Knightfall Combo

by Guitarhero1 on 24 March 2021

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Artifacts (3)


Enchantments (3)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

So I remembered suddenly that Knightfall was a pretty sweet combo from a few years ago. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to last very long and couldn't quite hold up in the changing meta at the time. It certainly didn't help that Amulet Titan rose to prominence along with Summer Bloom as the format's frontrunning land-based deck. But now that we have moved through several years worth of new cards and interactions, I think it might be time to revisit the combo. I consulted a couple of friends to put together a list that primarily focuses on landing Knight and Coralhelm to search through your library finding as many lands as you can bin followed by floating enough mana to search up Rogue's Passage at the end of the chain to get in for 20+ damage unblocked.

This list feels similar to Infect in many ways, however, it only requires two pieces to combo off and keeps several additional copies of those pieces by utilizing tutors. Theoretically, this list wants to win by turn three as consistently as possible, but even if it is unable to do so, the list provides several ways to search and filter through your deck for the pieces required in order to get in for the win while also protecting your pieces.

As always, suggestions and recommendations are welcome. I haven't had chance to test play this list yet, so hopefully it will perform well enough locally to justify online meta testing.

As an edit, I'd like to mention that variants of this list that featured a backup Isochron/Silence package win condition have been discussed and will likely see play testing as a sideboard win condition to prevent interaction from your opponents. This hasn't been completely fleshed out yet, as we wanted to get a better idea of what the deck can do on its own first. And many other variations of Knightfall are available for references if your meta demands differing answers, the board options here are specifically geared toward achieving combo as quickly as possible and protecting it against my local meta which can only account for so many matchups and interactions. Good luck to any who try this list, and please, let me know how it goes!

How to Play

Essentially your lines are as follows:
1. Land 1 then Noble or Alseid (depending on your opener)
2. Land 2 then Knight, Omen, T3feri, or tutor for any missing pieces
3. Retreat for the kill, or play defensively around opposing counterplay and then get in when an opening is available.

A handy tip I've noticed so far is to avoid playing a land on T3 if Rogue's Passage is in your hand so that you can drop it once you've hit a critical mass of land cards in the yard. This is only if you have the combo online (in play), otherwise making the drop will add to your ability to double spell on your opponents' turns and mitigate the removal of a Hierarch that ramped earlier in the game.

Some matchups seem particularly problematic, especially if they interact with the graveyard, hand, or outmaneuver creatures in combat. So in order to avoid these issues, the sideboard is intended to eliminate problematic matchups that my friends and I speculate might be the most common. These include Tron, Titan, and Burn but the board may also cover other matchups relatively well with further testing.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Bant
  • Knightfall
  • Combo

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

3
Likes

This deck has been viewed 849 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

19150014

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Knightfall Combo

Search for the decktag: knightfall
The top two decks are lists where I go infinite mana to abuse mindshrieker
Mindshrieker also serves as a way to establish the combo quicker by creating an effect similar to lanternmill, just centered on yourself.

Perhaps you can use my variants to something :)

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Posted 24 March 2021 at 13:27

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This is awesome! I love it, I'll definitely see how that might work in this shell. I still haven't had a chance to even playtest this list as is, but I'm super stoked to try new stuff with it.

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Posted 24 March 2021 at 22:48

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Eladamri's call is definitely the easiest way to go combo with the creature parts, but since it only works on that, it might not be the best way to go infinite.

I usually use sage of Epityr to manipulate my odds of drawing the right stuff, but overwhelmed apprentice might also be a powerhouse in that direction, so a combination of overwhelming apprentice and omen of the sea might be overall better than omen and eladamri.

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Posted 25 March 2021 at 00:02

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Sage and Apprentice both seem really solid for putting bodies into play that dig and setup. Initially the popular thought among my friend group was that Eladamri's Call was instant speed, and with T3feri out we could assemble pieces on our opponents' turns by holding up interaction if necessary or tutoring if not. That being said, the Call definitely goes all in on finding one creature, unless I find myself NEEDING a Noble or Alseid for some strange reason. I definitely see how that puts me in a corner if for some reason I can't retrieve a Knight, and those filtering cards could really help prevent that issue. The next time I'm at the shop when I can get some play testing in I'll certainly bring that up, it seems like it could be very relevant if Surgical Extraction starts popping back up in sideboards. I'm hoping that counterspells will keep the combo protected from control and other combo decks, but I won't always have an answer for everything.

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Posted 25 March 2021 at 06:47

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You can always test with proxies against proxy decks to see how the cards work together.
I can tell that overwhelmed apprentice will be great. Here's why:

playing it turn 1 will give you the following advantages:

1: you can keep hands with just 1 land (provided it's blue) and the apprentice will dig down to new lands, making it a manafixer.

2: it's mill will reveal which deck your opponent is playing, and at the same time you can then scry useless cards away preparing to face the deck at turn 2.

3: you get an early defence.

Lategame you get to do the following:

1: if your opponent plays a scry effect the apprentice mills their carefully planted card away.

2: you start abusing teferi and the apprentice to both mill your opponent and to scry forward into your deck.
If you set it up right you will sort of get way ahead on the card quality of what your draw, that the opponent gets depressed and scoops.

3: in my own build the apprentice can be timed perfectly by courser of kruphix. It can also be used to set up the top for a last ditch attack with mindshrieker.

Sage of Epityr will have less tricks but stacks your deck a lot better, especially when used with fetchlands to remove bad cards

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Posted 25 March 2021 at 08:31

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Posted 25 March 2021 at 08:32

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wickeddarkman has deleted this comment.

Posted 25 March 2021 at 08:33

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User: Alfred has suggested lotus cobra on my version.
Seems like a quality pick.
With cerulean wisps it might be possible to go off at turn 3 in my version.

Turn 1 bird/noble

Turn 2 knight.

Turn 3 play two lotus cobra, activate knight, (get 2 mana and a new land, tap for mana)
From there it should be possible to find a way to play both cerulean wisp and retreat to coralheim and get the loop.
(Maybe through 2 cerulean wisps ? Maybe I should be content with turn a turn 4 kill?)

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Posted 25 March 2021 at 17:43

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Lol, turn 4 is definitely not bad for a kill. I like going off on 3 because it absolutely demands interaction from the opponent in game 1 if it goes off, but I figured keeping the combo simplified by have a 20+ power unblockable Knight with protection from removal is pretty solid as a feature win condition without pushing for too many new pieces, but Cobra and Apprentice are both really attractive as playable cards. I've been working all week so the first chance I'll have to proxy and test against other players will be tomorrow or Sunday depending on who shows up at my lgs. Also, BoP seems like a solid card that I don't have in my list. I like Noble for the exalted triggers, but it might be solid to add Birds to the mix to speed things up a bit and more consistently get my mana online by turn 3.

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Posted 26 March 2021 at 02:29

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Usually a mix of noble and birds are usefull.
I've played ensnaring bridge a lot, and I've been beaten plenty by exalted birds :)
Both aggression and evasion is important.

Another exalted card that is usually considered in this type of deck is the quasali pridemage, which also ate into my ensnaring bridges in the olden days.
People also had bow of nylea in the sb.

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Posted 26 March 2021 at 03:08

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