MTG Salvation

Without some other targets for Image besides Exemplar it seems a bit too narrow, in Humans (and sometimes Merfolk) there are more targets that justify running the card.

Quote from asdfpanda »

White KnightsMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Artifacts(4) 4 Aether Vial Creatures(24) 4 Knight Exemplar 4 Student of Warfare 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 1 Hero of Bladehold 4 Knight of the White Orchid 3 Knight of the Holy Nimbus 4 Benalish Marshal	Enchantmets(4) 4 History of Benalia Instants(8) 4 Path to Exile 4 Brave the Elements Lands(20) 18 Plains 2 Cavern of Souls	Sideboard(15) 2 Damping Sphere 2 Rest in Peace 2 Stony Silence 3 Sundering Growth 2 Blessed Alliance 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin 3 Wrath of God

Slightly lowered the curve and added a plains. Knight of the White Orchid should help out if you can vial it.

Evening White Knight Players!
I was very intrigued with some of the Dominaria cards out, and was browsing the internet. Found your thread, and liked what asdfpanda was doing here. As such I thought I'd share the games.

https://youtu.be/WVrvsvaYi38

What was interesting was the amount of power that can come out of no where, not to mention that you can really just block for days if needed with an Exemplar. I've always liked this knight. The other knights though and the pumping was great. Where I think this deck will stumble most currently is the lack of disruption or ways to interact with combo decks. These seem to take us to lunch! Either way thought I'd share what I recorded, I browse the internet on Monday and play just oddball decks, and got your lists this past Monday! Hopefully it helps with learning, I believe I took it through x2 Leagues online. Was a blast and thanks for posting the lists! Goodluck my Chivalrous White Knights!

Hey everyone, looks like some great work going on during the Knight shift. Love the tribe, been playing it off and on since student of warfare was printed.

I was wondering, what about going a little less aggressive with dauntless and going more mid-range with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Smuggler's Copter

I'd guess 23 lands no vials. 3 Gideon 3 copter.
I'm curious to see how good holy nimbus is in the format.

If you were going more aggressive though, please don't forget our good friend War Falcon keeping a knight or solider (Thalia guardian, anyone?) In play should be easy enough especially since History of Benalia came out.

Edit: I apologize for the triple post, my phone spaced out with a runtime error and salvation wouldn't even load till now. I wanted to delete the extra posts but am unsure how, maybe a mod could help?

Hey everyone, looks like some great work going on during the Knight shift. Love the tribe, been playing it off and on since student of warfare was printed.

I was wondering, what about going a little less aggressive with dauntless and going more mid-range with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Smuggler's Copter

I'd guess 23 lands no vials. 3 Gideon 3 copter.
I'm curious to see how good holy nimbus is in the format.

If you were going more aggressive though, please don't forget our good friend War Falcon keeping a knight or solider (Thalia guardian, anyone?) In play should be easy enough especially since History of Benalia came out.

Hey everyone, looks like some great work going on during the Knight shift. Love the tribe, been playing it off and on since student of warfare was printed.

I was wondering, what about going a little less aggressive with dauntless and going more mid-range with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Smuggler's Copter

I'd guess 23 lands no vials. 3 Gideon 3 copter.
I'm curious to see how good holy nimbus is in the format.

If you were going more aggressive though, please don't forget our good friend War Falcon keeping a knight or solider (Thalia guardian, anyone?) In play should be easy enough especially since History of Benalia came out.

Hi everyone!

So a lil backstory. Although none of you would recognize me and I have almost never posted in this forum, I have been playing Knights religiously for 7 years now, almost since I was first introduced to Magic by a friend. My original intention is to create a mid-range, strictly Knights tribal deck (I just like knights) that can achieve the following criteria:

- has longevity in a drawn out game
- is versatile enough to have answers to different competitive deck archetypes
- possesses tricks to keep your opponent guessing
- and has multiple win cons

The end result was never a competitive tier 1 Knights deck, but with the right hand, it can SOMETIMES beat a tier 1 deck and often beat a mid-low tier 2 modern deck. I have used it to beat Jund decks slightly more than 50% of the times back in Jund's heydays before the ban of Bloodbraid, but Modern has since changed dramatically over the last few years, and fast pace explosive decks have come to dominate the meta. My beloved Knights deck can no longer compete even in a low Tier 2 or high Tier 3 Modern format today, but nevertheless it remains by far my favorite Modern deck to play because it is unique, I personally brewed it myself and while I have encountered several modern Knights deck, none remotely resembles mine. And most importantly, it is a tribal deck that is SUPER fun and interesting to play.

Alas, enough jabbering. I unveil my proud and treasured Abzan Knights deck:



The essence of this deck is a simple creature heavy 3cmc (Metamorph is strictly a 3cmc creature, but unfortunately CoCo doesn't hit it) Knights tribal deck. Your win cons are either having two Knight Exemplar on the field, a few giant Knight of the Reliquary with a thinned out library, Liliana to lock down your opponent, or Vault of the Archangel.

Vials and CoCo are explicitly self-explanatory in a smoothly curved 1-3 cmc creature heavy deck, and powerfully so. Haakon enables you to interact with the GY to bring back all those knights that previously died to opponent's Bolt, Goyf, Counterspell, Push or Wraths, giving the deck huge longevity. Although Haakon can be a potential dead draw in your hand, it is not likely as 3 Lilys, 4 Vials and 3 CoCos are all capable of getting it out on the field. In some games when my opponent has used up all his Path or other exile removals, Haakon wins games on his own.

I traditionally play Selesnya Charm over Path because most Modern creature bombs several years ago have high power; it can save one of your crucial knights from a Bolt with instant +2/+2; and it also plays as a 2/2 Vigilant Knight on itself, fitting the Knight tribal theme perfectly. But with the explosion of Mantis Rider and other lethal <5 power creatures in Modern, good ol' Path or Push may now be a better removal choice.

Steward of Valeron is objectively the weakest creature in this deck, but I find his Vigilance very useful in protecting Lily while not losing attack tempo, and in a precariously low 20 lands deck his extra mana can be crucial in playing CoCo or Abrupt Decay, still probably the best Swiss knife removal in Modern.

Dauntless Bodyguard is the latest valued addition to the deck, substituting previously 2 Student of Warfare. While Student is a mana-sink beast late game that wins games, it is quite irrelevant early-mid game and serves nothing more than a 1/1 one drop. Dauntless Bodyguard can respectively swing 2 damage by itself, and mid game after the first Knight Exemplar lands on the field, it can be played to protect the lone Knight Exemplar until the second one successfully lands. Setting up win con is the hardest challenge for a mid-range deck, and Dauntless Bodyguard accelerates that set up by ensuring that your lonesome Knight Exemplar doesn't die prematurely.


Obviously I am still constantly looking to improve this deck, so if anyone has any recommendations or advice, fire them away!

Happy Knighting!

Midnight Reveries, this list is so close to my list; its great having another with a similar build which I have worked on for a long time as well; I am new to the forum though definitely as you, not new to knights and have been working on my list for a long while.

The main differences between our lists is in a couple of creature choices and most of the non-creature "support" cards. The main problem I see with both my list and yours is how tight the non-creature slot is - having creatures that live forever is fun & a definite strength we can utilize but they lack interaction with your opponent as you would have in other modern decks for instance many humans lists, also needing ways of play Haakon involves using the non-creature slots to get him into play by either discard or "cheating" him in. I think this is in part why Liliana is so effective as it fills three roles - it is removal when you need it, hand disruption when you need it, and a discard outlet for Haakon. For similar reasons I run collective brutality - it is a discard outlet for Haakon, creature removal and hand disruption - however with post-unbannings (as you eluded to) there are many more higher P/T creatures to deal with it less universal though I find it still quite effective as it utilizes that treasured slot so well. To explain the reasoning for some of my other non-creature slot choices I think talking about its strengths and weaknesses critical.

Strengths of the deck: Resiliency, you either have indestructability or can recast things from the graveyard. Mid game is typically yours if you survive long enough. Aka it is VERY difficult to get rid of your creatures once you get enough momentum.

Weaknesses: Quick early game decks that get under you before you can gain momentum, and combo decks. Internally is the over-extended mana base...

To combat the weaknesses and take advantage of the strengths I have played several different non-creature cards c varying success:
1) Day of Judgement: A two edged sword that you can mitigate your losses through out "indestructible" creatures - exemplar, dauntless bodyguard and knight of holy nimbus - early decks tap out earlygame when you would cast day of judgement thus 99% of the time allowing them to live). I do find having 1-2x sideboard helps but only affects decks trying to go under you.
2) Worship: A much more versatile card as it hits early game and combo decks. I currently running 2x mainboard which might be a bit much as of now... Basically with all your indestructability with your creatures and bring them back from the dead with Haakon its very difficult to deal with unless you have enchantment removal (again a plus of Collective Brutatility to ensure keeping your worship alive).
3) Chalice of the Void: This one hits both combo and early decks. MOST of your cards cast 2+ mana and 90% of the time you cast Chalice on 1 thus is extremely efficient, furthermore you have access to Cavern of Souls via Knight of Reliquary and if you have dropped an early Aether Vial that helps as well get around dead draws to chalice when you need it. I LOVE THIS CARD, pre-unbannings I mainboarded 4x, post-unbannings I haven't played around enough yet to decide if sideboard vs mainboard.

Another card to consider adding in the land base is Geier Reach Sanitarium which gives you a discard outlet for Haakon, or if you have Haakon essentially nets you 1 card! Colorless lands are very difficult to include due to the already tight restriction Liliana, Haakon, Knight of Holy Nimbus & Orchid put on your manabase in addition to adding green to the mix for Co-Co, Reliquary & Valeron.

Anyways those are my thoughts from my decklist which is very similar to yours, any thoughts/criticisms are welcome

Man, I have not even thought about modern knights in so long. After seeing the m19 knight, I thought I'd revisit my favorite knight version. I really wanted to include History, but needed room for my equips. I feel I should run Mirran Crusader instead of White Orchid, but then I think I'll need to change my mana base. Advice welcome.


Edit: Oh! I also thought about including Smuggler's Copter to help the draws.

Knight of Autumn is a big missing piece. Unfortunately, there are still some missing pieces.

Look at the currently popular Human decks or the Merfolk decks of long-standing. Knights are far short of those tribes.

Knight of Autumn, in my view, isn't enough to make GW Knights a thing. But don't let me stop you from having a go at it. I'd love to be wrong.

Humans and Merfolk have additional ways to interact. Spirits probably do too. Knights lack any way to discard or counter while building their own board-state. That's the difference between the successful tribes and Knights. Humans and Merfolk can also produce some pretty explosive starts. Knight decks don't seem to have the same sort of speed. There's a big difference between two-CMC lords and three-CMC lords plus those other tribes have multiple lords in tribe.

Knights can beat some decks. I've won FNMs with them. The builds I have played can't beat combo decks fast enough and can't disrupt them. They are also too slow to beat big mana decks. There are some things one could try to speed them up that I haven't tried, but I don't personally feel as if Knights are viable.

Knight of the Reliquary is a build-around card. Those decks can be somewhat competitive but I haven't looked at that in a long time. Knight of Autumn will add to a number of strategies but it alone isn't going to bring Knights up to a competitive level. Dropping one on a Wurmcoil Engine would be a hoot but one has already lost by that point.

Curiously, some of my best results came with Champion of the Parish and a cast of all human knights. I would name Human with my Cavern of Souls even though Champ was the only non-knight.

There may be a Knight build that will work but it would likely be a spell-heavy deck to provide some disruption while setting up a board state to win. It would likely be Abzan or Bant - but I'm merely speculating.

Student of Warfare is a good man but he's only a beat stick. A very good beat stick for a one-drop but just a beat stick.

Knight of Autumn is main-deckable. perhaps, but the three-drop spot is pretty crowded. Knight Exemplar is pretty much the tribe's best trick and KotR is tough to leave out of a GW build. Mirran Crusader is needed for the GBx match-ups that have always been common and are about to be more common - at least until the euphoria over Assassin's Trophy wears off.

I have two play-sets of Honor of the Pure - I'm not sure how that happened - but I've never played the card. I don't think it's a good card here. There's nothing I ran that I would cut for it. HotP was sometimes used to supplement Intangible Virtue in BW tokens but it's rare to see that anymore.

As someone who's been playing Knights for years now, the BY FAR biggest issue with the deck is that literally all the best cards are 3 CMC. Knight of Autumn is a great card, and is a definite auto-include in the deck, but it doesn't solve the biggest issues the deck has.

All the best cards being 3 CMC also means that Noble Hierarch and Collected Company are great in the deck, but unfortunately they're not enough to carry the deck by itself. 2/2 first strikers for 2 simply doesn't cut it these days.

If we got a 2 drop lord similar to Merfolk would a basic "Other Knights you control gain +1/+1" be enough or would we need something like "Other Knights you control gain +1/+1 and vigilance"? First thought was first strike but it feels like it would either be redundant with how many Knights naturally have first strike or it would be overpowered with making the ones that don't have it far too strong like Knight of Autumn, Conclave Cavalier, or History of Benalia to name a few.

Knights need some form of disruption - means to combat combo particularly. Alternatively, they need blazing speed. They currently have neither.

ok so i made an account because i wanted to post on here with the deck that i plan on taking down to a tournament and would like some oppions if any one still looks at this thread. i have tested this list and have found it to be as solid as i can make it but i am worried about the side board for what the meta is now any advice will help.

Main
26 Creatures
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Student of Warfare
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Benalish Marshal
4 Knight Exemplar
4 Knight of Autumn
3 Knight of the Reliquary

6 Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Collected Company

4 Artifacts
4 Aether Vial
3 Enchantments

3 History of Benalia
21 Lands

1 Forest
1 Gavony Township
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Plains
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
Sideboard

7 Creatures
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Mirran Crusader

2 Artifacts
2 Damping Sphere
6 Enchantments

2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Leyline of Sanctity

Quote from DragonSinOfWrath »

ok so i made an account because i wanted to post on here with the deck that i plan on taking down to a tournament and would like some oppions if any one still looks at this thread. i have tested this list and have found it to be as solid as i can make it but i am worried about the side board for what the meta is now any advice will help.

DragonSkinOfWrath's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Main 26 Creatures 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Student of Warfare 4 Knight of Meadowgrain 2 Knight of the White Orchid 3 Benalish Marshal 4 Knight Exemplar 4 Knight of Autumn 3 Knight of the Reliquary 6 Spells 4 Path to Exile 2 Collected Company	4 Artifacts 4 Aether Vial 3 Enchantments 3 History of Benalia 21 Lands 1 Forest 1 Gavony Township 3 Ghost Quarter 2 Horizon Canopy 4 Plains 2 Stirring Wildwood 4 Temple Garden 4 Windswept Heath	7 Creatures 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2 Eidolon of Rhetoric 2 Mirran Crusader 2 Artifacts 2 Damping Sphere 6 Enchantments 2 Rest in Peace 2 Stony Silence 2 Leyline of Sanctity

Dredge and Human's seem to be the things to beat. I'd have another piece of grave-hate and a couple of sweepers. Day of Judgment works well with Knight Exemplar. It's probably magic-christmas level but hey, you are playing Knights. You'll need some luck.

wouldn't settle the wreckage be better in those match up. it would be great agianst spirits as well. but what would I cut for one or 2 of those

Settle the Wreckage works only if they attack. It won't resolve a stalled board. Settle can be played around. With Knight Exemplar, a board wipe is almost one-sided, it doesn't have to be Day of Judgment. Day of Judgement plays well with Knight of the Holy Nimbus. Without Nimbus, Wrath of God is better. I had forgotten why I used Day instead of Wrath when I posted earlier.

Settle is mostly a magic-Christmas card. It will blow out a knucklehead now and then, but it will usually wind up being a four-mana Path to Exile.

Quote from pzbw7z »

Settle the Wreckage works only if they attack. It won't resolve a stalled board. Settle can be played around. With Knight Exemplar, a board wipe is almost one-sided, it doesn't have to be Day of Judgment. Day of Judgement plays well with Knight of the Holy Nimbus. Without Nimbus, Wrath of God is better. I had forgotten why I used Day instead of Wrath when I posted earlier.

Settle is mostly a magic-Christmas card. It will blow out a knucklehead now and then, but it will usually wind up being a four-mana Path to Exile.

i mean its hard for me to want to settle (lol) on a day of judgment or wrath of god when it has a high chance of hurting me more just as much if not more then my opponent. i have learned not to put to much stock in exemplar staying on the board for long periods of time. settle even if its just a 4 mana path one or 2 creatures it still exiles which is better against a lot of the recursion decks out there.

You want sweepers against faster decks. You have to find a way to keep up with Humans (I doubt Knights can) or run sweepers or just lose. There's no guarantee you won't still lose if you run sweepers, but it gives you a chance as they will probably get hellbent faster than you will. Humans is one of the most popular decks. If you can't beat it, you can't expect to place well. If you can't beat Dredge, you can't expect to place well.

Humans runs almost no removal, maybe some side-board Path to Exile, not sure about that. Reflector Mage is the closest thing they have to removal. Anything you cast will likely stick a while.

Quote from WhiteRyder88 »

I agree on wrath over settle, i dont think settle works with a sorcery speed deck with lots of 3 drops... you telegraph the settle when passing the turn with 4 mana up and grip full verses a faster deck... you only catch the dummies with that game plan and v the good players you spend an entire turn to exile 1/2 creatures.

Addressing your point on Humans: what knight cards really help beat humans (other than an exemplar)? Is humans a bad matchup when you have a first strike wall?

Humans can get big, fast. Knights, not so much. Plus, Humans have several forms of disruption, all of which build their board state. Knights can blow up an Aether Vial on Turn-three now.

Quote from pzbw7z »

Quote from WhiteRyder88 »

I agree on wrath over settle, i dont think settle works with a sorcery speed deck with lots of 3 drops... you telegraph the settle when passing the turn with 4 mana up and grip full verses a faster deck... you only catch the dummies with that game plan and v the good players you spend an entire turn to exile 1/2 creatures.

Addressing your point on Humans: what knight cards really help beat humans (other than an exemplar)? Is humans a bad matchup when you have a first strike wall?

Humans can get big, fast. Knights, not so much. Plus, Humans have several forms of disruption, all of which build their board state. Knights can blow up an Aether Vial on Turn-three now.

agreed with this statement while our first strike wall is hard for them to overcome it's almost impossible to beat a very fast start how ever with their mana base blowing up a vial on turn 2-3 is just devastating and they normally lose after because of the mana base it's also why I run 3 ghost quarters as they normally only run 2-3 basic lands. as for the settle in my version of knights I can cast it turn 3 and as how I also run coco it's not as telegraphed as you would think. settle the wreckage is not a huge sideboard card right and and I think the exile effect agianst other decks is actually more important then the fact they might only attack with a few creatures, I mean even if I only hit 2 vengevines or gravecrawlers or bloodghast it has suck an impact on the game plan that I believe it's worth it.

I chanced across this primer and I couldn't help but notice that a certain synergy has not been mentioned in the last 3 pages (I'm not reading 97 pages, sorry guys). The caveat is that most of the Knights I am about to name are high CMC, but I just think that maybe you want to be a coco/vial deck less and a midrange value deck more. Vial decks need good cheap lords and an even CMC distribution. You don't have that the way merfolk does. Coco decks need ramp and a critical mass of good creatures below 4 cmc - you don't have that the way elves do, either.

You have good knights like:
Knight of Autumn
Knight of the Reliquary
Conclave Cavalier

and of course you should still keep Knight Exemplar

Now imagine topping your curve with these knights:
Wilt-Leaf Liege
Knight of New Alara

and using the rest of the deck to control the game, using mostly the white spells like paths, Ghostly prisons, o rings or D-spheres if you splash U for the knightfall combo. You can also play the off-theme but still good Voice of Resurgence with Eldritch Evolution to tutor out your 4 mana double-lord knight while producing a */* GW token. Including Evolution means your deck can now toolbox against combo decks, since you would ordinarily have issues with it. Just Evo voice or Noble Hierarch and get your Kataki, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Melira, etc etc.

Cheers and have fun with the awesome Knight theme guys.

been reading up on this thread:

I get the feeling that people are out on
Metallic Mimic
Steel Leaf Champion
Novice Knight
Danitha Capashen, Paragon

Is a Bant shell a reasonable idea for knights?