Commander Kryptonite: Kona, Rescue Beastie

Posted on October 17, 2025

Hello everyone! I'm Levi from The Thought Vessel, and this is Commander Kryptonite, the series that looks at the strongest commanders in the format, how they work, their strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately how to defeat them. During October, we've been looking at commanders from the horror-themed Magic set Duskmourn: House of Horror. So far, we've covered Arabella and The Lord of Pain. This time, we're diving into some Green with Kona, Rescue Beastie. This commander has seen play everywhere from lower-end casual all the way up to cEDH. But what makes this card such a popular option? Let's take a look.

The Commander: Kona

Kona is a 4/3 Beast Survivor that says, "At the beginning of your second main phase, if Kona is tapped, you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield." This is Timmy's dream, to cheat out all the ridiculous and expensive permanents right into play. The only stipulation is that it has to be tapped, so it's vulnerable in combat, right? Think again! This beast can run a plethora of cards that can tap Kona down without actually having to go to combat, like vehicles, Relic of Legends, and even mana rocks like Springleaf Drum. That makes this ability even worse when these permanents coming into play aren't being cast. Sure, someone could use a spell like Stifle to stall for a turn, but once that God-Pharaoh's Statue is in play, that simply resolves.

The Deck

The deck itself is exactly what you'd expect. It's completely loaded with some of the scariest permanents it can run. Not only is this deck playing massive creatures like Ghalta, Primal Hunger, but it also packs some of the saltiest cards mono-Green can grab, like Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Portal to Phyrexia. Every single turn, this deck wants to put one of these massive permanents into play one after another. The design of this deck in casual Commander is a simple flood of value that's incredibly hard to stop. Here is an example of a Kona deck you might come across at your local game store.

Kona, Rescue Beastie | Commander

Commander (1)
1 Kona, Rescue Beastie

Planeswalkers (1)
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

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Strengths

This is an incredibly difficult deck for Blue to deal with. Counterspells don't really have any effect, it wants to cheat things into play, so bouncing things back to hand doesn't have much impact since Kona can just put them back onto the battlefield. When it comes to having the biggest creature in the pod, Kona's always going to have that covered.

Weaknesses

Since this deck is in mono-Green, its removal package isn't as strong as it could be. Yes, there are fight spells, but those give players the opportunity to remove the fighting creature in response and blank the spell. This deck also has an incredibly high mana curve. Since it revolves around cheating things out with Kona, it gets really clunky without its commander. If the table can work together to keep Kona off the field, the deck will be too slow to compete. Additionally, since Kona has to be tapped, if players can keep tap enablers off the field, it's possible to force Kona into combat. It's not perfect, but it can serve as a plan B in a pinch.

Cards to Look Out For

Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant - This might be the scariest thing Kona can drop into play since it can bring the entire hand with it. With enough card draw to keep Kona's hand full, dropping an army with cards to spare will close out games more often than not.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - With a deck that plays massive creatures, Selvala can shift the strategy from cheating big permanents into play to straight-up casting them. Since Kona plays so many big creatures, if they're brought into play in the right order, Selvala can also double as a card draw engine by continually putting the biggest creature into play.

Jaspera Sentinel - Jaspera Sentinel is a very simple card. As a one-mana-value creature, it's often overlooked, but these cheap tap enablers let Kona start cheating permanents into play the same turn it's cast, likely around turn three or earlier. Most games aren't going to handle an Emrakul, the Promised End on turn three.

Portal to Phyrexia - For many games, forcing each opponent to sacrifice three creatures can function as a near-board wipe, leaving Kona's creatures free to attack. It also has the added bonus of reanimating creatures from the graveyard, filling the board from multiple zones.

Guardian Project - This deck can't make much use of cards like Beast Whisperer since Kona puts things directly into play instead of casting them. Guardian Project, however, cares about creatures entering the battlefield. So when Kona cheats something into play, it also replaces itself with a card--giving Kona even more options. That's something we really want to avoid.

Putting a Cap on Kona

The main thing to remember is that this deck wants to cheat out creatures and drown the rest of the table in value. Kona doesn't want to waste a lot of time ramping, it wants to get Kona out and start cheating things into play. A huge advantage is that these permanents come into play post-combat, so there's no way to sneak out a Craterhoof Behemoth before attacks. Since this deck neglects a conventional mana curve, it's important to keep Kona off balance. Removing Kona, forcing it into combat, or sweeping away creatures when they stick on the battlefield can go a long way in disrupting its plans. Additionally, keep Kona's hand small by removing any draw engines it tries to play. Kona can put the best permanent it has right into play, but if its hand size is two or three cards, the odds of that cheated card being a winner are slim.