Preview season for Theros: Beyond Death, Magic: The Gathering’s next set, officially began on Monday, and a myriad of new cards from this highly-anticipated expansion are now being shown. One of the recently-revealed Theros: Beyond Death spoilers that is currently catching players’ attention is Heliod, Sun-Crowned, as this Legendary Enchantment Creature not only seems quite powerful on its own, it also creates an infinite damage combo with one of MTG’s best creatures.
For the uninitiated, Heliod, Sun-Crowned is a God that costs one white and two generic mana to cast. Heliod is Indestructible, and when a player’s Devotion to white is five or greater, he becomes a 5/5 creature. While this means that Heliod is likely to be quite a powerful offensive threat in white-based Devotion decks, it is his secondary abilities that have the potential to make this new Theros: Beyond Death God really broken.
Specifically, Heliod can give a creature Lifelink at a cost of one white and one generic mana. Additionally, a player that gains life with Heliod in play can put a +1/+1 counter on a creature or enchantment that they control. Thus, a creature that can remove +1/+1 counters to deal damage has the potential to go infinite with Heliod, Sun-Crowned, and there is one very powerful Magic: The Gathering creature that does exactly that: Walking Ballitsa.
Originally printed in Magic: The Gathering’s Aether Revolt set, Walking Ballista is an artifact creature that enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it contingent upon how much mana a player used to cast it. Once in play, players can pay mana to add additional +1/+1 counters to Walking Ballista, and these counters can be removed to deal damage to a target.
As such, if a player has both a Walking Ballista with at least two +1/+1 counters and Heliod, Sun-Crowned in play, they can deal infinite damage to their opponent. This is done by using Heliod, Sun-Crowned to give Walking Ballista Lifelink, and then removing a counter from the Ballista to deal one damage to the opponent. This triggers Heliod’s counter-adding ability, which then gives Ballista its removed counter back, allowing a Magic: The Gathering player to endlessly damage their opponent.
While it remains to be seen how viable this combo is, two-card infinites can be extremely powerful, and Heliod’s Indestructibility makes this one quite resilient. Additionally, Walking Ballista is already one of the most-played creature in MTG’s Pioneer format, and indeed fans of this new constructed format should be well-prepared to face this new combo when Theros: Beyond Death releases later this month.
Magic: The Gathering’s Theros: Beyond Death set releases January 24, 2020.
