MTG Salvation

You want a more aggressive manabase. Decks have moved away from utility lands. I'd drop the Swamp and Forest for a Mountain and a Shriekhorn. That'll move you to pretty much a stock list. As for Shriekhorn, most people run 4, however some will drop 1 for a mainboard Darkblast.

I agree with Stillenacht288, the Cycle lands entering tapped is a major downside in the early turns. Running one Dakmor Salvage has occasionally made opening hands awkward, but there has been times when I need to dredge a land back to trigger Bloodghast when I'm lacking or unable to cast a Life from the Loam. I prefer the 3 Shriekhorn build as I enjoy a higher number of Dredge cards in the deck and I think Darkblast is a great card in the main. Happy Gaming!

Jim Davis posted an amazing video last week.

He pilots the deck like a champion and experiences a lot of though situations against a big variety of hate cards. If you want to up you Dredge game, watch the whole thing. I can guarantee even the most veteran dredgers will learn a few things.

After watching some videos of Dredge and playing it for one FNM i come to wonder:

Why is Assassin's Trophy played over Abrupt Decay?

I understand it is the new "hot stuff" but what does it hit that Decay does not hit, except for Leyline? RIP, Ooze, Relic, Tormod's, Spellbomb and the like all get hit by it aswell without ramping our opponent.

The "can not be countered" clause is also very relevant against Control MUs. To me it seems like Decay is still just better for us?

Boarding it in against something like Tron seems underwhelming as it does not further our gameplan and Tron has huge inevitability.

I havent played with Assassin's Trophy yet, mostly because I havent felt like dropping the money on them, however the ability to shoot a Tron land on turn 2 and slow down the Tron player gives Dredge a little more time to push the damage in. There are also some fringe cases against some other decks, such as infect, where Abrupt Decay cant shoot down an Inkmoth Nexus. I think the biggest arguement I've heard against the Trophy is two mana and giving the opponent an extra land is slowing the deck down by delaying our engine and losing tempo (because of the land). Sorry I dont have much more insight on the card, but I hope analysis helps.

Quote from PraiseTheKappa »

Why is Assassin's Trophy played over Abrupt Decay?

First, consider the case of Nature's Claim versus Natural State. Every Dredge player seems to agree that hitting Leyline is more important than 4 life. Our main goal with Assassin's Trophy is to destroy sideboard hate, but we are rarely certain of what the opponent will bring in. I think every single deck out there can play Leyline of the Void if sideboard space is available, so it's great to be ready for it.

Second, consider the case of Assassin's Trophy over Abrupt Decay in GBx decks. It's commonly agreed that the former is better than the latter (twice as many copies per list on average for Trophy). On top of our main goal, Assassin's Trophy is a great card on its own and can be played profitably in many situations were there is no graveyard hate.

First, consider the case of Nature's Claim versus Natural State. Every Dredge player seems to agree that hitting Leyline is more important than 4 life. Our main goal with Assassin's Trophy is to destroy sideboard hate, but we are rarely certain of what the opponent will bring in. I think every single deck out there can play Leyline of the Void if sideboard space is available, so it's great to be ready for it.

However Nature's Claim is still played. Based on your argument there should just be 4 Trophy boarded in all the time as it catches everything and other anti-hate is strictly worse anyway?
About Leyline: Well, yes. But there are decks where you can expect Leyline but i do not think that any deck would really "surprise" me with Leyline. Like, UW Control jamming a Leyline for example. They would just never play that. Same for Tron, Jund, Abzan etc.

Second, consider the case of Assassin's Trophy over Abrupt Decay in GBx decks. It's commonly agreed that the former is better than the latter (twice as many copies per list on average for Trophy). On top of our main goal, Assassin's Trophy is a great card on its own and can be played profitably in many situations were there is no graveyard hate.

The GBx decks that run Trophy instead of Decay are midrange decks though.
Dredge is, atleast in my opinion, not a midrange deck and a midrange gameplan of casting removal for grinding is not what you want to be doing?
I am aware that matches can get grindy and sloppy postboard but even then Decay does the same job as Trophy.

Do not get me wrong, i have not played with Trophy yet. On paper the upside of playing it just seems very very slim and the upside of Decay seems more relevant, atleast to me.

Hey fellows,

i'm playing Dredge on and off in 2018, right now slamming creeping chill to prepare for GP Liverpool
Do you feel the change does neuter the consistency of the deck?

This might be an obvious question, but is Golgari Thug worth sleeving up?

I'm seeing a few lists with darkblast in the main, and if that's the plan, do you need Thug in the list at all?

Right now my dredgers are:

3x life from the loam
4x Stinkweed Imp
2x Darkblast
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Thug

I'm wondering if I'm better off with a 4th Life from the Loam or maybe even maindecking an ancient grudge/abrupt decay/assassin's trophy to combat some of the mainboard hate I'm encountering. I'm only seeing some edge-case arguments (surgical on Stinkweed imp, putting narcomobia on top, dredging 4 VS dredging 3, ???) for thug, and I'm worried that I'm missing something.

Hi everyone,


Was looking for a little advice, was looking to pick dredge up to scratch the Modern itch on MTGO and at FNM. Looking at a bunch of list on MTGGoldfish and was curious if anybody would breakdown the essentials to pick up? Creatures/Instants/Sorceries seem pretty straight forward, my trouble is figuring out the mana base. One thing I notice is some list run 2 Gemstone Mines vs 1, I see a variety number of fetches being run and different combination of fetches as well.


Thanks!

Welcome psychedlicgerm!

The only reason, as I'm sure you know, we even run these lands is to ensure we can cast our blue creatures in a pinch. I prefer Gemstone Mine as I don't like the extra damage from Mana Confluence or City of Brass - however, diversity is always nice when you're opponent is running Surgical Extraction. I have also seen some cases for running Steam Vents over the other choices as you can fetch up your blue mana when you need it. As far as what fetches to run, you really only care about fetching up your Rx lands so any Rx fetch works. If you decided to run a one-of Forest, then maybe lean toward a playset of Wooded Foothills over the others, but in general just a variety of Rx will work. For the number of fetches to run, I think the minimum is 5 - it's nice to play around Surgical Extraction, Anger of the Gods, or other hate cards with a fetchland activation in response. I've seen people running 7 before, but I personally find that a little high and I prefer my Blackcleave Cliffs (just me really from what I've seen). Here is the manabase I've been running lately if you'd like to see another list:



However, next FNM I plan to try out the Steam Vents with this:



Hope this helps and Happy Gaming!

hi dredge fans! may i ask for help, how do you sideboard against mirror match or vs bridgevine? thanks in advance!

Thanks so much for the information. I went off your list and modified it for my budget. I plan to add the Blackcleave Cliffs and a Scalding Tarn down the road.

My side right now is the next one: 3 Thoughtseize, 3 Nature's Claim, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Trophy, 2 Darkblast, 2 Lightning Axe. Is it woth to cut the Thoughtseize for Leylines?

So creeping chill brought us back up to tier one right?

I'll have to update the primer with that info. Anything else I should do while I'm in there?

Just some notes on the lists we are seeing more now:

- The Primer recommends 13-15 Dredge cards, however most lists have cut down to 10-12 to make room for Creeping Chill. Also, Dakmor Salvage seems to have fallen out of favor - however I think it's still pretty important.

- Shriekhorn has replaced Insolent Neonate in most lists that I've seen. The reasoning being that without Troll anymore, the explosiveness of Neonate has faded.

- Life from the Loam, in my opinion, is a core card and should be a 4 of now. It works so well with Conflagrate and closing out games, especially with Creeping Chill.


Just my thoughts and observations.

Thanks for your time updating the thread!

I don't think cutting Thoughtseize is correct. The card is very versatile out of the board as it can be a form of Graveyard hate, hitting a Rest in Peace before your opponent can resolve one, OR combo-hate, which is great because we are weak to most other combo decks. If you want to add graveyard hate, I'd consider trimming one or two Ancient Grudges and maybe move one Darkblast to the main deck? Overall, what are you planning on killing with Grudge? Grafdigger's Cage prevents the flashback and Relic of Progenitus or Nihil Spellbomb will likely get crack in response (which at least lets you control the cracking, but still pulls value from Grudge). The only real powerful use that I generally use Grudge in is versus Affinity, KCI, or Lantern deck because they overload of possible targets. Just my two cent. Happy Gaming!

Still updating it (I just got internet again!) Is there any new sideboard cards used against us? I think its still all the same old hate.

Also, aside from dredgevine and Hallow one... Is there any other dredge line decks that have popped up while I was gone?

Quote from Lantern »

Still updating it (I just got internet again!) Is there any new sideboard cards used against us? I think its still all the same old hate.

Also, aside from dredgevine and Hallow one... Is there any other dredge line decks that have popped up while I was gone?

Few notes: may or may not be relevant depending on how old your primer actually is

1) bant/UW spirits is now tier 1, and Remorseful Cleric in addition to RIP shows up from time to time

2) there are degenerate versions of UW with MD RIP

3) Need to be aware of Tormod's Crypts/Ravenous Traps increasing prevalence now because of dredge's resurgence and also because these are good as the non-symmetrical GY hate of choice in the arclight decks

4) Hardened Scales is a new and powerful tier 1 archetype and a fun/tricky matchup. They have the upside of being about to Stirrings for powerful hate cards (which in our context is ~2 cages and ~2 relics/tormod's

5) KCI is one of the best decks in the format now with Scrap Trawler's introduction and a better understanding of the stack.

hope some of this his helpful. thanks for the primer - one of the more informative primers i've seen.