(Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King | Art by Yunnan Tao)

Technically Playable - Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King

Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable).

The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it!

This week's random commander is

This is the first commander that I've randomly rolled into and legitimately considered randomizing again. But there are rules here, rules are the only things separating us from the animals.

To make this a bit more interesting I'm going to focus on a couple of more niche builds for Korvold and try to avoid talking about any popular cards that the Commander often runs.

To do this I'm going to use EDHREC's tags feature to look at Korvold decks that have been listed under a specific archetype.

Lands-Matter (392/15761 decks on EDHREC)

The first is a fairly typical archetype but one that seems to be much less popular with Korvold (probably because you can just play Lord WindgraceLord Windgrace in the same colors).

While it's a bit of a meme that you can play Korvold with 99 lands and it would still be good, you probably want some other cards to make it a bit more consistent.

As you can see from the stats above, only 392 decks with Korvold as the commander focus on a land-matters playstyle, that's less than 2.5% of Korvold decks, which seems crazy to me given access to cards like World ShaperWorld Shaper that synergize so well with Korvold's ability.

On top of being able to return lands you sacrifice the deck also gives you access to The Gitrog MonsterThe Gitrog Monster and Dakmor SalvageDakmor Salvage, giving you a way to generate tons of value for very little investment (attacking with Korvold).

My version of a Korvold Lands deck focuses on winning through commander damage with Korvold.

This works through sacrificing fetch lands like Verdant CatacombsVerdant Catacombs and even Evolving WildsEvolving Wilds as it turns all of your lands into card draw and a buff for Korvold when sacrificed.

These also work incredibly well with Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum by turning each land drop into an extra combat phase, which gives you more Korvold triggers, more cards, and more buffs.

These pieces all work together incredibly well to quickly turn Korvold into a huge threat.

We could also talk about Ramunap ExcavatorRamunap Excavator and Crucible of WorldsCrucible of Worlds here but since I'm trying to avoid talking about all of the usual cards you might see associated with Korvold Soul of WindgraceSoul of Windgrace is much more my speed.

This works well in this deck since it cares about attacking and can return more fetch lands to continue to Moraug pain train in your next turn.

One of the most explosive turns this deck can have revolves around using The Gitrog MonsterThe Gitrog Monster and ScapeshiftScapeshift to sacrifice all of your lands and replace them allowing you to draw two cards for each land you have and to put a counter onto Korvold for each of those lands too, quickly getting Korvold up to that magical 21 power that is so important for commander damage kills.

You can make this combo even more explosive by adding cards like SpelunkingSpelunking or Amulet of VigorAmulet of Vigor to let you activate any of the lands you grabbed with ScapeshiftScapeshift in the same turn that you search for them.

But that's enough about lands (for now), it could probably be an article all on its own but I want to look at some other interesting takes on Korvold too!

Lifegain (26/15761 decks on EDHREC)

At about 0.1% of Korvold decks, we have an archetype that is really popular but doesn't seem to have made inroads with the dragon everyone loves to hate.

At its core, the Korvold "lifegain" deck is actually a Food deck. Very thematic for a dragon that likes to eat everything to grow bigger and draw cards, but there are some key cards I want to cover in here that really work wonders with Korvold.

Every king needs a personal chef, and someone to collect the finest meats, Gyome, Master ChefGyome, Master Chef, and Savvy HunterSavvy Hunter fill these roles perfectly.

As Food sacrifice outlets they synergize perfectly with Korvold giving you instant speed ways to draw cards and to grow Korvold out of range of burn damage (getting out of range of Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act is fairly easy to do with a deck like this too) or to protect him from kill spells and board wipes.

The other thing that makes these two particularly powerful is their ability to fuel themselves by creating their own Food.

In terms of utility, you can't ignore the fact that Korvold will get removed, and being able to keep up with his steep mana cost will be important. Food provides yet again.

Night of the Sweets' RevengeNight of the Sweets' Revenge and Jaheira, Friend of the ForestJaheira, Friend of the Forest both turn all of your Food into Mox EmeraldMox Emeralds, giving you tons of mana to be able to recast Korvold every time he dies, which if you play with anyone like me, will be a lot.

We can also look to Pauper for some great Food cards too. Fangren MarauderFangren Marauder and Cirith Ungol PatrolCirith Ungol Patrol both synergize with sacrificing Food and the lifegain that we're trying to facilitate.

Fangren MarauderFangren Marauder is probably one of the best cards in this deck to gain life, and while expensive, can very quickly build up a huge stockpile of life that you can use on your life gain payoffs.

Cirith Ungol PatrolCirith Ungol Patrol works as a miniature Korvold providing cards and Food in exchange for sacrificing any Reassembling SkeletonReassembling Skeleton-type cards you decide to add to your deck.

And speaking of payoffs, luckily life gain is nothing new and has a storied history in commander including the infamous first eminence commander Oloro, Ageless AsceticOloro, Ageless Ascetic.

Well of Lost DreamsWell of Lost Dreams can be quite a large mana investment, but since we're in green there is a good chance we will be able to generate enough mana to satiate the well while also being able to cast the cards we draw from it.

We could also play Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir but that card's a bit too good. Instead, I'd recommend running Vito, Thorn of the Dusk RoseVito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, or its newer, shinier cousin Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity which has the built-in resilience to come back to play when it dies. And of course, no green deck is complete without its own version of Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth.

For lifegain decks that's Blossoming BogbeastBlossoming Bogbeast. With Fangren MarauderFangren Marauder and a few Food in play it's very easy to get 20 or more power per creature, probably a game-ending amount of damage

Guildgates (2/15761 decks on EDHREC)

Finally, and with 0.01% of Korvold decks, guild gates. This is the archetype that made my creative juices flow the most but I'll be sure not to ramble too much.

Now this may seem like it's just going to be another lands deck and while you will run some of the typical cards like SixSix, ScapeshiftScapeshift, and SpelunkingSpelunking there are also some really cool cards in there that allow you to create some really powerful engines.

The card that really got me cooking with gas when I was looking into Korvold being a gates deck is Greater GoodGreater Good (and to a lesser extent Disciple of BolasDisciple of Bolas and Disciple of FreyaliseDisciple of Freyalise. Now this may seem weird but consider the fact that thanks to recent sets you can get 14 gates in Jund colors now.

With the information think about Gatebreaker RamGatebreaker Ram, a huge trampling, vigilant threat that you can sacrifice to Greater GoodGreater Good to draw up to 16 cards for free. But Gatebreaker RamGatebreaker Ram is just a big goofy beat stick, the real power of the engine comes from Gate ColossusGate Colossus.

With 8 gates in play you can cast it for free, this lets you draw 8 cards from Greater GoodGreater Good and then as long as you can play another gate you can return it to the top of your deck, or even better if you can reanimate it you can do it again straight away!

The best way to abuse this interaction is with another star of Pauper, Tortured ExistenceTortured Existence. As long as you have enough creatures in your deck with will allow you to return Gate ColossusGate Colossus to your hand for one mana, which will allow you to immediately cast it again to continue drawing. This is the kind of value engine I love to brew around using draft uncommons to create powerful effects.

You can also use both of these in combination with The Gitrog, Ravenous RideThe Gitrog, Ravenous Ride and while it's a bit more of an obvious card it will still do a very good impression of Greater GoodGreater Good while setting you up for some really powerful turns after dropping a bunch of lands from your hand.

But you need something to do with those lands, and that's where X spells come into it. Of course, Crackle with PowerCrackle with Power and Comet StormComet Storm are amazing, but we're also a lands deck, so why not use Worldsoul's RageWorldsoul's Rage?

In only 2% of decks that can run it (since its release last year), I'm really surprised that this card isn't seeing more play. Not only can you use it as an explosive damage dealer to kill a player or big threat before setting up for a huge turn down the line, but you can also use it in the early to mid-game to kill off those sneakily good utility creatures like Stoneforge MysticStoneforge Mystic and Jace, Vryn's ProdigyJace, Vryn's Prodigy while also ramping a little bit. I think this is an incredibly underrated card that could absolutely see more play.

And if you like silly, big damaging cards may I interest you in one of my new favorite cards, Rakdos Joins UpRakdos Joins Up? While a bit pricey at five mana for a reanimate there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

The first is that this is an enchantment, which means if you want you can use it in combination with any kind of permanent flickering to get repeated use out of it while only paying for the mana cost once. The other important thing is the second ability:

"Whenever a legendary creature you control dies, Rakdos Joins Up deals damage equal to that creature's power to target opponent"

This card is hilarious in my Coram, the UndertakerCoram, the Undertaker deck, and with a card like Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King that can get so big so quickly and is guaranteed to be a lightning rod for removal the damage this card deals will build up quickly. And of course, Korvold won't be your only legendary creature. I've already mentioned The Gitrog, Ravenous RideThe Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, and SixSix but you can easily jam cards like Kodama of the East TreeKodama of the East Tree for free permanents and even Yargle and MultaniYargle and Multani for more Greater GoodGreater Good shenanigans

As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at some more niche decks with Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make these archetypes tick.

Let me know in the comments below if you play any more unique Korvold builds, which of these ones you liked the best (obviously my favorite is the gates one), or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Paul Palmer

Hey there, I'm Paul. I've been writing about magic for a really long time. I love to write about obscure commanders (one of my really early articles back in 2015 was about Skeleton Ship) and how you can make decks around them work, no matter how unplayable they are. I love Gruul, I love Mountains and I love casting Lightning Bolt.