Kwende - Knight Tribal (budget)

[D-Swift]

Kwende - Knight Tribal (budget)

Fairly casual deck that is just trying to have some fun. Let me know what you think (even if it's trash) and if I'm missing anything. This is a first draft of the deck.

[Marshstepper78]

This seems like a fun casual deck.

Mana Tithe is a card I would take out. Outside of a fast cEDH meta (if even at that), I don't think it's going to be very useful. I feel like it's going to be a dead card in your hand most of the time.

Staff of Nin is another card I'd take out. It's expensive, the pinging ability is near-useless and the card draw kicks in on your next turn so your opponents have a chance to remove it before you even break card parity.

I would also include a couple of non-basic lands. Secluded Steppe and Shefet Dunes would be the first 2 I'd consider. Then you could look at Sandstone Bridge, Sejiri Steppe and Windbrisk Heights if a few utility lands coming into play tapped won't affect your tempo.

If you feel as if you need more first strike on your board, Advance Scout not only has first strike, but can hand it out to any creature of yours in need. Knighthood does the same, but I don't know if your deck actually needs it. Cartouche of Solidarity could be good too.

Here are some other creatures to consider if you want to up your threat density or swap out creatures you feel are subpar: Encampment Keeper, Elite Inquisitor, Consul's Lieutenant, Ballynock Cohort, Chieftain en-Dal, Mosquito Guard, Longbow Archer and Porcelain Legionnaire.

[paulusdeboself]

Nice deck. Looks like fun to play.

You've got quite a few anthems. I would like to recommend some creatures and one aura, so maybe you can cut a few of them. And besides the first strike is Baneslayer Angel an off-theme creature, so that could be a cut as well. Cloud Crusader is expensive in mana for a 2/3 flier, so that is a possible cut too. But I know you have to have some protection against flying. My suggestion has something to do with that as well.

Anyway:
I would like to suggest Knight-captain of Eos, Lena, selfless champion and gift of immortality. If you enchant Lena with the Gift you can sacrifice her again and again to generate soldiers. Those soldiers can then be sacrificed to the Knight-captain to prevent (flying) combat damage so you can be more agressive in your attacks.

And emeria, the sky ruin can help you get some of your creatures back from the graveyard and Oketra's monument can help cast your creatures and give you some blockers doing that. And if you start generating tokens Anointed Procession could be nice as well (but it's a bit expensive nowadays and you don't have other token makers besides Bygone Bishop and Gideon, ally of zendikar).

[Ryad]

Since it is a Knight Tribal... Do you consider History of Benalia?

[D-Swift]

Hey thanks all for the replies!

I finally got the second draft of the deck figured out... even if the results still aren't what I'm looking for. More on that in a bit.

@Marshstepper78 - The Mana Tithe statement was very helpful in deciding what things needed to be cut after adding a bunch more cards. I was already in the process of getting rid of Staff of Nin and adding non-basics for the exact reasons you listed. I already knew about Knighthood, but Chieftain en-Dal has me very curious now about a different approach I could be taking with the deck. The rest of the cards are definitely good ones, but I am attempting to see where the limits of mono-white knight tribal can get me. Baneslayer Angel is in there mostly cause it is financially cheap enough to include especially considering her power level. It may have to end up getting cut which is kind of a shame though. I did end up adding some snow-covered plains instead cause I already had a bunch laying around so I figured why not? It'll probably open up more options overall.

@paulusdeboself - I do agree with the Baneslayer comment, so she will be cut. I like your additions overall, it helps me to realize that soft combos like that are likely extremely necessary when playing mono white. Card draw is just abysmal in the color haha! I'll probably end up cutting a bunch of the 4-5 cost flying knights I do have, along with some anthems, in favor of things such as this.

@Ryad - Yes I have. However I wanted to see in I could make this happen with only creature cards you played and made a slowly growing force of good 'ol fashioned first striking knights. Boy was I wrong hahaha! Because of Marshstepper78's reply, I think I have enough to go on with making more of a tokens strategy. White knights get Advance Scout, Akroma's Memorial, Angelic Skirmisher, Archetype of Courage, Chieftain en-Dal, Concerted effort, Goring Ceratops, Kinsbaile Cavalier, Knighthood, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Soul of Theros, True Conviction, & Valor to enable first strike on multiple sources of first strike. To top it off, those are only the permanent sources. Akroma's Will is an excellent card and example of a card that can just give your guys surprise first strike.

So I will post the newest list here and to lessen confusion, The sideboard is currently more of a wishboard and the maybeboard is just to help me organize which cards I already own as I don't plan on buying too hard into this deck. Maybe 300 tops and I'd like to start with 50-100 to start it off so I can figure out what it needs through play as I am not the biggest fan of theory crafting.

As I mentioned before the theme of the deck was attempting to mimic something reminiscent of a Spartan force, unyielding and ever present. Make the boardstate, keep your boardstate, have others cower before you etc etc. I'm trying to keep this deck around a 5 or 6 on a scale of 10 as I'd like something to play with my more casual friends. That being said, I still want to feel like I'm doing something during the game and using the Starting Hand feature on the site had me realize that it is going to be a very uphill battle if I play a card and only get one thing out of it. I initially wanted to play Oops, all first striking knights but found that I never actually felt intimidating with ANY hand that I ended up having. So I think the only way to remedy that is by going the vigilant knight tokens route and just giving them all first strike in the ways stated previously. It'll also help to keep my anthems feel a bit more powerful if I'm making 2 3/3 vigilant knights instead of one 3/4 knight with flying for 4 mana. Perhaps I'll end up adding some one-drops too. I'll try to get the third revision of the deck up on here soon so more suggestions can be made. Thank you all again, I truly am very thankful for your responses! 


https://deckstats.net/decks/79865/1876879-kwende-knight-tribal-budget-

[Marshstepper78]

I'm not sure Tome of Legends is worth it in this deck. It is best used in a deck where you intend on casting (because there's some cost reduction) your commander repeatedly, or can flicker your commander a lot (e.g. Norin the Wary).

Does Endless Atlas bust your notion of budget? If not, this is excellent card draw in mono-colour decks. I would replace Tome of Legends for Endless Atlas personally.

Edit: I just noticed that Endless Atlas is in your deck already.