What Are The Top Decks In Modern – Knightfall

This deck is very similar to a Naya Zoo deck in that it focuses on very solid 2 and 3 mana creature aggression, however it differs in that it also includes a potential instant-win combo in Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm. The combo itself is very simple: the knight taps to sacrifice a land and search for another, the land you searched for enters the battlefield, coralhelm triggers which untaps the knight, and you repeat until you have enough lands in the graveyard to kill the opponent in one shot. The obvious advantage of this deck is that you are are taking very solid creatures that apply a lot of pressure to the opponent like Loxodon Smiter and Geist of Saint Traft and then adding in Retreat to Coralhelm which at worst taps down opposing blockers and helps with draws through scry, or at best enables you to win the game by turn three or four in a single shot. Any removal the opponent wastes killing your Knight of the Reliquary is removal they cannot use when you follow up with a Loxodon Smiter, Tarmogoyf, or Voice of Resurgence. The deck also features strong control elements in Path to Exile and the possibility of including blue counterspells.

Some knightfall decks have been testing with a red splash in order to include Nahiri, the Harbinger. The advantage of this is that you get access to another potential insta-win situation with Nahiris ultimate searching for an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. You also get access to an exceedingly solid planeswalker that can remove opposing threats or help you cycle through your deck to find the cards you need at any given moment. Furthermore, the inclusion of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is interesting because the card can actually be cast with the mana you get whilst carrying out the Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm combo. Any lands that come in untapped can be tapped for mana before you sacrifice them with the knight in order to slowly give enough for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The opponent needs to be very careful about the point in which they use removal spells because waiting two long will result in two game ending threats.

Sideboarding Against This Deck

Knightfall is somewhat slow given that it relies a lot on 2 and 3 mana creatures, which means opposing aggressive decks can pose a problem, and opposing control decks can also out-tempo it. 1 and 2 mana threats and/or removal result in a deck that can just outpace Knightfall and cause it to struggle. There may not be any particular cards that you can sideboard to deal with the entire strategy in one fell swoop but focusing on speed is a good way to go. If you can remove a 3 mana creature with a 1 mana killspell then obviously you are going to end up ahead. Similarly if you can play twice as many creatures as the Knightfall deck then they will also have problems.