Blacklance Paragon

Creature — Human Knight

Flash

When Blacklance Paragon enters the battlefield, target Knight gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (21)

Balaam__ on Curse Rotted Great Yew

2 years ago

If Blacklance Paragon tells you to look over the edge of a pit for a treasure token, watch your back. That’s a dead ringer for Lapp’s helmet.

Sjorpha on Altar of Despair

2 years ago

Balaam__ He's right about the legend rule being a state based action, but you can cast the second Haakon holding priority, and then sac the first one with the spell on the stack. That way you are saccing before the new Haakon comes into play and avoid the legendary rule.

If Knight and Zombie are the only relevant creature types for Changeling Outcast (since frogtosser can't reduce the black mana to 0 anyways) I recommend replacing it with Foulmire Knight

I would also consider Blacklance Paragon as anothe creature to recur with Haakon, it's a fairly efficient altar sac with 3 power and can be used as removal + lifegain against attacking creatures.

I would also play at least 10 ways to discard Haakon when playing 4 copies. A couple collective brutality for example.

TheVectornaut on red and black

2 years ago

I second the idea of cutting down to just 60 cards in 2 colors. Then, I'd try to identify the main gameplan you like to follow when playing the deck. That will inform any cuts, additions, and other revisions you make down the line.

The first archetype that jumps out at me is definitely knights. They are often Mardu () these days, but just Rakdos () should work just fine for casual play. You already have Belle of the Brawl , Barrow Witches , Charity Extractor , Embereth Paladin . Locthwain Paladin , Garna, the Bloodflame , Ogre Errant , Raging Redcap , and Tentative Connection which can definitely fit such a style. Most of the lower cost creatures and spells wouldn't be that bad either. I'll list some cards from the modern card pool under $5 that I think could be strong additions to such a deck.
Ashenmoor Liege , Bloodcrazed Paladin , Cavalier of Flame , Cavalier of Night , Champion of Dusk , Elite Headhunter , Embereth Shieldbreaker , Foulmire Knight , Hanweir Lancer , Hero of Oxid Ridge , Knight of the Ebon Legion , Kulrath Knight , Midnight Reaper , Murderous Rider , Olivia, Mobilized for War , Stormfist Crusader , and Weaselback Redcap are all knight creatures with various effects, costs, and price points that I see as playable. For more general knight synergy, Blacklance Paragon , Fervent Champion , Joust , Sigiled Sword of Valeron , Tournament Grounds , and my favorite, Smitten Swordmaster are options too. Toss in some solid removal like Lightning Bolt , Terminate , or Bedevil and you have the recipe for a strong tribal aggro deck.

The other major archetype I see being possible here is some sort of angel/dragon/demon big stuff deck. The problem is that such a deck is likely to be much slower, making it tougher to keep up in 1v1 games. Plus, a lot of those cards are legendary, so they tend to come with a hefty real-world price tag. Still, I've seen Kaalia of the Vast do some very scary stuff in casual. Such a deck would support your larger creatures as well as spells like Cauldron Dance and Victimize .

zAzen7977 on Incarnation of Pain

3 years ago

What if Zombie decks had a way to deal with pesky life-gain abilities? Behold!

My idea was to create a flash Zombie that prevents opponents from gaining life and harnesses that life into a Zombie token. I made it an enchantment creature because it seems appropriate, and to offset its power by making it easier for the opponent to kill. If the opponent chooses not to gain life, at least it’s a flash blocker with deathtouch. Plus I made it a spirit to make it potentially playable in Esper spirit decks.

A similar card is Opposition Agent , which is way more powerful than the Incarnation. Another similar card is Blacklance Paragon . So the Incarnation is somewhere in between these two cards in power level.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome!

ClockworkSwordfish on You CAN play Haakon!

3 years ago

Haakon players rejoice! The newcomer Netherborn Altar now doubles the number of cards that let you actually get Haakon into the game.

You might also appreciate Gravebreaker Lamia as a tutor that makes all your dead knights cheaper to replay, Cavalier of Night as a kill spell stapled to a knight, Blacklance Paragon as a combat trick you can play from your graveyard at instant speed, Liliana's Standard Bearer as repeatable card draw and Syr Konrad, the Grim as a big boy who will wear your opponent down whenever you play a knight from your graveyard, sacrifice a creature or even discard a creature... basically everything the deck wants to be doing already. Good luck with this challenging commander!

iDescendance on Orzhov Knights (with lifelink and deathtouch)

3 years ago

I happen to have an Orzhov Knights deck if you'd like to check out that list (you can find it here at Orzhov Roundtable). There's some things I like about yours, but I think you might be able to pull some things from mine as well.

Cuts

I would recommend cutting Silverwing Squadron and likely Foulmire Knight in exchange for more copies of Blacklance Paragon and Smitten Swordmaster. I would cut down to 2-3 copies Icon of Ancestry and remove Disenchant completely for some copies of Fight as One, and maybe a another copy of Gideon Blackblade and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord. If you have the money, I would recommend some Tournament Grounds for this deck (since you can grab mana for Knights spells which is nice).

Reasoning/Additions

My reasoning for some of these cuts are for the sake of being too slow for what Knights are. Knights play Aggro, so you're looking to bang out as many 1-3 drops as you can to deal tons of damage fast. Anything higher better have a decent reason to be there, otherwise it's likely going to be too slow for the deck to get any value out of it (e.g. Silverwing Squadron). Removing Disenchant allows you to free up space Fight As One, which is better for Knights since we don't really care about removal spells. We're looking to burn our opponent as fast as possible, and keeping our pieces intact is going to be crucial. Gideon and Sorin are both great for Knights, since they provide some decent utility (Gideon can give a creature an effect of our choice, and Sorin gives us Lifelink and can help grab creatures back if we need).

-=+=-

Other Useful Knights Cards

• Venerable Knight (Solid 1-drop, buffs your Knights if it dies)
• Knights' Charge (you drain your opponent for 1 every time you play a Knight, and you can return all non-token Knights to the field for 8 mana. Pretty sick!)
• Famished Paladin (This one isn't Standard legal, but is a good card nonetheless. Works well if you plan on playing Sorin)
• Basri's Lieutenant (can provide a little more value out of smaller Knights by making them a token after they die. When paired with Icon of Ancestry those tokens go infinite, so that's something to consider)
• The Ozolith (Interesting card for this list, your mileage may vary. It grabs counters off creatures that die and you can redistribute them back onto your creatures as you see fit during combat)

Scallywallwest on

3 years ago

You might want to fix the land base. Not that having 24 swamps is bad, but you could definitely add some more utility lands. You may want to consider Castle Locthwain . As you said, you won't be dropping life that often, so the drawback on this may not be as bad.

If you're really going for the Knight Tribal theme, you may want to add in some tribal cards to boost them or gain effects from them. For some of these, you'll have to splash white, but again, that's up to you: The Circle of Loyalty , Wintermoor Commander , Blacklance Paragon , or Knights' Charge .

Good luck with your deck!

Phostration on Knights work better as a TEAM

3 years ago

I used to have a splash of red and Inspiring Veteran as well, but I decided that I wanted it to be dual color to make the mana more smooth. I definitely like the idea of Blacklance Paragon