Knight Tribal, of Two Varieties

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PeaceRibbon
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Post by PeaceRibbon » 2 years ago

Thanks to everyone who took an interest in helping this deck project to get its creative wheels turning in the What Deck Should I Play thread. This is a continuation of that discussion.

I definitely went deep into detail with the thought process behind each card in hopes that if I made any serious mistakes you can help point the holes in my theory crafting's logic, especially since I'm not cognizant of a huge number of cards.

So then, the goal for this deck is to build a nice, inexpensive Knights deck I can use to dip my toes into pioneer. I'll be posting the two main builds I've looked at, and we can figure out which would be the best for that purpose. Without further ado…

Build I: Wintermoor Knights
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This was a build I was inspired to make of my own volition when I noticed Wintermoor Commander and thought "Hey, that's kind of a neat card." The deck's basic goal is to build up a board of knights and eventually capitalize on big explosive swings, but being able to swing safely enough that I can get early damage against slower decks.

The latter is accomplished mainly through the use of indestructible effects. Wintermoor Commander is the obvious inspiration since his whole thing is keeping other knights safe. Dauntless Bodyguard is on tribe and has a strong ability even if it requires sacking him. Finally Gideon Blackblade offers a potent 4/4 attacker in addition to providing an array of keywords that includes indestructible.

Of course for this to work I need knights. Venerable Knight is a one drop to attack or defend aggressively with and get a free counter on another knight. Smitten Swordmaster // Curry Favor is useful at all stages of the game, whether he's helping for the deck to curve nicely or to hit face with Curry Favor. History of Benalia is the big blowout card that ties most of this build's strategy together. Finally The Circle of Loyalty seems easy to reduce its cost and provides a way to spend extra mana in longer games.

I noticed the deck has decent lifegain when certain cards hit the field so I figured I would use that too. Painful Lesson is what I want specifically for card advantage. Dire Tactics is a good removal card which can also skip the life penalty basically as long as a nontoken creature is surviving since just about all of the creature cards can/will be humans.

Finally, it would seem to be a shame if Gideon was the only legendary proc for The Circle of Loyalty, so I wanted to try adding a few more legends. The one I'm fairly certain about is Aryel, Knight of Windgrace since she can both replenish the board and do some removal with all the vigilant knight tokens the deck generates. I'm a bit torn between Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw and Lena, Selfless Champion. Syr Alin is definitely a win more card, but he comes out a turn earlier and has great stats and first strike. Lena is a turn slower, but helps with late game stability and offers full board indestructibility on demand since the only creature with power higher than hers is Gideon anyways.
Sample List

Dauntless Bodyguard x4

Venerable Knight x4

Dire Tactics x4

Smitten Swordmaster x4

Wintermoor Commander x4

Gideon Blackblade x3

History of Benalia x4

Painful Lesson x3

Aryel, Knight of Windgrace x2

Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw x2

The Circle of Loyalty x2

Plus lands

Approximate Total Cost:

Build II: Inspired Knights
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Recommended by The Fluff, this deck seeks to get anthem effects more consistently to bring the pain quickly. The card the deck is based on is Inspiring Veteran.

Gideon Blackblade, Venerable Knight, History of Benalia, and The Circle of Loyalty all seem like they'd be good in this deck for mostly the same reasons as the last.

Of all the benefits that comes with running mountains, none stick out to me quite as much as haste creatures, so I'm including both of them. Fervent Champion is a crazy good one drop in this tribe so he's a must. Skyknight Legionnaire is also good for sneaking in fast damage.

Additionally I'd like to lean into Fervent Champion's equipment bonus a little bit, so I think it might be cool to add another artifact. The best synergy I could find was Forebear's Blade, which is attached to Fervent for free and then ping pongs around your creatures if the opponents start removing stuff. To that end I also theorize Nahiri, Storm of Stone would be helpful if I need to move it to a non-Fervent creature in a pinch, plus she gives a little bit of Circle of Loyalty synergy and the first strike passive is just plain good.

Finally for spells, I'm taking the recommendation on Boros Charm because of how versatile it is. I'm also considering using Fire Prophecy to pull double duty as removal and a hand filter.
Sample List

Fervent Champion x4

Venerable Knight x4

Boros Charm x2

Fire Prophecy x3

Inspiring Veteran x4

Forebear's Blade x4

Gideon Blackblade x3

History of Benalia x4

Skyknight Legionnaire x4

Nahiri, Storm of Stone x2

The Circle of Loyalty x2

Plus Lands
Approximate Total Cost:

In Pax Christi,
PeaceRibbon

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

nice builds, and I like Dire Tactics.. have not thought of that card.

if your manabase can handle the double black, Sign in Blood is also pioneer legal, and it is a 2 cmc Painful Lesson.

and lastly, for your wb build. You could add a single General Kudro of Drannith, not a knight, but pumps up almost everyone in the deck, because knights are humans. And he's another way to get rid of large creatures.
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want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Post by PeaceRibbon » 2 years ago

It is kind of a shame that Kudro can't increase the strength of the knight tokens since their only type is knights (I checked on Arena, they don't get his buff despite CLEARLY being humans) and the deck generates a lot of them in certain scenarios. Still, I guess that's why he's a one-of recommendation so I'll probably add him. Sign in Blood also shouldn't be a problem since more often than not I probably want to to play it later in the game when I'm more likely to have multiple black mana lands anyways. I might still buy Painful Lesson if in reality it winds up being too hard after all, just in case.

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

you actually made me put dire tactics on scg cart. It's a strong removal once conditions are met. So thanks for mentioning it.

here's a few more knights you might not yet know about.

Acclaimed Contender - decent body, and provides card selection.

Stormfist Crusader - card draw.

not much more to say except knights deck can usually put up a good fight against other aggro. Against control, we need some sideboard stuff. Unbreakable Formation is another option against Supreme Verdict decks - but so far I've not needed it much, because not many control decks in my area, most decks here are aggro.
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AnimEVO 2020 - EFZ Tournament (english commentary) // Clearing 4 domain with Qiqi
want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Post by PeaceRibbon » 2 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
2 years ago
you actually made me put dire tactics on scg cart. It's a strong removal once conditions are met. So thanks for mentioning it.
What can I say? The flavor text is the dramatic, death before dishonor stuff I live for!

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

was doing some Mardu knights testing the past days.. and after several tests have found tournament grounds and unclaimed territory to be bad for my build. Because these two lands cannot pay for the adventure of murderous rider and a few other adventure cards. Was able to fix the mana with a combination of fast lands, pain lands, and evolving wilds. Would later upgrade the pain lands to shock lands, when budget allows.

also, the circle of loyalty is a very good card. It's cost is easily reduced, and it is the 9th lord in the deck. Not going to use more than one, as it is legendary. +
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AnimEVO 2020 - EFZ Tournament (english commentary) // Clearing 4 domain with Qiqi
want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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