Saheeli Rai

Saheeli Rai
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Saheeli Rai Planeswalker.jpg}}|250px]]
Details
Race	Human Formerly Planeswalker
Birthplace	Kaladesh
Lifetime	Mending Era
Colors
Center:

Saheeli Rai is a human from the the plane of Kaladesh. She is a brilliant inventor who specializes in creating lifelike animated constructs as beautiful as they are deadly. She is also a former planeswalker, and currently resides on Ixalan.

Appearance and characteristics

Saheeli Rai is an especially tall woman with warm brown skin (noted to be taller than Kaya). She is lithe and graceful with curious eyes and a smiling mouth. She likes to wear long swirling dresses, decorated with shiny gold filigree, and her hair in swirls.

Saheeli has a magical command over metal that she uses for artifice and the creation of lifelike artifacts and constructs. She is even able to transmute metals from one into the other. On Kaladesh, she is regarded as one of the brightest inventors of her age and she has many admirers and rivals. Enjoying competition, she's wholly supportive of the efforts of other inventors, happy to share advice, a kind word, or an encouraging smile. She thrills at the prospect of innovation, and basks in the creative spirit that surrounds her in Ghirapur. Her dazzling intellect and mastery over metal make her a formidable adversary.

Saheeli has a bright, optimistic personality, and she loves facing off against other inventors in contests and tournaments. While not a strong linguist, she has an eye for visual aesthetics, wishing to use her skill to create beauty. She also shares the curiosity of knowledge that many blue mages hold.

Saheeli is centered in blue and red mana.

History

Inventor

Saheeli at the Inventors' Fair

Saheeli Rai is the daughter of Aarav and Ruby, and the sister of Sheela, Amika, and Sahil. She was the youngest artificer to ever be invited to the Ghirapur Institute of Art and Science. Though she was a law-abiding, young citizen of Ghirapur, Saheeli nonetheless accrued a few petty violations common among the city's youth.

Saheeli participated in the Inventors' Fair, keeping renegades away from it. When she learned of the work of her friend, the elf Rashmi, and the vedalken Mitul on an aether teleporter that seemed to move objects through the Blind Eternities, she refused to help them, fearing what could happen to Kaladesh if such an invention came into wide usage. After being confronted with a previous statement of hers, that innovation has no boundaries, she acquiesced to lend her aid nonetheless, having an audience with the Enlightened Keeper Padeem, one of the Consuls.

At some point, she was conscripted by Gonti to repair their aether heart.

Renegade

After Tezzeret's coup and the confiscation of numerous inventions, and the abduction of some Fair participants, Saheeli joined forces with the Renegades and the newly arrived Gatewatch. She later learned that Tezzeret was hiding in the Aether Spire. Saheeli believed that he, together with Rashmi, was conducting experiments on the planar portal she had invented. Saheeli asked for help to break into the Spire. Liliana volunteered to accompany her. While they didn't reach Tezzeret, the pair discovered that Rashmi had escaped and that her invention had been rebuilt and expanded to allow transport of inanimate objects to and from other planes. They brought her away to the Renegades.

Saheeli later aided the Renegades in their attack on the Consulate's Spire. Working together with Pia Nalaar, she constructed the thopter Hope of Ghirapur to destroy Tezzeret's planar bridge, and together with Chandra, defended the Heart of Kiran from Consulate troops. After Dovin Baan's sabotage was discovered, she modified the thopter to carry Chandra and Gideon. When the pyromancer offered her a place at the side of the Gatewatch, Saheeli declined, stating that there would be much to do in the aftermath of the revolt on Kaladesh.

Host

When Huatli arrived in Ghirapur on her first planeswalk, she was quickly recognized for what she was by Saheeli. The two women shared their experiences, with Saheeli being eager to construct an artificial dinosaur after hearing about them from Huatli for the first time.

Sometime later, while splitting time between Dominaria and Ravnica, she began a relationship with Huatli.

War of the Spark

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Saheeli and Huatli were lured to Ravnica by the Interplanar Beacon, and immediately became trapped there due to Bolas's use of the Immortal Sun. Alongside many other planeswalkers and Ravnicans, she fought against the Eternals of Bolas' Dreadhorde.

During the invasion, the trapped planeswalkers got together with Ravnican leaders to strategize. At the meeting, Dack Fayden flirted with her, though he also considered stealing her jewelry.

At Jace's recommendation, they decided to split up into teams to focus on specific tasks. Chandra, Saheeli, Lavinia, and Lazav were tasked with shutting off the Immortal Sun. Lazav disguised himself as Chandra in the fight against Dovin Baan, using illusions and an Izzet League flamethrower to replicate the effects of her pyromancy. This deception allowed the real Chandra to sneak into Baan's facility and disable the Immortal Sun, allowing many planeswalkers to leave Ravnica. Lazav subsequently defeated Baan, blinding him with throwing stars and causing him to planeswalk away.

Saheeli was one of the few planeswalkers who chose to remain on Ravnica after Chandra disabled the Immortal Sun, helping the Gatewatch in their fight against Bolas. Later, as part of Gideon's plan to kill Nicol Bolas, Chandra reactivated the Immortal Sun to prevent Bolas from planeswalking away. She left Saheeli to guard the artifact. After Bolas' defeat, Saheeli disabled the Immortal Sun for a second time. Unbeknownst to her, Jace had told her to disable the sun to let Ugin planeswalk away with Bolas' body, as well as to let Liliana escape.

Saheeli survived the battle. She appeared to be present during the Planewide Celebration that followed, but it turned out to be Lazav disguised as her, leaving Teyo to wonder what happened to the real Saheeli.

Aftermath of the War

Saheeli participated in the memorial service for Gideon on Theros.

Fighting the Phyrexians

With her powers and Karn's blueprints, she creates a replica of the Golgothian Sylex.

After attending the memorial for Jaya Ballard, Saheeli re-created the Golgothian Sylex after Karn's version was destroyed in the battle of the Mana Rig. Despite this, she did not know how to activate it. Together with Teferi and Kaya, Saheeli resolved to find a solution to the Phyrexian problem in the past. To this end, she built the Temporal Anchor in Urza's Tower.

Though she had intended to spearhead the defense of Kaladesh after the time travel experiment was complete, when the powerstone inside the Anchor exploded and left Teferi unconscious inside the Stasis Coffin Saheeli chose instead to stay behind with Jodah to try to save him.

When New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse started, Saheeli joined Pia Nalaar in the defense of Kaladesh. She did so with a project she called Operation Golden Scales, in which she constructed a number of robotic Dinosaurs to fight the Phyrexians.

At the end of the invasion, Saheeli joined the Mirran survivors and other surviving planeswalkers on Zhalfir. She deduced that the suns of Mirrodin now orbit Zhalfir due to the nature of the replacement of New Phyrexia by Zhalfir.

Omenpath Arc

While both Saheeli and her partner Huatli have both lost their sparks, Saheeli managed to navigate her way to join her on Ixalan in the intervening year. At some point before of during her migration to Ixalan, Saheeli managed to travel to Arcavios. When she settled down on Ixalan, she maintained regular contact with the colleges of Strixhaven and learned of Quintorius Kand and his quest of uncovering a mysterious planar-spanning civilization he called the Coin Empire.

After losing her spark, Saheeli still was coming grips with her new situation. However being comforted by Huatli, the artificer was content to share a new life with the poet and explore Ixalan together. Saheeli would enter the employ of the Sun Empire, after impressing the boy-emperor, Apatzec Intli IV of her automatons which she modeled on quetzacama and were coined "mechanoquetzacama." The emperor commissioned her to create more of these creations providing her with every resource in his empire.

Her work faced delays due to the lack of talented engineers at her disposal. To appease the emperor and gain more time, Saheeli claimed to have sent for assistance from Strixhaven and Ghirapur. Despite the emperor's appreciation for her work, Saheeli was aware the real interest in her creations was so that the Sun Empire could use them as war machines in a new war against Torrezon. Saheeli had lied about contacting her home plane, though managed to acquire the assistance of Quintorius who promised to arrive on Ixalan to assist on an expedition to the caverns below Orazca.

In the mean time, to prevent another war, both she and Huatli conspired to somehow depose Atlacan Huicintli, Apatzec's uncle, who was controling the young emperor and seek help from Caztaca Huicintli, the emperor's aunt, to change her brother's heart. Part of the plan involved having Saheeli take Huatli place at a meeting outside the empire with an important contact as the warrior-poet would be occupied leading the Sun Empire's expedition.

Saheeli met with Caztaca and served as her scribe in a meeting with Elenda of Garrano in order to negotiate an alliance. The meeting is interrupted by Admiral Beckett Brass who demanded these powerful political figures of Ixalan support her efforts to secure a free country for the Brazen Coalition. In the end Saheeli convinced the other two leaders to accept the deal. Using her magic she sealed the drafted treaty within a cylinder to ensure no tampering. Seeing Caztaca dream of peace much preferable, Saheeli pledged to support her.

Trivia

• In the video game Magic: The Gathering Arena, Saheeli is voiced by Ulka Simone Mohanty.

Artifacts acquired

• She and Rashmi created the Hope of Ghirapur, but the thopter was sabotaged by Dovin Baan.
• She is the creator of the Temporal Anchor.
• Based on diagrams made by Karn, she created a replica (The Filigree Sylex) of the Golgothian Sylex.
• Aetherwing, a skyship shaped like a pterodon from Ixalan that she created to defend against the Phyrexians.

Planeswalkers met

• Ajani Goldmane
• Angrath (non-canon)
• Arlinn Kord (non-canon)
• Basri Ket (non-canon)
• Chandra Nalaar
• Dack Fayden
• Dovin Baan
• Elspeth Tirel
• Garruk (non-canon)
• Gideon Jura
• Huatli
• Jace Beleren
• Jaya Ballard
• Kaito Shizuki
• Karn
• Kaya
• Kiora
• Koth of the Hammer
• Liliana Vess
• Lukka
• Nahiri
• Nissa Revane
• Quintorius Kand
• Ral Zarek (non-canon)
• Rowan Kenrith (non-canon)
• Samut
• Tamiyo
• Teferi Akosa
• Teyo Verada
• Tezzeret (non-canon)
• Tibalt (non-canon)
• Tyvar Kell
• Vivien Reid (non-canon)
• Vraska
• The Wanderer
• Will Kenrith (non-canon)
• Wrenn

Planes visited

• Amonkhet (non-canon)
• Arcavios
• Capenna
• Dominaria
• Ixalan
• Kaladesh
• New Phyrexia
• Ravnica
• Theros
• Zhalfir

Gallery

• 

  Saheeli, the Gifted

• 

  “Our creations are more than mere things. They have life in them, little bits of ourselves.”

• 

  Saheeli is a brilliant inventor who specializes in creating lifelike animated constructs.

• 

  Saheeli is one of the great inventors of Kaladesh.

• 

  Saheeli is Ghirapur's champion artificer-duelist.

• 

  Magic: The Gathering Arena avatar.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
In This Very Arena	Doug Beyer	2016-10-12	Kaladesh	Ravnica, Kaladesh	Jace Beleren, Ral Zarek, Liliana Vess, Nissa Revane, Chandra Nalaar, Oviya Pashiri, Ajani Goldmane, Gideon Jura, Kambal, Pia Nalaar, Dhiren Baral, Tezzeret, Saheeli Rai
Quiet Moments	Michael Yichao	2016-12-07	Aether Revolt	Kaladesh	Gideon Jura, Chandra Nalaar, Liliana Vess, Saheeli Rai, Jace Beleren, Nissa Revane, Yahenni, Ajani Goldmane, Pia Nalaar
Breaking Points	Doug Beyer	2017-01-18	Aether Revolt	Kaladesh	Gideon Jura, Chandra Nalaar, Liliana Vess, Pia Nalaar, Saheeli Rai, Rashmi, Hope of Ghirapur, Ajani Goldmane, Nissa Revane, Oviya Pashiri, Dovin Baan, Vatti
Wool Over the Eyes	Alison Luhrs	2018-02-14	Rivals of Ixalan	Kaladesh, Angrath's homeplane, Meditation Plane, Ixalan, Dominaria	Huatli, Saheeli Rai, Angrath, Vraska, Nicol Bolas, Jace Beleren, Malcolm, Breeches, Gideon Jura, Jaya Ballard, Apatzec
War of the Spark: Ravnica—The Path to Opulent	Greg Weisman	2019-05-15	War of the Spark	Ravnica	Rat, Teyo Verada, Kaya, Ral Zarek, Angrath, Jaya Ballard, Gideon Jura, Gan Shokta, Domri Rade, Vorel, Maree, Kiora, Samut, Eknet, Temmet, Neit, Haq, Kawit, Huatli, Saheeli Rai, Kasmina, Oketra, Kefnet, Bontu, Rhonas, Jace Beleren, Nicol Bolas
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Ashes	Greg Weisman	2019-06-12	War of the Spark	Ravnica	Rat, Gideon Jura, Tomik Vrona, Lavinia, Ral Zarek, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Teferi, Ajani Goldmane, Nissa Revane, Jaya Ballard, Karn, Kaya, Teyo Verada, Isperia, Dack Fayden, Saheeli Rai, Hekara, Vraska, Nicol Bolas, Borborygmos, Samut, Vorel, Sorin Markov, Nahiri, Arlinn Kord, Feather, Liliana Vess, Oketra, Rakdos, Bontu, Niv-Mizzet, Angrath, The Wanderer, Mu Yanling, Jiang Yanggu, Mowu, Vivien Reid, Aurelia, Exava, Lazav
Note for a Stranger	Alison Luhrs	2022-05-02	Secret Lair: Pride Across the Multiverse	Ravnica	Huatli, Saheeli Rai
Episode 5: A Whisper in the Wind	Langley Hyde	2022-08-18	Dominaria United	Dominaria	Teferi, Karn, Jhoira, Ertai, Ajani Goldmane, Jaya Ballard, Radha, Danitha Capashen, Sheoldred, Darigaaz, Jodah, Saheeli Rai, Elesh Norn
The Brothers' War - Chapter 1: Stronghold	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-21	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Teferi, Jodah, Elspeth Tirel, Kaya, Vivien Reid, Saheeli Rai, Wrenn, Seven
The Brothers' War - Chapter 2: Antiquities	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-24	The Brothers' War	Dominaria, Kaladesh	Saheeli Rai, Kaya, Gonti, Jodah, Jhoira, Sharaman, Xantcha, Mishra
The Brothers' War - Chapter 4: The Dark	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-25	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Elspeth Tirel, Wrenn, Seven, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Jodah, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Rona, Tezzeret, Ashiok
The Brothers' War - Chapter 5: Exodus	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-26	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Teferi Akosa, Wrenn, Seven, Nahiri, Jace Beleren, Jodah, Elspeth Tirel, The Wanderer, Kaito Shizuki, Tyvar Kell, Lukka, Vraska
The Brothers' War - Episode 5: As Cruel, As Necessary	Miguel Lopez, Jeff Grubb	2022-10-26	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Teferi Akosa, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Urza, Tawnos
March of the Machine - Episode 4: Beneath Eyes Unblinking	K. Arsenault Rivera	2023-03-17	March of the Machine	Kaldheim, Kaladesh, Capenna	Tyvar Kell, Harald, Pia Nalaar, Saheeli Rai, Atraxa
Ixalan: Three Hundred Steps Under the Sun	Miguel Lopez	2023-03-21	March of the Machine	Ixalan	Huatli, Inti, Apatzec Intli III, Mavren Fein, Etali, Saheeli Rai, Zetalpa, Tetzimoc, Ghalta, Nezahal, Zacama
March of the Machine - Episode 10: The Rhythms of Life	K. Arsenault Rivera	2023-03-28	March of the Machine	Kamigawa, Kaldheim, Kaladesh, Zhalfir	Nashi, Tamiyo, Tyvar Kell, Harald, Pia Nalaar, Karn, Teferi Akosa, Kaya Cassir, Thrun, Koth of the Hammer, Ajani Goldmane, Nissa Revane, Chandra Nalaar, Melira, Saheeli Rai, Elspeth Tirel
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Pawns	Valerie Valdes	2023-10-20	The Lost Caverns of Ixalan	Ixalan	Saheeli Rai, Huatli, Pantlaza, Apatzec Intli IV, Atlacan Huicintli, Caztaca Huicintli, Chitlati, Elenda of Garrano, Beckett Brass

In-game references

Represented in:

• Saheeli Rai
• Saheeli, Filigree Master
• Saheeli, the Gifted
• Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
• Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance

Associated cards:

• Aetherwing, Golden-Scale Flagship
• Saheeli's Artistry
• Saheeli's Directive
• Saheeli's Silverwing

Depicted in:

• Heartbeat of Spring (Secret Lair)
• Forging the Anchor

Quoted or referred to:

• Golden-Scale Aeronaut
• Gold-Forged Thopteryx
• Fortune Teller (Unfinity, #212f)
• Mana Geode
• Peacewalker Colossus
• Whirlermaker