Lands (20)
Knights (24)
Removal (6)
Support (10)
Sideboard
Other (15)
Introduction:
This is my (semi-) competitive modern knight deck, which I've been building on and playtesting for years. It features a splash of green, which I'll elaborate on later. The deck fares surprisingly well and as a rather unusual tribe, it can catch people off guard.
Knights are a somewhat unique tribe. They are one of the strongest tribes in magic when it comes to the combat phase. Their innate first strike/double strike ability often makes it pretty depressing to block them, especially combined with Rancor, aka the "no getting rid of me" aura.
The overall strength of knights lies in the classic synergy of a tribal deck. Compared to similar decks, it is less of a 'toolbox' but more thematically streamlined. Thus, it comes with a bit more interaction and removal in the mainboard than i.e. Slivers and Merfolk.
The first strike and double strike aspect makes our knights almost unparalleled in combat, and though 'dies to removal' is true of any creature-heavy deck, we do have some answers to this (more on this later). In my experience, your combat superiority means that the sideboard can be devoted to answering more non-interactive decks, as you will be favored in most straight matchups vs tribal decks and creature-dependant decks like Infect & Zoo.
The Knights:
1-drops:
- Student of Warfare is a great 1-drop, without whom knights would be a lot weaker of a tribe. She gives you something to do with your mana from turn 1, and she acts as a good mana-sink later on. Besides her, there aren't really any one-drop knights to even consider.
2-drops:
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Knight of the White Orchid has always been a gem, especially as the deck both runs relatively few lands. Since we also want to thin them out as quickly as possible, his enter-effect is a pleasant bonus on early turns, and he is still decent value at 2 CMC and with first strike. He combos nicely with Path to Exile early on as mentioned. He has been getting lots of love in standard mono-white humans lately in standard, and he's definitely included here as well. Though good, I have been considering dropping down to two, and he is a prime sideboard candidate often.
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Knight of Meadowgrain is a 2/2 with first strike AND lifelink. That's a pretty sweet deal for 2 CMC if you ask me. The lifelink makes her an ideal candidate for Soulbounding with Silverblade Paladin. KoM's lifelink can also be really important against matchups like Burn, Suicide Shadow, Scapeshift and Goblins, and is one of your best ways of surviving those aggro matchups alongside the Fiendslayer Paladin.
3-drops:
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Kinsbaile Cavalier makes other knights insanely scary. As mentioned below, double strike has an absurd synergy with Rancor, as it effectively adds 4 non-chompable damage for 1 mana (which can be recycled in case of removal). That is all the reason needed for this guy to make the cut, even though he's harder to use with vial.
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Knight Exemplar is one of the keys to the deck. Getting two of these on the battlefield is somewhat of a 'hard lock', and spells out gg most of the time. Great synergy with the sideboard Wrath of God.
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Knight of the Reliquary is pretty amazing. Synergizes well with fetches and Horizon Canopy, beyond the synergy with the other knights. She's also one of the main reasons for running two Flagstones of Trokair and four fetches. Her ability to thin out the deck also makes sure you don't flood out as often. She's just a beast - so much so, that even filthy non-Knight decks like Naya Zoo, Knightfall and Maverick has picked her up.
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Knight of Autumn is the newest addition, taking the place of Dromoka's Command. This means the deck is a little slower now, but a LOT more flexible. Can't wait to try out this card. Is this card what is going to finally push us into the tier 2-3 range?
Support and combat tricks:
Vial is a key component for a lot of tribal decks. With knights, Vial gives you a lot of combat tricks and options to vial in. Need a first strike blocker to take out their charging Thragtusk? Does a knight need indestructible in response to a Lightning Bolt? Want an extra land on your opponent's turn with Knight of the White Orchid's ability? Vial is your friend every time! There's nothing more sweet than vialing in a Silverblade Paladin, and soulbonding him with your unblocked knight for lethal damage.
Vial protects your Knights from sorcery speed removal, ensures you can play through a Blood Moon, and so much more. It basically defines the deck in a big way.
Rancor is great with first strike and absurdly good with double strike, and it is the main reason to splash green in a knight deck. Picking it up from the graveyard and enchanting the next guy in line is sweet, and mitigates the 2-for-1 problem that enchantments have always had.
One O-ring can sometimes provide you with a solution to otherwise hard to deal with stuff, like an Ensnaring Bridge, a fast Blood Moon or a Liliana of the Veil.
New addition, which can help us go over the top. Great tribal synergy (obvoiusly).
PtE is a must for most wanna-be competitive white decks. Removes anything from all-in threats like Death's Shadow to Through the Breached Worldspine Wurms, Tron'ed Wurmcoil Engines and Kiki/Twin Pestermites.
Occasionally it's also a useful tool to get a land for yourself, when your knight gets Dismembered, Abrupt Decay'ed or Lightning Bolt'ed. Last but not least, Path has a nice synergy with Knight of the White Orchid, as your opponent will often be ahead on lands after you path their baddies.
Land Base:
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4x Windswept Heaths for fetching the needed colors and for thinning the deck. Also synergizes well with Knight of the Reliquary.
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3x Temple Garden ensures you are never color screwed. Can be fetched with your [Knight of the White Orchid] as well!
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2x Horizon Canopy - essentially a dual land with a minor downside. Cycles itself late game which can be a huge advantage. Great card which unfortunately comes with a steep price tag.
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1x Gavony Township can be fetched with the KoTR, and can help push our knights over the top.
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3x Flagstones of Trokair - it comes into play untapped and provides you with protection from land destruction like Fulminator Mages, Ghost Quarters and Molten Rain. On top of that, it also synergizes very well with KoTR. So there's basically no reason not to play a couple. I'd add the last one if Blood Moon wasn't and Magus of the Moon weren't Modern legal.
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1x Cavern of Souls: Well, there isn't a tribal deck that doesn't want to run at least 1 or 2 Caverns. Here's to hoping for a reprint in MM3 to drive the price down a little.
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1x Sejiri Steppe is a neat little combat trick that can be boarded in through your Knight of the Reliquary in response to a targeted spell. As tapped lands slows down your game, one is the limit here.
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4 Plains and a single Forest is a must. The forest is a bit annoying. A lot of stuff costs double white, and it can't level our Student of Warfare. Unfortunately there's no way around it against Blood Moon decks.
Sideboard:
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Although the sidebaord is mostly standard stuff, there are a couple of 'fresh cards'. Fiendslayer Paladin is a pretty sweet bonus sideboard card for running knights, especially if you face a lot of Jund or Burn in your local gaming environment. A great card in itself, which also synergizes with the tribal theme.
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The rest of the sideboard is just the usual hate against artifacts/graveyard combos/etc. The Qasali Pridemages, Ghost Quarters and Stony Silence are a must against Tron, Eldrazi, Scapeshift and similar decks which we have a hard time against. Rest in Peace and Bojuka Bog (can be fetched with KoTR - extra bonus) comes in versus Dredge, Grixis Delve, U/R Ascension, Living End and other graveyard strategies.
Price Considerations:
Budget:
I feel this is a decent budget for modern standards, although the format isn't cheap.
Note: The TCG price listed doesn't reflect the actual cost of the deck - that's my luxury-pimped-to-the-max version. The actual deck can be had for about $675.
If you want a more budget-friendly version, I've had some experiments with replacing the Aether Vials with Descendants' Path. It's decent, but honestly not near the same power level, as it takes out both speed and flexibility. Replacing the Knight of the Reliquary with some Fiendslayer Paladins or Leonin Skyhunter also makes the fetches less urgent, but there's no way around that you are cutting costs for a slightly less high-powered deck here as well.
You can cut the two Horizon Canopy for 2x Razorverge Thicket - or even 2x Sunpetal Grove for a really budget-friendly option. Same goes for Temple Garden --> Sunpetal Grove .
The fetches are a must for the KotR, and because we want to avoid drawing too many lands. Luckily Windswept Heath isn't too expensive at the moment after its reprint in Khans. If you want to cut some lands for budget reasons, I'd rather replace the Flagstones of Trokair with two regular Plains than touch the fetches.
Upgrade
I actually don't think there are that many price upgrades one could make (in modern), although one could argue that a couple of Cavern of Souls could come in for a Plains and a Temple Garden.
Weighed and found too light for the deck:
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Collected Company: Obviously CoCo is a great card which is already a staple in Elves, Bant Eldrazi, Abzan etc., and it has been suggested by quite a few people. IMO, the deck runs 4-6 too few creatures that benefits from CoCo, as I don't consider the student a good CoCo-target. If it was to come in, it would be at the expense of Brave the Elements and Dromoka's Command, and this would take out a lot of the answers the deck has to stuff like Bogles, Jund and Burn. Replacing the vials with company seems bad as well.
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Citadel Castellan: Doesn't really hold up to the other three-drops. I can't think of many sitautions where I'd be happier to see a Castellan than an Exemplar, K.o.t. Reliquary or even the Silverblade (mainly because of his potency with Vial).
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Mirror Entity: When I've tested it, it feels like a 'win more' card, and I don't see what it would replace to make the deck better.
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Mirran Crusader: MC is a really sweet knight, and would be in the deck were it not for the antagony with the green effects (Rancor & Drom-Com). He might be worth considering as a sideboard option if your local meta has a lot of Mono-Green Stompy, Esper Control, Jund etc.
Summary
So that's the deck. Give it an upvote if you think it's cool.
Also, feel free to leave some feedback - praise, critique and suggestions are always welcome. If you've been inspired towards building your own knight deck, feel free to use my build as a template. Like I said, the deck can catch people off guard, has a lot of versatility and is a ton of fun. For people who always dreamed of being a knight in shining armor, it even has a lot of the flavor that made most of us fall in love with magic in the first place. What's not to like!?
If you are still in doubt as to whether knights are the way go, I don't know what to say! Go watch this again, I guess :)
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| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 7 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 10 Rares 10 - 5 Uncommons 1 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.08 |
| Tokens | Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance |
| Folders | Favorite, Modern, kEW;, Interesting Modern, Inspirational Ideas Modern, Modern |
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