Yes, I assuming it plays just like the legacy version - like you said, always on draw
If your opponent choose to start on the draw you have a dead turn
I'm from Brazil and I will play with dredge deck in GP Sao Paulo on August 12th, and I would like some help to with some loose ends
as far as I know there are no relevant data about the metagame in Brazil for a event like this (if there's other brazilians out there that could point some source for it I would appreciate a lot!)
however I have some assumptions.
Burn is a very popular deck around my region due to it's low cost vs good competitive results and I believe I'll face it frequently, so I think it's worth to adapt my list a bit around it
"People also often bring it in as an answer to Rest in Peace, which I think is a mistake as the initial trigger on the card is usually too hard to beat anyway. I much rather hope to get lucky and discard it from their hand with Thoughtseize."
he's basically giving up to fight rest in peace after it get on the field - which is basically say GG if it happens
also - Thoughtseize can't do anything about leyline of the void
and he's posture kind of reinforce what I thought on my first post - it's required to have side content in your hand for 2nd and 3rd games... worths
muligan good hands without side for it
I've been playing dredge in last months and struggling to keep up on 2nd and 3rd games...
the meta in my city still pretty full of hate for graveyard decks on sideboards and I'm training to a GP that will happen in less than 2 months
I performed some tests against a naya burn with a friend (this is a deck pretty common in my region and I believe meta will be full of it on GP)
I played 5 games against his hand always starting with a rest in peace (with the purpose of training)
and the results brought me the the following thoughts:
even with a great opening hand (dredgers enablers lands etc) it was impossible to win without the sideboard cards on opening hands (digging for Nature's Claim or inquisition o kozilek on draws)
So would be safe to say to never keep a hand without sideboard content on 2nd and 3rd games (with some rare exceptions) ?
in theory a hand with Cathartic Reunion and Faithless Looting makes you dig 7 cards counting with the natural draws of first 2 turns which is a considerable amount for me...
but proceeding that way we spend 2 turns looking for an answer for the hate instead of filling the grave or interacting with opponent which leave us behind the race (something hard for our kind of deck)
I know there are other points to consider to take the decision about keep or muligan on 2nd and 3rd games - like, how many card you see your opponents switching
I would keep a good hand not containing my side cards if I knew the opponent switched only 2 cards but I wouldn't say the same knowing opponent switched 4 or more...
anyway what's your thoughts about the approach for keep/muligan on 2nd and 3rd games ?
All right,
after some more matches testing cards on MTGO ... I performed the following changes
Screeching Skaab replaced by Rancid Rats (NikToo7304 is correct - it's a better early blocker ) and besides that Screeching Skaab used to trow away removal, lands instead of zombies and if opponent wants to spend removal in a 1/1 creature that's OK for me
added 1 languish and cut 1 ultimate price to try to balance matches against mono white humans - their board grows really fast and we I can't handle it (almost never beated them so far) - if anyone has some advise about how to beat it I would really appreciate
@kpal - IMHO they're too slow - we have better mechanisms to do what they do
@Ronnie328 - Interesting brew man!! the lack of removal scares me a bit to be honest, but I understand that your intention is pressure as early as possible and handle the planeswalkers with the counter spells
I'll try it out when possible
the idea seems good, the problem is this kind of card doesn't offer a constancy/uniformity needed - sometimes it can work perfectly and do most part of the work but it could ruin a game if you put a lot of other stuff than creatures on grave
Honestly I didn't tried it yet, I would need give it a chance to provide a better feedback
These are the main reason why I'm trying the deck, I would say any version should use 4 of each. Colossus returns to field huge on late game, relentless dead blocks all day long and pulls other guys from grave (that's the core for the deck)
has great synergy with the rest of the deck. When Diregraf Colossus is on field and Fleshbag Marauder comes in, Colossus generates a 2/2 tapped zombie token so you can sacrifice the token kill an opponent's creature and keep Fleshbag untapped to block another threat...
you can also call it back with Relentless Dead on late game... or use it just to flip Liliana at some point of late game
it's great against Dragonlord Ojutai and Ulamog... but it sucks against token decks (WG tokens and BG aristocrats)
sometimes it works very well sometimes don't... you don't want to draw it (it's just a 3/3 for 1UB) you want it to be on graveyard so Relentless Dead can make it come back indirectly
early blocker and of course it's a way to make Diregraf Colossus bigger and to put Prized Amalgam on graveyard if I had no Prized Amalgam on deck I probably would prefer to use Shambling Goblin on it's place. but I have to admit sometimes it's sad to see 2 lands or 2 removals going to grave when you play it heheh
Great synergy, eats tokens generated by Diregraf Colossus or usually eats Relentless Dead that comes backs, etc.. I have to admit it usually works more as a removal taker (no one leaves it on my field for much time), considering it's cost and being a non zombie and legendary creature I see no reason to use more than 2.
I have to mention that play against this creature is a nightmare for a zombie deck (our creatures don't hit the grave so no interactions happen)
It's extremely easy to flip (once the best thing the deck does it chump block) and we win a 2/2 zombie token that may interact with Kalitas
the 3rd hability is what we really want from her (can pull a colossus and indirectly call Prized Amalgam back
seems to be working very well so far for me
I judge it too expansive by the benefits it provides - if you have a field with many zombies (what is extremely unusual for this deck because we're always blocking an trading creatures) then it may serve you well
filling the grave to make Diregraf Colossus bigger make the hability of cast him from grave becomes almost impossible all times
I tried to replace it by Mindwrack Demon (an attempt to fill the grave better and get a big flyer) however once it's not a delirium deck it didn't worked well enough to keep him
it's not great as I first thought when it was released - it's a threat for late game but it doesn't work so well - the bad side of it is the necessity to discard 3 cards and sometimes (almost every time) you can not afford to empty your hand on late game to put a creature that enters tapped and can be removed - you have to use it with care (like at end step of your opponents when they had no cards and/or all lands tapped - situations that doesn't happen very often)
in a first moment the idea of it obviously fit on deck, but the true is that it's useless on early game and it takes space of cards that could better serve me, it's just not good enough
or you can use a defiant strike on him in a late game and buy a card for each creature you control
or maybe use a feat of resistance on Zada giving protection from a color for all our tokens to block something big without lose any token
I think it would also be a good answer to languish
a good answer for Rhino's trample would be devouring light - it's pretty easy to cast because of the convoke
almost every opponent attack without think twice when all our mana is tapped then it's time for devouring light to shine - and if you mentor is on board you win a token as result
Monastery mentor used to worth on previous lists because of gods willing - you could play it on turn 4 knowing that at least the opponent would need to spend 2 removals on it and you would get a prowes tokens
another under estimated card in this deck is Collateral Damage - it not only act as burn but it saves tokens against bile blight (if you sacrifice the 1 token that was the target all other tokens of same type suffers no effect)
About the rotation :
The best cards against us (bile blight and drown in sorrow) will go away. I know there's is Languish around but it takes 4 mana at sorcery speed - so I see things getting better
there's also Virulent Plague, but once our deck is not a tier 1 I think people will hardly use it - maybe on some side boards, but it's not a show stopper
the deck will have losses for sure but there are some replacement options, I think Thopter tokens is the best direction to go after rotation
I already won a game day on my local store with the previous version of the deck (using Purphoros, stoke the flames and the other cards mentioned on above comments) - so I'm kind of used to the strategy around it
I know Monastery Mentor is strong in this deck, but if there's no Impact Tremors on field I see Seeker of the way giving a better advantage, once we already have a lot of other token generators, its cheaper to cast and the lifelink really makes some difference to keep us alive until late game
Yes, I assuming it plays just like the legacy version - like you said, always on draw
If your opponent choose to start on the draw you have a dead turn
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/710426#paper
I thought it very interesting! playing Endless One , Walking Ballista for 0 and Ornithopter we can trigger Vengevine which triggers Prized Amalgam and that would give a lot to sacrifice to Bridge from Below on grave...
I'm thinking if it's fast/consistent enough to work well on modern
If anyone already tried it or watched it working let me know
thanks for reply man!
I think Dredge is funnier to pilot, but I believe Affinity is a safer choice for the GP if you want to focus on results
I'll test more keeping in mind what you said
I'm from Brazil and I will play with dredge deck in GP Sao Paulo on August 12th, and I would like some help to with some loose ends
as far as I know there are no relevant data about the metagame in Brazil for a event like this (if there's other brazilians out there that could point some source for it I would appreciate a lot!)
however I have some assumptions.
Burn is a very popular deck around my region due to it's low cost vs good competitive results and I believe I'll face it frequently, so I think it's worth to adapt my list a bit around it
This is the list I have in mind so far :
4 Bloodghast
2 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Conflagrate
1 Darkblast
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Life from the Loam
3 Collective Brutality
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Gemstone mine
1 gnaw to the bone
2 ancient grunge
2 lightning axe
1 dark blast
1 gohst quarter
1 bojuca bog
1 Vengeful Pharao
3 thoughseize
I still not sure about that 1 Darkblast... maybe it could be switched by a Rally or Driven(I didn't really tested it yet)
So what you guys think ?
any particular tips against burn considering my list ?
does it let me in big disvantage against any other specific deck ?
Thanks in advance!
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/35251_The-Complete-Guide-To-Modern-Dredge-Part-2.html
Thanks for the reply and for sharing Zen's article
I agree with the points described by him except by following:
(referring about abrupt decays) and I believe it can also apply to why he doesn't use nature's claim
"People also often bring it in as an answer to Rest in Peace, which I think is a mistake as the initial trigger on the card is usually too hard to beat anyway. I much rather hope to get lucky and discard it from their hand with Thoughtseize."
he's basically giving up to fight rest in peace after it get on the field - which is basically say GG if it happens
also - Thoughtseize can't do anything about leyline of the void
and he's posture kind of reinforce what I thought on my first post - it's required to have side content in your hand for 2nd and 3rd games... worths
muligan good hands without side for it
I've been playing dredge in last months and struggling to keep up on 2nd and 3rd games...
the meta in my city still pretty full of hate for graveyard decks on sideboards and I'm training to a GP that will happen in less than 2 months
I performed some tests against a naya burn with a friend (this is a deck pretty common in my region and I believe meta will be full of it on GP)
I played 5 games against his hand always starting with a rest in peace (with the purpose of training)
and the results brought me the the following thoughts:
even with a great opening hand (dredgers enablers lands etc) it was impossible to win without the sideboard cards on opening hands (digging for Nature's Claim or inquisition o kozilek on draws)
So would be safe to say to never keep a hand without sideboard content on 2nd and 3rd games (with some rare exceptions) ?
What it switched:
in:
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 nature's claim
2 gnaw to the bone
out:
1 bloodghast
1 land (I play with 21)
1 life from the loam
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Collective Brutality
1 Darkblast
in theory a hand with Cathartic Reunion and Faithless Looting makes you dig 7 cards counting with the natural draws of first 2 turns which is a considerable amount for me...
but proceeding that way we spend 2 turns looking for an answer for the hate instead of filling the grave or interacting with opponent which leave us behind the race (something hard for our kind of deck)
I know there are other points to consider to take the decision about keep or muligan on 2nd and 3rd games - like, how many card you see your opponents switching
I would keep a good hand not containing my side cards if I knew the opponent switched only 2 cards but I wouldn't say the same knowing opponent switched 4 or more...
anyway what's your thoughts about the approach for keep/muligan on 2nd and 3rd games ?
after some more matches testing cards on MTGO ... I performed the following changes
Screeching Skaab replaced by Rancid Rats (NikToo7304 is correct - it's a better early blocker ) and besides that Screeching Skaab used to trow away removal, lands instead of zombies and if opponent wants to spend removal in a 1/1 creature that's OK for me
I added 2 Nantuko Husk as an option to kill relentless dead and bring other zombies by consequence at EOT - and removed 2 Fleshbag Marauder
replaced 2 read the bones by Vampiric Rites and it worked very well too (thanks to Kahmos by point it out!)
added 1 languish and cut 1 ultimate price to try to balance matches against mono white humans - their board grows really fast and we I can't handle it (almost never beated them so far) - if anyone has some advise about how to beat it I would really appreciate
So my current list is the following:
4 Choked Estuary
3 Island
12 Swamp
4 Rancid Rats
4 Relentless Dead
4 Diregraf Colossus
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Nantuko Husk
4 Prized Amalgam
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Stitchwing Skaab
3 Grasp of Darkness
1 Languish
2 ruinous path
2 vampiric rites
2 ultimate price
@kpal - IMHO they're too slow - we have better mechanisms to do what they do
@Ronnie328 - Interesting brew man!! the lack of removal scares me a bit to be honest, but I understand that your intention is pressure as early as possible and handle the planeswalkers with the counter spells
I'll try it out when possible
by the way, you forgot to add the Sinister Concoction in your list
would dragonskull summit cause me many trouble ?
the list I have in mind is the following
4 bloodstained mire
3 dragonskull summit
3 blood crypt
3 overgrown tomb
1 forest
1 swamp
1 mountain
4 golgari grave-troll
4 gravecrawler
4 vengevine
4 stinkweed imp
3 lotleth troll
4 prized amalgam
4 insolent neonate
4 bloodghast
2 satyr wayfinder
1 rotting rats
1 life from the loam
1 gnaw to the bone
3 ancient grudge
1 darkblast
2 gnaw to the bone
3 abrupt decay
3 thoughtseize
1 golgari charm
2 lightning axe
@EpicRice,
the idea seems good, the problem is this kind of card doesn't offer a constancy/uniformity needed - sometimes it can work perfectly and do most part of the work but it could ruin a game if you put a lot of other stuff than creatures on grave
Honestly I didn't tried it yet, I would need give it a chance to provide a better feedback
have you tried it already?
4 Choked Estuary
5 Island
10 Swamp
4 Screeching Skaab
4 Relentless Dead
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Prized Amalgam
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 ruinous path
2 read the bones
4 ultimate price
and here are some perceptions for each card I got from the tests I performed:
Relentless Dead and Diregraf Colossus -
These are the main reason why I'm trying the deck, I would say any version should use 4 of each. Colossus returns to field huge on late game, relentless dead blocks all day long and pulls other guys from grave (that's the core for the deck)
Fleshbag Marauder -
has great synergy with the rest of the deck. When Diregraf Colossus is on field and Fleshbag Marauder comes in, Colossus generates a 2/2 tapped zombie token so you can sacrifice the token kill an opponent's creature and keep Fleshbag untapped to block another threat...
you can also call it back with Relentless Dead on late game... or use it just to flip Liliana at some point of late game
it's great against Dragonlord Ojutai and Ulamog... but it sucks against token decks (WG tokens and BG aristocrats)
Prized Amalgam -
sometimes it works very well sometimes don't... you don't want to draw it (it's just a 3/3 for 1UB) you want it to be on graveyard so Relentless Dead can make it come back indirectly
Screeching Skaab -
early blocker and of course it's a way to make Diregraf Colossus bigger and to put Prized Amalgam on graveyard if I had no Prized Amalgam on deck I probably would prefer to use Shambling Goblin on it's place. but I have to admit sometimes it's sad to see 2 lands or 2 removals going to grave when you play it heheh
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet -
Great synergy, eats tokens generated by Diregraf Colossus or usually eats Relentless Dead that comes backs, etc.. I have to admit it usually works more as a removal taker (no one leaves it on my field for much time), considering it's cost and being a non zombie and legendary creature I see no reason to use more than 2.
I have to mention that play against this creature is a nightmare for a zombie deck (our creatures don't hit the grave so no interactions happen)
Liliana, Heretical Healer
They came in replacing 2 Geralf's Masterpiece - impressions so far:
It's extremely easy to flip (once the best thing the deck does it chump block) and we win a 2/2 zombie token that may interact with Kalitas
the 3rd hability is what we really want from her (can pull a colossus and indirectly call Prized Amalgam back
seems to be working very well so far for me
Epiphany at the Drownyard and read the bones
they keep the deck with gas for late game and Epiphany even fill the grave
Cards not present on deck that I already tried :
Risen executioner -
I judge it too expansive by the benefits it provides - if you have a field with many zombies (what is extremely unusual for this deck because we're always blocking an trading creatures) then it may serve you well
filling the grave to make Diregraf Colossus bigger make the hability of cast him from grave becomes almost impossible all times
I tried to replace it by Mindwrack Demon (an attempt to fill the grave better and get a big flyer) however once it's not a delirium deck it didn't worked well enough to keep him
Geralf's Masterpiece -
it's not great as I first thought when it was released - it's a threat for late game but it doesn't work so well - the bad side of it is the necessity to discard 3 cards and sometimes (almost every time) you can not afford to empty your hand on late game to put a creature that enters tapped and can be removed - you have to use it with care (like at end step of your opponents when they had no cards and/or all lands tapped - situations that doesn't happen very often)
Compelling Deterrence -
in a first moment the idea of it obviously fit on deck, but the true is that it's useless on early game and it takes space of cards that could better serve me, it's just not good enough
Zada, Hedron Grinder
http://www.mythicspoiler.com/bfz/cards/zadahedrongrinder.html
Imagine a board with some tokens (thopters, goblins or warriors) and Zada, Hedron Grinder:
You declare attack and target Zada with a titan's strength - that's a lot of damage!
even better - a titan's strength and then a temur battle rage
or you can use a defiant strike on him in a late game and buy a card for each creature you control
or maybe use a feat of resistance on Zada giving protection from a color for all our tokens to block something big without lose any token
I think it would also be a good answer to languish
what you guys think about it ?
a good answer for Rhino's trample would be devouring light - it's pretty easy to cast because of the convoke
almost every opponent attack without think twice when all our mana is tapped then it's time for devouring light to shine - and if you mentor is on board you win a token as result
Monastery mentor used to worth on previous lists because of gods willing - you could play it on turn 4 knowing that at least the opponent would need to spend 2 removals on it and you would get a prowes tokens
another under estimated card in this deck is Collateral Damage - it not only act as burn but it saves tokens against bile blight (if you sacrifice the 1 token that was the target all other tokens of same type suffers no effect)
About the rotation :
The best cards against us (bile blight and drown in sorrow) will go away. I know there's is Languish around but it takes 4 mana at sorcery speed - so I see things getting better
there's also Virulent Plague, but once our deck is not a tier 1 I think people will hardly use it - maybe on some side boards, but it's not a show stopper
the deck will have losses for sure but there are some replacement options, I think Thopter tokens is the best direction to go after rotation
Creatures:13
2 Lightning Berserker
4 Hangarback Walker
3 Seeker of the way
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Enchantments:7
4 Impact Tremors
2 Outpost Siege
Damage/Destroy:5
2 Collateral Damage
3 Swift Reckoning
2 Fiery Impulse
Tokens:12
3 Secure the Wastes
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Hordeling Outburst
2 Descent of the Dragons
Lands:23
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
11 Mountain
4 Plains
Side board
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Roast
3 Rending Volley
4 Dragon Hunter
I already won a game day on my local store with the previous version of the deck (using Purphoros, stoke the flames and the other cards mentioned on above comments) - so I'm kind of used to the strategy around it
I know Monastery Mentor is strong in this deck, but if there's no Impact Tremors on field I see Seeker of the way giving a better advantage, once we already have a lot of other token generators, its cheaper to cast and the lifelink really makes some difference to keep us alive until late game
also, I saw some comments on youtube about Soulfire Grand Master + Dragonrage and Secure the Wastes to make infinite mana/tokens combo
Honestly I don't think the combo have a chance on competitive standard, but I'm curios if anyone have tried something similar...
Any thoughts ?