A couple years ago, Throne of Eldraine was released as a set that would take Magic’s twist to our real world fairy tales and Arthurian mythology. With it came a whole bunch of powerful cards (looking at you Oko, Questing Beast, Fires of Invention…), leading to an unusual number of bans in multiple formats. The _pendulum_ had swung a bit too far, apparently, and not only in the competitive formats.
For alongside the main set, jumping on the Commander hypewagon, WotC tried to push a new, casual, 1v1, singleton format with a Commander feel, named _Brawl_. Eventually, the format never got enough traction and players’ interest to make it a paper staple format, but it also came with a quad release of four Brawl precons, all with brand new Commanders. Two of them are infamously known as brutal value engines ([[Korvold]], [[Chulane]]), and a third one ([[Alela]]) also got its share of attention with its open-ended design (caring about Artifacts AND/OR enchantments in 3 colors isn’t really a « restriction » per se).
But what got my attention, instead of these generic value Commanders, was the more niche one. Knights. Equipment. Mardu color identity.
Oh, R&D probably can hear the sarcasm from here. “Did Knight Tribal really need Red ?” is what you’re probably wondering right now. Well, on top of a few nice additions from Eldraine itself, I do have a very valid – if subjective – argument to having Red in a Knights deck : the Knightly Trifecta.
So here I am, embarked alongside Syr Gwyn, in a quest of chivalry and deckbuilding. As Knights are a kinda popular fantasy trope, the pool of cards feels pretty deep – at first. There are also more than a few, more or less recent Legendary creatures that are incidentally Knights : Adriana from Fiora, Danitha Capashen, Kwende of Femeref, and even Arvad, acting as the “brooding-but-handsome vampire on a redemption quest” trope, all three from Dominaria.
The deck also wants some Equipments, so that is a good opportunity to look for unusual cards with high Equip costs to cheat with Syr Gwyn. Looking at you, [[Colossus Hammer]] and [[Heartseeker]].
And lastly, what would a good deck be without pet cards ? Admittedly, some presented above would already fit that definition, but when it comes to Knights, you can’t really beat the cosmic horror Knight [[Lone Rider // It That Rides As One]]. the evasive [[Skyknight Vanguard]], or the serrated [[Order of the Devon Hand]] – at least in my book !
Despite my initial enthusiasm though, and even though the deck features some utility Knights like [[Embererh Shieldbreaker]] to help the consistency, the goldfishing and even actual playtests never let the deck « do its thing ». It requires a lot of simultaneous factors to function properly, ramp (in Mardu…) and initial card draw before casting Syr Gwyn, but also other Knights and Equipments, all the while having to protect our board and interact with what the opponents are doing – and in a much more efficient way, usually.
So, like some of its predecessors before, I let the deck apart for a few months, never got back to it. Finally got back to it, but to take out a few key components to scavenge for other decks. Left it as a hollowed husk, until pity kicked in and I finally dismantled it – but mostly, I needed the sleeves for a Lonis deck I’m building at the moment.
So long, Syr Gwyn and your valorous cadre. May someone see in you the Grail they’ve been questing for !
No list remains of this knightly deck after its fall from grace.
The Scroll Rack - an EDH roster blog 