Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - Self Sustained Sacrifice

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toctheyounger
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Post by toctheyounger » 4 years ago

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - Self-Sustained Sacrifice



Throne of Eldraine was one of the most flavourful sets we've seen in MtG in many a year. It puts me in mind of one of my favourite sets, Lorwyn - laden with depth of theme, as well as beautiful art, strong cards and lore steeped in cultural lodestones from our own corner of the world. In this case, Eldraine drew heavily from Arthurian lore and Grimm fairy tales, the latter in a way that's far more realistic than anything Disney has ever put out (seriously, the original stories are brutal - Cinderella's step sisters cut their toes off to fit the Crystal Slipper in the original!).



Korvold was probably the one commander from the set that spoke to me. Partly because he's obviously strong without being immediately broken (Chulane, Teller of Tales, looking at you), partly because I've never really built a Jund deck, but also because he plays into areas that I enjoy, namely sacrifice and recursion. Also, I have this perception of him in my head as a remorseful king cursed by his own hubris, living in some secluded, 'haunted' corner of the world where the natural laws of society have been subverted to work around his curse, and that just kind of calls to me from a thematic perspective.

As a commander, Korvold covers a lot of the same area as his fellow Jund dragon, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. Now, on building this deck I wanted to go in with a premise of how I wanted to build. Knowing how busted Prossh can be with things like Food Chain, edicts like Grave Pact and aristocrats like Blood Artist, I wanted to set myself some limitations. Some of them are my usual limitations, based on what I like to play:

  • The deck should be fun to play and play against
  • The deck should include no intentional 'win the game' combos
  • The deck should be able to take various avenues towards victory
  • The deck should be built within my financial means


The above is implicit in all of my builds. Alongside these, to help guide me in terms of direction for building a relatively wide open commander, I added the following:

  • No Food Chain (as if I could afford it).
  • No Edicts - when I sacrifice, it should be for my benefit primarily, not to anyone else's (immediate) detriment.
  • No Aristocrats - This one is more because I've used it a lot lately, and it seems relatively surplus to requirements.
  • No Altars - Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar, sorry about it. They break too easily. (Altar of Dementia gets a pass for now)
  • No Prossh, Skyraider of Kher - not for power reasons, this one is more thematic. I just can't see Korvold sharing the limelight with another legendary dragon, so he's out.


So I've built with these in mind, which might seem quite restrictive, but I was surprised myself to see how much scope I still had. This deck is very much a work in progress, but nonetheless, it's been remarkably resilient and explosively strong. Once you've got some early synergies going it's remarkably easy to have quite expansive turns and power a lot of land into play and a lot of card advantage into hand.

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Approximate Total Cost:


Strategy and Mechanics

So, of all of the decks I've ever made, this one has the word sacrifice on more cards than any other. Not all by any stretch, but...lots. Initially it seems relatively detrimental, but if nothing else happens, the more you do it the more of a tank you turn your commander into.

The strategy here is relatively simple - early turns you're looking for ramp options, and an engine. Something like Goblin Welder, Ramunap Excavator, The Gitrog Monster, Orcish Lumberjack or what have you. A reason to blow your own stuff up. There's enough here you should be able to find one or two. Then you want the means to do so - again, there are several ways to do so - for creatures, there are plenty, for lands there are some, and most of the artifacts in the deck are capable of blowing themselves up (thank you very much), or can be popped on a different vector (artifact creatures).

Once you have a value train going you should be more than capable of vomiting plenty of land into play, casting your commander, and gathering yourself a pretty insurmountable boardstate, possibly even with some commander damage. From here, you really just want to keep doing what you're doing - draw and generate mana by sacrificing your own things, and possibly help your creatures get largely in the process. It really should not take you long whatsoever to create quite a potent board state.

The thing is, once you have this going it's going to be pretty obvious that you must be stopped. Now, with some of my self-imposed restrictions, there are less tools in the belt to fight back with - not none, but less. There's a couple of ways to manage this - instant speed sacrifices to get more value for yourself instead of losing everything (Greater Good, say), or bounce back with a haymaker, something like Living Death or Wave of Vitriol.

There are also a couple of relatively strong unintentionally included combo angles here:
  • The Gitrog Monster and Life from the Loam and other dredge variants (theoretically) could draw most of the cards in your deck. I say theoretically purely because there are not as many lands as there are non land cards in the deck, so eventually you will flop on triggering the frog; realistically, your best chance is drawing something like 40% of the deck and having a lot of lands in your graveyard. I was aware of the synergy putting both of these cards in the deck and it's why I haven't included any other dredge cards - i've played against these sort of decks before and honestly, they're not a lot of fun in my opinion. They slow the game to a crawl while you play solitaire, and that's not something I like.
  • Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Altar of Dementia - with enough of a board presence in creatures, treasures, lands, there is every chance with these two pieces on the field you could have enough to mill the table into oblivion. You'd start by sacrificing your treasures to trigger Mazirek and make your creatures enormous, do the same with lands if possible, then finally sacrifice your enormous creatures to shred libraries. I guess I was aware of this possibility in including both of the cards in the list, but there's enough jankiness to doing this that it wouldn't necessarily be easy - you'd need to be well on the gravy train, and you'd need these two pieces in play plus a huge board. So, there's every chance you're about to win anyway. In this respect, it probably doesn't matter overly, and besides, Altar of Dementia is potentially a cut from the list at some point (see below).

Further Developments



There's plenty to add to, here. I really like the idea of having a fairly complete set of recursion tools for artifacts, creatures and lands, but we will see how that goes into the future. A lot of what's needed to optimise (even within my own self-imposed limits) is very expensive. Nevertheless, here's the eventual buylist: We'll see how all of that goes moving forward; for now I'm relatively happy with how the deck plays and what it does. Feel free to drop and critiques or suggestions.
Thanks!
Toc
Last edited by toctheyounger 3 years ago, edited 5 times in total.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

A couple quick upgrades for more sacrifice vibe:


Disciple is easy, recurrable advantage, should be a reasonable include. Abbey is another sacrifice outlet and the transformed result is a nice beater too, and Expertise should be pure advantage in a deck where creatures can get pretty damn large.

Retriever I won't overly miss, it's cute advantage that's a little more laborious than it could be. I've also found ramp to not be a problem at all, so Exploding Veges is probably surplus to requirement. Garden was fine, but Abbey is a strict upgrade really.

Moving forward I probably want to add a few more sac-lands too, for the sacrifice theme and for character. Things like Phyrexian Tower, Nurturing Peatland, Lotus Field and such would be cool, and probably within my budget eventually. Fetches too would be cool but are probably out of my scope. Once I've got a bit more variety to the land base I may grab Field of the Dead too. I like the ability, and I kind of like the theme of the lands in Korvold's domain being warped and spooky, so that's kind of working out pretty well moving forward.
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Another upgrade, with some cool stuff this time.


Pretty easy upgrades really. It's pretty handy to have Harrow on a critter rather than a single use, Turntimber Sower doubles as sacrifice fodder and land recursion, which is perfect. Nesting Dragon gives me a huge amount of sacrifice targets, and so does Titania, Protector of Argoth. On the other side, Treasure Keeper was way too precarious to bother with, Tormod's Crypt is hard to time and Victimize i already have on a critter with Whisper, Blood Liturgist.

Next I really want to work on getting a relatively good Field of the Dead package together. I'd like this, some snow-covered basics, as well as a few more sac-lands (Phyrexian Tower, Dust Bowl, maybe Fabled Passage) and Scapeshift. Obviously there's a lot of expense in making that happen so it's a long term goal.
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Post by Outcryqq » 3 years ago

Vicious Shadows can be another payoff card. It's not a combo, and your opponents might be able to survive through it if they have few cards in hand, and it provides another path to victory.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Outcryqq wrote:
3 years ago
Vicious Shadows can be another payoff card. It's not a combo, and your opponents might be able to survive through it if they have few cards in hand, and it provides another path to victory.
Ooh that is nasty! I'll keep my eyes peeled for a copy of that, could be a good add.
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Post by warbhorgl » 3 years ago

Thanks for creating this! I look forward to seeing the updates.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

warbhorgl wrote:
3 years ago
Thanks for creating this! I look forward to seeing the updates.
Thanks for the feedback! It's been a lot of fun to pilot thus far, and tends to get pretty dangerous really quickly. It's fairly obvious that it would be really easy to add in some tutors or combo pieces to really make it a lethal deck, but honestly it really doesn't need it, and that road I just prefer not to travel.

Hopefully more updates coming soon - what's left on my want list isn't cheap, but you never know what's going to be reprinted.
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Post by Artaud » 3 years ago

I think you focus too much on sacrifice theme than quality cards in this deck. Things like Pitiless Plunderer, Revel in Riches or Moldervine Reclamation do nothing if you lack removal / sacrifice fodder / Korvold on board. I would focus more on protecting your commander as he's most important card in this deck and big-ass rewards he can provide with cards like Scapeshift. Also real fetches - as many as you can muster as they're like free draw spells in this deck. Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator with multiple effects allowing to play more lands per turn will make you a rich man ;)

Think about more haste outlets especially ones that can sacrifice for profit - Fires of Yavimaya, Hammer of Purphoros or Lightning Mauler.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
I think you focus too much on sacrifice theme than quality cards in this deck. Things like Pitiless Plunderer, Revel in Riches or Moldervine Reclamation do nothing if you lack removal / sacrifice fodder / Korvold on board. I would focus more on protecting your commander as he's most important card in this deck and big-ass rewards he can provide with cards like Scapeshift. Also real fetches - as many as you can muster as they're like free draw spells in this deck. Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator with multiple effects allowing to play more lands per turn will make you a rich man
The problem is needing to be a rich man to get these cards. I would like to add on-brand fetches and shocks, maybe even Nurturing Peatland too, and definitely Scapeshift. Crucible of Worlds is probably not entirely necessary, as much as it would be nice for redundancy. But nonetheless, owning literally zero of these cards to start with means an investment of ~$150NZD minimum. And it's sort of a 'one fell swoop' thing too - there's no point getting a Scapeshift without reasonable lands to fetch for, and likewise with fetches - there's not much point in fetching for basics. I mean there is, but it's still not getting full utility from the card. That's not to say this isn't part of the plan moving forward, but as a new dad and not necessarily a high earner, these additions are very much long term.

As far as recommendations for removal, Revel in Riches and Moldervine Reclamation are very much placeholders for now. Pitiless Plunderer less so - it triggers whenever a creature of mine dies, token or non-token, so it's got a lot more utility than it initially seems to. Plus that second layer of sacrifice is neat synergy, as well as doubling as ramp.
Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
Think about more haste outlets especially ones that can sacrifice for profit - Fires of Yavimaya, Hammer of Purphoros or Lightning Mauler.
I'd forgotten all about Fires of Yavimaya - I may even have a spare copy banging about somewhere. Hammer of Purphoros and Lightning Mauler I'm less stoked with, but I definitely have my eye on Need for Speed too - it's low to the ground, quick and repeatable for no additional cost, so it looks pretty viable to me.
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Post by weltkrieg » 3 years ago

If you want to go absolutely nuts, you could consider some old sacrifice goodies. Two in particular that might have applications are Squandered Resources and Zuran Orb .

I like some of your sacrifice fodder cards, but personally I think that some of the echo cards might be worth it, in particular Keldon Vandals , Yavimaya Granger , Yavimaya Elder , Veteran Explorer , or Multani's Acolyte . They are generally worth considering because you don't have to sacrifice them directly (at least the echo cards) and still get good results from all of the above. I also think Sprouting Thrinax is worth a look simply because he dies and then promptly spews up 3 more bodies to sacrifice. At the very least I like him better than hanweir garrison.

Incidentally, is there a reason you're not running any evoke (Shriekmaw for example) cards or Plaguecrafter et. al?

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

weltkrieg wrote:
3 years ago
If you want to go absolutely nuts, you could consider some old sacrifice goodies. Two in particular that might have applications are Squandered Resources and Zuran Orb .
Squandered Resources is absolutely on the want list. Zuran Orb is cool, but lifegain is pretty negligible. Still, it's a very small opportunity cost, which is cool.
weltkrieg wrote:
3 years ago
I like some of your sacrifice fodder cards, but personally I think that some of the echo cards might be worth it, in particular Keldon Vandals , Yavimaya Granger , Yavimaya Elder , Veteran Explorer , or Multani's Acolyte . They are generally worth considering because you don't have to sacrifice them directly (at least the echo cards) and still get good results from all of the above. I also think Sprouting Thrinax is worth a look simply because he dies and then promptly spews up 3 more bodies to sacrifice. At the very least I like him better than hanweir garrison.
A lot of these I like too. I've never been a fan of Veteran Explorer, because I don't believe in free lunches for anyone else, but the rest of these are nice additions.
weltkrieg wrote:
3 years ago
Incidentally, is there a reason you're not running any evoke (Shriekmaw for example) cards or Plaguecrafter et. al?
I meant to have Shriekmaw in here so that really needs to be amended. Plaguecrafter I don't really want here. Similarly to Grave Pact style cards they're pretty ubiquitous, and I kind of wanted to make this work without forcing sacrifice on the rest of the table (to any large degree) so I just left them out, and haven't regretted anything yet.
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Post by Artaud » 3 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
3 years ago
The problem is needing to be a rich man to get these cards. I would like to add on-brand fetches and shocks, maybe even Nurturing Peatland too, and definitely Scapeshift. Crucible of Worlds is probably not entirely necessary, as much as it would be nice for redundancy. But nonetheless, owning literally zero of these cards to start with means an investment of ~$150NZD minimum. And it's sort of a 'one fell swoop' thing too - there's no point getting a Scapeshift without reasonable lands to fetch for, and likewise with fetches - there's not much point in fetching for basics. I mean there is, but it's still not getting full utility from the card. That's not to say this isn't part of the plan moving forward, but as a new dad and not necessarily a high earner, these additions are very much long term.
It's fine then, I'm not a rich man myself only happy to have some of these cards bought at a time they were cheaper. Anyway my own take on Korvold (if I ever build one finally) will focus on one of two themes that seem most effective here:

1. Land sacrifice - kind of turboland deck with as many fetches and saccing lands as I can find in my collection and effects allowing to play more then one per turn and getting them back from gy. A deck will contain about 50 lands but the problem is it will be redundant with my Azusa and will probably require to disassemble her deck.

2. Creature sacrifice - a lot of creatures that sacrifice for profit (Sakura, Basal dorks, Fleshbag-like creatures) and lot of Living Death-like spells to return them back. The problem is Korvold doesn't support reanimation in any way (except for giving more chances to draw into it) but is needed on board to replace any sacrificed creature anyway. Deck can fizzle if Korvold is killed after mass-sacrifice and I will not draw into reanimation.

It is also possible to build Korvold egg-like style with a lot of cheap cantrip-artifacts to mill through library looking for some combo but we lack Blue here to be most efficient. You may also go Food, Clues or Eldrazi tokens route but there may not be enough support for these mechanisms. Anyway I think you should focus on one chosen theme not to spread your card choices between many permanent types and effects. One infinite combo (just in case) won't hurt either.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
It's fine then, I'm not a rich man myself only happy to have some of these cards bought at a time they were cheaper. Anyway my own take on Korvold (if I ever build one finally) will focus on one of two themes that seem most effective here:
Yeah, I mean timing is key. I have some disposable income, so it may happen. Shocks I can get shortly, they're around $10NZD ea for Jund colours at the moment which isn't too bad. Fetches are relatively ok, at least for allied colours. It might take some trade but it's doable. I generally try to be pretty reasonable with how much I spend on a land base, but this is the one deck I own right now that could definitely justify the addition of fetches. I definitely want to try adding in Field of the Dead to the package too, there's enough coming and going of various lands it should do some work.
Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
1. Land sacrifice - kind of turboland deck with as many fetches and saccing lands as I can find in my collection and effects allowing to play more then one per turn and getting them back from gy. A deck will contain about 50 lands but the problem is it will be redundant with my Azusa and will probably require to disassemble her deck.
Hmm, I think you'll find these days you can get by with some relatively budget pieces. There's a lot of 'play an additonal land' cards out there. The real crucial pieces are Titania, Protector of Argoth , land sac pieces, and land reanimation, but even with that last there are cheaper options around these days than Crucible of Worlds. Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper have been more than enough for me, as well as Life from the Loam.
Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
2. Creature sacrifice - a lot of creatures that sacrifice for profit (Sakura, Basal dorks, Fleshbag-like creatures) and lot of Living Death-like spells to return them back. The problem is Korvold doesn't support reanimation in any way (except for giving more chances to draw into it) but is needed on board to replace any sacrificed creature anyway. Deck can fizzle if Korvold is killed after mass-sacrifice and I will not draw into reanimation.
Yeah, I think the idea of Living Death is great. It's one of my favourite cards of all time. I think in this sort of deck you hope to win from cast triggers upon it's resolution moreso than building up your Korvold. That being said, if you run Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest you can stack his sacrifice triggers to resolve after Living Death, so he might die, but your entering creatures still get enormous. That guy is obscene.
Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
It is also possible to build Korvold egg-like style with a lot of cheap cantrip-artifacts to mill through library looking for some combo but we lack Blue here to be most efficient. You may also go Food, Clues or Eldrazi tokens route but there may not be enough support for these mechanisms. Anyway I think you should focus on one chosen theme not to spread your card choices between many permanent types and effects.
I agree, mostly. There are a couple of eggs here, but the theme is slowly disappearing, as it's pretty surplus to requirement. I'll be removing it as further additions crop up. Similarly to your situation with Azusa, it impinges a little closely on my Glissa build and so really doesn't need to be here.

As far as tokens go, Food has always seemed pretty lackluster to me. There aren't a ton of cards I'd consider good enough to add that create food (maybe Gilded Goose for fixing?), and the payoff of sacrificing food is a little underwhelming. Lifegain isn't all that crucial. Clues are similar, athough Tireless Tracker is pretty excellent. I could see that being added at some point. The fact that they translate directly to cards in hand is great, and it doubles when we have our commander in play makes it an easy consideration. Eldrazi spawn are great too; probably the only one I'd really consider adding though is Pawn of Ulamog, maybe Sifter of Skulls. The fact that they don't trigger from nontokens is disappointing but they still have some utility.
One infinite combo (just in case) won't hurt either.
The deck does have a couple of 'close to infinite' combos. Altar of Dementia and enough board presence can shred libraries, and if I added a touch more dredge there's a good chance I could draw my library with The Gitrog Monster. I don't really want to, because that's boring af, but it's possible. The thing is though, in most cases, this deck really doesn't need it. Similarly to a Yawgmoth, Thran Physician deck, all going well we can generate enough momentum to surge towards a win long before we have a chance to combo out anyway, so unless the pieces otherwise fit into the shell of the deck there really isn't much point. I get that it's nice to have a kill switch, it just really hasn't proved to be needed here.
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Post by yeti1069 » 3 years ago

I've put together my own Korvold deck with some similar constraints (no aristocrats or edicts), and was wondering what thoughts you have. Mine is built a bit more around a lands matters theme.

How have you found Brass's Bounty and Revel in Riches? The first I was considering putting in, but not sure what I would cut. The latter...I don't have that much removal of my own, although opposing creatures die blocking my nonsense, or as a consequence of someone else wrathing the board (usually to deal with my nonsense). A buddy also pointed out that it may act as a deterrent to wrath.

For yours, have you looked at Mad Ratter? I've used it in my Arena Brawl deck, and once you get those first 2 rats, with Korvold and a free sac outlet in play, you get to sac the 2 rats to grow The King, draw 2 cards, and make 2 new rats on each players' turn.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

yeti1069 wrote:
3 years ago
snip
This looks pretty excellent. That land base is pretty durn sexy, I'm jealous. That being said I personally like to make sure I have enough basic land to fall back on, especially because I'm running Wave of Vitriol, and I fully intend to continue doing so. It's a great card, especially for sacrifice and landfall themes. I guess in terms of Field of the Dead I'm probably going to run a few snow lands to get to that magic 7, which should help.

Honestly, a lot of what you're running here is stuff I'd run myself too. Need for Speed and Squandered Resources are definitely things I want copies of, as well as Scapeshift, and Dockside Extortionist. That last though; I won't pay it's current price, it's criminal, and all because of a bungled print run and manufactured shortage - I can wait.

Revel in Riches is definitely a placeholder at present - it would be excellent if I were running edicts and Fleshbag Marauder variants, but as is it can stay until I have something better. Brass's Bounty is sort of similar - again, Dockside Extortionist would probably be superior, but it'll do for now.

I have considered Mad Ratter. It's pretty good value once you can get grinding with it. I probably ought to get it in here somewhere, I can't remember why I haven't yet.
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Post by yeti1069 » 3 years ago

Most of this I had on hand already, so the building cost wasn't too high, but if I didn't already have all those fetches and such, they wouldn't be in there. As it is, I'd like 2 more at least in Wooded Foothills and Windswept Heath, but I'm not paying for those right now.

I do actually have 1 Snow-Covered of each basic land. Should mark that in the deck.

Always go back and forth on Wave of Vitriol. It's so good, but I'm often running a lot of non-basics or key artifacts/enchantments. Here, I wouldn't mind losing all that necessarily, if I could follow up with a Splendid Reclamation or World Shaper, but without that back up ready, I think I get hit too hard by it.

I wasn't aware that the Extortionist was so expensive because of print issues. That's obnoxious. I have the one out of the precon, but yeah, it's stupid expensive. Would run still run Brass's alongside that, or would you view it as a placeholder?

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Yeah, I think with a land base like you have Wave of Vitriol would be more detrimental for you than anything else. I've used it extensively in my Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist deck and it carves 5c/expensive land bases to pieces in hilarious fashion, which makes my wallet wet itself laughing. But yeah, probably no need for it if you've got all that fixing.

Yeah, the print runs for last year's precons were pretty short. Like, here in New Zealand we had one run that sold out quickly and haven't yet had another. I know it's probably a complex, accidental issue and not engineered scarcity, but I'm still not paying $30 NZD for the card, I'm happy to wait until more copies hit the secondary market and drop the price a little. As far as Brass's Bounty goes, my gut tells me you could go without it. That's just based on the fact that I've yet to have a game with this deck where I struggle for land drops or things to sacrifice.
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Post by yeti1069 » 3 years ago

My thinking of Brass's Bounty was that the deck is leaning toward BIG turns, and Bounty would just make for a MONSTROUS turn. I've had some games where I've been light on mana, and some where I really needed to dig for an answer, but also I've had others where just having that additional mana/sacrifice would put me over the top for a win, but it may not be needed.

Most games I've brought in Extortionist for 2-4 treasure, and they've been great. The one game that it made more (6 I think), was bonkers. Aside from the explosive value, it also plays nicely pre-Wildfire to retain more mana when I blow up some lands.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

yeti1069 wrote:
3 years ago
My thinking of Brass's Bounty was that the deck is leaning toward BIG turns, and Bounty would just make for a MONSTROUS turn. I've had some games where I've been light on mana, and some where I really needed to dig for an answer, but also I've had others where just having that additional mana/sacrifice would put me over the top for a win, but it may not be needed.
Yeah you're right, the deck can make good use of big mana. Ultimately my view may be a little biased by the fact that inexplicably I've had really really good luck with The Gitrog Monster turning up early on a regular basis. I think Bounty is a flex spot, personally; once you have an engine for sac and recursion it's a little surplus to requirement, but if you can't get that going it'll give you an explosive enough turn to be pretty golden on the other side of it.
yeti1069 wrote:
3 years ago
Most games I've brought in Extortionist for 2-4 treasure, and they've been great. The one game that it made more (6 I think), was bonkers. Aside from the explosive value, it also plays nicely pre-Wildfire to retain more mana when I blow up some lands.
Yeah, by comparison to Bounty that's a lot less resource at once. Having said that it'll vary depending on what you're facing down of course. Sol Ring et al make sure it'll never be nothing, but I think where Extortionist has it over Bounty is the capability of easy recursion. Either one is decent, I guess it just depends what you're set up for. The other consideration is how many situations you want to play them in. With Bounty, clearly you won't bother until you're at least 7-8 lands deep and that definitely narrows the scenarios you can find a use for it.
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yeti1069
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Post by yeti1069 » 3 years ago

I'm weighing either Strands of Night or Phyrexian Reclamation as a replacement for Oversold Cemetery. I've used Reclamation before to good effect, but haven't ever tried Strands. I'm thinking sacrificing a swamp will often be a net positive in here, but I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

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Artaud
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Post by Artaud » 3 years ago

yeti1069 wrote:
3 years ago
I'm weighing either Strands of Night or Phyrexian Reclamation as a replacement for Oversold Cemetery. I've used Reclamation before to good effect, but haven't ever tried Strands. I'm thinking sacrificing a swamp will often be a net positive in here, but I'm not sure.
Neither one I think. Strands of Night works only under specific setup (Urborg + Ramunap/Crucible + "play more than one land per turn" effect or World Shaper + sac outlet) or it may cripple your manabase too much. 4cc doesn't help it either. I used to play Reclamation and while it worked fine I could not afford to pay 2 life cost to not get into another player's killing range sometimes. Corpse Dance would fit sacrifice theme better even if it has limitations. If your graveyard is stocked your target should be Living Death anyway.

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Post by yeti1069 » 3 years ago

Artaud wrote:
3 years ago
yeti1069 wrote:
3 years ago
I'm weighing either Strands of Night or Phyrexian Reclamation as a replacement for Oversold Cemetery. I've used Reclamation before to good effect, but haven't ever tried Strands. I'm thinking sacrificing a swamp will often be a net positive in here, but I'm not sure.
Neither one I think. Strands of Night works only under specific setup (Urborg + Ramunap/Crucible + "play more than one land per turn" effect or World Shaper + sac outlet) or it may cripple your manabase too much. 4cc doesn't help it either. I used to play Reclamation and while it worked fine I could not afford to pay 2 life cost to not get into another player's killing range sometimes. Corpse Dance would fit sacrifice theme better even if it has limitations. If your graveyard is stocked your target should be Living Death anyway.
I have Living Death in there already. Corpse Dance...I don't think I have quite enough sac outlets to feel confident in being able to sac the creature before it gets exiled. Not to mention, having control over what creature is being reanimated can be important.

In terms of Strands, so far I definitely have been able to sacrifice some lands over the course of the game without feeling pain, and with the amount of land fetching I have, keeping a few swamps around hasn't been a problem.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

Personally, I disagree with Living Death being in the deck. Sure it allows you to draw a ton from your commander, but there's no way to keep him in play past the resolution of LD. It does get pretty gross from Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest too, so there's an argument there for it, but if you're looking for a voltron win, LD will not help you one iota. Don't get me wrong though, it is literally one of my favourite cards of all time.

Strands of Night...I don't know about it either. You'd need heavy swamp dedication to make it reliable. I'm less worried about the extra lands and crucible effects, purely because I run them anyway. You could probably make do with Life from the Loam to help make it work, but it's a risk in a tri-colour deck.

For reanimation I guess you could go for Sheoldred, Whispering One. I've gone lower on the curve with Whisper, Blood Liturgist, but if that doesn't do it for you and you want a big splashy reanimation interaction Nim Deathmantle is a banger with things like Ashnod's Altar, Su-Chi or Krark-Clan Ironworks. It wouldn't be overly hard to make it something you could really spam heavily.
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