Over the past couple months, the Modern metagame has become quite stale. While the ban to Nadu, Winged Wisdom was absolutely necessary, it has been far from a fix for the format. Now, Energy variants are completely dominant, with Belcher combo also putting up excellent results.
There simply hasn’t been a ton of room for innovation or unique archetypes to flourish. Duskmourn did provide some sweet cards to build around, such as Abhorrent Oculus, but there aren’t many that have made a name for themselves.
Interestingly, though, one card that is starting to make a bit of noise is Leyline of Hope. Leyline of Hope is a very narrow card. You need to have plenty of life gain and also a bunch of creatures to benefit from the +2/+2 bonus. That being said, it does fit the Heliod, Sun-Crowned combo deck relatively well. Could this be the missing piece the deck needs to make a resurgence? Let’s discuss.
The Heliod Combo
- Mana Value: 2W
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 5/5
- MTG Sets: Theros Beyond Death, Commander Masters
- Card Text: Indestructible. As long as your devotion to white is less than five, Heliod isn’t a creature. Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature or enchantment you control. 1W: Another target creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
This version of Heliod combo is almost entirely mono-white. You won’t find any copies of Collected Company here. Instead, this variant mostly functions as an assertive value deck, with the ability to combo out of nowhere if the opponent is unprepared.
For those unfamiliar, the Heliod combo revolves around two cards: Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista. As long as you have a copy of Walking Ballista with at least two counters on it, you can deal infinite damage to the opponent by executing the following steps:
- Activate Heliod’s final ability, giving Lifelink to Walking Ballista
- Use Walking Ballista to ping the opponent for one, gaining one life in the process
- This triggers Heliod, allowing you to put a +1/+1 counter on Walking Ballista
- Repeat steps two and three over and over
The way this deck is constructed, it’s naturally easy to get a lot of value off Heliod. Guide of Souls and Soul’s Attendant make it trivial to gain life over the course of the game. When applicable, you can use Ranger-Captain of Eos to grab Walking Ballista if you already have Heliod rolled up. Otherwise, Ocelot Pride is a great card to tutor up.
The Role of Leyline of Hope
- Mana Value: 2WW
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: If Leyline of Hope is in your opening hand, you may begin with it on the battlefield. If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead. As long as you have at least 7 life more than your starting life total, creatures you control get +2/+2.
With all these ways to gain life, it’s nice to have access to a payoff that rewards you for buffering your life total. Heliod is obviously strong in this department, but this is where Leyline of Hope absolutely shines.
While getting to gain an extra life whenever you gain life isn’t exactly worth a whole card, it helps you get to the 27 life threshold needed to make Leyline of Hope a real threat.
Once you’re able to give your squad +2/+2, your cards become much scarier. This deck plays a lot of small creatures. We mentioned Ocelot Pride, Guide of Souls, and Soul’s Attendant, but the list doesn’t stop there.
Ajani, Nacatl Pariah presents a huge amount pressure with Leyline of Hope online. White Orchid Phantom gets to attack for four at a time, dodging three-damage removal like Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury in the process.
This doesn’t even factor in the fact that Leyline of Hope comes down for zero mana in a lot of games. They even work well in multiples. Getting all this upside is a huge deal in matchups where speed is important. When facing down Belcher combo, for instance, in games where you don’t draw your combo pieces, Leyline of Hope can give you the boost needed to cross the finish line.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/1
- MTG Sets: Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
- Card Text: Flash. When Orcish Bowmasters enters the battlefield and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, Orcish Bowmasters deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.
Overall, this deck is certainly not a tier one strategy. There are a number of weaknesses that make it tough for this deck to make a dominant run in Modern. First and foremost, this deck relies on a lot of small creatures to win the game with. This means that you’re rather vulnerable to Orcish Bowmasters. Similarly, sideboard cards like Pyroclasm can be very problematic if Leyline of Hope isn’t already buffing your team.
That being said, there are some positives that this deck brings to the table over the all-powerful Boros Energy shell. At the top of that list is the fact that the Heliod combo can enable fast kills outside of combat. This gives you an alternate avenue to victory versus opposing combo decks, such as Grinding Breach.
Otherwise, Leyline of Hope can help you break board stalls wide open. When facing Boros Energy, if you can halt the opponent’s onslaught with Solitude and get your life total to 27, all of your creatures will outsize theirs, giving you the edge.
This deck has begun popping up more in Modern, recently making top 32 of a Magic Online Modern Challenge. There hasn’t been a huge breakout performance quite yet, but there is some potential here. It’s nice to see players exploring with all that Duskmourn has to offer.
