Creatures

《Fervent Champion》, 《Venerable Knight》, and 《Knight of the Ebon Legion》

These twelve 1-drop knights are the best 1-drops in the format and each have effectively 2 or more power. This is a reason I like this deck compared to the random 1/1s in Obosh Red.

《Worthy Knight》, 《Inspiring Veteran》, and 《Blacklance Paragon》

These are the 2-drops with the best abilities. 《Worthy Knight》 can generate extra bodies. 《Inspiring Veteran》 can pump up the whole team. 《Blacklance Paragon》 can help race or trade up with opposing blockers. Having a flash threat also lets you recover from sorcery speed sweepers.

《Rimrock Knight》 and 《Smitten Swordmaster》

These are not typical choices. The reason I like these two cards is due to the Adventure spells only costing one mana. As I said, I would like to curve out as much as possible; sometimes we draw only one 1-drop and are not able to utilize all of our mana by turn 3. 《Rimrock Knight》 and 《Smitten Swordmaster》 give us extra chances to do so and push extra damage. We really want to close the game as soon as possible facing all the Yorion decks.

Spells

《Fight as One》 and 《Dire Tactics》

《Fight as One》 is the most efficient protection spell in a format overshadowed by Yorion. It is very hard for our opponent to play around it when the opportunity cost for us is holding up one mana. 《Dire Tactics》 is the best removal available in the format. Removal in the format is not very important, however, and we also have 《Rimrock Knight》 and 《Blacklance Paragon》 as combat tricks, so I settled at just two copies.

Mana

《Tournament Grounds》 and Shocklands

We are playing 1-drops in three different colors. I believe I do not need to explain these.

《Savai Triome》

This card gives us all the colors. It looks bad as it comes into play tapped in our aggro deck. But you know what is worse than tapped lands? Not being able to cast our spells at all. I do not really like it and tried to cut it, but the problem of color screw came up very often after that. If you think flooding could be a problem for the deck, you could try cutting one of these and playing 22 lands.

Fabled Passage and One of Each Basic Land

If you look at my Jeskai Ascendancy list in Top 8 of Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir, I already applied this little lesson; playing 1 of each basic land and fetchlands reduce the terrible situation where you draw two of the same basic. If you do not want to question yourself with why this deck’s mana base is so bad, stop playing two of the same basics.

Cards I Dropped

《Skyknight Vanguard》, 《Stormfist Crusader》, and 《Corpse Knight》

These cards have the same problem: they put too much pressure on the manabase. We are playing a 3-color aggressive deck and do not have the luxury of a fetch-dual manabase. I want to maximize the chance to curve out and reduce the chance of being stuck with gold cards in hand. I always emphasize the importance of being able to cast your spells and so I decided not to play any of these multicolored spells.

《Unbreakable Formation》 and 《Call of the Death-Dweller》

Three mana is simply too much for a situational spell. I want to curve out normally and decided to cut these entirely. They could be good in various situations, but they are not good in every situation and I would rather have a consistently solid card instead of a conditionally broken card.

#1: Check the Colors of Your Lands and Spells

It is very common to draw only one source of any given color but also have multiple spells of that color. In these cases, you want to prioritize casting the spell with the color you’re short on. Sometimes sequencing this way may lead to missing 1-2 damage short term, but being able to cast all of your spells should cover those losses.

#2: The Lurrus Turn

Lurrus is a very important play against mass removal. After you force mass removal from your opponent, you can start getting cards from Lurrus. This way you demand another answer from your opponent or Lurrus will net one more card each turn. It means you will normally need to play your 《Savai Triome》 as your fifth lands. Facing spot removal decks, you will try to get out all of the removal before casting Lurrus. The good news is that your deck has powerful creatures and it is not really hard to do this. You also have 《Fight as One》 to protect Lurrus, which can always lead to a blowout.

#3: Ask Yourself if You Can Play around Mass Removal

Not all hands are able to beat mass removal. Sometimes you need to play in the way that closes as many windows as possible. Facing open mana against Yorion decks, it could have 《Shark Typhoon》, 《Omen of the Sun》, or 《Omen of the Sea》 into 《Shatter the Sky》. However, they are playing 80-card decks and they are not always able to draw their sweepers. You could check out my gameplay from the Red Bull Untapped event (Day 1 / Day 2). There are lots of cases we have to commit and simply hope opponents do not have mass removal. This is how the format works and you need to be able to swallow it when you take the beat this way.