Aerid Konstrari Commander Guide

Overview

Aerid Konstrari is the Gruul elder sphinx of Hexhaven. It is a four-mana 5/4 flier that makes a Heartwood token when it enters and another when it dies. Heartwood is a red and green artifact token that taps for {R} or {G}, so Aerid starts paying back its cost as soon as it lands and leaves mana behind when it is removed. Its activated ability costs six: make another Heartwood, then Aerid gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of artifacts you control. In a deck full of artifact tokens, that turns Aerid into a huge flying threat and gives the deck a late-game mana sink.

The engine is copying Aerid itself. Each token copy that enters makes a Heartwood, and because the copies are legendary, the legend rule immediately sends all but one Aerid to the graveyard. That counts as dying, so each copy is worth two Heartwoods: one for entering and one for dying. Electroduplicate, Molten Duplication, Twinflame, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink, Rionya, Fire Dancer, and Devastating Onslaught all make copies this way. Tempestra, Dame of Games makes a nonlegendary copy that stays until it is sacrificed at the end step, which is still two Heartwoods, and Helm of the Host makes a permanent nonlegendary copy every combat.

Everything else in the deck either multiplies those artifacts or cashes them in. Doubling Season doubles every Heartwood. Stridehangar Automaton adds a 1/1 flying Thopter whenever artifact tokens are created, and Peregrin Took adds a Food to every token creation. Roxanne, Starfall Savant makes each artifact token you tap for mana produce an extra mana, and Nyxbloom Ancient triples it. On the payoff side, Reckless Fireweaver, Weftstalker Ardent, and Ingenious Artillerist deal damage to each opponent as artifacts enter, Hellkite Tyrant wins at twenty artifacts, and Aerid's own activated ability converts the artifact count directly into power.

The Engine: Aerid + Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink

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Synergy Spotlight

Aerid Konstrari + Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink

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Aerid Konstrari

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Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink

Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink has two copy abilities, both usable only as a sorcery. For {1}{R} and a tap, it creates a hasty token copy of another creature you control that is sacrificed at the next end step. For {6}{R}{R}{R} and a tap, it creates five of them. Pointed at Aerid, both abilities turn the legend rule into a Heartwood engine.

The small ability makes one copy of Aerid. The copy enters and makes a Heartwood, then the legend rule sends one of the two Aerids to the graveyard, and that death makes a second Heartwood. Two mana and a tap become two Heartwoods, which tap for two mana, so the ability pays for itself on the following turn. Every artifact that enters also triggers Reckless Fireweaver, Weftstalker Ardent, and Ingenious Artillerist.

The big ability is the late-game payoff. Nine mana makes five copies of Aerid: five Heartwoods as they enter and five more as the legend rule clears them, ten artifacts from a single activation. With Doubling Season the copies and the Heartwoods are both doubled, which is more than enough to reach Hellkite Tyrant's twenty-artifact threshold in one turn. Seedborn Muse and Unwinding Clock untap Orthion and the Heartwoods on each opponent's turn, but Orthion's abilities are sorcery speed, so spend those extra untaps on Aerid's own {6} ability, which works at instant speed.

Result: With Aerid and Orthion in play, every turn produces at least two Heartwoods for two mana, and a nine-mana turn produces ten. Add Doubling Season and one activation reaches Hellkite Tyrant's twenty-artifact win; add Reckless Fireweaver or Ingenious Artillerist and the same activation deals ten or more damage to each opponent before combat. Aerid's {6} ability then turns the artifact count into power for a lethal flying attack.

Key Cards

Playing the Deck

The opening plan is ramp into Aerid on turn three or four. The deck runs mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gruul Signet, Talisman of Impulse), mana creatures (Birds of Paradise, Delighted Halfling, Ornithopter of Paradise, Fanatic of Rhonas), and artifact-producing creatures such as Tireless Provisioner, Svella, Ice Shaper, and Biotech Specialist. Goblin Anarchomancer makes each red or green spell cost one less, Aerid included. Aerid's first Heartwood repays part of its cost right away.

The first copy is the critical moment. Electroduplicate, Molten Duplication, and Twinflame each cost two or three mana and turn Aerid into two Heartwoods, and Electroduplicate can do it again from the graveyard with flashback. Jaxis, the Troublemaker and Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink repeat the effect every turn, and Jaxis's copies also draw a card when they die. Helm of the Host is slower but permanent: every combat it makes a nonlegendary, hasty copy of Aerid that stays, adding a Heartwood and another 5/4 flier each turn. Other copy targets are worth it too: a hasty copy of Goldspan Dragon makes a Treasure when it attacks, and with Academy Manufactor out that Treasure becomes a Clue, a Food, and a Treasure.

The mid-game is about multipliers and payoffs. Doubling Season doubles every Heartwood and every copy of Aerid. Roxanne, Starfall Savant adds a mana each time you tap an artifact token for mana, and Nyxbloom Ancient triples it, which makes Aerid's {6} ability easy to activate repeatedly. Seedborn Muse and Unwinding Clock untap everything on each opponent's turn, so the Heartwood pool can be spent four times per round. Displaced Dinosaurs turns each artifact that enters under your control into a 7/7 Dinosaur, and Depthshaker Titan turns noncreature artifacts into 3/3 attackers with melee, trample, and haste until the end step.

The late game has three routes that do not require choosing between them. Hellkite Tyrant wins at your upkeep once you control twenty artifacts. Reckless Fireweaver, Weftstalker Ardent, and Ingenious Artillerist deal damage for every artifact that enters, often enough to finish opponents without combat. And Aerid itself becomes the finisher: with twenty artifacts in play, one activation of its {6} ability makes it a 26/4 flier, and Garruk's Uprising or Kessig Wolf Run adds trample.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths: Aerid makes mana on entering and on dying, so removal is never a clean answer: killing it leaves a Heartwood behind, and recasting it makes another. Copying it is cheap and repeatable, every copy is worth two artifacts, and the deck turns those artifacts into damage, card draw (Idol of Oblivion, Jaxis), and a lethal flier. At four mana, Aerid is one of the cheapest Hexhaven sphinxes, so commander tax stays manageable. The deck has three independent win conditions, and Gruul has strong answers to problem permanents: Beast Within, Boseiju, Who Endures, and Haywire Mite handle everything from enchantments to artifacts to lands.

Weaknesses: The engine depends on Aerid. Without the commander, the copy spells have nothing worth copying and the deck becomes ordinary ramp. Artifact sweepers such as Vandalblast wipe out the Heartwood stockpile and reset Hellkite Tyrant's count. Most copy effects are sorcery speed and target Aerid, so a removal spell in response stops the copy, although Aerid still leaves a Heartwood behind. The deck runs no counterspells and very little stack interaction, and Blasphemous Act is its only board wipe.

Full Decklist

The full 100-card Aerid Konstrari Commander deck, enriched with current prices. Click any card to expand it.