Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Is Absolutely Absurd At The Moment

There’s something intensely satisfying about revisiting an archetype you’ve tried before but couldn’t gel with, but through a brand-new lens. Sometimes that’s a specific tribe, sometimes it’s a card type, and sometimes it’s a whole strategy.

Sacrificing permanents is one of those things that enables a surprising number of strategies and ways to win, but one, in particular, really fits with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Flying
Whenever Korvold enters or attacks, sacrifice another permanent.
Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Korvold and draw a card. , and it’s not even something you have to suffer for.

Tell us your secrets

Right, so, let’s do a little story time first of all. This whole thing started because I had a couple of friends over for the first time in nearly two years, because we all wanted to play some Magic. It’s a familiar tale in these strange times, but it led to me finally sorting through my MTG collection. It also led to me getting a strong urge to build a new Commander deck, and I’ve been trying to satiate that urge by building Brawl decks in MTG Arena instead.

My new favorite because of this method is Kalain, Reclusive Painter Kalain, Reclusive Painter When Kalain enters, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
Other creatures you control enter with an additional +1/+1 counter on them for each mana from a Treasure spent to cast them. , because I not only happen to be a huge fan of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, because who could you not, but I also love Treasure tokens. I’ve been messing about with them in Brawl for a little while now, and aside from Xorn Xorn If you would create one or more Treasure tokens, instead create those tokens plus an additional Treasure token. , and a handful of other Rares and Mythic Rares I happen to own in the colors, you can build an absurdly powerful deck with Kalain at the helm.

I’ve been having so much fun, in fact, that the urge to build a Commander deck with them has been building steadily, and it all basically bubbled over when I pulled a Kalain while we were doing a little four-person draft of AFR. The thing is though, I already have a Rakdos deck thanks to Anje Falkenrath Anje Falkenrath Haste
{T}, Discard a card: Draw a card.
Whenever you discard a card, if it has madness, untap Anje Falkenrath. , and I loathe having more than one per color combination, which means I had to figure out how to branch out and add a color but still stick with Treasure as a theme.

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Yarrr or no yarrr?

My first thought was that I should go Grixis, because Admiral Becket Brass is a great card, and Treasure and Pirates just make sense. There’s a lot of cool stuff in Grixis too, because, well, it’s Grixis. The trouble though, is that a lot of the good PIrate cards are also absurdly expensive, and frankly, while I like the idea, it wasn’t quite enough to sell me on it. Also, I’m not in love with a lot of the Blue cards that make Treasure tokens, and I still wanted that to be the theme.

While thinking on this, we were still playing our drafts, and we’d actually moved onto Modern Horizons 2. It was at this point that one of my friends played two cards that would change the course of history. Well, my history, specifically regarding what colors I wanted this damn deck to be in.

The two cards were Glimmer Bairn Glimmer Bairn Sacrifice a token: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. , a one-mana Green Creature that lets you sacrifice a token to give it +2/+2 until end of turn, and Fae Offering Fae Offering At the beginning of each end step, if you've cast both a creature spell and a noncreature spell this turn, create a Clue token, a Food token, and a Treasure token. , a Green Enchantment that lets you create a Clue, Food, and Treasure token if you played a Creature and a noncreature spell in a turn. It was at this point that I knew I had to be in Jund colors.

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Jund them out

I’ve done Jund decks before, with one of my old favorites being a permanents-only Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire Flying
Whenever Vaevictis Asmadi attacks, for each player, choose target permanent that player controls. Those players sacrifice those permanents. Each player who sacrificed a permanent this way reveals the top card of their library, then puts it onto the battlefield if it's a permanent card. with Primal Surge Primal Surge Exile the top card of your library. If it's a permanent card, you may put it onto the battlefield. If you do, repeat this process. being one of the main win-cons. It was a funny deck, but it was also one that basically only had one trick, so I got bored pretty quickly. However, with sacrificing being at the core of the deck, there were other ways to go, with the one I landed on being Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Flying
Whenever Korvold enters or attacks, sacrifice another permanent.
Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Korvold and draw a card. . Sorry for taking so long to mention the card in the title again, but I felt like the backstory was relevant for how deck-building ideas sometimes work.

The reason I landed on Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Flying
Whenever Korvold enters or attacks, sacrifice another permanent.
Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Korvold and draw a card. is simple enough, they’re a five mana 4/4 Dragon, and I love Dragons, but they also care about sacrificing things. When they enter the battlefield or attack, you have to sacrifice another permanent. Plus, whenever you sacrifice a permanent, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on them and draw a card.

As a brief reminder, Treasure tokens read, ” tap, sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.” You literally have to sacrifice these things to use them. All of a sudden, Treasure doesn’t just buff my Creatures because of Kalain now, but because they care about things being sacrificed. Plus, Glimmer Bairn Glimmer Bairn Sacrifice a token: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. and Fae Offering Fae Offering At the beginning of each end step, if you've cast both a creature spell and a noncreature spell this turn, create a Clue token, a Food token, and a Treasure token. means I’ve always got an excess of different things to sacrifice too.

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We have to go deeper

So, with those as my starting pieces, I got to designing a deck. The first thing I did was go to Scryfall and just search up cards with the word “Treasure” on them in Jund colors, then basically buy all of those. I’ve not bought much MTG stuff in the last couple of years, so I figured I could justify splashing out a bit, specifically on an Old Gnawbone Old Gnawbone Flying
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, create that many Treasure tokens. , who is definitely going to go down in price, but good gravy do I love the effect.

I also invested in an Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. , a card you already know I love, and a Xorn Xorn If you would create one or more Treasure tokens, instead create those tokens plus an additional Treasure token. , amongst several other little bits and bobs. Other key cards include Marionette Master Marionette Master Fabricate 3 (When this creature enters, put three +1/+1 counters on it or create three 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.)
Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses life equal to this creature's power. and Revel in Riches Revel in Riches Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control ten or more Treasures, you win the game. , both of which are absurdly powerful win conditions in this kind of deck. Ideally, I’d grab a Parallel Lives Parallel Lives If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. too, but while I like treating myself, I can’t justify that amount of money in any capacity.

I’m still tinkering with the deck, and I probably will be for a fairly long time, but Treasure and Korvold are a match made in heaven, and if you’re looking to make yourself a new deck, I’m hoping this whole article has helped you try and figure out what you’re after. Also, feel free to share how you come up with new decks to build, because we simply love to hear it.

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