Heliophial
Artifact
Sunburst (This artifact enters with a charge counter on it for each color of mana spent to cast it.)
, Sacrifice this artifact: It deals damage equal to the number of charge counters on it to any target.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Fifth Dawn
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #26568
Heliophial drains each opponent for X life when it enters, where X is the number of charge counters on it — that ceiling scales hard with proliferate and charge-counter synergies, but the floor is embarrassing without them. It's a build-around finisher, not a standalone, and it belongs only in decks engineered to load counters fast.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Heliophial is the payoff card in dedicated charge-counter or proliferate decks — it closes games by draining three opponents simultaneously, which multiplies the life-loss effect in ways that make the number matter far more than in 1v1. Outside that specific shell it's unplayable; no competitive Commander list is building around it. In Pauper it's a common and technically legal, but the format's threats are faster and leaner, so Heliophial sits on the wrong end of the speed spectrum. Legacy and Vintage offer no reasonable shell for it — those formats kill before charge counters accumulate. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander verdict: slot it under a proliferate planeswalker or leave it in the bulk bin.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Heliophial is deep bulk — the kind of card you find in a draft chaff box, not a trade binder. It's not going to appreciate; the casual demand ceiling for a narrow charge-counter payoff is low, and supply is abundant.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.