Twin on Snaps is awesome, I've been able to grind out wins on the back of that several times over the last couple weekends.
Either way, I think thats my issue. Retreat is really good, to the point of warping the 'I turn my creature sides' deck into something that is better, but not what I want out of it, which is mostly...a Teir 2 deck where I'm not smashing folks on T3 from 20 to 0. :]
Yeah, remember that the main reason the combo works so well in Twin is due to the control shell. Remand/Serum Visions/Cryptic Command all get you closer and the minimum amount of fetching also aids Serum Visions.
It is the closest thing to a draw-go deck we have in Tier 1 and rarely will a pro Twin player hastily go for the combo unless they're about to die the next turn. They can easily hold up and play plan B beats and wait to craft windows of opportunity.
Knightfall is more blunt in its overall approach as dumb beats and that is quite unavoidable when you are playing cards like noble hierarch and knight of reliquary as core.
Rather than compare the merits of these cards individually, we should take a holistic view and realise that the only real similarity between both decks atm is a two card combo that has a creature and an enchantment...
Well said Isei, i don't feel Knightfall is very close to twin. there are some similarities, but Knightfall is trying to be much more aggressive and taps out basically all the time, whereas twin only reacts. Knightfall maybe feels closer in line with the grixis and Tarmo variants just having a more aggressive approach, but this deck's definitely taken that a step further
I went 3-2, winning against the psudo-mirror (the most important differences were he ran Kitchen Finks, Hangarback Walker and more dorks as opposed to my geists, Goyfs and Serum Visions), a mardu midrange brew, and UR Twin, and losing against Jund and Merfolk (which, by the way, seems like an utterly terrible matchup). I won't do a detailed match breakdown, but here are a few thoughts:
1) Geist seems very good. It's an insane clock, especially when dropped on turn 2. There's matchups it's bad in (notably Merfolk), but even in creature matchups the mix of exalted triggers and removal he generally pulls his weight. He's a very good target for Sejiri steppes, especially when you naturally draw it and want to push through damage.
2) Goyf fits the deck's gameplan and lowers it's reliance on a turn 1 Hierarch, but it's awkward to have to play Serum Visions in a deck that really wants to curve out. Maybe gitaxian probes would be better?
3) Bant charm is very expensive, and is even pretty hard to cast given the deck's 2 colorless lands. It's probably right to cut it for something else.
4) I wanted to have dispel in my hand basically the entire day. Even against merfolk! Might be a good replacement for Bant Charm.
5) Hindering Light is sweet. Thanks Maty78 for the tech.
6) It felt like the deck lacked a few fetches, as Knight was too often in bolt range when you cast it on turn 2 or 3. That said, you can't run too many more fetches, as otherwise the combo stops working. Maybe cut the wildwood for a fetch? But then again, fetching into a creature felt really good against the grindy matchups, and was just straight up a good draw a lot of the time.
7) Elspeth seemed like a great 1-of. It's a good trump in both the grindy control matchups and the fair creature mirrors. In combination with geist, your opponent is often just dead.
A final note: I kept feeling like what I wanted was just more control elements, to be able to play a few guys then ride them to victory. That said, this is probably just my own playstyle bias showing, and I don't think cramming more removal or counterspells would make it better in the abstract.
I am on 10 fetches with 4 basics. I can combo out easily for 20+ dmg on turn 3/4 with still a healthy life total of 9ish at the end, just in case of burn. This feels like the sweet spot to mean. Enough fetches to get my colors, but makes the mana base not as painful.
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Current Decks
Modern
No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
Had my first modern event with this deck, got a lot of good testing in before the tourny too. Couldn't get my hands on a few things (Geists, more Qasali) so I tried out some tech because why not.
Tech Results Kitchen Finks - Favorite tech. I expected it to be too slow, but it puts in a lot of work. Very hard to deal with, and the life is very relevant. Fleecemane Lion - Hated it. Dies to everything. No good chance to monstrosity it. Spellskite - Way too slow, doesn't contribute to the aggro that this deck wants. Gets wrecked by Kolaghan's Command. Helps your stuff survive, but I'd rather just have another threat. Worth keeping in the board for Twin or Infect, I suppose.
Tournament Report
3-1
Overall, deck played out great. Only saw Coralhelm in 2 games, but it was great whenever I did.
2-1 VS UW Midrange
I got hit by Supreme Verdict three times in game 1, couldn't recover at that point when the Sun Titan came swinging in afterwards. Game 2 went off with Coralhelm on turn 4 after baiting out a counterspell with company on his endstep. Game 3 I saw the Supreme Verdicts again, but the survivability of Finks+Voice and the fast advantage of company let me pull it together. I was suspicious of a Cryptic Command on my turn of potential lethal, so I dropped down a fetch (I now had 2 sitting on field, along with Coralhelm). Move to combat, he throws down the tap+bounce cryptic. Cryptic resolves, and then I crack both my fetches to untap 2 creatures and swing for lethal. Throughout games 2 and 3, Wolf Run put in a massive amount of work, pushing through for tons of damage when I had all this mana floating around.
2-0 VS Aristocrats
Pretty easy matchup, I just rushed him down each game. He wasn't fast enough to deal with my threats, I outnumbered him pretty quickly. Finks and Voice did their thing again and just provided too much value for him to deal with. Well placed Bolts forced him into bad combat situations when needed.
2-0 VS Jund
Game 1 was a lot of back and forth trading. When the Lili came down, discarding Smiter turned the board around and let me swarm pretty quickly. Game 2 was similar, but Sejiri Steppe actually put in a lot of work, making a very favorable combat situation that forced him into making bad blocks to not die. Overall the matchup comes down to a lot of trades, but I tend to always be ahead of the clock, and my threats are recurring.
0-2 VS Skred Red
Brutal matchup. Throughout both games I faced the wrath of plentiful board wipes, blood moons, and batterskull to negate all of my work.
Skred is bad. I had a feeling that and post-board Blood Moons would be which is one of the reasons I'm advocating Qasali Pridemage so hard. It gives you an out to Blood Moon mainboard, it gives you a way of destroying Splinter Twin, destroying Graveyard hate that can stop your combo, removing Cranial Plating as well.
I'm probably going to run four Pridemage mainboard. The toss up after that is do you run Voice, do you run Skite, do you run something like Meddling Mage... there are so many options there.
Good first outing anyway. Sounds like Smiter put in work as well. I'd definitely be running Smiter over Geist in this deck because of the meta.
Dromoka's doesn't stop Relic nuking your graveyard if you try and combo. It does nothing against other annoying artifacts as well. Dromoka's is a good card, quite possibly a very underrated card but at least for my vision of the deck it's a sideboard choice.
im not saying that relic isn't a great card against us. any graveyard card is. but Knight of the Reliquary can pseudo play around it in a game of chicken. Instead of putting all your lands in only put in enough to make Knight like an 8/8 (or anything to put them on a 2-3 turn clock) than they have to decide, do they take the 8 or clear the graveyard. and if you've done it properly, if they pop the relic and clear the yard you can fill it up some more with the KotR. and still hit for enough damage to 2 turn them.
also Pridemage (yes a very good card) doesn't really do much to relic, relics done its damage as soon as its hit the field. if you pridemage a relic you've payed 3 mana, lost a card and they've gotten to clear your graveyard and draw for 1 mana. I get that sometimes its a necessity to unlock the GY again but pridemaging a relic is a very poor play.
Since Tron runs 4x Relics, do you think more dedicated Tron hate would be a good thing? Stony Silence is a must, but crumble to dust could be good too. I am not sure where I would be able to fit it in, but turn 3 crumble would be gross beyond belief.
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No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
(this is probably my most tested match-up, its what my girlfriend plays, so i get to play it almost nightly) unfortunately its not the best matchup but Knightfall is on the stronger side of midrange decks out there against them.
Sometimes they just get turn three Karn, but sometimes you just get turn 3 combo. I think Stony Silence is generally the best option. the most effective thing I find is actually counterspells. Were not terribly worried about wurmcoil as we run 4 paths. which means the only scary things left in the deck are Karns and Ugins. and even there Karns are beatable, i don't think I've ever beat a resolved Ugin though. If we can stop those and win before emrakul shows up to the party thats the match. In the board i think after Stoney, negate is our best card. answering everything path doesn't.
If you're playing red crumble is probably good, if you're strictly Bant i think either negate, or unified will is what I'm testing now, are where you want to be. I also think Aven Mindcensor should probably earn a spot in the SB if you're looking for more Tron hate and another Tech Edge or Ghost Quarter as well.
all that said though i feel like the deck is about 50/50 pre board against GR Tron.
im not saying that relic isn't a great card against us. any graveyard card is. but Knight of the Reliquary can pseudo play around it in a game of chicken. Instead of putting all your lands in only put in enough to make Knight like an 8/8 (or anything to put them on a 2-3 turn clock) than they have to decide, do they take the 8 or clear the graveyard. and if you've done it properly, if they pop the relic and clear the yard you can fill it up some more with the KotR. and still hit for enough damage to 2 turn them.
also Pridemage (yes a very good card) doesn't really do much to relic, relics done its damage as soon as its hit the field. if you pridemage a relic you've payed 3 mana, lost a card and they've gotten to clear your graveyard and draw for 1 mana. I get that sometimes its a necessity to unlock the GY again but pridemaging a relic is a very poor play.
Pridemage ensures it's off the field before you try do any kind of combo. You're doing it before the fact, not after. Yes, they can sacrifice it and draw but they can do the same with any artifact removal with open mana, you're just forcing them to get rid of it before you move on with your gameplan. You can play chicken with it as well and not sacrifice it immediately but leave yourself open to sacrifice, or sacrifice in response to removal. You can still get a creature out of it.
Updated the ol' primer. It's probably riddled with spelling error and stuff, but I'm really tired and going to sleep. Also cool to see that we're stickied now.
As much as Bob would provide this deck with great CA, he's too painful. Tasigur, Jace VP, and Painful Truths are here to provide CA in lieu of Bob. Painful Truths is less painful than Bob whenever he survives. Jace VP should be good with Retreat to Coralhelm, and he's only a bit more vulnerable than Bob.
After quite a bit of testing against Burn, the mana base solidified. I tried Tectonic Edge, but got too many heartbreaking losses against Burn when I was just shy of lethal, so I threw it out for Ghost Quarter. GQ is great at targeting my lands mid-combo. As much as I'd love to stick in a manland, the second GQ is better at pumping KotR. Maaaaaybe I can ditch a fetch for a manland, as I often don't find all my fetches mid-combo. I tried Shambling Vent before I had to ditch it. I like Vent because it taps for black mana in a GW-dual-heavy list. The red mana source is currently Cinder Glade, as when I was against Burn, I found that I lost too many combo games to Stomping Ground's life loss. If I'm comboing with 2 lands and a Hierarch so none of my Tangolands can ETB untapped, I probably have high enough life that Wolf Run is unnecessary. Speaking of Wolf Run, it's the pump land for 2 reasons: It provides evasion in a list that can't afford to lose that many land slots, and it works when I have 3 mana floating (I hit that maximum mana floating number too often against Burn).
Sadly, this maindeck is bad enough against Burn that the combo needs to work against them, which is why the mana base got more and more warped. As an aside, I barely won with the combo against Affinity with this mana base--they were at 22 life when I comboed off! The first GQ hit a manland, but the second GQ's pump, along with Wolf Run +1, proved crucial.
A neat thing I found is that KotR can provide the blue source for casting Retreat, then get untapped with my land drop for the turn so I can combo off.
The sideboard is rather untested, but it's based on my typical Junk Midrange boards. Stony Silence should be great as both deck hoser and anti-hate (Spellskite, yard hate rocks).
On Qasali Pridemage vs. Relic of Progenitus and Tron:
Yes, Pridemage is for popping Relic pre-combo. Yes, a few lands will be lost from the yard, but newly being able to combo off is great! We can play chicken with Relic and not fully combo off for turns straight, but the moment the opponent faces lethal, s/he will pop Relic and make KotR lose all its boosts for a turn. As RG Tron, I took 5 damage a turn from KotR for turns straight with an unpopped Relic. Not letting them combo off is that good. (It doesn't help that my RG Tron list maindecks Alchemist's Vial, which also hoses the combo for a turn and can be popped early to stave off lethal.)
From when I tested typical Naya Collected Company Zoo against RG Tron, Tron generally wins, so the combo is crucial at generating free wins. Thus, Tron's Relics sting that much more. I heavily suspect that any other Knightly Retreat list is even slower against Tron, and is therefore worse unless it packs LD in its 75 or runs a glut of cantrips.
Updated the ol' primer. It's probably riddled with spelling error and stuff, but I'm really tired and going to sleep. Also cool to see that we're stickied now.
I'd like to see a Liege deck up there. If not mine, another one. Some form of Bant Liege or Abzan Liege splashed Blue should work very well with this given that Liege has already been successful via guys like Kibler. With the meta so Jund / Abzan heavy Liege is bound to be a strong meta call as well but that's just my personal opinion.
I haven't but abusing Retreat + Dorks for ramp should work in theory if you have enough acceleration outside of just Retreat in case you don't pull it.
Either way, I think thats my issue. Retreat is really good, to the point of warping the 'I turn my creature sides' deck into something that is better, but not what I want out of it, which is mostly...a Teir 2 deck where I'm not smashing folks on T3 from 20 to 0. :]
Spirits
It is the closest thing to a draw-go deck we have in Tier 1 and rarely will a pro Twin player hastily go for the combo unless they're about to die the next turn. They can easily hold up and play plan B beats and wait to craft windows of opportunity.
Knightfall is more blunt in its overall approach as dumb beats and that is quite unavoidable when you are playing cards like noble hierarch and knight of reliquary as core.
Rather than compare the merits of these cards individually, we should take a holistic view and realise that the only real similarity between both decks atm is a two card combo that has a creature and an enchantment...
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Geist of Saint Traft
Spells (19)
4 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Dromoka's Command
3 Mana Leak
1 Bant Charm
4 Retreat to Coralhelm
Lands (22)
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Stirring Wildwoods
1 Sejiri Steppes
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Gavony Townships
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Meddling Mage
1 Reveillark
2 Spellskite
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Hindering Light
2 Stony Silence
I went 3-2, winning against the psudo-mirror (the most important differences were he ran Kitchen Finks, Hangarback Walker and more dorks as opposed to my geists, Goyfs and Serum Visions), a mardu midrange brew, and UR Twin, and losing against Jund and Merfolk (which, by the way, seems like an utterly terrible matchup). I won't do a detailed match breakdown, but here are a few thoughts:
1) Geist seems very good. It's an insane clock, especially when dropped on turn 2. There's matchups it's bad in (notably Merfolk), but even in creature matchups the mix of exalted triggers and removal he generally pulls his weight. He's a very good target for Sejiri steppes, especially when you naturally draw it and want to push through damage.
2) Goyf fits the deck's gameplan and lowers it's reliance on a turn 1 Hierarch, but it's awkward to have to play Serum Visions in a deck that really wants to curve out. Maybe gitaxian probes would be better?
3) Bant charm is very expensive, and is even pretty hard to cast given the deck's 2 colorless lands. It's probably right to cut it for something else.
4) I wanted to have dispel in my hand basically the entire day. Even against merfolk! Might be a good replacement for Bant Charm.
5) Hindering Light is sweet. Thanks Maty78 for the tech.
6) It felt like the deck lacked a few fetches, as Knight was too often in bolt range when you cast it on turn 2 or 3. That said, you can't run too many more fetches, as otherwise the combo stops working. Maybe cut the wildwood for a fetch? But then again, fetching into a creature felt really good against the grindy matchups, and was just straight up a good draw a lot of the time.
7) Elspeth seemed like a great 1-of. It's a good trump in both the grindy control matchups and the fair creature mirrors. In combination with geist, your opponent is often just dead.
A final note: I kept feeling like what I wanted was just more control elements, to be able to play a few guys then ride them to victory. That said, this is probably just my own playstyle bias showing, and I don't think cramming more removal or counterspells would make it better in the abstract.
2x Breeding Pool
3x Flooded Strand
3x Forest
1x Gavony Township
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
1x Marsh Flats
2x Plains
1x Sejiri Steppe
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
2x Eternal Witness
2x Kitchen Finks
4x Knight of the Reliquary
3x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Qasali Pridemage
3x Voice of Resurgence
Instant (10)
3x Mana Leak
4x Path to Exile
3x Remand
4x Retreat to Coralhelm
Sorcery (4)
4x Serum Visions
1x Celestial Purge
1x Dispel
3x Kor Firewalker
2x Negate
1x Obstinate Baloth
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Unravel the Aether
Modern : Huh?
EDH : UBGW Thrasios / Tymna Combo UBGW // GRW Mayael Big Stuff GRW // GU Edric Timewalkers GU
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Fleecemane Lion
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Retreat to Coralhelm
3 Collected Company
2 Path to Exile
Lands (22)
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sejiri Steppe
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
5 Forest
1 Plains
Tech Results
Kitchen Finks - Favorite tech. I expected it to be too slow, but it puts in a lot of work. Very hard to deal with, and the life is very relevant.
Fleecemane Lion - Hated it. Dies to everything. No good chance to monstrosity it.
Spellskite - Way too slow, doesn't contribute to the aggro that this deck wants. Gets wrecked by Kolaghan's Command. Helps your stuff survive, but I'd rather just have another threat. Worth keeping in the board for Twin or Infect, I suppose.
Tournament Report
3-1
Overall, deck played out great. Only saw Coralhelm in 2 games, but it was great whenever I did.
2-1 VS UW Midrange
I got hit by Supreme Verdict three times in game 1, couldn't recover at that point when the Sun Titan came swinging in afterwards. Game 2 went off with Coralhelm on turn 4 after baiting out a counterspell with company on his endstep. Game 3 I saw the Supreme Verdicts again, but the survivability of Finks+Voice and the fast advantage of company let me pull it together. I was suspicious of a Cryptic Command on my turn of potential lethal, so I dropped down a fetch (I now had 2 sitting on field, along with Coralhelm). Move to combat, he throws down the tap+bounce cryptic. Cryptic resolves, and then I crack both my fetches to untap 2 creatures and swing for lethal. Throughout games 2 and 3, Wolf Run put in a massive amount of work, pushing through for tons of damage when I had all this mana floating around.
2-0 VS Aristocrats
Pretty easy matchup, I just rushed him down each game. He wasn't fast enough to deal with my threats, I outnumbered him pretty quickly. Finks and Voice did their thing again and just provided too much value for him to deal with. Well placed Bolts forced him into bad combat situations when needed.
2-0 VS Jund
Game 1 was a lot of back and forth trading. When the Lili came down, discarding Smiter turned the board around and let me swarm pretty quickly. Game 2 was similar, but Sejiri Steppe actually put in a lot of work, making a very favorable combat situation that forced him into making bad blocks to not die. Overall the matchup comes down to a lot of trades, but I tend to always be ahead of the clock, and my threats are recurring.
0-2 VS Skred Red
Brutal matchup. Throughout both games I faced the wrath of plentiful board wipes, blood moons, and batterskull to negate all of my work.
I'm probably going to run four Pridemage mainboard. The toss up after that is do you run Voice, do you run Skite, do you run something like Meddling Mage... there are so many options there.
Good first outing anyway. Sounds like Smiter put in work as well. I'd definitely be running Smiter over Geist in this deck because of the meta.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
also Pridemage (yes a very good card) doesn't really do much to relic, relics done its damage as soon as its hit the field. if you pridemage a relic you've payed 3 mana, lost a card and they've gotten to clear your graveyard and draw for 1 mana. I get that sometimes its a necessity to unlock the GY again but pridemaging a relic is a very poor play.
Sometimes they just get turn three Karn, but sometimes you just get turn 3 combo. I think Stony Silence is generally the best option. the most effective thing I find is actually counterspells. Were not terribly worried about wurmcoil as we run 4 paths. which means the only scary things left in the deck are Karns and Ugins. and even there Karns are beatable, i don't think I've ever beat a resolved Ugin though. If we can stop those and win before emrakul shows up to the party thats the match. In the board i think after Stoney, negate is our best card. answering everything path doesn't.
If you're playing red crumble is probably good, if you're strictly Bant i think either negate, or unified will is what I'm testing now, are where you want to be. I also think Aven Mindcensor should probably earn a spot in the SB if you're looking for more Tron hate and another Tech Edge or Ghost Quarter as well.
all that said though i feel like the deck is about 50/50 pre board against GR Tron.
Pridemage ensures it's off the field before you try do any kind of combo. You're doing it before the fact, not after. Yes, they can sacrifice it and draw but they can do the same with any artifact removal with open mana, you're just forcing them to get rid of it before you move on with your gameplan. You can play chicken with it as well and not sacrifice it immediately but leave yourself open to sacrifice, or sacrifice in response to removal. You can still get a creature out of it.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sejiri Steppe
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Canopy Vista
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Knight of the Reliquary
Spells
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Lingering Souls
1 Painful Truths
3 Retreat to Coralhelm
2 Stony Silence
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Batterskull
1 Darkblast
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Unravel the AEther
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Negate
1 Spellskite
As much as Bob would provide this deck with great CA, he's too painful. Tasigur, Jace VP, and Painful Truths are here to provide CA in lieu of Bob. Painful Truths is less painful than Bob whenever he survives. Jace VP should be good with Retreat to Coralhelm, and he's only a bit more vulnerable than Bob.
After quite a bit of testing against Burn, the mana base solidified. I tried Tectonic Edge, but got too many heartbreaking losses against Burn when I was just shy of lethal, so I threw it out for Ghost Quarter. GQ is great at targeting my lands mid-combo. As much as I'd love to stick in a manland, the second GQ is better at pumping KotR. Maaaaaybe I can ditch a fetch for a manland, as I often don't find all my fetches mid-combo. I tried Shambling Vent before I had to ditch it. I like Vent because it taps for black mana in a GW-dual-heavy list. The red mana source is currently Cinder Glade, as when I was against Burn, I found that I lost too many combo games to Stomping Ground's life loss. If I'm comboing with 2 lands and a Hierarch so none of my Tangolands can ETB untapped, I probably have high enough life that Wolf Run is unnecessary. Speaking of Wolf Run, it's the pump land for 2 reasons: It provides evasion in a list that can't afford to lose that many land slots, and it works when I have 3 mana floating (I hit that maximum mana floating number too often against Burn).
Sadly, this maindeck is bad enough against Burn that the combo needs to work against them, which is why the mana base got more and more warped. As an aside, I barely won with the combo against Affinity with this mana base--they were at 22 life when I comboed off! The first GQ hit a manland, but the second GQ's pump, along with Wolf Run +1, proved crucial.
A neat thing I found is that KotR can provide the blue source for casting Retreat, then get untapped with my land drop for the turn so I can combo off.
The sideboard is rather untested, but it's based on my typical Junk Midrange boards. Stony Silence should be great as both deck hoser and anti-hate (Spellskite, yard hate rocks).
On Qasali Pridemage vs. Relic of Progenitus and Tron:
Yes, Pridemage is for popping Relic pre-combo. Yes, a few lands will be lost from the yard, but newly being able to combo off is great! We can play chicken with Relic and not fully combo off for turns straight, but the moment the opponent faces lethal, s/he will pop Relic and make KotR lose all its boosts for a turn. As RG Tron, I took 5 damage a turn from KotR for turns straight with an unpopped Relic. Not letting them combo off is that good. (It doesn't help that my RG Tron list maindecks Alchemist's Vial, which also hoses the combo for a turn and can be popped early to stave off lethal.)
From when I tested typical Naya Collected Company Zoo against RG Tron, Tron generally wins, so the combo is crucial at generating free wins. Thus, Tron's Relics sting that much more. I heavily suspect that any other Knightly Retreat list is even slower against Tron, and is therefore worse unless it packs LD in its 75 or runs a glut of cantrips.
I'd like to see a Liege deck up there. If not mine, another one. Some form of Bant Liege or Abzan Liege splashed Blue should work very well with this given that Liege has already been successful via guys like Kibler. With the meta so Jund / Abzan heavy Liege is bound to be a strong meta call as well but that's just my personal opinion.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall