So i am seeing a LOT of threads on Dega Control. However, I liked the potential for a Dega Midrange deck with threat's such as Olivia, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Master of Cruelties being viable when they aren't so viable in Control decks. I started testing this out and i truly love this deck. It play's smoothly with nearly every matchup and has answers for nearly every threat in the meta. When up against a tough opponent it mostly comes down to whoever top decks better. Anyways, this deck is not perfect and I am really looking for some advice to make this a more competitive deck.
Lol I don't know what to post that you haven't read already in my thread or the dozen others that've sprung up.
I've been utterly disapointed with olivia voldaren maindeck. She's way too much of a mana hog for any dega strategy I've tried. She'd be great to board in for a slow grindy match though. blood baron of vizkopa is a beast, so far I'm impressed. He's very hard for most decks to deal with. high priest of penance is really good at making your opponent just skip combat altogether as early as turn 2, and he consistantly ferrets out removal for me like a hound. Not bad for 2 mana.
Idk, i love olivia maindeck. I use her as a threat. As in, ill put her out and force the opponent to use a removal on her. And if they dont. I start pumping her till she get's outta control. Though i am seriously trying to put in Blood Baron but i just dont know what to remove from the deck. I am looking at removing falkenrath aristocrat though. As she is more of a nuisance to put out than anything
New build, i took out Falkenrath Aristocrat and put in Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Falkenrath aristocrat just wasn't doin enough for me. Her 1 toughness was a HUGE drawback since i dont have any humans in this deck. Plus, Vizkopa gives me an edge over reanimator
I don't see what Unburial Rites really does for this deck; if you were running Griselbrand and some more Angels, I'd get it. As is, you don't gain a lot of value from it and would likely be better off running another threat in that spot, or some card draw or filtering to smooth out clunky hands. The Boros Charms and Faith's Shields also look a bit counterintuitive; the deck doesn't play enough early game to make the damage on Charm strong, the indestructible and first strike abilities are fine, but then you go over the top with 3 Faith's Shields that it looks like you'll lack targets for early. I'd probably drop the Shields all together in favour of some more action. This deck only has so much cheap removal and early game pressure could easily escalate; Mizzium Mortars is definitely strong (and maybe just playing more of them might be optimal) but a Bonfire of the Damned or two might also be very powerful here.
Another potential powerful midrange card for this strategy is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He pumps out cheap blockers that have lifelink to keep you alive, can bulk up your Lingering Soul tokens and puts Boros Reckoner into perfect attack range against Restoration Angel. He also combines pretty well with the next card I want to talk about, since he's on board advantage.
Sire of Insanity is very powerful and one of the best reasons to go Rakdos. If you have a better board presence and land him, lots of opponents are just going to lose. I'd dare say that, as a midrange deck, he should be the top of your curve and you should work towards losing as little value to him as possible, while maintaining your own. He's probably not a 4 of by any means, but being able to trump other midrange and most control strategies is usually worth the pay off. He's a bit weak against reanimator, but that's where my next suggestion comes in.
Lastly, have you considered Sin Collector? He's a decent body to trade with in the early game, gives you a real edge against Reanimator and control strategies by attacking powerful spells like Unburial Rites and Sphinx's Revelation, and often will able to pick off choice pieces of removal to give some added protection to your later threats.
This deck started out as a deck meant to chump block and attack with force until the opponent had no more answers to my shenanigans. Unburial Rites has actually helped with that strategy. Oftentimes an opponent will go over the top with removal to remove such a creature as Olivia, Boros Reckoner, Angel of Serenity, and Master of Cruelties. To just Unburial Rites them back only forces them to use more removal OR waste a counter altogether. It wasn't meant to play aggressively in terms of reanimating but more defensively. Kill my Olivia? Ill bring her back. Kill her again? ill bring her back again. It creates HUGE card advantage in my opinion. Faith's shielding is another thing i wanna talk about. It helps immensely. Mostly against Reanimator and with blocking and stuff. It's mostly utilized as a surprise to an opponent. and has saved me a couple other times from dying. I will try to get in Bonfire of the Damned. I just don't know what to take out as a result. And as for Sin Collector.. well i have slaughter games in the sideboard for those cards.
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:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu:
I understand what you want out of unburial rites and faith's shield, it's what I use undying evil for. Because of so much burn and spot removal available to dega, master of cruelties doesn't need evasion from faith's shield to do his job, and that quite simply is apply real pressure. Undying evil has quite a few things going for it, especially in dega control. a: it sets off creatures like sin collector again. b: 4 toughness on reckoner or nighthawk is huge. c: it saves from sac effects. d: it costs alot less than unburial rites.
Also faith's shield protection prevents damage from being dealt to boros reckoner and high priest of penance, which we want to happen. Undying evil doesn't stop damage and allows for mean reckoner and high priest blocks that shoot down big threats while you get a bigger creature out of the deal.
if your looking at proxying blood barons ability, replace the slayer stronghold with vault of the archangel. most things you play are too high to have the extra mana to proc slayers stronghold on them anyway.
from what ive read and seen, dega midrange really seems to be about finding the balance in low to mid cost burn spells and large creatures to seal the deal.
I'd personally drop slayers' stronghold or any colorless sources. It ruins costing mana restrictive spells early like reckoner, nighthawk, dreadbore, etc. and that makes dega lose games fast.
So, i followed the advice the one guy gave and put in more cheap removal. Here's the current decklist with the changes i made. I still kept slayer's stronghold couse i didnt see it affecting my mana too much. I actually enjoyed pumping reckoner or nighthawk and gaining 4 life while still having a blocker for next turn. I went up to 25 lands. Also, i maindecked Devour Flesh for the matchup against creatures with hexproof this deck just did not do well at all against decks with Geist of Saint Traft in it. It often came down to me racing them to put out things before they got more removal.
3 Master of Cruelties
2 Desecration Demon
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
3 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Angel of Serenity
Spells
3 Searing Spear
3 Faith's Shield
3 Boros Charm
2 Unburial Rites
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Lingering Souls
3 Dreadbore
2 Slayers' Stronghold
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
3 Slaughter Games
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Rest in Peace
2 Devour Flesh
3 Blind Obedience
2 Blasphemous Act
So i am seeing a LOT of threads on Dega Control. However, I liked the potential for a Dega Midrange deck with threat's such as Olivia, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Master of Cruelties being viable when they aren't so viable in Control decks. I started testing this out and i truly love this deck. It play's smoothly with nearly every matchup and has answers for nearly every threat in the meta. When up against a tough opponent it mostly comes down to whoever top decks better. Anyways, this deck is not perfect and I am really looking for some advice to make this a more competitive deck.
:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu:
I've been utterly disapointed with olivia voldaren maindeck. She's way too much of a mana hog for any dega strategy I've tried. She'd be great to board in for a slow grindy match though.
blood baron of vizkopa is a beast, so far I'm impressed. He's very hard for most decks to deal with.
high priest of penance is really good at making your opponent just skip combat altogether as early as turn 2, and he consistantly ferrets out removal for me like a hound. Not bad for 2 mana.
:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu:
3 Master of Cruelties
2 Desecration Demon
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
3 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Angel of Serenity
Spells
2 Searing Spear
1 Pillar of Flame
3 Faith's Shield
3 Boros Charm
2 Unburial Rites
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Lingering Souls
3 Dreadbore
2 Slayers' Stronghold
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
3 Slaughter Games
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Rest in Peace
2 Devour Flesh
3 Blind Obedience
2 Blasphemous Act
New build, i took out Falkenrath Aristocrat and put in Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Falkenrath aristocrat just wasn't doin enough for me. Her 1 toughness was a HUGE drawback since i dont have any humans in this deck. Plus, Vizkopa gives me an edge over reanimator
:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu:
Another potential powerful midrange card for this strategy is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He pumps out cheap blockers that have lifelink to keep you alive, can bulk up your Lingering Soul tokens and puts Boros Reckoner into perfect attack range against Restoration Angel. He also combines pretty well with the next card I want to talk about, since he's on board advantage.
Sire of Insanity is very powerful and one of the best reasons to go Rakdos. If you have a better board presence and land him, lots of opponents are just going to lose. I'd dare say that, as a midrange deck, he should be the top of your curve and you should work towards losing as little value to him as possible, while maintaining your own. He's probably not a 4 of by any means, but being able to trump other midrange and most control strategies is usually worth the pay off. He's a bit weak against reanimator, but that's where my next suggestion comes in.
Lastly, have you considered Sin Collector? He's a decent body to trade with in the early game, gives you a real edge against Reanimator and control strategies by attacking powerful spells like Unburial Rites and Sphinx's Revelation, and often will able to pick off choice pieces of removal to give some added protection to your later threats.
:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu:
Also faith's shield protection prevents damage from being dealt to boros reckoner and high priest of penance, which we want to happen. Undying evil doesn't stop damage and allows for mean reckoner and high priest blocks that shoot down big threats while you get a bigger creature out of the deal.
from what ive read and seen, dega midrange really seems to be about finding the balance in low to mid cost burn spells and large creatures to seal the deal.
creatures: 18
4x high priest of penance
3x sin collector
4x boros reckoner
3x vampire nighthawk
1x master of cruelties
3x blood baron of vizkopa
spells: 20
3x undying evil
4x boros charm
3x rolling temblor
4x dreadbore
4x searing spear
2x mizzium mortars
I'd personally drop slayers' stronghold or any colorless sources. It ruins costing mana restrictive spells early like reckoner, nighthawk, dreadbore, etc. and that makes dega lose games fast.
3 Master of Cruelties
2 Desecration Demon
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
3 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Angel of Serenity
2 Sin Collector
Spells
2 Searing Spear
2 Devour Flesh
2 Undying Evil
2 Unburial Rites
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Lingering Souls
3 Dreadbore
1 Pillar of Flame
2 Slayers' Stronghold
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
3 Slaughter Games
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Rest in Peace
2 Sire of Insanity
3 Blind Obedience
2 Blasphemous Act
:symw::symb::symr:Dega Midrange:symr::symb::symw:
:symu::symr::symb::symw:4 Color Control:symw::symb::symr::symu: