Returning to Korshem: A Briar Blitz Deck Tech

There are many ways to approach deckbuilding, but my personal favorite has always been to identify a card or combo I want to build around. And what's more enticing than building around a Landmark, a card that can theoretically remain in play indefinitely?

I explored Korshem's merits in a Rathe Times article over a year ago, but at the time I was mostly identifying a card pool of potential synergies. A lot has changed in a year; and when it was time for me to revisit my Briar deck in light of Outsiders, I was delighted to find that I could support Korshem passively while pursuing an established strategy.

As a refresher on Korshem - an admittedly complex card, even without the narrative flourishes - we want to reveal cards to gain benefit from the tree. But we also need to keep Korshem in play, and to do that, someone needs to gain life, gain resources, or gain an attack/defense modifier, every turn.

Our deck is going to be comprised, therefore, of cards with reveal effects, as well as cards that keep Korshem alive. Cards like Belittle, Bramble Spark, Ravenous Rabble, and Sonata Arcanix - aka, cards we're already using in CMH Briar.

Runeblades benefit so much from non-attack actions that they often run Gorganian Tome, which literally does nothing but replaces itself in your hand and gives your action point back. In light of that, Korshem is a fairly unobtrusive inclusion. That said, we need to build our deck to take advantage of it; anything less than 4 activations, and we'd have been better off with Come to Fight, which blocks 3 and pitches.

Let's get to the list.

Our primary equipment choices are based around solving our most difficult task: keeping Korshem on the table while defending. To that end, Arcanite Skullcap and Vambrace of Determination both gain defense; Fyendal's Spring Tunic gains resources; and if all else fails, Spellbound Creepers lets us play a non-attack action on the defensive.

Our best defensive Korshem insurance, however, is our Embodiment of Earth token, which keeps the tree alive with any non-attack action used to defend. It's this constant source of sustenance that makes Briar a natural fit for Korshem.

But it's worth noting as well that we aren't solely charged with keeping Korshem going. If our opponent modifies their attacks at all, or gains life or resources, the tree is watered and we can play our defensive phase free of that burden.

When it comes to actually benefiting from Korshem, not all reveal effects are equal. Our best cards for Korshem are Belittle (which reveals twice) and Pick a Card, Any Card (which reveals four times). We also love to see Ravenous Rabble, Gore Belching, Tome of the Arknight, and Sonata Arcanix, as these cards reveal from the top of the deck and therefore ask nothing of our hand.

Channel Mount Heroic is our single greatest threat - a reputation well earned by the decks we draw inspiration from. But CMH backed by Korshem's life gain means we aren't simply playing recklessly. The goal is to regularly pad our life total so that we can aggro whenever opportunity arises.

But Force of Nature can do a lot too, and makes an argument for taking that +1 attack from Korshem once in a while. Force of Nature into Belittle is a killer opening playline that can search out Minnowism, draw a card, gain a life, and give a +1 to your next attack too.

I look for attacks that modify themselves wherever possible, and to that end we have a few fantastic cards to mention. Burgeoning is an Earth card that we're happy to hold for fusion before sticking it in arsenal for a tree-sustaining play next turn. Feisty Locals is a gem from Outsiders, offering 0-for-5 when it's blocked by an action. And Stir the Wildwood has self-modifiers from both fusion and arcane damage (I'll freely admit that this is a spicy one-of mostly because I love the Team Covenant alt art).

As I mentioned above, it takes quite a few activations before Korshem is gaining you more benefit than a basic Come to Fight. And there are better cards than that competing for the slot! That's not even considering that you may be facing an opponent who can also get value out of it - though that becomes much less likely in an environment without Oldhim where the most popular Lexi doesn't fuse. Is the tree worth all this trouble?

The fact of the matter is, there are stronger Briar decks out there - and they even play pretty similarly to this! If you've got an important Blitz event coming up, such as Skirmish season, you might want to go with a more conventional build.

But I haven't found a better Korshem deck. This is the first time I've shuffled up a Korshem and not felt like I was too janky to face a real opponent. In fact, this deck won me an Armory just last week. During one game, I gained 13 life from Korshem alone.

Whether that means Korshem is viable or Channel Mount Heroic is just strong enough to carry it, I couldn't tell you. But if you've been tempted to try the tree, this is as good a starting place as we've ever had.