Heliod, the Radiant Dawn / Heliod, the Warped Eclipse
– March of the Machine 

Date Reviewed:  April 7, 2023

Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.

Reviews Below: 


 James H. 

  

Looks like Heliod got out of the underworld in Theros, and he managed to get compleated through the endeavors of a bad kitty and his pernicious posse. Heliod, the Radiant Dawn is an interesting take on the Therosian gods that’s different from all of the rest of them, so let’s get to it.

On his own, Heliod is a unimpressive body that fishes back an enchantment that isn’t a God…not awful, but  it’s underwhelming. But for four mana (or three mana and 2 life) on top of that, he flips into a very impressive body: flash speed and cost reduction for all of your spells is excellent, and he’s in colors that benefit rather nicely from all of those things. He’s a potent engine card that does a lot of damage if he gets the chance to, leaning hard into all of the potent strengths blue and white oft bring the bear.

The main knock is that Heliod really wants to flip to be useful, as his front side is underwhelming, and he also is bereft of any of the usual protection Theros afforded its pantheon. He’s always a creature, and a very killable one. I think his strengths will accordingly come from if there’s a control deck that wants his talents and can flip him as quickly as possible.

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75 (not very effective on his own,without an optimized deck at his disposal)
Multiplayer: 4.25 (if you can flip him, note that it counts all cards by all opponents)
Commander [EDH]: 4 (same deal here, though he’s going to be locked to white/blue+ decks as a result of his color identity)



David
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The new version of Heliod raises all sorts of questions about Theros’ cosmology, not to mention about metaphysics far beyond that plane. But if you’re curious about how he plays, you’re far from alone – my instinctive way of describing it is that his two faces seem like they kind of want to be in different decks. You don’t find many enchantment-based decks trying to play during their opponent’s turn, and you (for similar reasons) don’t find many flash-based decks with lots of enchantments. But this can be an advantage, in a sense: you might not always need to go all-in on one theme or the other, and Heliod’s compleated side can help you deploy your enchantment support cards at more advantageous times (for example). I could even see decks that play him more for the surprise factor, making people think they’re about enchantments and then mixing it up with the flash spells – a sort of transformational sideboard without a sideboard, if you like.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4 
Commander [EDH]: 4


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