With the release of Dominaria, I was excited to build knights for a couple reasons. I love tribal decks, and the color combination of Orzhov. The deck was fun but it felt like it was lacking something to make it more competitive, especially in the mid to late game. Now, with the release of Core set M19, we have a couple cards that I believe will push the deck into where it needs to be.
Ajani is fantastic! He immediately produces two creatures, or returns a creature with converted mana cost 2 or less from the graveyard directly to the battlefield. His ultimate leaves a lot to be desired, but i have found the true value of planeswalkers, and how they contribute to our game plan, does not fall directly in correlation with their ultimate. Incorporating these powerful and synergistic cards into the first attempt of the deck should breath new light into the archetype. Building onto the original core is essential, which was designed around these next two specific cards.
Both Knights are great at buffing the other, and having built in evasion from some of the most effective removal spells in the format is invaluable. Having first strike allows either knight to transition seamlessly from offensive, and defensive, based on the current board state needs. Their value increases with Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants in the deck, as both are prime targets for his reanimate ability. Sticking with the Tribal Knight theme, we have the following cards to strengthen our game plan.
To top off the great creatures, we are able to capitalize on arguably, one of the best saga’s to come out of Dominaria, in History of Benalia. This card does everything we want to be doing, allowing us to build up our board state with creatures, and pressure our opponents life total through combat.
Rounding out the deck, we have a good number of removal to choose from. The colors of Orzhov give us access to multiple types of interactions, such as destroy and exile effects, discard, and even -1/-1 counters from a utility land.
We can spin all of this into a deck that should be aggressive enough to pressure hard in the early game, and still be resilient enough to excel into the late game.
Orzhov Knights
| Lands (24) 4 Isolated Chapel 4 Concealed Courtyard 3 Ifnir Deadlands 3 Shefet Dunes 7 Plains 3 Swamp Creatures (24) 1 Vona, Butcher of Magan 2 Valiant Knight 2 Kwende, Pride of Femeref 2 Benalish Marshal 2 Paladin of Atonement 3 Aryel, Knight of Windgrace 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 4 Knight of Grace 4 Knight of Malice Instants and Sorceries (4) 4 Fatal Push Other Spells (8) 2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants 4 History of Benalia 2 Cast Out | Sideboard (15) 2 Arguel’s Blood Fast 2 Settle the Wreckage 2 Cast Out 2 Vraska’s Contempt 3 Ixalan’s Binding 4 Duress |
I'm a semi-competitive magic player. I like playing jank and fun decks. I'm a fun-loving layed back guy. I play EDH, Standard, Modern, and Legacy
This decklist looks awesome! I’m also a huge sucker for tribal decks and knights in the latest sets look great.