Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, it's me Rob, and this time I'm going to show you my favourite tribal deck in the current standard format: Knights; again I apologize for the quality of my English, I hope you guys will like this and have a good day.

The deck

Knights tribal strategy and playstyle is a mix between an aggro and a midrange strategy, there are 3 cards in particular, which are fundamental: Knight of Grace, Knight of Malice, and History of Benalia; I like to call them "The Good, The Bad, and The Army" and of course there's a reason behind that name, but don't worry, I will explain it later; the more midrange part of the deck is composed by removal spells like Mortify and Conclave Tribunal and some utility spells like The Immortal Sun.

Creatures

The first one of our proud knights, can be an excellent turn 1 drop, but most of the times you'll want to play him on turn 3 or later to protect one of your creatures, indeed his ability to make a creature indestructible by sacrificing himself can be huge, both in early and in late game.

The first part of the triad, 2/2 knight with first strike and hexproof from black for only 2m, really nice, and as a plus, she also gets +1/+0 if there's a black non land permanent on the field; needless to say synergizes really well with Knight of Malice.

Second part of the triad, same stats as Knight of Grace, but with opposites colors, which means hexproof from white and +1/+0 if there's a white non land permanent on the field; both she and Knight of Grace are really nice against both control and aggro decks.

Zombie Knight, cool, also comes with a 3/2 body and gives us a significant amount of draw power, all of that for 3m and some life points; good synergy with Knight of Grace.

Our first knight lord, I know she's a lady but the term "lord" in this case refers to the card type and not to the gender, in a tribal deck a "lord" is a card which possesses an ability and/or an effect that buffs all the other cretures of the same type, in this case knight cards; that said she gives +1/+1 to all of our knights and later at the cost of 5m she can give double strike to all of them, pretty impressive; weak to Lava Coil.

Our second knight lord, this lady comes in with a 4/4 body, vigilance and 2 different effects, for 3m and herself being tapped she can spawn a 2/2 knight token with vigilance, and for 1m and herself being tapped you can tap any number of knights and destroy a creature with strenght equal or lower than the number of tapped knights; it may seem a little confusing but it's actually really easy, and provides us a really good amount of utility.

The only non knight creature in the deck, for 4m we have a 4/3 with fly and potentially vigilance and/or deathtouch, also when she goes to graveyard (doesn't work if she gets exiled) we'll get 2 1/1 spirit tokens with fly; really powerfull card, has a good synergy with every other card in the deck and is especially good against control decks.

Instants and Sorceries

The left side can bring back a Dauntless Bodyguard/ Knight of Grace/ Knight of Malice/ Midnight Reaper from the graveyard for 2m; the right side can literally turn upside-down the situation of a match by doubling our life total and halving the opponent's one.

Awesome card, can protect our creature from a board wipe like Cleansing Nova or Ritual of Soot, and if casted during our main phase also gives a +1/+1 counter to every creature on our board, that makes it a really nice finisher too.

One of the best removals from the new expansion, for 3m can destroy a creature or an enchantment, can help us to deal with Wilderness Reclamation, The Eldest Reborn, Experimental Frenzy and many others.

Enchantments and Artifacts

The last part of the triad, basically the card that can make this deck really shine, gives us 2 2/2 knight tokens with vigilance during the first 2 steps, and the last one gives +2/+1 to every knight on the field, which means it can buff our entire board; really strong even if played without creatures on board; awesome win condition.

Another nice removal, can potentially be casted for free thanks to convoke and can deal with stuff like Rekindling Phoenix or Zetalpa, Primal Dawn.

We can run 1 copy of this since we have no planeswalkers in this deck, +1/+1 to every creature we have, 1 extra card per turn, spells cost 1m less and planeswalkers can't activate their abilities, that means no more Teferi, Hero of Dominaria are going to ruin your day.

Special lands

This land allows us to get one creature back from the graveyard, this effect can be really powerful, especially in late game.

Maybeboard

The deck is actually pretty solid in its current form, but there are some good options to make us able to do some changes if we want:

• Adding the Marshal: by cutting The Immortal Sun and 2 copies of Revival // Revenge we can add 3 copies of Benalish Marshal 3m 3/3 knight lord that gives +1/+1 to all of our creatures, that will make the deck a lot more aggressive but will cut down some utility and late game potential; also remeber to add a few more Plains if you do this change.

• Angels: There are some more angels that we can add to this deck, by cutting 1 The Immortal Sun and 2 Revival // Revenge we can add 3 copies of either Resplendent Angel, Lyra Dawnbringer or Angel of Grace, each one of them will affect the deck in a different way but they have all the same potential more or less.

• Alternative Removals: we can swap our current removals for other good ones like Consecrate // Consume, Settle the Wreckage, Vraska's Contempt or The Eldest Reborn; but I think that Mortify and Conclave Tribunal are still the best options.

• Planewalkers: there is only one planeswalker that can be added to this deck and he is Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants, we can add him by cutting The Immortal Sun; his abilities all synergize really well with the deck, but I think The Immortal Sun gives us more power, especially in late game.

Matchups

I'm going to analyze the matchups with some of the most common, and strongest meta decks;

• Vs. White Weenie: the decks have around the same power, but knights can also count on removal spells and utility spells so use your Mortify/ Conclave Tribunal and your Revival // Revenge wisely and you'll win the game.

• Vs. Blue Tempo: kinda difficult matchup, you will need at least 1 Mortify or 1 Conclave Tribunal in your opening hand to kill their main flyer, but be sure to do this when they're out of mana or the removal will be 100% countered; try to be aggressive and put as much pressure as you can to force them to block; Seraph of the Scales can save your life in this matchup, also Aryel, Knight of Windgrace removal ability can be quite usefull.

• Vs. Red Rush: skill (and luck) based matchup, you can have their same speed and flood the board with creatures in the first turns, but they can kill almost any creature you drop with their burn spells like Lava Coil/ Shock/ Lightning Strike ecc.; so it really depends on who has the best opening hand, draws the best cards, and uses them at the right moment; Revival // Revenge is a really strong win condition in this matchup.

• Vs. Boros Aggro: basically the same as Vs. White Weenie.

• Vs. Selesnya Aggro: again, same as Vs. White Weenie.

• Vs. Mardu Aristocrats: even matchup, both the decks have same speed same quantity of removals, and roughly the same power; the things you'll need to take care of first are Hero of Precinct One, Judith, the Scourge Diva, Pitiless Pontiff and Theater of Horrors, wich means that Mortify will be a must in your opening hand; Unbreakable Formation can save your entire board from removals and board wipes, so try to keep it in your hand.

• Vs. Green Midrange: interesting matchup, they have big creatures but almost no removal spells, we have small to medium size creatures and a decent quantity of removal spells; what we need is to be aggressive, really aggressive, and to get rid of big creatures when needed, so look for both Mortify (can also get rid of Rhythm of the Wild if they splashed Red) and History of Benalia in your opening hand; Seraph of the Scales can be a huge threat to them.

• Vs. Orzhov Afterlife: painful matchup if you don't use your removal spells wisely, Conclave Tribunal gets rid of Seraph of the Scales, Mortify kills Teysa Karlov and Ethereal Absolution, if you manage to do this correctly you should have a pretty easy game.

• Vs. Golgari Midrange: even matchup, your best friends in this are going to be Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice because they can block all of their creatures and are quite diffucult to kill, look for them in your opening hand; keep your removal spells in hand if you have them, Conclave Tribunal against Vivienne Reid and Mortify against Wildgrowth Walker/ Doom Whisperer and Hydroid Krasis (if they splashed Blue); Seraph of the Scales can put a lot of pressure on them, and Unbreakable Formation can save you from Ritual of Soot.

• Vs. Dimir Control: kinda easy matchup if played carefully, you'll probably want to keep a Mortify in your opening hand to get rid of Doom Whisperer/ The Eldest Reborn, you'll also want some creatures to refill the board if they cast Ritual of Soot.

• Vs. Izzet Drakes: kinda difficult matchup, you need to have at least 1 Mortify/ Conclave Tribunal and one History of Benalia in your opening hand, Knight of Grace/ Knight of Malice are also good picks; you need to kill their Enigma Drake/ Crackling Drake as soon as you see them, and attack every time History of Benalia reaches step 3, in this way you'll either force them to block and sacrifice their drakes or you'll do tons of damage to them; use your Revival // Revenge as soon as you can to halve their life and put pressure on them.

• Vs. Esper Control: can be either really difficult or really easy, it depends from the quantity of counter spells and board wipes they can cast, until turn 4 you can go full aggressive with Knight of Grace/ Knight of Malice and History of Benalia, but after that you need to be careful, keep a Conclave Tribunal to get rid of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and keep some creatures in your hand to refill the board after a Cleansing Nova/ Kaya's Wrath.

• Vs. Jeskai Control: similar to Vs. Esper Control, but definetely more difficult.

• Vs. Grixis Control: another easy one, almost the same as Vs. Dimir Control, but pay attenction to Lava Coil and Bedevil.

Conclusion

Thanks to everyone that read the list and/or this description, I really hope you liked it and that you're having fun if playing it 

-Rob.