Survival — At the beginning of your second main phase, if Kona is tapped, you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Tap Kona each turn—usually by attacking or with a convoke/tap outlet—to cheat a permanent from hand onto the battlefield in your second main phase, effectively giving you a free drop every turn. You build a wide, mana-rich green board, accelerate into huge creatures and powerful enchantments/artifacts ahead of curve, then snowball card and mana advantage into an overwhelming position. Keep Kona alive and tapped, refill your hand, and grind opponents out with bigger threats.
Repeatable free permanent every turn cheats on mana and dodges spell-based counters.
Mono-green gives best-in-format ramp and creature card draw to keep the engine fed.
Flexible—any permanent works, from huge beaters to engine artifacts and enchantments.
Low opportunity cost: tapping to attack already triggers Survival, so you advance and pressure simultaneously.
Engine stalls if Kona is removed, and mono-green has weak interaction and protection.
Requires Kona to be tapped, so vigilance or a tap outlet matters and you're vulnerable on swing-back.
Only one permanent per turn—not explosive enough alone to outrace fast combo decks.
No built-in evasion or recursion; relies on support cards to stay relevant.
Hexproof and regeneration shields the whole team, making the Kona engine far harder to break up.
Add fast mana (Sol Ring, mana dorks, Nykthos) and a few tutors like Worldly Tutor or Survival of the Fittest to load your hand with the best permanent to drop each turn. Prioritize protection (Heroic Intervention, Tyvar's Stand) and a recursion/backup engine so losing Kona doesn't end the game, and lean toward standalone bombs that win on their own. To push higher, include green combo pieces and big payoffs you can cheat in for free, turning Survival into a tempo-positive way to assemble your win.
Legendary Creature — Beast Survivor
