This Abzan Knights deck sacrifices some tribal synergy in order to gain versatility. For example, it can curve Pelt Collector into either Knight of Malice or Knight of Grace into either Resplendent Angel or a pumped-up Knight of Autumn. Also, when any of the two-mana knights are in play, their counterparts enters the battlefield with 3 power, thus enabling the Pelt Collector curve. This results in 8 to 9 power on your side of the board by turn 3 A mid-game synergy is to curve Resplendent Angel into Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants into Lyra Dawnbringer. With some luck, this will net you an angel token by turn 5. Remember that Ajani can reanimate and/or pump-up the Pelt Collector, which in turn can be pumped-up with the next token from an online History of Benalia. This gives you more versatility with your early drops during the mid-game. As you can see, this deck relies on an aggresive early game while having the option to easily extend into the mid-game with some powerful activated abilities from Resplendent Angel. That is why we are running the full set of angels and at least 3 Ajanis. This, of course, requieres that we drop our lands every turn consistently. That is why we are packing 3 Flower / Flourish. The trick is to cash them in at the right time. If you are lacking land drops, but have an aggressive early game, you may want to get a shock from a dual land and search for a basic land on turn 1. On the other hand, if you are expecting to play defensively and extend into Lyra and Angel tokens, you definitely want to mount a lasting defence with chump-blockers and then crack the Flower / Flourish after, say, turn 3.
Again, this deck may not have a lot of removal, but it does have more flexibility than straightforward tribal decks. You can select whichever removal works best for you in the sideboard after game 1. Citywide Bust is amazing against Stompy strategies. Settle the Wreckage comes in against the mirror and other aggresive decks like Boros and Selesnya. Ritual of Soot is another option against these decks, but I'm considering also Golden Demise over it. Duress is still your best bet when facing control decks, and you do need to use them very carefully since control is probably the worst matchup for this deck, either in the form of Jeskai or Golgari. Save them for the turn after you manage to mount a decent board state and before you attack, or just before dropping a bomb like Lyra Dawnbringer to ensure that she is safe from followup removal and countermagic. Vivien Reid is another option against midrange and control decks since she can destroy flying finishers OR Naturalize any engine or combo piece.
Finally, Ixalan's Binding is there to remove key stuff from your opponent's strategy like planeswalkers and enchantments that enable their game plan. If your opponent relies too much on playing several copies of a single card, bind them and see them struggle to remove it in order to play their other copies of the spells. This is great against drakes, chupacabras, sagas, Conclave Tribunal and so on.
My last update was to replace Status / Statue for Shalai, Voice of Plenty in the mainboard and Shield Mare for Ritual of Soot in the side, since I already playtested against mono red and Boros and found that Knight of Autumn was sufficient. I've also found that control matchups are still terrible, especially Golgari Midrange, but not so much Jeskai or Blue-White, which depend heaviliy on not missing their land drops.
Please, feel free to comment and make suggestions. I'm still playtesting and figuring out the right number of removal and lands.
