I think I like Vines of Vastwood better than Gods Willing. You could use it more variable than Willing and it can pump if you want a kill out of nowhere. I think the "best" use outside of saving your own creatures is blanking the Twin-combo for 1 turn. If your focus is more on protection + pushing damage past blockers maybe Apostle's Blessing is the better choice, so you can get through Affinity aswell.

Which get's me to my next point. Why is your sideboard a bunch of mediocre do-nothings when your deck runs the best hate color? Where are the Leyline of Sanctitys and Stony Silences, no Kataki, War's Wage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben?

Moreover: I think a 1-of Wilt-Leaf Liege could benefit the deck greatly.

I'm at work at the moment. I will get back to this later.

Ok, I'm reading through the comments and I see the appeal to protection spells over counters. And overall I feel that you have a really good point, but if you want to protect knite and coralhelm, you might like Faith's Shield better. : )

ChiefBell Why dont you run the 4th Retreat to Coralhelm?

pacundo - Thanks for the suggestion. I think it's worth a slot. I will see if I can get it in.

Jaden_LionHeart - The knight is soft to removal but the shell we're using here is very aggressive. By including a lot of blue it would significant slow the deck down, and it would stretch my manabase because Knight of the Reliquary relies on forests and plains. I think with this deck you kind of just have to accept that your stuff is going to die, but that's ok because you're running so many creatures you have inevitability on your side.

Worth noting that Retreat to Coralhelm is repeatable evasion. Every land I play allows me to tap down a blocker. Therefore when I combo off I can tap all their blockers at the same time.

Scorprix - I saw one landfall card that did what Retreat to Coralhelm did but it required mana input and therefore couldn't have been infinite? I didn't see any other cards that would allow this to go infinite apart from the new Retreat to Coralhelm but please correct me if I'm wrong!

Same comment about counterspells - would slow the deck down too much, would stretch the manabase, and would go against the aggro gameplan. I need something to force through attacks through blockers, not necessarily counter generic stuff.

Chameleon Colossus is in testing for Jund and Grixis control. Dodging Abrupt Decay, Lightning Bolt, Dismember, Maelstrom Pulse, Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Siege Rhino and more isn't negligible. I'm not sure its good enough but it's not completely bad. Also the fact that I can buff it to an 8/8 means that it can block and attack into huge Tarmogoyfs and always has to be blocked or can potentially end the game in one strike.

smackjack - I feel that Gods Willing is more relevant when I'm playing the aggro plan, whereas counterspells are more relevant if I want to land one specific threat. Given that most of the time I just want to evade blockers when I swing for 7 or something I think protection is more useful.

Figag - My perspective is that I don't want the deck to be full of uncastables if I don't find my Retreat to Coralhelm. Therefore its an aggro deck first and a combo deck second. Hence I'm not running 4 titans because they're dead unless I get coralhelm out.

Geist of Saint Traft is out because 2 toughness is 2 toughness. Every single deck in the meta is running creatures that cost less mana than geist that can successfully block geist.

I'm not sure I want 4 coralhelm. There are decks that it's too slow against like Burn and Affinity and these are major players. I also don't /really/ want multiples unless Im playing against a deck that is slow like BG/x. Against faster decks I'd much rather draw into creatures and just have solid blockers or end the game. There are too many decks in the meta against which a top decked coralhelm will kill you, I think.

My sideboard isn't done. It is likely more Tron hate and Bojuka Bog will go in.

Putrefy - Vines of Vastwood doesn't solve the chump blocking problem though. Protection gives me evasion from blockers and removal. Vines only gives protection from removal. Though it's use against twin is juicy - I love that. I am seriously considering what I should give those 2 slots to - Gods Willing, Faith's Shield, or Vines of Vastwood. I don't know.

The sideboard is janky shit and will be worked on.

Unfortunately I don't think I can run 4 drops because I'm kind of low on Collected Company targets. I recently went from 23 to 24 and I feel a lot more comfortable. I actually had Restoration Angel in before. Wilt-Leaf Liege is very good though. hmm.... More to consider!

smackjack - Aggro deck first, combo deck second. Even with 4 the combo is too inconsistent unless I load up on Serum Visions and Remand etc. Therefore it's safer to not go all-in with the combo. Also there are decks where a top-decked Retreat to Coralhelm is death - Burn, Affinity, Tron. It's not a card you want to see a lot unless you have knight down. It's super good against a lot of decks but not great against others.

On the combo already existing, Tideforce Elemental was a thing that could theoretically go infinite (having a VERY stretched land-base or something like Prismatic Omen), but definitely not as good.

This might sound a bit stupid ;P. I know Collected Company is packed with value, but how about Commune with the Gods? It cost less but has less value. The thing it has over CoCo is that it finds Retreat to Coralhelm as well, and it puts lands into your graveyard making Knight of the Reliquary bigger. But Commune with the Gods is no replacement for CoCo here? Right?

FAMOUSWATERMELON - Yeah I saw that but because it requires tapping and mana it's super sketchy.

smackjack - If I was playing all-in combo and I wanted to find the enchantment as quickly as possible I would auto include Commune with the Gods but right now I'm more interested with just chucking creatures out quickly.

I'm considering putting up another version of the deck that's more all-in. Lots of counterspells, Serum Visions, Commune with the Gods etc. Commune with the Gods is a great card but I feel it's best if you're desperate to just go off and doens't give the same overall value that CoCo does.

What makes CoCo so huge is the combination of "instant" and "to the battlefield". I think if Commune did the same with "instant" and "to the battlefield" (with CMC-restrictions ofc) it would be very considerable.

I'm so looking forward to the first games with that deck, when you disguise your combo kill by attacking with a say 5/5 knight, retreat out and your opponent thinks he's safe and then you go: "no blocks? ok, crack my fetch and 20 you".

Putrefy - What's your opinion regarding the best shell for this deck? Aggro with combo as a side plan? A balanced midrange plan? Or perhaps a hard control shell?

Is Woodland Bellower something to consider (for a midrange version)?

So in testing, have you ever come across the situation where you didn't have enough lands to combo off for lethal? Right now you have 11 plains/forests in the deck, which would only make KotR a 13/13. Assuming you cracked 3 fetches before comboing off on turn 3, you are a 16/16 on turn 3 via lands, and a 17/17 if you have the Noble's exalted trigger. It seems like you're not going to land a turn 3 kill unless your opponent bolts themselves with their own manabase. I know that Turn 3 is a stretch for getting a win, but I'm just not following on how you're getting KotR to a 20/20 on the combo turn. If I'm missing some obvious interaction, please let me know!

The combo was Tideforce Elemental+Knight of the Reliquary+Lotus Cobra. It was a lot worse and certainly more crappy, but it still existed.

smackjack: Interesting.......

GeminiSpartanX: No I haven't. The trick is to use the Knight to fetch fetchlands first. Then use the fetchlands ability to sac themselves and find plains and forests. Then use the knight ability again to sace those plains and forests for more fetchlands.

Find non plains and non forests first -> Crack those fetches to find plains and forests -> Use knights ability to sac those and find more non plains and non forests.

Scorprix - Thank you.

@GeminiSpartanX

You can sac a Forest/Plains and grab a fetch with Knight ability. Then you put the retreat-trigger on the stack and crack the Fetch to grab another Plains/Forest. So all in all you have 11 Forest/Plains + 9 Fetchlands = 20 lands.

@ChiefBell

I think Bant-CoCo is already a deck. I would use that as orientation and try to build the combo to fit that deck. Personally I would split the Smiter with Geists. I don't think you want a control approach with that deck. I think aggro + ramp with some midrangey elements (Restoration Angel) should work best.

I don't think you want to go as big as Woodland Bellower. Your Plan A should be aggro-beatdown and your Plan B should be Knightfall-combo-kill.

Putrefy - You dont even have to leave the retreat trigger on the stack. You can use that one (the one from the fetchland coming in) to tap down a blocker. Then use the other one from the land that comes in off the sac'd fetchland to untap your knight.

Yeah I am thinking that Bant CoCo is the way to go. It skirts the boundary between aggro and midrange. I will play a version with 4 Geist of Saint Traft just to test and see what happens. That will determine whether I go 3/1 or 2/2 split.

6-drops are included because any mana dork + Retreat to Coralhelm + fetchland is a guaranteed 4 mana. Tap dork, play fetch and untap dork, tap dork, crack fetch and untap dork, tap dork. Therefore 6 drops are playable T3. A single 6-drop like Sun Titan or Woodland Bellower I think is fine. It works super well with Retreat to Coralhelm and a 6/6 with exalted triggers swinging on T4 is frightening.

Sun titan reanimates lands, retreat to coralhelm, and knight of the reliquary which gives me super resilience. Woodland bellower tutors for the last part of the combo required to insta-win (given that I will have retreat out to play it early). In the late game I guess it can just grab a Smiter or a Geist.

ChiefBell not geist :(. Only green creatures sadly

If you have Eternal Witness in the deck i guess Woodland Bellower is better than sun titan? Fetches Knight from library, or if Knight or Coralhelm is in your grave you fetch Eternal Witness. This even returns Path to Exile if you really need it, Sun Titan doesn't. You also get an extra body. Does Titans vigilance and attack trigger make it better than this?

The thing about 6-drops is: what if your opponent clears your ramp/retreat? But you only run them as 1-of so I think it should be fine.

I know you could use the triggers you don't need to tap down blockers, but it still doesn't hurt to leave them on the stack and wait for your opponent to react in some way. Leaving yourself more options is not the worst you could do :)

I must admit I'm intrigued now. I will play some Knightfall too I guess. Looks like a very cool deck :)

Woodland Bellower also makes more sense to cast turn 3 when your choices for Sun Titan is a fetch (or nothing at all)

@smackjack why not both? Imagine the value chain: Bellower grabbing a Witness, returning a CoCo, get Witness into grave, return with Titan. ALL THE VALUE OMG, head explodes.

Can't run CoCo with too many 6-drops in the deck though. I'm thinking you either go all in on the combo by adding the 4th Retreat and more creatures by replacing CoCo, or focus more on the agro by using just 1 MAYBE 2 4+ cmc creatures and CoCo.

If you go for the aggro plan i think 4 Color Company might be stronger, because Bolt, Nacatl and Wolt Run outweigh the mana difficulties in a deck that runs tons of fetches anyway.

I made a first draft on what i think might be a good direction to take the Deck in: 4C Knightfall