SyrGwyn KnightStorm

Commander / EDH RBW (Mardu)

rebell_son

Artifact (28)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bloodforged Battle-Axe
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Colossus Hammer
• 1x Crystal Slipper
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Masterwork of Ingenuity
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Prying Blade
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Fragmentize
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Grapeshot
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Land (29)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 2x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Tournament Grounds
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Instant (9)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Creature (22)

• 1x Agent of Stromgald
• 1x Azra Oddsmaker
• 1x Balan, Wandering Knight
• 1x Corpse Knight
• 1x Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dauntless Bodyguard
• 1x Embereth Shieldbreaker
• 1x Fervent Champion
• 1x Foulmire Knight
• 1x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 1x Jousting Dummy
• 1x Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 1x Novice Knight
• 1x Olivia, Mobilized for War
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Smitten Swordmaster
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stormfist Crusader
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*
• 1x Worthy Knight

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Smothering Tithe

---

Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Universal Automaton

---

TIS BUT A LIGHTNING BOLT

Hey its yer boi? again bringing you another Mardu beatdown deck with a unique combo-line in it. This time it’s a Knight tribal deck with an equipment subtheme and storm.

Why play this deck?

• You like drawing a lot of cards from combat steps.
• You like paying 2 mana to equip things onto creatures.
• You pronounce Excalibur “EKISU-KALIBBAAAAAA”
• You like graveyard decks.
• You believe that Mordred is the one true king and King Arthur is a poser.
• You want a deck that can go tall, go wide, or cheat with an infinite combo.

---

The Combo

The Engine
Going infinite in this deck involves getting Haakon, Stromgald Scourge into your graveyard. When you cast Haakon from your graveyard into play, this allows you to cast other knight creature cards from your graveyard. With Haakon as the center of the combo, there are two lines to go infinite. First, let’s take a gander at all the 1-mana knights in the list.

Option 1 - The Primary Line
If you have Phyrexian Altar in play with Haakon, you can sacrifice a creature to generate 1 colored mana of your choice. This way you can cast a 1-mana knight infinitely from your graveyard.

Option 2 - The Janky Backup
If you have Ashnod's Altar in play with Haakon, you can sacrifice Jousting Dummy to generate 2 colorless mana. And look at how JOUSTING IDIOT costs 2 mana to cast. There’s infinite.

The Outs

Once you’ve leaned back in your chair and asked the table if you have successfully demonstrated your infinite combo and they have no response, it’s time to win. Here are all the ways you can win with infinite casts of Knights:

• Grapeshot
• Syr Konrad
• Bitter Ordeal
• Corpse Knight
• Worthy Knight

---

Strategy

Early Game
When you start off the first few turns, you need to establish your draw engine. This can take a few forms depending on your opening hand:

• If you open with an early Tymna, then you focus on dropping Tymna plus small beaters early to establish that CA.
• If you open with Dark Confidant or Stormfist Crusader , you want to hit 6 mana ASAP to cast Syr Gwyn and suit up to draw cards off attacking.
• If you open with no obvious source of CA or mana rocks, then try to draw into them with Faithless Looting , Thrill of Possibility etc.

Mid Game (T3-6)
Once you’ve established your engine, it’s time to start pressuring the board with threats. Depending on what you’ve drawn and how you opened, you can proceed to swarm your opponents with small knights with Mythic+ gear or attempt to 1-shot your opponent with a really beefed up Syr Gwyn.

This is also when you want to start setting up your combo, because the degenerate blue-mages are scheming to win out of no where and you’re playing Mardu. At this point, Buried Alive is one of the best cards you can have in your hand. The pile I recommend is: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge , Agent of Stromgald , and Worthy Knight or Corpse Knight . Haakon getting you the Agent ramps you for 1 more black mana on your turns while setting up for your combo win. Worthy Knight or Corpse Knight depends on what your hand looks like. If you don’t have an out, get Corpse Knight . If you do have an out, Worthy Knight is great because she lets you gain infinite mana from phyrexian altar + the humans tokens she generates per cast of a knight in the combo.

Late Game (T6+)
Hopefully your board hasn’t been decimated by the nasty bluemages across the table and you have a few pieces of your combo set up. At this point you should be pressuring with your creatures, forcing your opponents to squander their resources on your beaters and on each other. You want to leave mana open to interact with your opponents as well, because everybody’s an upkeep away from casting tainted pact/demonic consultation for the Lab Jace win.

---

Card Choices

Equipment

• Argentum Armor - This is the most expensive CMC equipment in the deck. In grindy matchups, Argentum Armor is a massive beating when you can break any permanent your opponents control. Say goodbye to the dirty Rhystic Studys that you can’t play because you’re playing Mardu.
• Bloodforged Battle-Axe - A cheap piece of equipment that copies itself. If you’ve connected once or twice this thing can get really out of hand with your cheap 1/1 knights. It also has some synergy with Puresteel Paladin as every token copy will trigger his draw ability.
• Colossus Hammer - The OG meme hammer. Two punch your opponents with Syr Gwyn and the memehammer.
• Crystal Slipper - Giving creatures haste in this deck is actually quite important, because you want that Syr Gwyn/Tymna/Azra Oddsmaker draw trigger ASAP.
• Lightning Greaves - Same reason as Crystal Slipper. Giving shroud makes equipping your creatures awkward but having some protection is not bad.
• Mask of Memory - One of the top equipment in the deck. Not only does it act as a discard outlet for Haakon stuck in your hand, the draw 2 after dealing combat damage is extremely good when you run knights with double strike.
• Masterwork of Ingenuity - Cheap to cast equipment that can be something busted like Argentum Armor or another Sword. Copying Mask of Memory is amazing value as-well.
• Prying Blade - Cheap equipment that can ramp you for future combo turns.
• Skullclamp - Cheap equipment that lets you draw off of Worthy Knight’s human tokens, or your cheap 1/1 knights that can be recast with Haakon.
• Sword of Feast and Famine - Hitting the nasty bluemage to force them to discard cards is relevant. Untapping all your lands isn’t that bad either.
• Sword of Fire and Ice - Another equipment that can draw you cards. Dealing a Shock per combat is not bad as you can shoot opposing mana dorks or Tymnas out of the sky.
• Sword of Sinew and Steel - A sword i’m currently testing, but blowing up opposing Mana Crypts and Sol Rings seems like fun.
• Sword of the Animist - A sword to ramp you. There isn’t that many basic lands so there is a limit on how much value this sword can bring you.
• Umezawa's Jitte - Allstar dork murderer, commander pumper, or lifegainer in a pinch. If it was any smarter it would do your taxes too.

Knights of the Table

Agent of Stromgald - A Llanowar elf for us, but better. How is this better? Because AoS is a one mana knight we can recurr infinitely with Haakon and Phyrexian Altar. So not only is AoS a great T1 play to ramp, AoS is always relevant for your combo. When have you ever felt good about drawing Llanowar Elf after T4?

Azra Oddsmaker - I play this card in every deck that has red and black. It’s honestly one of the best draw sources available in the color pair. You can abuse his trigger with double strike or use the discard cost to your advantage in a deck that uses the graveyard, like my Kaalia deck.

Balan, Wandering Knight - A fun 4 mana knight that can soak up all the equipment with 2 mana. For 4 mana, he’s an alright beater as a 3/3 with first strike. But as soon as you snap a Sword of XYZ on him, Mask of Memory, or Umezawa’s Jitte? This catknight is going to be boss.

Corpse Knight - He’s a wincon in this deck. Aside from that, he’s an efficiently costed blocker.

Danitha Capashen, Paragon - Danitha’s cost reduction is actually not the most valuable part of her abilities. Being a 3 mana 2/2 with first strike, lifelink, and vigilance means she’s going to be a big threat you can swing each turn once she’s suited up. She can attack easily for the draw trigger from Syr Gwn and remain untapped to block any incoming attackers.

Dark Confidant - Puts cards in your hand on your upkeep and sometimes kills you.

Dauntless Bodyguard - 1 mana knights are part of our infinite engine, so the more the better. This bodyguard is great because even without the combo at hand, for 1 mana this little knight can protect Syr Gwyn or another utility knight like Puresteel Paladin. She’s also recurrable from Haakon later in the game.

Embereth Shieldbreaker - Blowing up artifacts is good.

Fervent Champion - Another 1 mana combo knight. Having haste and first strike means he’s relevant as a late game draw as well. If you have an equipment on the board with Syr Gwyn, FC can come in swinging the turn you draw him then draw another card off of Syr Gwyn.

Foulmire Knight - Combo knight that can draw us cards. Having deathtouch makes it difficult for your opponents to block him if he’s suited up with any of our equipment that needs a creature to deal combat damage to a player. Syr Gwyn makes our equip costs 0, Haakon makes him recurrable, so he could freely swing.

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge - The centerpiece of our combo, and unsurprisingly a good value play in the deck. Make sure he does not get exiled.

Jousting Dummy - It’s only here to for the ashnod’s altar jank backup combo.

Knight of the Ebon Legion - Yet another 1 mana combo knight. Can develop into a pretty strong threat if left unchecked.

Novice Knight - Final 1 CMC combo knight. She has great stats for being a 1 CMC knight, and suiting her up with something so she can attack is pretty easy to achieve in this deck.

Olivia, Mobilized for War - A flying 3 mana for 3 is already great. Her ability helps us discard Haakon, or also power up our other knights by discarding knight cards that we can recur with Haakon.

Puresteel Paladin - A draw engine with our equipment. Also a backup equip reducer if we can’t cast Syr Gwyn.

Smitten Swordmaster - Final backup backup wincon. If opponents are brought to low enough life, Curry Favor can end their WHOLE DAMN CAREER.

Stoneforge Mystic - Equipment tutor on a body. Can’t draw us cards from Syr Gwyn. 1 / 5 card.

Stormfist Crusader - I hate letting bluemages draw more cards, but we are in Mardu so I’m going to take anything we can get. Having menace is also relevant as she can wield Swords and connect easier.

Syr Konrad, the Grim - A wincon with our infinite engine. He is a more mana intensive out compared to Corpse Knight, but he also can act as a means to mill our opponents out with infinite mana. His ability mills you as well, so make sure you don’t draw afterwards. He also loves it when opponents cast Vampiric Tutor.

Tymna the Weaver - Format warping draw engine. Hate her. Play her. Feel filthy afterwards and spend your time drinking and writing Mardu commander deck primers.

Worthy Knight - Great with skullclamp and also a means to generate infinite mana with our combo. Without Worthy Knight, our combos don’t net us mana. Having Worthy Knight gives us the flexibility of killing our opponents with sources like Syr Konrad’s mill ability.

---

Personalizing the Deck

Chivalry on a Budget

Don't want to put down a couple G's on manabases and fast mana? Here are budget alternatives for those who aren't absolutely insane with wizard cardboard.
Mana rocks
- Chrome Mox, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, Arcane Signet, Lotus Petal
+ Boros Signet, Chromatic Lantern, Basalt Monolith, Heraldic Banner, Star Compass, Pillar of Origins

Spells
- Wheel of Fortune for Dark Deal - A great budget alternative to wheel in black.
- Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor for:

• + Diabolic Tutor - 4 mana demonic tutor is not the worst thing in a casual meta.
• + Demonic Collusion - Even though it's 5 mana, you can consider this because you can use the buyback cost to dump Haakon and another knight. Being able to use one tutor multiple times is not the worst.
• + Mausoleum Secrets - If you dump enough creature cards into your graveyard, this instant speed tutor is actually quite good. You can find Haakon or another budget tutor to tutor for artifacts that you'll need.
• + Dimir Machinations - 3 is the magic number in this deck. Transmute can find you Haakon, either of the Altars, or any Sword that you'll need.

- Enlightened Tutor and Stoneforge Mystic for:

• + Open the Armory - 2 mana tutor for an equipment is pretty good.
+ Quest for the Holy Relic - Pretty awful as a late game draw, but if you can stick this early game the deck has enough creature casting ability to activate this quest.

Equipment
- Sword of Fire and Ice/Sword of Feast and Famine
+ Skeleton Key / Rogue's Gloves - I always value card draw over everything else. Fire and Ice exists solely because I like the card draw aspect, so trading both of these for 2 mana draw sources is gucci with me. Skeleton Key is funny because it doubles up as a discard outlet.
- Umezawa's Jitte: We're trading a utility equipment for another one here, so here's a list of rejected equipment that you can sub in.

• + Sigiled Sword of Valeron - SSoV can be valuable because you can snap this onto a non-knight to get that tasty draw trigger from Syr Gwyn. The vigilance is also relevant, as well as being able to generate a 2/2 knight token. If you only have Syr Gwyn in play, getting that one trigger will allow you to keep Syr Gwyn safe in the future and you just need to keep attacking with a dispensable token.
• + Sunforger - I personally hate Sunforger because it's so expensive to cast, then equip, then unattach. Syr Gwyn helps with the card because you save on the 3 equip cost, making all your red instants +2 basically to cast out of the deck. If you add Sunforger, I would up the instants count to make this equipment more valuable in the deck.
• + Konda's Banner - I like Konda's Banner because it's a cheap source of board pumping. Snapping this onto Syr Gwyn will pump all your knights by at least +2/+2, and possibly more if they are multicolored.
• + Loxodon Warhammer - Trample is always relevant, and lifelink helps with distancing yourself from other aggressive decks. Snapping this onto a first striker/double strike is a real beating.

Creatures
- Puresteel Paladin for Sram, Senior Edificer - Puresteel's only use in this deck is to draw more cards, so Sram is a worthy replacement for the same effect.
- Dark Confidant for Ruin Raider - I'm surprised people don't know/run this card more often. 3 mana "attack and get a dark confidant trigger" is pretty good. You're always going to be attacking so there's very little downside to this.

Lands
- Fetchlands and OG duals for:

• Temple of Triumph , Temple of Silence , Temple of Malice : The deck is a combo-deck after all. If you're going to run a tapped land you might as well run a tapped land that can scry away a dead draw. That's basically timewalking in Mardu.
• Canyon Slough : A dual that can be cycled away is pretty solid. Did I mention I love drawing cards?
• Foreboding Ruins : Since you're going to play with more basics, playing a tappedland that can come into play untapped half the time is good enough.
• Isolated Chapel , Dragonskull Summit , Clifftop Retreat : Great source of dual colors that should ETB untapped most of the time if you're running a lot of basics and other budget duals.

Playing for Honor (No combo version)

If you sneer at the sight of the infinity sign then this version's for you. You can easily switch out some pieces for a durdlier, battlecruisier, beatface-ier knight deck.
Cut: Bitter Ordeal, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, Grapeshot, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor
Add: Valiant Knight , Thalia's Lancers , Oathsworn Knight , Knight Exemplar , Wrath of God , Aryel, Knight of Windgrace

---

If ya liked this, check out my other Mardu combo beatdown primer! Kaalia, ZenithQueen - Mardu Miracles

Follow me on insta @rebell.son or find me at The 99 discord channel (https://discord.gg/mrMUAG) and chat with the crew there. I can also be found chilling with the @ramp_gang

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.04
Tokens	Copy Clone, Human 1/1 W, On an Adventure, Treasure
Folders	EDH Favs, edh, Research