Hey does anyone have access to Ross Merriam's new article on SCG and can post his updated decklist? Thanks
Edit: went 3-1 with simian spirit guides last night
Round 1: 2-0 vs Naya Burn
SSGs were the defining factor of the match here, as both of my opening hands were sped up by one turn and that was what let me race burn effectively. My dredges were subpar but I got there in the end
Round 2: 2-0 vs Thing Ascension
Both games were pretty straightforward, just beat down with creatures and finish with conflagate. I boarded in abrupt decays and leyline of the voids but only saw the former (used it on an ascension then he dropped another next turn)
Round 3: 0-2 vs Elves
Game 1 I decided to try keeping the next-level greedy hand of SSG, Looting, Looting, Reunion, GGT, GGT, Stinkweed with the hopes that I draw one land in the next 3 cards and can go T1 Looting Looting, T2 Reunion and slam the door that way. Didn't end up seeing any lands so I basically just conceded. Game 2 was close but I still got overrun by his elves - this matchup is harder than it looks imo
Round 4: 2-1 vs Jund
Game 1 was pretty straightforward - kept double looting, a land and a dredger off a mull to 5 and did the usual thing. Boarded in 2 Nature's Claim, an Abrupt Decay and a Lightning Axe and kept a fine 7 with nature's claim but no dredger. Blew up his turn 1 leyline but eventually got junded out. Game 3 he mulls down to 3 in search of leyline, so I beat down with neonate until I can cast cathartic reunion to draw my nature's claim, then filled my graveyard extremely quickly and recurred 20 power all at once.
Hi again everyone. So I played in my weekly modern event this week and I got the 4-0, beating Lantern and Zoo/Burn (can't even tell anymore) in 2, and GW Hatebears and Death's Shadow Zoo in 3, although I punted G2 big time against Hatebears. I want to talk about what I observed during that tournament which confirms what I've been thinking for a while now, and how I've altered my list to accomodate these changes.
-I want to be casting at least one Conflagrate per game. This card is insane in the current linear meta, because it sets you so far ahead on board, in addition to burning the face for 4-9 damage and potentially turning on Bloodghasts. In order to fit in the third Conflagrate I cut Haunted Dead, since although the spirit was useful for blocking, I found the card awkward most of the time and it messes with Conflagrate math. To make sure my Conflagrates are hitting harder I added a Loam, because going T1 Looting into T2 Loam and T3 wipe their board while assembling 10 power is really, really good.
-Another reason I added Loam is because I am cutting Dakmor Salvages. They have been useful occasionally when I want to get back Ghasts but don't have enough to Looting Loam back and play a Land. However, the drawback of not producing red or green and not turning on T2 Reunion was too much to get past. I want the deck to be as consistent as possibly, and so I replaced 2 Salvage with 2 Blackcleave Cliffs.
-I added the third Cliffs and Copperline Gorge #4 in place of a Mana Confluence (not 100% on this one) and a Steam Vents. I figure while sometimes it is nice to hardcast a Narcomoeba on T2 when I happen to have Steam Vents, Vents not producing green was a major issue since it made hands with Loam and/or Blood Crypt much worse. Also, if I need to cast my Amalgams and Moebas to get through hate and I'm all in on that plan, I am not winning that game anyway.
Let me know what you think of my findings, I'd like to discuss this more. Also, I've been seeing more Brutalities maindeck. Has anyone tested these? If so, how were they for you?
EDIT: Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.
EDIT: Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.
I'd discard the Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam, then untap and draw a card. Play a land so your Bloodghast triggers and sets up the delayed trigger for Prized Amalgam, then cast Reunion pitching the two best dredgers you have and dig as deep as possible. If you hit no Narcomoeba's, at least the Prized Amalgam you triggered earlier will cause any further Amalgams to return on your opponent's end step. You waste a draw step drawing a card instead of dredging but early in the game you want to be dredging into creatures you can recur, so if you have them in your hand you don't need to dredge as much to find them imo.
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Modern Dredge (117-70 W/L in games) (Pre-GGT ban: 103-70 W/L in games)
EDIT: Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.
I'd discard the Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam, then untap and draw a card. Play a land so your Bloodghast triggers and sets up the delayed trigger for Prized Amalgam, then cast Reunion pitching the two best dredgers you have and dig as deep as possible. If you hit no Narcomoeba's, at least the Prized Amalgam you triggered earlier will cause any further Amalgams to return on your opponent's end step. You waste a draw step drawing a card instead of dredging but early in the game you want to be dredging into creatures you can recur, so if you have them in your hand you don't need to dredge as much to find them imo.
Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.
Pitch Grave Troll and Amalgam, then dredge t2, pitch ghast and a dredger for reunion, dig as deep as possible. Mathematically with 4 grave troll dredges in 1 turn (1 on the draw, 2-3 on reunion) is nearly half the deck. If I don't hit one of my 4 narcos, then that's just awful luck. But on the other hand, I have tons of stuff in gy now and several ghasts to recur next turn.
Maybe that's the wrong play, but I hate letting a draw phase go to waste
Same situation minus reunion and you absolutely need to at least ditch one dredger to start the deck going. I'd still go Amalgam + Troll, then try to pitch ghast later on
What do you think of mixing 3 Collective Brutality and 3-4 Cathartic Reunion in the mainboard? Saw some decks in mtgtop 8 that are having good results in it, feels clunky imo
I see the archetype as solid 8 playsets of cards we mustn't touch, and about 20 lands. That leaves us with 8 flex slots.
What I tested recently was:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
3 Collective Brutality
1 Haunted Dead
And it felt quite lackluster. Brutalities were kinda nice, but I didn't like them as much. Also I noticed I went a little too dredge-light (GGT+Imp+2 Salvage+2 LotL).
What I'll be checking out is:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Darkblast
1 Scrapheap Scrounger
1 Haunted Dead
All the cards are valuable once in the grave.
I'm also interested in 4SSG version, gotta try it when I get my playset.
The TL,DR of Ross's article appears to be a favor for early game consistent dredgers in the form of a few shriekhorns by only having 3 Momma Hugs and no Haunted Dead main deck. I think the upside to this style of build is you're probably not mulliganing as much as the 4 Neonate/Lootings/Hugs decks are. He's also staying on 3 Conflag/Loam.
I see a lot of people keeping 1 Darkblast main. Considering how frequently Darkblast is taken out, I leave it on the SB, unless the meta is filled with infect and affinity.
I don't even count it as an extra dredge source, When I'm in a position that the only option to dredge is darkblast, just RNGejus can save from a defeat. I never dredged darkblast myself when not using it to kill things.
What is the reason to keep it on the main, when it is really relevant on very few matches? Just because it is a dredge 3?
I'm split. I've had nothing but good results with my build, and I honestly AM really happy with main deck haunted dead/darkblast. I get people want to make the main more consistent for the full on dredge game 1, but I like tool boxing... So I get it might be a bias for me. But I also feel as if were just arent a great combo deck.
Hear me out. If I decided we are purely combo, then I will streamline for the combo. Legacy dredge IS combo. It goes for a full in, one turn knockout. But modern dredge ISNT combo. Its aggro with combo elements. We rarely get a engine going that just ends a game in a knock out punch. No we do burst damage, in other words, we are an aggro deck, but our damage comes in chunks.
With that classification, I find it hard not to take a hybrid strategy approach. We shouldnt think like an aggro deck (zoo or affinity) or combo (storm, living end) but both. Sometimes our combo WONT get us there, but sustained aggro will, and vice versa. You should plan to do both.
Thats my thoughts. I'm all for doing a 2 shriek, 3 hug thing if curve is really the issue. But until I notice otherwise, toolboxing has been huge for me.
Darkblast is a great 1-of. People don't really think of it like this, but dredge is sort of an aggro-toolbox deck. Our main plan is obviously aggro, but having the ability to fetch a 3 drop flying deathtouch or a Darkblast every turn is just really helpful with our overall win percentages. Darkblast is a frequent board-out card, but there are also games where Darkblast wins all on its own. It's great vs some of our tougher matchups like Bant Eldrazi (where blasting a dork slows them down and let's you save your conflags for TKS), Infect where it's literally the only card you need (cast it during your turn rather than theirs) and elves where an early Darkblast on a Heritage Druid or a mystic/llanowar can stop their gameplan in its tracks
you can hit your own bloodghast with your own darkblast then play a land to recur your graveyard amalgams incase you don't have other means to recur them.
Went 2-2 with dredge tonight, managed to get my $15 back so I'm happy. Beat UWR Delver, my deck bricked against burn, lost a close one to Bant Company, and beat burn.
I've been going solidly on the dredge plan for a while, and figured I'd share my list and specific thoughts on it to help with developments and get feedback.
My list is pretty stock, but here are some findings from testing:
The 2 usual Dakmor Salvages just don't do enough. I still have one because I haven't fully decided what to remove it for, and it has gotten me off the ground a couple times. Possible replacements are a Steam Vents like I have, and then the second one could be either a Swamp or even another Blood Crypt, as having another fetchable red and black source is sometimes extremely important. Your decision on what to have in these two slots depends on what you're most afraid of. As for the Steam Vents, there are times when you need to cast an amalgam or a narc, so its good to have the 1 imo.
Conflagrate is insanely good. It's a mass discard outlet and a board clear in one, and can win you games almost on the spot sometimes. I even went as far as to put a third one into the side, as in certain MUs like Affinity or Death&Taxes it's absolutely backbreaking. Don't forget it can also go to the dome, sometimes speeding up your clock.
Darkblast Is a super flex spot, and is almost always the first card cut for sideboarding, but it's pretty good G1 when you have to get going as fast as possible and aren't yet worrying about hate. In certain MUs its actually really good, being a recurring dredge outlet and removal spell. I could see going to 1 in main for the third Conflagrate main.
Haunted Dead has been spectacular for me. It acts as a discard outlet and a way to trigger amalgams, giving it the flexibility that has cemented it as a 2 of for me. I don't think ill be changing that number anytime soon.
Life from the loam is a necessary evil, as it can get you off the ground and get back needed lands as you won't be drawing any while you're dredging away. Unfortunately, the times you want to loam are usually the times you're missing green mana, not black, so that kind of sucks. the card is still good here, tho it is one of the first to get cut.
I almost always go to 19 land when on the draw, unless you're boarding in Bojuka Bog, in which case stay at 20. Sometimes I'll even go to 18 for MUs where theres a lot to side in and its gonna be a straight race. Always cut the Dakmor Salvage first tho.
I have not tested Rally the Peasants, a card I've seen a decent amount of in dredge lists, but I have to imagine that it would be underwhelming if I did. Unfortunately, getting to 3 mana is a lot harder than it seems. Unless you keep a hand with 3 or more mana, you're not going to be getting there all that often. Once you start dredging away, you usually don't take any regular draws, removing any chance of getting to that third land, barring a loam. The only times you're regular drawing are if A) you've ran out of dredgers, in which case a land isn't that welcome of a sight, B) if you're almost out of cards in your deck (BTW, I will admit I can see Rally the Peasants making the difference in some of these long games, just not the normal ones.) C) when you're regular drawing for a land to trigger Bloodghasts, in which case rally could be good too. I guess I'll have to test the card over a Darkblast, some time, but somehow I don't expect much from it.
And that's it for now! I've loved the deck, coming to it from Living End a little while back. If anyone has any thoughts or critiques on my comments or list, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!
Your point about getting to 3 mana is why lists play Dakmor and Life From the loam in the first place. It's infinitely better to dredge a dakmor or a lfm on turn 2 and have 3 mana turn 3 than dredging an imp or troll. 3 mana is crucial, it let's you cast rally sure, but more importantly it also let's you flashback faithless looting and cast stinkweed imps. I know it's no fun dredging just 2 or 3 on turn 2, but you get to follow that up by dredging 3 times on every turn afterwards (provided you have 3 mana and a looting to flashback) You should almost definitely be running at least 2 dakmor, although many lists run 3. It also prevents a situation you described "where you're drawing (instead of dredging) for a land to trigger bloodghasts." That's the other main reason we run dakmor. When you have 4 ghasts in yard and they are at 8 life but will kill you next turn, you don't want to be hoping the heart of the cards gives you a land, you want to dredge a dakmor, slam it on the table and swing in with your ghasts.
So all in all, don't cut Dakmor. Run at least 2. I know it's slow, and the dredge 2 isn't a great dredger, but we don't run it to be fast or to dredge a lot. We run it because we will only ever see the first 7-9 cards of our deck unless we're doing something wrong, and being able to fetch a land from our graveyard is a great consistency tool.
I don't know your meta, so this could be wrong, but in general 2x haunted and 2x darkblast maindeck aren't necessary unless your meta is chock full of affinity and infect. I run 1 of each and then replace the 2ND Haunted with a maindeck collective Brutality, and the Darkblast goes out for rally.
What are our thoughts on 1x Ghost Quarter in the MB? MB hate against Tron, Affinity, Infect, Scapeshift, albeit potentially slowing our primary game plan (but is it really?). I'm running 20 lands with 1 GQ in there - Would love a reality check from you guys.
Your point about getting to 3 mana is why lists play Dakmor and Life From the loam in the first place. It's infinitely better to dredge a dakmor or a lfm on turn 2 and have 3 mana turn 3 than dredging an imp or troll. 3 mana is crucial, it let's you cast rally sure, but more importantly it also let's you flashback faithless looting and cast stinkweed imps. I know it's no fun dredging just 2 or 3 on turn 2, but you get to follow that up by dredging 3 times on every turn afterwards (provided you have 3 mana and a looting to flashback) You should almost definitely be running at least 2 dakmor, although many lists run 3. It also prevents a situation you described "where you're drawing (instead of dredging) for a land to trigger bloodghasts." That's the other main reason we run dakmor. When you have 4 ghasts in yard and they are at 8 life but will kill you next turn, you don't want to be hoping the heart of the cards gives you a land, you want to dredge a dakmor, slam it on the table and swing in with your ghasts.
So all in all, don't cut Dakmor. Run at least 2. I know it's slow, and the dredge 2 isn't a great dredger, but we don't run it to be fast or to dredge a lot. We run it because we will only ever see the first 7-9 cards of our deck unless we're doing something wrong, and being able to fetch a land from our graveyard is a great consistency tool.
I don't know your meta, so this could be wrong, but in general 2x haunted and 2x darkblast maindeck aren't necessary unless your meta is chock full of affinity and infect. I run 1 of each and then replace the 2ND Haunted with a maindeck collective Brutality, and the Darkblast goes out for rally.
Thank you for a very coherent and interesting response! I'll admit I never thought of the Daks that way, I mostly assumed they were for allowing you to keep more hands as it could get you up and running. I'll have to re-evaluate the whole Steam Vents thing.
As for the Darkblast, I've just found that in game 1 sometimes it can run away with the game all by itself. As long as you give it a target, it just completely removes the need for a discard outlet. Again, this is just so you can afford to keep a higher percentage of hands and makes it harder to "lose to yourself" by just never finding the right combination of cards in the opener. I still could see going to 1, maybe for the suggested rally, but I am skeptical of the "play a bunch of 1 ofs and hope it works" approach.
As for Haunted Dead, I'm not sure why people are so down on the card. It's been absolutely spectacular in every way, and it does two super important things that we want: provide a discard outlet and trigger amalgams. It also lets you sit back and not worry about dying to an aggressive start as much, as you can stabilize by returning a dead, chumping with the spirit, and then getting back your amalgams and going from there. The card has just been MVP for me.
I'll continue testing, but thanks for the feedback.
As for Haunted Dead, I'm not sure why people are so down on the card. It's been absolutely spectacular in every way, and it does two super important things that we want: provide a discard outlet and trigger amalgams. It also lets you sit back and not worry about dying to an aggressive start as much, as you can stabilize by returning a dead, chumping with the spirit, and then getting back your amalgams and going from there. The card has just been MVP for me.
Oh I don't disagree, Haunted Dead is awesome and I run 1x mainboard always. I'm just not sure about the need for a second.
Oh I don't disagree, Haunted Dead is awesome and I run 1x mainboard always. I'm just not sure about the need for a second.
While you're right that having a second Haunted Dead get thrown to your yard is sometimes annoying (though I have had to use both in certain long games), I think the card has proven it's worth enough that I actively want to see one as soon as possible in any game. For that reason, I think the second copy is worth it, as you don't see something like my 1 of Steam Vents or even the 1 Dakmor Salvage very often at all, and you do actually want to see Haunted dead often.
I guess people will have to test and then make that decision on their own but for now I advocate 2
Edit: went 3-1 with simian spirit guides last night
Round 1: 2-0 vs Naya Burn
SSGs were the defining factor of the match here, as both of my opening hands were sped up by one turn and that was what let me race burn effectively. My dredges were subpar but I got there in the end
Round 2: 2-0 vs Thing Ascension
Both games were pretty straightforward, just beat down with creatures and finish with conflagate. I boarded in abrupt decays and leyline of the voids but only saw the former (used it on an ascension then he dropped another next turn)
Round 3: 0-2 vs Elves
Game 1 I decided to try keeping the next-level greedy hand of SSG, Looting, Looting, Reunion, GGT, GGT, Stinkweed with the hopes that I draw one land in the next 3 cards and can go T1 Looting Looting, T2 Reunion and slam the door that way. Didn't end up seeing any lands so I basically just conceded. Game 2 was close but I still got overrun by his elves - this matchup is harder than it looks imo
Round 4: 2-1 vs Jund
Game 1 was pretty straightforward - kept double looting, a land and a dredger off a mull to 5 and did the usual thing. Boarded in 2 Nature's Claim, an Abrupt Decay and a Lightning Axe and kept a fine 7 with nature's claim but no dredger. Blew up his turn 1 leyline but eventually got junded out. Game 3 he mulls down to 3 in search of leyline, so I beat down with neonate until I can cast cathartic reunion to draw my nature's claim, then filled my graveyard extremely quickly and recurred 20 power all at once.
-I want to be casting at least one Conflagrate per game. This card is insane in the current linear meta, because it sets you so far ahead on board, in addition to burning the face for 4-9 damage and potentially turning on Bloodghasts. In order to fit in the third Conflagrate I cut Haunted Dead, since although the spirit was useful for blocking, I found the card awkward most of the time and it messes with Conflagrate math. To make sure my Conflagrates are hitting harder I added a Loam, because going T1 Looting into T2 Loam and T3 wipe their board while assembling 10 power is really, really good.
-Another reason I added Loam is because I am cutting Dakmor Salvages. They have been useful occasionally when I want to get back Ghasts but don't have enough to Looting Loam back and play a Land. However, the drawback of not producing red or green and not turning on T2 Reunion was too much to get past. I want the deck to be as consistent as possibly, and so I replaced 2 Salvage with 2 Blackcleave Cliffs.
-I added the third Cliffs and Copperline Gorge #4 in place of a Mana Confluence (not 100% on this one) and a Steam Vents. I figure while sometimes it is nice to hardcast a Narcomoeba on T2 when I happen to have Steam Vents, Vents not producing green was a major issue since it made hands with Loam and/or Blood Crypt much worse. Also, if I need to cast my Amalgams and Moebas to get through hate and I'm all in on that plan, I am not winning that game anyway.
Here is the MD I am working with now:
4 Ghast
4 Amalgam
4 Moeba
4 Looting
4 Neonate
4 Reunion
3 Conflagrate
1 Rally
1 Darkblast
3 Loam
4 Stinky
4 Troll
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Foothills
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Stomping Ground
2 Blood Crypt
2 Mountain
Let me know what you think of my findings, I'd like to discuss this more. Also, I've been seeing more Brutalities maindeck. Has anyone tested these? If so, how were they for you?
EDIT: Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.
I'd discard the Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam, then untap and draw a card. Play a land so your Bloodghast triggers and sets up the delayed trigger for Prized Amalgam, then cast Reunion pitching the two best dredgers you have and dig as deep as possible. If you hit no Narcomoeba's, at least the Prized Amalgam you triggered earlier will cause any further Amalgams to return on your opponent's end step. You waste a draw step drawing a card instead of dredging but early in the game you want to be dredging into creatures you can recur, so if you have them in your hand you don't need to dredge as much to find them imo.
What about the same situation minus Reunion?
Pitch Grave Troll and Amalgam, then dredge t2, pitch ghast and a dredger for reunion, dig as deep as possible. Mathematically with 4 grave troll dredges in 1 turn (1 on the draw, 2-3 on reunion) is nearly half the deck. If I don't hit one of my 4 narcos, then that's just awful luck. But on the other hand, I have tons of stuff in gy now and several ghasts to recur next turn.
Maybe that's the wrong play, but I hate letting a draw phase go to waste
Same situation minus reunion and you absolutely need to at least ditch one dredger to start the deck going. I'd still go Amalgam + Troll, then try to pitch ghast later on
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
What I tested recently was:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
3 Collective Brutality
1 Haunted Dead
And it felt quite lackluster. Brutalities were kinda nice, but I didn't like them as much. Also I noticed I went a little too dredge-light (GGT+Imp+2 Salvage+2 LotL).
What I'll be checking out is:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Darkblast
1 Scrapheap Scrounger
1 Haunted Dead
All the cards are valuable once in the grave.
I'm also interested in 4SSG version, gotta try it when I get my playset.
MTGO: UberMower
I don't even count it as an extra dredge source, When I'm in a position that the only option to dredge is darkblast, just RNGejus can save from a defeat. I never dredged darkblast myself when not using it to kill things.
What is the reason to keep it on the main, when it is really relevant on very few matches? Just because it is a dredge 3?
Hear me out. If I decided we are purely combo, then I will streamline for the combo. Legacy dredge IS combo. It goes for a full in, one turn knockout. But modern dredge ISNT combo. Its aggro with combo elements. We rarely get a engine going that just ends a game in a knock out punch. No we do burst damage, in other words, we are an aggro deck, but our damage comes in chunks.
With that classification, I find it hard not to take a hybrid strategy approach. We shouldnt think like an aggro deck (zoo or affinity) or combo (storm, living end) but both. Sometimes our combo WONT get us there, but sustained aggro will, and vice versa. You should plan to do both.
Thats my thoughts. I'm all for doing a 2 shriek, 3 hug thing if curve is really the issue. But until I notice otherwise, toolboxing has been huge for me.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
I've been going solidly on the dredge plan for a while, and figured I'd share my list and specific thoughts on it to help with developments and get feedback.
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Insolent Neonate
2 Haunted Dead
Noncreature Spells (14)
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Faithless Looting
2 Conflagrate
2 Life from the Loam
2 Darkblast
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
2 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Dakmor Salvage
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Bojuka Bog
2 Collective Brutality
1 Conflagrate
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Lightning Axe
2 Nature's Claim
My list is pretty stock, but here are some findings from testing:
And that's it for now! I've loved the deck, coming to it from Living End a little while back. If anyone has any thoughts or critiques on my comments or list, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!
GB Graveyard(Rip Copter)Modern:
Dredge RBGU (AND WE BACK)
Suicide BlooUR(WotC WhyLiving End RBG
Bloo MoonUR
Legacy:
Aluren BGU
So all in all, don't cut Dakmor. Run at least 2. I know it's slow, and the dredge 2 isn't a great dredger, but we don't run it to be fast or to dredge a lot. We run it because we will only ever see the first 7-9 cards of our deck unless we're doing something wrong, and being able to fetch a land from our graveyard is a great consistency tool.
I don't know your meta, so this could be wrong, but in general 2x haunted and 2x darkblast maindeck aren't necessary unless your meta is chock full of affinity and infect. I run 1 of each and then replace the 2ND Haunted with a maindeck collective Brutality, and the Darkblast goes out for rally.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Thanks!
Thank you for a very coherent and interesting response! I'll admit I never thought of the Daks that way, I mostly assumed they were for allowing you to keep more hands as it could get you up and running. I'll have to re-evaluate the whole Steam Vents thing.
As for the Darkblast, I've just found that in game 1 sometimes it can run away with the game all by itself. As long as you give it a target, it just completely removes the need for a discard outlet. Again, this is just so you can afford to keep a higher percentage of hands and makes it harder to "lose to yourself" by just never finding the right combination of cards in the opener. I still could see going to 1, maybe for the suggested rally, but I am skeptical of the "play a bunch of 1 ofs and hope it works" approach.
As for Haunted Dead, I'm not sure why people are so down on the card. It's been absolutely spectacular in every way, and it does two super important things that we want: provide a discard outlet and trigger amalgams. It also lets you sit back and not worry about dying to an aggressive start as much, as you can stabilize by returning a dead, chumping with the spirit, and then getting back your amalgams and going from there. The card has just been MVP for me.
I'll continue testing, but thanks for the feedback.
GB Graveyard(Rip Copter)Modern:
Dredge RBGU (AND WE BACK)
Suicide BlooUR(WotC WhyLiving End RBG
Bloo MoonUR
Legacy:
Aluren BGU
Oh I don't disagree, Haunted Dead is awesome and I run 1x mainboard always. I'm just not sure about the need for a second.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
While you're right that having a second Haunted Dead get thrown to your yard is sometimes annoying (though I have had to use both in certain long games), I think the card has proven it's worth enough that I actively want to see one as soon as possible in any game. For that reason, I think the second copy is worth it, as you don't see something like my 1 of Steam Vents or even the 1 Dakmor Salvage very often at all, and you do actually want to see Haunted dead often.
I guess people will have to test and then make that decision on their own
GB Graveyard(Rip Copter)Modern:
Dredge RBGU (AND WE BACK)
Suicide BlooUR(WotC WhyLiving End RBG
Bloo MoonUR
Legacy:
Aluren BGU