King Arthur (Kenrith) and the lady of the lake (Emry) (fast, fun theme deck)

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

This deck results in a 100/100 trampling, hasted Kenrith by turn 3 (60%+ of the time) or 4 (90%+) unless disrupted. It's a theme deck based on the Arthurian legend where the Lady of the Lake bestowed Excalibur to King Arthur.

In this deck, Emry creates mana so you can one-shot people with an overpowered Kenrith. If you want more style points, you could add Embercleave (or a sword of your choice) that Emry can fetch from the graveyard.

There's also the King Arthur and the knights of the round table version at the bottom.
How it works
Show
Hide
You can generate infinite mana by casting Emry, Lurker of the Loch + mirran spy or chakram retriever + lion's eye diamond or lotus petal. Then cast Kenrith, give him counters, trample, and haste, and swing for lethal.

Or you can do the following.
Dump your library using hermit druid, or cephalid illusionist + nomads en-kor:
When your library gets dumped into the graveyard, narcomoeba goes on the battlefield.
unearth fatestitcher (unless you already have 3 creatures in play) and use it to untap a land.
cast dread return (by sacking hermit druid, narcomoeba, and fatestitcher) and put angel of glory's rise into play.
The angel puts all humans into play, including grand abolisher so your opponents can't respond to anything.
Samut, Voice of Dissent gives everyone haste.
sack loyal retainers to put Emry, Lurker of the Loch into play.
use whisper, blood liturgist to put either mirran spy or chakram retriever into play.
Tap Emry to cast lotus petal (or Lion's Eye diamond) and sack it for mana.
Use Emry to make infinite mana (she untaps every time you cast an artifact, thanks to mirran/chakram.
cast echo of eons from the graveyard to restock your hand and library.
Cast Kenrith, put a bunch of counters on him, give him haste/trample, and swing for lethal.

Decklist

King Arthur (1)

Arthur's quest (1)

Approximate Total Cost:

King Arthur and the knights of the round table version
Show
Hide
"Image"


Is it coincidence that Kenrith looks just like King Arthur from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail? ...I think not.
Nor do I think it's coincidental that King Kenrith and Queen Marchesa have the same illustrator.
Clearly these two make a great pair, and adding knights and peasants to the mix would make a flavorful deck for any fan of Arthurian legend. The problem with theme decks, for me at least, is that they tend to be weak decks suitable only for casual environments.

This one isn't.

Every knight and human in this deck should hit the battlefield by turn 2-3 (~60% of the time) or 4 (95%) of the time, or a little later if disrupted. If smashing face with Arthur, his queen, and the Knights of the Round Table appeals to you, read on. But if you feel compelled to point out how winning with laboratory maniac or some other cheesy combo is more efficient, then you're missing the point. This deck packs a punch, but it's still a theme deck.

Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:

My first version of this deck included Marton Stromgald and Lena, Selfless Champion, and if you attacked with everything it worked out to over 3000 damage. I want to enjoy attacking with King Arthur, Queen Marchesa, and their knights for a few turns so I decided to tone it down a little. I took out Lena and I'm considering replacing Marton with Adriana, Captain of the Guard to prolong the game.

How it works (the short version): You dump your library, cast dread return on Angel of Glory's Rise, and she takes all your humans from the graveyard and puts them on the battlefield. After that you cast Echo of Eons (from the graveyard) to restock your hand and library, and then crush your opponents with your army of Knights and peasants (humans). Thanks to Odric, Lunarch Marshal, your creatures can attack with haste, indestructible, lifelink, vigilance, first strike, doublestrike, deathtouch, and flying. There's a few ways you can make all this happen, and none require more than 2 mana.

How it works (longer version):
You start by dumping your library into your graveyard with hermit druid, or cephalid illusionist + nomads en-kor:
- When your library gets dumped into the graveyard, narcomoeba goes on the battlefield.
- unearth fatestitcher (unless you already have 3 creatures in play) and use it to untap a land.
- cast dread return (by sacking hermit druid, narcomoeba, and fatestitcher) and put angel of glory's rise into play.
- the angel puts all humans in play, including eternal witness, grand abolisher, and the knights.
- eternal witness returns Lion's eye diamond to your hand.
- cast the lion's eye diamond and sack it for uuu
- cast echo of eons from the graveyard.

The only issue I've had is against blue decks that devote all their resources to countering my key spells. If people are holding back mana to counter my stuff, I'll seek out grand abolisher and/or flusterstorm to protect the combo. In situations like that I also often cast Kenrith--he's a good beater, especially when he gives himself counters. Another issue I had was holding key cards in my hand that I needed in the graveyard, but I resolved that by putting faithless looting in the deck.
Last edited by Theoric 3 years ago, edited 20 times in total.

Tags:

User avatar
darrenhabib
Posts: 1812
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

Are your Knights able to kill everybody the turn they come into play? Because Hermit Druid mills your entire library, so you need to win that turn to avoid losing due to drawing with no library.

What I do like for a tribal theme is using Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in a 5 colored Knights deck. You can still use mill techniques to fill your graveyard up, but Hermit Druid with no basics means that you have to combo in the same turn. So you can play a deck that has a few basics and look for longer term goals with the Camelot theme.

It's not going to be a breakfast hulk shell anymore, it would actually have some number of classy Knights, and use additional slower mill methods, like Life from the Loam maybe.
Then once Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is milled it's just so hard to remove your Knights as you can keep casting Haakon from graveyard if he get's killed and then you can keep casting your Knights if the are killed as well. It's not like he gets commander tax, so you can just keep recasting him for 1bb.
This is starting to sound more like Ringwraiths :P
You could use Aluren to cast all your cheap Knights for free.

So the deck I'm suggesting is completely different, more casual but more unique. I have no idea what good Knights are out there, but the idea has got me curious.

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

Thanks for the reply!
darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Are your Knights able to kill everybody the turn they come into play? Because Hermit Druid mills your entire library, so you need to win that turn to avoid losing due to drawing with no library.
The last part of the combo is cracking the lion's eye diamond to cast echo of eons in the gy. Grand abolisher should be in play by that time so it shouldn't be countered, but if I am stuck without a library then memory's journey should buy me a few turns to complete the combo.

I'm not trying to kill everyone the turn I combo off. I just want to smash face with some big indestructible knights for a few turns. This deck is about flavor, not winning tournaments. Even so, I'm hoping to make it semi-competitive.
darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
What I do like for a tribal theme is using Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in a 5 colored Knights deck.
Me too. Plus if the knights are killed somehow, he'll be good for getting them back. The deck would be neutered if they were exiled though, so maybe I should add cartel aristocrat to prevent that.

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

I updated this list. The deck has proven to be lightning fast and very resilient. It's a blast to play.
I took out Haakon, stromgald scourge because he's not human so Angel of Glory's Rise doesn't bring him out of the graveyard. But I might put him back in one day.

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

I decided to add Queen Marchesa, mostly for flavor. Becoming monarch is suitable for the theme but the extra card draw is nice too.

User avatar
Nimbaway
Posts: 119
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Groningen, NL

Post by Nimbaway » 4 years ago

This is definitely an interesting way to build a Kenrith Knights deck and am going to use it as inspiration for my own build. It will be more Knight's tribal which can backdoor into the Angel of Glory's Rise plan, with less tutors and no Hulk. So quite a bit more casual but able to make that huge splash.

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

Nimbaway wrote:
4 years ago
This is definitely an interesting way to build a Kenrith Knights deck and am going to use it as inspiration for my own build. It will be more Knight's tribal which can backdoor into the Angel of Glory's Rise plan, with less tutors and no Hulk. So quite a bit more casual but able to make that huge splash.
The deck has proven to be absolutely amazing thus far. I played in a tournament last night (admittedly it was a somewhat casual environment) and I cast green sun's zenith on turn 2 to try and cheat hermit druid into play, but it was countered. Next turn I cast finale of devastation, which was countered. Next turn I cast imperial recruiter (tutoring for hermit druid) and cast him, but then someone cast wrath of god. The next turn I cast postmortem lunge, which was countered. Next I cast eternal witness to get postmortem lunge back, and then I finally got hermit druid back on the field with haste so I comboed off and smashed face. It was awesome. Kudos to my opponents for doing a great job of disrupting me though.

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

I was having an issue with cards in my hand that needed to be in the graveyard so I swapped out frantic search for faithless looting. If I'm using cephalid/nomads to dump my library, I can instead dump all but a few cards and then flashback faithless looting. If hermit druid does it, then I'll flashback memory's journey before I cast looting.
- frantic search
+ faithless looting

Theoric
Posts: 107
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Theoric » 3 years ago

Just updated this to add a King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake version. Gotta love those theme decks. :)

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Decklists”