MTG Salvation

the goldari thug count may be better at 2-of and keep two nether's, but not really noticing and accounting for the non-recurring nature of Greater Gargadon was an important oversight up to then. Although there are other options open to the deck, the 9/7 is a double, albeit slower, vengevine. we were lacking a powerhouse, until the 9/7 Lady Gaga.

the imp is rarely a bad include. The thug is a failsafe for the powerhouse, four would not be required to provide value, and the dredge is only one less. That said, i very much miss the ghost quarters in my list. It seems like a minimum of two ghost quarters is right. I pulled mine for an overabundance of Dryad Arbor; bad play.

Dakmor Salvage and Dryad Arbor numbers are transient; as long as there are one of each the value mostly remains. I'm not sure about the Street Wraith + Golgari Thug play, as it replaces the draw that would come rather than adding an additional draw, like horizon canopy or even gitxian probe would produce(gitxian probes would just end up in the yard).

A four slot package of utility lands as 1 Dakmor Salvage, 1 Dryad Arbor and 2 horizon canopy would be great. like...

The game state advantage of ghost quartering cannot be understated.

I have looked at that, but desperate ravings is slightly better, double dredge and red starting cost, if one were to splash blue.

The deck is running turn five lately... bit the bullet and ordered a playset of horizon canopy. It needs the draw at will inside of a turn to pop the golgari'ed gargadon from the top so that it can sac out. there are at times not enough returnable creatures in the yard soon enough. may have finagle two of nether traitors back into the deck along with the four thugs. basic lands save lives!

How good is Zombie Infestation? I've been toying around with different dredge and Vengevine lists and have found Lotleth Troll to be fantastic, so I haven't actually bothered to test the aforementioned enchantment yet. I suppose it allows one to discard Bridge from Below, but Zombie Infestation does nothing at all for you in your graveyard.

I'm interested in trying a dredge list with Smallpox and the new Jace.

When its online its great. The issue is that it gets dredged a lot. if it is in your opening hand; you'll likely win that game.

it occurs to me, now, thanks to NarWil's question, that this would be completely viable:

Complete recursion and new lines of play...

Greater Gargadon + Unburial rites thanks to the horizon canopy change...
Greater Gargadon + Golgari Thug again thanks to the horizon canopy change...

Its a bigger change than im comfortable with right away but, im going to playtest it to see. Although Zombie infestation is amazing, more paths to greater gargadon would be a quicker game ender.

Quote from Lootsmith »

Greater Gargadon + Unburial rites thanks to the horizon canopy

Are you mentioning this as simply to recur Gargadon? If so I'm not sure hes worth the addition of 4x Unburial Rites.

solution to the non-recurring nature of zombie infestation. makes Phantasmagorian more playable; adds a discard outlet, 6/6 and/or a hand attack. Zombie infestation is strong but, all things should be considered. Dredgevine is more competitive and greater gargadon is a powerhouse. Getting him out in more ways/often is a valid line of inquiry to ponder.

I ordered the unburial rites to playtest, we'll see if its a valid branch to the deck worth looking into further. For 1.50 its harder to try not to than to try. Winning is winning, but winning faster is better.

I have thought about a slight blue splash for desperate ravings. red in the beginning and a single U for flash back s not too bad. worse/different version of burning inquiry but, with the importance of flashback. Dredge + flashback = syenergy!

Golgari Brownscale, Ancient Grudge, Ray of Revelation and Bojuka Bog are in my perspective sideboard as well.

4 imps should be a nice strong dredge element. Desperate Ravings may cost 2cmc but, Thought Scour, though a good card, does not recur thereby introducing a dredge risk. Although i entertained a list without zombie infestation, it would remove a tried and true component from the deck; experimental at best. Entire lines of play would unravel and should be playtested very well before you ran it prime time. I am trying to run out every school of thought and possible combination to make the deck the best that it can be built.

Best of luck at FNM!

Mortuary Mire + Life from the Loam = Potential?

oh, S***. THAT is a big coup for dredge! Golgari thug land?

Cant counter a land. can recur endless creatures(i lie, three per turn-ish).

Mortuary Mire + Horizon canopy = GIMME

Mortuary Mire is going to find a home in our list. I'm currently testing this:




Quick notes:
I've tested Thought Scour and it's okay. Narcomoeba doesn't do much in this list. The deck needs Scalding Tarns.

The deck is 3-0 in matches online, but it wasn't playing tier 1 decks, and I'm not sold on it really. Gargadon is good when you have some Bridges and Bloodghasts in the bin, but 4 is probably too many since it never really feels like an insane card, more of a value card. Jace is okay, but would be better with more payoff spells (Command is a big one, but I'm not running a ton). The list is kind of lacking direction and I'm not sure what to do with it. What I like about the shell is that I can recur any instant, sorcery, or creature, between Jace, Golgari Thug, and Kolaghan's Command.

edit:
I think I'll try this next:

@NarWil, definitely think you are trying to do too many things that have partial symmetry.
Imo you either run 4x Life from the Loam or 4x Narcomoeba, but not both.
Its also very difficult to run stuff like Kolaghan's Command, Jace and Crab that require a lot of extra steps to get back. I don't think you can even get Command back. If it doesn't have self recursion, it has to be reeeeaallly special, i.e Greater Gargadon.

Blood Loam, and Lootsmith please correct me if I'm wrong, is more of a graveyard value/attrition deck.
It plays more like other Modern Loam decks, but incorporates a Bridge from Below wincon.
Life from the Loam helps fuel cards like Conflagrate, Zombie Infestation, Raven's Crime, Flame Jab, Ghost Quarter and the other value lands. This deck can afford higher cost spells and effects.

Dredge from Below, is trying to emulate Legacy Dredge, which is all in on Bridge from Below. Get from 60 cards to 10 in the library as fast as possible while reanimating Narcomoebas and Bloodghast along the way. I think Greater Gargadon is extremely valuable to this strategy. I've adjusted my approach to trying to get one suspended as soon as the opportunity arises. If its milled before I get one in hand, I rely on Golgari Thug to get it back. This deck can't really afford higher cost spells, its Life from the Loam impersonation is Dakmor Salvage. Which does a good job at getting us to atleast 2 mana to cast the Thug.

I don't think you can mix the two without being extremely inefficient.
Especially with the limited Modern dredge resources we have available.

There was a deck floating around that ran very similar cards to the deck he posted. It is very different than Blood Loam.

ahhh 6 mana?!

If theyd made it a rare... a blue-black horizon canopy would have been sooo great.

Quote from RobintM »

Blighted Cataract New Zendikar land that draws u cards..

I'd run Desolate Lighthouse instead.

Sedraxis Specter

3dam flying and a discard for two mana.

User PMed some ideas about Dredge in modern, thought this was an interesting idea with Loam:

Quote from CharonsObol »

...7) If it weren't for the Bridge from Below, this build would look a lot like Crypt Dredge. Crypt Dredge used Crypt of Agadeem and a bunch of black creature cards in the graveyard, with Life from the Loam and Fatestitcher to generate large amounts of black mana, that were then used to pay for something like Rotting Rats (to clear the way) and Sedraxis Specter, followed by Army of the Damned or Extractor Demon. With Bridge from Below, your deck goes a totally different route. But much of the Dredge shell is the same. Crypt Dredge was always a turn or two too slow, and it was weak to counterspells. Your build seems more resilient, but that Purphoros is similarly weak to counterspells.

Hope that helps!

I was pointed over here by streetMage.
Here's the Dredge List I've been running:



I'm glad to see that Gargadon is getting some love from other players! I was originally using that, but ended up cutting red to smooth out my manabase.

There appears to be some traction of the Crypt-style list, so here's what I've been playing recently:



The sideboard's pretty janky. It's a work in progress.

So, having been a fan of Dredge and graveyard-based strategies in general, after sifting through the results from the recent nation-wise states tournaments, I stumbled across 2 similar lists, 1 placed 1st in at states and the other, this one, placed 4th. This one focuses on dredging Demigod of Revenge and then either returning it to your hand via Soul of Innistrad and/or simply powering it out via Crypt of Agadeem which, incidentally, can be gotten back out of the GY with Life From the Loam. After initial testing(really just me and my playtesting group having an emergency all-nighter challenge matches) I think we may just have a modern dredge deck that is a serious contender.



Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Lightning Axe
2 Conflagrate
2 Thoughtseize
1 Brain Maggot
1 Dark Blast
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Swamp

It's been performing brutally consistent. Thoughts and ideas? I would probably swap out the Tormenting Voice for Gisly Salvage, but not sure.