further attempts to profit from the constant supply of life-gain effects and use them to turn even the smallest of bodies into a sizeable threat. The icing on this cake is that you can always fall back on your fearless, indestructible, 3cc commander.

The main strategy of this deck is simple: play Heliod and gain life. The easiest way to do this is by way of the various Soul Sisters effects. In a world where nearly everyone at the table is playing creatures, these innocent-looking ladies can take your life total to new heights for the low cost of 1-2 mana.
The elephant in the room with Heliod is Walking Ballista. As you might have seen in Modern/Pioneer decks, this is a pretty easy way to go infinite. More on that below.


Aetherflux Reservoir is also really easy to activate, given all the natural life-gain. Between these two, you have plenty of options for actually winning the game.
Why White?
You might like this deck if:
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  • You like to gain life.
  • You like +1/+1 counters.
  • You like turning small, inocuous creatures into large threats out of nowhere.
  • You think white decks have been getting a bum rap.



So, if any of that sounds like fun to you, then please keep scrolling!
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Commander Analysis

Heliod
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Heliod, Sun-Crowned is an extremely strong card for a very low price of just three mana. Even if he's not an active creature, he still offers two very potent abilities that are easy to take advantage of. When he is active, he provides you with a large, indestructible beater that shrugs off opposing blockers with ease.

Heliod is not without weaknesses. His biggest natural enemy is Shadowspear, which can reduce him to an ordinary body for only one mana. Do what you must to destroy any Shadowspear you see. Other common ways to deal with him include Chaos Warp, Deglamer, and Return to Dust. Fortunately, Heliod's cheap mana cost makes him relatively easy to recast, and his +1 counter ability means you should have plenty of other threats to distract opponents.




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Deck History

How I built this deck, and the decisions I made along the way.
White History
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I first saw the video from the JumboCommander YouTube channel when I was piloting a God-Eternal Oketra (here), and I was starting to grow tired of playing otherwise unspectacular cards like Kor Skyfisher and Whitemane Lion just for the possibility of making a pile of 4/4 tokens that might survive long enough to swing into someone else. So, I managed to acquire a nice, shiny constellation foil copy of new Heliod and went to work on the idea that DJ had started.


After just one game, I was instantly hooked. Heliod was cheaper and stronger than Oketra, and offered more utility. I ordered a few missing pieces and the rest was history.



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Deck Philosophy

Soul Sisters
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You want them, early and often. Everyone plays creatures, and every creature is a profit waiting to happen. The best part about these guys is that the effect is very subtle. Instead of gaining 20 life at once and drawing the ire of stray attackers, you slowly gain one life at a time until you're at 50 or more. And each one of these life-gain triggers activates Heliod...
Stoneforge package
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I wanted to setup a tiny Stoneforge package to have a few subtle yet diverse equips that could cheaply and efficiently shore up some of the deck's weaknesses. Sword of the Animist for extra ramp, Mask of Memory for card draw and setting up recursion targets, Skullclamp for the raw power. Unfortunately, there aren't many equipments that gain you life in a cheap or efficient manner. Loxodon Warhammer and Sword of War and Peace both cost a lot to cast + equip, and Sylvok Lifestaff is pretty janky. I ran Sword of Light and Shadow for a bit, but I never really wanted to find it. Umezawa's Jitte is on the radar finally getting a shot as well. At some point, I'll have to actually determine if the traditional Swords of X and Y are more effective than the current package, but for now they're working out fine.
Combos
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Normally, my position on infinite combos is that each piece has to have at least some purpose on its own, without the combo. To that end, I cut Triskelion early on because I would never really use it for anything but going off, and it also cost more than Walking Ballista to cast, and both were easy enough to tutor up if necessary.
After playing about a dozen games with Heliod, I looked back on my notes and realized that I was winning more than half of them, and doing so exclusively by way of the combo. That's a bit too degenerate for my taste, and also kinda boring. So, after mulling it over for several weeks in quarantine, and with a final bit of encouragement from a certain Discord channel, I've decided to cut out the too-easy infinite combo and focus on the other wonderful synergies that Heliod has to offer.



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Heliod, Sun-Crowned: Making White Decks Great Again

Commander (1)

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Card Choice Discussion

A few notes on some cards I'm currently running
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I'm going to skip over a few of the generic staples and focus on cards specific to this deck. For example, we all know why Sol Ring and Smothering Tithe are good. However...
- Linden, the Steadfast Queen: I once saw her hook up with Heliod in a standard deck. The Queen triggers separately for each attacking creature, which means you get an extra Heliod counter for each attacker.
- Mentor of the Meek: Even though Heliod makes most creatures enormous, they usually start out pretty small. Also, this is what passes for card-draw in mono-white.
- Recruiter of the Guard: Arguable the most expensive card in the deck, and for good reason. This deck is setup so that this card can get you anything you want: ramp, draw, life, and of course a combo piece.
- Abzan Battle Priest: This card creates another nice little snowball effect. Heliod puts counters on guys, which then automatically get lifelink, which make even more counters, and so on.
- Luminous Broodmoth: The next great mono-white staple. At present, at least 20 creature spells don't have flying in this deck, which is more than enough to justify this card.
- Mindless Automaton: Turns all those +1 counters into card draw, and for 0 mana!
- Cataclysmic Gearhulk: Mass removal on a body. Usually, I'll pick Heliod as the enchantment, this as the artifact, and my best creature. Bonus points for being an Enlightened Tutor target!
- Sunscorch Regent: Everybody casts spells, right? This thing grows up real fast.
- Crested Sunmare, Regna, the Redeemer: Two more excellent ways to profit from all that natural life-gain.

- Endless Atlas: In mono-white, this is the purest form of card-draw there is to-date.
- Sun Droplet: Gains life on everyone's turn, not just mine. You can usually just run it out as soon as you find it and your opponents will stop attacking you as long as it's on the table. If that's somehow not enough, it's also super-combo-rific with Ancient Tomb and/or Rhox Faithmender.
- Altar of the Pantheon/Pristine Talisman: Life-gain as a mana-ability. What's not to like?
- Well of Lost Dreams: Turns life-gain into card draw. Scales based on how much life you gain at one time, as much as you can afford. More efficient than Dawn of Hope.

- Authority of the Consuls/Blind Obedience: These cards do serious work, for very little mana! It's really hard to measure how effective it is to have your opponents' creatures ETB tapped. Haste becomes irrelevant, non-green mana ramp gets neutered. Plus, each one comes with extra life-gain!
- Together Forever: Ran into this while searching for random stuff on Scryfall. Seems to check all of the boxes: cheap to cast, subtle effect, effortless synergy, even provides double devotion to turn on Heliod.
- Act of Authority: This card also checks a lot of boxes. It's cheap to cast, exiles indestructible Gods and Darksteels, provides devotion, and is a target for E-Tutor and Hall.
A few notes on some cards that have not been tested yet
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- Resplendent Angel: Yet another fine way to profit from life-gain, although this is a bit harder to turn into a profit, and I don't yet own a copy.
- Etched Oracle: Similar to Mindless Automaton...needs more counters, draws more cards for the price.
- Knight-Captain of Eos: One of the few army-in-a-can type of cards I might try out. Has enough synergy/utility to get consideration.
- Shattered Angel: Other people like playing lands. A lot. And THREE life per land is a lot. But...it's a five drop, and it isn't a tutor target.

- Alhammarret's Archive: Yet another double-the-life-gain effect, but it's not a creature, so it has less synergy (can't get Heliod counters). The double-draw is not likely to matter much in mono-white.
- Contemplation: Another subtle source of multiple life-gain triggers. Ironically, it's actually more expensive and a bit less likely to trigger than a simple Soul Warden, which is why it hasn't quite made the cut yet.

- Settle the Wreckage, Rout: Instant-speed wraths are pretty effective in this format, and criminally underplayed. However, these two only hit creatures, and there enough other wraths out there that are more flexible, which
A few notes on things I've tried and ultimately didn't like
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- Angel of Vitality, Rhox Faithmender: If you're thinking that a dedicated life-gain deck should always want to gain more life per trigger, you'd probably be right, at first. But, the more you play the deck, the more you realize that you don't actually need to this. Just making a bunch of life-gain triggers is all you really need to do, and Heliod is perfectly capable of turning any creature with a pile of counters on it into a large amount of life.
- God-Eternal Oketra: Oketra is all about casting as many creatures as possible, or one self-bouncing creature over and over again. That's not exactly what this deck wants to do, and mono-white has lots of ways to make bodies.
- Reveillark: "Didn't like" is a bit of an over-statement here. I've been riding the Lark to value-town since the days of Lorwyn standard. But...there were more qualifying targets for Luminous Broodmoth in this deck, and the 'Moth is cheaper with an extra devotion. I tend to keep an eye on these totals, so if they swing back in favor of the Lark, it will certainly be back.
- Triskelion: The "other" combo piece with Heliod. Less utility outside of infinite combo, more expensive to cast either way.

- Dawn of Hope: On paper, it appears to check a lot of very important boxes: extra card draw, tokens with lifelink, cheap CMC. But, the two activated abilities are both pretty expensive, and I never wanted to cast this unless I had nothing else to do.
- Luminarch Ascension: As much fun as it would be to make 4/4s for the low price of two mana, this is just a magnet for combat damage and/or removal.
- Sword of Light and Shadow: Maybe my opponents don't run enough removal, but I never wanted to dig this up with a Stoneforge Mystic.
- Sword of War and Peace: The "other" life-gain sword, as of this writing. It was originally designed for games with one opponent at 20 life, so it isn't likely to ever be a thing in this format.

- Secure the Wastes, Finale of Glory, White Sun's Zenith, etc: This isn't a dedicated go-wide tokens deck, and it doesn't have all the mana in the world. If I need an army-in-a-can, there are creature-based alternatives,



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Deck Strategy

The core strategy is pretty simple: find a life-gain source, play Heliod, and start incrementally turning a profit.

Heliod is cheap, indestructible, and usually starts out as not-a-creature, so you almost always want to just run him out on turn three, if possible. If you can land an early Soul Sister, you should expect it to grow pretty large. Make sure not to put all of your eggs/counters into one creature/basket, because your creatures are still susceptible to removal.

This deck used to run the elephant-in-the-room combo with Walking Ballista, but that combo was too easy to assemble and not very much fun. Here's a brief explanation of how the combo works:
Walking Ballista combo
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You need to have Heliod in play, plus one white mana and five other mana of any kind, for a total of six. Play Walking Ballista for X=2 (four mana), then activate Heliod targeting the Ballista to give it lifelink. Finally, remove one of the two +1/+1 counters from the Ballista and target any opponent. Ballista deals one damage to the opponent, and that damage has lifelink. This gains you one life, which triggers Heliod, and you put that counter back on the Ballista. Repeat until the whole table is dead.

The really nice part about this combo is that once you resolve the Ballista, you can go off at instant-speed, so anything short of a Krosan Grip will not stop you. Another really nice part is how easy it is to assemble the two pieces. Heliod is your commander, and he's indestructible, so he's usually just sitting there on the table very early in the game. The Ballista itself is fetchable by nearly every white tutor available.

The easiest way to disrupt the combo is to counter the Ballista. If you aren't playing against any blue players, the next most effective way to interact is the afforementioned Krosan Grip, or some other type of split-second card. Beyond that, you just have to watch out for any sort of player-hexproof effect, or something that prevents life-gain.



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Credits and Thanks

Coming soon!


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Change Log

5/29/20
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5/29/20

CUTS

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Finally picked up a copy of the hottest new white card in the format, and it just so happens to have more targets to reanimate than the 'Lark.
6/6/20
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6/6/20
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Managed to pick up a copy of Together, and the Landing was proving too difficult to flip.
6/19/20
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6/19/20
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Looked back at my game notes and realized that I was going off with this combo over half the time. One-half is my indestructible commander, and the other half is the #1 target of every tutor spell, costs no colored mana, and is just too easy to assemble.
On the other hand, the Mindless Auto is exactly where I want to be! This deck pumps out a lot of +1/+1 counters, and the Auto mindlessly turns them into extra draws, which this deck conveniently needs!
6/30/20
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6/30/20
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Got an early copy of the Speaker when a friend pulled it during pre-release. Land Tax is generally a stronger card than Wayfarer's Bauble, and it adds that one extra point of devotion. Trying out the new Rangers in place of Dawn of Hope, a card I never really wanted to cast unless I had absolutely nothing else to do. Also trying out the new Lieutenant in place of the Monument, since a lot of the creatures in this deck have no colorless cost to reduce.
7/10/20
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7/10/20
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Trying out Jitte after some solid analysis in another Heliod thread.
Cutting both the Angel and the Faithmender because, outside of one or two cards, gaining more life per trigger doesn't really do much.
8/7/20
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8/7/20
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And just like that, Ugin is back out. Unfortunately, he doesn't exile his targets or provide any devotion, and he isn't a tutor target. Hopefully the Act fills that role a lot better.
Last edited by OCPunisher 3 years ago, edited 20 times in total.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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Outcryqq
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Post by Outcryqq » 3 years ago

I wonder if Verge Rangers has a place in the deck? When I saw that card, I thought about how great it should be in any mono-white lists. Though I know it lacks any life gain synergy with what you're trying to accomplish, I see you have cards like Solemn Simulacrum in your list, and I suspect the rangers might actually be better.

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Post by OCPunisher » 3 years ago

Outcryqq wrote:
3 years ago
I wonder if Verge Rangers has a place in the deck? When I saw that card, I thought about how great it should be in any mono-white lists. Though I know it lacks any life gain synergy with what you're trying to accomplish, I see you have cards like Solemn Simulacrum in your list, and I suspect the rangers might actually be better.
It certainly does, and I'm working on updating that part of the OP. Just wanted to get a first draft up there with as much quick info as possible.
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Post by UnNamed1 » 3 years ago

What would you think about Drannith Magistrate? I got a foil as a gift and love that he shuts off everything.

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Post by OCPunisher » 3 years ago

UnNamed1 wrote:
3 years ago
What would you think about Drannith Magistrate? I got a foil as a gift and love that he shuts off everything.
My first thought is that it's always going to be effective, especially since Heliod is generally cheaper than most commanders by about a full turn. However, it's a hate-bear, which means it'll get targeted like a hate-bear, and need to either be protected or revived like one. I'm not currently running a bunch of them (i.e. not a stax deck), and I'm not heavy on recursion after it dies or protecting it from dying. 3 toughness means it can't be recruited, and it's not a one-drop for either of the rangers.

In summary, I think it will find homes in a lot of different white decks, but this probably isn't one of them.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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Post by OCPunisher » 3 years ago

UPDATE: I've made the decision to cut out the obvious Walking Ballista combo from this deck. Further details can be found in the OP. The good news is that the Mindless Automaton I found to replace it is working very nicely!

On a related note, Core Set 21 is now fully spoiled, and this deck is getting several awesome new toys! My thoughts on each of the new ones are as follows:
Core Set 21 review
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- Basri Ket: The first ability is just okay. Heliod makes plenty of counters, and I'm not overly concerned with making one creature indestructible for a turn. This isn't a dedicated go-wide token deck, so the second ability is not at it's best, either. The third one is cool, but Basri needs to survive for three turns to get it, and in that time I could just play an Archangel of Thune. Pass.
- Mangara, the Diplomat: Solid body, reasonable price, yet another incidental source of life-gain. The bigger butt means it's not gonna be easy to find this guy, and you never want too many 4-drops. Elephant in this guy's room is the conditional card-draw. I have no idea how often either of the card-draw triggers will happen. I suspect that the second-spell one will work pretty often after turn 5-6, and if Mangara is on the table in time, I'll quietly draw a few extra cards. Bottom line: I'll look to pick one up if Standard doesn't jack up the price, but it's not a windmill-slam.
- Basri's Lieutenant: I almost glossed over this one, but after reading it over, it might be worth a look. As with Mangara, it's a solid body for the price, but as a 4-drop it's in a precarious position on the curve, it doesn't have the incidental life-gain that this deck adores, and it doesn't mesh with a lot of the other engine-type cards. However, the main effect on this guy has a striking resemblance to Luminous Broodmoth, one of the stronger white cards to be printed in recent memory. Ultimately, this is a way to recover from most removal spells. It'll definitely be worth testing, and will become more desirable every time the Moth does its thing. It should also be dirt cheap to acquire, which is another plus.
- Idol of Endurance: This has the look of another engine-type card. At present, there are 18 creatures at 3cc or less in the deck, which feels a little too low to give this a shot.
- Nine Lives: I just gave up on being a degenerate combo deck, and even if I was that guy, this is just too risky. Hard pass.
- Speaker of the Heavens: BAM! This little guy checks all the big boxes. One-drop for the rangers, incidental lifelink, and one heck of an activated ability. In as soon as I get one, probably for a low price.
- Angelic Ascension: How bad do you want to exile something? Unlike the previous white elephant, a 4/4 flyer is a lot more of a threat than a vanilla 3/3, and this card isn't nearly as flexible in what it can remove. Given that I'm still trying to find room for Path to Exile, this probably won't see any play soon.
- Griffin Aerie: Another windmill slam. 3 life is pretty easy to obtain with Heliod, and 2/2 flying bodies are nothing to sneeze at. In as soon as I get one.
- Light of Promise: I want to like this card. The effect is very nice. But...it's an aura, so it's a pass.
- Rambunctious Mutt: I've been praying for a white creature that could destroy either an artifact or enchantment in a single card for some time now. I'd even gone so far as to try running Kor Sanctifiers for a bit. This card checks that box, but at roughly double the cost I was expecting to pay. If this was a 1/1 for 2 or 3 mana, I'd slam it everywhere I could. Unfortunately, it's not, and the extra p/t is probably more of a detriment than a benefit. Pass.
- Secure the Scene: Exiling any non-land permanent is a very strong line of text, but not nearly enough to overcome the casting cost and sorcery-speed part. The 1/1 Soldier is largely irrelevant.
- Mazemind Tome: I'm happy to say that mono-white has reached the point where it doesn't have to settle for this kind of crap to get extra card draw. Hard pass.
- Sparkhunter Masticore: I'm on the fence with this one. It's a solid body, 3cc opens up a lot of extra possibilities, and the activation cost is dirt cheap. I'm a little turned off by the discard part in mono-white, and I have a feeling that other formats will keep the price tag too rich for my blood.

Overall, a solid set for Heliod. There are at least two must-haves, and several other possibilities to try out.
Last edited by OCPunisher 3 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

I don't know how I missed this thread when you first put it out there. I love that you keep repping mono white, first with GE Oketra and now Heliod.

I hemmed and hawed about whether to run a soul sisters package in my Daxos, Blessed by the Sun deck (link in sig), but ultimately didn't want to use the slots for it when I had a soul mister in the command zone. Plus that deck needs the slots for historic/legendary/combo cards. Do you ever feel like the soul sisters are just redundant with the lifegain you are already getting from Heliod?

I do think M21 is interesting for mono white. I wish the good doggo could have been a legend for the sake of my Daxos deck, and it may still get a look because of what it can do with a Karmic Guide loop. It's also a shame they couldn't cost it more aggressively like Reclamation Sage et al.

I'll run several of the others even though they aren't incredible. For example, Light of Promise is a strictly better Sunbond which I already run to put on my hard to deal with threats like Commander Eesha, or anything if Eight-and-a-Half-Tails is on board.

Griffin Aerie, the new Mangara, and Speaker of the Heavens all seem great. Speaker isn't quite as good for me in Daxos, but still merits consideration.
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Post by OCPunisher » 3 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
3 years ago
I don't know how I missed this thread when you first put it out there. I love that you keep repping mono white, first with GE Oketra and now Heliod.

I hemmed and hawed about whether to run a soul sisters package in my Daxos, Blessed by the Sun deck (link in sig), but ultimately didn't want to use the slots for it when I had a soul mister in the command zone. Plus that deck needs the slots for historic/legendary/combo cards. Do you ever feel like the soul sisters are just redundant with the lifegain you are already getting from Heliod?

I do think M21 is interesting for mono white. I wish the good doggo could have been a legend for the sake of my Daxos deck, and it may still get a look because of what it can do with a Karmic Guide loop. It's also a shame they couldn't cost it more aggressively like Reclamation Sage et al.

I'll run several of the others even though they aren't incredible. For example, Light of Promise is a strictly better Sunbond which I already run to put on my hard to deal with threats like Commander Eesha, or anything if Eight-and-a-Half-Tails is on board.

Griffin Aerie, the new Mangara, and Speaker of the Heavens all seem great. Speaker isn't quite as good for me in Daxos, but still merits consideration.
Yeah, something about mono-white just keeps me coming back. There isn't much in terms of raw power, but there's a lot of synergy between Heliod and all of the individual pieces.

The soul sisters are definitely not redundant in Heliod...in fact, they're some of the more integral, consistent sources of life gain, which translates to consistent counter production. The beauty of the deck is that it can usually turn any random body into a giant threat, and the soul sisters are the easiest way to do that. On the other hand, they are probably redundant in a deck like yours where one of them is always available.

Totally agree on the Mutt. He would have been so much better as a functional reprint of Reclamation Sage, instead of this fat slob of a card. Mono-white has way too many good five-drops to warrant playing this guy. I even cut Reveillark the other day!

Light of Promise makes sense for a commander who inherently gains you life, even if it is still an Aura. It won't ever make my list, but if I was playing Daxos or another similar commander, I'd run it for sure.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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