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Dolf's Magic the Gathering Deck Garage
White Knights Deck
February 4, 2011

Lawrence  wrote:

Hi I was on your site and seen you do a great job fixing up decks and give great advice on what to do with them. I am currently working on a white deck and would love to have some of your insight on it... I was building it off of the Hero of bladefold and trying to add other cards that add tokens plus use artifacts and enhancements to add attack/defense to creatures in play I was likeing the armored ascension for that but also had an idea to add white knights and find some knight examplar or more metalcraft cards but cant find them at this time. 

Thank you very much - Lawrence

Artifacts
1x Everflowing Chalice
2x Glint Hawk Idol
1x Golden Urn
1x Darksteel Axe
1x Flayer Husk
1x Infiltration Lens
2x Memnite
1x Ornithopter

Creatures
2x Glint Hawk
2x Sunspear Shikari
4x Hero of Bladehold
1x White Knight
4x Salvage Scout
3x Auriok Edgewright
2x Auriok Sunchaser
3x Kor Cartographer
3x Kor Skyfisher

Enchantments
2x Armored Ascension

Land
21x Plains

Spells
3x Master's Call

------------

Lawrence,

I didn't see a whole lot of token generators in white/artifact that I really like for this deck plus white weenie is one of my favorite archetypes of all time. As such the fact you mentioned doing a knight deck is right up my alley and this is what I'm going to build. Because we're totally shifting our theme here most of the cards you have listed are going to go right out the window and I'll end up just telling you what cards I'd put into a knight deck and why. Let's get started!

So Hero of Bladehold is obviously staying in since it's a really good card, is a knight, and is what you were trying to build around from the start. Additionally we can bring the count on White Knight up to 4 since he's one of the best 2 drops ever printed in my opinion. So we need to round out the rest of the deck with a good beaters since aggro decks really want to come out swinging and then add some combination of removal/utility/protection/recursion to fill out the rest of the deck.

So looking at 1 drops for this deck we obviously need to include Student of Warfare since it's just a really good card. If you have another knight to play on turn 2 great but if you get stuck or you find it worthwhile you can level him twice and get a 3/3 first striking monstrosity on turn 2 instead. That about does it for the one drops, Caravan escort is the only other 1 drop knight in standard but I think this is just a sub-par card. However, if you feel you need more early game feel free to fit it in.

So for our second two drop it's going to be a toss up here between Leonin Skyhunter and Accorder Paladin both from Mirrodin Besieged. Personally I think the Skyhunter is the better choice because it's a 2/2 with evasion. The Paladin and it's Wary Cry ability are nice but that 1 toughness leaves a lot to be desired, even if he does swing and add another point of attack damage he can be chumped by a mana myr. You could maybe fork 2 in there just so you'll likely come across them when you have enough guys to make their war cry effect have some impact but I may be wrong about him.

For three drops it gets pretty easy since we obviously want Knight Exemplar in here as the ability to both buff and make the rest of your squad indestructible is just bonkers. Plus she herself is a 2/2 first striker and so can hold her own in combat (though I might try to wait for a second copy or a key piece of equipment I'll discuss later). We can also get some copies of Mirran Crusader in here which looks like it's just a solid card. A 2/2 body, double strike and protection from black and green seems pretty good to me.

Since we obviously know what our 4 drop is with Hero of Bladehold we can move on to fill out the rest of the deck. Honor of the Pure seems like a no brainer as buffing your whole team for 2 mana is always good. Another card I think would be good in this deck is Brave the Elements which for 1 mana at instant speed can give your team protection from any color. This is a utility spell that is good on offense and defense either letting you swing past your opponents team, allowing them to block without fear, or even saving them from some nasty spell.

We also likely want some kind of removal and we basically have our pick of Puncturing Light, Journey to Nowhere, Condemn, and Celestial Purge. The journey is probably a decent main deck answer to most creatures and the purge should likely be in your sideboard as a silver bullet against heavy red or black decks. As an answer to control decks you likely want to run Silence in the board as well so you can save your team against any nasty sweepers.

The last thing you might want to get in here main deck is some equipment. I like the Infiltration Lens as it comes down quickly and makes it tough on your opponent as they're forced to then decide between taking damage or giving you more cards. You should also run Basilisk Collar which you can stick on your Exemplar so that you can swing without worrying about her dying thanks to the combination of first strike and deathtouch. Not to mention it also comes out fairly quick and it'll gain you some life which red deck players hate.

Some final notes here. For your lands be sure to include 2 maybe 3 copies of Emeria the Sky Ruin as late game it could significantly help you out by restocking your army. Also I cut down the count on Hero of Bladehold to 3 as we're not focused on tokens with this deck and we want to be fast and aggressive so that let me fit in the fourth copy of Journey to Nowhere to keep the pressure on your opponent early. Lastly I'm including Kor Firewalker in your sideboard who isn't a Knight but against red decks is an essential piece to bring in.

That about does it so all together we have something that looks like this:

23 Creatures:

4x Student of Warfare
4x Leonin Skyhunter
4x White Knight
4x Mirran Crusader
4x Knight Exemplar
3x Hero of Bladehold

11 Spells:

4x Honor of the Pure
3x Brave the elements
4x Journey to Nowhere

4 Artifacts:

2x Infiltration Lens
2x Basilisk Collar

22 Lands

Sideboard:

4x Celestial Purge
4x Silence
1x Brave the Elements
4x Kor Firewalker
2x Accorder Paladin

Thanks for the submission and as always be sure to do some playtesting to finalize your numbers.

-Dolf

 


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