Old school player here. I still remember when I was a kid how my friends and I chased and were awed at Black Knight, White Knight, Order of the Ebon Hand, and Order of Leifbur. Good memories.
Ah, Knights. My first love in MTG. I started my collection with the duel decks Knights vs Dragons and built it from there to play with my friends. I since fell off the game, but I still have that deck in my closet and love to look through it. My favorite being to get two Knight Exemplars to the field to have a full field of indestructible cards. Yea it wasn't a powerful deck, but I loved playing it.
I know creature powercreep has gotten crazy, but it still surprises me how quickly Mirran Crusader just vanished from relevance. 2 power with DoubleStrike and protection from Black (one of the two main creature removal colors) and Green (so the big beefy boys can't block it) seemed absurdly pushed at the time it was printed.
My favorite knight: "Knight Exemplar" Back in it's standard environment knight tribal was fricking fun. Nothing quite like having two (or a phyrexian memamorph cloning it) and wrathing. I believe it was also standard around fetches, swords, and other game warping cards.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar should be in honorable mentions. Great curve-topper for White Weenie and Humans decks since you don't have to attack with her to create the human token.
I feel like Black/White Knight deserve honorable mention here. Even if they haven't seen competitive play in years, they were such integral cards in early MTG, and even now, when reprinted, make solid cards in Limited.
You have to ask R&D was smoking for Fervant Champion, printing a red 1 drop with SIX upsides (2 relevant types, and it's been played for both, 2 keywords, and two more abilities that both see routine use.) Was it the most dominate card of it's standard? No, but it's still one of the most powercrept cards of all time.
You're overselling the card way way too much. You can count "upsides" however you want but the reality is Fervent Champion is very mediocre. Goblin Guide has a downside and is a much better card. "Power creep" means nothing if you're ignoring the context and value and only counting "upsides".
@@fernandobanda5734 So what's funny is they released a common with lifelink and haste, though no relevant creature types, only 2 sets prior, and people screamed powercreep, but Fervent champion got a pass because it's a rare. Wizards has a famous habit of overloading rares and mythics, rather than making them interesting, and fans just give them a free pass.
@@superbaas8822 If you mean Banehound, nobody was screaming power creep. Or rather, they did, but they didn't know what they were talking about. Banehound being power creep and Fervent Champion being okay seems like a very specific anecdote and nothing more. It is true that rares and mythics get more pushed stats when it matters, but they are also very good at making them *seem* powerful. A 1/1 lifelink haste for one had never been printed, but it's not power creep because that is not better than whatever best tournament 1-drop is currently in the format. I don't mean to take the excitement away from more casual players, but if people are worrying about card design and balance, then they should really listen to professional players first. You can put all the words you want but if the card isn't really more powerful, then that's it.
I’m playing ‘Fervent Champion’ in Magic Arena. I didn’t know it was considered a powerful card. I knew I wanted it in my weenie deck where all the creatures have first strike. You can almost forget its ability to reduce the cost of equipping. The only artifact I play, 1 red mana, attaches itself to the creature when it comes into play. Later in the game it can help you equip if the first create you equipped died.
Smitten Swordmaster is another very good knight in knight tribal that has seen play in several formats due to it's versatility has being a way to swing life totals and be a respectable creature at the same time. There's also Inspiring Vetern, that was a very good Knight lord in Standard along with Legion Lieutenant that does the same thing for vampires. Knight of Dusk's Shadow which has Menace, your opponent's can't gain life, and pumps itself. And finally Syr Faren which pumps other creatures when attacking and is very good in green devotion due to it's double green cost.
Another upside of Puresteel Paladin is that it is a massive help for Hammer Time's B plan. Paladin is half of it's card advantage along side Esper Sentinel and the fact that it serves the dual purpose of hammer abuse for fast kills and card advantage engine for grindy games is very impressive.
Murderous Rider tucking itself back was because in that Standard environment, there was a card named Order Of The Midnight which returns a creature card from your graveyard to your had. And that could get copied with Lucky Clover.They didn’t want you to be able to just get back two removal spells.
Yeah, the analysis of Murderous Rider felt pretty Yugioh-brained. Returning to the library from the graveyard is almost always a downside in Magic, since the graveyard much more accessible than the library compared to Yugioh, and with larger decksizes and fewer 1-ofs, putting back a single card is much less impactful. Rather than being a "somewhat recursive creature", it is clearly designed to stop you from recurring it.
One more thing about Knight of the White Orchid: its a staple played in monowhite or white+any nongreen color combo commander decks, because it ramps you outside of green
Knight of Ebon Legion’s second ability may be strong than it is portrayed here. You don’t have to pay mana to activate it; it is a permanent ability, and there are a lot of different way in which you opponent can lose 4 life.
I run a couple copies of midnight reaper in my explorer rakdos cat oven deck on arena. Its great when you sac the cat to the oven, ping with the mayhem devil, draw a card and lose a life, sac the food to bring back the cat, ping with the devil again and then drain for one, netting 0 life lost
While more difficult, I’d love more Commander focused videos since deckbuilding requires a much broader knowledge of the card pool. Here’s one idea: top 10 commanders that fit into many diverse strategies. Atraxa is strong, but the reason why she is the top on EDHRec is more because she can enable many different decks.
you know there's literally hundreds of Commander-focused channels that only ever talk about Commander, right it's so fucking nice to have a channel that acknowledges other formats
The fact that Hakkon, Stromgald Scourge (lets you cast Knights from your grave), Kinsblade Cavalier (gives Knights Double Strike) and Knight Exemplar (gives other Knights +1/+1 and indestructible) aren't on this list is a shame. At least as an honorable mention.
@@fernandobanda5734 Hakkon lets you cast non-creature Knights from your graveyard, such as Crib Swap. A bad card, but when you can cast it over and over, it becomes good.
I ran black/white knights during Alara with the old shadow mechanic tossed in. Resolve 2 Knight Exemplar at the kitchen table and it was all but over. I still have her in a vampire knight deck based around card art depicting women. Enchanting her with your own New Blood is particularly funny.
@@NotSoSerious69420 but morophon is CLEARLY a knight. He worked hard to earn that knighthood, and it says right on his card that he is one. It'd be disrespectful to take away that achievement.
@@josephwodarczyk977 I mean he’s clearly a elk. Says so right on his card. He’s even a better elk then oko could ever imagine making so he deserves top elk over knight.
Murderous Rider's second ability has nothing to do with recursion (it's much harder to get creatures from your deck than from your graveyard). That ability is a downside, because returning the creature with Disentomb effects and getting the removal part back would be op.
Does fervent champion really deserve that high of a spot? Monkey blade was a flash in the pan type of deck that was easily overshadowed by the bigger flash in the pan of jund/golgari food. I know that knights are a weak tribe and lack powerful individual cards since really only puresteel paladin, knight of autumn, and knight of the reliquary see modern or eternal play, but I would have included at least a few of the knights that used to see play in those older formats over some of the higher choices (stillmoon cavalier, mirran crusader, and phyrexian crusader) ans probably also adeline, resplendent cathar.
Knight of the Reliquary is certantly one of the game's most powerful historical Creatures. It saw consistent play in Standard in decks such as Mythic / Sovereigns of New Alara midrange. It became a threat on Extended, being both an excellent creature for conventional midrange decks as well as specific decks like Loam or Devastating Dreams. It was one of the premiere Creatures in modern up to the release of Deathrite Shaman and came back with Battle for Zendikar, as Retreat to Coralheim created a midrange combo deck focused around KoR. But most importantly it is still a monster on legacy, having historically being a major part of decks like Aggro/4C Loam and Maverick among many others. The only format the KoR is legal and has never been an actually important part of the meta has been mtg Arena Historic.
I've been watching the logs for years yet only now I've realised he's got a really annoying habit of saying Basically or Essentially when he don't need to. In this video an example was when he said Haste essentially removes summoning sickness. Essentially was not needed here as that's exactly what it does. And in one his videos for duellogs I'm sure he said basically on about 5 cards he talked about when he never needed to use that word. He's using those words, as in how people use like when it's not needed. Just a small irrating thing I've noticed recently for some reason.
Wow. Im building a Syr Gwyn deck. Very good timing. Hey bro thus is weird top 10. Where is Knight Exemplar, he is one of the best knights ever printed or Valiant Knight. What happened with Kinsbaile Cavalier or Mirran Crusader. What about phyrexian crusader?? Dont know man this list it a little lazzy.
i am so glad that your channel looks at multiple formats that aren‘t edh.
Old school player here. I still remember when I was a kid how my friends and I chased and were awed at Black Knight, White Knight, Order of the Ebon Hand, and Order of Leifbur. Good memories.
Ah, Knights. My first love in MTG.
I started my collection with the duel decks Knights vs Dragons and built it from there to play with my friends. I since fell off the game, but I still have that deck in my closet and love to look through it. My favorite being to get two Knight Exemplars to the field to have a full field of indestructible cards. Yea it wasn't a powerful deck, but I loved playing it.
The first rule of magic is to have fun, you'll always appreciate those memories my brother 🤘🤘
Could you do a video going through the top 10 Drakes? I feel it's a creature type that does not get much love.
#1: Drake Bell
@@mattjayce2339 Not after that criminal trial
Not before that criminal trial either
Someone likes Hotline Bling
I know creature powercreep has gotten crazy, but it still surprises me how quickly Mirran Crusader just vanished from relevance. 2 power with DoubleStrike and protection from Black (one of the two main creature removal colors) and Green (so the big beefy boys can't block it) seemed absurdly pushed at the time it was printed.
I agree. He is strong on its own but equipped with Umezawa's Jitte or a sword...
I think the main reason is that black is no longer premier removal and Jund/BG decks in general have fallen out of favor in Modern.
My favorite knight: "Knight Exemplar"
Back in it's standard environment knight tribal was fricking fun. Nothing quite like having two (or a phyrexian memamorph cloning it) and wrathing. I believe it was also standard around fetches, swords, and other game warping cards.
Nice! I just built a Syr Gwyn commander deck, this video has perfect timing!
Gosh, I love this channel
Keep up the hard work, bro
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar should be in honorable mentions. Great curve-topper for White Weenie and Humans decks since you don't have to attack with her to create the human token.
I feel like Black/White Knight deserve honorable mention here. Even if they haven't seen competitive play in years, they were such integral cards in early MTG, and even now, when reprinted, make solid cards in Limited.
You speak truth, sir. I have fond childhood memories of both. Also for Order of the Ebon Hand and Order of Leifbur (“pump knights”).
You have to ask R&D was smoking for Fervant Champion, printing a red 1 drop with SIX upsides (2 relevant types, and it's been played for both, 2 keywords, and two more abilities that both see routine use.)
Was it the most dominate card of it's standard? No, but it's still one of the most powercrept cards of all time.
It's a world champ card and they like to let those be pushed like the invitational cards of old.
You're overselling the card way way too much. You can count "upsides" however you want but the reality is Fervent Champion is very mediocre. Goblin Guide has a downside and is a much better card. "Power creep" means nothing if you're ignoring the context and value and only counting "upsides".
@@fernandobanda5734 So what's funny is they released a common with lifelink and haste, though no relevant creature types, only 2 sets prior, and people screamed powercreep, but Fervent champion got a pass because it's a rare.
Wizards has a famous habit of overloading rares and mythics, rather than making them interesting, and fans just give them a free pass.
@@superbaas8822 If you mean Banehound, nobody was screaming power creep. Or rather, they did, but they didn't know what they were talking about. Banehound being power creep and Fervent Champion being okay seems like a very specific anecdote and nothing more.
It is true that rares and mythics get more pushed stats when it matters, but they are also very good at making them *seem* powerful. A 1/1 lifelink haste for one had never been printed, but it's not power creep because that is not better than whatever best tournament 1-drop is currently in the format. I don't mean to take the excitement away from more casual players, but if people are worrying about card design and balance, then they should really listen to professional players first. You can put all the words you want but if the card isn't really more powerful, then that's it.
I’m playing ‘Fervent Champion’ in Magic Arena. I didn’t know it was considered a powerful card. I knew I wanted it in my weenie deck where all the creatures have first strike. You can almost forget its ability to reduce the cost of equipping. The only artifact I play, 1 red mana, attaches itself to the creature when it comes into play. Later in the game it can help you equip if the first create you equipped died.
I’d love to see a top 10 X Spell video
I made several Knight decks for commander, love me some knights in Magic. My most recent were divided into an equipment based 1 and an aura based 1
Ah yes, perfect, time to find some more creatures for my Syr Gwyn deck
Sad that you didnt mention retreat to coralhelm combo with kotr. Such a sick combo
Needed this because the Zhalfir army needs all the help they can get
Hero of Bladehold was one of those cards that got me into Magic
Love the video!
Smitten Swordmaster is another very good knight in knight tribal that has seen play in several formats due to it's versatility has being a way to swing life totals and be a respectable creature at the same time. There's also Inspiring Vetern, that was a very good Knight lord in Standard along with Legion Lieutenant that does the same thing for vampires. Knight of Dusk's Shadow which has Menace, your opponent's can't gain life, and pumps itself. And finally Syr Faren which pumps other creatures when attacking and is very good in green devotion due to it's double green cost.
Another upside of Puresteel Paladin is that it is a massive help for Hammer Time's B plan. Paladin is half of it's card advantage along side Esper Sentinel and the fact that it serves the dual purpose of hammer abuse for fast kills and card advantage engine for grindy games is very impressive.
Murderous Rider tucking itself back was because in that Standard environment, there was a card named Order Of The Midnight which returns a creature card from your graveyard to your had. And that could get copied with Lucky Clover.They didn’t want you to be able to just get back two removal spells.
Yeah, the analysis of Murderous Rider felt pretty Yugioh-brained. Returning to the library from the graveyard is almost always a downside in Magic, since the graveyard much more accessible than the library compared to Yugioh, and with larger decksizes and fewer 1-ofs, putting back a single card is much less impactful. Rather than being a "somewhat recursive creature", it is clearly designed to stop you from recurring it.
I never knew Fervent Champion did that...I always used it for the cost, key words and ability
One more thing about Knight of the White Orchid: its a staple played in monowhite or white+any nongreen color combo commander decks, because it ramps you outside of green
Knight of Ebon Legion’s second ability may be strong than it is portrayed here. You don’t have to pay mana to activate it; it is a permanent ability, and there are a lot of different way in which you opponent can lose 4 life.
ihsan's shade will forever be my favorite knight.
I always like cards that foreshadow the next block and Knight of the Reliquary foreshadowing landfall and fetchlands is my favorite.
I run a couple copies of midnight reaper in my explorer rakdos cat oven deck on arena. Its great when you sac the cat to the oven, ping with the mayhem devil, draw a card and lose a life, sac the food to bring back the cat, ping with the devil again and then drain for one, netting 0 life lost
I used white knight and pestilence together. Aoe black damage that goes away if there are no creatures, and a protection from black creature.
Adeline?
While more difficult, I’d love more Commander focused videos since deckbuilding requires a much broader knowledge of the card pool.
Here’s one idea: top 10 commanders that fit into many diverse strategies. Atraxa is strong, but the reason why she is the top on EDHRec is more because she can enable many different decks.
you know there's literally hundreds of Commander-focused channels that only ever talk about Commander, right
it's so fucking nice to have a channel that acknowledges other formats
The fact that Hakkon, Stromgald Scourge (lets you cast Knights from your grave), Kinsblade Cavalier (gives Knights Double Strike) and Knight Exemplar (gives other Knights +1/+1 and indestructible) aren't on this list is a shame. At least as an honorable mention.
Don't Forget about History of Benalia and Knights' Charge (although they are newer cards).
Because this list isn't "Top 10 cards that would make a Knight deck good" and those are pretty terrible cards.
@@fernandobanda5734 Hakkon lets you cast non-creature Knights from your graveyard, such as Crib Swap. A bad card, but when you can cast it over and over, it becomes good.
@@nanya524 That's still a very impractical and niche combo that doesn't see play competitively anywhere.
I made a mardu knight tribal deck as my first ever brew. It wasn't good, but very rarely it would actually steal wins
Amazing
Maybe you could do Top 10 Ninjas?
What about top 10 cards with Reach? Feels like you only hear about Reach vs seeing it lol.
I ran black/white knights during Alara with the old shadow mechanic tossed in. Resolve 2 Knight Exemplar at the kitchen table and it was all but over. I still have her in a vampire knight deck based around card art depicting women. Enchanting her with your own New Blood is particularly funny.
Anyone else feel like Morophon was good enough to make the list?
No because changelings should never make any of these lists lol.
@@NotSoSerious69420 but morophon is CLEARLY a knight. He worked hard to earn that knighthood, and it says right on his card that he is one. It'd be disrespectful to take away that achievement.
@@josephwodarczyk977 I mean he’s clearly a elk. Says so right on his card. He’s even a better elk then oko could ever imagine making so he deserves top elk over knight.
@@NotSoSerious69420 he'd make a great elk knight tribal commander then. Someone get on that.
I just got into mtg and i bought Calvary charge precon
Top 10 creatures with abilities that reduce their cost/have alternate costs?
TOP dragons please!!
Top 10 birds or snakes plz
White Knight should have made this list because it was the OG knight
Murderous Rider's second ability has nothing to do with recursion (it's much harder to get creatures from your deck than from your graveyard). That ability is a downside, because returning the creature with Disentomb effects and getting the removal part back would be op.
Part of me wonder if I would enjoy magic lore from hirumaredx
Your format might be improved by putting your face above tour bullet point captions, otherwise, I love your videos.
I like Midnight Reaper more than haruspex because if it gets removed right away you still draw the card
Does fervent champion really deserve that high of a spot? Monkey blade was a flash in the pan type of deck that was easily overshadowed by the bigger flash in the pan of jund/golgari food. I know that knights are a weak tribe and lack powerful individual cards since really only puresteel paladin, knight of autumn, and knight of the reliquary see modern or eternal play, but I would have included at least a few of the knights that used to see play in those older formats over some of the higher choices (stillmoon cavalier, mirran crusader, and phyrexian crusader) ans probably also adeline, resplendent cathar.
Knight of the Reliquary is certantly one of the game's most powerful historical Creatures. It saw consistent play in Standard in decks such as Mythic / Sovereigns of New Alara midrange. It became a threat on Extended, being both an excellent creature for conventional midrange decks as well as specific decks like Loam or Devastating Dreams. It was one of the premiere Creatures in modern up to the release of Deathrite Shaman and came back with Battle for Zendikar, as Retreat to Coralheim created a midrange combo deck focused around KoR. But most importantly it is still a monster on legacy, having historically being a major part of decks like Aggro/4C Loam and Maverick among many others. The only format the KoR is legal and has never been an actually important part of the meta has been mtg Arena Historic.
Midnight Reaper seems better than Grim Haruspex though? Reaper triggers from itself dying, but Haruspex doesn’t.
Yup, he missed that
I've been watching the logs for years yet only now I've realised he's got a really annoying habit of saying Basically or Essentially when he don't need to. In this video an example was when he said Haste essentially removes summoning sickness. Essentially was not needed here as that's exactly what it does. And in one his videos for duellogs I'm sure he said basically on about 5 cards he talked about when he never needed to use that word.
He's using those words, as in how people use like when it's not needed. Just a small irrating thing I've noticed recently for some reason.
Wow. Im building a Syr Gwyn deck. Very good timing. Hey bro thus is weird top 10. Where is Knight Exemplar, he is one of the best knights ever printed or Valiant Knight. What happened with Kinsbaile Cavalier or Mirran Crusader. What about phyrexian crusader?? Dont know man this list it a little lazzy.
Please don't post ranting comments.
That marietlege combo is nasty every time I see someone do it I honestly think it's cheating haha but that goes the same for stacks infinite combos
RaVaGan
no syr konrad. irrelevant list