Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner

Trading Card
Game
Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports

Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff

120x90 Ad Space
For Rent!

BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Exalted Knights
December 22, 2008

Today's decklist comes from "Crayzhorse", but feels more like a tribute to Krazy Kat.  Anyone who gets that reference: I owe you a cookie.

Hello, just wanted any words of wisdom for my FNM deck that I am currently building. I am in love with the "exalted" mechanic and "Shield of the Oversoul" so I built around that. I also love "Quasali Ambusher" as well. The deck is as follows:

MainBoard:

(Creatures - 17)

Akrasan Squire - 4
Kinsbaile Cavalier - 2
Qasali Ambusher - 2
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers - 2
Steward of Valeron - 3
Stoic Angel - 2
Wilt-Leaf Liege - 2

(Spells - 19)

Bant Charm - 4
Broken Ambitions - 2
Cancel - 4
Oblivion Ring - 4
Recumbent Bliss - 2
Shield of the Oversoul - 3

(Lands - 24)

Bant Panorama - 4
Seaside Citadel - 4
Terramorphic Expanse - 4
Forest - 2
Island - 5
Plains - 5

SideBoard:

(Creatures - 6)

Paladin En-Vec - 2
Rhox War Monk - 2
Waveskimmer Aven - 2

(Spells - 9)

Raking Canopy - 2
Angelsong - 2
Snakeform - 3
Naturalize - 2

I'm trying to keep a decent budget on this, and the deck seems to work quite well online, but hasn't been play-tested at an actual live FNM event yet. Any words of wisdom?

Crayzhorse

Well, looking through your list of creatures, I'm a little stumped on what theme you want to pursue the most.  You say Exalted, but the lowly 1/1 Squire is your only creature with Exalted.  Granted, Stoic Angel seems to have an ability that would encourage attacking with one creature only, but with Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and Steward of Valeron in the deck, you could easily attack with three or four creatures and still untap them all, and that will usually be much more powerful that the +1/+1 you'd get for leaving the other three creatures at home.  And then you've got Kinsbaile Cavalier, rewarding you for playing Knights!  The best piece of advice I can give you is to narrow down your themes.

For now, I'm going to cut Akrasan Squire for two more Qasali Ambushers and two more Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers.  They seem like the two that are easiest to cast-- the one using hybrid mana and the other castable off no mana at all.  They're also pretty powerful, and they both like Shield of the Oversoul, another theme you wanted to play with.

Meanwhile, let's look at your spells.  It looks like you want to focus on Green and White in this deck, with a mere splash of Blue.  In that case, cut Cancel.  It's too Blue-heavy for you to count on having 1UU up and still being able to cast the Wilt-Leaves and such.  In their place, 2 more Broken Ambitions will give you as much countermagic as you should need, and you can bring the two Rhox War Monk from the sideboard.  They really are good enough to maindeck.

To replace them in the sideboard, I'd suggest two more Raking Canopy, to fight against Faeries.  Not that anything beats Faeries anyway, but y'know, it's important to try.

Finally, to reflect your color proportions, you don't need that many Islands.  With Seaside Citadel, the Panoramas, and Terramorphic Expanse, you shouldn't need more than one Island.  Replace the other four with Forest and Plains, since that's what Qasali Ambusher needs you to control to be free.  He doesn't ambush anything from atop a Seaside Citadel, apparently.

That ought to do it.  Give those tweaks a try, and see if your opponent don't think Crayzhorse is crazy like a fox.

Good luck!

~BMoor