Hey, there's another reason to keep Freebooter it's another black permanent to give Grace a pump. Three plus power first strike is a real reason to play both Grace and Malice; more ways to pump Grace is good. Without Freebooter you're relying only on Malice and sideboard Blood Fast to pump Grace. I would increase the number of Freebooter to 3 or 4.

Another reason to play Freebooter with Knights is Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants. Consider 2-3x Ajani? His +1 and -2 are powerful with Grace, Malice and Dauntless and his -2 is good with Freebooter. Valiant, Ajani and Cast Out are strong four drops for Orzhov Knights.

Consider cutting Wilds for Unclaimed Territory? Wilds is really bad when two drops are so important for your strategy. Wilds also doesn't help with Dauntless which you would like to play turn one. You can name Human with Territory and be able to cast all the Knights and Freebooter with the land. Territory will speed up game play of the manabase a lot.

I've been seeing this knight's decklist being kicked around and it seems pretty solid. I think Paladin of Atonement with the pain lands Shefet Dunes and Ifnir Deadlands is pretty potent. The knight lords help boost him and it can be enough life gain to put you over the top of aggro and red. Paladin of Atonement can keep building up into a bigger threat if they don't remove it and when they finally do you get value. So that's something to consider in your own list.

As mentioned by multimedia the new planeswalker Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants benefits your deck in a lot of ways.

I do like how you included Shalai, Voice of Plenty over the other decklist. I'm not sure if it should be mainboard or sideboard, but either way it's a strong 4 drop that combos well with Dauntless Bodyguard like you mentioned.

If you have trouble with control you could include Kambal, Consul of Allocation in the sideboard. It works pretty well for me. I take out Knight of Malice or Knight of Grace for it depending on the color of the opponent's deck. They bleed out everytime they cast a spell. It's pretty helpful against certain aggro decks too (like wizards and red).

Sorry for some reason hyperlinks aren't working for me anymore on tappedout. This is the decklist I was talking about in the first part: https://decks.tcgplayer.com/magic/standard/masatyyn/w-b-knights/1327705

@multimedia You're totally right about freebooter, he's great in this deck. I'll try out the new Ajani to see how he works in this deck because I feel like he would be great against mid-range decks since he can buff my smaller guys and bring them back which is pretty huge...only thing that's tough is there is a lot of great cards fighting for that 4 cmc slot, I'll play around with it all and see what works best. Unclaimed Territory is a great land that I've been considering and I do like it better than Evolving Wilds, I'm gonna make that change. Thanks a lot for your ideas!

@Stazeeee Paladin of Atonement with the pain lands is a pretty sweet combo but probably better for a deck that's a little more midrange like the one you provided, which I really like. I'm glad you like Shalai, Voice of Plenty because she has done great in this deck, every time I play her my opponent sighs heavily lol (which is usually a good indicator that it's a good card)...but again, there are so many great cards at 4 cmc that I want to play and I can only run a few, so much so that I'm even considering cutting my 5 cmc slot and a land to make room for it all. I love Kambal but I haven't been using him just to get ready for the big rotation in October (since I already have several cards that will be rotating). Thanks for the help!

Hey, one problem Knights have and will continue to have, even more so post rotation is amount of black sources in the manabase for black removal. Some Orzhov Knights lists have been cutting Marshal in favor of more black and Ajani. Marshal really restricts the amount of black you can play in the manabase which is not good when you want to be able to consistently play Push/Duress in the early game and even more so for Vraska's Contempt which everyone knows is an amazing card for black, but can't splash for it. History is your best three drop. Marshal is also a good three drop, but he's less needed because History is the three drop you want to play.

Ajani kind of mimics what Marshal does. His +1 puts a counter on two creatures giving those two creatures a pump just like Marshal does. Marshal is best when you're ahead with some other creatures to pump. Ajani is also good when you're ahead because he too can pump two creatures. What separates Ajani from Marshal in my opinion is Ajani is good when you're behind because of his -2 ability reanimating a creature. Being able to play a four drop and have a Planeswalker and a creature such as Malice in play is more beneficial than a Marshal. Ajani is very good in control matchups where as Marshal is fine. Only fine because he's a creature making him vulnerable to creature removal and board wipes which Ajani is not.

Post rotation I see Knights moving away from black and playing mostly white because Concealed Courtyard rotates and Orzhov is not a guild in Guilds of Ravnica. This leaves Forsaken Sanctuary as the other Orzhov dual land which is just bad. More white is a direction that favors playing Marshal.

Black has amazing removal, but white also has good removal. Seal Away and Gideon's Reproach are fine early game removal spells and Cast Out is great mid and late game removal. I suggest playtesting a more white focused build restricting only creatures Malice and Freebooter with black since Courtyard, Chapel and Territory can cast them.

If you don't like the idea of playing more white and less black then consider Stazeee's suggestion of Paladin? Overall until rotation I think this is best direction to go because of Paladin's interaction with Ajani. However this means cutting Marshal so you can play 4x Ifnir Deadlands which are needed along with 4x Dunes to play Paladin.

A direction with Paladin and no Marshal lets you include more black. More black means consistently can play Push/Duress/Malice/Freebooter in the early game as well as sideboard or main Contempt. More black is better for control matchups since you want Duress/Freebooter and Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip vs control.

@multimedia I really appreciate this breakdown, thank you for taking the time. A lot of these points have been on my mind lately with rotation coming. The biggest problem I see is exactly what you said, no BW land in the next set which hurts me significantly for trying to be greedy and play Benalish Marshal and still splashing black. Unclaimed Territory was great for casting Marshal and Freebooter by naming humans, but hurts me for trying to play Duress turn 1. I really need the BW shock land to be able to pull all this off.

I'm not sure which way to go with this...Knight of Malice and all the removal and sideboard options are great and make the deck more versatile but mono-white would make it very consistent but makes Knight of Grace just ok and both those knights together fill out my 2 cmc slot really well. Losing Fatal Push, Cast Out and Angel of Sanctions means I will probably increase my Cast Down and Seal Away which are still great removal.

What do you suggest I do? Cut Marshal altogether to make the mana more consistent or go mono white to keep Marshal, run Ajani and maybe make room for Novice Knight and some equipment? I guess either way you definitely like Ajani for this, and the more I think about it, I do too. Thanks!

I think your deck is in a pretty good place pre rotation. The biggest weakness I see (and this is true of most aggro decks) is that you don't have many ways of gaining card advantage. You can go 1 for 1 easily but once you've run out of gas you've either won or are in a bad spot.

I could see you improving things a bit by dropping 2 Benalish Marshal for 2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants to force some 2 for 1 interactions from your opponent.

@Stazeeee You are absolutely right. I could really use some resilience so that I'm not just 1 for 1'd to death cause that's exactly how some games go. You folks have convinced me that Ajani will really help me out, so I'm going to start trading towards them. I hate cutting Benalish Marshal because I love that card but he's better for a token deck/lots of small creatures, while my deck is more of a tempo aggro (play a creature, play removal, play creature, play removal).

That said, I'll continue using what I have until rotation because it's still working well, but losing Concealed Courtyard means I gotta make changes. Thanks so much for the help!

I may have missed it in the conversation but in playing knights and combos, any thought to one or two Sigiled Sword of Valeron?

@FSims81 I love the sword but I really can't find a place for it, every card I have I like better than the sword. Maybe after rotation I'll like it more. Only thing I really dread is paying 3 to equip and my opponent destroying/exiling that creature before I get to swing and wasting mana for that turn and 3 mana in this deck is valuable. I already have better mana sinks in the form of Valiant Knight and Resplendent Angel. If you're thinking of a way of using it I'm not seeing let me know! Thanks!

FullmetalWes The only thing I can really think of is you already run the problem of sinking your mana into Resplendent Angel only to have it wiped before swinging would matter. Other than that, you're right that it would be tough to find a place to fit in the sword. Rotation may make it more viable but it would be a tough cut to slot it in now. Maybe pull a Fatal Push, but is one sword possibly drawing worth it?

FSims81 I don't have to do the angel ability before I attack, just before damage is dealt. Either way it's hard to find a spot for the sword but I love the idea of attacking with a knight angel who summons a knight attacking with her. It might be good against control in the sideboard, but I'd rather just run Duress in that case. It's so weird it doesn't seem to fit when it totally should. Thanks for your ideas!

Okay. I love this deck and how it plays at my LGS. A lot of the locals fear it and it does pretty well with the store's non-meta. Had to mulligan to 5 and still won against an opponent. Where are you going next with it or are you retiring it for something new and different? Thanks for the great plays

LouisSiffer That means a lot to me, I’m really glad you enjoy it!

I was competing at my local FNMs with it and I never did worse than 2-2 which is a decent record against top tier Standard decks. Lately my job has been preventing me from being able to go, so I haven’t competed recently. I still play with it casually at friends houses and it’s a blast.

I think the new Guilds of Ravnica might bring some support for this and I will play around with it as an Abzan or Selesnyia deck, I’ll provide any ideas I try.

Thank you for your comment. I’d love to know any stories you have playing the deck! Good luck fellow knight.

Also I want to state that I actually prefer the deck with x4 Benalish Marshal instead of the 2 angels [a lot cheaper $ too].

Aye I just wanted to say that last rotation I rocked this deck and it was the bomb. Ended up placing first and LGS's Comp. League. Anyways I few things I changed was dropping the resplendent angels and adding +1 Ajani and +1 Benalish Marshal. Honestly though I've messed around with it post rotation, I don't like splashing green with this deck. I just made tiny adjustments to the core of it without really touching GRN and it works fine. Murder > Pushes and sideboard adjustments were about it just to have it legal and I still went 3-1 at FNM, still kicking with it at arena. I love the deck and It really just needs a few things changed to make it legal. If you come up with anything else or any iteration of Ravnica to the deck be sure to post it up, I'd love to take a look.

@Senthes That amazing news! That just made my day :) I agree with you about ajani and marshals over the angels. The only thing this deck really lost with rotation was Concealed Courtyard, which I may be able to work around but those fast dual lands are very helpful. So glad you liked the deck and I will continue to update. Thanks for your suggestions and I look forward to more! Good luck fellow knight!

Have you given up on this deck? Easily my favorite on here pre-rotation.

@a_specter I did give up on this because I haven't been able to play much recently but that's changing, I'm getting back into the game. A comment like yours is all the motivation I need to work on this. It means a lot to me :)

Did you want to see a post-rotation version? I'm working on making this Standard again. Thanks!

FullmetalWes I haven't been been in for awhile but yes! I dunno how much this'll change with Orzhov coming in the next expansion or if you've already got something laid out.

I really dig this deck. I feel like there's so many cards left out since it's Standard. Would love to see what you could come up with in a Modern version of this deck. Any cards you think you'd switch in?

@slormand I'm really glad you like it! A Modern version of this could be really badass and I've thought about it a lot. I'm going to work on a Modern version and I'll post a link to it on this page. Thanks!