Knights Valiant (Firja EDH)

Commander / EDH Adventure Aggro Knights Mill Spellslinger WB (Orzhov)

Jokulmorder1

Creature (29)

• 1x Ardenvale Tactician
• 1x Bartolome del Presidio
• 1x Benalish Marshal
• 1x Forsworn Paladin
• 1x Foulmire Knight
• 1x Gallant Cavalry
• 1x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 1x Hero of Bladehold
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Kinsbaile Cavalier
• 1x Knight-Errant of Eos
• 1x Knight Exemplar
• 1x Knight of Meadowgrain
• 1x Knight of Obligation
• 1x Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Knights of the Black Rose
• 1x Locthwain Lancer
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Order of Midnight
• 1x Pentarch Paladin
• 1x Silverwing Squadron
• 1x Skyhunter Strike Force
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Valiant Knight
• 1x Vona, Butcher of Magan
• 1x Westfold Rider

Instant (13)

• 1x Cling to Dust
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Despark
• 1x Get Lost
• 1x Ghastly Demise
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Nameless Inversion
• 1x Overwhelming Remorse
• 1x Reprieve
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End
• 1x Valorous Stance
• 1x Zealous Persecution

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Horn of the Mark
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Spear of Heliod
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Campaign of Vengeance
• 1x Etchings of the Chosen
• 1x History of Benalia
• 1x Knights' Charge
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Paladin Class
• 1x Rally the Ranks

Commander (1)

Land (37)

• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Minas Tirith
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 13x Plains
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Tocasia's Dig Site

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Conjurer's Ban
• 1x Funeral Rites
• 1x Gruesome Realization
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Nighthaze

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• Major Themes/Archetype: Knight tribal
• Subthemes: Self-mill, Spellslinger
• Planar Flavor: Eldraine, Dominaria, Bant
• Basic Land Art: Traveled, twilit, liminal

Background

Damn, it took a long time for the deck to shape up like this.

I'm a lifelong lover of fantasy and history, and knights in particular have always held a special place in my imagination. As a Magic player I’m also a big fan of tribal decks—nearly all my EDH decks have some tribal component—so it was only a matter of time before I took a swing at Knight tribal.

When I started brewing this deck (before the release of Throne of Eldraine), there were two major challenges with Knight tribal:

• Many knights were small draft chaff creatures

• At least a few compelling knights existed in all five colors, so even paring down to three colors felt like leaving something on the table

In the end I decided white and black were non-negotiable core colors, and tried green for several years for the various Selesnya knights. Abzan also offered +1/+1 counter synergies (perhaps to help address the small chaffy creature problem), tokens, and graveyard recursion.

Playtesting revealed problems with the +1/+1 counter hyperfocus, so I stepped that theme back in favor of cards that use +1/+1 counters as an end for having stronger creatures, rather than an as access point for Ivorytusk Fortress shenanigans.

Building a deck from the bottom-up (a big topic on r/jankedh) allowed me more freedom of choice for commander. I tried Anafenza, the Foremost, Teneb, the Harvester, Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Morophon, the Boundless, and Colfenor, the Last Yew, then heavily theorycrafted Selesnya +1/+1 counters or Galea, Kindler of Hope voltron. That last one doesn't make a ton of sense as a tribal deck, but I gave it a go anyway.

Finally (?) I rebuilt the deck as an Orzhov knight deck and I'm pretty happy with it. It's weird; in spite of the truckload of neat white/black knights, several popular interpretations of the color pair are misaligned with the tribe's goals. Orzhov offers reanimator, but knights are mostly small and cheap. Knights want to go on the offensive, Orzhov would rather sacrifice them. Knights say "attack," Orzhov says "stall."

But then, I found Firja.

Enter Firja

Don't sleep on this angel. She offers superb card selection and puts the low cost of many knights to our advantage. It's trivially easy to cast two spells in a turn and "draw" a card for your next turn. Knights with adventures are two spells in one card. Anthems pump up your team of 2/2s into a fearsome force. When you win with this deck, you win with a dozen 10/10s with double-strike keyword salad.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 week
Exclude colors	URG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.89
Tokens	Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Map, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Monarch Emblem, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B
Folders	EDH current decks