Introduction
This is my take on Knightfall. Modern incarnations of Bant Company often do not include the combo. However, I started playing this deck when the combo was a staple and I never really left it behind. I believe its combo makes the deck far more threatening as it is capable of winning on turn 3. I've played with it a lot on Xmage and used some of my own experience experimenting with different cards and cross-referencing with pro-decklists of Knightfall in order to make this decklist. I am going to write this guide to the deck as if the reader has never played the deck before.
Combo
The core of the combo here is Knight of the Reliquary + Retreat to Coralhelm. The idea behind this combo is to abuse Knight of the Reliquary's ability to tutor out lands and Retreat to Coralhelm's ability to untap creatures when new lands come into play. You want to use Knight of the Reliquary's ability to tutor out lands and then use Retreat to Coralhelm to uptap Knight of the Reliquary and repeat. Generally you want to tutor out your fetchlands with Knight of the Reliquary this way you can untap Knight of the Reliquary and also tap any obstructing creatures your opponent has so that you have a clear shot to their health at the end of the combo. Using the combo core, tutor out Kessig Wolf Run with Knight of the Reliquary. Then and either play or tutor out Stomping Ground (alternatively you can use Birds of Paradise if it is in play). With red mana available, activate Kessig Wolf Run's ability and tap mana of lands you tutor out with Knight of the Reliquary and fetchlands in order to get the count on Kessig Wolf Run high. At the end of the combo you want to apply Kessig Wolf Run's ability to Knight of the Reliquary. This is so that you can conserve your life points as much as possible and give Knight of the Reliquary Trample. You want to continue putting lands in the graveyard and tutoring out new lands until Knight of the Reliquary is strong enough to kill your opponent in one hit.
Strategy
The strategy for playing this deck is that you at least want to have either Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise in your opening hand. This allows you to play the many three mana cost cards on turn two. Typically you want to play fetchlands and fetch your basic lands to play the mana dorks. This helps you build up Knight of the Reliquary. It is possible to play a 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary on turn two. It is also possible to win on turn three with this deck with this deck, and example of an opening hand that could win on turn three may look like: Windswept Heath, Knight of the Reliquary, Misty Rainforest, Birds of Paradise, Retreat to Coralhelm, Deputy of Detention, Spell Queller. This hand is extremely idealized but I've chosen it to show how fundamnetally the deck works. This hand is very versatile to begin with. You begin with two fetch lands which allows you to play the 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary on turn two. This hand also has Retreat to Coralhelm which allows for a turn three victory if nothing is removed from the board between turns one and three. You also have some answers in case things go awry, a counterspell with Spell Queller and a general spot-removal with Deputy of Detention.
This hand does a good job illustrating the strong parts of this deck, namely: you are able to ramp into strong plays and build up a creature army while at the same time trying to suppress and control the opponent; with the combo finisher being the icing on the cake. Very rarely will you actually use the combo, however, it can be an ever present threat to the opponent. More often you will steal tempo from the opponent with Spell Queller--which becomes a decent attacker with a Noble Hierarch on the battlefield--and control problematic developments on the enemy board with Deputy of Detention. Giver of Runes provides protection to any creatures on the battlefield and is an important card for protecting Deputy of Detention and Spell Queller. Path to Exile serves as additional removal and can make this deck challenging to face against other decks relying on creatures. Scavenging Ooze provides a way to capitalize on your own dead creatures. Unfortunately you will not be able to capitalize as much on the enemies since the hard removal options in this deck exile exclusively. Scavenging Ooze however, does provide another creature that grows in addition to Knight of the Reliquary and Tireless Tracker--which also draws your cards.
This deck has bad matchups against anything that can relentlessly attack the mana dorks, Spell Queller, and Deputy of Detention.
Sideboard
I've made the sideboard in such a way to try and make up for some of the deficiencies of the deck. Collector Ouphe is intended to stop problematic artifact abilities and Phyrexian Revoker to stop problematic abilities more generally. I threw in Eidolon of Rhetoric as a way of dealing possibly with Burn strategies, this card was a more important sideboard card when Storm strategies dominated the meta. I've kept it around to try and generally slow down anything going too fast. Courser of Kruphix, a card originally apart of the main deck, was also added to help deal with Burn strategies. It is resistant to Lightning Bolt and can help you can life. Gaddock Teeg I have put in to help counter large spells coming from both control strategies and Tron strategies. This card is intended to protect from large board wipe spells. Meddling Mage and Surgical Extraction are there to deal with decks that revolve around specific cards in order to function properly, notable among these are: combo, Collected Company, and Tron strategies. Another Ghost Quarter is added to help with Tron matchups. Additionally, some extra counterspells: Negate and Unified Will are added to better shore up this deck's control behavior which can be useful against other control strategies, Burn strategies, and anything the deck may be finding difficult to overwhelm with board state.
