If you like to summon a great army of mounted knights and use their speed, mobility, and shock value of cavalry to crush enemy defences, then Knight Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how you can command the cavalry to charge to victory!
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
The commander of our Knight army is a legendary Human Knight, Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir that has Flying, First Strike and “Whenever Sidar Jabari deals combat damage to a player, return target Knight creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.” On top of that he has Eminence — Whenever you attack with one or more Knights, if Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is in the command zone or on the battlefield, draw a card, then discard a card.
Sidar’s Eminence ability triggers even if he is not in the battlefield, so he provides amazing card draw. Because of discard, that draw doesn’t mean card advantage, but it is still great for card filtering and if you build around it, you can even turn discard into an advantage. Filling our graveyard with knights is ideal, as we can reanimate them with Sidar’s last ability directly into the battlefield. If they have powerful EtB effects we can get instant value. Sidar has flying which is a form of evasion so we can expect to be able to consistently deal damage to a player and be able to use its reanimation ability. If we manage to give him double strike, we can essentially double the reanimation!
Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is the main commander of the Cavalry Charge precon, an Esper (
) Knight tribal theme precon that was released along March of the Machine Commander decks, which is a very good starting point for building the deck, but you can always buy singles. All depend on availability and prices at the time. In my opinion, upgrading the precon is the best option, as long as you can find it at a good price.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Knights. Our priority is to add the ones with powerful EtB effects and death trigger effects that can be reanimated over and over with the help of Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, giving us great value.
- Add Knight Tribal support. There are various cards that support Knight tribal, we should focus on cards that support our strategies, like Knight tribal graveyard recursion, Knights with draw/discard synergy and cards that empower our knights.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that provide our commander double strike so we can trigger twice his graveyard recursion ability, we can add cards that can tutor Knights into our graveyard so that we can reanimate them for free and cards that can help us cast our Knights from the graveyard.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Knight tribal theme.
The deck:
Knight Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
9 Ramp: Herald’s Horn , Fellwar Stone , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Knight of the White Orchid , Patchwork Banner, Azorius Signet , Dimir Signet , Orzhov Signet
14 Target Removal: Murderous Rider // Swift End , Aryel, Knight of Windgrace , Vona, Butcher of Magan , Ethersworn Adjudicator , Westfold Rider, Invasion of New Capenna , Cavalier of Night , Cavalier of Dawn , Werefox Bodyguard , Crib Swap , Nameless Inversion , Invasion of New Phyrexia , White Orchid Phantom (land), Haytham Kenway
2 Board Wipes: Crippling Fear , Valiant Endeavor
6 Graveyard Recursion: Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir , Murderous Rider // Swift End (Self recursion), Knights’ Charge, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, Cavalier of Night, Cavalier of Dawn , Cavalier of Gales (Self recursion)
1 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog
4 Tutor: Acclaimed Contender (mini), Entomb, Buried Alive, Thalia’s Lancers
4 Protection: Knight Exemplar , Swiftfoot Boots , Dauntless Bodyguard , Guardian of Faith
14 Card Draw: Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir , Herald’s Horn , Distant Melody , Vanquisher’s Banner , Midnight Reaper , Chivalric Alliance , Locthwain Lancer , Exsanguinator Cavalry , Court Hussar , The Council of Four , Reconnaissance Mission , Cavalier of Gales, Invasion of New Phyrexia, Elenda and Azor
4 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Valiant Knight , Herald of Hoofbeats (kinda), Kinsbaile Cavalier . Moonshaker Cavalry
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. With the exception of ramp category, there is no score below the optimal low average and we see 5 categories that are above the optimal max average. Card draw is much higher than usual at 14 and that is important because it multiplies the effectiveness of all other categories and make our deck more consistent. Grave recursion at 6 is also a highlight of the deck.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Herald’s Horn is great for every tribal deck. It works both as ramp and a kind of card draw, so it is very valuable.
Knight of the White Orchid is a white ramp staple, but in Knight tribal it is much more than that. It has great synergy with our deck since it is a knight and it has a great EtB ability so it is a great reanimation target for our commander.
Patchwork Banner is one of the best cards for Tribal builds as it combines ramp and tribal support. Being both a mana rock and a Tribal Anthem gives us amazing value for its mana cost. Of course it is a top pick for our Knight Tribal!
Target Removal
Murderous Rider // Swift End is a great card since it is a knight, it combines target removal at instant speed for 
and self-recursion at library, so it has the potential to be used more than once.
Aryel, Knight of Windgrace can either be used as a Knight token creator by 
,
or as a tagret removal for , and by tapping X knights to destroy target creature with power X or less. The removal might seem situational but it is repetitive and in Knight tribal it should be consinstent.
Vona, Butcher of Magan has a removal ability with an expensive activation cost as we need and to pay 7 life, but it can destroy almost everything so it is worth it. Vigilance and Lifelink can play an important role for regaining enough life to be able to repeatedly activate it.
Ethersworn Adjudicator is also considered expensive for target removal, as we have to pay , to destroy target creature or enchantment (and if we have even more mana to dump we can pay to untap it), but the fact that it can be repeatable can make up for it.
Invasion of New Capenna // Holy Frazzle-Cannon is a nice flexible removal and has the potential to become a great tribal support card as the Holy Frazzle-Cannon has “Whenever equipped creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature and each other creature you control that shares a creature type with it.”
Invasion of New Phyrexia // Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir is a nice token creator, but its true power comes on the back side where Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir has:
+1: Draw two cards. Then discard two cards unless you discard a creature card.
−2: You get an emblem with “Knights you control get +1/+0 and have ward .”
−3: Tap X creatures you control. When you do, shuffle target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value X or less into its owner’s library.
With card draw, discard, Knight tribal support and target removal, it can be a great all-around card and a must have for Knight tribal.
Cavalier of Night and Cavalier of Dawn have both powerful target removal on EtB and grave recursion on death trigger. They are among the best Knights for our build as they also are great targets for reanimation. Cavalier of Night can only target creatures while Cavalier of Dawn can target any nonland permanent.
Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap count as Knights so they have amazing synergy with our deck. They can be tutored by our tutors that search for Knights and they can be casted from our graveyard repeatedly as long as we have Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in the battlefield.
White Orchid Phantom on ETB destroys up to one target nonbasic land, while its controller may fetch from thier library a basic land tapped in its place. It is good for shutting down powerful landsand a great recursion target for Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir as we can get repeatable removal. Having Flying and First Strike makes it even better. A great inclusion for our Knight Tribal build.
Werefox Bodyguard on ETB exiles a non-Fox creature until it leaves the battlefield. It is a good recursion target for Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir as we can get instant value. Having Flash makes it even better. A nice inclusion for our Knight Tribal build.
Westfold Rider can sacrifice itself to destroy target artifact or enchantment. It can be activated only as a sorcery which makes it less powerful, but it can be a repeatable removal tool and a great recursion target for Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir as we can get value the same turn it enters the battlefield. (either on our main phase if we cast it, or on our second main phase if we recur it with our commander).
Haytham Kenway is an amazing inclusion to our Knight Tribal serving many purposes. It acts like a Knight lord buffing our Knights with +2/2 while at the same time it acts as a target creature removal on ETB exiling up to one creature per opponent until it leaves the battlefield. The protection from Assassins is too specific to be taken count as protection in our deckbuilding Analysis but is a cool (and flavorful) bonus.
Board Wipes
Crippling Fear is a great budget mass removal for tribal decks as it can clear the board of our opponents while leaving ours intact.
Valiant Endeavor is a nice board wipe that greatly fits the flavor of Knight tribal. It is not very consistent, yet our choice can be strategic and lead to high reward.
Graveyard Recursion
Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is our commander and our main reanimator. Because his reanimation triggers on combat damage to a player, we have various cards that grand double strike so that we can potentially double the trigger and thus the graveyard recursion from him.
Knights’ Charge is the ultimate grave recursion spell for Knight tribal as we can pay 
and sacrifice it to return all our knights from our graveyard to the battlefield. Everything else is a welcome bonus.
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is key card for our build since he has amazing synergy with our strategies. With our discard strategy, we can easily cast him from our graveyard. Furthermore, as long as he is in play we may cast Knights from our graveyard. That way, we get great card advantage. Moreover, as mentioned above, tribal changeling spells such as Crib Swap and Nameless Inversion count as knights and they can be cast repeatedly from our graveyard giving us amazing value.
We have already analized the amazing value of Cavaliers. On death trigger, Cavalier of Night returns from our graveyard to the battlefield target creature with mana cost 3 or less, while Cavalier of Dawn returns target artifact or enchantment from our graveyard to our hand. The third one, Cavalier of Gales has self-recursion on library and scry 2.
Tutors
On EtB, Acclaimed Contender checks if we control another Knight (which is super easy in Knight tribal) to search the top five cards of our library for a Knight, Aura, Equipment, or legendary artifact card and put it into our hand. Since it works on EtB, it can be a nice reanimation target for mini tutoring.
Thalia’s Lancers is a Knight that tutors legendary cards on EtB into our hand, so we can also reanimate it for great value.
Buried Alive and Entomb can tutor our best Knights into our graveyard so that we can reanimate them for free with our commander and get maximum value. Amazing value!
Protection
Knight Exemplar is an exceptional tribal lord as she grands other Knights +1/+1 and indestructible. She helps protecting our board and buffing our Knights at the same time.
Dauntless Bodyguard is a cheap bodyguard that help us protect our key cards. What makes it great in our build is that since it is a Knight we can reanimate it repeatedly and constantly protect our most important creatures. Its duty never ends.
Guardian of Faith is great for protecting our board since it has Flash and phases out our creatures when needed. The fact that is it a knight means that we can cast if from graveyard with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge so we can get amazing value.
Card Draw
Vanquisher’s Banner is an exceptional card draw source for tribal decks and on top of that it buffs our Knights with +1/+1.
Distant Melody is great in any creature tribal deck with blue color as all of them run a good number of creatures, thus providing us a good number of card draw.
Midnight Reaper and Locthwain Lancer offer draw on death trigger of our nontoken Knights (In fact Midnight Reaper works with other creatures too, but most creatures on our deck are Knights anyway). They even offer card draw if they die themselves so they are also good reanimation targets.
Reconnaissance Mission and Chivalric Alliance are enchantments that greatly help us with card draw since we can expect to attack with many creatures and deal many times damage to a player and thus draw many cards from them. Chivalric Alliance has extra synergy with our deck and helps both our discard strategy and our go wide strategy: by paying and discarding a card, it creates a 2/2 white and blue Knight creature token with vigilance.
Court Hussar and Cavalier of Gales have great card filtering on EtB and help with card draw too. They are great reanimation targets and Court Hussar has a special synergy with Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, since it is sacrificed after the EtB, because no was spent to cast it and it is instantly available again to reanimate it turn after turn and have both extra card draw and filtering.
The Council of Four is a great card that can offer us card draw and Knight token generation. I also love Baldur’s Gate and the flavor of the card so I’m happy it found a new home in Knight tribal.
Elenda and Azor has expensive draw, but a 6/6 flyer with ward is alone a huge threat and can be a great reanimation target. I like the fact that it has synergy with itself, as it can also become a Vampire Knight token creator and the number of tokens depend on card draw.
Exsanguinator Cavalry creates blood tokens which have great synergy with our deck, since we can draw cards and fill our graveyard with discard. Moreover, it gives +1/+1 counters on our Knights and all that is needed is to deal combat damage to a player which is easy in a deck full of Knights.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Kinsbaile Cavalier gives all our Knights double strike and that is perfect for finishing blows. Valiant Knight buffs other Knights by +1/+1 and needs us to pay 
to get double strike until end of turn, butit may still be worth it. Double strike is very important for our commander too, as it potentially double the reanimation triggers.
Herald of Hoofbeats gives all our Knights Horsemanship which almost means unblockable (since horsemanship is extremely rare). With our go wide strategy and giving our Knights evasion, we can count it as a kinda finisher move.
Moonshaker Cavalry is a great finisher on every white deck that runs many creatures as it offers flying and a significant buff until end of turn on EtB. In our deck it also has great synergy both with our commander and of course with our Knight Tribal strategy. Its cost is very high but since its effect is on EtB, it means we can bypass the cost and trigger the EtB by ruturning it from the graveyard with Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir. Greatly fits the flavor of the deck too!
Other synergy pieces
Great Knights
Marshal of Zhalfir is a great Knight lord that has low mana cost and an upside, by paying , we can tap another target creature.
Wintermoor Commander has low mana cost, has Deathtouch and gives another target Knight indestructible until end of turn whenever he attacks.
Skyhunter Strike Force has Melee and as long as we control our commander, it gives other creatures we control Melee. It is a great support card for going wide strategy.
Vodalian Wave-Knight is a great Knight that can buff our Knights quick and easy, since we have amazing card draw potential in our deck. With the right set up it can easily be a secret finisher.
Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain is a great utility card that serves many purposes. It is a counter doubler and an Equipment/Aura doubler. In our Knight Tribal it is not optimal, but it has great synergy with our cards that spread +1/+1 counters like Skyhunter Strike Force, Exsanguinator Cavalry and Vodalian Wave-Knight. With Ward-Discard a card it punishes our opponents for targeting her, while with Flying and Lifelink on a 4/4 body she is a nice target for our double strike givers.
Double Strike givers : 6 cards
Double strike is essential for our build since Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir needs to be able to do combat damage to a player for our strategies to work in an optimal way. It can even be a finisher or just help damage pierce through. If Jabar is unblocked with double strike we get double reanimation. Single target double strike is fine but of course granting every knight double strike is a finishing move. Kamiz, Obscura Oculus has great synergy with our strategies since we can choose unblockable or double strike depending on the situation. Even Connive fits greatly to our draw/discard strategy.
Token Creators / Go Wide Strategy : 10 cards
As we see, our build runs many token generators and all of them have Knight tribal synergy as they either produce Knights or they are Knights. Going wide and attacking with our Knights can crush enemy defences and lead us to victory!
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve seems more middle-range centered that usual, with many drops on 3-5 drop positions, a spike at 3 drops and an absence of 7 and 9+ drops. That reflects our going wide strategy since we count on numbers to overwhelm our enemies and charge to victory.
Card Type Distribution
The Knight Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 39 creatures, with Artifacts to follow at 11. Other categories have lesser presence with Enchantment at 5, Sorceries at 4 and Instants at 3. It’s worthy to mention the presence of the new card type, Battles at 2. Planeswalkers are at 0, but Teferi is hiding behind Invasion of New Phyrexia so we have a secret Planeswalker to support our strategies.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with all the deck build around Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir we can easily and repeatedly reanimate knights from our graveyard and amplify all of our strategies and that is not reflected in the numbers of each section.
Update v1 (Wilds of Eldraine)
Update v2 (Modern Horizons 3)
Update v3 (Assassin’s Creed)
Update v4 (Bloomburrow)
Now you can buy the whole deck list with a click of a button!
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
Isn’t Gifts Ungiven banned in EDH?
Thank you for your comment! Of course you have right, it shouldn’t be there at the first place, it seems it flew under my radar. I replaced it with Entomb and updated the whole article to reflect that change. For more budget options we can add either Corpse Connoisseur or Unmarked Grave instead. 🙂