Hi, I am in central Illinois on the hardness zone 5/6 border.
I would recommend the following trees I am growing for disease resistance and ease of growing.
William’s Pride
Enterprise
Pitmaston Pineapple
Ashmead’s Kernel
Goldrush is good but it is highly susceptible to cedar apple rust (CAR). However, with a modest spray program I am easily able to control it at my location in central Illinois. I think you could be successful as well by spraying Immunox at petal fall and two weeks later. You might be successful with just one spray at petal fall. Winecrisp should also work if you spray and it’s a good apple too.
Here is a disease resistance chart that covers CAR and many popular apples.
For rootstocks I think your best bet would be M7 or G890. You could go with M111 but your going to need to prune well to keep it at a reasonable size. I have good soil and that coupled with the local climate means M111 produces a standard size tree for me. So if it isn’t pruned well you could end up with a 30 foot tall tree.
I have mainly dwarf apple trees. I would rate my deer pressure as low to moderate depending on the year. The deer will eat foliage up to 4 feet above the ground. They also like eating apples. So I lose some of my crop to them. It works but I think semi-dwarf trees would be a better choice for you. To be honest though a tall fence surrounding the orchard is the best way to go. I don’t have one but I wish I did. I think Scott who started the forum has one now and he has fairly tall trees.
Also I think you might find my post and the rest of this thread to helpful. It covers spraying and there are some useful tips about tree selection.