The Dega Experiment

Dega is a midrage deck that uses the black, white and red colors of magic. Since the deck can utilize powerful cards like Boros Reckoner, Blood Baron of Vizkopa and some of the most powerful removal in the format like Dreadbore, Pillar of Flame, Warleader's Helix and the likes, I think the deck is very well positioned in an environment where midrange and aggro strives with a little bit of control.

How the deck was formed:

I initially had a list of the powerful cards in the current top decks in Standard and came up with a list of cards that are very good against them. In the end, this list of cards pointed me towards the Dega colors and I agreed that this will theoretically be a very good deck and may have very good chances against the current top decks in standard.

The Dega Experiment by Bryan Inno Wong

Lands: 4 Blood Crypt 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Godless Shrine 4 Clifftop Retreat 3 Dragonskull Summit 4 Isolated Chapel 1 Mountain 1 Ghost Quarter Creatures: 3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa 3 Lifebane Zombie 4 Boros Reckoner Planeswalkers: 2 Liliana of the Veil 3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad Instants: 1 Harvest Pyre 2 Doom Blade 2 Searing Spear 2 Warleader's Helix Sorceries: 3 Dreadbore 3 Pillar of Flame 3 Lingering Souls 1 Mizzium Mortars 3 Faithless Looting

Sideboard: 2 Assemble the Legion 1 Oblivion Ring 2 Ratchet Bomb 2 Devour Flesh 2 Slaughter Games 3 Duress 3 Sin Collector

Matchup Summaries:

MonoRed Aggro (Record: 3-2)

MonoBlack Control (Record: 2-0)

Blue-White Control (Record: 0-2)

Naya (Record: 1-4)

UWR Control (Record: 1-1)

UW Tokens (Record: 2-0)

Overall, these past 2 tournaments, the Dega Experiment deck tallied 9 wins and 9 losses. And honestly, the deck worked fine overall and I really think the deck is very good against control matchups. Although I lost to UW control badly 0-2, I thought the deck had a really good chance against those matchup. However, I really had a hard time dealing with decks with Red-Green (for example naya) and those decks with access to Burning Tree Emmisary. Aside from the sideboard Ratchet Bomb and Mizzium Mortars, virtually all the removal spells in this deck are 1-for-1 removals. No matter how strong these spells are, I really missed playing Supreme Verdict since the current meta game is Aggro. With this, I think the deck is very good against rouge and tier 2 decks, and with control decks. However, I honestly don't want to pilot a deck that is very weak against Burning Earth and no access to mass removals at this point in Standard. But on the bright side, the addition of Faithless Looting has been very sweet. Looting allows me to keep 2 land hands when I am in play, as it became a problem in the early play testing stages of the deck.