Help me upgrade my Mono-White Knights Please

Deck Help forum

Posted on Dec. 11, 2017, 9:43 p.m. by Dagger311

Hey everyone, first post here, so I apologize if this is the wrong place. I built this deck out of cards I had in my collection and a few singles.

It works really well at the kitchen table, especially if I manage to get a turn 3 Mirran Crusader into turn 4 Armored Ascension across the board. I've been thinking of upgrading it to make it a lot more aggressive, and was looking for suggestions that won't break the bank. Here's what I'm thinking of now:

-2 Leonin Sun Standard, +2 Honor of the Pure: I usually have better things to spend my mana on than the Leonin Sun Standard, and a lot of turns go by where it's not used. Honor of the Pure is passive and a nice buff.

-2 Armored Ascension, -2 Journey To Nowhere, +4 Path to Exile: Armored Ascension is slow and useless if the creature it's attached to is destroyed, and Journey To Nowhere can be removed. The only downside to Path To Exile is giving my opponent a land, but hopefully the game will be over before that's an issue.

-2 Armored Ascension, +2 Oblivion Ring: Again, Armored Ascension is slow and only buffs one creature, which makes it vulnerable to removal. Oblivion Ring is amazing for utility, since it can remove creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts.

-4 White Knight, +4 Knight of Meadowgrain: Protection from black comes in handy occasionally, but I feel like having the lifelink would let me play more aggressively without being very risky.

-2 Pentarch Paladin, -2 Plains, +4 Student of Warfare: Pentarch Paladin is very slow, can only remove one color, and has to tap himself to do it. I have a feeling that trimming the curve will let me get away with running two fewer lands than I normally do, and Student of Warfare is a really great card at any stage in the game.

I'm also looking into running Knight of the White Orchid. Not only is he decent by himself as a 2/2 First Strike for 2 mana, but he has the chance to give me an extra land, and I'm seeing him combo really well with Path To Exile, or even just playing him on curve in a match where I go second. Not really sure what I would get rid of for him though. Maybe Knight of the Holy Nimbus?

Aether Vial would be absolutely amazing, but too rich for my blood.

Can anyone give me some advice? Would these changes be good? Any other reccomendations? I also really need to work on a sideboard for it, I just haven't done it because I mostly play casual and no one else I play against runs one.

Oloro_Magic says... #2

First I would recommend putting this into a list and linking that; makes it much easier on the eye and give advice on.

I would go down to 20 lands and also make room for Metallic Mimic giving you another lord to play with in the deck which a deck like this likely needs.

The changes you are thinking of are pretty solid and I must say that Knight of the White Orchid is an all-star by itself and is a must include as knights shouldn't be playing that many land.

As for sideboard help if no one is playing a sideboard then it really isn't necessary if you don't plan on taking the deck to tournaments. If you want to have a sideboard figured out however I am more than happy to hep out but first I would need to know what type of decks you are facing regularly.

December 11, 2017 10:19 p.m.

Dagger311 says... #6

Oh, I thought the Deck Builder was only to post finished decks. I'll put it in and link it in the OP.

Yeah, the only reason I was running 24 is because Armored Ascension and Kinsbaile Cavalier were both key parts of the deck and I wanted to make sure I had enough lands to have a good chance at playing them on curve.

So maybe adding in 4 Knight of The White Orchids and 4 Metallic Mimics, and getting rid of 2 more Plains (Bringing the total down to 20), 3 Knights of the Holy Nimbus, and 3 of something else (Leonin Skyhunter? He's pretty weak tbh).

As for the sideboard, I guess not, since this isn't really going to be a tournament deck. All of my local tournaments play standard. I just really like knights. I'm working on a dinosaur deck for FNM though.

A lot of the decks the people I play with have a lot of lifegain though, so that may be something good to counter.

December 11, 2017 10:45 p.m.

multimedia says... #9

Hey, consider building deck like this?

My suggestion is Brave the Elements because it can help to push through damage as well as protect Knights from removal if you don't have a Knight Exemplar or two in play. It also has potential as a huge alpha strike with lots of unblockable Knights.

Another Knight to consider is Hero of Bladehold it's expensive price, but could be very good as a top-of-curve must kill finisher.


December 13, 2017 7:56 a.m. Edited.

Dagger311 says... #10

That looks good @Multimedia, but I kind of want to keep Kinsbaile Cavalier. I was even thinking of adding a 4th copy. Playing him on curve is brutal if I've got even just a couple of decent knights up. Something like this:

Plains + Student of Warfare

Plains + Knight of Meadowgrain

Plains + Knight Exemplar

Plains + Kinsbaile Cavalier.

That would let me swing on turn 4 for potentially 14 damage, and heal for 4.

I was also considering running Hero of Bladehold over Metallic Mimic. It's kind of expensive and does nothing for me if I draw it late game, Whereas Hero of Bladehold would be a nice card to draw at basically any stage. That would put me with 7 4cc cards though (8 if I add another Kinsbaile Cavalier). Is that too many?

Brave The Elements would be an awesome addition though. Playing it in response to a removal spell, or using it offensively.

December 13, 2017 10:42 a.m.

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