I believe everyone should have one deck that would be considered "Big Guns". For me, this deck is Korvold and I would love to show you where I took him.
I figured since it was the New Year, it would be an excuse to talk about one of my decks that is not constructed only from retro cards. But, as is typical for me, I do stick with a pretty heavy theme. With this deck, I went with a heavy treasure theme.
Korvold can certainly be built stronger, but at the same time I don't try and fool anyone by telling them "It's not that Korvold deck".
It is known that the two most powerful things you can do in Magic is ramp and card draw. Korvold built as a treasure token deck allows me to do both of those things. Even if Korvold is immediately removed when you play him, you can essentially consider him a 5-mana draw a bunch of cards commander as you instant speed sacrifice a bunch of treasures in response to him being removed. It's great realizing that you didn't even waste your treasures because you will have the floating mana to pay for whatever it is you just drew into. Or, to play Korvold again.
Before we get started, just know... If you build Korvold and sit down at a table, you are immediately the threat at the table. Just embrace it and don't try to convince people otherwise. Let's take a trip into Korvold's Salt Mine
Ramp
I've kept traditional ramp to only 5 cards since we will be taking advantage of the treasure production.
Card Draw
I even kept the card draw in this deck on theme with treasure synergies. I love the Malevolent Witchkite as it fills in as a card draw spell as well as sticking with the theme of dragons who love treasure. Let's be clear though, Korvold is the main card draw engine in this deck. Sylvan Library is used more just to smooth out draws.
Gimme That Treasure!
There are no shortage of treasure producers, which is probably why it is considered to be the most broken mechanic of all time. But, let's take a look through the ones I've selected for my deck. Dockside is an obvious choice and is the boogyman of the format. I will say, I have never nor will I ever spam dockside. I cast it once and get what I get from it. Magda is the perfect on theme card for this deck since it will gain treasure for us if there are open attacks, if not, it will just sneak a huge dragon onto the battlefield. One thing I did when I first built this deck is put a bunch of cards such as Xorn, Mahadi, Grim Hireling, etc in and when it came time to need to sacrifice a creature I never wanted to! I've since put a lot of sac fodder creatures in that come in and do their thing and I'm okay if they die afterwards. Impulsive pilferer does this with upside! You will find that no matter what you are doing when you are playing this deck, you are accidentally creating treasures.
Direct Damage
This category is how I usually win the game. There are so many of these options out there that you actually need to be selective which ones you use! I like Disciple of the Vault because it punishes opponents using treasure tokens or any other artifact tokens. Reckless Fireweaver is one of my favorite foils out there so it earns a spot in this deck. Plus, I cannot state enough the importance of having an effect like this when things enter as well as leave the battlefield. For this reason, Mirkwood Bats is the absolute best of these effects. Nadier's Nightblade made it into the deck because people love to try and kill the Korvold player, and rightfully so. This helps you to gain some life and stay in the game a little longer while hurting your opponents. Marionette Master is another beautiful foil and was one of the cards that initially inspired the construction of this deck. I don't like that it costs 6 to play but hopefully you sacrifice some treasures to play it!
Fun Tech
The great thing about this deck is that every.single.game.action you do has an effect. You can tap your lands to Bootleggers' Stash instead of floating your mana to create treasures and then sac your treasures to draw cards and deal direct damage. Rain of Riches is just pure value. Honestly, Goldspan Dragon is a "win more" card as you will never actually need the amount of mana it is creating, but it sure is cool! (and it's a dragon). Conduit of Worlds is a great way to get extra value out of your fetch lands to allow you to hit your land drops while also helping you cast important cards that have been removed and are sitting in your graveyard. Academy Manufactor is just absolutely broken. You will never be able to, or need to do anything with the tokens this thing produces. But, it accelerates the damage being dealt out by cards like Reckless Fireweaver.
Win Conditions
When I was building this deck, I wanted to keep it on theme and everybody knows that dragons love treasure! I thought it would be a good opportunity to combine the two archetypes into one deck. I have never won with an "alt win con" but I'm hoping to one day in this deck. This is the only deck I have that utilizes them to actually try and win. For the most part, when I play this deck I hold onto the majority of my treasure tokens unless absolutely needed or I have one of the above mentioned direct damage creatures on the battlefield. Because of this, Monumental Corruption has been a great way to kill an opponent vs drawing me tons of cards.
While I know this deck strays from the main purpose of this blog, it is too fun (and powerful) not to share. Do make sure, if you are playing a deck like this that the table is ready for it. It's not fun for anyone if you pubstomp a table with this deck. Instead make sure they too are bringing out their big guns.
When I play this deck, I rarely actually attack with Korvold because that is playing in "easy mode". Instead, I rely on the direct damage cards or try and steal a win with something like Hellkite Tyrant or Revel in Riches. With that said one of my favorite ways to win the pod is by killing one player with commander damage in an attack and then using Kazuul's fury to "fling" Korvold at the remaining player. Because of this, Kazuul's Fury is one of my favorite cards in the deck and I don't think anyone has ever gotten upset by having a dragon thrown at them. Kibo is my other one, because it's fun to think of a banana as being both food & treasure for him.
What's your most powerful deck? I'd love to hear in the comments section below.
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