In the third week of Festival of the Gods, we are basking in Heliod’s Glory and The Immortal SunEmblem! In this event, our spells cost 1 less, all our creatures get +1/+1 and we get to draw an extra card each turn but we are not able to use the loyalty abilities of Planeswalkers. Read on for event details, tips and strategies, and decklists tailor made for this event. If you wish, you can click here to skip straight to the decklists!
Event Details
Daylight is breaking on this week’s Festival of the Gods event and the radiant glory of Theros’ God of he Sun. Heliod is burning brighter than ever. Each player has an emblem with the effects of The Immortal Sunand starts with only six cards. How will you outshine your opponent?
Due to the effects of The Immortal Sunemblem, Planeswalkers with only loyalty abilities are banned in this event.
Heliod is often invoked at dawn meals and in matters of family honor, legal proceddings, and marraiages to name a few. His areas of influence include the sun, law, justice, kinship, and retribution. He is occasionally symbolized by a pegasus.
The Immortal Sun Emblem
Duration: March 7 2020 at 8:00 AM PST – March 10 at 8:00 AM PST
Ends After: You can keep playing, but rewards do not go past three wins.
Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
In addition, the MTG Arena team has confirmed on reddit that Planeswalkers with passive abilities from War of the Spark can still be played, except these Planeswalkers that are banned but not displayed on the event page (not including Narset):
To clarify, you do not have to re-enter the event and you only have to pay the entry fee once. There is no limit on the number of losses (or victories). Play as much as you want for the duration of the event.
1 Win
2 Wins
3 Wins
1 Win: Reverent Hoplite card style
2 Wins: Daxos, Blessed by the Sun Showcase card style
3 Wins: Heliod, Sun-Crowned Showcase card style
Tips and Strategies
Firstly, let’s break down the Emblem’s abilities one by one and see how we can exploit it.
Player’s can’t activate planeswalkers’ loyalty abilities: Apart from Narset, Chandra and Nicol Bolas, we can still make use of Planeswalkers with passive abilities from War of the Spark. Most of them aren’t really worth using without their loyalty abilities, but for some of them, the passive abilities can be quite useful in certain decks. Cards like Saheeli and Kiora allows you gain a lot of value off your (cheaper) spells, and Gideon is a hard to deal with 2 mana 4/4 creature.
Ob Nixilis might be a bit too slow for this event, but could be an interesting inclusion. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries can also be used as a win condition.
At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card: Getting two cards per turn is great, and we cannot shut it down with Narset or get value off cards like Irencrag Pyromancer since they are already on the banned list. We can, however still make use of cards like Nadir Kraken or Underworld Dreams.
Spells you cast cos 1 less to cast: We think this is the most powerful ability of the Emblem, allowing us to fast track cards by one turn. This makes the deckbuilding exercise also more interesting. For maximum value, try to build around the powerful cards that you can cast on the first turn!
Creatures you control get +1/+1: Cards like Hero of Precinct One or Worthy Knight can really shine here. Be wary of using Lovestruck Beast, since its 1/1 will become a 2/2 and won’t be able to attack.
So as many people might expect, a creature based aggro strategy is probably the best kind of deck for this event as it can make use of all the abilities very well. The normal run of the mill Mono Red Aggro, Rakdos Sacrifice and Gruul Aggro will perform great here. If you’re just looking for a cheap deck, play 20 Islands and 40 Persistent Petitioners!
Decks like Temur Reclamation and Jeskai Fires (remember to replace the Teferi) can also be very good as they have sweepers and powerful cards like Fires of Invention and Wilderness Reclamation that can come down a turn earlier. Do keep in mind once Fires of Invention is out, its normal rules will still apply, meaning the number of lands will dictate what you can play without paying its mana cost.
The Immortal Sun – Heliod’s Glory Decklists
All decks below are built around making best use of The Immortal SunEmblem!
We will be back this weekend with Standard decks from MagicFest Lyon, and next week’s Festival is also going to be very exciting as we get Historic Brawl officially supported for the first time! Enjoy the event, as games are sure to be quick and dirty.
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