{"ops":[{"insert":"Deck premise\n\nKona turns the awkward part of attacking—having a creature tapped—into a cheat effect. At the beginning of your second main phase, if Kona is tapped, its Survival ability lets you put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield. The deck therefore has three jobs:\n\n1. Deploy Kona and a reliable way to tap it.\n2. Convert the free permanent into mana, cards, protection, or more creatures.\n3. End the game with a wide, oversized board rather than merely accumulating value.\n\nThe deck is intentionally creature-heavy. That makes Eladamri, Korvecdal, Loot, Exuberant Explorer, Lurking Predators, Greater Good, and the commander’s permanent-cheating ability overlap instead of competing. Your best turns often look like: ramp early, play Kona, tap Kona without attacking into danger, then put a large creature or engine onto the battlefield in the second main phase.\n\nThe Kona timing rule\n\nKona must be tapped when the beginning of your second main phase begins. Tapping it later does not turn the ability on. Because “if Kona is tapped” is an intervening-if condition, Kona must also still be tapped when the trigger resolves. If an opponent untaps Kona in response and it remains untapped, the trigger does nothing. If Kona attacks, it will normally be tapped after combat; if it cannot attack safely, use an outlet such as Staff of Domination, Springleaf Drum, Relic of Legends, Holdout Settlement, Scene of the Crime, Survivors' Encampment, Citanul Stalwart, Jaspera Sentinel, Tyvar, the Pummeler, or a Vehicle/Spacecraft station or crew ability.\n\nYou do not need to tap Kona during your first main phase. Often the safest sequence is to cast Kona, move to combat, and tap Kona through an outlet before passing into the second main phase. Station is sorcery-speed, so Sledge-Class Seedship must be stationed during your first main phase if it is the outlet. Kona can be tapped while summoning-sick by another permanent’s ability; Kona cannot activate an ability it has with {T} in its cost while summoning-sick unless it has haste or has been under your control since the turn began.\n\nRemember that Kona’s ability puts a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield. It does not cast the card, so cast triggers do not happen and commander tax is irrelevant to the cheated permanent.\n\nPrimary packages\n\nTap Kona\n\n- Staff of Domination — a repeatable tap/untap tool and card-draw engine.\n- Springleaf Drum — a cheap way to tap Kona while also producing mana. Paradise Mantle is in the maybeboard, not the current 100.\n- Relic of Legends — taps a legendary creature for mana; especially efficient with Kona and the other legends.\n- Holdout Settlement, Scene of the Crime, and Survivors' Encampment — lands that turn an untapped creature into a colored source.\n- Citanul Stalwart and Jaspera Sentinel — creature-based mana outlets that can tap Kona, provided the outlet itself is able to use its tap ability.\n- Tyvar, the Pummeler — can tap another untapped creature and also functions as a finisher.\n- Vehicles and Spacecraft — Clown Car and Sledge-Class Seedship give the deck additional reasons to tap creatures. Crew/station timing must still leave Kona tapped as the second main phase begins. Station is sorcery-speed and therefore belongs in the first main phase.\n\nThe key tactical point is not to spend the only Kona outlet before Kona’s trigger matters. A mana dork that taps Kona is a real combo piece in this deck, not merely ramp.\n\nPut into play with Kona\n\nKona can deploy any permanent in hand, so choose based on the table rather than automatically selecting the largest creature.\n\n- Mana development: Nyxbloom Ancient, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, or a large creature that makes Selvala explosive. Selvala normally cannot tap immediately without haste, and Kodama of the East Tree is a permanent-doubling/value engine rather than a mana source.\n- Cards: Elemental Bond, Garruk's Uprising, Greater Good, Soul of the Harvest, or Vaultborn Tyrant. Last March of the Ents is a powerful draw spell, but it cannot be put onto the battlefield with Kona because it is not a permanent.\n- Protection/resilience: Vigor, Asceticism, Ancient Adamantoise, or a threat that replaces itself.\n- Removal: Bane of Progress, Apex Altisaur, Titan of Industry, or Manglehorn. Terastodon is sideboard-only and is not a current-100 Kona hit.\n- Closing power: Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Pathbreaker Ibex, Unnatural Growth, Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus, or Tyvar, the Pummeler. Blightsteel Colossus is outside the current main deck as a sideboard card, not a live Kona payoff.\n\nKona cheats permanents, not just creatures. A free enchantment or artifact can be stronger than a large creature if it guarantees the next several turns of cards or mana.\n\nDraw and selection\n\nThe deck’s creature density makes its engines unusually reliable. Elemental Bond, Garruk's Packleader, Garruk's Uprising, Soul of the Harvest, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Greater Good, Return of the Wildspeaker, Season of Gathering, Last March of the Ents, and Vaultborn Tyrant keep the hand stocked. Eladamri and Loot provide selection while also putting creatures directly onto the battlefield. Mosswort Bridge is another meaningful payoff once total creature power reaches ten.\n\nDo not overcommit every engine to the battlefield before you have protection. A single wipe can otherwise convert a winning board into an empty hand. Greater Good is particularly valuable before a wipe because it turns a creature into a large burst of cards and fills the graveyard for Regrowth, Bala Ged Recovery, and Shifting Woodland.\n\nTutor lines\n\n- Green Sun's Zenith: use it for an early mana creature, Formidable Speaker, Eladamri, a Kona-support creature, or a finisher when X is large enough.\n- Invasion of Ikoria: a scalable creature tutor; its Battle side can become a large attacker later.\n- Defense of the Heart: a delayed two-creature battlefield tutor. It is strongest when opponents naturally have three creatures, but it advertises itself and may be removed before your upkeep.\n- Crop Rotation: usually finds the land that solves the current problem—an untapped green source early, Mosswort Bridge for a payoff, Nykthos for a large turn, or a utility land when the board demands it.\n- Formidable Speaker: its ETB can discard any card to tutor any creature, and its {1}, {T} ability untaps another target permanent. These are separate abilities: the tutor is not restricted to a creature card being discarded, and the untap ability does not itself tutor.\n\nThe maybeboard’s Summoner's Pact is a high-power option but carries a real delayed-loss clause. If it is used, plan the next upkeep payment before casting it; do not treat it as a free tutor.\n\nMeaningful combos and high-power interactions\n\nSelvala + Staff of Domination\n\nThis is an infinite-mana, infinite-life, and effectively infinite-draw engine once Selvala can produce at least five mana from her tap ability. Staff costs {3}, {T} to untap the creature and {1} to untap itself; the remaining mana pays for the loop and leaves cards/life available. Selvala’s required five-mana output normally means a third battlefield condition—a creature with power at least five—is needed before the two named pieces go infinite. The list contains both pieces, so this interaction should be disclosed in the pregame conversation even if it is not the deck’s only plan. It is much easier to assemble after a large creature, Nyxbloom Ancient, or a heavily developed board is in play.\n\nKona + a repeatable tap outlet\n\nThis is not an infinite combo by itself, but it is the deck’s central engine: every turn Kona is tapped at the correct time, the deck receives another free permanent. Staff of Domination can untap Kona safely after Survival resolves. Do not untap Kona while the Survival trigger is pending unless you will tap Kona again before that trigger resolves; otherwise the intervening-if condition fails and the trigger does nothing.\n\nMulligan guide\n\nKeep a hand when it has:\n\n- At least two lands, preferably one untapped green source;\n- An early mana creature, cheap ramp spell, or Sol Ring;\n- A credible path to casting Kona;\n- Either a tap outlet or a way to spend the first turns developing one.\n\nA strong keep is two lands, one one-mana accelerator, Kona’s guaranteed access from the command zone, a tap outlet, and two cards that remain useful if Kona is removed. A hand with plenty of mana but no green source or no early development is usually a mulligan. A hand full of seven- and eight-mana payoffs is also a mulligan unless it contains a realistic Kona line and the mana to execute it.\n\nAfter a mulligan, prioritize untapped green mana plus an early accelerator over a flashy payoff. The commander is powerful only when the deck can cast it and tap it on schedule.\n\nGame plan by stage\n\nEarly game\n\nDevelop green mana and creature count. Lead with a one-mana accelerator when possible, but preserve a creature that can tap Kona. If the table is threatening interaction, do not expose Kona without Boots, a protection spell, or a backup line unless the free permanent is worth the risk.\n\nMidgame\n\nCast Kona with the outlet ready, then select the permanent that improves the next turn rather than simply the largest body. A free draw engine followed by a free finisher is often stronger than two isolated threats. Use Eladamri, Loot, Green Sun's Zenith, and Invasion of Ikoria to keep the creature chain moving.\n\nLate game\n\nConvert the board into lethal combat with Pathbreaker Ibex, Unnatural Growth, Zopandrel, Tyvar, or a large Ghalta turn. Bellowing Tanglewurm and Surrak, the Hunt Caller help the board connect, while Rogue's Passage is a backup for a single decisive attacker. Do not forget that trample from Garruk's Uprising makes pump effects substantially more dangerous for opponents.\n\nInteraction and recovery\n\nThe removal suite covers creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and problematic permanents through Beast Within, Bane of Progress, Manglehorn, Apex Altisaur, Ram Through, Bite Down, Titan of Industry, and the other large ETB creatures. Bane of Progress is powerful but symmetrical: sequence it after your own low-value artifacts and enchantments have produced their mana, or hold it when your board is more valuable than the opposing artifacts.\n\nProtection is concentrated in Heroic Intervention, Tyvar's Stand, Asceticism, Swiftfoot Boots, Vigor, and large defensive creatures. Protection does not replace recovery. After a wipe, rebuild with Bala Ged Recovery, Regrowth, Greater Good, Eladamri, Loot, and the commander’s permanent-cheating ability. Zopandrel requires sacrificing exactly two other creatures to gain an indestructible counter; pay that cost only when protecting the board or securing a lethal attack justifies it.\n\n"}]}