cEDH Heliod: Bracket 5’s FLASHIEST Deck

Bracket 5 is where the best of the best decks live. Optimized lists reign supreme, with many being able to win as early as the first turn of the game. If you’d rather slow things down, then cEDH Heliod is the perfect deck for you. Azorius isn’t the strongest color combination in cEDH, in fact, it is on the weaker side in the grand scheme of things. However, you can capitalize on the many value engines available in the color pairing to make a formidable deck. cEDH Heliod is a very powerful Azorius Control commander that lets you play reactively and find openings to sneak a win past someone else. Here, we’ll go over card choices, win conditions, and how to play cEDH Heliod.

New to cEDH? It can be a big transition coming from casual Commander. Luckily, we have a guide on how to jump from regular EDH to cEDH right here to know what you’re getting into.

The Commander

First, let’s look at the commander itself, Heliod, the Radiant Dawn. The front side of the card is mostly irrelevant. It may bring back a destroyed or countered Rhystic Study or Mystic Remora, but odds are, you’re not actually going to use this effect outside of niche scenarios. Instead, the main attraction is the backside of Heliod, the Radiant Dawn.

The flip side of Heliod enables you to cast spells as though they had flash. This is one of the best abilities in cEDH, and allows you to steal a win before someone’s win condition finishes resolving. In addition to that, you can discount your spells when opponents draw cards. This helps to make your spells much cheaper, if not free, when combined with various Wheel effects. Generally, you want to transform Heliod as soon as you can, but only if you have interaction and mana to make sure it stays protected after it transforms.

Ramp Package

Unfortunately, since you’re in Azorius, your ramp package is less than stellar. To add to that, cEDH Heliod is moderately mana-intensive compared to other decks in the format. As such, the deck plays a higher than average number of mana rocks. The zero cost ones are the best, as these can enable your value engines early on. These include Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mox Opal, and Mox Diamond.

The deck also runs Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet. Fellwar Stone, and Talisman of Progress, along with Sol Ring and Relic of Legends. cEDH Heliod needs a lot of mana, so you want to get these onto the battlefield quickly. The bright side is they can tap the turn they enter, allowing you to still have mana for interaction even though you’re going to be a bit behind at the start of the game.

Value Engines

This is the other most important part of cEDH Heliod. Value engines are how the deck draws into interaction, ramp, and win conditions. Generally, you want to get these on the battlefield as quickly as possible so you can start building card and mana advantage. Both Gleaming Splendor and Smothering Tithe help you to start amassing mana, while Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study provide you with card draw.

On the creature side of things, that’s where a lot of other value comes from. To draw cards from your opponents tutoring, you have Archivist of Oghma and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian. For some more card draw, Esper Sentinel, Faerie Mastermind, and The Queen of Dale can help you out.

Stax Pieces

This is an Azorius Control deck, so you want permanents that can control the board state. Since cEDH Heliod is a slower deck, you want to bring other decks down to that level. To help prevent players from playing cards ahead of their curve, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade helps to prevent that, and counters spells when no mana is spent to cast it. There are a few other cards that share that last effect, including Vexing Bauble and Boromir, Warden of the Tower, the latter of which can also be used as a form of protection for your creatures. You also have Drannith Magistrate to cut off your opponents from casting their commanders, as well as various graveyard-based combos.

Tutor Suite

The deck has a hefty bit of tutors in the deck. These help to get value engines, Stax pieces, and combo pieces out of your deck and onto the battlefield. For ones attached to creatures, you have Recruiter of the Guard, Spellseeker, and Ranger-Captain of Eos, the last of which can also shut down noncreature spells for a turn. Often, you can chain these together to climb into a tutor for whatever card you need for any given gamestate.

Merchant Scroll can net you any Blue instant spell, which your entire instant lineup is almost all Blue with some minor exceptions. One possible tutor option is Mystical Tutor, which can put any instant or sorcery spell on the top of your library. Similarly, Enlightened Tutor can do the same for artifacts or enchantments. Both Gifts Ungiven and Intuition let you tutor for any cards, but an opponent gets the choice to put whichever ones into your hand, and the others to go to your graveyard.

Utility Cards

These cards don’t quite fit into any category, but are notable to bring attention to. Creature removal is rather sparse, but Volatile Stormdrake can get rid of a creature, or, if it costs four mana or less, you get to keep it while an opponent is left with a rather weak creature that won’t do much on the battlefield. Both Hydroelectric Specimen and Spellskite can redirect spells to themselves, allowing you to protect your commander after you transform it, as well as any of your combo pieces.

There is also a handful of clone spells in the deck. These help you to copy the best permanents on the battlefield, getting you an extra copy of them to get value out of. Clever Impersonator can copy any nonland permanent, while Mockingbird copies a creature, and Phyrexian Metamorph can copy an artifact or a creature. Notably, they don’t have to be your permanents, meaning you can copy any players’. You also have this effect on enchantments, with Copy Artifact being able to come in as any artifact, and Mirrormade being able to do any artifact or enchantment. For a universal permanent copy, Flash Photography can copy anything, including lands if someone has a useful utility land on their battlefield.

Combos

Now, the meat of cEDH, the combos. We’ll separate this into two sections: ways to make infinite mana, and then what to do with said infinite mana to actually win the game. Again, cEDH Heliod is not a turbo deck, you shouldn’t expect to be able to do these on turn one in most scenarios. cEDH Heliod wins in the late game, finding openings for a win when your opponents spend all their resources trying to stop someone else’s win (generally). This is why cards that grant flash are so good in the deck: all of Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, Valley Floodcaller, and Borne Upon a Wind are ways to enable this. For any combo that might draw your entire deck, you can cast Timetwister to shuffle your graveyard back into your library if you wind up not being able to win the game on an attempted combo turn.

Infinite Mana: Hullbreaker Horror

One of the most common cEDH combos, Hullbreaker Horror goes infinite with any two mana-positive mana rocks. In this example, we’ll use Mana Vault and Sol Ring. In this example, these two artifacts are interchangeable in order. First, cast Sol Ring if you haven’t already, then tap it to add two mana. Then, use one of that mana to cast Mana Vault. This triggers Hullbreaker Horror, which you use to bounce Sol Ring. Once Mana Vault hits the battlefield, tap it to add mana. Spend one of that to cast Sol Ring again. Then, with Hullbreaker, bounce Mana Vault again. Then, keep repeating until you’ve generated infinite mana. If you used a card like Mox Opal, you can make this mana into mana of any color (which is generally what you want to do).

Infinite Mana*: Displacer Kitten and Coveted Jewel

This is a rather simple way to make mana. All you need is Displacer Kitten and Coveted Jewel on the battlefield. Simply cast any noncreature spell and blink Coveted Jewel (after you tap it to add three mana). This returns it to the battlefield, netting you three drawn cards. Usually, this draws you into another noncreature spell, allowing you to repeat the process. This combo isn’t guaranteed, but you can easily draw through your whole deck while making a ton of mana in the process. It’s not as infinite as other infinite mana combos since you can whiff, but can usually generate enough to win the game.

Infinite Mana: Paradoxical Outcome + Chakra Meditation

For this combo, all you need is Chakra Meditation, Paradoxical Outcome, and any mana rocks that are mana-positive (and can make at least five generic and two Blue mana). First, cast Chakra Meditation if not already on the battlefield. Then, cast Paradoxical Outcome after tapping all your mana rocks. This puts a Chakra Meditation effect on the stack, allowing you to draw and discard a card. Bounce all the mana-positive permanents and Chakra Meditation back to your hand, drawing a card for each permanent. Then, cast Chakra Meditation, returning Paradoxical Outcome to your hand on it’s enter-the-battlefield trigger. Keep repeating until you draw your deck and can make nearly infinite mana.

Infinite Mana + Win Con: Faerie Mastermind + 2 Smothering Tithe

This one both makes infinite mana, and can be used as a win condition if you have the most amount of cards in your library. All you need is Faerie Mastermind, Smothering Tithe, and a way to copy Smothering Tithe (for example, Mirrormade. Simply activate Faerie Mastermind, which makes all players draw a card. Unless anyone can pay the 2, this nets you six Treasure tokens. If you have a lot of mana, you can eventually get to the point where your opponents won’t be able to pay for the 2. This makes an infinite number of Treasure tokens and draws everyone’s libraries out. The downside of this is that it can draw an opponent a way to stop you, so you want to cast a card like Silence or use the activated ability of Ranger-Captain of Eos to prevent them from being able to win the game.

Win Condition: Cephalid Coliseum Loops

Now that you’ve established infinite mana, the best way to win is with Cephalid Coliseum. All you need is that, Chakra Meditation, and either Hullbreaker Horror or Displacer Kitten on the battlefield. Then, you need Flash Photography in your hand. Use Flash Photography on Cephalid Coliseum, creating a token copy of it. When you cast it, return it back to your hand by bouncing/blinking Chakra Meditation, using its enter-the-battlefield trigger. Repeat this process until you have an infinite number of Cephalid Coliseum. Then, use them all to make all of your opponents draw their entire libraries, making them lose from being unable to draw from an empty library.

Win Condition: Bird Army

The last win condition is a bit convoluted. What you need is infinite mana, and any way to draw through your deck infinitely. Simply cast an enchantment, instant, or sorcery spell, then counter it with Swan Song. Afterward, you can keep doing this by blinking/bouncing and recasting Chakra Meditation to bring Swan Song back, then counter another spell you cast. Then, once you run out of cards, simply cast Timetwister to reset your hand, graveyard, and library until you draw the combo pieces again. Keep looping through this until you have an infinite number of Bird tokens. This is best done when you can cast spells with flash, so you can do it at the end step before your turn starts so you can actually attack with these tokens.

Decklist and Conclusion

A sample decklist can be viewed below. It’s a slower deck that shines in the value engine and out-lasting your opponents until you can assemble a win condition.

cEDH Heliod slows the game down, and rewards patient play and careful decision-making. One benefit is that it can win the game without its commander, but with it out, you can win the game much quicker. With so many counterspells and ways to shut down plays, it can stall out very well against many top decks and is well positioned against many other decks. Don’t expect quick wins with cEDH Heliod, but do expect decisive wins.

If you’re more interested in a much more aggressive and quick Turbo deck, Ashling may be better option for you. Check out our guide on cEDH Ashling as well to see things from the Aggro side!