Building on a Theme: Dagoth’s Might

Welcome back to another installment of Building on a Theme!

We’ve already taken a look at three of the Theme Decks released alongside Houses of Morrowind: Redoran Onslaught, Telvanni Ambition, and Tribunal Glory. Today, we’re moving on to Dagoth’s Might. The goal is to improve its consistency while only adding Commons and Rares to keep it budget-friendly. So, let’s get started!

Dagoth’s Might v1.0
2x Corpus Disease
2x Shadow Shift
3x Sixth House Amulet
2x Awakened Dreamer
3x Deranged Corpus
2x High Rock Summoner
1x Thieves Guild Recruit
1x Wardcrafter
1x Assassins Bow
3x Burning Touch
2x Camlorn Sentinel
3x Dagoth Oathman
1x Giant Bat
1x Vigilant Ancestor
2x An-Xileel Invader
2x Ash Berserker
2x Ash Servant
1x Bog Lurcher
1x False Incarnate
2x Fighters Guild Steward
2x Hatchery Meddler
1x Imposter’s Mission
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Nix-Hound
1x Skirmisher’s Elixir
2x Ash Piercer
1x Blighted Werebat
1x Elder Centaur
3x Fortress Watchman
2x Glenumbra Sorceress
1x Hand of Dagoth
3x Servant of Dagoth
2x Ascended Sleeper
1x Chaurus Reaper
3x Nix-Ox
2x Savage Ogre
3x Therana’s Lawman
1x Dagoth Ur

The Gameplan

Dagoth’s Might is a traditional Midrange deck; it’s aggressive, but without the super low magicka curve of an Aggro deck. Instead, Dagoth’s Might has a lot of powerful creatures for every turn, all the way up to Dagoth Ur himself!

Since the deck has a slightly higher magicka curve than an Aggro deck, it wants to make sure its creatures have solid stats and powerful aggressive effects to make up for the loss of speed. We’ll be trying to stay true to that with our new inclusions while increasing the consistency of the existing deck by maxing out many of the cards it’s already playing.

The Early Game

Let’s start by editing the early game of Dagoth’s Might so we can be sure to hit the ground running. Deranged Corpus sticks out as a two-magicka creature we could probably do without; it could help us proc effects that care about creatures with five power such as the Servant of Dagoth, but it’s an incredibly fragile card on our opponents’ turn.

While I really don’t have anything against cards with “Corpus” in their name, I also think we’d much rather be playing a set of Steel Scimitars to boost our creature’s stats alongside the powerful Sixth House Amulets than Corpus Diseases.

With the additional items, I don’t think we still need the Assassin’s Bow and we can remove the one-of Giant Bat to make space as well. We should probably use some of this space to make sure we see our most important two-magicka creatures, the ones we’d prefer to open the game with. That means three copies of Thieves Guild Recruit (which has a lot of potential reductions in this deck), the ever-solid Wardcrafter and Awakened Dreamer.

The final swap I’ll be making for the early game of this deck is to replace the three copies of Burning Touch with Firebolt. Sure, Firebolt may not have Prophecy, but having to pay only a third of the magicka for that effect will be much more beneficial and not eat up our turn when we want to be playing creatures alongside our removal.

The Mid-Game

We want the mid-game of Dagoth’s Might to really pack a punch which, to be fair, it does - but we can make it do so even more consistently. We’re unlikely to get much long-term value from An-Xileel Invader or Bog Lurcher as they come equipped with a low amount of health and no beneficial effects. Additionally, Ash Servant and Nix-Hound strike me as a bit too defensive for this deck. Ideally our early game creatures will be adept enough at fighting for the board.

Let’s add a set of Ulfric’s Zealots to replace the Invaders. They may have one less health, but they leave behind a very aggressive Item when they’ve been dealt with so we’re likely to get a lot more long-term damage out of them. I also think a third Ash Berserker is called for since we have so many high-power creatures.

Before we move to the top end of the curve, this deck could also use another three-magicka creature. We definitely don’t want to skip a turn early with this deck. Daggerfall Mage is one of my go-to three-magicka creatures for decks using Intelligence, but it’s a Legendary. For a budget option that fits this deck’s themes of aggression and creatures with high power, I don’t think we have to look much further than Berserker of the Pale.

Even though Fortress Watchman hits the five power mark, we’re likely to get better damage output from a set of Cliff Racers. I must stress that if you’re looking to further improve this deck’s five-magicka creatures, more copies of Hand of Dagoth should be on the top of your Soul Summoning list! Finally, the one Chaurus Reaper can be swapped with a third copy of the far more aggressive Savage Ogre, one of our strongest cards for closing out games.

That does it for the replacements - let’s take a look at the updated deck!

Dagoth’s Might v2.0
3x Firebolt
2x Shadow Shift
3x Sixth House Amulet
3x Steel Scimitar
3x Awakened Dreamer
2x Finish Off
3x High Rock Summoner
3x Thieves Guild Recruit
3x Wardcrafter
2x Camlorn Sentinel
3x Dagoth Oathman
3x Berserker of the Pale
1x Vigilant Ancestor
3x Ash Berserker
1x False Incarnate
2x Fighters Guild Steward
2x Hatchery Meddler
1x Imposter’s Mission
3x Lightning Bolt
1x Skirmisher’s Elixir
3x Ulfric’s Zealot
2x Ash Piercer
1x Blighted Werebat
3x Cliff Racer
1x Elder Centaur
2x Glenumbra Sorceress
1x Hand of Dagoth
3x Servant of Dagoth
2x Ascended Sleeper
3x Nix-Ox
3x Savage Ogre
3x Therana’s Lawman
1x Dagoth Ur

Our updated version of Dagoth’s Might has a strong magicka curve and powerful creatures that are sure to lay the beatdown on your enemies. There’s always more room to experiment and tons of Epics and Legendaries that could be added to the strategy, so I encourage you to play some games with the deck and see what works! As always, I also recommend the Arena modes to quickly turn your Gold into Soul Gems to make the cards you need for your decks.

Hopefully you found this article helpful and until next time, good luck on the ladder!