Korvold, the Draconic Railgun *Primer* (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Korvold, the Draconic Railgun Primer

Commander / EDH BRG (Jund) Combo Primer Sacrifice Tokens Value Engine

Wolffang988

Lands (34)

Removal (7)

Utility (25)

BLAST (8)

Powerup (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Ramp (12)

Doubling (10)

Maybeboard

Other (8)

Updates

9/12/21 Wait, What Just Happened?? (Major Update) Show

9/5/21 Treasure Every Moment (and a Thank You!) Show

8/29/21 The wild Korvold used Hyper Beam! Utility and speed improvements Show

I finally started getting together with my playgroups again after all the madness and was able to test out some of the new stuff to discover some real power pieces! I also reverted an earlier change after testing because I noticed a slight speed and utility decrease, so this was a good opportunity to correct that.

-Removed Avenger of Zendikar, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

-Added Fractal Harness, Fain, the Broker, Brass's Bounty, Forgotten Ancient

These changes were made to increase overall utility and speed by lowering mana costs while keeping the slots powerful with new strong cards! Avenger of Zendikar is a great card that I had originally cut into the deck to replace Brass's Bounty, but after playtesting I feel the immediate value offered by Brass’s Bounty’s treasure tokens and the ability to sacrifice them without an additional sac engine performs better overall, so this change was reverted.

Fain, the Broker and Forgotten Ancient are replacing Razaketh, Foulblooded and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder as they are much lower in mana cost but provide equally powerful benefits. Fain, the Broker is an excellent addition to the deck as it does all that we want to do all in one package, functioning as a sac engine and token generator simultaneously. Forgotten Ancient is a fun creature that has excellent synergy with the deck’s theme of powering up Korvold, gaining a +1/+1 counter each time a player casts a spell and allowing you to transfer any number of those counters to another creature at your upkeep. This lets it gather power like a spirit bomb and give it all to Korvold, letting us start powering up our dragon or another creature much quicker.

Fractal Harness was a bit of an obvious choice the moment I saw it in Strixhaven, being a low cost equipment that doubles the number of +1/+1 counters on equipped creature whenever it attacks. This directly rewards us for attacking with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, and we have the option of casting Fractal Harness with X as 0 just to get the equipment on field for Korvold, or cast with X as whatever we choose to creature a Fractal for sacrificial purposes. And if The Ozolith is on field, its addtional direct benefit as when said fractal dies all any +1/+1 counters it has on it will be moved to The Ozolith and from there be transferred to Korvold. Stonks!

11/20/20 Power Tweaks Show

-Removed: Urborg Volcano, Temple of Abandon, Grave Titan, Gluttonous Troll, Rhythm of the Wild, Birds of Paradise, Soul Foundry, Vraska, Golgari Queen and Journey to Eternity

-Added Avenger of Zendikar and Scute Swarm for better token production, as Avenger of Zendikar provides instant benefit upon entering the battlefield and Scute Swarm can provide a good stream of tokens and can quickly get out of hand in the mid to late game!

-Added Double Vision to replace Rhythm of the Wild, as the doubling effect synergizes extremely well with the core strategies of the deck and can enable wild damage in optimal situations. Rhythm of the Wild is a good card, but I often found that I did not need or make use of the haste/riot often enough to justify the slot.

-Added Tainted Strike and Phyresis to give us another route to a quick victory, as it effectively lowers the killing threshold to 10! Getting Korvold to 10 power is often extremely easy or you can even use one of the many methods to double Korvold’s power or damage when he’s at his base 5/5 (4/4 plus the +1/+1 counter from the entry trigger) and you will already be at the lethal amount!

-Added Hardened Scales, as it’s an extra free +1/+1 counter for each of Korvold’s triggers, reducing the amount of effort to power him up! Also added Unleash Fury as it is an extremely effective way to boost Korvold’s power in an instant, allowing you to double Korvold’s power for a big damage spell or attack for only 2 mana!

-Lastly, added Spire Garden and Luxury Suite to replace Urborg Volcano and Temple of Abandon. Both lands function the same, coming in untapped if you have two or more opponents, and I made this change because 99% of time I’m playing at a table that meets this requirement and it is effectively a free untapped dual land! If you play 1v1 games only or find yourself playing against only one opponent most often then you may disregard this change. “It’s free real estate.”

-Descriptions updated to reflect changes

11/14/2020 – Land Changes Show

An Intro to Railgun Theory

When I first saw Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, I knew I wanted to build a fun deck with him. After looking around for inspiration, I saw that the most common deck strategies centered around Food Chain but I wanted to do something different with my deck, and settled on this direct damage railgun build! It’s an adaptable build that allows you to be an aggro player swinging for high damage, or a calculating strategist, building Korvold to critical mass before wiping a player (or the whole table) completely off the map in a single well executed turn! This deck performs well consistently and is one that often takes players by surprise if they haven’t experienced it before, and often they don’t see the threat until it’s too late or someone has been eliminated. I'm in the process of adding to this primer as I play against different matchups and make changes, so stay tuned!

Key terms Show

Railgun Operation Manual

No matter which approach you decide to take as you play the deck, building up a large amount counters on Korvold is going to be the key part of the plan. There is a wide range of utility cards to help you accomplish this throughout the game, as well as cards to function as a “Plan B” if things go sideways!

Tutors Show

Sacrificing and Getting Counters Show

A critical element of operating this deck is sacrifice, as sacrificing permanents will trigger Korvold, Fae-Cursed King’s ability giving him a +1/+1 counter and drawing you a card. Increasing Korvold’s power is the crux of this deck, as you’ll be aiming to get him to a lethal amount of damage so you can begin eliminating your opponents. Our methods of doing this have changed a little since this deck was first created, so we’ll cover the key differences here!

We have two lands that allow us to sacrifice creatures, Phyrexian Tower and High Market. These options net us extra mana or 1 life respectively, giving us a “desperate times” way to sacrifice our token creatures without having to rely on additional sac engines if our boardstate is hurting. Our main sac engines are featured in Ashnod's Altar, Fain, the Broker, Woe Strider, and of course our commander who is one big sac engine, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King.

Other spells and permanents that contribute to sacrificing are Defense of the Heart, Merciless Executioner, Plague Crafter and Thrashing Brontodon.

The biggest recent change to the deck is the increased utilization of treasure tokens. The past couple sets have added some great treasure support, and this synchronizes well with the existing treasure-related cards that we already had in the deck such as Revel in Riches and Pitiless Plunderer. Treasure tokens are an excellent power source in this deck, as it allows us to ramp into our big plays while also powering up Korvold and getting us that card draw every time we sacrifice a treasure! They also have the advantage of being unaffected by creature-focused board wipes, avoiding some of the pitfalls of creature token based sac strategies. Cards such as Old Gnawbone, Grim Hireling and Brass's Bounty give us the ability to make many treasure tokens in a short amount of time, along with options that let us make these tokens at a more regulated pace like Ragavan, Pilferous Plunderer and Fain, the Broker. This slight change in strategy also opens some alternative win conditions for us as well as increases the effectiveness of existing ones, which will be covered in the Backup Plans and Wincons section!

Token Generation Show

As I mentioned in the previous tab, we’ve shifted more towards treasure token generation as our primary “currency” of the deck, so in this tab I’ll cover some really good synergies and combinations for maximizing output as well as some alternate types of tokens created

Grim Hireling is a good creature that rewards us for dealing combat damage, giving us two treasures whenever one or more of our creatures deal combat damage to a player. We can further amplify our treasure gain with Xorn and Academy Manufactor, adding an additional treasure or one each of treasure, food and clue. Old Gnawbone is Grim Hireling on steroids, giving us an amount of treasure tokens equal to the amount of combat damage dealt to the player. This ability can quickly propel you to an explosive victory, as you can play Old Gnawbone and immediately swing a large creature at an unguarded or unwilling-to-block player to gain a large amount of token and sacrifice them for mana, buffing Korvold for each treasure sac’d and allowing you to use the mana from the treasures to cast a damage spell or another useful permanent. In optimal scenarios the added mana from treasure generation will let you quickly outspeed your opponent’s boardstate and put yourself into position to score a decisive victory.

We do still have a form of creature token production in cards like Beledros Witherbloom, Fain, the Broker, Awakening Zone and From Beyond. These creature tokens serve a variety of uses such as being cannon fodder as blockers, extra sacrifice options for Korvold, or an additional source of mana in the case of Eldrazi tokens or paired with Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Tower.

Revel in Riches is another great card to have sitting on your side of the board, as it will generate treasure tokens when your opponents creatures die. This can also serve as an alternative wincon, as you could have Pitiless Plunderer + Revel in Riches on field and then drop a board wipe to quickly accumulate more than 10 treasures. Additionally with the newly increased treasure support within the deck it is much more viable to quickly gain 10 or more treasures without warning with something like Old Gnawbone and sweep the rug out from under your opponent! Just make sure to hang on to them until your next upkeep!

Doubling Damage Show

Attempting to stack Korvold to lethal power would normally be a daunting task, especially in games with ample removal, so this deck covers that weakness by amplifying Korvold’s power and the damage he deals with some helpful creatures and spells! As I mentioned in the “Tutors” section, Obosh, the Preypiercer and Angrath's Marauders are two key creatures that double the damage you will be doing with Korvold and most of the ways you deal damage directly. Having both of these creatures on field quadraples the damage! This isn’t the only way to double your damage of course, as you have access to Howl of the Horde to copy one of your damaging spells, or even copy it twice if you have attacked with a creature the same turn. It is entirely viable to go to combat, swing a 0/1 Eldrazi token, then cast Howl of the Horde + Soul's Fire in your post-combat main phase to have the targeted creature(most likely Korvold) deal damage equal to its power to the same player 3 times, or 3 different players. A triple blast like this can easily deal lethal damage to an opponent, or be used to clean up a game where several players have already taken a significant amount of damage. You also have additional spell copying ability present with Pyromancer's Goggles and the amazing Lithoform Engine. Lithoform Engine not only gives you the option of copying spells, but also abilities and even permanents! You could use its first ability to copy one of Korvold’s triggers, or use its third ability to copy useful permanents, such as Angrath's Marauders, Defense of the Heart, or Pitiless Plunderer. A simpler form of doubling Korvold’s damage lies with two creatures in deck: Atarka, World Render and Xenagos, God of Revels. Atarka gives all dragons double strike, making an unblocked Korvold lethal through commander damage with 11 power or higher. Meanwhile, Xenagos essentially doubles the power of target creature you control at the beginning of combat on your turn by giving it +x/+x where “x” is its power, so it’s easy to set up a killing shot by selecting Korvold for the target and then swinging, or select Korvold as the target at the beginning of combat, not attack at all and then move to your post-combat main phase and cast a heavy hitting spell to have Korvold deal damage equal to his power to an opponent, as the buff from Xenagos, God of Revels lasts until end of turn. Unleash Fury is a great spell included in this deck, allowing to double target creature’s power until end of turn. It’s a fantastic advantage to gain for 2 mana, and has a variety of uses. It can be used at the last second to boost an unblocked creature to higher damage, set up Korvold for a big damage spell, or if you want to make a friend you can use it to target an opponent’s creature and potentially kill someone by proxy. There are numerous ways to use this handy spell, and the momentum it provides can easily allow you to wipe out an opponent or put yourself in a better position!

Backup plans and wincons Show

As always, there will be games where removal is prevalent, or you can’t keep Korvold on field and unbothered for more than a few turns, so what do you do then? I previously mentioned the combo of Pitiless Plunderer + Revel in Riches along with our other new treasure sources as a way to sneak a win through treasures, but the deck also has a few cards to serve as failsafes to fight removal or quickly pump Korvold to a lethal range in a single turn for a devastating attack or damage spell. Having The Ozolith on field can allow you to retain any counters you've built up on Korvold if he is hit with removal. Fling is one example of a vengeance spell or last resort, as you’ll have to sacrifice Korvold in the process but it will allow you to shoot one target opponent(or any other target) for whatever Korvold’s power is at the time. This is an option to be used when Korvold or your high power creature is about to die or be exiled anyway, to deal as much damage as possible to the biggest threat at the table or possibly defeat one opponent if the damage is enough.

“You can do that infinitely but you’d never keep a treasure- oh. Oh no.”

That’s right folks, as of the 9/12/21 update we’re packing a “technically infinite” combo! “Technically” because if you continue doing it you’ll cause yourself to lose, but you can do it as many times as you want before you run out of cards to draw (but with our way of doings thing you’ll win the game long before you get to that point). The combo can be performed several different ways, with two being “infinite” card draw and Korvold counters, and the final way being a method of immediately killing all of your opponents if they have no answer.

Crown of Flames + Goldspan Dragon + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King or Goldspan Dragon + Whipsilk + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King With either of these combinations you can trigger Korvold infinitely (at least until you have to stop so you don’t lose from drawing from an empty deck) as you will cast Crown of Flames or Whipsilk targeting Goldspan Dragon, and then sacrifice the resulting treasure that is created by Goldspan Dragon in order to use one mana to return Crown of Flames or Whipsilk to your hand, then use the remaining mana (as Goldspan Dragon causes your treasures to produce 2 mana) to cast the enchantment again, once again targeting Goldspan Dragon. You can repeat this process infinitely, and each treasure you sac will cause Korvold to trigger, netting you another +1/+1 counter and card draw. We aren’t concerned about doing this combo infinitely however as we would eventually lose for drawing from an empty library, so instead merely repeat the process until you draw into a spell to kill your opponent with Korvold such as Chandra's Ignition in multiplayer, or Gravitic Punch/Soul's Fire/Fling if playing 1 on 1. Do it enough times to make Korvold’s power high enough to be lethal, and fire the doom laser whichever way you prefer!

An alternative take on this strategy if your Korvold has suffered removal one too many times or is otherwise unavailable to you, is to use Marionette Master! Crown of Flames + Goldspan Dragon + Marionette Master is a lethal combination, as you will bleed an opponent for life equal to Marionette Master’s power each time your sacrifice the resulting treasure from Goldspan Dragon (or any other artifact) and is an easy way to immediately kill another player, or the whole table if you add power-boosting effects to Marionette Master such as Xenagos, God of Revels, Unleash Fury, or Invigorating Surge. (And of course you’ll want to choose the option of putting the three +1/+1 counters on Marionette Master for its fabricate ability if you go for this option, to make life easier!)

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is definitely the centerpiece of the railgun, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only route to victory!

Infect has joined the battle! I previously had Tainted Strike and Phyresis on the maybeboard, but now they’ve officially been added to the deck to serve as the “high speed” route to victory. A well timed Tainted Strike can often mark an opponent’s defeat, turning an unblocked 10/10 into a suddenly deadly force! Additionally, infect synergizes extremely well with our damage spells, as most of them cause the creature to deal damage equal to its power to target player/players. Due to how infect works, this means that Chandra's Ignition + Tainted Strike on any creature you control with 10 or more power kills ALL of your opponents, regardless of life totals! Phyresis is used in a similar manner, granting the creature infect and potentially enabling you to end the game very quickly. Soul's Fire, Burning Anger, Chandra's Ignition and Gravitic Punch all work with infect to let you give players poison counters directly, and Brash Taunter will also work, you would just need give infect to Brash Taunter instead of the larger creature, as Brash Taunter would be the one dealing the damage to your opponent. (It would also give the creature it fights a -1/-1 counter, but this isn’t a bad trade off if you can deal lethal damage to an opponent).

Defending Your Position (Removal)

This section will cover removal and some specific synergies with Korvold, the Fae-Cursed King! Throughout the game you may find yourself facing threats that you have to deal with immediately, and this deck runs a few spells and creatures that will help mitigate any dangers you come across while you’re charging up a lethal blast. The majority of the deck is centered around synergizing with Korvold and getting maximum value, and the removal portion is no different! Artifact Mutation helps you get rid of a pesky artifact while creating some nice expendable saprolings for yourself, while Bake into a Pie has a similar, if reduced effect by allowing you to destroy target creature and create a food token. Merciless Executioner and Plaguecrafter help you manage the battlefield by causing each opponent to sacrifice a creature upon entry, and you can simply sac them to their own trigger as they enter. This will additionally provide a Korvold trigger, increasing the value. Thrashing Brontodon serves as another form of artifact/enchantment removal, and sacrificing is a free trigger as well. Crux of Fate is a real golden ticket in this deck, as it allows you to destroy either all dragons or all non-dragon creatures. Choosing to destroy all non-dragon creatures will often destroy everything except for Korvold, paving the way for big swings or game-ending plays!

Unleash Devastation

At this point in the game ideally you have Korvold or another creature built up to a decent or high power level, and it’s time to put someone (or the whole table) out of the game. Using the tips I listed in the Railgun Operation Manual, You can assemble a combination such as Colossification + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King + Obosh, the Preypiercer and then cast Soul's Fire or Gravitic Punch using Korvold as the targeted creature to deal 48 damage to target player, well over lethal damage to anyone who hasn’t gained life higher than their starting life total, or Chandra's Ignition in the same manner but with the effect of killing every opponent with 48 life or less. Similar high damage blasts can be achieved using Lithoform Engine to copy your damage spells, and a truly monstrous amount of damage can be actualized by the combo of Howl of the Horde + Lithoform Engine + Soul's Fire , giving you 5 Soul’s Fires if you’ve swung with a creature in the same turn. With a high damage Korvold or creature you should be able to wrap up most games through a combination of attacking and casting damage spells, especially if you wipe the board with Crux of Fate choosing dragons to be spared. This will often leave Korvold as the sole survivor and ready to swing freely, allowing you to pursue victory!

“Who needs a plan, I have a goblin”

I mean if all else fails you could just have Brash Taunter fight Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, that’s always funny. “My Dragon fights my goblin, you die!”

If you liked this primer feel free to check out my newest deck, Koma, Serpents and Ladders *Primer*, a token generating control deck, or my recently updated tribal deck Cold War Kruphix- Eldrazi Tribal *Primer*!
All these decks are ones that I play and update regularly, hope you like them!

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99% Casual

Competitive

Revision 10 See all

(3 years ago)

+1	Academy Manufactor	main
-1	Bake into a Pie	main
+1	Beledros Witherbloom	main
-1	Burnished Hart	main
-1	Colossification	main
+1	Crown of Flames	main
-1	Double Vision	main
-1	Dragon Broodmother	main
-1	Dying Wish	main
+1	Emergence Zone	main
-1	Evolving Wilds	main
-1	Fiend Artisan	main
-1	Game Trail	main
-1	God-Eternal Bontu	main
+1	Goldspan Dragon	main
+1	Graven Cairns	main
-1	Greater Good	main
+1	Grim Hireling	main
+1	Ignoble Hierarch	main
-1	Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord	main

and 38 other change(s)

Top Ranked	Achieved #13 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #8 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH BRG (Jund) 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Pitiless Plunderer + Revel in Riches Chandra's Ignition + Tainted Strike Brash Taunter + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Howl of the Horde + Soul's Fire Colossification + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King + Obosh, the Preypiercer Howl of the Horde + Lithoform Engine + Soul's Fire Crown of Flames + Goldspan Dragon Goldspan Dragon + Whip Silk Crown of Flames + Goldspan Dragon + Korvold, Fae-Cursed King Crown of Flames + Goldspan Dragon + Marionette Master
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.41
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Clue, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Food, Fractal 0/0 GU, Goat 0/1 W, Inkling 2/1 WB, Pest 1/1 BG, Saproling 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	The Five, Commander test decks, Decks that impressed me, Sac decks, decks to build, new, Favorite Decks, saved decks, Fun EDH Ideas, commander
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