While aggro decks aren’t the most popular in traditional Commander, the same cannot be said for Duel Commander. The format’s 20-life, one-versus-one nature gives assertive strategies a perfect opportunity to punish slower decks.
Still, hyperaggressive decks sometimes struggle in grindy games because of their weak individual card quality. Luckily, the newly printed Aerid Konstrari helps solve this weakness, giving Gruul beatdown some new angles of attack.
Unique Artifact Subtheme
At its core, this decklist that 5-0d a Magic Online Duel Commander League is looking to get on board as quickly as possible. Unsurprisingly, mana dorks ranging from Boreal Druid to Molt Tender play an essential role, helping you stay ahead of the curve. With the help of temporary mana bursts like Elvish Spirit Guide and Tinder Wall, it’s not impossible to jam Aerid Konstrari on turn two.
From there, you not only have an enormous flier to start attacking with, but you also ramp in the process. Given how massive this card is as a threat, your opponent will be incentivized to kill it, but that only increases your Heartwood production. Obviously, these tokens make it easier to replay Aerid Konstrari and activate its final ability, but this deck has plenty of other ways to utilize the excess mana.
Naturally, the easiest way to abuse the extra ramp is to add mana sinks like Mawloc and big bombs like Ugin, Eye of the Storms
Ugin, Eye of the StormsWhen you cast this spell, exile up to one target permanent that's one or more colors.
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, exile up to one target permanent that's one or more colors.
+2: You gain 3 life and draw a card.
0: Add {C}{C}{C}.
−11: Search your library for any number of colorless nonland cards, exile them, then shuffle. Until end of turn, you may cast those cards without paying their mana costs.. Otherwise, being able to hard-cast Oliphaunt or Disciple of Freyalise, which can otherwise function as lands, gives you considerable versatility. If you ever manage to stick Roxanne, Starfall Savant alongside these Heartwood tokens, you’ll have tons of mana to cast a flurry of spells.
Beyond just ramping, however, the excess artifact tokens go a long way towards fueling Broadside Bombardiers or Legion Extruder. Similarly, buffing Construct tokens generated by Nettlecyst and Karn, Scion of Urza makes these tools much more threatening. You can even use Heartwood Tokens alongside Stax pieces like Winter Orb
Winter OrbAs long as this artifact is untapped, players can't untap more than one land during their untap steps. to slow down your opponent while your artifact mana remains unaffected.
A Versatile Approach
While many of the decks here are interesting novelties instead of metagame contenders, Aerid Konstrari looks like it can go the distance. By blending aggro, midrange, and ramp themes, Aerid Konstrari can take on different roles depending on the matchup. Against low-to-the-ground aggro decks, using Aerid as an early roadblock that demands an answer is quite strong. With Pyrokinesis and Fiery Confluence to stave off early pressure, you can buy time until Aerid turns the corner.
At the same time, though, Aerid provides a fast enough clock alongside Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes to outrace combo decks. All the while, Winter Orb, Winter Moon, and similar lock pieces slow down Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers even further.
With haymakers like The Great Henge in the mix, you have a better chance of out-grinding midrange shells like Slimefoot and Squee than other aggro decks. While this doesn’t make the deck foolproof, its ability to compete against any archetype is what makes Aerid so unique.
On top of that, this deck can adjust to the metagame quite well. Some Aerid players have leaned more on the aggro plan with extra three-drops like Laelia, the Blade Reforged, for example, which improves their speed. Ultimately, it’s still early, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Aerid’s immediate success continues.
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