What are the strongest civs for deity?

i'm not convinced that specialized strategies which include the great library teching to philosophy with a beeline for national college is necessary. i'll admit if you can pull it off it's probably very powerful, but i have been winning many games on deity lately and never prioritize national college as a specific strategy. ill definitely build it early in the game, but by most peoples standards relatively late. which is all to say, don't feel discouraged if you haven't figured out the precise timings and decisions required to get out an early national college, it's not a prerequisite for a deity win and i'd think such a specialized approach to the game would likely translate to a relatively boring game experience if you are just making the same decisions every single game (policies/build orders/science choices). i really play according to which civ i happen to be at any one time, lately i've had a great deal of success with the aztecs, i have found if i build around 4-5 jaguars and a couple archers i can hold off vastly superior forces, which lets me focus on my economy, using this small specialised army to defend my territory. i then proceed to go tradition and grow mammoth cities, farming everything except hills (for mines), once guilds come along i trading post all my jungle tiles (which there is always loads of), which with universities gives me crazy amounts of science and gold. i generally wait until artillery before i start any aggressive warmongering, which is the point i can launch a successful offensive without suffering losses - since, i don't want to be investing a lot of time/gold on units, so i can generally take out an opponent with nothing but my initial 4-5 jaguars (upgraded to rifles), my two archers (eventually upgraded to gatling guns) and a few artillery. i dont build much navy until submarines come online, which ill build a couple, since they one-shot kill frigates, since the ai tends to go down the great warinfantry/infantry tech line, not prioritizing naval techs, so a couple of subs can completely dominate the seas, destroying frigates like no ones business, not to mention the fun of one-shot killing all the units the ai tends to hop into the water constantly. then once bombers come around i go heavy on those, massing them with a couple melee to take out whatevers left, with maybe a battleship or two. actually, i should mention, ill often build a privateer as well at some point, since a unit which can steal units for me is always good to have around, but my love really goes to submarines. what helped me with science anyhow, was building libraries, even in small cities and focusing on every building/tech that facilitates extra food, focusing on building very large cities. incas can completely do this if they get some decent terrace farm locations, it's all about the food.