[Decklist] Rakdos Dragon Blade

So recently Norm played a Hero's Blade deck.

Although it was'nt consistent, I was quite piqued with the potential of Tymaret

In particular it I was interested because my Hot Dogs! deck is made to have its critters die, so Tymaret seems to fit nicely. Moreover Tymaret was in Rakdos colours, so it seemed a shoo in.

It may seem an oversight, i mean Tymaret has been around since Theros! And there was some initial love from players and in fact I think it did gain some traction in a Zombie deck.

Still, what piqued me was Tymaret's interaction with Bloodsoaked Champion. Now I have always liked Bloodsoaked champion,  it being a self recurring 2/1 for 1cc. Whats not to like? :p

In fact with Tymaret and Bloodsoaked Champion, you get inevitability ! The two together allows you to ping for 2 damage for as long as you have mana or it allows Tymaret to sit as a blocker forever for six mana each turn.

So I tried to squeeze Tymaret into my Hot Dogs! deck, where it has some added usage in saccing critters that are doomed anyways. The update is here.

But in messing with Tymaret, I also got a closer look at Hero's Blade. Norm's deck had three colours and it was heavily dependent on Hero's blade. Too heavy.

Hence my initial focus was to have the deck not die when it does not get the blades. This is actually a challenge if you are fixated on getting the bonus of playing Legendary dudes. In fact my first take was that it is simply not possible in standard and I looked to the modern pool first. I found Isamaru and a whole bunch of other Legends. I found myself going multi-coloured and the result was something cute, but awfully casual in modern.

So I decided that going the Legends route was a trap (like Sam mentioned) and snapped back to standard and and decided to use a limited band of colours when building the deck. Its interesting (or duh) to note that different colours provide different advantages. Norm's route seem to want to exploit Surrak's formidable ability. which at 4cc or earlier can be nasty. So green was a very plausible route.

Remember I was enamoured with Tymaret? (well aside from the fact that his ping ability cannot hit critters) So I wanted to utilise Tymaret in a Hero's Blade deck. Tymaret's advantage? Aside from his sacrificial nature in pinging? he also has recur potential and with two Tymarets, one in play and one in grave and 4 mana; you have an eternal blocker! Remember the synergy with Bloodsoaked Champion? Yeah. Its not rocket science.

I realised that half of my Hot Dogs! deck was actually a warriors deck. And aside from Tymaret, Rakdos colours have Alesha and Zurgo. Kolaghan is just too cool to not plug in when I can! And hey they (yes both the Elder dragon and the FRF versions) are Legendary! So a draconic theme was simmering too!

So mucking around this was what I got: 

std_20150427_heroesBlade

Instant
4 x Draconic Roar
4 x Lightning Strike

Sorcery
1 x Roast

Artifact
4 x Hero's Blade

Land
4 x Mana Confluence
7 x Mountain
4 x Bloodstained Mire
7 x Swamp

Legend
2 x Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
1 x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4 x Zurgo Bellstriker
2 x Dragonlord Kolaghan
3 x Tymaret, the Murder King

Creature
2 x Blood-Chin Fanatic
4 x Thunderbreak Regent
3 x War-Name Aspirant
4 x Bloodsoaked Champion

I like it quite a bit. It can inevitably ping for 2 and gain life (not in one step in case you are confoozed). It has awesome dragons and lots of heat. The warriors and dragons theme ensures that the deck does'nt just roll over if the blades don't show. And one important thing to keep in mind is... you can actually equip for 4 =)  Also double or triple blades is an awesome trigger! Alesha brings back the tiny warriors (there is a slight nonbo with war-name aspirant... but I guess thats minor). The dash of Storm's Fury can be relevant.

And after building it. I realised it contains the warriors from Khans, including the Mardu Khan (Alesha), it had the FRF bloodsoaked Champion (who was mentioned in the mothership storyline), the FRF Kolaghan and the Elder Dragon Kolaghan. Even little Zurgo! Now given that Alesha ran alongside Kolaghan in the storyline, the deck actually plays pretty close to canon! Well Tymaret kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, but hey death comes to all, so the Murder King can't be too oddly placed in a Rakdos deck no? 

[Decklist] Hotdogs!!

Well now.

I noticed I haven't posted anythng in November. So here it is! A post!  wonderfully empty (at the moment at least) post!

Hmmm. The idea was to post a Rakdos Blitz list. I have been putting off posting it as I have a bunch of thoughts to say about Dega blitz and Naya Blitz and Suicide Black and even Buried Alive....

But I am too lazy at the moment.

....

I guess I should touch up this post a little.

But here is the list:

Goldfishes for a turn 4 kill relatively consistently and I think you have about a 50% shot of winning. =)

The sideboard is a mess... but I think you can just borrow the standard sideboard used by Rabble Red and you should be fine.

Now why use this instead of Rabble Red. I mean, that deck is more streamlined and has a higher rate of damage output.

This deck is slower but is less of a glass cannon than Rabble Red. You know those times midgame when all you have are 1/1s. Yeah this deck tries to avoid that. Now I am not saying this is the next big piece of tech.

Hardly.

But it is an alternative and relatively cheap deck you can pick up and just brainlessly (for me at least :p) take your chances.

The aim of this deck is always to mow down that carytid or courser. Thats all =)

I might write more later but thats all for now...

oh yeah the decklist. For so amicably wasting the last few minutes of your life reading to this point... here it is: =P

Std_141003_degaaggro

Instant

4 x Lightning Strike

4 x Magma Jet

1 x Stoke the Flames

Enchantment

3 x Inferno Fist

Creature

4 x Mogis's Warhound

4 x War-Name Aspirant

4 x Goblin Rabblemaster

4 x Bloodsoaked Champion

4 x Gnarled Scarhide

4 x Monastery Swiftspear

3 x Firedrinker Satyr

Legend

1 x Purphoros, God of the Forge

Land

4 x Mana Confluence

4 x Bloodstained Mire

7 x Mountain

5 x Swamp

Later =)

[20141204 21:38]

So... first off the most important thing.

Why Hotdogs?

(Well feel free to disagree that a corny deckname is important but hey I am gonna write it anyways =D)

Well there is Mogis Warhound!! And the Scarhide is BEEF!!!

Fine.

Anyways this deck was kinda accidental. It began a long long time ago in a farm...

... wrong story.

It began back when innistrad rotated and Naya Blitz was gutted,  I  then tried to go Dega, but the parts just were'nt strong enough and the most damning development was the loss of the checklands.

Yes, did you know the checklands were essential for the Blitz deck? You see the pattern repeated with Zoo, Zoo survived in Legacy (for awhile anyways) before it died in Modern due to the lack of painless lands (it never took off in Modern, even with the release of the Wild Nacatl from the banlist). But I think I am confusing the issues here... A blitz deck needs fast mana firstly and if it comes painless better still. Fast mana with lots of pain (like Naya Blitz!!) is only viable if burn is inefficient. Well burn is alive and well in Modern... so theres that.

With the rotation of innistrad, fast mana was gone. We were left with the stupid scrye lands... which probably has its place, but that place is not blitz... or any aggro deck for that matter (which is why the current standard looks really dumb to me.... 8+ come into play tapped lands!!!! Is it a wonder decks these days die to random aggro?? - to understand how bad this is, imagine playing 8 or more guildlands. Thats bad right? Only a dedicated deck like Maze's End would even consider playing that many. But yet here we are..... where 8 "come into play tapped" lands are the norm)

During the last two blocks of Theros, we got the Hotdogs!!! ... But it always felt a little weird with the rest of the Dega team (Boros Elite, Ash Zealot and hmmm Frontline Medic?) But the mana in any case was still too slow. And the Dega blitz never did take off.

With M15, we got fast colour fixin' mana again in the form of Mana Confluence. This actually makes Dega Blitz extremely viable if the right cards were available. There are a few conditions that need to be met before such a deck becomes viable (and i mostly use the Naya Blitz structure as a guide) but that is a topic for another day. The reason I cannot answer if such a deck was possible is because I really can't. I did not put my mind to it to brew one... the reason being I was quite disgusted with how the retailers were handling Conspiracy, so I was in no mood to brew or play Magic. Which is a shame since as I mentioned in a past post, I actually saw some potential in M15. Now why even say all this if I did'nt build anything? I just wanted to point out that the fast mana is there! A crucial enabler is active!

Pain is an issue... and it is definitely worse than RTR/INN times but I think it is workable. Anyways long story short, by the time of Kahns of Tarkir, my pissiness with retailers is somewhat assuaged by the stuck inventories known as Conspiracy. Prices of boxes actually dropped. Not drastically mind you. But it says something that MM sells better. So the vindictive part of me is somewhat happier and I started fiddling with Kahns (it probably also had to do with Kahns having fetch reprints!!! Some good price lowering prints there means differences can be put aside temporarily).

What I like alot was:

4 x Bloodsoaked Champion

4 x Monastery Swiftspear

3 x Firedrinker Satyr

These guys (and gals) are all 1 cc and efficient. And the Champion is reminisent of the old Buried Alive decks where the black horde just kept coming back!! (Tho, the Champion would have be a nice bit more powerful if the Raid trigger only cost B). Swiftspear is really pretty with :

3 x Inferno Fist

4 x Mogis's Warhound

4 x Gnarled Scarhide

The synergy made me happy,  and it does a few things. Remember that in combat one either goes deep or wide? Mono Black devotion can do both, wide with Pack Rats and deep with Desecration Demon. Blitz is all in wide and Hexproof Auras was all in deep.

This?

Somewhere in between but not quite as strong as Mono Black devotion. Still it is pretty nice to build up a fatty and in lieu of exile effects, you can swarm when your voltron gets dismantled. I am absolutely serious when I say this is not very strong and is only a "nice" effect. Naya Blitz was bursty and fast. And it was resilent, with Frontline medic you got indestructible waves of attackers, Mayor of Avabruck made everything bigger, you got 5/5 Champion of the Parish, etc etc. The deck was stuffed to the brim with goodness. This deck does not come close. Still it is a nifty synergy with Bestow. (I always felt Bestow was really badly implemented, so having something workable  perhaps compelled me to do something with it)

Once the deck got started other candidates came in and fleshed out the deck:

4 x War-Name Aspirant

4 x Goblin Rabblemaster

2 mana for a 3/2 (most of the time) is pretty sweet and the Goblin Rabble master is a workable 3 cc dude as he helps with the swarm. Now the casting cost may seem high compared with the cards in Rabble Red, but still I would like to point out Naya Blitz curve is higher than Rabble Red's too. So the focus is a little different. I am not trying to be the most efficient on curve here, my main objective as mentioned above is to punch through carytids and coursers, again and again and again. Swarm and punch through when necessary, ebb and flow the toughness of the swarm as necessary. Thats the plan. All in four turns lol.

Why not more stoke the flames? The current burn darling in Rabble Red.

4 x Lightning Strike

4 x Magma Jet

1 x Stoke the Flames

3 x Inferno Fist

I am sure brewers know this. You use the best tool for the job. Stoke the Flames is tremendous with Rabble Master.... however you notice I regard Rabble Master as a workable 3 CC, he is not the core of my deck. I find that Stoke the Flames inhibits my attacks if I use the convoke, most times i want to keep hitting, while Stoke wants me to hold back the troops. So I did'nt really feel like it fit well in the deck. A 4cc to synergise with a 3 CC? No thanks. Remember, Rabble Red is build to abuse the Stoke by playing extremely efficient bodies (1 CC) and are goblins to boot! In my deck however I am happy that Inferno Fist plays well with Swiftspear. And together with the Hotdogs!, betstow makes the activating prowess of the swiftspear happen fairly regularly. And better still, the +2/+0 is permanent! And yet still better Inferno Fist is a stored value Shock. I like the synergy. Nuff Said.

The damage tends to come in drips and draps... which is fine since from experience (from Naya Blitz - yes I do likez it lots! lol) I frequently finish off my opponents by a few points. Sure it looks like I got lucky, but I like to think that the deck consistently has a few points of damage left in the tank to deal the finishing blow. Which is what I think this deck has... testing will confirm or refute this tho

Thats about it... other stuff? The fetches add a little for consistency in the mid to late game and Purphoros, God of the Forge is really nasty with Rabble Master and even if that does not happen, he is wont to apply the last drops of hurt to finish the game...oh the pump ability is nice too....

And that is that Hotdogs! explained.

Oh wait. It was supposed to be a Dega. Well the story behind that is that I really liked Kahns so I was hyped to build a Mardu (Dega's shiny new name!!) and you know, with the Speed and Cunning duel deck.... I really thought Mardu had speed... Unfortunately wedgies and the focus on expensive removal and midrange meant that ... Mardu aggro is kinda fat. And lumbering... not quite Blitzy.... So I just went.. "To hell with white!!" And you got Rakdos instead of Dega/Mardu =)

Have a good day ppl!


[20150501 01:58]

So recently got inspired to stuff a Tymaret in after seeing its synergy with the bloodsoaked Champion! Moreover, Hot Dogs was build with the premise that I will not fear losing my betstowed dudes, so Tymaret actually presents a very nice synergy with the betstow dudes as well!

this is the list:

Std_150425_degaaggrov2

Instant
4 x Magma Jet
1 x Stoke the Flames
4 x Lightning Strike

Enchantment
3 x Inferno Fist

Land
4 x Mana Confluence
5 x Swamp
7 x Mountain
4 x Bloodstained Mire

Creature
4 x Monastery Swiftspear
4 x Mogis's Warhound
4 x War-Name Aspirant
3 x Goblin Rabblemaster
4 x Gnarled Scarhide
2 x Firedrinker Satyr
4 x Bloodsoaked Champion

Legend
2 x Tymaret, the Murder King
1 x Purphoros, God of the Forge

Sideboard
4 x Banishing Light
2 x Dark Betrayal
1 x Goblin Rabblemaster
4 x Brain Maggot
1 x Firedrinker Satyr
3 x Destructive Revelry

I reduced the number of Rabblemasters and took out one Firedrinker. So I removed a 3cc and a 1cc for 2 2cc.

I guess my curve should not be too affected, and ditto for the speed. Why two Tymaret, why not 3 or 4? Well 2 Tymaret is enough for inevitability shenanigans and I really only want to see Tymaret mid to late game so I have found that 2 is a nice number for those kinds of situations. Moreover if I stuff more 2ccs I might lose my curve.

I also wanted to keep my interaction between the rabble masters and Purphoros so I wanted the rabble master density to stay high, hence it stays at 3 and no lower.

Why not switch all the Firedrinkers to little Zurgo? Well this is mostly a casual deck, so I am mostly not playing to win. This deck also does not really care for its own life points. Firedrinkers and grow and block. little Zurgo has blocking issues.... So I might switch to little Zurgo if I go for an actual FNM or something (unlikely at the moment :p) but otherwise... well burn has always been around, and if you play a little smarter with the Firedrinker you should'nt get burn too often. Sure when playing against Norm, Firedrinker got roasted alot, but not every deck runs burn so... I take my chances ;)

I noticed that this deck kinda has a warriors theme and I like Tymaret enough, so i ended up pushing a Heros Blade deck!


Have a good weekend ppl!

Mogis in Love ... or Rage of the Minotaurs!!!

Cognitive dissonance.

Thats what happens when you think of how someone wild and woolly like Mogis can be in love.

What has that got to do with anything? Nothing. As always =)

Well that and I like the song Shakespeare in Love. Again that has nothing to do with anything, so dead end again huh.

hur hur

Hurloon!

Onward.

So I wanted to build a deck around Mogis, since I like the card Abyss alot! However Mogis is NOT Abyss. And its not just the spelling. 

Mogis gives you an ultimatum: sac a critter or take two to the face. 

Every turn. 

Only problem is the opponent gets to choose the lesser evil to implement. Meaning you will always get the sub optimal option. I believe the common term is punisher cards. Few do well, and the ones that see some action are often maligned in someway. But thats magic right?

So back to Mogis. Given this situation, I tried to build a deck that either causes damage fast enough that my opponent does not want to take damage or destroys creatures fast enough that my opponent has no choice but to take damage. I think I failed and there are several reasons why.

1) I probably suck at this.

2) Now that we have that out of the way. I always felt that god cards are singletons in a deck. A singleton does not a theme make. Now. So far that assessment has borned out to be true. The only exception being Thassa, and only because she is 3cc and is highly relevant (in a fast deck) and can scrye herself away. Few if not none of the other gods do that.

Mogis had the same problem. So I ended up with a minotaur deck instead. Hey they are his faves no? I'll probably try to give Mogis another shot later, I kinda got caught up with the minotaur theme and left mogis for dead. He just does'nt fit too well in multiples, but is nice to have as a singleton.

Oh and another observation on the way gods function. Yes, they seem to be only good as a one or two of. However, you can mix and match the gods. In this case, I mix Purphoros with Mogis. I haven't actively considered what other gods may be useful in this deck, but I just want to point out that synergistic gods make up for the fact that you can only have one god of a kind out at any point in time.

So i did'nt really fail in making a deck around Mogis, not really, I just made a deck that can use Mogis =P

So on to the deck.

i wanted some burn. So there are eight of em' burn.

Chandra, Pyromaster. Much maligned planswalker is here for card advantage. (As always you need to build a deck that Chandra can thrive in)

Purphoros to have another relevant god. He burns whenever critter comes in. Critter comes in often in this deck? Check.

Hammer of Purphoros is interesting. It gives haste, so it makes your critters hit faster. But too many will reduce the density of critters (as well as clog your hand, remember they hit on the board not in your hand --- I am so sorry for that one haha) And importantly, as with all aggro decks, late lands become a liability, but Hammer solves that in a pinch, and those golems are hasty to a fault!

Butcher just is. I'm trying him out. He was very mean in limited. Lets see if he is as badass in standard.

Boros Reckoner! Defender of ... your side i guess =P

Fanatic of Mogis, is nice burn. Too bad he can't hit creatures... but I think its too much then. face is good.

Ragemonger is quite nice actually. You like free Reckoners? I reckon you do.

Fellhide Spiritbinder? meh, he seems good, so I am trying out. Obviously (I think) not a four off, as his cc is high and he does'nt rip a new one like Fanatic can. However, he allows you to hit with a copy of say.... Rageblood Shaman?

Oh Rageblood shaman! Cows love beef not. Mabbe thats why the minotaurs are so mad.

Deathbellow. is so cheap! But attacking every turn might prove a huge liability. But I am trying to see if tactical usage of combat damage can assuage the drawback somewhat. Well that and generous usage of Jedi mind trick bluffs too!

20140209_mogis_in_love

Instant
4 x Lightning Strike
4 x Searing Blood

Planeswalker
2 x Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantment
1 x Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 x Hammer of Purphoros
1 x Mogis, God of Slaughter

Land
10 x Mountain
4 x Blood Crypt
4 x Temple of Malice
4 x Swamp

Creature
4 x Kragma Butcher
4 x Boros Reckoner
3 x Fanatic of Mogis
4 x Ragemonger
2 x Felhide Spiritbinder
4 x Rageblood Shaman
4 x Deathbellow Raider

Have fun!

My Journey in Shoe Horning a Blitz deck

So I recently tried to to get my stoopid Rakdos deck working.


And by Rakdos I mean a deck containing Rakdos, Lord of Riots not R/B decks in general =)



So a friend insisted that Rakdos was playable. I got into a tirade on how bad Rakdos is.

I mean, really, I have tried the card in aggro as well as control and he is just plain difficult to use. And I know this friend has'nt tried and is just make baseless convenient conjectures, hence my hissy fit.


But I am a very impartial person, even when I am biased against a point (in this case my prior experience tells me my parun is chicken shit) But still I  gave the opinion its due consideration.

Previously I had tried Rakdos in an aggro deck. But that was with R/B before Gatecrash.

Now strictly a zombie deck might have been able to force a Rakdos out, but at that time I was trying
to avoid zombies (as it was an already established deck, is likely just a poor replacement for the vampire)
and I wanted to use Rakdos upside.


The aggro deck did'nt make it, though (and highly likely) a zombie deck might have made it.

Still, I tried the control route, I did'nt just want Rakdos to be a poor replacement beat stick.

That one had some hope, but I was reluctant to use Rakdos's Return and Slaughter Games as those felt unfair
(but now I would use them gladly, partly as what cards to point slaughter games at is getting clearer + hey everyone is playing Sphinx's Revelation no? =P ).

The reason I said it had hope was that, the deck actually was able to attrite most decks to a blank state on board.... but it did'nt have the last ommph to finish off the opponent when he was down.

Rakdos Return and Slaughter games would have done that handily. Thing is I actually survived
three Sphinx Revelation and my opponent took forever to kill me. That ought to count for something huh?


But anyways before I got over the cheesiness of Rakdos Returns and Slaughter Games, I got interested in
LD (that will be another article).


So my Parun was left homeless for a while.




but due to the brief tirade about how bad Rakdos Lord of Riots is, I decided to explore how bad is he =P


The reason I was interested is this. The Naya Blitz is really fast. Previously my aggro deck ran out of steam and with no way to hit the dome, Rakdos stayed home *w00t a pun!!* but the Naya Blitz is really really fast.


So I decided to attempt to bring Naya Blitz to the Dark Side (I really am just shoe horning Rakdos in I know I know).

So this led to Dark Naya, now I know there is something called Dark Naya out there, but I have never seen it, and I don't want confusion, so I shall call mine Darya, since I have a friend called Darya =) I am pretty sure she would appreciate how this deck contains demons and all *ahem*


Now Darya was not the original attempt. I called the original attempt Dega Aggro. (Dega is from Apocalypse, kudos to the guy who remembered). Dega means WRB.

And this is the list:


//NAME: C:\MWS\Magic Workstation\Dega_aggro.mwDeck
    4 Boros Elite
    4 Champion of the Parish
    4 Rakdos Cackler
    3 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
    1 Deviant Glee
    4 Lightning Mauler
    3 Mizzium Mortars
    3 Bonfire of the Damned
    1 Rakdos's Return
    1 Cryptborn Horror
    2 Disciple of Bolas
    4 Cavern of Souls
    4 Sacred Foundry
    4 Blood Crypt
    1 Vault of the Archangel
    4 Frontline Medic
    4 Dragonskull Summit
    4 Clifftop Retreat
    4 Burning-Tree Emissary
    1 Rix Maadi Guildmage


It is actually serviceable, but the mana is awkward due to Cavern of Souls. Remember Cavern of Souls only produces coloured mana for the creature type chosen when you play it. So sequencing your choice is important.


In the end, the deck was not as fast as I wanted, but it did its job of getting Rakdos out. I just need to actually run it in an FNM.

What bugged me was that it was fast but it lacked Naya Blitz's bulk with speed,   ....severely so. The Human synergy was not there, there might have been enough to make it still work, but I was unhappy.


So I continued tweaking it and I came up with two variants:


I realised that, to really exploit the Champion of the Parish, I needed the one drops to be humans.

Also the removal of Mayor of Avabruck meant the deck lacked tricks. The Mayor accounted for bulk and
added to Champion and when it was howling, it created an army of wolfs that evolved Experiment One.

That was a tough shoe to fill!!

I looked at the manabase and felt 4 Caverns and the Burning-Tree Shaman might do the trick and Darya was created::


By now it is pretty establised that if Rakdos was used in an aggro deck, its upside becomes irrelevant. Hence
I replaced my parun with the Falkenrath Aristocrat. If tragic slips become extremely popular, Rakdos might become more playable, but for now 4/1 haste is just too delicious.


//NAME: C:\MWS\Magic Workstation\Darya_Blitz.mwDeck
    4 Cavern of Souls
    4 Sacred Foundry
    4 Blood Crypt
    4 Dragonskull Summit
    4 Clifftop Retreat
    4 Boros Elite
    4 Champion of the Parish
    4 Lightning Mauler
    4 Frontline Medic
    1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
    2 Mizzium Mortars
    3 Bonfire of the Damned
    4 Searing Spear
    4 Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator
    2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
    4 Burning-Tree Emissary
    4 Mayor of Avabruck/Howlpack Alpha

// Sideboard:




Darya did'nt run too badly actually it was as fast as Naya Blitz and can match it play for play, however the main difference is that of Reckless Waif versus Experiment One.

Experiment is potentially 4/4 (with Mayor, possibly bigger, but most games don't last long enough)
while Reckless Waif has a max 3/2 but Reckless Waif potentially is faster in getting to 3 power. I suspect Experiment one is more consistent.

The other exchange is Ghor-Clan Rampager versus Falkenrath Aristocrat. The speed at which the deck aims to kill results in the two cards essentially serving the same purpose, that is, to hit for 4 to the face quickly.

Rampager with bloodrush potentially saves your creature though (and still gets the 4 through using trample), the Aristocrat has evasion and is able to protect itself however.

Another difference is Bonfire and Mizzium Mortars versus Giant Growth and Flinthoof boars. You can read it as 3 Bonfire, 2 Mizzium Mortars, 1 Falkenrath Aristocrat and 1 Rix Maadi Guildmage is replacing, 3 Giant Growths and 4 Boars. There is an exchange of two creatures for two spells.

That is largely due to difficulty in finding a good black or red creature at 2 cc. Playing the boar as well as the Mayor would stress my non-green mana base too much me thinks, hence I did not go down that route.

But it held up well and played similarly.



...



So similar that I questioned what I was doing so much to get black for? 2 Falkenrath Aristocrats??? The Bonfire could have been played in the original one! (Though I do not recommend that, Bonfire though powerful is unpredictable and Giant Growth combats tricks are good)


Hence I decided I did not want to go Naya, I wanted it to be Dega.


Hence Dega Blitz was created::

//NAME: C:\MWS\Magic Workstation\Dega_Blitz.mwDeck
    4 Cavern of Souls
    4 Sacred Foundry
    4 Blood Crypt
    4 Dragonskull Summit
    4 Clifftop Retreat
    4 Boros Elite
    4 Champion of the Parish
    4 Lightning Mauler
    4 Frontline Medic
    1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
    4 Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator
    2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
    2 Disciple of Bolas
    2 Knight of Infamy
    4 Skirsdag High Priest
    2 Mizzium Mortars
    3 Bonfire of the Damned
    4 Searing Spear

// Sideboard:


I removed Shaman and Mayor. The Shaman is actually still in contention. However, previously it did double duty, achieving colour fixing + acceleration. Now, in Dega Blitz it only accelerates (since green mana is not needed) and further more if I have more black creatures I cannot accelerate consistently.

I tried very hard to look for a good 2cc red human creature comparable to the Mayor in power, but found none, hence when the shaman's acceleration became less reliable, she had to go.


That leaves 8 slots.


The most powerful 2 cc black HUMAN creature is *drumroll*











Skirsdag High Priest!

This starts to go into Aristocrats or Act 2 territory. But those decks are not my game as I still wanted to blitz.




I ended with

4 Skirdag High Priest
2 Disciple of Bolas
2 Knight of Infamy





Skirdag if left uncheck can be alot of pain. Bolas's disciple is just nice to have and is Human. However he is too slow and lousy in multiples, hence I am only comfortable letting 2 in the deck. Knight of Infamy becos I am not too sure what else to put there.

Overall I like it.  but it is still slower than naya Blitz =/