The Edge of Eternities Station mechanic honestly… looks pretty weak. A lot of the new Spacecraft need some Stationing power invested in them in order to do anything at all, making it tough to justify playing them. If this weren’t the case, there may be more hope for the new mechanic, but that doesn’t mean Station is useless.
Station, notably, synergizes extremely well with a somewhat forgotten mechanic from Duskmourn: Survival. This mechanic requires your creatures to be tapped during your second Main Phase to get a benefit. While some of the benefits Survival offers are great, you generally need to attack to tap your creature, putting them at a great deal of risk.
Station, however, circumvents that. Now, you can tap your creatures on the turn you play them without sending them into combat. This opens up a new world of possibilities for Standard.
Cheating Stuff In For Free
The Seriema and Kona, Rescue Beastie are perhaps the most powerful example of the Station and Survival synergies. This will, ultimately, allow you to put a permanent card into play from your hand for free, and it’s kind of a one-card combo.
The Seriema can tutor a Legendary creature into your hand on entry, which includes Kona, Rescue Beastie. So, all you need to pull this off is to resolve a Seriema, cast a Kona on your next turn, and get to main phase two without Kona getting removed.
This is so efficient that it could end up becoming a replacement for Abuelo’s Awakening in Omniscience combo decks. That said, Kona is technically easier to deal with since creature removal will stop the combo from working.
If cheating in Omniscience isn’t exactly what you’re interested in doing, you could include some massive Legendary creatures that can be tutored via The Seriema if you already have Kona in your hand. Absolute Virtue and Progenitus are some examples of cards you could search for that would be very difficult to deal with. Going further, you could tutor and cheat in Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant to cheat in an entire hand’s worth of ridiculous creatures.
If this is the gameplay you want to pursue, there’s another Spacecraft you may want to consider using. Sledge-Class Seedship can also start cheating creatures into play once you Stationed seven power into it, and it can still tap your Survival creatures. Seven power is incredibly inefficient, but this could help power through removal on your Kona, Rescue Beastie by giving you another way to cheat creatures in. That said, if you’re just looking for extra Station effects for Kona, Rescue Beastie, you’re better off playing the Planet lands.
Will This See Play?
Shockingly, this Kona combo is already seeing some Standard play, and the current deck stands to gain a lot from Edge of Eternities. Currently, Archdruid’s Charm is used to tutor for Kona, Rescue Beastie, while Lumbering Worldwagon and Scene of the Crime are what’s used to tap Kona without attacking. The Seriema and the Planet lands are massive upgrades in comparison, suggesting that Kona, Rescue Beastie could see some serious Standard play post-rotation.
Outside of Standard, this combo has a good chance of seeing Commander play. The Seriema is a decent tool in any Legends-matters Commander deck, and games go long enough that Stationing The Seriema fully is a reasonable thing to attempt. This is a rather cheap combo as far as casual Commander is concerned, so finding a place to cheat something in is rather reasonable.
Outside of those two formats, this combo is a bit too inefficient. Not only does removal get very efficient, but Thoughtseize and other powerful hand disruption effects are added to the card pool, making this combo much more difficult to assemble.
Something New to Explore
Thanks to all the new ways to tap creatures, there’s a good chance that Kona Rescue Beastie and The Seriema will have their demand go up. There’s certainly an incredibly fun shell to try here, but whether or not the strategy will be viable is a completely different question. So far, however, there is some real promise.
As far as combo decks go, however, Vivi Cauldron decks are basically untouched after rotation. No matter what kind of shenanigans you get up to with Kona, it’s difficult to imagine you’ll be more efficient than an already established titan.
Worse yet, Kona, Rescue Beastie is pretty easy to deal with. Torch the Tower isn’t going anywhere, and, if Bargained, it can kill Kona for one mana. Still, you’ll be able to catch a lot of players off guard, especially if you can build this deck with a strong plan B if your cheating shenanigans don’t work.
