"Noble Knight", referred to as "Sacred Knight" in the anime and some video games, and known as "Holy Knight" (聖 (せい) 騎 (き) 士 (し) Seikishi) in the OCG, is an archetype of LIGHT, DARK, and FIRE Warrior monsters. It was introduced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 5 Strategy Guide and received its first support in Return of the Duelist with "Noble Arms - Gallatin". This archetype is also used by Sherry LeBlanc in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, by Kento Naito in the spin-off manga series Yu-Gi-Oh! D Team ZEXAL and by Lightning in Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution.

All printed "Noble Knights" (except those used by Sherry) are based on either the Knights of the Round Table of Arthurian legend, the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne from Carolingian legend, or on related concepts from either. The "Noble Arms" archetype supports this archetype, and encompasses weapons used by those knights.

Naming in the TCG[]

• In Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, the archetype names are respectively "Nobile Cavaliere", "Nobre Cavaleiro" and "Noble Caballero", with the adjective meaning "Noble" coming before the noun meaning "Knight". This is to make sure that the support cards work well with "Ignoble Knight" cards which are called "Ignobile Cavaliere", "Inobre Cavaleiro" and "Innoble Caballero"; however, in these languages the "Noble Arms" archetype has the adjective after the noun meaning "Arms". In French, the adjective is placed after the noun in both cases of "Noble Knight" ("Chevalier Noble") and "Noble Arms" ("Armes Nobles"), as "Ignoble Knight" cards are simply named "Chevalier Noble Infâme" (literally "Infamous Noble Knight").
• There is no agreement on the noun phrase "Noble Knight" in English (the plural form is simply "Noble Knights", with no change reflected on the adjective "Noble"). However, in other languages there is, which makes the naming of the archetype potentially complicated.
  • Plural forms are never used in French, German and Spanish card names, as shown on "Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights", "Noble Knight Brothers", "Last Chapter of the Noble Knights" and "Noble Knights of the Round Table".
  • An ungrammatical plural form is used in Portuguese ("Nobre Cavaleiros"), without making the adjective "Nobre" agree, as shown on "Last Chapter of the Noble Knights" and "Noble Knights of the Round Table".
  • In Italian, agreement is still applied on "Noble Knight Brothers", "Last Chapter of the Noble Knights" and "Noble Knights of the Round Table", with the plural form being "Nobili Cavalieri". This makes support confusing for a few "Noble Knight" support cards, such as "Noble Knight Brothers", "Ignoble Knight of High Laundsallyn" and "Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights". However, cards whose names contain feminine and plural variants of archetype names seem to be implicitly considered for membership as with other archetypes.
  • "Noble Knight Joan", despite being female, is referred to as a male in all non-English TCG. Feminine equivalents (e.g. French chevaleresse, Spanish caballera, German Ritterin) of the words for "knight" do occur to some degree, however in this case, they aren't used, to reduce ambiguity and prevent grammatical gender from interfering with the game play.

Origin[]

Arthurian legends[]

Knights[]

Other[]

Carolingian legends[]

Knights[]

Other[]

Noble Arms[]

Playing style[]

The archetype relies on equipping the "Noble Knights" with the "Noble Arms" Spell Cards and take advantage of this, either by searching for more support or simply destroying cards. There are also some "Noble Knights" that behave like Gemini monsters, being treated as Normal monsters while they are not equipped with a "Noble Arms" card. Once equipped, they gain an effect, and with the exception of "Gwalchavad", all of them become DARK and increase their Level by 1, in order to assist the Xyz Summon of "Sacred Noble Knight of King Artorigus" or the effect of "Lady of the Lake" to Synchro Summon "Ignoble Knight of High Laundsallyn". The "pure" Level 5 "Noble Knights" can be Special Summoned from the hand and/or Graveyard and also serve to speed up the aforementioned Xyz/Synchro Summons.

The aforementioned "Noble Arms" are Equip Spell Cards in the shape of swords with a broad variety of effects, that range from offensive effects like destroying cards or giving ATK boost to support/defensive effects like protecting against destruction and targeting effects. With the exception of "Excaliburn", all of them can re-equip to a "Noble Knight" you control when they are destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, so that even if you Special Summon a Extra Deck "Noble Knight", by using materials that were equipped with "Noble Arms", those Spell Cards will re-equip themselves to that new monster.

Official Konami Decklists[]

The following Decklists may or may not contain copies of cards that exceed the maximum amount allowed by the current Forbidden & Limited List. These should not be changed, as these Decklists are copied verbatim at the time they were published.

Weaknesses[]

Efficient cogency of this archetype is the aforementioned almost complete-dependence of both "Noble Knights" being equipped with "Noble Arms" (plus the effect of "Gwenhwyfar") combined with GY presence (e.g. for the effects of Noble Knights of the Round Table and "Avalon"). Therefore, beating "Noble Knight" Decks are threefold: denying the "Noble Arms"' field presence, occluding the sending of "Noble" cards to the GY and "Noble Knight" monster removal:

• For "Noble Arms" field presence control and GY-blockading, Spell/Trap removal combined with banishing is a way to go. Banish-enablers like "Masked HERO Dark Law and "Macro Cosmos" combined with cards like "Linkslayer", "Cyber Prima", "Chiron the Mage", "De-Spell" "Twin Twisters" and "Sky Striker Maneuver - Afterburners!" or even cards like "Disarmament", "Eternal Rest" and "Really Eternal Rest" (as "Noble Arms" Spells are Equip Spells) will do the trick. "Cosmic Cyclone" despite costing ¹/₈^th of one's starting LPs, is a one-card army that can do the job more directly. "Evenly Matched" arguably does this job best however, banishing not only "Noble Arms Spells and the monsters equipped to them but also making it harder to return their banished and Face-down state back to the GY or Deck. If banishing can't be accomplished yet, an interesting counter would be to flip a "Noble Knight" face-down during an attempted equipping. As long as there isn't another "Noble Knight" on the field, cards like "Prediction Princess Tarotrei", "Invoked Raidjin", "Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer" and "Book of Moon" can leave an activated "Noble Arms" without a target and ensure its effects isn't immediately transferred to another "Noble Knight".
  • The "Noble Arms" can also be stopped from being used in the first place. Cards like "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring", "Thunder Dragon Colossus", and "Mistaken Arrest" can prevent "Noble" cards from being added to the hand. "Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion" and "Big Burn" can stop "Avalon", "Gwalchavad" from recovering "Noble Knights" from the GY or "Lady of the Lake"'s Special Summoning effect. If they do in fact get tutored however, the knowledge of added "Noble Knight"s or "Noble Arms" to the hand can be used to an advantage through "Mind Crush" or "D.D. Designator"; you can even establish a gung-ho approach to this method by forcing a search through "Dark Designator".

• Finally, without "Noble Arms", "Noble Knights" are almost without teeth and thus, can be easily dealt with. On the field, in addition to beatdown strategies and oppressive boss monsters (like "Ultimate Conductor Tyranno"), "Noble Knights" can be easily Tributed ("The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode" and "Lava Golem" may both be the best at doing this because multiple Tributings can lessen the chances of "Noble Arms" (if any on the field) being equipped to other monsters if banishing isn't an option yet.), be shuffled into the Deck, be sent to the GY non-destructively, be banished taken control of for a myriad of uses and used as material for Summons by your opponent. "Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries" can also hit Extra Deck "Noble Knight"s, guaranteering they never make the field.

External links[]

• Release in Lord of Tachyon Galaxy
• OCG Extra Pack - Swords of Knights
• Release in Shadow Specters

References[]