TL;DR: Standard Dega Highlander build that's doing pretty fine in FNM, all suggestions welcome.
"In war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and to strike at what is weak."
This is my Dega Highlander build, made for my local playgroup. It begun as a goodstuff deck, and since I've played it a lot. I've tuned it, tried out cards, cut cards, added more. It's been starting to perform better and better, until it was able to hold it's own at FNM. Around this time, I was at a stalemate though, not knowing what I should take out, nor how to improve it's strengths. My understanding of the game isn't at that level yet, so I decided to get creative in sources for my inspiration. Recently I've read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and I've taken it's strategic advice into modifying and tuning this deck. Magic is war, and this is my army.
Strategic Planning
"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
"The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army on the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities."
These are the principles on which this deck is built. In our Gathering, we all want to crush our opponents. To do this, we must first take out his strategies.
The best way to do this: hand disruption. Get rid of threats before they even become threatening. Avoid the battle. Slaughter Games, Thoughtseize, Duress, Rakdos's Return, Sin Collector and Mind Rot give us info about what the enemy is playing, and can stop their win conditions without any real effort.
The second best way: field disruption. Get rid of their key cards, leave them without a way to win. This also touches the next best thing according to Tzu: "to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces". Sometimes it's best not to take out the biggest threat, but the artifact or enchantment boosting everything he does, what is combining his forces into one whole. Hero's Downfall, Dreadbore, Gild, Mizzium Mortars, Magma Jet,
Revoke Existence
,
Banisher Priest
and High Priest of Penance all serve for this purpose.
The next best thing is to attack. In war, it's a suboptimal strategy, but in Magic it's a necessary one none the less. The threats this deck offers will be assessed a bit further down.
The worst strategy of all, is to besiege a walled city. This holds true, when your opponent has lots of 1/1 reach chump blockers, it's no use attacking and tapping your defenses. Sometimes, the best way to get rid of such a 'walled city' is to level the ground completely. Merciless Eviction and Fated Retribution serve to this purpose.
The Armed Forces
"The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an oppurtunity of defeating the enemy."
"In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards seeks for victory."
Attacking with peons should not be the goal of the deck, merely the means. We win the battle by destroying the opponents plans before they take place, then we send in our troops to finish when we cannot be defeated. Note that being undefeatable doesn't mean you win. If the enemy can't finish you, but you can neither finish the enemy, you're essentially on the same level, and on equal ground. For threatening the enemy, we must look at the rpinciples of war once more.
"All warfare is based on deception.
When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, seperate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."
This is one of the most difficult parts of playing M:tG according to the principles of war of Tzu. One might have Phenax, God of Deception at his disposal, but that doesn't mean he's deceiving his enemies. Rather, it's painfully obvious what he's going to do with him. Deceit in game is a matter of playstyle, and can't be built into a deck. It took a long time getting used to this deck, to see it's possibilities given a board state and a hand.
The most important part is baiting out your opponent. Or rather, giving him no option but to answer. After all, if you decide what an opponent should do, you're clearly in charge of the game. There are numerous threats which are able to win us the game. We must play them, not all at once, but one at a time, to keep the pressure on at all times. I have two kinds of threats: those that are just very powerful but easy to remove, and those that are less powerful but harder to remove. Both of these are equally important, for very different reasons.
The first group consists of Precinct Captain,
Brimaz, King of Oreskos
and Desecration Demon. These are insanely powerful for their CMC, and are removal magnets. Luckily for our opponents, they can be removed relatively easily. Luckily for us, they can both be removed relatively easily. Their goal is to be scary, to seem strong while they're actually quite weak, to deceive the enemy. It must be noted, if they are left unanswered they could win us the game, and as such we give our opponent no choice but to answer. This isn't a bad thing, it's what we want. It means there's less removal for the things that do matter.
The latter group is a lot more pesky, and more often than not it's this group that actually nets us the win. It is also the bigger group. Soldier of the Pantheon, Stormbreath Dragon and Blood Baron of Vizkopa all have protection from widely played colors. Fiendslayer Paladin has a weaker, protection like ability, but he has First Strike and Lifelink as added bonusses. Mogis, God of Slaughter and Purphoros, God of the Forge are Indestructible, and Obzedat, Ghost Council can't be killed when he's not on the field. Mutavault,
Haunted Plate Mail
,
Assemble the Legion
and Elspeth, Sun's Champion have the bonus of not being a creature (although there is enough removal for all of them, it's less commonly played).
"The general who is skilled in defense hides under the ninth earth, he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven, crashing like a thunderbolt."
Spark Trooper
and Stormbreath Dragon deserve special mention due to a common ablity: haste. When an opponent prepares himself for the attack that's coming from all the forces currently on the board, being able to surprise him with another surprise 6 damage may mean victory.
Military Funds
"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, the men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. When your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been associated with long delays."
This deck builds on the momentum to be in control of the game. Ripping your opponents' hand and deck apart, keeping the pressure high at all times, careful planning is necessary to keep this momentum going. You should never play out your entire hand, having multiple threats is often not needed. Keep a new threat at bay for when the current one is removed. Being in top-deck mode, seeing your board empty and grabbing a land whilst you really need a pressure card can mean the loss of the battle. This is also a matter of playstyle, but there are cards which can help keep the resources flowing, to fund our war.
Whip of Erebos is an all around great resource card. His recursion ability means that every used threat can be threatening for one more round, essentially having a secondary resource pile. Lifelink means lasting access to life, a resource spent on shockland, Thoughtseize and, more importantly, more resources. Resources which can be grabbed with both Erebos, God of the Dead, Read the Bones and Underworld Connections. Increased resource means increased ways of disrupting the enemies' strategies and increased pressure from threats.
Liliana of the Dark Realms is to keep the monetary resource flowing, to give us an ever growing pool from which to maintain our army.
"In war, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns."
Reinforcements
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
This one of the biggest strengths of playing Highlander, and one of the reasons it's been performing so well. My opponents do not know me, but I know them. They've never played against such a deck, whilst they play pure meta. Knowing your enemy, and preparing for him, requires both a strong sideboard and the knowledge to bring in what is necessary in this battle. This at this moment one of my weak points. Proper sideboarding is difficult, and requires absolute knowledge about your deck, sideboard and what your opponent is playing.
Rest in Peace and Crypt Incursion are in against decks which heavily rely on the graveyard, such as Golgari graves, and Junk reanimation (Although it's a Standard build, I play it outside of Standard).
Blind Obedience and Imposing Sovereign are brought in against decks focussing on haste, or those that rely on the reanimation ability of Whip of Erebos.
Anger of the Gods, Drown in Sorrow and Bile Blight are brought in against weenie and token spam decks.
Fated Conflagration
is in against decks with an abundance of Planeswalkers.
Doom Blade is in against decks not focussing on B, whilst
Ultimate Price
is brought in against mono decks.
I'm never too sure on what should go out though.
Improving The Army
No army is perfect, and every deck benefits from better cards. These are not just value cards, or cards that are known to be strong. These are cards benefitting to our strategy. There are currently 2 cards which I'm hoping to soon acquire. Lifebane Zombie, for yet more hand disruption, and Deathrite Shaman, to make the most of resources once spent (or discarded by the enemy).
No army is perfect, and every deck has its' weak points. I have a hard time pinpointing mine, and a harder time deciding what should get cut from the deck. I've spent a lot of time assessing each and every card, and all of them have solid arguments going for them.
An important thing to remember, especially for this deck, playstyle is key.
"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
To lift an autumn hair is no sign of great strength; to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight; to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear. What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. He wins his battles by making no mistakes.
He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain."
+1's are nice, tips and suggestions are especially welcome and appreciated!
All quotes taken from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Some passages have been slightly paraphrased.
