I'm in the process of updating the primer made by Torpf. Please feel free to comment once this thread has been moved to the Established Modern decks section.
With the spoiling of Retreat to Coralhelm in the fall 2015 set Battle for Zendikar, Knight of the Reliquary rose from the unplayable card pile of the Modern format to complete the two card combo and deliver one hit kills. It took only two months for Knightfall to go from a brand new deck with only a handful of pilots to a tier two status.
As is often the case with Collected Company decks, there have been many changes to the deck with each new creature card printing, allowing every individual leave their mark on the deck through variations and tech choices. Distinct variations from early Knightfall builds include Spell Queller variants, straight Bant variants that forgo Retreat to Coralhelm to focus on Collected Company, Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies variants that employ the infinite mana combo, and four colour variants that delve deeper into Red. In this primer the version that includes Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies will not be discussed.
The deck has reached a top 4 finish at GP Guangzhou piloted by Kelvin Chew and has also had many notable finishes on the SCG circuit. Backed by the flexible toolbox nature of the deck and various combos, Knightfall always remains a solid deck choice in the modern metagame.
The decks play style takes cues from classic Splinter Twin lists and Abzan Company. It operates with the plan A being to combo out and win in a single turn and plan B to beat down the opponent through combat damage. By constantly applying pressure though very tempo-efficient and large creatures the deck aims to present must-deal threats each turn. Creatures like Knight of the Reliquary, Scavenging Ooze, and Voice of Resurgence are naturally well positioned against BG/x and Blue based Lightning Bolt decks which puts the deck in a strong position even entering game 1 vs the majority of the field in Modern. These threats are backed up by Spell Queller and Selfless Spirit, and Spellskite to ensure they can connect with the opponent. While putting pressure on the opponent through these threats you can find a window to play Retreat to Coralhelm and win with one lethal swing from a Knight.
Retreat to Coralhelm is the reason the deck is able to function. On the surface it enables the combo with Knight of the Reliquary but the value it provides goes much farther than just that. While sequencing the combo if you have a manadork in play you can generate an additional mana for every fetchland that enters the battlefield. If you end your fetching chain with Kessig Wolf Run you can pump all of the generated mana into it to attack for upwards of 30 damage in one turn. Retreat to Coralhelm can also be very useful without Knight of the Reliquary. It can use every topdecked land to tap down the opponents creatures to further the beat-down plan. The worst case scenario is that Retreat will help you scry through your deck and find key cards. Not many other things in Modern can make you excited for late game topdecked lands.
Bant has historically not been a prominent colour combination in the format because of its lack of powerful disruption outside of Path to Exile. This has changed with the printing of Spell Queller allowing for tempo plays and often acting as hard removal against the removal-lite linear decks of the format. The Bant shell has taken on Collected Company as its key card advantage as many other green based creature decks have also done since its printing. High manadork counts of Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise are key in ensuring the deck has access to 3 mana on turn 2 as often as possible since the core of the deck operates at the three converted mana cost.
Once you have both a non-summoning sick Knight and Retreat in play as well as a Forest or Plains, you can pull out pretty much every land from your deck to pump the Knight before attacking. The sequencing for this is as follows:
- Make some mana with the land you will sacrifice to Knight of the Reliquary
- Tap Knight and sacrifice the land (Forest or Plains)
- Search your library for a fetchland and put it into play triggering Retreat
- Using the fetchland Retreat trigger, untap your Knight
- Crack the fetchland and put a Forest or Plains subtype land into play, triggering Retreat again
- Since your Knight is already untapped, choose to tap down a blocker, untap something else, or put a scry trigger on the stack to be used later
- Repeat the previous steps for as many fetchlands/Forest/Plains are in the deck
- End with putting Kessig Wolf Run into play and pumping your Knight with all the previously floated mana
There are a lot of different lines to take when pulling lands out from your deck. There really is no better way to learn the lines of the deck than goldfishing and gaining experience. One thing to keep in mind however is to always immediately play or search out a fetchland once you resolve Retreat to Coralhelm. This allows for instant speed protection at any point until you want to enable the combo.
If you are still looking for further info, check out the sample decklists for some of the best performing results to date. The results section has lists articles and videos from other Bant Knightfall payers in the community. Or click here for all up to date MTGO results. If you are looking for some new sideboard tech or just wondering what cards are often played then check out the card choices section.
Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm unleash a deadly combo when they are on the battlefield together. One way to semi-tutor our creature half of the combo is by using Collected Company. Building a deck around these three cards comes along with certain restrictions.
We have to keep the following things in mind while building and tuning this deck:
Retreat to Coralhelm does not need specific cards to work, but is a lot stronger with fetch lands like Windswept Heath so you have multiple land fall triggers in one turn
Collected Company needs us to have include a number of creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less, the more creatures we have, the better Collected Company will become
No more than 3 copies of Retreat to Coralhelm should be included in this deck. The enchantment itself without Knight of the Reliquary has a pretty low impact for a 3-drop in modern, especially if one draws the second copy in a game.
The deck idea has been around for some time. Unlike other decks like Grixis Death's Shadow or UR Phoenix, where most of the cards are needed for the engine of the deck to work, Coco Knightfall shells are highly flexible. You can tune 50 percent of the overall cards the way you like according to the meta game you face.
In this section popular and unpopular creatures, noncreature spells and lands will be explained.
1-mana Creatures
Birds of Paradise & Noble Hierarch
Hierarch is the premier manadork for the deck. It provides all the Bant colours of mana, Exalted makes the small creatures of the deck a bit more respectable and makes everything else hit even harder.
Birds is more versatile than the Hierarch as it provides a fourth colour for the deck, but that is less of an issue since Knight also fixes your mana. It can block flying creatures in a pinch and provide some reach by flying over other creatures with an active Kessig Wolf Run or Gavony Township.
Wild Nacatl
Wild Nacatl is an agressive one drop that is easy to cast but needs some work to be a full grown 3/3 creature. It offers a solid body and is an ok creature when it jumps out of Collected Company. Switching from Bant to four colours can be reasonable when you expect more control and big mana decks in your meta, because Wild Nacatl transforms the reactive Bant shell that relies on 3-mana creatures and big Collected Company hits to a more proactive deck.
Burrenton Forge-Tender
An uncommon creature that sees play in the sideboard only. It can protect your x/3 creatures from effects like Anger of the Gods. It greatly increases the chance to stabilise the board against Burn, because it does not die to Searing Blood and can block Goblin Guide for days.
2-mana Creatures
Scavenging Ooze
Aside from being another big must-deal-with creature ooze acts as maindeck graveyard hate and always gives you something to do with your mana. Scavenging Ooze is rarely a good turn 2 play, but a good threat in the later stages, when the graveyard is stacked with creatures. The downside is that they don't stack up well in multiples since they compete for the same resources. In the Bant shell Path to Exile presents a anit-synergy with Scavenging Ooze. The addition of Lightning Bolt in the 4 Colour shell works better with it.
Voice of Resurgence
Voice is integral maindeck hate against instant speed interaction. It is a good hatebear to round out the decks other disruptive creatures and it will provide an even larger body once it dies. Voice is at it's best for the matchups where you can go wide and and pressure the opponent into not casting their cards. In the current meta game Voice of Resurgence can't compete well with the strategies that Izzet Phoenix and Dredge present. It has a fairly low impact versus combo decks. It works well vs. Jund and BG Midrange strategies and control decks.
Qasali Pridemage
The bigger cat cousin of Noble Hierarch, Pridemage offers a solid agressive creature. Besides being able to snipe at least one card in almost any deck he provides an immediate Exalted boost to attackers. Take pride in running a couple of them mainboard alongside Collected Company to act as instant speed removal when you get lucky. Since the printing of Knight of Autumn this card has lost some popularity.
An uncommon choice for a mana sink, you can use this card to dump your hand more quickly.
Remorseful Cleric
A sideboard card to fight graveyard strategies like Izzet Phoenix and Dredge. Flying is useful and it can be a decent beater in the early stages of a game.
Meddling Mage
An uncommon choice for a 2-drop. Synergizes well with Reflector Mage and helps against combo matchups that need specific cards to work. Since Bant and 4 Colour Knightfall don't have good ways to look at the opponent's hand Meddling Mage needs good knowledge of the format to work.
3-mana Creatures
Courser of Kruphix
The green menace of Standard past has set a new course straight for the Modern format. He synergises extremely well with the scry from Retreat to Coralhelm by digging several cards deep with every land drop. The lifegain he provides can offset the life loss from Shocklands when you are comboing out and is often relevant in order to survive some aggressive decks. Overall this card-advantage-aggro-walling-synergistic-centaur-of-a-machine is a great addition to the deck.
Tireless Tracker
Tracker is great to pair with Knight as you will be getting a lot of landfall triggers. Always play a land after Tracker so you are guaranteed to get the trigger. It really adds a lot of consistency to the deck for when things get grindy, and can help gain a card advantage in the late game when you need it the most.
Knight of the Reliquary
The flagship card of the deck. Knight has never quite made the cut in Modern because the lands available just aren't as diverse as in Legacy Mavrick. Even Zoo decks had turned away from wanting a giant vanilla creature. With the printing of Retreat to Coralhelm the prospect of one hit kills came into the picture and that little bit extra is what pushed the Knight into the realm of playability. It is important to know when to go for the combo and when to hold back in order to not get blown out by a removal spell. Much like Twin decks of the past, opponents will to play around the combo when you don't even have it and end up making sub-optimal plays because of it. If you are going to combo out then hold up a fetchland before going for it as explained in the Tips & Tricks section. Put the feat in the opponent as you tempo them down with other smaller creatures.
Spell Queller
The printing of Eldritch Moon introduced Spell Queller to the Modern format. This unassumingly understated spirit has been the key to the decks current success. It provides interaction with decks that were previously poor matchups such as Scapeshift or Ad Nauseam decks. Many linear decks in Modern play very little removal game 1, such as Affinity, Infect, Abzan Company, Ad Nauseam, RG Titan Breach/Scapeshift, Bant Eldrazi, Dredge, etc... Alongside Collected Company there is quite a bit of instant speed interaction in the deck that will begin to worry the opponent with every card held in hand.
Reflector Mage
Reflector Mage is great on both offence and defense by removing a blocker or preventing an attacker for two turns. When flashed in by Collected Company or Chord of Calling it is extra potent as using it on the opponents turn adds an additional turn to its effect. Pure combo-less Bant builds have found success by playing a playset, it's just that good.
Noncreature Spells
Path to Exile
Path is the go-to removal spell in Bant. It essentially the only unconditional removal spell in colours that are already lacking removal. It is great at what it does, and when paired with Retreat to Coralhelm it becomes even better. If something ever goes wrong you can Path your own creature and use the extra landfall trigger to get out of trouble. Very powerful and versatile card in the deck.
Chord of Calling
A great tutor for any creature in the deck. After going wide with a Collected Company you can cast this for free and find the missing part of the combo. You can sideboard in silver bullets in games 2 and 3 and search them out to take over a game. The card is more important than ever because Collected Company is not guaranteed to give you the card you want but Chord will. This means having access to Chords is more important than ever, so be wary of the chances to flip one combo piece compared to another.
Collected Company
Collected Company may not be the card advantage the deck deserves, but it's the card advantage the deck needs. Foregoing traditional Blue card draw and loading up on undercosted creatures in an attempt to cheat them into play, Collected Company allows for holding up removal while still doing its best SplinterTwin impression. It is the best way for smaller Bant and Zoo decks to keep up with the other options in Modern. The biggest problem that arises is the deck building restrictions that it imposes and variance that it brings. These can be mitigated, if you want to read more on it then check out the Math behind Collected Company section.
Retreat to Coralhelm
The reason this deck has been made possible. Not only for the combo potential with Knight of the Reliquary but also because it works well on its own. By turning every topdeck or fetchland into extra value it gives the deck reach where it otherwise would normally be lacking. By tapping down opponents blockers it allows for massive attacks and better aggro plays. It helps dig through the deck by stacking scry triggers off of fetchlands and then seeing several cards deep at once. It even turns every manadork into a Lotus Cobra. The power of the card comes from the extra push and versatility that it brings when other decks would normally be drawing dead cards. Although it is a centerpiece of the deck, it does not need to be played in multiples every game. Simply running it in the deck to enhance the game when drawn is all that is needed. Typically run 3 and adjust the numbers from there.
Fetchlands are essential to this deck no matter what your list looks like. Getting two landfall triggers in a turn gives more triggers to Retreat to Coralhelm and can allows Knight of the Reliquary to grow larger. Fetchalnds are staples in almost every deck in Modern, and this is no exception. Always try to play around 10 to maximize the value you can get out of them.
If Fetchlands are the bread of the manabase, then Shocklands are the butter. They give better access to all of the colours needed and allow Knight of the Reliquary to still fetch certain colours even when the only lands left in your deck are off-colour. They are necessary for the deck to operate properly, so always play one of each and then increase them as needed from there. Be weary though as the life loss will begin to add up.
Plains & Island & Forest
Playing some number of basic lands is always very important. By playing 3 or 4 colours the deck is already weak to Blood Moon. More Basics also allow for a less painful combo with Knight and Retreat. Always prioritize playing Forests and Plains over Islands since they can be searched out easier and they are the main two colours of the deck no matter what list you are running. Most lists opt to play no Islands at all which can change heavily by how much you expect Blood Moon to be present in the metagame and how valuable your life total is.
Horizon Canopy
This is a great utility land to play in the deck. The real power of comes from the card draw that can be stacked with a ton of scry trigger during the combo to dig for answers against a specific threat. Aside from that being able to draw a card at instant speed is never going to be a dead draw.
Kessig Wolf Run
Brian Kibler would be proud to see the wolf run back in full force. When comboing out, each land put into play can be tapped for a mana before being sacrificed to continue the chain. As the last land searched out by Knight of the Reliquary during the combo all of the mana from before can be dumped into it to make an already giant Knight even larger and able to trample over any sized blocker for a one hit kill. It even provides a great mana sink lategame that can provide reach and break stalemates. By causing even the most innocent Noble Heirarch to become a threat, Wolf Run is a great addition to every list while only requiring a very small red splash.
Gavony Township
Township is a great utility land to turn event the smallest of creatures into game ending threats very quickly. It is most used in Bant and Collected Company lists as a result of a high manadork count. Just holding up mana quickly messes up combat math for your opponents. A great utility land if you are playing against midrange lists or expect the games to be long and resource dependent.
Ghost Quarter
Normally this land is reserved for attacking manlands and Urzatron strategies, but much like Path to Exile, when paired with Retreat to Coralhelm it adds another dimension to the deck. By targeting your own land it is able to pull a basic land out of the deck and gain a landfall trigger. This can be useful in untapping a creature or getting a Forest or Plains to start the combo when none are already in play. It can also mess up combat math for opponents who are not expecting the extra +1/+1 from Knight of the Reliquary.
Sideboard Cards
Kitchen Finks & Rhox War Monk
Finks is the definition of value. The life it gains essentially allows for two free Shocklands. It trades with two cards from the opponent and has the option of being reset by Restoration Angle or Gavnoy Township. Unless you are in a meta with heavy aggro or BG/x decks, Finks really shouldn't be maindecked. There are simply better options available for going blind into game 1, but if you have a good idea of what you are getting into then Finks is what you want to beat any Burn/Zoo/BG decks that you may face. Rhox War Monk covers all of the same points but has the potential to last longer while being weaker to removal. Choose according to your metagame.
Aven Mindcensor
A great way to stop decks that rely on heavy library searching like Bloom Titan and GR Tron. Flying can be relevant evasion when you need it with Kessig Wolf Run. Flash good in Collected Company versions as it allows for more plays when holding up mana. It can sometimes catch your opponent off guard.
Izzet Staticaster
A way to ping down opposing manadorks, small creatures like Viscera Seer or tokens. You can always put the last point of damage on a creature or slowly hit the opponent down. Flash can be relevant when you draw it instead of Collected Company giving it pseudo-flash, but Haste is what puts it over the top. Most often these kind of ping effects are on creatures with summoning sickness.
Blessed Alliance
Another card that came to light with Eldritch Moon. All of the modes are relevant and perform different things in different games. Because of its cheap cost it is very easy to sideboard in and escalate when you have extra mana to spare.
Having some counterspells in the board is never going to be wrong. Negate is going to be the most common one to run as it is going to guarantee a counter. Stubborn Denial is a fringe counter to run since Knight of the Reliquary or even Voice of Resurgence turn on Ferocious. Spell Pierce can be chosen as a cheap alternative, and Unified Will has merit in certain metagames.
Rest in Peace
One of the best cards available to combat graveyard centered decks. This is certain to slow the opponent down completely as opposed to the slow-roll of Scavenging Ooze.
Kataki, War's Wage & Stony Silence
Similarly to Burn, if you are having trouble with the Affinity matchup and want a very strong sideboard card, then start praying to the god of Artifact hate. Aside from being great against Frank Karsten, Kataki is extra potent when playing Collected Company versions of the deck. Although he has the ability to wipe out half of the Affinity players board in one upkeep, there is still high variance that depends on the board state of the Affinity player and how early Kataki is played. Often times he will only slow them down and not lock them out. Stony Silence on the other hand is going to be a more consistent option most of the time as it hurts multiple decks and is just as effective early game as it is late game. If you are not completely relying on Collected Company then this is the card to run.
Worship
Cheesing out a win is still a win. Most times other pilots won't expect it and even some decks don't have a way in their 75 to remove it. Having a few around will always result in some fun games.
Among the aforementioned cards, there are some other less common ones that will see play in successful lists from time to time. These cards may not always make the maindeck cut but they can be useful in certain situations and are always a good option to have around in case you want to add some super secret tech to your deck. If they are not played as a 1-of in the maindeck they will most often be added into the sideboard to hate out certain strategies. If you have a solid reason for playing them then no one can fault you for it.
Tarmogoyf
A staple of green decks in Modern, Goyf represents a must-deal threat on board that takes the focus away from Knight of the Reliquary. Bant traditionally has a problem getting enough card-types into the graveyard because of it's lack of removal or discard cards. The deck can naturally get land and creature into it and has the benefit of running everything but tribal (and often not planeswalkers but Nahiri has shown up before.)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia is a great hatebear to mess up a combo player trying to win on turns 3-4, or noncreature-heavy decks trying to curve out. The tax isn't normally played around which can be crippling for unsuspecting players. When siding her in make sure to lower your own noncreature count so that you don't end up with turns of not being able to play your own spells.
Eternal Witness
Opponents are going to have a hard time witnessing the value that you get when Collected Company flips over one of these only to return it to your hand. Bant is traditionally pretty slow, so a version trying to out-value the opponent will look to play at least a few. She pairs well with flicker effects giving a way to gain card advantage in colours that already has problems doing so.
Flickerwisp
Baby-resto is great in Bant Collected Company shells for its ability to remove blockers, pseudo-vigilance your own attackers, give you extra landfall triggers, remove problem permanents like Ensnaring Bridge for a turn, use more ETBeffects, all while representing a powerful attacker in the air. If you are looking to play the longer game and out value your opponent then this can be a neat tech-choice in certain versions of the deck.
Loxodon Smiter
The elephant in the room has a longing to play magic the way Richard Garfield intended. It hates on counterspells, discard, and especially Liliana of the Veil. It provides a great body for the beatdown plan and pairs well with Voice to hate out UR and BG matchups. The three drop slot in is pretty crowded already so playing a vanilla creature isn't always the best option for game 1's. We want to have flexibility as well as large creatures so play only a few unless you expect it to lox down the meta.
Geist of Saint Traft
Rumor has it that control players have a fear of ghosts, and Geist is why. He can come down as early as turn 2 and when uninterrupted he threatens a 3 turn clock. Exalted creatures are Geist's best friend, making turn 1 Noble Heirarch into turn 2 Geist is one of the strongest openers the deck can have. 3 copies is the magic number when playing Geist because of the legend rule. You want to draw it and see it every game but not be getting multiples.
Restoration Angel
Restoration Angle has left Thragtusk behind while making her Modern debut. She fits into the Midrange Bant shell and you want to avoid her in the Collected Company shells because of the 4 cmc. Resto is a great at protecting creatures from blockers or removal. If you are looking for a more resilient creature than Flickerwisp then this is the best option.
Kor Firewalker
Kor Firewalker shuts down Burn decks hard, as well can put a dent in the gameplan of Zoo and Jund decks. If you are having problems with the burn matchup, or if the reach from BoltSnapBolt is beating you too much then join the pro-red club and start looking for some free wins.
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Eidolon is a Bolt proof Rule of Law that still gets hit by Collected Company. It is great in those combo matchups like Ad Nauseum, Storm, etc... It can heavily slow down decks that rely on casting multiple things a turn, such as Affinity or UR Delver. Just make sure you can cast it fast enough to get enough value out of it.
Dromoka's Command
With all of the options available, it will often put you in a commanding lead after casting it. First off it prevents spells that would often cause a blowout, like Anger of the Gods or removal like Lightning Bolt. Second, it gets rid of problem enchantments such as Eidolon of the Great Revel or Leyline of the Void which hurt Knight of the Reliquary a lot. Third it buffs Geist makes your Goyf larger than the opponents, or resets a persisted Kitchen Finks. Lastly it acts as a removal spell as your creatures will often be naturally larger than the opponents. You can even use an Angel token to remove an opponents creature. Overall this swiss army knife of a card will provide value to almost any deck.
Bant Charm
The charm is versatile with powerful effects acting as Dispel, Shatter, and Condemn all in one. Although most of these cards are sideboard material on their own, the flexibility of having them all to once on one card allows for for it to be rarely be dead. The price for this is the heavy manacost so if you can tune card slots to the metagame at hand then the payoff will be greater.
Cinder Glade & Canopy Vista & Prairie Stream
It takes two to tango, and that's the highest amount of these new lands that you want to be running. While coming into paly untapped is excellent, but this is still very colour intensive and too many basics can hurt the performance of the deck. One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes you will be keeping up a uncracked fetchland and having to sacrifice one of your other basic lands, thins means that any tango land searched out with Knight will come into pay tapped and not provide any mana for things like Kessig Wolf Run. You may also get early game hands that require other colours and force you into paying a tapped land. This is very bad since you should always be the aggressor and not time walk yourself just because of a sub-par manabase. If you play any number of these lands, play them very conservatively.
Sejiri Steppe
The main form of combo protection in the deck, and it doesn't even take up a card slot! The worse thing that can happen is that you draw this, but it still acts as single free attack for a turn rather than a blowout to the opponents removal. By always stopping holding up a land to respond to creature removal during the combo there is no way to prevent Knight from getting as large as it can. This is an essential card and part of what can make the combo so potent. Never leave home without at least one.
Bojuka Bog
There aren't too many powerful lands in Modern, but some extra utility lands for Knight are never bad to run. There are a few land flex slots in the mainboard, but anything too extreme like the Bog should probably be kept out for game 1 unless you are really hunting gaveyard decks.
Rogue's Passage
If you can't commit to splashing red for Kessig Wolf Run then this is the next best option. It chooses to sneak around the opponents creatures rather than over top of them. A good utility land to have access to in Bant colours as it is something that traditionally lacks burn to close out games and can be stalled very easily by single cards like Lingering Souls.
The in-house sideboarding guide is not made yet. If someone from the community wants to take on making one themselves then PM me and we can work something out. Otherwise check out this great guide by Kelvin Chew for an up to date sideboarding guide from someone who knows the deck better than me.
Some tips and tricks to look for when playing the deck include:
In order to avoid flash blockers or removal, you only need to combo off partially. Once blockers are declared you can then continue comboing off until you have a lethal amount of damage or to tap down any flash blockers from the opponent This is relavent against other Collected Company decks, Aether Vial, Restoration Angle, Snapcaster Mage, etc...
When comboing always untap the Knight on each fetchland you grab. That way if someone tries to remove it in response to the untap trigger (why make this play I'm not sure) then you can crack the fetch and untap the Knight and continue in response.
When comboing if there are no threats from the opponent each fetchland can untap a manadork in play for an extra large Kessig Wolf Run activation.
Ghost Quarter your own land to get an extra landfall trigger and mana in a pinch. This can be used to tap down more a creatures if you are playing an Island, or to make Knight larger.
To attack through an Ensnaring Bridge, combo on your first main phase and choose to scry off of each fetch entering play and then crack it in response. End your chain with Horizon Canopy and some floating mana. This way you can stack up as many scry triggers as possible and let them all resolve at once to get 5-6 scrys to dig for an answer. If it is ontop of your deck crack the Canopy to draw it and destroy the Bridge.
The general conclusion is that the ideal number of creatures in the deck should be around 27-28 so that Collected Company has over a 97 percent chance to hit something on every cast. This also gives a 86 percent chance of hitting two creatures. Of course this is the ideal scenario and between your opening 7 and anything you draw before casting the first Collected Company will reduce these odds. After factoring in any dead cards, the amount of creatures that you want to hit is ideally 23, giving a 75 percent chance of getting two good creatures on the first cast. These graphs created by Salvation user Kleronomas should help give a better idea of the general creatures to run in your deck to get the most out of Collected Company.
If the following graphs aren't enough for you, then check out this spreadsheet with a breakdown of exactly what is going on at every single creature count. If you want to get the most out of the deck then it is important to understand the math behind Collected Company and know when is the best time to use it.
In order to get a fast start with the deck you always want to aim for a manadork in your opening hand. 7 manadorks is the optimal number by giving a 60 percent chance of having one in the opening hand while 6 will drop it down to a 54 percent chance. If you are playing a Bant version then you should be running the a 4/3 Birds of Paradise/Noble Heirarch split.
04/10/2015 - Published new primer! 04/10/2015 - Added Lands and Spells card choice section. 10/02/2016 - Redid most of the primer. 08/06/2016 - We top 8'd a GP! 07/10/2016 - Updated sample decks and articles. 12/01/2017 - Huge update adding Eldritch Moon cards, removed and updated outdated info in every section.
I played Bant/ 4 Colour Knightfall for about 3 years now, I'll send Torp a PM. This deck is not up to date in the primer for sure, I'd be glad to help the community with an update there.
I hear you fatkiddestroyers, in game 1 Bant Knightfall has a problem to what kind of deck it wants to be - tap out or instant speed. The general rule I found is to tap out when you don't have a threat on the board and to hold back when you have one in play.
In an ealier post I said that it was hard to fit in Deputy of Detention into 4 Colour Knightfall because of the Mana requirements. I tested a lot and went down to 2 Forest and 1Plains adding another Misty Rainforest (up to 10 fetch lands) and Steam Vents. My deck version feels solid at the moment, the only major problems are Izzet Phoenix and Burn which both feel like 30/70 matchups.
My recent results were 5-2 in Bottrop League (winning against Mardu Pyro, Burn, Mono W Hatebears, Bant Spirits, Landfall Zoo, losing to Abzan Coco Flicker and 5C Humans). The other results are from Dortmund, Germany.
Last week's weekly tournament 3-1-1 (winning against Tron, Grixis DS and Budget BG Rock, lost to UR Phoenix, intent. draw against Bant Spirits)
Last week's FNM 2-2 (lost to UR Storm and Jund, won against Grixis Waste Knot and Mono B Zombies)
This week's weekly tournament 3-2 (loss against UR Phoenix and ??, winning against Nayahiri Zoo with Chalice, UR Storm , BR Hollow One/Soulflayer)
Last night's FNM 3-0-1 (winning against 3C Allies, Bring to Light Kiki-Jiki, GB Elves, intent. draw against Mono W Hatebears).
I tested against Amulet Titan and Hardened Scales, both matchups feel allright now, even with the absense of Stony Silence in the sideboard.
Giving some new insights in the meta, where our biggest focus lies on:
I Lightning Bolt-heavy decks, of which some include Thing in the Ice and the others rely on Searing Blaze
II big mana decks like Tron and Amulet Titan (and Valakut, that is a bit on the rise)
III Dredge/ Death's Shadow/ Hollow One/ Humans/ Bant Spirits/ Hardened Scales Affinity as the aggressive decks
IV a small portion of UW miracle and Jeskai control shells
As fatkiddestroyers pointed out before, Deputy of Detention gave us one of the best three-drops ever printed. A catch all answer, that can trade 2:1 in some cases. This card is the reason that we can handle most of the threads gathered under III. Our goal in these matchups is to get punched and grind our opponent down. Deputy of Detention being a x/3 makes it a prime target for our opponents Lightning Bolts. He shares a red flag with our other x/3 being Spell Queller, that way our opponents must choose which thread to take out first when multiples are in play. A trick I found is to avoid quelling removal spells to prevent a chain reaction of spells hitting our creatures.
To fight the bolt-heavy meta I included 2 Courser of Kruphix, they can help us grind and are a solid dork-into-three drop opening. Spellskite in the sideboard helps us to control where the Lighning Bolts are going.
So how can we handle our worst matchups, the big mana decks? (II) In game 1 our focus is to combo them out as fast as possible, because they lack removal. Our chances are slim to win game 1, so lets focus on games 2 & 3 instead.
Explanation for Mana Leak over Unified Will and Negate: I found Unified Will underwhelming in the matchup vs. Amulet Titan, that is why I rethought its position in the sideboard. One might think, that Mana Leak is a contradiction to Path to Exile, because we are ramping our opponents. The matchups where Path to Exile is needed are not the ones where we need our Mana Leak, namely vs. Combo, Big Mana and Control. Yes, when the opponent has enough mana he can afford to play around Mana Leak and it can rarely handle a flipped Terminus in the later stages of an UW match. What I like about it, is that it performs reasonably well against big mana threads and does not have the condition of having more creatures than your opponents. I strongly advise against Negate, because Primeval Titan decks will feast on you. Our matchup vs. control is already okay, don't emphasize too much on it. Our counterspells are there to bring our opponents off balance. Counter them, when they are playing around Collected Company and Spell Queller. A hard counter on a removal spell or an early thread is very useful.
The reason I deviated from the 4-color-Knightfall approach (see down below) is that it is not possible to fit Deputy of Detention in there. If you are facing less aggro and more Big Mana and Control, then 4-color-Knightfall is still the way to go in my opinion. It offers a solid aggro curve with good interaction post board. Bant Knightfall lacks the ability to aggro the opponent out in the early game, and to punish very slow draws of your opponent.
Finally I want to talk about Lightning Bolt and Thing in the Ice. The removal spell is what you have to watch out for at all times. It is reasonable to slow roll a Knight of the Reliquary to prevent it from being bolted. On the other hand, in control and fair matchups all of our creatures have a red flag on top of their head. So your opponent will run out of Lightning Bolts eventually. I found Selfless Spirit to be a reasonable pick for the main deck. It synergizes well with Scavenging Ooze and keeps your prison creatures alive.
In the main deck you have 9 answers to Thing in the Ice with one more Reflector Mage in the sideboard. This card is the reason that I put 4 Path to Exile in the main deck. If you can't handle this deck in this meta, the deck isn't tuned well. A timely delay with Deputy of Detention can prevent it from flipping for one turn, but you need a permanent solution for it as well as for Crackling Drake.
Discussion on Lavinia, Azorius Renegade:
At first glance, this is a creature we might want. Lets examine the roll Lavinia has in certain matchups:
Vs. Mono Green Tron: Post board it prevents Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and sometimes All is Dust, but nothing else since the Karn Liberated get boarded out anyways.
Vs. Amulet Titan: It counters/prevents Summoner's Pact.
It wins against Living End and has reasonable synergy with Spell Queller. At the moment I don't think we want this card but it might be worth to consider in the future.
Down below you can find my deck list that is tuned to fight the current meta. I'm interested in your thoughts and input. Thanks!
With the spoiling of Retreat to Coralhelm in the fall 2015 set Battle for Zendikar, Knight of the Reliquary rose from the unplayable card pile of the Modern format to complete the two card combo and deliver one hit kills. It took only two months for Knightfall to go from a brand new deck with only a handful of pilots to a tier two status.
As is often the case with Collected Company decks, there have been many changes to the deck with each new creature card printing, allowing every individual leave their mark on the deck through variations and tech choices. Distinct variations from early Knightfall builds include Spell Queller variants, straight Bant variants that forgo Retreat to Coralhelm to focus on Collected Company, Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies variants that employ the infinite mana combo, and four colour variants that delve deeper into Red. In this primer the version that includes Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies will not be discussed.
The deck has reached a top 4 finish at GP Guangzhou piloted by Kelvin Chew and has also had many notable finishes on the SCG circuit. Backed by the flexible toolbox nature of the deck and various combos, Knightfall always remains a solid deck choice in the modern metagame.
In an ealier post I said that it was hard to fit in Deputy of Detention into 4 Colour Knightfall because of the Mana requirements. I tested a lot and went down to 2 Forest and 1Plains adding another Misty Rainforest (up to 10 fetch lands) and Steam Vents. My deck version feels solid at the moment, the only major problems are Izzet Phoenix and Burn which both feel like 30/70 matchups.
My recent results were 5-2 in Bottrop League (winning against Mardu Pyro, Burn, Mono W Hatebears, Bant Spirits, Landfall Zoo, losing to Abzan Coco Flicker and 5C Humans). The other results are from Dortmund, Germany.
Last week's weekly tournament 3-1-1 (winning against Tron, Grixis DS and Budget BG Rock, lost to UR Phoenix, intent. draw against Bant Spirits)
Last week's FNM 2-2 (lost to UR Storm and Jund, won against Grixis Waste Knot and Mono B Zombies)
This week's weekly tournament 3-2 (loss against UR Phoenix and ??, winning against Nayahiri Zoo with Chalice, UR Storm , BR Hollow One/Soulflayer)
Last night's FNM 3-0-1 (winning against 3C Allies, Bring to Light Kiki-Jiki, GB Elves, intent. draw against Mono W Hatebears).
I tested against Amulet Titan and Hardened Scales, both matchups feel allright now, even with the absense of Stony Silence in the sideboard.
I used this list:
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Deputy of Detention
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Reflector Mage
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Voice of Resurgence
2 Knight of Autumn
2 Tireless Tracker
Enchantment
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
Land
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Plains
2 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
4 Collected Company
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Reflector Mage
1 Spell Queller
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Damping Sphere
3 Mana Leak
2 Path to Exile
I Lightning Bolt-heavy decks, of which some include Thing in the Ice and the others rely on Searing Blaze
II big mana decks like Tron and Amulet Titan (and Valakut, that is a bit on the rise)
III Dredge/ Death's Shadow/ Hollow One/ Humans/ Bant Spirits/ Hardened Scales Affinity as the aggressive decks
IV a small portion of UW miracle and Jeskai control shells
As fatkiddestroyers pointed out before, Deputy of Detention gave us one of the best three-drops ever printed. A catch all answer, that can trade 2:1 in some cases. This card is the reason that we can handle most of the threads gathered under III. Our goal in these matchups is to get punched and grind our opponent down. Deputy of Detention being a x/3 makes it a prime target for our opponents Lightning Bolts. He shares a red flag with our other x/3 being Spell Queller, that way our opponents must choose which thread to take out first when multiples are in play. A trick I found is to avoid quelling removal spells to prevent a chain reaction of spells hitting our creatures.
To fight the bolt-heavy meta I included 2 Courser of Kruphix, they can help us grind and are a solid dork-into-three drop opening. Spellskite in the sideboard helps us to control where the Lighning Bolts are going.
So how can we handle our worst matchups, the big mana decks? (II) In game 1 our focus is to combo them out as fast as possible, because they lack removal. Our chances are slim to win game 1, so lets focus on games 2 & 3 instead.
Sideboard Plan Mono Green Tron:
What will Tron players expect? Some hate in the form of Damping Sphere and/or Stony Silence. They will likely board in Thragtusk instead of Karn Liberated and leave in Relic of Progenitus and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
On the play: In 4Mana Leak, 3Damping Sphere, 1Aven Mindcensor, 2Knight of Autumn, 1 Mirran Crusader (he does good damage and can attack through Thragtusk).
Out: 2 Scavenging Ooze, 2Courser of Kruphix, 4Path to Exile, 1Reflector Mage, 1Sejiri Steppe, 1 Tireless Tracker.
On the draw: Cut 1Retreat to Coralhelm and the last Tireless Tracker for 2Reflector Mages.
Sideboard Plan Amulet Titan:
What will Amulet players expect? Removal for Amulet of Vigor, Damping Sphere and Counterspells to some extend. I don't think bringing Knight of Autumn is worth it in this matchup. Don't fight over the amulet, concentrate on handling Cavern of Souls with your Ghost Quarter, fight over Pact of Summoning and Primeval Titan as well as other big threads they bring out of the sideboard. They usually don't win with their titans, but with their Walking Ballista follow up after the first titan that they tutor up with Tolaria West.
On the play and draw: In 4Mana Leak, 3Damping Sphere, 1Aven Mindcensor, 1 Mirran Crusader.
Out: 2 Scavenging Ooze, 2Courser of Kruphix, 1Path to Exile, 1Reflector Mage, 2 Tireless Tracker, 1 Selfless Spirit
Explanation for Mana Leak over Unified Will and Negate: I found Unified Will underwhelming in the matchup vs. Amulet Titan, that is why I rethought its position in the sideboard. One might think, that Mana Leak is a contradiction to Path to Exile, because we are ramping our opponents. The matchups where Path to Exile is needed are not the ones where we need our Mana Leak, namely vs. Combo, Big Mana and Control. Yes, when the opponent has enough mana he can afford to play around Mana Leak and it can rarely handle a flipped Terminus in the later stages of an UW match. What I like about it, is that it performs reasonably well against big mana threads and does not have the condition of having more creatures than your opponents. I strongly advise against Negate, because Primeval Titan decks will feast on you. Our matchup vs. control is already okay, don't emphasize too much on it. Our counterspells are there to bring our opponents off balance. Counter them, when they are playing around Collected Company and Spell Queller. A hard counter on a removal spell or an early thread is very useful.
The reason I deviated from the 4-color-Knightfall approach (see down below) is that it is not possible to fit Deputy of Detention in there. If you are facing less aggro and more Big Mana and Control, then 4-color-Knightfall is still the way to go in my opinion. It offers a solid aggro curve with good interaction post board. Bant Knightfall lacks the ability to aggro the opponent out in the early game, and to punish very slow draws of your opponent.
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Wild Nacatl
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Hushwing Gryff
2 Selfless Spirit
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Aven Mindcensor
3 Tireless Tracker
Enchantment
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Courser of Kruphix
Land
1 Plains
3 Forest
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Collected Company
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Stony Silence
1 Worship
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Damping Sphere
1 Path to Exile
3 Unified Will
1 Dromoka's Command
2 Fiery Justice
Finally I want to talk about Lightning Bolt and Thing in the Ice. The removal spell is what you have to watch out for at all times. It is reasonable to slow roll a Knight of the Reliquary to prevent it from being bolted. On the other hand, in control and fair matchups all of our creatures have a red flag on top of their head. So your opponent will run out of Lightning Bolts eventually. I found Selfless Spirit to be a reasonable pick for the main deck. It synergizes well with Scavenging Ooze and keeps your prison creatures alive.
In the main deck you have 9 answers to Thing in the Ice with one more Reflector Mage in the sideboard. This card is the reason that I put 4 Path to Exile in the main deck. If you can't handle this deck in this meta, the deck isn't tuned well. A timely delay with Deputy of Detention can prevent it from flipping for one turn, but you need a permanent solution for it as well as for Crackling Drake.
Discussion on Lavinia, Azorius Renegade:
At first glance, this is a creature we might want. Lets examine the roll Lavinia has in certain matchups:
Vs. Mono Green Tron: Post board it prevents Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and sometimes All is Dust, but nothing else since the Karn Liberated get boarded out anyways.
Vs. Amulet Titan: It counters/prevents Summoner's Pact.
It wins against Living End and has reasonable synergy with Spell Queller. At the moment I don't think we want this card but it might be worth to consider in the future.
Down below you can find my deck list that is tuned to fight the current meta. I'm interested in your thoughts and input. Thanks!
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Deputy of Detention
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Reflector Mage
2 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
Enchantment
3 Retreat to Coralhelm
2 Courser of Kruphix
Land
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Gavony Township
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
1 Island
3 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Reflector Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Knight of Autumn
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Damping Sphere
1 Spellskite
4 Mana Leak