Korvold, Lands-HO!

[yeti1069]

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - Lands-HO!

Having never run a "lands matter" EDH deck, Korvold jumped out at me as being a solid value engine to anchor a lands focused deck. In addition, I have both a Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck and a Teysa Karlov deck built around edict and Grave Pact effects, and aristocrats shenanigans, so I don't really want to venture too far into that territory here. In addition, I don't especially enjoy infinite combos the way I used to, so I'm actively looking to avoid building toward any, and especially dislike including cards that don't generally work well with the deck outside of a specific combo. That said, if you have any suggestions on a theme-appropriate card that can also combo off in here, that would be welcome.

So far, the deck has a few paths to victory:
[*]Commander damage
[*]Token swarm (token sizes range from 0/1 to 2/2 flying, to 5/3 or 5/5)
[*]Creature ETB damage (Purphoros)
[*]Creature LTB triggers (Omnath)
[*]Landfall triggers (Hagra, Valakut)

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Artifacts

1 Sol Ring

1 Soul-Guide Lantern

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Arcane Signet

1 Phyrexian Altar

Enchantments

1 Burgeoning

1 Exploration

1 Phyrexian Reclamation

1 Need for Speed

1 Squandered Resources

1 Awakening Zone

1 Fires of Yavimaya

1 Pernicious Deed

1 Rhythm of the Wild

1 Retreat to Hagra

Instants

1 Pyroblast

1 Crop Rotation

1 Constant Mists

1 Assassin's Trophy

1 Harrow

1 Beast Within

1 Force of Vigor

1 Windgrace's Judgment

Sorceries

1 Farseek

1 Nature's Lore

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Road of Return

1 Diabolic Intent

1 Victimize

1 Tempt With Discovery

1 Scapeshift

1 Splendid Reclamation

1 Living Death

1 Wildfire

Creatures

1 Carrion Feeder

1 Elvish Reclaimer

1 Sylvan Safekeeper

1 Viscera Seer

1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Lotus Cobra

1 Dockside Extortionist

1 Eternal Witness

1 Woe Strider

1 Wood Elves

1 Turntimber Sower

1 Tireless Tracker

1 Farhaven Elf

1 Springbloom Druid

1 Ramunap Excavator

1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

1 Mayhem Devil

1 Purphoros, God of the Forge

1 Dread Presence

1 World Shaper

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 The Gitrog Monster

1 Nesting Dragon

1 Cavalier of Flame

1 Titania, Protector of Argoth

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Omnath, Locus of Rage

Lands

5 Forest

3 Mountain

3 Swamp

1 Snow-Covered Forest

1 Snow-Covered Mountain

1 Snow-Covered Swamp

1 Blood Crypt

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Stomping Ground

1 Sheltered Thicket

1 Canyon Slough

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Cinder Glade

1 Rootbound Crag

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Command Tower

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

1 Cabal Coffers

1 Field of the Dead

1 Field of Ruin

1 High Market

1 Polluted Delta

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Thespian's Stage

Approximate Total Cost:

So far, the deck has been a blast to play! I've had some ridiculously big turns--in the last game I played, a late game Eternal Witness recovered a Living Death, which resulted in about 48 damage from ETB triggers to each player to close thing out, and I wasn't even halfway done resolving triggers and actions! The deck has proved to be fairly resilient, chugging on and continuing to be a threat even after Korvold has been removed 3 or 4 times.

That said, so far, I've only had one game with a really explosive opening, and I'm looking for some suggestions on strong on-theme additions.

Some cards I'm looking to fit in (and soliciting suggestions on what to drop):
Brass's Bounty which I envision at worst being a sort of free "wheel" with Korvold out, costing 7, making 7, and drawing 7, with a significantly higher ceiling.
Mad Ratter may be too slow, but I've liked it in Brawl on Arena--with a sac outlet, once you generate the first set of rats, you can sac 2 to draw 2 and make 2 new rats on each players' turn
Crop Rotation with all the special lands in here, this seems like it should be included
Phyrexian Reclamation for Oversold Cemetery probably
Fire of Yavimaya -- likely replacing Hammer of Purphoros
Caustic Caterpillar
Genesis Wave and Sunbird's Evocation have both been cards that I look at for decks initially, but then ditch as I try to get more efficient, but the Wave seems like it could be very strong here, since hitting lands will generate added value oftentimes
Revel In Riches was suggested to me as a way to both capitalize on all the board wipes our playgroup tends to see, especially since this deck invites them to wipe, getting treasure for everyone else's dying critters, as well as providing some deterrent to too many board wipes as it may be risky to do so for fear of giving me an auto-win. Thoughts?
Fires of Invention I've been running in my Brawl deck to good effect, and tried out in this deck for a couple of games--it showed up once, and stuck around for 2 turns worth of value before I sacrificed it to my own Korvold. That, I view, is one of the upsides here: it can be used effectively until it's more of a detriment than a boon, then gets fed to the dragon
Along with perhaps 1 more mass reanimate card, I think I could probably use 1 or two more pieces of interaction, maybe an additional board wipe (particular one that doesn't just hit creatures), and possibly a sac outlet for any permanent? Or artifacts and creatures? I'm thinking that I'd like an option to sac Clue tokens without having to spend mana, but it's not a top priority.

[Artaud]

You're too low on lands (40 is absolute minimum for "land matters" theme) and you need more outlets for playing more than one land per turn. You also need Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam to reuse all the fetches and sacced lands and keep drawing cards with Korvold.

Urborg, Coffers and Dread Presence are not that good in 3-color deck unless getting them is your game plan from the beginning. With ramp and multiple land drops they will be overkill or dead draw most of the time though.

Unless you're going to combo out Squandered Resources I would not include it (it's great card though). Your creature count is too low for Oversold Cemetery and there are better cards for reanimation. Focus more on lands with silver bullets to reanimate your biggest threats (Avenger, Omnath etc.)

I like the idea and that's one of two I would build Korvold with. Keep brewing

[yeti1069]

You're too low on lands (40 is absolute minimum for "land matters" theme) and you need more outlets for playing more than one land per turn. You also need Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam to reuse all the fetches and sacced lands and keep drawing cards with Korvold.

Urborg, Coffers and Dread Presence are not that good in 3-color deck unless getting them is your game plan from the beginning. With ramp and multiple land drops they will be overkill or dead draw most of the time though.

Unless you're going to combo out Squandered Resources I would not include it (it's great card though). Your creature count is too low for Oversold Cemetery and there are better cards for reanimation. Focus more on lands with silver bullets to reanimate your biggest threats (Avenger, Omnath etc.)

I like the idea and that's one of two I would build Korvold with. Keep brewing

Thanks for the feedback!

Crucible and Loam were considerations. For the moment, I don't have either here as they're in other decks, but at some point I'll likely migrate one or the other over here. In terms of extra land drops, I'm looking at the three 3-mana options, and they've all got kind of a hefty price tag...but I JUST NOW realized that Dryad of the Ilysian Grove will turn all of my lands into both Swamps for Coffers AND Mountains for Valakut, so I'm going to pick that up ASAP! As for the others, I'd rather have them than Mina and Denn, but the price tag is kind of high for a savings of 1 mana (for the dino), or just outrageously high for Azusa.

Initially I had skipped on Coffers/Urborg, but a few people I was playing with seemed surprised, so I added them in, and in the 3 games since, I've assembled the pair each time to have some big turns. Experience so far has been that Field of the Dead is the best specialty land to grab, with Coffers/Urborg coming next. Valakut is worth grabbing with a big Scapeshift, but otherwise my Mountain count is too low for it to do anything without a massive land drop count, although I prioritize grabbing Mountains and Mountain/x lands when I can so I'm stocked for when that shows up. With Tempt I'm usually grabbing Field of the Dead first, and if two people get tempted, Urborg and Coffers. Scapeshift grabs all three at a minimum, and if I add Crop Rotation that will increase consistency on getting them into play. For now, I'll keep running them to see if they feel worth it, though in the last game, I did have Coffers and no Urborg for a turn, and it was sad, but after drawing 6 cards with Korvold, hit the other half.

Dread Presence I tossed in when I added Urborg, thinking it could do some work, and in the one game it showed up in so far, it did exactly that, although it was kind of superfluous as I also was getting a ton of Purphoros triggers. May take it back out if I end up with it doing nothing/not much.

Squandered Resources can kind of combo off with either Splendid Reclamation or World Shaper, while also giving me an option to dig a bit with Korvold. I've used Need for Speed for the same purposes, but generating mana doing that would obviously be a huge payoff. For the time being, I'm hanging onto this, but may swap it out if I find that I'm not using it.

You mentioned land "silver bullets." What lands would you suggest? Glacial Chasm?
I'm thinking Phyrexian Reclamation will replace Oversold Cemetery, but did you have another suggestion?

[Artaud]

You mentioned land "silver bullets." What lands would you suggest? Glacial Chasm?
I'm thinking Phyrexian Reclamation will replace Oversold Cemetery, but did you have another suggestion?

I meant reanimation "silver bullets" like Reanimate or Animate Dead.
Yes, some "land boosters" got pretty costly during years. Wayward Swordtooth is one of the cheapest and Dryad you mentioned is not that expensive either and its price may drop when it will leave Standard.

As for lands I suppose you have not budget for Gaea's Cradle (neither do I) but it would fit token generation theme best. Consider using Drownyard Temple as repeatable Korvold meal and you should get some more fetches (even budget ones).

[yeti1069]

Swordtooth is a lowish price, but I don't know that it does enough for me to spend even that much on the card, and I'm not sure what I would cut for it. Also, I've definitely had some games where I had an extra land drop card in play, but had no extra lands to drop. Bumping land count up from 38 would increase that consistency, but again...what to drop?

Good call on including another reanimation spell. I'll have to think on what's going to fit best.

I think the ETBT fetches are probably not worth running, especially with my basic count being kind of low, but maybe I'm off on that. Something like Myriad Landscape I had looked at and dismissed because it ETBT, fetches lands tapped, and only basics. Do you think it's worth it here?

Drownyard I had in my starting pile, but felt like I wanted to have better things to do with 3 mana than recur a colorless land, and I wanted to keep my colorless land count down.

Cradle I'll likely never get my hands on.

[yeti1069]

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?

[BeneTleilax]

command beacon.

[yeti1069]

06/09/20

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

CUTS

1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn

1 Nylea's Intervention

1 Dragonskull Summit

1 Woodland Cemetery

1 Hull Breach

1 Bedevil

1 Hammer of Purphoros

1 Oversold Cemetery

ADDS

1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

1 Crop Rotation

1 Forest

1 Swamp

1 Force of Vigor

1 Assassin's Trophy

1 Fires of Yavimaya

1 Phyrexian Reclamation

Approximate Total Cost:

Mina and Denn come out for the Dryad, which lowers my curve, and the Dryad's "all basic land types" text works very well with both Cabal Coffers and Valakut. The pair may come back in for Turntimber Sower, who is on the chopping block--have had a couple games where it did a little work, but have had a couple where it felt underwhelming.

Crop Rotation comes in for Nylea's Intervention, because every time I was holding Nylea's I wished it was something else, and found I was rarely casting it. I think that if I had an extra land drop or two in play, and hadn't dropped a land yet, casting it for X=2 to get Coffers and Urborg would be valuable, but I was never in that situation. If I up the number of extra land drops, I may consider bringing it back in, but for now, Crop Rotation is instant speed, cheap, triggers Korvold, and can either get me half of Urborg/Coffers, or fetch up one of my utility lands (Field of the Dead, Bojuka Bog being the most likely).

Bring in 2 basic lands for non-tutorable lands (I think I'll drop the last of those as well) as I was running into situations where I had nothing left to fetch, and really wanted some landfall.

Hull Breach is coming out for Force of Vigor once I get my hands on one, because I need more instant-speed interaction in the deck.

Bedevil is coming out for Assassin's Trophy, because sometimes I really need to kill an enchantment or land. Also lowers the curve.

Fires comes in for the Hammer, because it's easier to cast, and can sacrifice itself for free for a Korvold trigger when needed. Not to mention, an enchantment is harder to remove than an artifact enchantment.

Oversold comes out due to not often having enough creatures to trigger it, while Reclamation has no such restriction, and can be used the turn it comes down, in addition to fetching multiple creatures in a turn if needed, and being able to yoink something out of the yard in response to an exile effect. All that said, I am also weighing Strands of Night, which also seems like it would be good here: it's a little harder to activate, and comes down for more mana, but it sacrifices permanents, which the deck likes, and it cheats on mana cost. Both cost 2 mana to activate, but with most of my creatures I would want to reanimate being 3-7 mana, it ultimately is saving 1-5 mana vs Reclamation. Still, I haven't found my copy yet to slot in, and I'm still on the fence. Once I find it, I'll probably slot it in to see how it feels.

[yeti1069]

Gameplay recap...

Going to just recount a bit of the very end of the game, because there was too much going on otherwise.

One opponent has Zur, enchanted with something to phase him out for , Pariah, and some other nonsense, and had Phyrexian Unlife in play along with Solemnity.

I had just gotten off a HUGE turn, where I drew nearly my entire deck, played out Squandered Resources, Purphoros, Gitrog, Mayhem Devil, and Titania, while already having Phyrexian Arena and my commander in play.

On Zur's upkeep, after Zur returns, I sac a couple lands to make Titania's elemental tokens, triggering Purphoros and forcing him to phase out Zur. He targets the god with an exile effect, so I respond by sacrificing more lands, drawing 2 cards per land, and making mana, to dig into my deck for an answer. Finally find a Beast Within to remove Phyrexian Unlife. He responds with a Force of Will, and I respond by digging further, sacrificing elementals, until I get Pyroblast to counter it. Between the Purphoros and Mayhem Devil triggers, manage to finish off the rest of the table, with 0 land left in play, but about 40 cards in my hand.

I've found that the deck has some ridiculously explosive turns, largely thanks to either Squandered Resources or Phyrexian Altar, and one or both of Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation, couple with something that produces creatures from lands entering or leaving the battlefield. The deck has also proved to be rather resilient, as even with Korvold costing 11 mana, I was able to bring him out, have a huge turn, and sweep away the table.

Korvold had a turn 6 win the other day as well, (would have been 5 but Korvold got bounced in response to his ETB trigger) thanks to Arena, Nesting Dragon, Field of the Dead, Scapeshift and Lotus Cobra providing enough mana and sacrificial resources to draw cards to basically be able to draw over half the deck, find a haste enabler, and go to town.

[yeti1069]

command beacon.

That's a reasonable call. Korvold gets removed with some regularity, being a big, dangerous target, but with the ramp I've had, casting him again hasn't been much of an issue. So far, I have yet to cast Road of Return, so I may be cutting that, and I like it more than Command Beacon here, since I want to be sacrificing things while the Dragon Noble is in play, not to get him into play.

If I find that I'm having trouble getting him back into play, I'll reconsider this.

[yeti1069]

You're too low on lands (40 is absolute minimum for "land matters" theme) and you need more outlets for playing more than one land per turn. You also need Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam to reuse all the fetches and sacced lands and keep drawing cards with Korvold.

Urborg, Coffers and Dread Presence are not that good in 3-color deck unless getting them is your game plan from the beginning. With ramp and multiple land drops they will be overkill or dead draw most of the time though.

Unless you're going to combo out Squandered Resources I would not include it (it's great card though). Your creature count is too low for Oversold Cemetery and there are better cards for reanimation. Focus more on lands with silver bullets to reanimate your biggest threats (Avenger, Omnath etc.)

I like the idea and that's one of two I would build Korvold with. Keep brewing

I wanted to quote this again with gameplay updates.

I think going higher on the land count may be worthwhile, but I have no idea what I would cut to get there. As it is, this has the highest land count of any of my commander decks.

Coffers and Dread Presence have both been really solid. With the ease the deck has in getting either Urborg or now the Dryad of the Ilysian Grove into play, these have rarely been dead cards, and I've had some real successes with each of them.

Similarly, Squandered Resources has been NUTS! While the deck isn't set up to combo off, strictly speaking, it can have immense turns thanks to this and similar cards. It's been worthwhile every time I've drawn it.

Oversold Cemetery, on the other hand, was a good call, and I've swapped it out for Phyrexian Reclamation.

[toctheyounger]

You're too low on lands (40 is absolute minimum for "land matters" theme) and you need more outlets for playing more than one land per turn. You also need Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam to reuse all the fetches and sacced lands and keep drawing cards with Korvold.

I don't know if that's an absolute rule. I've been fine with just shy of 40 myself. Granted I don't have fetches so I'm not thinning the deck to quite the same degree as I otherwise would, but nonetheless I've had zero issues with ramping quickly and hitting whatever sacrifice and land triggers I can. Similarly, I think you could probably cope without Crucible of Worlds here. If you skip it, you definitely need Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper, but again, I've done really well without it. The latter two are explosively good land reanimation, so they give great momentum. Specifically World Shaper, having ways to get it back and sac it repeatedly makes for an obscene land count in play. I think Life from the Loam is fine here too, but if you're wanting to run it you definitely need as many extra land play triggers as you can get. The last thing you want is your lands stuck in hand in a queue to be played.

[yeti1069]

You're too low on lands (40 is absolute minimum for "land matters" theme) and you need more outlets for playing more than one land per turn. You also need Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam to reuse all the fetches and sacced lands and keep drawing cards with Korvold.

I don't know if that's an absolute rule. I've been fine with just shy of 40 myself. Granted I don't have fetches so I'm not thinning the deck to quite the same degree as I otherwise would, but nonetheless I've had zero issues with ramping quickly and hitting whatever sacrifice and land triggers I can. Similarly, I think you could probably cope without Crucible of Worlds here. If you skip it, you definitely need Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper, but again, I've done really well without it. The latter two are explosively good land reanimation, so they give great momentum. Specifically World Shaper, having ways to get it back and sac it repeatedly makes for an obscene land count in play. I think Life from the Loam is fine here too, but if you're wanting to run it you definitely need as many extra land play triggers as you can get. The last thing you want is your lands stuck in hand in a queue to be played.

I'm running most of those already: Ramunap, Worldshaper, and Splendid. I do feel like I could use one more extra land drop effect...though that could also be a shuffling issue, as for the last few games I've drawn them in clumps.

I'm not sure I'm running enough graveyard recursion to not feel like Loam runs a big risk of hurting me on dredges.

Right now the deck is feeling pretty good. I just think I could use some more interaction to remove big problem pieces or to stop someone from combining off.

[toctheyounger]

I'm running most of those already: Ramunap, Worldshaper, and Splendid. I do feel like I could use one more extra land drop effect...though that could also be a shuffling issue, as for the last few games I've drawn them in clumps.

I'm not sure I'm running enough graveyard recursion to not feel like Loam runs a big risk of hurting me on dredges.

Right now the deck is feeling pretty good. I just think I could use some more interaction to remove big problem pieces or to stop someone from combining off.

I mean with 4 extra land drop options, you're probably golden. I don't see Wayward Swordtooth or Azusa, Lost but Seeking but how far do you wanna go with it? They're probably surplus to requirement I'd say.

In terms of recursion. I guess you could get Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Underworld Breach in here. Again, probably not that necessary though, when your theme is lands, which means Loam is probably not all that necessary either. It works for me because I have some reanimation in the deck, but if you're all in for lands you have less utility to pick up other pieces from your 'yard again, so it's probably a risk to backfire.

In terms of removal, how does World Breaker suit you? It's on theme and reusable. I guess it depends on what particular pieces you're wanting to mitigate for, really. Terastodon is always gross, too, and if you want instant speed there's always Chaos Warp.

[yeti1069]

I'm running most of those already: Ramunap, Worldshaper, and Splendid. I do feel like I could use one more extra land drop effect...though that could also be a shuffling issue, as for the last few games I've drawn them in clumps.

I'm not sure I'm running enough graveyard recursion to not feel like Loam runs a big risk of hurting me on dredges.

Right now the deck is feeling pretty good. I just think I could use some more interaction to remove big problem pieces or to stop someone from combining off.

I mean with 4 extra land drop options, you're probably golden. I don't see Wayward Swordtooth or Azusa, Lost but Seeking but how far do you wanna go with it? They're probably surplus to requirement I'd say.

In terms of recursion. I guess you could get Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Underworld Breach in here. Again, probably not that necessary though, when your theme is lands, which means Loam is probably not all that necessary either. It works for me because I have some reanimation in the deck, but if you're all in for lands you have less utility to pick up other pieces from your 'yard again, so it's probably a risk to backfire.

In terms of removal, how does World Breaker suit you? It's on theme and reusable. I guess it depends on what particular pieces you're wanting to mitigate for, really. Terastodon is always gross, too, and if you want instant speed there's always Chaos Warp.

I don't own a Swordtooth or Azusa, and they don't have the additional impact that the Dryad does, so I'm not springing for them now. If anything, I would add Mina and Denn back in for something, but I'm not sure what. That said, a 3-drop would be preferable to a 4 for this.

Meren I have in her own deck, and my experience with her is that I wouldn't put her in the 99 given how much hate she faces. Underworld Breach I was considering, but while in most decks you can exile lands to pay for the Escape cost, in this deck I want those sticking around. Still may be worth running, but it feels like too much of a double-edged sword.

World Breaker is interesting. It's a more expensive Acidic Slime that can recur itself. That last part is nice. I was thinking instant speed interaction would be ideal, as I've had some games that hinged on problematic permanents needing to be removed ASAP. I have considered adding Red Elemental Blast alongside Pyroblast, but I'm not sure that I want both in the deck, as they can often be dead cards. Chaos Warp may be the answer, now that I've brought in the other universal green- and Golgari-colored removal.

[toctheyounger]

Well, the other suggestion I was going to make was Krosan Grip. Split Second makes for an excellent 'no'.

[yeti1069]

No full update yet, but I have some play experience from my Brawl deck on Arena with cards from Zendikar...

Scute Swarm is NUTS!!!! And should be in basically any lands matter deck. With the new Greenwarden and Azusa out, I made 64 tokens in one turn. Even if you're not focused on taking advantage of a swarm like that, you're not NOT taking advantage of a swarm like that. Jamming this sucker in here ASAP!

Ancient Greenwarden is cute. Useful even. Not sure I would include this for 6 mana, nor what I would drop for it, but it plays nicely with a ton of stuff in the deck.

Nahiri's Lithoforming is basically Scapeshift #2 and Korvold #2, which is crazy! On Arena, I don't have access to Scaepshift, obviously, so I gave this a spin, and it was everything I'd hoped for. Going straight in the deck here as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. Also interestingly, while it doesn't fetch specific lands like Scapeshift does (and costs more, generally), if we have the ability to play lands from the yard after this resolves, we aren't limited to pulling lands from the deck, which can be relevant. Also, this will refill our hands even without Korvold out, and will draw half the deck with Korvold out. Seems good.

Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, while not from Zendikar is something I'm also trying out in the deck. Not sure its "make a token" ability does enough for EDH, BUT the pump effect can be VERY relevant. I've certainly had turns with 20+ cards in hand a few creatures on the board and mana open. She does two things I want in the deck (making tokens, and helping a swarm close out the game), but I'm not sure she does enough of either to warrant a spot.

Roiling Regrowth comes in as a second copy of Harrow basically.

A few of the double-sided cards look interesting, but not sure I'm all that excited about any of them for this deck.

[yeti1069]

Also, some gameplay...

Had Phyrexian Reclamation, Dockside Extortionist, and Korvold out, with my opponents showing 8 artifacts/enchantments. Ended up taking myself to 1 life to recur the goblin, make some additional mana, and draw a ton of cards with the King until I found a way to close out the game (Avenger of Zendikar + Purphoros). This is the only quasi-infinite combo in the deck (Reclamation + Dockside), require a lot of life to start, AND opponents need at least total of 5 artifacts/enchantments to net any mana (although 4 is enough to simply cycle and draw cards with Korvold).

[yeti1069]

Well, the other suggestion I was going to make was Krosan Grip. Split Second makes for an excellent 'no'.

Long wait on a reply, but....

Force of Vigor has been doing work for me, as has Red Elemental Blast. K-Grip is next in line for options if I find that I just absolutely NEED the split second removal.

[toctheyounger]

Well, the other suggestion I was going to make was Krosan Grip. Split Second makes for an excellent 'no'.

Long wait on a reply, but....

Force of Vigor has been doing work for me, as has Red Elemental Blast. K-Grip is next in line for options if I find that I just absolutely NEED the split second removal.

Good to hear its all working out. I've had good results with Force of Vigor myself. Personally, I've taken my Korvold, Fae-Cursed King apart sadly. He was just too strong to be altogether interesting for me. On the plus side I have some huge gas for other decks; I'm refocussingGlissa, the Traitor and solidifying a Tayam, Luminous Enigma build, the latter of which has thus far been a lot of fun to play.

[yeti1069]

Well, the other suggestion I was going to make was Krosan Grip. Split Second makes for an excellent 'no'.

Long wait on a reply, but....

Force of Vigor has been doing work for me, as has Red Elemental Blast. K-Grip is next in line for options if I find that I just absolutely NEED the split second removal.

Good to hear its all working out. I've had good results with Force of Vigor myself. Personally, I've taken my Korvold, Fae-Cursed King apart sadly. He was just too strong to be altogether interesting for me. On the plus side I have some huge gas for other decks; I'm refocussingGlissa, the Traitor and solidifying a Tayam, Luminous Enigma build, the latter of which has thus far been a lot of fun to play.

Yeah, I bring him out when people are playing stronger decks. He doesn't quite hold up all the time in those games, since I don't have any infinite combos, but can have some explosive turns.

[toctheyounger]

Long wait on a reply, but....

Force of Vigor has been doing work for me, as has Red Elemental Blast. K-Grip is next in line for options if I find that I just absolutely NEED the split second removal.

Good to hear its all working out. I've had good results with Force of Vigor myself. Personally, I've taken my Korvold, Fae-Cursed King apart sadly. He was just too strong to be altogether interesting for me. On the plus side I have some huge gas for other decks; I'm refocussingGlissa, the Traitor and solidifying a Tayam, Luminous Enigma build, the latter of which has thus far been a lot of fun to play.

Yeah, I bring him out when people are playing stronger decks. He doesn't quite hold up all the time in those games, since I don't have any infinite combos, but can have some explosive turns.

Yeah I just found him too consistently good to be any fun for me. I've got a couple of higher tuned decks in Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Dralnu, Lich Lord so he just wasn't adding anything to the lineup of decks that I didn't already have.

[yeti1069]

Had a ridiculously strong win a couple nights ago. Highlights:

Retreat to Hagra did some work buoying my life total while chipping everyone else down for about +/-10 before it ate removal.
Use Phyrexian Reclamation early to recur Farhaven Elf a few times to build mana base.

On an attack with a big Korvold, the attacked opponent cast an instant speed Wrath effect. In response, another opponent turned all of our lands into 2/2 creatures, then removed his board with Eerie Interlude. I had in play a lot of mana, Woe Strider, and Titania as notables. Proceeded to sacrifice other creatures to draw cards to find an answer, including some lands I was tapping for mana for effects. Found Harrow and Roiling Regrowth, which I was able to cast at instant speed to put some non-creature lands into play that would survive the boardwipe while I had mana available (still in combat). After the wipe, dropped land for turn, and added some more land to the board with Farseek, and played E-Wit to get back a Demonic Tutor. One player was left unscathed, thanks to his Interlude, while another had 0 lands, but about 20 treasure tokens, and the third had 0 lands and one or two mana rocks. I had 6 lands and 8 5/3 elementals going into the next turn thanks to Titania.

Next turn, dropped a land and played out Avenger of Zendikar. Put some pressure on the board with the elementals, and then the plants the turn after, when I also tutored for Splendid Reclamation. On the following turn, cast that to bring in 22 lands, including 8 mountains and Valakut to knock out the Interlude player, who had already killed the player with all the treasure tokens, leaving me with one opponent short on land, and an easy cleanup.

[yeti1069]

Thinking I should really have Pitiless Plunderer in here since he can make treasure off of tokens.

[yeti1069]

Mad Ratter has been VERY good in the deck. With a sac outlet and Korvold out, it draws 2 cards on each player's turn and grows Korvold by +2/+2 for 0 cost: sac 2 rats, draw 2 cards, make 2 rats, go.

I had been liking it in Brawl, but thought it might be too weak for EDH, but there aren't many cards that continually pump out creature tokens for essentially zero investment. Ophiomancer probably needs a slot here for the same kind of value (and being 1 mana cheaper). Not sure if that's a replacement or an addition.