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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Mighty Knights
July 30, 2007

Hi BMoor

 

Here's a quick deck fix for you. I know that white knights aren't original or new but they have some sort of determination about them to keep on fighting. Plus they are cheap and cost effective. So here is my simple flanking deck. I'm not entirely sure where to go with it and therefore do not have full playsets of all the cards yet. The idea of the deck is to get as many knights out as possible and flank my way to victory with the help of cavalry master. I'm not sure that gaze of justice should be in there as I don't want to be tapping my creatures but instead attacking. Some of the other cards are a bit suspect as regards their worthiness to be in the deck too... anyway enough rambling. Any help would be greatly appreciated in getting the deck up to the next level. Thanks, Matt.

 

21 Plains

 

4 Benalish Cavalry

4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus

2 Amrou Scout

4Outrider en-Kor

2 Zhalfirin Commander

1 riftmarked Knight

4 Cavcalry Master

2 Knight of Sursi

4 Pentarch Paladin

 

4 Gaze of Justice

4 Swift Maneuver

4 Kjeldoran War Cry

1 Pentarch Ward

Well, Matt, it would be downright unchivalrous of me to refuse your request, so let's see what we can do to keep your knights from saying "nee!" at the sight of the enemy.

Now, your deck is dedicated to creatures on two criteria: that they're Knights (for Zhalfirin Commander) and that they have flanking (for Cavalry Master).  I don't think every creature needs to be both, but you'll definitely want every creature to be one or the other.  To that end, let's take out Amrou Scout.  Yes, searching for Knight of the Holy Nimbus or Riftmarked Knight is nice, but with 4 KotHN, you'll almost always draw one.  And frankly, Riftmarked Knight is uimpressive-- it takes six turns to come down if you want the extra token.  Let's remove Riftmarked Knight and the Scout.

Then there's Pentarch Paladin.  Five mana is a lot for this deck, but on the other hand, a 3/3 flanker can kill any creature with less than 5 toughness.  But on the original hand, will you be attacking with it or using its ability?  On the other hand again, that is a powerful ability as long as your opponent isn't completely relying on artifacts.  Let's knock the Paladin down to two copies.  Outrider en-Kor can probably do with two copies as well, seeing as how you don't really have any obvious targets for its ability.  As such, it's basically a 2/2 flanker with a marginal ability-- not bad, but not something we need four of.

Speaking of 2/2 flankers for 2W, I'ma fraid Zhalfirin Commander isn't exactly the stalwart cavalry leader we'd like him to be.  You only get +1/+1 for 1WW?  That's too much to be paying; it'll never be useful at that rate.  I know you want a Knight deck,a nd I support that, but Zhalfirin Commander just isn't an effective leader.  The question then becomes, who is?

Well, there is another creature who acts as a Knight Lord of sorts that could bring this group of horsebacked warriors into line, but there's a problem.  You see, the man for this job... is dead.  I refer of course to Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.  I know, it's a bold move, but with the righteous power of the white Knights combined with the eternal resurrection of Haakon's leadership, you could outlast any enemy, slay any army.  We've taken out 9 creatures so far, so let's add in 3 Haakon.  You'll need six more Knights.  Only trouble is, the Black knights tend to be more color-intensive than the white ones.  You could try Knight of Dusk, who despite her high demand for black mana is incredibly powerful, or Skulking Knight, whose fragility is made up for by being a 3/3 flanker who only requires one black mana.  I favor Knight of Dusk, frankly.  You'll also want some air support besides Knight of Sursi, so try Skyhunter Prowler.  A 1/3 vigilant flyer makes a good combat Knight.  Three Skyhunter Prowler and three Knight of Dusk will work quite well.

Now, your other spells.  As you suggested, these spells don't look good.  Only Kjeldoran War Cry is worth keeping.  The rest we'll pull.  Now, we'll need some way of discarding Haakon so we can actually play him, and begin to overwhelm the enemy with our Knights' inability to truly die.  Most Haakon decks use Smallpox for this job, since by discarding Haakon and sacrificing a Knight, they essentially don't have to give up either of these things while your opponent will be significantly more crippled.  Smallpox would work well, but again it's double-black to cast.  Trouble is, white doesn't have any good way to make itself discard, and black has little else that this deck would want besides Delirium Skeins.  We'll go with 4 Smallpox.

Next, you'll want some way to get both colors of mana.  Orzhov Signet is about to rotate out of Standard, but I guess we'll use it here anyway.  When it rotates, maybe Mind Stone will help you draw into a land.  And speaking of drawing into things, the final spell we'll add is Judge Unworthy.  It replaces Gaze of Justice nicely, and will make sure you get the cards you need when you need them.  Neither white nor black have any good card draw spells (anymore), so Judge Unworthy will do nicely here.  Besides, it sounds like exactly what Knights do to their enemies, doesn't it?

Finally, the land.  We added another color, so this will need to be reworked.  You're still mostly white, but the black spells in here all need double-black mana (and Knight of Dusk even more so, unless you go with Skulking Knight).  You definitely need 4 Terramorphic Expanse in here.  That leaves 17 land slots, so 10 Plains and 7 Swamps should do nicely.  I hope.

Until next time, may the devotees of the Round Table lay waste to the tournament tables!

~BMoor