A New Kind of Korvold

[braden]

Korvold Faux-Farm

Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/-MV1EWXwH0u-K4j7KYTpvA

What is Faux-Farm?

Faux-Farm is the name given to decks that do Farm things... without being Farm... things.

What is a farm deck?

A Farm deck is a turbo Ad Nauseam deck, usually helmed by Tymna the Weaver, which plays creatures which are evasive and generate value while also using them to prop up several powerful cards which synergize with Ad Nauseam. Culling the Weak is an excellent example of a powerful card that takes adavantage of those synergies.

So... what makes Faux-Farm... not farm?

In my opinion it is when a commander doesn't take advantage of the dorks in a way that is similar to Tymna, the Weaver. In my opinion, Sneaky Farm (https://www.moxfield.com/decks/Bv8Jo8vkCUmHo-If-g6hug) is a Farm deck while Korvold is not, largely because many of the dorks in Yuriko are used to generate card advantage in a way very similar to traditional Farm lists. Another great example of a Faux-Farm list is Adept's Inalla Faux-Farm (https://www.moxfield.com/decks/mVna2FETXkSzAsA7xrVIKw).

What makes this a Faux-Farm Korvold deck?

This deck is definitely a turbo Ad Nauseam/Breach/Dockside deck, much like Blue Farm (https://www.moxfield.com/decks/0QeVpSQJEEaz_bEzdu_Adw). In this deck though, we have exceptionally powerful Dockside Extortionist turns thanks to the power of Korvold in our command zone. Korvold's ability means that every time we crack a treasure, we actually draw a card and create a mana which is absurd. This deck is defined largely by this synergy and wishes to take the biggest advantage of it amongst the top Korvold decks. Instead of playing cards like Food Chain or Squee, the Immortal were playing cards which synergize with this plan.

How does this deck typically play?

Usually we start out the game tutoring up Dockside Extortionist, then playing Korvold using some of our treasure mana. Then, we sacrifice Dockside Extortionist to our ETB trigger, hoping to have a reanimation spell lined up to bring it back. Usually if we can get this second Dockside with Korvold in play, we can almost always begin repeating this process and winning the game.

Did you create this list on your own?

Of course not!

I had a lot of help initializing some of the core ideas with Adept, while receiving a lot of help from members of the Korvold and Farm discords.

Special thanks to:
* Deco
* Coco
* Adept

[benjameenbear]

Looks lean to the ground and very streamlined. How do you actually win though? Does Praetor's Grasp get you Thassa's Oracle so that you can win with an empty library? I get that you have several ways to create infinite mana via Dockside (what was WOTC thinking when they printed that...) but I don't see a hard win condition that converts the loops into a win.

Why not include Mayhem Devil? It's a natural fit and has fantastic synergy with fetch-lands and opposing opponent sac effects.

[braden]

1. Finale of Devastation and Praetor's Grasp are the primary win conditions. We also have Temur Sabertooth + Eternal Witness to loop any spell.
2. I personally am not on Mayhem Devil because it isn't very useful in moving our gameplan forward during early turns.

[benjameenbear]

I concede that I don't play nearly as many cEDH games as you do, but my observation is that Mayhem Devil is actually a very solid control element for a cEDH game at any stage of said game. I'll try and demonstrate its efficacy as best I can.

First, let's examine a few common elements amongst the general cEDH meta. If we look at the cEDH Primer list (here), which I will use as an approximation of the cEDH meta generally, we can see that nearly every single deck that can support fetchlands DOES support fetch-lands. Further, in any deck that can include R, they almost universally include Dockside Extortionist. They ALSO almost universally include Underworld Breach as a combo element so that they can close out the game in some fashion, typically via LED and Wheel of Fortune. It's also a sound observation that any deck that's playing g has a fairly extensive suite of mana dorks, all of whose toughness is usually 1, not more than 2 (with the exception of perhaps Faeburrow Elder and a few outliers). Additionally, we see that with Flash being banned that Ad Nauseam has now retaken its former glory as the go-to cEDH strategy/lynchpin card. Various Farm decks have arisen in the meta (of which your list is one) and have high win rates because of their all-in strategy with AdNaus.

What these observations lead me to believe is that this is a fantastic environment for a pinger to thrive, particularly the Devil. Any time ANY player sacs a fetch-land, they'll compound the life loss or kill their dork. Looking for a typical Breach win via LED? The Devil controls that pace and can actually prevent them from winning in certain cases (any Breach lines that depend on Brain Freeze are suspect). And opposing Docksides now have collateral damage when they crack their treasures because of the Devil. Looking to AdNaus at EOT? The damage from the Devil will shrink the card size they can look through by decreasing their life total just from a game action that occurs in dependably high volume over the course of a cEDH game.

My point is this: while the Devil doesn't advance the core game plan of the deck as linearly/forcefully as other cards, I believe it offers an excellent utility and capability of allowing significant board control at a marginal cost while also being an additional win condition to supplement Finale of Devastation and Praetor's Grasp that is worth the deckspace.

Also, why the exclusion of Assassin's Trophy? It adds a clean way to destroy all opponent's board states during your Sabertooth + E.Wit recursion loop.