Soul Tethered: Standard Konstrari Aggro

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Unlike Prismari, which prizes spellcraft, Konstrari of Hexhaven specializes in planting Heartwood to build all manner of puppetbeasts. The traditional Red-Green plan of farming land and slamming a big finisher becomes, in the mirror universe, farming mana stones, a rare Red-Green artifact theme. How does it feel to play compared with the traditional approach?

Deck Breakdown

Decklist

• Konstrari Campus: Aerid Konstrari, Hungering Puppetbeast, Tenured Tethermage, Heartwood Crafter

Aerid Konstrari: The sphinx who founded Konstrari, a powerful 5/4 flying beater for four. It can actively make Heartwood to pump its power and may take down the opponent on its own, and it gives you a Heartwood that enters untapped both when it enters and when it dies, so even if it is answered right away it only costs you two mana. An indispensable core card for Konstrari-themed decks.

Hungering Puppetbeast: A green five-mana 5/5 beater that gives you a Heartwood when it enters, and lets you pay to sacrifice artifacts to put +1/+1 counters and gain hexproof, haste, or trample. It is not great for ordinary green aggro decks, but in the Konstrari theme there is no shortage of Heartwood that can both produce mana and be sacrificed, so landing it in the mid to late game is a real threat.

Tenured Tethermage: Konstrari’s version of Springbloom Druid. It sacrifices a land to plant two Heartwood that enter tapped, and unlike Springbloom Druid, it can tap artifacts to grow itself, making it a mana creature you cannot simply leave alone.

Heartwood Crafter: Konstrari’s one-mana accelerant. Although the mana it produces itself cannot be used to cast spells from your hand, and operationally it ties you to planting Heartwood on turn two, the Heartwood enters untapped so you can squeeze in another one-mana play, and once the Heartwood is planted, removing the creature itself does not affect the acceleration. Compared with a traditional one-mana accelerator, it has a distinctive character.

• Finishers: Biotech Specialist, Craterclaw Colossus, Ajani Unrelenting, Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Biotech Specialist: A Red-Green card that is both ramp and artifact-sacrifice themed. It gives you a Lander when it enters and hits the opponent directly when you sacrifice artifacts, and paired with Hungering Puppetbeast it can deal a huge amount of damage in an instant.

Craterclaw Colossus: The Craterhoof Behemoth of the mirror universe. Pumping power based on the number of artifacts is a design practically made for Konstrari. It costs one less than Craterhoof, and its game-ending power is just as formidable as the original’s.

Ajani Unrelenting: The mirror-universe counterpart of Ajani, an evolved Chandra, Flamecaller, a super-strong planeswalker that combines sweeping, board development, and card draw in one. Its casting cost is not much of an obstacle for Konstrari decks.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance: The old, trusted, best four-mana Chandra. Its all-around performance is just as powerful in today’s Standard, and the fact that the old version is cheap and easy to pick up is another big highlight.

• Removal and Support: Burst Lightning, Sear, Llanowar Elves

The remaining removal and support slots are filled by familiar faces such as Burst Lightning, Sear, and Llanowar Elves. The removal slots can be adjusted to the player’s preference.

Gameplay Demo

Since nearly all of Konstrari’s Heartwood come as freebies when creatures enter, you never need to worry about removal disruption, the thing traditional creature-based ramp fears most, and when the opponent spends a removal spell they must face a stronger threat sooner, so overall mana is plentiful. The lack of staying power is filled in by the planeswalkers, and overall the play experience is much more comfortable than traditional Red-Green.

Conclusion

I wonder whether it is because the crossover set squeezed out the home set, but Reality Fracture feels like two originally planned sets merged into one, which makes the card themes feel somewhat mixed. If the five colleges of Hexhaven had been split out as a mirror of Secrets of Strixhaven into a complete, dedicated set of their own, I am sure it would have been far more fun!