Vintage decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets, plus the following cards: Sewers of Estark, Mana Crypt, Windseeker Centaur, and Nalathni Dragon.
Cards from expansions and special sets (like From the Vault, Magic: The Gathering — Commander, Duel Decks, Conspiracy, etc.) are legal in the Vintage format on the date of release of the expansion or special set.
Likewise for Legacy, except Mana Crypt is banned in that format so they don't include it in the list of additions. This new phrasing makes clear that one-off promotional items that have never been part of any "set", such as 1996 World Champion, Proposal, and Shichifukujin Dragon, are not among the pool of allowed cards.
1
Manaless Dredge is an aggro/combo deck which aims to win the game without ever adding mana to the mana pool, often by the 2-4th turn. To do this, it plays abilities and spells from the graveyard, using the maximum hand size rule to discard cards. Once discarding has begun, Ravnica block cards with the Dredge mechanic are used to quickly fill the graveyard and overwhelm opponents.
Deck Philosophy:
Manaless dredge eschews mana and mana spells in order to gain resiliency against control and tempo tactics, shutting off some format-defining cards like Wasteland while minimizing the impact of others like Force of Will and Daze. It functions as an aggro/combo deck with nearly limitless ability to generate board presence. Cards included typically provide card advantage via the Dredge mechanic or resilience and power from the graveyard.
When to Play Manaless Dredge:
This is surprisingly simple. Avoid playing Manaless Dredge if there is a heavy presence of good graveyard hate (see below, "Dealing with Hate"). Otherwise, play Manaless Dredge if the format is very reactive or very slow. Blue counterspells, creature destruction, and mana restriction are all extremely ineffective against Manaless Dredge. Fortunately, these cards form the basis of many commonly-played decks in Legacy.
Common Misconceptions:
Play Guide:
With manaless dredge, you will almost never mulligan. To facilitate this, we run enough dredgers that you have 90%+ chance of having one to discard on the first turn without taking a single mulligan.
You will also choose to draw, when given the choice. This will let you draw up to 8 cards on your first turn, and then end the turn without playing any of them. This will cause you to discard a card due to the maximum-hand size rule, and you will generally choose to discard a dredger or a discard outlet such as Phantasmagorian.
From there, you will build up your graveyard each turn by dredging, and reanimate Ichorid, Nether Shadow, and/or Prized Amalgam every (or nearly every) turn. You may simply win at this point, as many decks cannot deal with recursive beaters enhanced by Bridge from Below.
As you're building your graveyard, you can play free cantrips like Street Wraith and Urza's Bauble, replacing the draw effect with a dredge, and thereby accelerate the buildup of graveyard cards.
As you're beating down your opponent with creatures, you can use Cabal Therapy to disrupt their hands, either stopping whatever plan they're trying to advance or taking away hate cards like Ravenous Trap.
Finally, you can put the nail in the coffin with Dread Return on anything from Golgari Grave-Troll to Iona, Shield of Emeria/Stormtide Leviathan/Sphinx of the Steel Wind. A particularly potent variant of this is to Dread Return Balustrade Spy in decks that have zero land. This allows you to mill your whole deck and set up a kill using multiple Dread Return.
Card Choices:
Card Draw:
Street Wraith is a universal inclusion.
Urza's Bauble and Mishra's Bauble can be countered and take an extra half of a turn to function, but provide extra speed. The fact that you miss a turn discarding isn't usually a big deal as most lists run some number of extra discard outlets, and the baubles push your hand up to 9 cards the following turn, allowing you to regain the discard you missed.
Discard Outlets:
Phantasmagorian is a near-universal inclusion. He's most useful when trying to combo out.
Gigapede is uncommon, and is used more to smooth out draws and dredges than to provide rapid acceleration.
Cabal Therapy can also fill this role in a pinch.
Bodies:
Ichorid is an all-star in this deck. He has plenty of food and bashes admirably.
Nether Shadow plays second fiddle to Ichorid but is still an extremely common inclusion. Because you place however many cards you dredge into the graveyard all at once, and you can use Phantasmagorian as an extra discard outlet, Nether Shadow will generally come back every turn.
Narcomoeba is another all-star. He doesn't take a turn to come out, so he's very useful when trying to combo out or just as rapid Dread Return/Cabal Therapy fodder.
Bloodghast requires Dakmor Salvage and only has haste conditionally, but is still worth considering as an extra body.
Chancellor of the Forge is not recommended.
Dredgers:
Golgari Grave-Troll has 'Dredge 6' printed on him and can be reanimated as a huge fatty.
Stinkweed Imp has 'Dredge 5' printed on him and a deathtouch-like effect.
Golgari Thug has 'Dredge 4' printed on him and can prevent decking in certain niche situations.
Shambling Shell has 'Dredge 3' printed on him and is a black creature to feed to Ichorid.
Darkblast may be worth running if Dakmor Salvage is also present.
Addtionally, all of these creatures will be worth consideration as Dread Return targets on rare occasions.
Graveyard Effects:
Bridge from Below combines with beaters to produce a nearly-endless supply of 2/2 zombie tokens.
Dread Return helps sew up the game against many opponents, and with the right creature pulls wins out of nowhere against many others.
Cabal Therapy acts as a sacrifice outlet as well as incredibly strong disruption against many opponents.
Land:
With the possible exception of special-effect lands like Wasteland and Bojuka Bog, the only land cards worth considering are:
Dakmor Salvage, to turn on Bloodghast.
Dryad Arbor, to enable a mana-based sideboard without being dead Game 1 (as it can be sacrificed or attack).
Reanimation Targets:
Flame-Kin Zealot is the classic win condition.
Dragonlord Kolaghan is similar to FKZ, with a number of corner-case differences.
Flayer of the Hatebound gets around Moat and friends, but requires a bigger set of Dread Returns to end the game.
Griselbrand is a solid draw creature / reanimation target, although he does cost a lot of life.
Sphinx of Lost Truths is a balanced, all-around decent card-drawer.
River Kelpie draws tons of cards and has persist, but lacks a sizeable body and requires substantial support.
Balustrade Spy will eradicate your library in one fell swoop, and is worth considering for any land-less list.
Iona, Shield of Emeria occasionally makes the main-deck.
Whirlpool Rider is a 2-cost blue creature that provides a large card draw. The small body is made up for by the fact that he can be used to cast Force of Will and Disrupting Shoal.
Sideboard Choices:
Leyline of Sanctity shuts off targeted effects like Wheel of Sun and Moon, Tormod's Crypt, and Bojuka Bog. It fares poorly against other targeted effects such as Blue Sun's Zenith and Tendrils of Agony, however, as the players aiming to kill with these cards will typically be able to deal with the Leyline.
Leyline of the Void is a strong manaless graveyard hoser.
Bojuka Bog is a graveyard sweeper that can be drawn as one's 8th card and cannot be Chain of Vapor'd, Duressed, or Force of Willed. Unfortunately, it functions at sorcery speed.
Tormod's Crypt is a graveyard sweeper that functions (essentially) at instant speed.
Ravenous Trap is a graveyard sweeper that functions at instant speed.
Faerie Macabre and Surgical Extraction are targeted, free, instant-speed graveyard exilers.
Contagion is a manaless answer to Yixlid Jailer, Scavenging Ooze, and Deathrite Shaman that costs another card. It can also potentially have value against some aggro decks.
Sickening Shoal is a popular answer to bigger threats Knight of the Reliquary or Reanimator's creatures. It can also help against aggro.
Lion's Eye Diamond can be used to discard the entire hand as early as the first turn. In conjunction Street Wraith and Gitaxian Probe as well as the Baubles, this can be used to draw several cards immediately and attempt to out-race a combo deck. Sometimes additional draw spells are included, such as Deep Analysis, Faithless Looting, or Desperate Ravings.
Gut Shot is a slightly narrower answer to Yixlid Jailer than the black pitch spells above. It can only deal with 1-toughness creatures, making it a very specific choice.
Marrow Shards is a niche answer to Weenie-based metagames.
Chancellor of the Annex buys time against some decks and can slow down Duress and Thoughtseize effects by a turn, buying time to get dredges going. Additionally it is a great Dread Return target against many combo decks.
Unmask can potentially be top-decked to get started through a parade of Duress effects and can disrupt opponents of all stripes.
Mindbreak Trap is combo hate.
Reverent Silence and Nature's Claim can potentially be used as land-reliant options to fight Leyline of the Void.
Chalice of the Void is combo hate. Typically it is played for 0 mana to stop artifact mana in combo decks. It may have some other niche uses, such as against Tormod's Crypt.
Utility lands like Wasteland, Maze of Ith, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale or even Quicksand can stop a variety of threats.
Golgari Brownscale, Firemane Angel, Sheltered Valley and even Zuran Orb (if you're running Dakmor Salvage) can gain tons of life against aggro decks.
Force of Will and Disrupting Shoal can be brought in to provide free protection against both combo and graveyard disruption spells.
Up to one shuffle card can be considered as well (such as Blighsteel Colossus or Serra Avatar)
Finally, a variety of reanimation targets may prove worthwhile in the sideboard.
Of special worth for reanimation is Ashen Rider which can deal with troublesome permanents or hose Show and Tell.
Building the Main-Deck:
Composite:
This is a high-performing version of the deck which has shown itself in multiple finishes.
56 of 60 cards are indicated below.
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
Draw Spells
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
Graveyard Goodies
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Phantasmagorian
Reanimation Targets
3 Balustrade Spy
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
The most common choice to fill out the remaining maindeck slots was Chancellor of the Annex
The decks which comprise this composite also shared a few sideboard slots
3 Mindbreak Trap
The rest of the sideboard was composed of a combination of Faerie Macabre, Contagion, Sickening Shoal, Ashen Rider and miscellaneous other sideboard choices.
Blue Countermagic:
To deal with hate and fast combo decks, some players run a blue-based deck.
Most of the key cards are presented below, the rest are flex slots left to the player's own choosing.
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Shambling Shell
Draw Spells
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
Bodies
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
Discard Enabler
4 Phantasmagorian
Reanimation Targets
3 Whirlpool Rider
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
Countermagic
3 Force of Will
1 Force of Will
4 Disrupting Shoal
Green Disenchant Effects:
To deal with hate, some players run a green-based build to support sideboard spells.
As above, empty slots are left to the player's own choosing.
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
Draw Spells
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
Bodies
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
Discard Enabler
4 Phantasmagorian
Reanimation Targets
3 Griselbrand
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
Land
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Reverent Silence
4 Nature's Claim
1 Forest
I personally believe that Dryad Arbor should be augmented by fetchlands and some number of Bayou, but a list configured that way has not yet posted results.
Black-based Aggro
Some players double down on recurring creatures by running 3-4 Dakmor Salvage (possibly reducing the number of other dredgers such as Shambling Shell) in order to run Bloodghast and/or Darkblast and/or a transformation sideboard centered around either black aggro or the Vampire Hexmage+Dark Depths combo.
Deckbuilding Minutiae:
Shuffle Creature:
Some decks will sideboard (or very rarely, maindeck) a creature which causes itself to be shuffled into the deck whenever it goes to the graveyard.
These creatures are primarily run as a backup to the Balustrade Spy combo, or as a hedge against mill decks like Grindstone.
The main distinction about which to run comes from their relative strength against Show and Tell or synergies within the deck.
Blightsteel Colossus is strong in that your opponent must block or remove it before Colossus can attack. Often, this will shrink Emrakul to a 4/4 with the Annihilator 6 ability. As Manaless Dredge can generate hasty permanents or flood the board with zombies, this can be a favorable state of affairs.
Progenitus is strongly chiefly because of his 5-color status, allowing him to be pitched to Force of Will or Sickening Shoal (among others).
Serra Avatar is similar to Blighsteel but requires that you have a life lead (and requires a life total above 15 to win combat with Emrakul). Additionally, it is somewhat weaker against mill+hate (such as Surgical Extraction) because it does briefly go to the graveyard instead of skipping that zone altogether.
Worldspine Wurm is less lethal than Blightsteel or Serra Avatar but interacts favorably with Emrakul by either trading with it and leaving tokens behind, or attacking and having tokens after the Annihilator ability causes you to sacrifice Wurm. Like Avatar he goes to the graveyard briefly which is a weakness against mill+hate.
Dread and Guile are presumptively worse than Progenitus as shuffle creatures which do briefly go to the graveyard, are a bit smaller, are pitch-able colors, and have potentially relevant abilities. They should only be run in cases where their abilities compensate for their other drawbacks.
Legacy Weapon is almost certainly worse than any of the other choices, including Darksteel Colossus, which can hedge against Mind Control effects more effectively. If these effects are a concern, the best card to run is probably Progenitus, which evades almost all Mind Control effects and is a relatively slow clock as well. In theory, Legacy Weapon has a niche application against creature-specific discard, but this is not a major factor.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and the other Eldrazi legends are anti-synergistic with the plan to dredge our own deck. They should generally be avoided.
Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble are optional free card draw that some decks may use.
A mix provides the best chance to evade Pithing Needle or other card-naming cards like Phyrexian Revoker or Meddling Mage.
Urza's Bauble is weakly synergistic with Cabal Therapy in a direct way as you can name the card you saw.
Mishra's Bauble is weakly synergistic with Cabal Therapy if the game continues for another turn.
Mishra's Bauble is strong against decks like Miracles by allowing the manaless player to check for Terminus or other miracles before committing creatures to the board.
Mishra's Bauble allows a temporary informational advantage over the opponent while Urza's Bauble basically moves closer to information parity.
Archetype History:
The initial push towards Manaless Dredge was a result of the then-dominant performance of Mental Misstep.
The deck's first coverage began here with a deck that took 81st place at SCG: Denver. Alexander Lapping was featured with the deck, and his friend Michael Joy ran it as well and took 77th place.
The list is below:
Alexander Lapping's 81st place deck from SCG Denver - 6/13/2011 (117 Players)
1 Angel of Despair
Card Draw
4 Street Wraith
Chancellors
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Chancellor of the Forge
4 Chancellor of the Dross
Discard Outlets
3 Gigapede
Beaters
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
Graveyard Effects
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Gitaxian Probe
As players began to brew and playtest, new builds emerged. The most notable new innovation came a month after SCG Denver, when SCG Cincinatti was won by the deck discussed here and here. The list is also below, in the decklist section. The biggest changes are the adoption of multiple Phantasmagorian alongside multiple Gigapede for a large number of discard outlets, and eschewing Chancellor of the Forge and friends for an extra beatdown package of Bloodghast and Dakmor Salvage.
Videos of Rausch's SCG Run:
This Article by the Hatfield brother chronicles the increasing metagame share of Manaless Dredge as the Mental Misstep era came to a close. The deck performed tolerably well, earning a winning record, albeit an unspectacular one (virtually even with traditional Legacy Dredge builds in the same event).
In the Mental Misstep period and shortly thereafter, Mana-driven Dredge adopted many of the innovations of Manaless, blending the two together. The winning deck from 2011's StarCityGames Atlanta Open, for example, combines Street Wraith and a full set of Phantasmagorian with a mana-based shell.
Mental Misstep was ultimately banned in Legacy, which helped foster a push back towards the previous metagame. The numerous combo decks that had been tuned to beat control suddenly faced much weaker control decks. For a period, fast combo decks came to characterize the format. This was something of a hostile environment for Manaless Dredge. Manaless Dredge is a fast deck, but can be outraced by the very fastest combo decks.
Soon Dark Ascension was released (Feb 2012), bringing with it Faithless Looting and Flayer of the Hatebound and pushing Mana-driven Dredge to greater speeds and great consistency. Alongside Lion's Eye Diamond, Looting pushed out the Manaless-inspired changes in favor of a full-throttle assault. This was especially useful for Dredge players looking to fight through the heightened speed of the format.
With the release of Avacyn Restored in May 2012 and Griselbrand, interest in Dredge and Reanimator strategies reached a sustained high - occasionally prompting small amounts of Manaless decks to attack control.
Finally, in February of 2013, Gatecrash was released, bringing Balustrade Spy into the Legacy card pool. With this release, Manaless Dredge now has a unique and lethal kill to complement its near-invulnerability to control. This has resulted in increased excitement and heightened levels of play, such as Theo Van Doosselaere's 7th-place finish at StarCityGames 2013 Philadelphia Open.
As the format has come to a more stable place, Manaless Dredge appears to be a deck in its own right, with strong finishes and distinct matchups compared to Mana Dredge. As long as there is no major upheaval in Legacy, control decks will likely become more fine-tuned over time, leading to a very favorable environment for Manaless Dredge.
Decklists:
Nicholas Rausch's 1st Place Manaless Dredge list from SCG Cincinatti 7/17/2011 (228 Players)
4 Street Wraith
Discard Outlets
4 Phantasmagorian
3 Gigapede
Beaters
4 Bloodghast
4 Ichorid
4 Nether Shadow
4 Narcomoeba
Dredgers
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
Dread Return Targets
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Land
3 Dakmor Salvage
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Ancestor's Chosen
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Blazing Archon
1 Gigapede
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Terastodon
4 Contagion
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
Jacabo Castell's Top4 List at Melendians 2 - Legacy Open 3/24/2012 (101 Players)
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Ichorid
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
1 Platinum Angel
2 Acidic Slime
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
3 Bloodghast
2 Dakmor Salvage
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Surgical Extraction
Mike Keller's 6th-place list at September Northeast Legacy Championships 9/8/2012 (90 Players)
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Shambling Shell
4 Ichorid
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Phantasmagorian
3 Contagion
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Bridge from Below
4 Dread Return
2 Griselbrand
1 Sundering Titan
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Flame-kin Zealot
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Nature's Claim
4 Reverent Silence
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Contagion
Kit Capote's 1st-place list at Manila Legacy Wars 3 9/30/2012 (52 players)
4 Nether Shadow
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bloodghast
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Street Wraith
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
2 Shambling Shell
4 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 OTHER SPELLS
4 Bridge from Below
2 Soul Spike
3 Reverent Silence
4 Dryad Arbor
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Kederekt Leviathan
1 Terastodon
1 Angel of Despair
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Sickening Shoal
Mike Keller's 3rd-place list at October Northeast Legacy Championships 10/20/2012 (68 players)
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Shambling Shell
4 Ichorid
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Phantasmagorian
3 Contagion
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Bridge from Below
4 Dread Return
3 Griselbrand
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Nature's Claim
4 Reverent Silence
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Ali from Cairo
ykpon's Top4 List at Moscow Legacy Open 11/24/2012 (90 Players)
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Street Wraith
4 Nether Shadow
3 Griselbrand
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Phantasmagorian
3 Shambling Shell
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Angel of Despair
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
4 Sickening Shoal
4 Reverent Silence
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Contagion
4 Surgical Extraction
Osmo Someroja's Top8 list at Poro Tour Legacy 2013 5/26/2013 (70 Players)
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Shambling Shell
4 Street Wraith
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Ichorid
4 Nether Shadow
4 Narcomoeba
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
3 Griselbrand
4 Dryad Arbor
3 Contagion
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Nature's Claim
4 Reverent Silence
1 Forest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
birdbrains' Top4 List from MTG Deals Open Weekend 7/5/2013 (90-100 Players)
4 Nether Shadow
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Shambling Shell
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Narcomoeba
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Street Wraith
3 Griselbrand
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
3 Contagion
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Reverent Silence
4 Chancellor of the Annex
2 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
Theo Van Doosselaere's 7th-place list at SCG Philadelphia 9/8/13 (280 Players)
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Contagion
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Sickening Shoal
1 Cabal Therapy
Relling Andreas' 1st-Place list at Legacy Turniers on 12/21/2013 (53 Players)
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Chancellor of the Forge
3 Griselbrand
4 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Sickening Shoal
4 Contagion
Lucas Fasoli's 2nd-Place list at MLL#5 - Milan on 1/12/2014 (110 Players)
3 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Shambling Shell
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
4 Dread Return
4 Force of Will
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Faerie Macabre
Alan Villamayor's Top8 list at TeTe Open on 2/2/2014 (113 Players)
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Balustrade Spy
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
4 Contagion
4 Noxious Revival
3 Sickening Shoal
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Cabal Therapy
Michael Boland's 7th-Place list at SCG Los Angeles on 3/23/2014 (374 Players)
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
1 Greater Mossdog
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
4 Ashen Rider
1 Serra Avatar
4 Mindbreak Trap
1 Noxious Revival
1 Sickening Shoal
4 Surgical Extraction
Caleb Calhoun's Top8 deck at SCG Open Milwaukee on 05/06/2014 (376 Players)
4 Unmask
4 Street Wraith
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
4 Shambling Shell
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Nether Shadow
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
3 Balustrade Spy
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Ashen Rider
4 Faerie Macabre
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Progenitus
Geo Thornton's Top8 list at SCG Open Indianapolis on 06/01/2014 (347 Players)
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
2 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
2 Griselbrand
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
3 Gitaxian Probe
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Contagion
4 Nature's Claim
2 Sickening Shoal
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Forest
Juha Tolvanen's Top4 list at SCG Open Edison on 09/28/2014 (259 Players)
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Balustrade Spy
3 Shambling Shell
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Ashen Rider
2 Sickening Shoal
Dan Lashbrooke's Top8 list at SCQ Premier IQ Indianapolis on 06/21/2015 (121 Players)
4 Dakmor Salvage
4 Street Wraith
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Thug
4 Phantasmagorian
3 River Kelpie
3 Ichorid
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
2 Forest
3 Nature's Claim
4 Force of Will
2 Disrupting Shoal
4 Mindbreak Trap
oddseidank's Top8 list at MTGO Legacy Champs on 7/25/2016 (124 Players)
3 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Ashen Rider
2 Disrupting Shoal
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Force of Will
1 Progenitus
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Whirlpool Rider
Jeremiah Wolfgang's 2nd-Place list at SCG Classic Somerset on 8/21/2016 (266 Players)
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
3 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
4 Contagion
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Sickening Shoal
Rollan Julien's Top8 list at Bazaar of Moxen on 9/10/2016 (195 Players)
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
2 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
3 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
2 Whirlpool Rider
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Force of Will
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
3 Contagion
4 Disrupting Shoal
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Unmask
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
Iguchi Tomoiro's Top4 list at 65th KMC (Japan) on 9/19/2016 (71 Players)
3 Balustrade Spy
3 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Ashen Rider
2 Disrupting Shoal
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Force of Will
1 Progenitus
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Whirlpool Rider
lllllll's Top4 list in Legacy Challenge on 1/14/2017 (92 Players)
3 Balustrade Spy
3 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Ashen Rider
2 Disrupting Shoal
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Force of Will
1 Progenitus
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Whirlpool Rider
Thiago Sant'helena's 1st-Place list in CLC on 3/26/2017 (41 Players)
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
2 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
1 Whirlpool Rider
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
3 Contagion
2 Disrupting Shoal
4 Force of Will
2 Gut Shot
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Whirlpool Rider
Savok's 3rd-Place list in MTGO Legacy Challenge on 9/10/2017 (61 Players)
3 Balustrade Spy
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Ashen Rider
4 Faerie Macabre
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Noxious Revival
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Shambling Shell
3 Sickening Shoal
2 Surgical Extraction
Michael Nakahara's Top 8 list in Channel Fireball Legacy 4k on 3/25/2018 (126 Players)
3 Balustrade Spy
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Prized Amalgam
3 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Dread Return
4 Bridge from Below
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Sickening Shoal
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
See also:
I'm including Youmelia Gay's list from GP Amsterdam 2011 below. Gay finished 144 out of 1874. I've tried to include mostly Top8 lists, but I felt this one was worth including anyway. It was featured as undefeated going into Day 2, so it may hold some clues as to how to build if you want to get far in a monster-size tournament like a Euro GP.
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Ichorid
4 Golgari Thug
3 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Shambling Shell
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Nether Shadow
4 Street Wraith
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Platinum Angel
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 River Kelpie
1 Ancestor's Chosen
2 Gigapede
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Surgical Extraction
Oren Meyer's Top16 list at SCG Indianapolis Legacy Classic on 5/15/16 (292 Players)
3 Chancellor of the Annex
2 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nether Shadow
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Ashen Rider
1 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Contagion
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Sickening Shoal
2 Tormod's Crypt
Dealing with Hate:
Additional Reading:
This Article by Adam Barnello catalogs the entrance of Manaless Dredge into the Legacy metagame and advises players to run a playset of graveyard hate cards in their sideboards.
This Article by this forum and thread's own -spooky- highlights the strengths of Landless Dredge in Legacy, especially from a budget perspective.
This Article by Gerry Thomspon discusses Mana and Manaless Dredge, including some interesting comparisons of the two.
This Article by Michael Keller discusses some uncommon card choices and argues for their utility.
This Video features Nicholas Rausch himself discussing some of the card choices for Manaless Dredge - albeit with a much less successful finish than his Manaless win in 2011.
This is a short article on DailyMTG celebrating the no-land Balustrade Spy version of the deck.
Tips and Tricks:
Cabal Therapy can net you creatures if you have multiple Bridge from Below.
Ichorid dies at end of turn, so sometimes it's correct to reanimate him and not attack just to net zombie tokens.
River Kelpie, if run, can combine with Cabal Therapy, Narcomoeba, and Dread Return to combo out on the spot. Just be careful to count how many cards are in your library, as Kelpie's draw effect is not optional. Remember that Persist will resolve before Dread Return if you sacrifice Kelpie to pay for a Dread Return.
When you attack a non-token creature into a defender, if both die, you can still get zombie tokens by resolving the token-making ability of Bridge from Below first and then resolving the exile ability.
Nether Shadow needs creature cards above him in the graveyard, so be sure that whenever you dredge or discard him you put him as far down as possible. Since you discard for a single effect or mill for Dredge all at once, this is entirely legal.
Playing through a turn 1 Relic of Progenitus:
When an opponent tries to use hate cards to stop you mid-combo (and win due to your decking), Dread Return Golgari Thug and sacrifice it to put a creature on top of your deck and gain an extra turn.
Glossary of Terms
DDD - Draw, Discard, Dredge is when you draw until you have 8 cards, then discard due to the hand-size rule, then spend future draw steps dredging a card. The card that is dredged at the beginning of the turn can be discarded at the end, leading to a repeatable loop if desired.
Phantastagorian - My personal term for Phantasmagorian based on how fantastic he is! (Note: I advocate only 2-3 in most Manaless lists, while others often advocate the full 4. He's still fantastic!)
Hate - A generic 'Magic:The Gathering' term for cards which are very narrow but very effective at stopping certain strategies. In the case of Manaless Dredge so-called "gravehate" or graveyard hate threatens to shut down our graveyard-based strategy.
Anti-hate: Cards which stop "Hate" cards. (See "Hate")
Baubles: Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble.
Transformational Sideboard: A generic 'Magic:The Gathering' term for a sideboard plan that drastically changes your strategy in game 3, and possibly game 2 of a match.
LED: Lion's Eye Diamond
Draw-Go: A style of play in which a player rarely taps mana on their own turn, and usually draws their card and says "go" to their opponent each turn. Game control is maintained primarily from counterspells played during the opponent's turn. This style of play was more powerful earlier in Magic's history, but many decks still have elements of this style. It is particularly notable for Manaless Dredge players because these decks rely very strongly on the stack to stop their opponent. With Manaless Dredge, you can bypass the stack almost entirely, which negates the Draw-Go defense.
Dredge: The Dredge mechanic, which appears on Dakmor Salvage as well as a variety of cards from Ravnica block, such as Stinkweed Imp. Equally often, it will refer to the Dredge deck.
Manaless Dredge: The Legacy-format version of Dredge which eschews lands altogether. May sometimes run Dakmor Salvage. It operates using the hand-size rule to discard cards, and frequently uses Street Wraith and Gitaxian Probe to increase speed. In rare cases, the term may be used to refer to the Vintage-format version of the deck.
Ichorid: The card Ichorid, but also a generic term for Dredge decks. Occasionally used to refer to Dredge decks without the card Ichorid in them.
Manaless Ichorid: The term primarily used to refer to the Vintage-format version of Manaless Dredge. The Vintage version uses Bazaar of Baghdad to rapidly fill the graveyard without other mana sources or lands. May also be used to refer to the Legacy-format version, although this is rare.
Friggorid: An early version of Dredge deck, this lacked the combo explosiveness provided by Future Sight's cards Bridge from Below, Dread Return, and Nacromoeba. Instead it used the Ichorid-heavy plan backed by Cabal Therapy that makes up the resiliency package and Plan B of modern Dredge decks.
Contract from Below: An ante card, and therefore banned in all formats. Along with Necropotence and Ancestral Recall, it is commonly considered one of the three most powerful draw effects ever printed. In a normal deck, it provides up to +6 Card Advantage. For this reason, I sometimes refer to Golgari Grave-Troll as "Contract from Below", as he also provides +6 Card Advantage (for zero to one mana).
This Magic article from Wizards.com lists it as the single most powerful
Special Thanks to FunkyMo for card headings/formatting for some of the decklist section.
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I have to agree on Force/Shoal, after testing that configuration I wasn't impressed. There's so little hard hate in Legacy that I think risking it is right - and as I like to say, if you were wrong to play Fearless (no-anti-hate) you were probably wrong to play Dredge at all.
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In terms of speed, LED is usually only about a turn faster, probably slightly less on average. The ability to use free cantrips closely parallels the speed of most draw spells - a Gitaxian Probe and a Street Wraith will draw just as many cards as a land and a Careful Study. And of course the Manaless lists have a little stronger reanimation option to close out the game in Balustrade Spy.
In terms of hate, I'm convinced that Manaless has to go Fearless, but that you usually want to be Fearless in Legacy Dredge generally. If you want to fill your sideboard with Nature's Claims and Chain of Vapors and whatever else, maybe Dredge is just the wrong choice for that tournament. This isn't Vintage, where you have Bazaar of Baghdad to power up the deck and force your way through hate post-board. It's also not Old Extended, where Dredge was just head and shoulders above the competition and the hate was pretty low in power, albeit numerous. This is Legacy, and people run very little hate and have to prepare against an absolute horde of different linear decks. Running cards to address what your opponent actually has is going to serve you well.
I do think Manaless Dredge is less broadly playable than LED (because you need the meta to be kind of counter-heavy and light on super fast combos) but I don't think it's an objectively worse deck. Its quite a while back now, but when I put together my composite list Balustrade Spy Manaless was the single most successful Dredge archetype over several months of data (and this was after Misstep had been banned)
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The card has a normal magic back. It was distributed in a clear trophy and you can see the normal magic back in some photos.
As we have discussed in the thread previously, a card missing from the Gatherer/Oracle database is not blank. The rules specifically say that you can't "abuse" missing information in those databases (i.e. cards still function and when new promotional cards are released they work before they hit Gatherer). Secondly, even if it were blank that would not address the legality of the card. A card with no rules text could still prove useful for some obscure combo, so declaring it to be blank does not solve the problem for you. There is no additional mechanism to say "blank cards are illegal".
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A1) I think this was printed since I messed with the hate section, not totally sure. The options are Nature's Claim, Crumble, Oxidize, all the cheap red artifact destruction (but you would probably run green instead because of Dryad Arbor and Nature's Claim), Force of Will, Disrupting Shoal pitching Gitaxian Probe, Abolish, Mogg Salvage, Crash and Sundering Vitae. I recommend none of these and just not playing Manaless Dredge if you expect to face a bunch of Cages. You can also run Dakmor Salvage, Golgari Thug, and Darkblast to eventually start making Bridge from Below tokens through the Cage. You can also run Shifting Wall, Phyrexian Marauder, and Hangarback Walker to make Bridge from Below tokens without having to take as long to set up.
Q2) What to do vs Tormod's Crypt? Dig for Narcomoebas?
A2) Tormod's Crypt is definitely beatable and I would not advise the line you mentioned. (Quick note: You cannot Gitaxian Probe in response to anything as it's a sorcery.)
Think of Tormod's Crypt as a zero-mana Wrath of God. The way to beat it isn't to play all your stuff, even if that stuff might theoretically find you other stuff that makes it through the Wrath (with Persist or whatever). The way to beat it is to apply just enough pressure to get them to use their Wrath, then apply more pressure. As a result, you really don't want to go nuts with Phantasmagorian until after you've cleaned out these sweepers - just Draw, Discard, and Dredge until they have to pop it and then do it again to kill them. Focus on building a non-graveyard board to make them pop the graveyard sweeper as quickly as possible, but don't give up post-sweeper resources just to grab a Narcomoeba or two (unless it will be lethal).
Q3) What to do if 2 Dread Return are countered? Aggro with Dread Return for big guys?
A3) That's certainly an option. You can also Dread Return Flayer then DR Troll the hard way. Alternately, if you have enough Therapies, you can reanimate Flayer, sac it twice, then reanimate it again and sac it again to deal 18 non-combat damage off the Flayer alone. You can also DR Spy then DR Thug then sacrifice Thug to Therapy to build an army instantly. The Thug's ability will trigger and save you from decking yourself, while the Spy can put all Nether Shadows on the bottom of that pile to guarantee a lethal swing in cooperation with Ichorid and zombie tokens.
Q4) What to do vs Bojuka Bog? Beat-down with guys in play?
A4) See (2). Bojuka Bog is definitely beatable, although the most common decks that run it apply a lot of pressure with Knight of the Reliquary or Dark Depths combo or they can recur it with Life from the Loam (+ Zuran Orb or Wasteland) or Vesuva copies. For Game 1/2 if you have a realistic shot at winning I would keep playing, for example getting your graveyard wiped every turn while you deal 4 against an empty board will take a short time to play out. For Game 3 I would keep playing even if you don't have a realistic shot at winning, just in case there's a mistake or something on your opponent's part.
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The Main-deck of Dredge is usually built to win sideboard games so typically sideboarding plans are evident from the first game.
There are basically 5 anti-hate plans:
1) Ignore it. Hope to be faster or more consistent, but don't warp the deck to deal with hate. If you were wrong to ignore hate, you were probably wrong to play Manaless Dredge. This is the single most successful strategy, based on the tournament record.
2) Blow it up. Use Dryad Arbor maindeck, some additional land sideboard, and sideboard answers like Simplify, Nature's Claim, Reverent Silence and Emerald Charm. This is the second most successful option.
3) Counter it. Use Force of Will, Disrupting Shoal, Mindbreak Trap and run Whirlpool Rider to increase the number of CMC=2 cards you can pitch to Shoal. This is the third most successful option.
4) Negate it. Use Leyline of Sanctity, Unmask, and whatever else you can get your hands on to invalidate the hate in some way. One interesting example of this is using X-cost creatures like Phyrexian Marauder who immediately die (when X=0) and give you Bridge from Below tokens right through a Grafdigger's Cage. This is probably the fourth most successful option.
5) Race it. Load up on Lion's Eye Diamond and extra speed effects and hope you don't run into something nasty. This is probably the least successful option (mostly because #1 does a better job).
Sickening Shoal is typically better, as it more consistently kills problem creatures.
Patrician's Scorn is one way to deal with Leyline or similar, and there are a few free spells that work with it such as Marrow Shards.
(Not recommended, but technically possible)
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