Knights have always been a signature creature type since the early days of MTG. From the very first set, both White Knight and Black Knight led the charge in their respective mono-colored aggro decks. Continuing this tradition, here are five MTG Arena decks that show the virtue of delivering a beatdown.
5. Mono-White Knights (Historic)
She’s always worth including in any knight-based deck.
Mono-White Knights aim to flood the board with small creatures as fast as possible. Once you have enough creatures, you can multiply your damage output by using effects that power up your entire team. You also have several cards that protect your creatures against mass removal.
What's good about this deck:
- It can play out its hand very fast, so games can end in a couple of turns if the opponent has a slow start.
- If your opponent manages to put up several blockers, you have plenty of ways to power up your team and break the stalemate.
- Against decks that have a lot of removal spells, Castle Ardenvale gives you a repeatable source of creatures that’s difficult to remove.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your ideal hand should have several cheap creatures and a way to give a stat boost like Benalish Marshal or The Circle of Loyalty.
- Mulligan away hands that you can’t play out in the first four turns. With that said, it’s better to keep a slower six-card hand than mulligan again because going down to five is too much.
- If you have Worthy Knight, play it first before your other knights. This lets you get free 1/1s that benefit the most from your anthem effects.
- Save your Conclave Tribunal for critical targets. Use it against big creatures that stop you from attacking or planeswalkers.
- Against control decks, save your Unbreakable Formation to counter mass removal instead of casting it on your turn for damage.
Cards:
Deck2 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
4 Benalish Marshal
2 Acclaimed Contender
4 Knight of Grace
4 Dauntless Bodyguard
4 Venerable Knight
4 Worthy Knight
4 History of Benalia
2 Unbreakable Formation
2 Valiant Knight
3 The Circle of Loyalty
3 Conclave Tribunal
2 Castle Ardenvale
20 Plains
4. Orzhov Vampires (Historic)
Sorin is brooding over what planeswalker ability he should use.
Orzhov Vampires takes all the best vampires in Historic and puts them into a synergistic tribal deck. Your cheap creatures are hard to block and your top-end vampires have abilities that scale with how many vampires you have. Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord sets up your best draws by growing your creatures, dealing damage to any target, or cheating out a big threat.
What's good about this deck:
- It has a great matchup against creature decks. Your creatures have relevant abilities for combat like Deathtouch and Indestructible. Sorin and Sanctum Seeker also lets you gain life to win damage races.
- You can finish most games in only a few turns. It’s a great choice if you want to progress up the Historic ranking ladder and only a limited amount of time.
- This deck doesn’t run out of gas. Champion of Dusk draws a ton of cards while Adanto, the First Fort and Castle Locthwain are sources of card advantage that’s hard to remove.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a one and two-mana vampire, Sorin, and Champion of Dusk. Mulligan away hands that have too many lands or no early plays.
- Adanto Vanguard is the best target for Sorin’s first ability in the early game. The Lifelink helps offset the cost of Adanto Vanguard’s Indestructible ability.
- When calculating combat damage, remember that Drana, Liberator of Malakir has First Strike. This means that your other creatures will get the +1/+1 counters before they deal combat damage.
- Cast Legion’s Landing pre-combat if you’re going to attack with at least three creatures. This lets you flip it into a land immediately and use it for mana.
- Attack first with your Knight of the Ebon Legion before using your mana for other things. The threat of activation is usually enough to discourage your opponent from blocking.
Cards:
Deck4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Adanto Vanguard
3 Dusk Legion Zealot
4 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Legion Lieutenant
3 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2 Sanctum Seeker
4 Champion of Dusk
4 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
4 Legion's Landing
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Godless Shrine
2 Castle Locthwain
8 Swamp
6 Plains
3. Rakdos Knights (Historic)
Symmetrical card draw won’t be a problem if you kill your opponent quickly.
Rakdos Knights hits hard and fast with under-costed creatures supported by cheap removal. Demonic Embrace gives you a constant way to grant your attackers flying plus extra power. The creatures at the top-end of your mana curve go over ground-based blockers to close out the game.
What's good about this deck:
- You have many creatures that hit for a ton of damage and are hard to block. A Rotting Regisaur enchanted with Demonic Embrace is a two-turn kill if they don’t have a flying blocker.
- Your threats can keep coming back. You only need to damage your opponent to get back Gutterbones and you can discard dead cards or excess land to cast Demonic Embrace.
- Against control decks, Castle Locthwain ensures that you never run out of gas because they don’t pressure your life total.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a couple of one or two-mana creatures, Rotting Regisaur, and Demonic Embrace or a four-mana creature.
- Attack first with your Knight of the Ebon Legion before using your mana for other things. The threat of you activating the knight’s ability is usually enough to discourage your opponent from blocking.
- When racing other aggressive decks, Blacklance Paragon can swing the game in your favor. Use it to take out one of their big attacking creatures or combine it with pumping Knight of the Ebon Legion to gain a big chunk of life.
- Don’t run out Rotting Regisaur on Turn 3 if your opponent can stall it and you have other good cards. In that scenario, work on emptying your hand first so the discard drawback doesn't hurt you.
- Consider your options when you damage an opponent with Rankle, Master of Pranks. There are cases where you don’t want to use the draw option because it might let your opponent draw an answer.
Cards:
Deck4 Fervent Champion
4 Gutterbones
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
2 Robber of the Rich
4 Stormfist Crusader
4 Blacklance Paragon
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Rotting Regisaur
4 Demonic Embrace
2 Rankle, Master of Pranks
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
1 Fabled Passage
8 Swamp
7 Mountain
2. Mardu Knights (Historic)
No matter the size, Blacklances can take out anyone in combat.
Mardu Knights is a tribal deck using all the best knights black, red and white has to offer. Many of your Knights grant bonuses exclusive to that creature type and most scale based on how many Knights you have. Protection spells make sure that you have a way to secure your board against single or mass removal.
What's good about this deck:
- The core cards of the deck are from Throne of Eldraine. This means you can invest your wildcards in this deck and use them in Standard as well.
- Your protection spells and the threat of Embercleave guarantee that you come out ahead during creature combat.
- Smitten Swordmaster gives you a way to win outside of combat even if your opponent manages to stop you from attacking.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a one-mana knight, a Worthy Knight, and a couple of other knights or a protection spell.
- Mulligan away hands that have too many lands or non-creature spells. A hand without a one-mana creature is passable if you’re on the play.
- Getting Worthy Knight or Stormfist Crusader down early lets you maximize the card advantage you get from them.
- Blacklance Paragon’s ability lets you kill large attackers/blockers by surprise. This works even better when used in combination with First Strike/Double Strike.
- When you equip Embercleave to a creature with Deathtouch, you can assign only one point of damage to a blocker and let the rest Trample to the opponent.
Cards:
Deck4 Fervent Champion
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Venerable Knight
4 Worthy Knight
4 Inspiring Veteran
3 Corpse Knight
3 Smitten Swordmaster
2 Blacklance Paragon
2 Stormfist Crusader
3 Embercleave
4 Fight as One
2 Unbreakable Formation
4 Tournament Grounds
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Plains
2 Swamp
1. Boros Knights (Standard)
This veteran inspires not only his troops but also the next generation.
Boros Knights is the only deck in this list that’s playable in Standard. It uses cards like Worthy Knight and Acclaimed Contender that reward you for sticking with the knight creature type. You have access to several burn, pump and removal spells thanks to the spell side of your Adventure creatures.
What's good about this deck:
- You can finish most games in only a few turns. It’s a great choice if you want to progress up the ranking ladder and only a limited amount of time.
- You're almost guaranteed to have Embercleave due to having four copies of it and four Acclaimed Contenders who can dig for equipment.
- Your cards are decent even without the synergy. Your creatures already pass the mana cost to base stats ratio so you’re not compromising power for those extra abilities.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a one-drop, a Worthy Knight, and a couple of other creatures plus an Embercleave.
- Mulligan away hands that have too many lands or non-creature spells. It’s okay to keep a hand without a one-mana creature if you’re on the play.
- Play Worthy Knight early to get as many triggers as you can from casting your other Knights. You can also opt to cast it alongside another knight instead when facing a deck with lots of removal.
- Attack first with your creatures before using your mana for other things. The threat of a sudden Embercleave can discourage your opponent from blocking even if you don’t have it.
- The best target for your stat-boosting effects is the creature equipped with Embercleave. Doublestrike makes it such that the increase in power is twice as effective.
Cards:
Deck4 Fervent Champion
2 Giant Killer
4 Venerable Knight
4 Inspiring Veteran
4 Rimrock Knight
4 Worthy Knight
4 Acclaimed Contender
4 Bonecrusher Giant
2 Shatterskull Smashing
2 Maul of the Skyclaves
4 Embercleave
4 Needleverge Pathway
4 Tournament Grounds
6 Mountain
8 Plains
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