MTG Salvation

How do you guys usually sideboard vs Jund? Lately I've been bringing in 2x Collective Brutality, 1x Lightning Axe and 1x Abrupt Decay

2x Abrupt Decay, 2-3x Collective Brutality, 2x Gnaw to the Bone, 2x Lightning Axe seems like a fine place to start. If you're expecting to fight through leylines and/or cages also throw in 2x nature's claim and/or 2x ancient grudge (I usually sideboard the latter for affinity anyway but I got the impression from your post that people wouldn't play affinity in that meta)

Quote from Alpalbp »

EDIT: Another question I have is this: your hand is Looting, Reunion, Ghast, Amalgam, Troll, Gorge, Blood Crypt. You go turn one Looting in to two other lands. What do you discard? (This is a specific scenario, really wondering about any hand with Dredger, Ghast and Amalgam + Reunion and Looting) So far I have always discarded Amalgam since it is more power and I'd rather have that hit the table T2, whereas the Bloodghast will come in to play but won't trigger any Amalgams hit off of Reunion.

I'd discard the Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam, then untap and draw a card. Play a land so your Bloodghast triggers and sets up the delayed trigger for Prized Amalgam, then cast Reunion pitching the two best dredgers you have and dig as deep as possible. If you hit no Narcomoeba's, at least the Prized Amalgam you triggered earlier will cause any further Amalgams to return on your opponent's end step. You waste a draw step drawing a card instead of dredging but early in the game you want to be dredging into creatures you can recur, so if you have them in your hand you don't need to dredge as much to find them imo.

Hey does anyone have access to Ross Merriam's new article on SCG and can post his updated decklist? Thanks

Edit: went 3-1 with simian spirit guides last night

Round 1: 2-0 vs Naya Burn
SSGs were the defining factor of the match here, as both of my opening hands were sped up by one turn and that was what let me race burn effectively. My dredges were subpar but I got there in the end

Round 2: 2-0 vs Thing Ascension
Both games were pretty straightforward, just beat down with creatures and finish with conflagate. I boarded in abrupt decays and leyline of the voids but only saw the former (used it on an ascension then he dropped another next turn)

Round 3: 0-2 vs Elves
Game 1 I decided to try keeping the next-level greedy hand of SSG, Looting, Looting, Reunion, GGT, GGT, Stinkweed with the hopes that I draw one land in the next 3 cards and can go T1 Looting Looting, T2 Reunion and slam the door that way. Didn't end up seeing any lands so I basically just conceded. Game 2 was close but I still got overrun by his elves - this matchup is harder than it looks imo

Round 4: 2-1 vs Jund
Game 1 was pretty straightforward - kept double looting, a land and a dredger off a mull to 5 and did the usual thing. Boarded in 2 Nature's Claim, an Abrupt Decay and a Lightning Axe and kept a fine 7 with nature's claim but no dredger. Blew up his turn 1 leyline but eventually got junded out. Game 3 he mulls down to 3 in search of leyline, so I beat down with neonate until I can cast cathartic reunion to draw my nature's claim, then filled my graveyard extremely quickly and recurred 20 power all at once.

SSG seems powerful in this deck, just goldfished it a couple of times and it enabled some very strong starts. Removed 1x Mountain, 1x Copperline Gorge, 1x Haunted Dead and 1x Lightning Axe from my list on the last page, and will try it out at this week's weekly tournament

My mana base:

4x Copperline Gorge (best land to play on turns 1 through 3, can cast red enablers or loam with no pain. Def want 4)
7x fetches - 4x Bloodstained Mire and 3x Wooded Foothills
3x fetch targets - 2x Stomping Ground and 1x Blood Crypt (crypt is down to 1 of here because it's the least important colour in pre boarded games, and generally if I mill into it I can also just loam to get it back. Want to find something to cut for the 2nd crypt some time though)
2x Mountain (generally want to grab these off loam and I like having a 2nd basic for path to exile. I want all of my non Dakmor Salvage lands to tap for red as it's the most important colour for the deck, and including 1 forest to loam under blood moon isn't worth diluting the mana base imo)
2x Dakmor Salvage (self explanatory. I think 2 is the correct amount here and I usually go down to 1 post sideboard, 3 definitely feels like too many to me)
2x Mana Confluence (I like 2 of these for general colour fixing and also a way to cast blue creatures under leyline of the void)

Went 4-2 at a competitive event (Land Grab in Brisbane) today with Dredge. Lost to UWR Thing Ascension feat. Soulfire Grand Master 0-2, lost to the Dredge mirror match (lost the first game then went to time & drew the second game) 0-1-1, won against Jund 2-1, won against Jund 2-0, won against Elves 2-0 and won against Abzan 2-0. Decklist was pretty standard, I swapped the gargadons for leylines, phastasmagorian for haunted dead and shriekhorn for darkblast since last time I posted. Deck felt great all day - any hand that played a turn 2 reunion usually presented lethal by turn 4 so I think 4 of is mandatory for every build of dredge going forward. Also got the mythical win through turn 0 leyline by casting creatures on curve vs Abzan, Tom Ross style so I'm super stoked about that

Quote from stebolo93 »

hello! im new to dredge, where i can read about the T1 looting/neonate issue? with which of the two is better to start? thanks

It depends on what the rest of your hand looks like but I think it's generally accepted that T1 looting is the more consistently strong play

Vengeful Pharaoh is pretty ace vs bant eldrazi, if that deck is giving you trouble I highly recommend sideboarding 1

Thoughts on how to beat the Living End matchup if you don't sideboard Leyline of the Void?

Got a short tournament report for you guys. Went 4-0 at my LGS' Modern weekly tournament. My deck is a few cards off what I consider an optimal build (still need a 3rd loam but haven't picked it up yet) and I want to cut Shriekhorn asap. Here's what I played:



Worth noting that I'm keen to swap Phantasmagorian out for a Haunted Dead for the next time I play - it was a fine discard outlet in the Tormenting Voice / Shriekhorn version where I felt we were lacking ways to put cards into the graveyard, but I feel it's less relevant now.

Round 1: Eldrazi & Taxes (2-1)
In game 1 I kept a hand with 5 lands, Cathartic Reunion and Stinkweed Imp and overran him on turn 4 through his turn 1 relic. Game 2 he landed an early Auriok Champion after I sided in Lightning Axe and Darkblast and couldn't find a way to kill it. Eventually I made the mistake of dredging too deep trying to enough power to punch through his lifegain, but whenever I recur my creatures after they die in combat he just gains the life back that I just dealt to him. I manage to take him from 27 down to 12 with a few cards left in my library and some hard cast dredge creatures (I realise now my plan should have been grave-troll beats as soon as I had the lands to cast them) so I ended up drawing myself out. Game 3 was a typical one-sided stomp in my favour. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Conflagrate

Round 2: Abzan Company (2-0)
In both games my opponent kept hands comprised mostly of mana dorks, so after a T1 looting into T2 reunion into T3 boardwipe with conflagrate (taking out a wall of roots (prized amalgam combat damage) and 2x birds) my opponent conceded. I boarded in some more removal and had a Darkblast in my opener in game 2, and proceeded to kill each of his mana dorks as he played them while dredging slightly below the curve to keep him off his mana. Pretty easy victory here. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Phantasmagorian

Round 3: Bant Eldrazi (2-1)
In game one I made a huge mistake in keeping a weak hand when not wanting to mull further down. Honestly not sure why I kept it (Neonate, Stinkweed, 4x land) but I got punished for it super hard and proceeded to die to Eldrazi beats without accomplishing anything meaningful. Boarded in some extra removal and Abrupt Decays as a hedge against graveyard hate, then game 2 was a straightforward win off the back of turn 2 Reunion (this card is bananas btw). Also helped that I had Vengeful Pharaoh in my graveyard to keep him off the offence. Also brought in another Nature's Claim in game 3 as I expected my opponent to keep a weak hand if it had a piece of graveyard hate, then mulled to 6 and kept a fine hand with a neonate, some business and the 1 of Claim. Turn 1 he plays his Cage, then on my turn 1 I Claim it and pass the turn back. He casts Ancient Stirrings (I found out later his hand was land, Stirrings and Cage) and found a Reality Smasher, then proceeded to not do anything for the next few turns as I got my dredge engine online and overwhelmed him. He later played his Smasher on defence which was Conflagrated in short order, and the game was decided. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Vengeful Pharaoh, 1x Nature's Claim. Out: 1x Narcomoeba, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Dakmor Salvage and 1x Insolent Neonate

Round 4: Burn (2-0)
My opponent here wasn't familiar with dredge so I played it more slowly and pointed out what cards did in the graveyard so the board state and triggers were clear. Kept strong hands both games and Conflagrated him and his board in games 1 and 2 respectively for the win. Think I had turn 2 Reunion in both games (had 2 in my opener for game 2) so I think that was a big part of what gave the deck enough speed to race Burn effectively. Game 1 was very close though, with him passing the turn when I had lethal on board while I was at 2 life. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Gnaw to the Bone, 2x Collective Brutality. Out: 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Dakmor Salvage

Going forward I'm keen to replace the last Shriekhorn with a 3rd Life from the Loam and replace the Phantasmagorian with Haunted Dead. Also want to find some space in the sideboard for a second copy of Gnaw to the Bone but I'm not sure what to cut - Vengeful Pharaoh was a last minute addition whose slot was previously taken by the mainboard Lightning Axe, but given how well it interfered with my opponent's game plan in game 2 vs Bant Eldrazi I'm keen to hang onto it for the time being

Conflagrate has a CMC of XXR on the stack when you flash it back right? So if you discard any amount of cards to cast Conflagrate, it'll have a CMC of greater than 1 and won't be countered by Chalice set to 1. (e.g. if you discard 5 cards to flash it back the CMC will be 11)

Can you link to the feature match? I'm interested in seeing how it plays in its new iteration. Super sweet deck btw

So what lists are you guys going to be playing now that we have Cathartic Reunion? This is my starting point:

@ Rondiggity Noose Constrictor is necessary so we can discard haunted deads stuck in our hand to reanimate them for cheap. I don't think I'd ever cut them tbh

Also @ jar75, what would you replace the Filigree Familiar's with? Contingency Plan seems fine in this deck but we might also want Pilgrim's Eye to smooth our land drops (but eye also dies to liliana, so it's less useful as an emerge target)