MTG Salvation

What is Deadguy Ale?

Deadguy Ale is a midrange WB deck that exists in Legacy, Modern, and now Standard. It can be classified as either midrange or control/aggro. This deck is decidedly midrange, with an aggro flavor. You spend the first few turns controlling the board with W & B's best removal spells, and establishing a board presence before finishing out the game with cheap & efficient threats backed by our two big guns: Resplendent Angel and Lyra Dawnbringer.


Why play Deadguy Ale?

Simply put, it's well positioned in the current meta and uses some of the most format-changing cards from the past few sets. When building a deck in the current meta you need to plan for two completely separate lists: RB Aggro and it's variants, and zero-wincon control.

This list boasts a solid matchup against both, with plenty of recursion, card advantage, and the ability to sideboard into significant hand disruption that really screws with UW's gameplan. The lifelink sub-theme of the deck plays very well vs aggro strategies, and having 4+ 2 drops with 2-3 power and first-strike allows you to brick most creatures in RB aggro. Running 3x Settle the Wreckage helps clean up unfavorable board states, and by far the best 1-for-1 removal vs RB is one we can include in our maindeck : Seal Away.

This list is also an absolute tank versus the rest of the field. Resolving a Lyra Dawnbreaker or a Resplendent Angel represents a must-answer threat to nearly all decks, especially when you have either 6 mana or both out at the same time, and Angel starts pumping out 4/4 flying vigilant angels at each end step.


Decklist:



Where to go from here:
Pick a lane and drive in it. Deadguy Ale can work as a Control/Aggro Deck, and Aggro/Control, or pure midrange. The build I linked is very midrange oriented, focusing on efficient creatures, 2-for-1s, and a strong removal suite. There are more than enough strong black and white creatures to make it more aggro-focused, and there is more than enough removal and disruption to make it more control-focused.

Given an aggro-filled meta, the build with access to early first-strike blockers, settle the wreckage, and lyras will probably be best, but if control takes over as the top deck to beat then you can swap out the early 2 drops for more hand-disruption, and more recursive threats like Scrapheap Scrounger.

I like the W/B color combination, but I honestly feel like this deck is being pulled in several different directions and suffering for it. You’re playing Resplendent Angel with no way of triggering her aside from herself and Lyra. So you’re essentially playing her as a 5-turn or later play, since without her trigger she’s just a 3-mana 3/3 that gets taken out by every piece of removal out there save Shock. She’s a strong card, but not in this shell.

I could see you doing OK versus the RB boogeyman of the format, but not really favored. They’re really only afraid of Lyra, will burn your knights out, and their top-end threats are just as strong as yours. I must admit playing Settle the Wreckage could surprise them, but they have plenty of ways to use that extra mana.

Furthermore, I’m not sure you have as good a matchup vs. control as you think. Maybe post board with Duress brought in, but your threats really aren’t quite sticky enough.

I like the WB archetype and think there’s potential, but this as a starting point needs a lot of work. Just one last question: where’s History of Benalia? I feel that card will be a player for the deck. As a matter of fact, maybe a knights deck is what you’re looking for.

Yea, resplendent angel just doesn't fit here. The other b/w decks are just better suited to do what youre lookin for. fatal push is better than seal away in the early game. then use binding or cast out for the big nasties.

need history for sure

I think that W/B Midrange can work really well with the legendary/historic theme and utilize Urza's Ruinous Blast as the best wrath in the format.

# The core of the deck consists of the PW's Karn and Gideon and high impact legendary creatures: Gonti, Shalai and Lyra to further support Blast.
# Heart of Kiran works well with the PW's and survives Blast.
# Board the Weatherlight finds the historic spells/permanents.

Here is a build I have in mind for this:


A card I'm not really sure about here is History of Benalia which is mostly very good but doesn't survive Blast though it is probably worth playing anyway.

Some more cards I've considered for the deck are: Azor's Gateway, Profane Procession and (maindeck) Arguel's Blood Fast and possible creatures
like: Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Aryel, Knight of Windgrace or Isareth the Awakener.

Oops. Looks like we had the same basic idea(and name choice), awkward. Well, different execution though. However I'll still post the list I'm working on for discussion on the archetype.