Dega Midrange Deck I made for my dead homies. Edit: Took first on Game Day with the deck!
RWB is a very powerful color combination. It has access to very cheap and effective discard spells, draw spells, cheap, but powerful removal, burn, and lifegain. There is a wide variety of creatures available to Dega, but Blood Baron of Vizkopa is on it's own level. His pro black and pro white make him very hard to remove, being able to avoid blacks kill spells, and white exile is very relevant. He has a decent size 4/4 body and lifelink, and can quickly change the state of the game. His only real downfall is being countered, being Sac'd, and being suspectable to Mizzium Mortars.
Vs Control (Esper/UW)
-3 Anger of the Gods
-2 Chained to the Rocks
-2 Mizzium Mortars or -2 Dreadbore
-2 Magma Jet
+4 Thoughtseize
+2 Duress
+1 Slaughter Games
+2 Wear / Tear
Control can be a tough matchup, do to most of our spells being removal, meaning more dead cards. Vs Esper, and UW control, Wear / Tear is of great use because it can be used to remove Detention Sphere. Generally with Slaughter Games you want to remove their win cons, usually AEtherling, or Elspeth, Sun's Champion. I opt for AEtherling, because it's a much harder threat to remove in my opinion. The Dreadbore vs Mizzium Mortars option, side out the mortars and keep Dreadbore if you expect to see Elspeth, side out Dreadbore and keep the mortars if you expect too see Blood Baron of Vizkopa.
Vs GW Aggro
-2 Sin Collector
-2 Magma Jet
+2 Lifebane Zombie
+2 Mizzium Mortars
Nothing much to say about this match up. Anger of the Gods is already Mainboard, so the game 1 matchup shouldn't be too bad. Just destroy everything that drops, and exile Voice of Resurgence whenever possible.
Vs GR Midrange
-2 Sin Collector
-4 Magma Jet
+2 Lifebane Zombie
+4 Thoughtseize
This deck can be a pain to beat, their creatures are big enough to block Blood Baron of Vizkopa without caring, and Arbor Colossus can block our flyers, Mizzium Mortars can't kill them without having to force a block first. Thoughtseize comes in, in order to remove the threats from their hand, before they become an issue.
Vs Mono-Blue Devotion
-2 Magma Jet
-2 Dreadbore
-2 Sin Collector*
+2 Mizzium Mortars
+2 Wear / Tear
+2 Lifebane Zombie*
MUD is the new flavor of the month, it's shown that it's quick, strong, resilient, and consistent. The battle always seems slightly uphill, even after sideboarding. After a Master of Waves is resolved, you have a turn to kill it, or wipe out the tokens, otherwise prepare to take a lot of damage. Thassa, God of the Sea is nothing to scoff off either, an aggressive body for three mana that not only allows it's owner to scry for answers every turn, but it can make creatures unblockable as well. This deck is played A LOT, in a 5 round fnm, 4 of my 5 matches were MUD.
*It's debatable whether Sin Collector or Lifebane Zombie is better in this match up. SC can pull a Cyclonic Rift or Rapid Hybridization which can hose our threats. While Lifebane is virtually unblockable except that it can only be blocked, and trades with Nightveil Specter, plus it can pull a Judge's Familiar if we're lucky.
Vs Mono-Black Devotion
-3 Anger of the Gods
-1 Mizzium Mortars
+2 Wear / Tear
+2 Erebos, God of the Dead
MBD is a very strong and versatile deck, in the sense that it has multiple ways to win, whether it be the Pack Rat plan, beating face with Desecration Demon, or simply resolving Gray Merchant of Asphodel. One thing of note is the deck is suicidal, between Underworld Connections, and Thoughtseize. A good way to combat them, is to take away their healing. Using Erebos, God of the Dead does just that, and Wear / Tear destroys their Whip of Erebos
Vs Reck Deck Wins
-2 Sin Collector
-2 Rakdos's Return
+2 Mizzium Mortars
+2 Lifebane Zombie
RDW is the toughest match up in my opinion. It's incredibly fast, and can pull some crazy opening hands. Magma Jet works wonders here, it can kill anything this deck can throw at us, except Boros Reckoner, Stormbreath Dragon, and list running Frostburn Weird. For this deck, just hope you can kill most of their threats before they do too much damage, or develop a board state to drop Fanatic of Mogis. Lifebane Zombie is here to be an unbloackable threat, and to pull out Boros Reckoner.
Vs White Weenie
-2 Sin Collector
-2 Rakdos's Return
+2 Lifebane Zombie
+2 Mizzium Mortars
White Weenie isn't too hard too beat, Blood Baron of Vizkopa eats all their creatures for breakfast, and our heavy removal package destroys all their creatures. Just be vary of which color they splash, splash Red will carry Boros Charm, and possibly their own Mizzium Mortars. While splash Black has Orzhov Charm and Xathrid Necromancer as a sort of insurance for our removal.
Cool Trick
Obzedat, Ghost Council + Whip of ErebosThe whip can bring back Obzedat from the grave, and due to Obzedat exiling himself, it allows the Council to come back indefinetly.
Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated. Don't forget to +1 :)
Edit: -2 Glare of Heresy SB, as nice as it was against GW aggro, it wasn't needed. The 3 MD Anger of the Gods do their work, and the deck is already filled with removal. Added 2 more Duress SB for control since both Chained to the Rocks and Mizzium Mortars tend to be dead against control, but will probably want to remove them for hate towards Mono-Blue and Mono-Black Devotion.
Edit: The meta gave has evolved from a more controlling Midrange, to a more aggro and tempo. So the deck requires adjusting.
Mainboard:
-3 Thoughtseize
-2 Read the Bones
+4 Magma Jet
+1 Aurelia, the Warleader
Sideboard:
-2 Duress
-2 Magma Jet
-1 Slaughter Games
+3 Thoughtseize
+2 Erebos, God of the Dead
