The reason for this is that Bridge's problem in Modern has always been that there's no sacrifice outlets that works from the grave like Cabal Therapy or Dread Return do. Salvage Titan was interesting to me because it solved half of the problem. On one hand, it gave us a sac outlet that works from the grave but on the other its conditions (it wanting a lot of artifacts to feed on) didn't really go well with the overall Dredge theme.
So why do I bring this up again?
Since then there are some new interesting cards.
- Scrapheap Scrounger is particularly interesting since it solves the last piece of the puzzle. Now we both have a sac outlet that works from the grave, but we also have recurring food to feed it with.
- Sword of the Meek has been unbanned. What this means is that a) We have more things to dredge into which closes the gap between the deck being Dredge on one side and Affinity on the other b) With Thopter Foundry we have another sac outlet for Bridge.
- Smuggler's Copter is a perfect way to both apply pressure but also to loot which is quite essential when you want to dredge. We could play it instead of Riddlesmith or maybe play both.
- Metalwork Colossus gives us even more sac outlets to play around with. Hard casting it doesn't seem realistic but it might come in handy if it turns out that finding 3 artifacts to sac is too difficult. The fact that you don't get a Craw Wurm into play seems marginal, since it's the Bridge tokens we are primarily gunning for.
What do you guys think? Is it worth pursuing? And what would a deck list look like?
I am also a fan of Salvage Titan as a card and the combo with Bridge, so when your post reminded me of their existence it piqued my interest and I started looking over cards that are available to trying to build such a deck as well as past versions others have attempted. The biggest hurdle in my mind based on those lists I saw is how to move it into a direction that isn't just a subpar version of Dredge or Affinity, which is what I was seeing out of the other lists. Ideally you'd like to lean more on artifact creatures, since they pull triple duty in feeding Titan, feeding Scrounger and triggering Bridge. Here's the creatures that caught my eye as a went through Gatherer:
Bomat Courier (also a potential discard outlet) Arcbound Ravager (also a sacrifice outlet for making more zombies, although much less good here than say Affinity) Hangarback Walker (can kick the bucket on its own) Lupine Prototype (will likely be emptying your hand pretty quickly and trying to knee it that way anyways) Salvage Slasher (built-in Cranial Plating style effect powered by your dredging) Myr Retriever (would allow you to get back lost toys)
I didn't list off any of the obvious ones that see use in Affinity other than Ravager, and right now it's a pretty lackluster list overall, and I doubt there's a viable deck there. Obviously non-creature artifacts like Shriekhorn exist that would warrant inclusion, but I haven't had time to wade through that particular list of cards yet. I suspect we won't really find too much there that does anything other than make this a bad Affinity or a bad Dredge deck. I hope I'm wrong though, and some weird obscure card no one remembers makes this worth playing.
Overall, I want the idea to work, I just think we may need to wait to see what we get from Aether Revolt before we can really move forward on building something that is its own thing.
I think you're right that the cards aren't just there yet. I think that going into more of a Dredge build than an Affinity build is the way to go, since the whole Bridge/Titan combo needs a huge GY to work. The kicker is to dredge into multiple bridges so that when you cast Titan, you will get a game winning amount of zombies into play. Saccing 3 artifact creatures only to get 3 zombies into play is just way too durdly I think.
The problem I see is that if you try to steal the explosive dredging from the traditional Dredge lists, there aren't a lot of slots left for the artifact sub-theme and in the end the Bridges might not be faster/more deadly than getting a bunch of Prized Amalgams back.
I think that's why I didn't post a deck list in this thread because I simply didn't have an answer to these problems.
I like the cards that you've found. Bomat Courier I like in particular, since it serves triple duty. Myr Retriever is interesting as well since it's another recurring artifact creature (if you have 2 of them). And speaking of recurring artifact creatures: Myr Servitor is also somewhat interesting but probably too cute in the end. The Slasher direction also is a potential powerful way to abuse the grave but I worry a bit about the 1 toughness.
Personally I like the Thopter/Sword direction especially if we run Myr Retrievers to get Thopter back. It does require that we hit all of our land drops but we can do that with Life from the Loam and Dakmor Salvage. With Loam we can also recur Thopter with Academy Ruins/Buried Ruin. I'm still not sure how to make room for it all though.
The reason for this is that Bridge's problem in Modern has always been that there's no sacrifice outlets that works from the grave like Cabal Therapy or Dread Return do. Salvage Titan was interesting to me because it solved half of the problem. On one hand, it gave us a sac outlet that works from the grave but on the other its conditions (it wanting a lot of artifacts to feed on) didn't really go well with the overall Dredge theme.
So why do I bring this up again?
Since then there are some new interesting cards.
- Scrapheap Scrounger is particularly interesting since it solves the last piece of the puzzle. Now we both have a sac outlet that works from the grave, but we also have recurring food to feed it with.
- Sword of the Meek has been unbanned. What this means is that a) We have more things to dredge into which closes the gap between the deck being Dredge on one side and Affinity on the other b) With Thopter Foundry we have another sac outlet for Bridge.
- Smuggler's Copter is a perfect way to both apply pressure but also to loot which is quite essential when you want to dredge. We could play it instead of Riddlesmith or maybe play both.
- Metalwork Colossus gives us even more sac outlets to play around with. Hard casting it doesn't seem realistic but it might come in handy if it turns out that finding 3 artifacts to sac is too difficult. The fact that you don't get a Craw Wurm into play seems marginal, since it's the Bridge tokens we are primarily gunning for.
What do you guys think? Is it worth pursuing? And what would a deck list look like?
Bomat Courier (also a potential discard outlet)
Arcbound Ravager (also a sacrifice outlet for making more zombies, although much less good here than say Affinity)
Hangarback Walker (can kick the bucket on its own)
Lupine Prototype (will likely be emptying your hand pretty quickly and trying to knee it that way anyways)
Salvage Slasher (built-in Cranial Plating style effect powered by your dredging)
Myr Retriever (would allow you to get back lost toys)
I didn't list off any of the obvious ones that see use in Affinity other than Ravager, and right now it's a pretty lackluster list overall, and I doubt there's a viable deck there. Obviously non-creature artifacts like Shriekhorn exist that would warrant inclusion, but I haven't had time to wade through that particular list of cards yet. I suspect we won't really find too much there that does anything other than make this a bad Affinity or a bad Dredge deck. I hope I'm wrong though, and some weird obscure card no one remembers makes this worth playing.
Overall, I want the idea to work, I just think we may need to wait to see what we get from Aether Revolt before we can really move forward on building something that is its own thing.
I think you're right that the cards aren't just there yet. I think that going into more of a Dredge build than an Affinity build is the way to go, since the whole Bridge/Titan combo needs a huge GY to work. The kicker is to dredge into multiple bridges so that when you cast Titan, you will get a game winning amount of zombies into play. Saccing 3 artifact creatures only to get 3 zombies into play is just way too durdly I think.
The problem I see is that if you try to steal the explosive dredging from the traditional Dredge lists, there aren't a lot of slots left for the artifact sub-theme and in the end the Bridges might not be faster/more deadly than getting a bunch of Prized Amalgams back.
I think that's why I didn't post a deck list in this thread because I simply didn't have an answer to these problems.
I like the cards that you've found. Bomat Courier I like in particular, since it serves triple duty. Myr Retriever is interesting as well since it's another recurring artifact creature (if you have 2 of them). And speaking of recurring artifact creatures: Myr Servitor is also somewhat interesting but probably too cute in the end. The Slasher direction also is a potential powerful way to abuse the grave but I worry a bit about the 1 toughness.
Personally I like the Thopter/Sword direction especially if we run Myr Retrievers to get Thopter back. It does require that we hit all of our land drops but we can do that with Life from the Loam and Dakmor Salvage. With Loam we can also recur Thopter with Academy Ruins/Buried Ruin. I'm still not sure how to make room for it all though.