Hey I've been brewing competitive Heliod as well with my list here: the Hateful Sol of the format [cEDH]

I'd like to suggest the soul sisters: Soul Warden Soul's Attendant they give incidental life gain, and if they are out before walking ballista they make the combo cost a cool since the sisters will gain life off of ballista entering, and heliod will add a second counter.

What so you grab with Karn, the Great Creator? Are you allowed to grab extra copies of Walking Ballista and Triskelion?

3th4n In EDH cards that mention cards outside the game technically do nothing (unless your specific playgroup wants to play otherwise)

Karn is in this list mainly for his static ability but also to unexile a wincon.

HezTheGod

Incidental life gain isn't great in comp, instead of running those cards you can be running more hate bears or ways to stop some of the faster decks. If they come down early they are practically useless, and you really don't want to draw into them in the late game.

3th4n,

In commander wish abilities are generally not allowed unless of course your playground wants to play with them. Karn is used as a one-sided Null Rod and to retrieve and exiled Walking Ballista

How do we feel about lands that give a +1/+1 counter or gain you life for the combo turn? Like Glimmerpost,Seraph Sanctuary or (fetchable) Idyllic Grange? Might be a nice little surprised.

What are the best 2nd targets for Recruiter of the Guard?

Hey, what does angel's grace do for you? Do you just cast it in response to something like a Thassa's Oracle trigger?

Guyu,

I have tested some of the lands that give life, they aren't really good. This deck is really hungry for white mana and drawing those in the early game feels really bad. It is nice that they have some incidental synergy with the commander and the combo, but it is really not enough to include them.

cablespy,

That is a hard question to answer because it is very situational. Obviously you want to grab Walking Ballista and then the second target can be anything that will help you. For example, if you are playing vs decks with Food Chain, you may want to grab a Suture Priest. If you think there will be counter magic or removal, you can grab Salvage Scout. what you grab depends on the board state and the decks you are playing against. This deck has answeres to almost, if not all, of the decks in the format.

thecakeisalie42,

With how prevalent Thassa's Oracle is in the current meta, we need to be able to answer it. Angel's Grace is a great response to it and the reason it is included in this deck.

Thoughts on Devoted Caretaker ?

Thoughts on Mikokoro, Center of the Sea & Geier Reach Sanitarium?

Also, any reason why Mana Tithe is not included?

dhoby87,

Devoted Caretaker was in a previous iteration of the deck. Ultimately the card was taken out because there is a lot more Pyroclasm type of cards than single target removal. Also, there were just other cards that needed to be included more than this one.

F4D3.

Unfortunately, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is just a really bad card. Paying for everyone to draw a card is super bad in competitive. The same goes for Geier Reach Sanitarium. The only reason Geier Reach Sanitarium is seeing some play, is because it has the discard clause. However, these cards really are not worth the inclusion even if they can theoretically stop an oracle deck from winning. In most cases, you will never tutor for this card, you will never have it when you need it, it will suck when you have it, and a good oracle player can Tainted Pact leaving 2 cards left so they don't die to it.

F4D3,

Generally speaking, Mana Tithe is only good turns 1-2, maybe. Paying one mana is pretty darn easy to do. It just isn't better than any of the cards that are currently in the list.

Thoughts on Deal Broker over smugglers?

F4D3,

Smugglers has flying, which is really important. It is a 3/3, it can draw cards from attacking and blocking, it also costs less mana. The only "downside" is that you have to tap a creature. This isn't really a downside since there are plenty of times you don't want to attack with a specific creature so you just tap it and accrue value.

Thoughts on Ancient Den to help facilitate Inventors? Helps that it's tutorable by Wayfarer.

F4D3,

Those kinds of lands are generally really bad in comp because they are both an artifact and a land. Plus, they are nonbasic, which means it gets hit by all nonbasic land hate. People would be willing to remove this with artifact removal and it feels really bad. Having 3 artifacts out for inventors fair is not something the deck cares about. The small amount of life gain is negligible and really just a small bonus.

Apotheosis616,

If that's the case it doesn't really seem like it's worth running. It feels like more often than not it just screws with your land base by not producing colored mana of any kind. The chance of it hurting your curve seems more common than being able to activate it. Honestly, an extra plains to tutor with land tax seems like a bigger advantage.

Speaking of mana, despite it being a nonbo with some of the hatebears in the deck, what about Knight of the White Orchid? It would in theory turn off land tax/wayfarer if hit, but it feels like the ramp is well worth it considering you need at least six mana to combo out with heliod already in play. When flash can win at any point with just two mana, every little boost helps...

F4D3,

Knight of the White Orchid isn't a bad card. However, the goal of the deck is not to race the flash hulk decks, rather, we are trying to stop their combos from working. A big mistake people make with this deck is trying to race other people. This deck cannot race, it is not fast. So, since we cannot race them we look to our powerful creatures to prevent early wins until we have enough resources to win. For this reason, Knight does not make the cut. It is not better than any of the cards already in the deck. Hope that answers your question ;)

HezTheGod I thought Karn couldnt fetch cards in exile since Exile is a zone in the game?

toastySmorc,

You can retrieve cards from exile, that is a normal effect in magic. Wishboards and getting cards from "outside" the game, as in, cards that are not even in the decklist, are usually off-limits in commander unless your playgroup allows for it.

What about the bomberman combo, Auriok Salvagers and LED, in combination with the stax pieces to make more redundancy with walking ballista?

I have a more casual heliod-ballista deck that's not so much graveyard hate. I have been very happy with Serra's Sanctum running roughly the same enchantments as you. With heliod and the other enchantment creatures it's rarely a total miss, and comes with good upside. Have you tried and cut it already?

Ericj1222,

Bomberman combo includes several dead cards and since we do not have an outlet in the command zone it is not worth the inclusion. If you want an easier time casting Walking Ballista there are easier ways.

beeplus,

We discussed Serra's Sanctum and decided that the card was not worth the inclusion. We really need to have access to white early on. This card does not help that game plan, rather, it hurts it. On average, you will only have one enchantment in play (it is actually more likely that you will not have an enchantment in play) making it worse than a basic plains. When you do not have an enchantment in play the card is useless and really hurts the deck. This drawback far outweighs the upside this card brings if you have more than one enchantment in play.