My concerns with Ghost Quarter is that it can't cast a bounce spell on turn 2. I actually had a fetchable Mountain in the deck for a long time, but lost a lot of games because I had an opening hand of Island, Mountain, bounce spells.
Is Rise from the Tides not working for you? I've won a good 20% of my games that way, and Lone Revenant seems way slower, and easier to chump.
But I agree, it's definitely the most fun deck I've ever built. At the very least, it's fun for me. I have no idea how my opponents feel.
Core Strategy Fevered Visions is the most tempo-y deck you will ever play. It's also one of the most grindy — if you like winning Modern games before turn 10, this is not the deck for you. The game will typically end with your opponent having a fistful of cards, zero life, and a nearly empty board state. It achieves this by forcing your opponent into a position where they're unable to cast more permanent spells per turn than your bounce spells can offset.
The overall strategy of the deck can be explained easiest by turns of the game:
Turn 1: Tapped land or Lightning Bolt
Turn 2-4: Bounce their lands, gaining tempo. Aim for EtB lands, if possible, for maximum tempo gain. Note that this deck is one of the few decks where you will need to have a stop on your own end step: your opponent may fetch a land, and you'll want to Boomerang immediately.
Turn 3-5: Try to land a Howling Mine effect. Boomerang is your best friend against counterspell based decks: Boomerang a land on their end step to draw out the counter, then cast Fevered Visions on your turn, or Dictate of Kruphix whenever they're tapped out.
Turn 4+: Continue to use your bounce spells (and Snapcast bounce spells) to hold them to as few lands as possible. There are ~13 spells that bounce lands, and between those, the mass bounce spells, and Remand, you should be able to keep them off tempo until the end game.
Turn 8+: Slowly kill them with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Fevered Visions, Rise from the Tides, and Wandering Fumarole.
In my experience, games will end roughly on turn 10-12. If you can last that long, you've almost certainly won the game. It's an extremely challenging deck to play, but has a pretty strong win rate after playing through enough matches to get a handle on your sequencing.
Cards
The Draw
Dictate of Kruphix — your best bet for getting a Mine down against control decks. Don't forget that you can cast it on your upkeep to draw an extra card!
Fevered Visions — the deck's primary win condition, usually good for 10+ damage
The Tempo
Eye of Nowhere — you'll find yourself wishing it was Boomerang, but three mana is 100x more mana than two mana
Boomerang — best tempo spell in your deck, especially pointed at Manlands or Shocklands right after being fetched
Wipe Away — 8x UU bounce spells isn't enough, 10-11 seem optimal, and can lead to a lot of blowouts
Remand — keeps their hand full and wastes their mana
Cryptic Command — almost always used as counter/bounce, occasionally counter/draw
Evacuation — saves you when you've fallen behind, just straight wins games like against Dredge or Living End
Win Conditions
Snapcaster Mage — keeps their hand full and wastes their mana
Lightning Bolt — along with old Snaps, has been winning Magic games since Innistrad
Rise from the Tides — you only want to ever see one, but it's often a guaranteed win on the next turn, as 6-10 zombies are common
Wandering Fumarole — you won't activate it often, but it will close out many games after bouncing their untapped lands
Hand Counters
Counterflux — fantastic anti-combo card, and you need some amount of hard counters to stay alive
Render Silent — a fine alternative to Counterflux (in white), also costs them a ton of tempo
Sideboard
Anger of the Gods — fast decks with lots of mana dorks (which can out-tempo you otherwise), affinity, UR delver, and dredge
Timely Reinforcements — helps shore up hyper-aggro decks like Burn, one of our worst matchups
Matchups
Abzan CompanyWBG — favorable; they have a lot of slow pokey spells, and Anger of the Gods is really strong
Affinity — neutral to favorable; although their spells are cheap, the sideboard options are strong and Bolt on Ravager + Bounce the +1/+1 creature is very strong
BurnWRG — unfavorable; their spells are too cheap and bounce doesn't help much
DelverUR — neutral; I had thought it would be bad, but they have a hard time with the tempo loss and cheap removal
Also, I get that Reality Spasm occasionally saves your butt as a fog effect, but can someone explain why it's better than Rude Awakening? Is it just that it can go off at instant speed?
At X=3, they tie in efficiency, and at anything X>3, Rude Awakening is just better. There's been a handful of games that the extra mana (with 5-6 lands) would have won be the game if Reality Spasm had been Rude Awakening. Plus it comes with the bonus that it can't be Inquisitioned away.
I guess some folks from this thread were very excited to see GSZ mentioned on my reddit thread today. The deck is a ton of fun; here is what I have been running:
What I wouldn't give to replace Sleight of Hand with Opt. It would be an unbelievable help!
Also, as much as I love Telling Time, I didn't really like it terribly much in this deck. And with it gone, I can run far more basics, which has saved my butt a ton against aggro decks.
When and if Baleful Strix ever gets put on the legal map, we will be able to heavy sandhog crush. 'Til Then... Well, hardKOrr, if it works, keep it going. I just wonder about so many 1 CMC with chalice. Also, I'm not a big fan of spellbombs and Epochrasite, but, honestly I don't have much experience with them.
Baleful Strix is probably the biggest missing piece keeping this deck from competing with the T1 decks of the format. It is a large part of why the deck even manages to exist in Legacy, although the Sol lands are probably even more important. Unfortunately, I can't really fathom a Standard environment that could handle Baleful Strix, so I doubt we'll ever get so lucky in Modern.
It's probably not the most competitive build, but I've been having decent luck -- and certainly a ton of fun -- with Wildfire. It puts you way out in front, if it can resolve. The deck just sweeps and sweeps until it creates a 5/5 and then Wildfires:
Getting there! After playing about 20 or so matches with the deck, I've decided that Satyr Wayfinder is far too slow. And while it does seem like it would be nice to gain a bunch of life with Gnaw to the Bone durdles, I'd rather just kill them faster while being more disruptive. Enter Smallpox. Mmm, delicious Smallpox.
The deck seems to be able to kill at a reasonable clip while being able to catch up from behind. Sometimes you start a turn up 12 life to 9, facing down a Siege Rhino with just a Viscera Seer and a Gravecrawler... and end the turn with 17 power, with another two zombies waiting to join the crowd and having scryed your best card to the top.
I've been working on increasing the velocity of the deck, basically the time it takes to start using the graveyard and hopefully begin dredging. I found the BG or 1G spells to be just a wee bit slower than I'd like. I've been really happy with how this is going:
I've found that it has sped the deck up a whole turn while being a lot more resilient to hate. I've put people from 20 to 0 in a single turn with just Blasting Station. 2 Bloodghasts + 2 Bridge + Blasting Station will put somebody from 20 to 2 with just a single fetchland (or STE). One Gravecrawler, 4 lands, a Bridge, and a Blasting Station will go from 20 to 12. I've been liking the three Sakura-Tribe Elders because they recur Bloodghast, trigger Bridge, and accelerate you pretty quickly.
Also, sometimes you just randomly win games with Burning Inquiry. So there's that.
The deck is already pretty resistant to sweepers: Gravecrawler, Tymaret, Rotting Rats, and Bloodghast don't care and Bridge usually makes sweepers quite weak. The only very bad one to play against is Anger of the Gods. Plus, one toughness ground creatures aren't particularly an issue, with all the maindeck hate. So mostly Golgari Charm ends up just being a "destroy target enchantment" as a supplement to Abrupt Decay. I'd probably rather just have something like Reclamation Sage at that point, since it works with the deck a bit more.
Blasting Station isn't too bad, but whenever I cast it, I found myself wishing that it was simply Goblin Bombardment. Also Blasting Station with multiple Bloodghasts is a giant, horrific, terrifying mass of triggers. I'll play around with a bit more, though.
I'm also considering a singleton Tymaret, since he functions from the graveyard and can rifle down players as well.
So, I've been playing with something a bit different than your traditional Dredgevine deck. It has been doing extremely well, both IRL and on MTGO; probably winning about 70% of its matches in the tournament practice room. I'm not positive that it fits exactly in the Dredgevine deck thread, but it is doing something that I feel is pretty consistent with the philosophy of Dredgevine. I'm pretty happy with it, but there are a couple maindeck slots that I'm unhappy with and the sideboard is a bit of a mess at this point. Really the only sideboard card that I consistently bring in is Pack Rat (against the decks with Rest in Peace) and Abrupt Decay.
The deck is a blast to play: usually killing with a giant zombie army, but frequently just beating down with Bloodghasts and Gravecrawlers.
Some thoughts:
- Squee has had incredible synergy in the deck. He offsets the card disadvantage from Rotting Rats, Faithless Looting, and Pack Rat and pitches to Lotleth Troll turn after turn after turn.
- Rotting Rats has been ridiculously good, letting me discard Bridges that are stuck in my hand, and making it nearly impossible to be board wiped out of Gravecrawlers. I won a recent game fighting through five(!) sweepers, due to Rotting Rats.
- Viscera Seer is probably the best card in the deck. He lets you build a giant zombie army with Bridge, and makes the deck very consistent by recurring Bloodghasts and Gravecrawlers for scrying.
- Darkblast just straight up beats a lot of decks in the format, and dumps Looting, Gnaw, Gravecrawlers, Bloodghasts, Rotting Rats, and Bridges into the GY. It really does it all.
I'd love for folks to try it out and give feedback. There are so many lines that it's very hard but rewarding to play. I will say that it is a bit of a pain on MTGO, since you have so many triggers that you can't auto-yield to: Bloodghast and Squee in particular. Also having to scry the same card to the top a half dozen times can get a bit annoying.
Is Rise from the Tides not working for you? I've won a good 20% of my games that way, and Lone Revenant seems way slower, and easier to chump.
But I agree, it's definitely the most fun deck I've ever built. At the very least, it's fun for me. I have no idea how my opponents feel.
4x Snapcaster Mage
Enchantment
3x Dictate of Kruphix
4x Fevered Visions
Instant
4x Boomerang
2x Counterflux
2x Cryptic Command
2x Evacuation
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Remand
3x Wipe Away
4x Eye of Nowhere
1x Rise from the Tides
Land
4x Flooded Strand
5x Island
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Steam Vents
3x Sulfur Falls
4x Wandering Fumarole
3x Anger of the Gods
1x Annul
2x Counterflux
2x Crumble to Dust
1x Cryptic Command
2x Forked Bolt
1x Hurkyl's Recall
3x Spell Pierce
4x Snapcaster Mage
Enchantment
3x Dictate of Kruphix
4x Fevered Visions
Instant
4x Boomerang
2x Cryptic Command
2x Evacuation
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Remand
3x Render Silent
2x Wipe Away
4x Eye of Nowhere
1x Rise from the Tides
Land
4x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
3x Wandering Fumarole
3x Anger of the Gods
2x Counterflux
1x Crumble to Dust
2x Forked Bolt
3x Spell Pierce
2x Stony Silence
2x Timely Reinforcements
Core Strategy
Fevered Visions is the most tempo-y deck you will ever play. It's also one of the most grindy — if you like winning Modern games before turn 10, this is not the deck for you. The game will typically end with your opponent having a fistful of cards, zero life, and a nearly empty board state. It achieves this by forcing your opponent into a position where they're unable to cast more permanent spells per turn than your bounce spells can offset.
The overall strategy of the deck can be explained easiest by turns of the game:
Turn 1: Tapped land or Lightning Bolt
Turn 2-4: Bounce their lands, gaining tempo. Aim for EtB lands, if possible, for maximum tempo gain. Note that this deck is one of the few decks where you will need to have a stop on your own end step: your opponent may fetch a land, and you'll want to Boomerang immediately.
Turn 3-5: Try to land a Howling Mine effect. Boomerang is your best friend against counterspell based decks: Boomerang a land on their end step to draw out the counter, then cast Fevered Visions on your turn, or Dictate of Kruphix whenever they're tapped out.
Turn 4+: Continue to use your bounce spells (and Snapcast bounce spells) to hold them to as few lands as possible. There are ~13 spells that bounce lands, and between those, the mass bounce spells, and Remand, you should be able to keep them off tempo until the end game.
Turn 8+: Slowly kill them with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Fevered Visions, Rise from the Tides, and Wandering Fumarole.
In my experience, games will end roughly on turn 10-12. If you can last that long, you've almost certainly won the game. It's an extremely challenging deck to play, but has a pretty strong win rate after playing through enough matches to get a handle on your sequencing.
Cards
The Draw
The Tempo
Win Conditions
Hand Counters
Sideboard
Splashes
W White W
Matchups
At X=3, they tie in efficiency, and at anything X>3, Rude Awakening is just better. There's been a handful of games that the extra mana (with 5-6 lands) would have won be the game if Reality Spasm had been Rude Awakening. Plus it comes with the bonus that it can't be Inquisitioned away.
4x Anticipate
2x Blue Sun's Zenith
4x Early Harvest
2x Peer Through Depths
2x Reality Spasm
4x Remand
Sorceries
1x Explore
4x Search for Tomorrow
4x Serum Visions
3x Sleight of Hand
4x Dictate of Karametra
Creatures
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2x Snapcaster Mage
Lands
8x Forest
8x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Bound // Determined
1x Cyclonic Rift
3x Dismember
4x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Nature's Claim
2x Swan Song
What I wouldn't give to replace Sleight of Hand with Opt. It would be an unbelievable help!
Also, as much as I love Telling Time, I didn't really like it terribly much in this deck. And with it gone, I can run far more basics, which has saved my butt a ton against aggro decks.
Baleful Strix is probably the biggest missing piece keeping this deck from competing with the T1 decks of the format. It is a large part of why the deck even manages to exist in Legacy, although the Sol lands are probably even more important. Unfortunately, I can't really fathom a Standard environment that could handle Baleful Strix, so I doubt we'll ever get so lucky in Modern.
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Izzet Signet
3 Mind Stone
1 Rakdos Signet
2 Talisman of Dominance
Spells (16)
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Izzet Charm
1 Pyroclasm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Wildfire
4 Ensoul Artifact
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Land (22)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
At the very least, it never gets tiring winning in the way you can see in the attached screenshot.
4 Bloodghast
4 Gravecrawler
3 Rotting Rats
3 Stinkweed Imp
4 Viscera Seer
INSTANT (6)
3 Darkblast
3 Dangerous Wager
SORCERY (8)
4 Faithless Looting
4 Smallpox
3 Blasting Station
ENCHANTMENT (4)
4 Bridge from Below
LAND (21)
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
3 Verdant Catacomb
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Golgari Charm
4 Molten Rain
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Slaughter Games
The deck seems to be able to kill at a reasonable clip while being able to catch up from behind. Sometimes you start a turn up 12 life to 9, facing down a Siege Rhino with just a Viscera Seer and a Gravecrawler... and end the turn with 17 power, with another two zombies waiting to join the crowd and having scryed your best card to the top.
4 Bloodghast
4 Gravecrawler
2 Rotting Rats
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Stinkweed Imp
4 Viscera Seer
INSTANT (2)
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
4 Burning Inquiry
4 Faithless Looting
ARTIFACT (4)
4 Blasting Station
ENCHANTMENT (4)
4 Bridge from Below
LAND (20)
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pack Rat
I've found that it has sped the deck up a whole turn while being a lot more resilient to hate. I've put people from 20 to 0 in a single turn with just Blasting Station. 2 Bloodghasts + 2 Bridge + Blasting Station will put somebody from 20 to 2 with just a single fetchland (or STE). One Gravecrawler, 4 lands, a Bridge, and a Blasting Station will go from 20 to 12. I've been liking the three Sakura-Tribe Elders because they recur Bloodghast, trigger Bridge, and accelerate you pretty quickly.
Also, sometimes you just randomly win games with Burning Inquiry. So there's that.
I'm also considering a singleton Tymaret, since he functions from the graveyard and can rifle down players as well.
4 Bloodghast
4 Gravecrawler
3 Lotleth Troll
3 Rotting Rats
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Tymaret, the Murder King
4 Viscera Seer
1 Darkblast
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Grisly Salvage
SORCERY (4)
4 Faithless Looting
ARTIFACT (2)
2 Blasting Station
ENCHANTMENT (4)
4 Bridge from Below
LAND (20)
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pack Rat
The deck is a blast to play: usually killing with a giant zombie army, but frequently just beating down with Bloodghasts and Gravecrawlers.
Some thoughts:
- Squee has had incredible synergy in the deck. He offsets the card disadvantage from Rotting Rats, Faithless Looting, and Pack Rat and pitches to Lotleth Troll turn after turn after turn.
- Rotting Rats has been ridiculously good, letting me discard Bridges that are stuck in my hand, and making it nearly impossible to be board wiped out of Gravecrawlers. I won a recent game fighting through five(!) sweepers, due to Rotting Rats.
- Viscera Seer is probably the best card in the deck. He lets you build a giant zombie army with Bridge, and makes the deck very consistent by recurring Bloodghasts and Gravecrawlers for scrying.
- Darkblast just straight up beats a lot of decks in the format, and dumps Looting, Gnaw, Gravecrawlers, Bloodghasts, Rotting Rats, and Bridges into the GY. It really does it all.
I'd love for folks to try it out and give feedback. There are so many lines that it's very hard but rewarding to play. I will say that it is a bit of a pain on MTGO, since you have so many triggers that you can't auto-yield to: Bloodghast and Squee in particular. Also having to scry the same card to the top a half dozen times can get a bit annoying.