Aerid KonstrariAerid Konstrari | Art by Chris Rahn

Entering the Workshop

Greetings, readers, and welcome! I interrupt my two series, Precon Remastered and Commander Makeover to bring you this deck tech for a new commander coming out with Reality Fracture. However, just who am I covering?

The latest Gruul commander to venture into artifacts, Aerid operates on a different trajectory. They (yes, Aerid's a they/them) make a Heartwood token on entry or death, leaving behind some ramp. In addition, you can pay a whopping six mana will create another token, and buff Aerid equal to the number of artifacts we control. Obviously, commander damage is one avenue to win, if we're so inclined. That said, their EDHREC page tells us a different story.

Amassing the Components

What do the above three cards have in common? They create artifact tokens! The more such tokens we have out, the more powerful our commander will become. The only bad news is that most of our artifact tokens generally sacrifice themselves (e.g. Treasures), and those that remain on board will be at a premium. In addition, a well-timed VandalblastVandalblast will be the equivalent of pouring gold in our cereal. Meaning, we're going to be set back real good.

A good card for what we're doing is Woodwork ProdigyWoodwork Prodigy, which prepares itself on upkeep. Then, we can spend three mana to get a Heartwood token. Sarinth GreatwurmSarinth Greatwurm isn't cheap to cast, but we'll be amassing those Powerstone tokens in no time. Finally, Roxanne, Starfall SavantRoxanne, Starfall Savant will create a special artifact token that's a mana rock plus a ShockShock in one. Value! What makes her even better is that those tokens, plus the Heartwood and Powerstone ones (and any others, perhaps) will net an additional mana when tapped.

I also note that cards like TwinflameTwinflame and ElectroduplicateElectroduplicate are extremely good with our commander. We clone them, then the legend rule has us sacrifice one of them (presumably the token), but that's not the point. Because the token enters and leaves, we get two Heartwood tokens each time we cast one of these spells, rendering them a very unorthodox way to ramp. Talk about value!

Assembling the Puppet

To make this deck work, we need to put our focus on the artifact tokens. Six mana to activate our commander's ability is not cheap, and we'll need some help to consistently get there. Token doublers like Second HarvestSecond Harvest and Parallel LivesParallel Lives will do wonders with our token production. Moreover, Svella, Ice ShaperSvella, Ice Shaper creates a frosty kind of ManalithManalith token that we can use for her second ability. Those tokens, plus all of our others, will pay off that hefty eight mana.

All of this is well and good, but we also need to protect our stuff. There's the classic Heroic InterventionHeroic Intervention as well as single target redirecting spells like [/el] Return the Favor [/el]. Another one is For the Common GoodFor the Common Good, which makes tokens, then all of ours (including the new ones) become indestructible until our next turn. The only catch is that this is a sorcery, so we can't use this outside our turn. Sadly, beyond that, not too much we have can help with this, but we can make do with what we can get.

Of course, we also got some neat payoffs. Both Reckless FireweaverReckless Fireweaver and Draconic VisitorDraconic Visitor have the capacity to close out games easily, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. Anyway, let's have a look at a sample list, shall we?

The Decklist

The Finishing Touches

Our decklist this week is about what we'd expect from this commander. I already mentioned cards like Reckless FireweaverReckless Fireweaver, but there's also Biotech SpecialistBiotech Specialist, which does a stronger version of this effect if an artifact we have leaves. In addition, we can cast Weftstalker ArdentWeftstalker Ardent for its warp cost to help set up a devastating turn.

In a twist to the classic Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth, we have the new Craterclaw ColossusCraterclaw Colossus. Instead of creatures, this tracks the number of artifacts we have, and it's bound to get some big numbers here. Provided, of course, we can protect all of our artifacts. Even better, however, is if we can animate those tokens. We have Depthshaker TitanDepthshaker Titan for that, but note that we do lose all of those artifacts at the end of that turn, so it's best to cast it at the right time.

Finally, we have our traditional X-spells. The list only carries one, but it's a doozy. Crackle with PowerCrackle with Power is an absolute powerhouse that, while expensive to cast, will hit a lot of things for an incredible amount of damage. Here, with all of those artifact tokens, the card can easily end games.

Barring these, we can always rely on the traditional commander damage route to punch through. Note that our commander flies (like most or all Sphinxes), so we do have some evasion to carry out that plan if we need to.

Bring Me to Life

And there we have it. A deck tech on the brand-new Aerid KonstrariAerid Konstrari. What do you think about it and/or the decklist? What other new, shiny commander options from Reality Fracture grab your attention? Speaking of Sphinxes, I'm currently got a tab on The Ur-SphinxThe Ur-Sphinx, so hopefully I might try and build that for myself soon. In any case, see you next week, where we return to Precon Remastered with a new deck.