Hey everyone, thanks for checking out The Communist Republic of Borzhov! This is a Dega/Chavest control deck that aims to kill everything your opponent plays, and then land huge threats of our own! I have been building this deck since Theros was first being spoiled and have had strong success with my local meta since rotation (6 time 4-0 finish).
The Dega color scheme offers some of the best targeted removal(Dreadbore, Hero's Downfall,
Chained to the Rocks
), decent sweepers(Anger of the Gods, Merciless Eviction), great hand manipulation (
thoughtsieze
, Rakdos's Return, Sin Collector) and strong draw power(Underworld Connections, Read the Bones). These cards allow me to limit my opponents board state, create disruption and gain card advantage. Once we have established control of the game it is time to start dropping our creatures and planes walkers! These include Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Obzedat, Ghost Council, Boros Reckoner, Desecration Demon and Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa is the card I am trying to play turn 5 pretty much every game. He providers both offense and defense and the life link is crucial for the deck. He is hard to remove as most of the popular targeted removal is either white or black. He is also a game ending play in my local meta as outside of the Esper decks and their Supreme Verdicts very few decks here can deal with him. The only real thing to be wary of here is Mizzium Mortars.
Obzedat, Ghost Council is my favorite hard in this deck! The 4 point life swing every turn is pretty large as most of my early spells and shock lands tend to out me low on life. On top of that most decks can't deal with at 5/5 ghost daddy seining into them every turn for a 9 point life swing in total. He has Ben doing less for me lately as [[hero's Downfall] is a thing, but with Whip of Erebos online, he is unstoppable! Can't kill what's already dead eh?
Desecration Demon is a great card for this deck as it deals quite a bit if damage in the air, and it can force your opponent to start sacking dudes to keep it in check.
Boros Reckoner is the defense of this deck. He can keep you alive early as no one wants to get 2-1'd by this Minotaur! And with the Whip of Erebos online we get some insane lifelink action of his passive.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion is our end game goal against mid-range/ control decks as she can produce blockers, destroy fatties and let our team fly to victory! Drawing more than 1 of her can be awkward in aggro match ups though so I only main 1 copy.
The main board of the deck is geared to combat aggro decks and Midrange decks, which are prevalent in my local Meta, but this often leaves me dead in the water against control( yes I'm talking about you blue control decks). Thus we have a sideboard to completely come in against control for the most part. Against esper and azorius decks we have
thoughtsieze
, Rakdos's Return, [[sin collector] coming in to help me eat away there draw spells and snipe there win cons when I can. Slaughter Games comes in against troublesome control match ups, or rouge decks that rely on a specific card that I cannot normally handle. Getting rid of Underworld Connections or gray merchant of asphedel In a mono black match up could be all I need to burry them. Assemble the Legion and Underworld Connections come in in control match ups. The other singleton side boards cards come in when we need more of a specific card in the matchup.
All around I feel that the deck is strong, but It has some weaknesses. Very fast agro decks like Mono white, can really beat me out of the gate, and without a turn 3 Anger of the Gods, I get buried. Another bad match up is esper. They kill all of my threats, verdict my blood barons, and resolve AEtherling, which is almost impossible for me to beat game 1. We are also soft to a game 1 blood baron.
Thanks again for reading! Please any suggestions are welcome!
