New Gruul Sphinx Makes Infinite Tokens and Deals Infinite Damage

Reality Fracture spoilers are coming out in full force, and there’s a lot to be excited about. For Commander players in particular, this set is chock full of exciting legends, with a new cycle of Elder Sphinx leading the charge. Aerid Konstrari is no exception, showcasing incredible ramp and infinite combo potential.

MTG Aerid Konstrari

Both Aerid Konstrari’s triggered ability and activated ability fuel the same game plan: generate a boatload of Heartwood tokens and reap the rewards. The more Heartwood tokens you create, the more threatening the buff bonus from each Aerid activation becomes. The key is finding ways to retrigger Aerid’s enters effect and aid Aerid’s clunky activation cost.

To get things started, Conjurer’s Closet Conjurer’s Closet At the beginning of your end step, you may exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control. provides a steady stream of tokens by repeatedly blinking your Commander. Alternatively, you can copy Aerid with Devastating Onslaught Devastating Onslaught Create X tokens that are copies of target artifact or creature you control. Those tokens gain haste until end of turn. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step. or Blade of Selves Blade of Selves Equipped creature has myriad. (Whenever it attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
Equip {4} , getting extra Heartwood tokens along the way as the copies die via the Legend Rule. By adding trigger doublers like Roaming Throne Roaming Throne Ward {2}
As this creature enters, choose a creature type.
This creature is the chosen type in addition to its other types.
If a triggered ability of another creature you control of the chosen type triggers, it triggers an additional time. into the mix, you can speed things up significantly.

The extra mana from these tokens then feeds into Aerid’s activated ability to keep your engine rolling. Cards that increase the mana production of your artifact tokens, such as Roxanne, Starfall Savant Roxanne, Starfall Savant Whenever Roxanne enters or attacks, create a tapped colorless artifact token named Meteorite with "When this token enters, it deals 2 damage to any target" and "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
Whenever you tap an artifact token for mana, add one mana of any type that artifact token produced. , or Nyxbloom Ancient Nyxbloom Ancient Trample
If you tap a permanent for mana, it produces three times as much of that mana instead. , further help the cause. Stick an untap effect like Seedborn Muse Seedborn Muse Untap all permanents you control during each other player's untap step. and Unwinding Clock Unwinding Clock Untap all artifacts you control during each other player's untap step. , and you can get even more activations out of Aerid on your opponents’ turns.

As the tokens continue to flow, you can get even more mileage out of them by incorporating token payoffs like Stridehangar Automaton Stridehangar Automaton Thopters you control get +1/+1.
If one or more artifact tokens would be created under your control, those tokens plus an additional 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying are created instead. or Peregrin Took Peregrin Took If one or more tokens would be created under your control, those tokens plus an additional Food token are created instead. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
Sacrifice three Foods: Draw a card. . All of these engines pop off harder when paired with Parallel Lives Parallel Lives If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. or Doubling Season Doubling Season If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. , too.

With the value train rolling, all you need is a way to close the game. Simple sources of damage like Reckless Fireweaver Reckless Fireweaver Whenever an artifact you control enters, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent. and Ingenious Artillerist Ingenious Artillerist Whenever one or more artifacts you control enter, this creature deals that much damage to each opponent. should do the trick. For even more oomph, turning your tokens into beefy threats with Displaced Dinosaurs Displaced Dinosaurs As a historic permanent you control enters, it becomes a 7/7 Dinosaur creature in addition to its other types. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.) or Depthshaker Titan Depthshaker Titan When this creature enters, any number of target noncreature artifacts you control become 3/3 artifact creatures. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step.
Each artifact creature you control has melee, trample, and haste. (Whenever a creature with melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked this combat.) can enable a game-ending attack. With a big enough board, you can dig deeper and lean on Comet Storm Comet Storm Multikicker {1} (You may pay an additional {1} any number of times as you cast this spell.)
Choose any target, then choose another target for each time this spell was kicked. Comet Storm deals X damage to each of them. or Jaya’s Immolating Inferno Jaya’s Immolating Inferno (You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Jaya's Immolating Inferno deals X damage to each of up to three targets. to end things.

Of course, you can also just funnel your mana into pumping Aerid via its own ability to set up lethal Commander damage. You just need a way to reliably get past blockers, but Trample enablers like Garruk’s Uprising Garruk’s Uprising When this enchantment enters, if you control a creature with power 4 or greater, draw a card.
Creatures you control have trample. (Each of those creatures can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.)
Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card. , or equipment like Whispersilk Cloak Whispersilk Cloak Equipped creature can't be blocked and has shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Equip {2} make this trivial. You could even use Super State Super State Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 9/9 and has flying, first strike, trample, and haste.
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to each other opponent. to try and take out multiple opponents at once!

Infinite Tokens and Mana Combos

As if ending the game weren’t easy enough already, Aerid also enables multiple infinite token combos. The simplest to pull off involves pairing the Elder Sphinx with Agatha of the Vile Cauldron Agatha of the Vile Cauldron Activated abilities of creatures you control cost {X} less to activate, where X is Agatha's power. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
{4}{R}{G}: Other creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample and haste until end of turn. . You just need a way to increase Agatha’s power to five or more to get things started.

From there, each activation of Aerid is reduced to just one mana. Because the Heartwood token that enters immediately taps for mana, you can repeat this process over and over to make infinite tokens. This makes Reckless Fireweaver and similar effects instantly lethal, but a token-doubler also unlocks infinite mana for a Walking Ballista kill.

Interestingly, if you have access to a token doubler and Nyxbloom Ancient, you can also generate infinite Heartwood tokens all the same. Replacing Nyxbloom Ancient with two other token doublers accomplishes a similar task as well.

Whether you ultimately choose to go the combo route or just stick to a “fairer” game plan, Aerid serves as a great build-around. This card has tons of untapped potential, so don’t be surprised if you see it around your local store’s Commander Night soon enough.

Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!