The Knight
The Knight is Kongedraeber's opening face card — every match begins with your first Knights and Sovereigns going onto the Throne and into the Court, and a Knight that survives a single turn is the only path to a Lady.
RULES
A Knight is placed onto your Throne (one seat, the seat of power) or into your Court (up to three reserve slots) during Setup, or any time later when one is drawn into your hand — every opening hand is guaranteed at least one Knight or Sovereign, so you always have somewhere to start.
Once a Knight has survived one full turn on either your Throne or in your Court, it becomes eligible for Upthrown: playing a Lady (Queen) onto it converts it into an Upthrown Lady, drawing you 2 cards immediately.
Knight+Knight lets you sacrifice a plain Knight from your hand together with the plain Knight sitting on your Throne — both go to the Dungeon — then promote any face card already in your Court up onto the now-empty Throne, and draw 4. This requires a face card already present in your Court, and only works between two plain (not Upthrown) Knights.
As a Throne card, a Knight falls to the Dungeon the moment its side loses or ties a Siege. As a Court card, it can be targeted by an opponent's Assassination if they win a Siege with a Straight Flush or Royal Flush.
LORE OF THE COURT
No one remembers the name of the first Knight. There have been too many since — boys handed a blade before they were done growing into it, sent to stand on a Throne built for someone braver. Most don't last the turn.
The Court does not mourn a fallen Knight. It simply calls for the next one, and the one after that, until the calling itself becomes a kind of tradition — a hundred names lost to the same short sentence in the same old ledger.
But once in a great while, one stands long enough that the Court starts to notice. Long enough that a Lady might look twice at what's still standing when the turn ends. That is the only reason a Knight ever survives being ordinary.
STRATEGY
When to play it
Fill your Throne with a Knight the instant Setup allows it — an empty Throne means you cannot Lay Siege at all, so speed to the Throne matters more than which face card gets there first. Keep spare Knights in Court as fuel for a later Knight+Knight swap, or as your best route toward an Upthrown Lady.
Counters
A Knight is only as safe as the turn it hasn't survived yet — pressure it with an early Siege before it reaches the one-turn threshold that unlocks Upthrown. Once it's sitting in Court rather than the Throne, a Straight Flush or Royal Flush Siege win lets you Assassinate it outright.
Synergies
Family Reunion (triggered by forming an Ace-King) lets you search for a Knight and place it directly into Court, or Upthrow an already-eligible Knight immediately — bypassing the normal survive-a-turn requirement entirely.