Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

We may be at the beginning of Theros: Beyond Death but we’re going back to Throne of Eldraine with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. This noble dragon is a Jund draw engine who has so many possible themes and variations I can’t ever see a static decklist. Sacrificing things is a core part of the game and being rewarded for it is great. Let’s go through some different cards and strategies for Korvold.

Synergies

Fetchland: Probably the most commonly sacrificed thing in Commander. Not just the Onslaught and Zendikar ones either, any sort of land that you sacrifice will reward Korvold with a +1/+1 counter and yourself with a card. Dust Bowl is particularly fun to turn any land into a well-timed Wasteland especially when mana flooded.

Scapeshift: Unlike The Gitrog Monster, Korvold doesn’t say one or more lands or, in this case, permanents. Scapeshift becomes a big draw spell and land tutor in conjunction with Korvold. This also feeds Titania, Protector of Argoth to create her 5/3 elementals and sets up the Splendid Reclamation/World Shaper land recursion play. It also plays very well with Dread Presence and Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth which is great fun if you haven’t tried it. It also works with Dryad of Illysian Grove which can also enable Valakut the Molten Pinnacle if you wanted, but more on that later.

Sacrifices: Really hard to pick out specific ones since so many things work here so I’m just going to name some inclusions to the deck. Tireless Tracker and clues, Dockside Extortionist and treasures, Awakening Zone and Eldrazi spawns, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and kobolds, Field of the Dead and zombies, and many more things that you can sacrifice that give you the added bonus from Korvold.

Ugin’s Nexus: This is my favourite inclusion in a Korvold deck, and it’s included here just to be able to take an extra turn in Jund without any negative side effects. Korvold is an odd creature as it needs a sacrifice when it enters the battlefield or attacks. Sure, you get a card back but that’s also if he doesn’t get removed in response. Some things don’t mind getting sacrificed like Ichor Wellspring, but if I’m going to need to sacrifice something, then why not something fun and valuable. Ugin’s Nexus is an odd card but I believe it can find another home with Korvold as an extra turn could turn into an overwhelming advantage.

Combos

Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod’s Altar + Grave Titan/ Avenger of Zendikar/ Dockside Extortionist: A frequent but effective combo especially when you draw as many cards as you’d like from Korvold. If you feel like you’re drawing too many, just sacrifice Korvold. Dockside Extortionist is an interesting addition, and as long as you can make 3 treasures, you go infinite as well.

Bolas’ Citadel + Sensei’s Divining Top: Bolas’s Citadel is an incredibly strong card, Sensei’s Divining Top is a staple Commander piece, and these two end up on board together so often for me it’s great. It turns into a pay 1 life to draw a card and it’s not hard to just win that way. The real combo is if you add Aetherflux Reservoir or a storm piece. However, with enough life, you may just win off the Sensei’s Divining Top.

Tooth and Nail entwine for Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth: This is still a green deck so we do green things. Giving +X/+X where X equals at least 2 plus the number of lands in play sends a 5/5 +X/+X trampling Craterhoof and any other creatures you have that are able to attack at your opponents.

Theme Variants

As I mentioned, Korvold can run with all sorts of different themes as sacrificing things is a big part of the game. From creatures to artifacts or just making fodder for Korvold to eat when he enters the battlefield or attack. Some variations on themes I wanted to showcase was food, clues, treasures, dragon tribal, or a token/zombie/goblin theme. I can spit out decklist after decklist for a Commander like Korvold because there aren’t that many things I would consider staples. So I’d like to share another decklist version to compare my point. Here is another variant I found to be a strong mix of Jund value and lands matter.

In this variant you can see a lot of Exploration effects and a different land and support base. Besides having more basics to search for, the basics and dual lands are searchable by the Perilous Forays + Bloodghast combo which can ramp you incredibly far ahead. There is less of a token focus and more on getting key value cards out.

We still have World Shaper recursion package, though the only land destruction I included was Keldon Firebombers. If you like, you can always play with the whole Wildfire, Jokulhaups, Obliterate package. There may be too many lines of play for Jund lands matters which is prominently represented with Lord Windgrace who is also a playable card option . Let’s move on from the sacrificial portion to the payoff part, except one last mention with God-Eternal Bontu, that’s just a lot of cards.

Using lands as the sacrificial medium, our payoffs are plenty. These payoffs mainly consist of additional card draw, but Titania can bring in an army of 5/3 tokens to finish off a game. The use of Squandered Resources can technically extend the mana production of your lands, but when used in conjunction with the payoff cards, it gives you an on-demand sacrifice outlet. Tapping and sacrificing all your land just to recur them with Splendid Reclamation is a highly satisfying play.

Summary

That’s enough about the decks for now, as I said there are a ton of strategies that can be played with Korvold and that’s what makes a fantastic Commander in my opinion. When a Korvold is part of the game, there are no guarantees what strategy they may be running or what to expect and that’s what makes it fun. A Commander you can build around but also play without is my favourite option. As your Commander is the first piece of public information your opponents have, they tend to plan around it. If your deck functions and has win conditions all on its own without even needing your Commander, then that to me feels like a solidly built deck. What do you think? What strategy would you play with Korvold, and have you built him before? Let me know!