I am relatively new to this deck, only having played 50 matches or so prior to this tournament. My boarding was probably not ideal (read: it was really bad) because I was making it up as I went, but I managed to have some success with the deck anyways. The above list is what I played during the classic, during the side events the Worship was a second Disdainful Stroke.
Modern Challenge:
ROUND 1: BTL Scapeshift
Not sure how this matchup typically goes, it seems like it should be favored for Scapeshift, especially with maindeck wraths.
Game 1: I keep a sketchy hand with Temple, Cavern, TKS and Smasher, but no colored sources for my Stirrings or Path. I rip a Temple so I get off to a very good start. TKS shows some ramp spells, Remand, and a Bring to Light. I take the BTL, my opponent shocks to leave up Remand, and I Cavern into Smasher and beat face.
IN: 2 Negate, 2 Disdainful Stroke
OUT: 4 Drowner (Path and EE are pretty bad, but can be used to push damage through a Steve or Snapcaster, Drowner is dead for the most part)
Game 2: I keep an average hand with a dork and a couple three drops, I die to Scapeshift on turn 4. Not much to say.
Game 3: Opponents mulligans to 6, and a T3 TKS reveals they have a Scapeshift, a BTL, a Snapcaster, Khalni Expedition, but just the two lands they have in play. I take the Khalni Heart Expedition and hope they miss on lands. I start to get beats in with TKS, and Path a Snapcaster to push through damage since I drew a Disdainful Stroke for the first Scapeshift. He goes for BTL on 7 lands and I stroke it, but he still has the Scapeshift. I draw into Stirrings which hits Displacer, so I am able to blink my TKS on his draw step and take the Scapeshift and I kill him on my next turn.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Eldrazi Tron.
I think Bant is definitely favored in this matchup. We have Drowner and Displacer which are very good here.
Game 1: Curve out perfectly, Displacer into TKS, Smasher, then Drowner, it’s not close.
IN: 3 Stony, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (I could see bringing in Negate, but between Stony and Stroke I can deal with everything that I would want to Negate, and you don’t want to dilute your deck too much in the midrange matchups.
OUT: 2 EE, 1 Bird, 2 TKS, 1 Smasher (EE is dead, Bird is bad against Ballista and a bad topdeck, TKS is a bad topdeck, and I shaved a Smasher since they don’t run much removal and they can reasonably block it.
Game 2: I had dork into Skyspawner then Smasher and Stony. He traded his Smasher for mine, Dismembered the second one I drew, and dropped an Ugin. I was dead on board to Ugin and some dudes, but I topdecked my last Smasher which combined with a Path and my Skyspawner was enough to kill him.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Infect
Close matchup if we draw our relevant cards, Path, EE and Displacer are awesome, but it’s pretty easy to just get run over by a Blighted Agent.
Game 1: I blow up an Elf and a Hierarch with EE, but get run over by a Blighted Agent after he draws a Spellskite to negate my Displacer.
IN: 2 Blessed Alliance, 2 Negate (Pretty self-explanatory)
OUT: 4 Smasher (Their creatures suck, you can use whatever random dudes on board to pressure them)
Game 2: I keep a 1 lander with 2 dorks, a Path, a Blessed Alliance, an Ewit and a Negate. I path his Elf, but I’m stuck on 2 lands, 2 dorks and no Eldrazis, and I feign mana screw with the ol’ “put your hand on the table, put your head in your hands and look frustrated” bluff. Somehow he falls for it and plays 2 pump spells on his Blighted Agent right into my Blessed Alliance. I Negate his Wild Defiance, and the Inkmoth he has left over isn’t enough to race.
Game 3: I keep a sketchy hand of Dork, Temple, 2 Skyspawners and lands, but my opponent seems to be very happy about his mull to six so I assume he has me on turn 3. Luckily I draw a Blessed Alliance and leave up Dork + Scion to be able to cast it without telegraphing it. My opponent could have attacked with his Spellskite to get around Alliance, but he goes all in again with Distortion Strike, MooK, and a Mutagenic Growth. I blow him out of the water, he goes on full tilt, and from there the game is mine.
(3-0)
ROUND 4: Mirror
We prize-split but play it out for funsies.
Game 1: I curve out nicely again with T2 Skyspawner into T3 Smasher and T4 Smasher, and then finish things off with a Drowner to tap his team.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (Disdainful Stroke is risky because of Cavern, but it can nab an Eldrazi if they aren’t paying attention, and I needed an answer to a Worship)
OUT: 2 EE, 1 TKS (This boarding I am almost certain is wrong, shaving TKS is fine I think, but having EE for board stalls and Scion races is good and I want to keep at least 1)
Game 2: We go super long cause we both stick a Displacer and Drowner. Luckily have 2 more blinks per turn than him since I am majorly flooded, I am able to tap his Smashers and net a couple of Scions a turn. Neither of us draw a mirror-breaker (Elspeth, Worship) and eventually I have 22 more Scions than he has blockers, and he is at 17.
(4-0)
Modern On-Demand:
ROUND 1: Mirror
Game 1: He drops a T3 Worship that I can’t beat. Tried to mill him with TKS but couldn’t keep up with his Drowner and Displacer. Apparently he forgot to unsideboard but it helped him out there. It is worth noting that one of my outs was Birds + EE on 4, but I didn’t see that until we went to sideboarding.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Negate, 1 Elspeth (I saw 2 Worships game 1 so Negates came in here as well)
OUT: 1 EE, 2 TKS, 1 Cavern of Souls, 1 Noble Hierarch (I’d been flooding a lot, so I tried cutting a land. I do advocate for shaving TKS in grindy matchups)
Game 2: He mulligans, I aggressively Negate a T2 Stirrings because he doesn’t have a dork or Temple, and it pays off as he misses land drops and I kill him.
Game 3: It’s another one of the Drowner + Displacer games. I have 2 extra blinks and eventually I am able to attack through his board for the kill.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Abzan
This matchup should be pretty good for me, Liliana is easily their best card against us.
Game 1: the game goes super long but for once I don’t have 10+ mana. He has 12 Souls tokens, 2 massive Goyfs and a Scooze, to my Drowner, Displacer and Smashers. He finds a removal spell for my Displacer so I am left with my board of Drowner, Scions and Smashers. He must not have done combat math, because he swings with 8 spirits, leaving him with exactly enough creatures for me to tap down and kill him through.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Celestial Purge, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Elspeth (Pretty self-explanatory boarding, Rest in Peace is awesome in the matchup because he showed my Flayers as well)
OUT: 4 TKS, 1 Bird, 1 Cavern
Game 2: He lands turn 2 Lilly and has Souls that I can’t get through before the ultimate. There’s a damnation somewhere in there and I am on 3 lands and nothing while I die.
Game 3: T2 Skyspawner, T3 Smasher, Rest in Peace and then Drowner is plenty to get the job done. He has Goyfs which would’ve been able to wall my Smasher but RiP keeps them down.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Abzan
It’s worth noting that in this 8-man, there were 2 Bant players, 4 Abzan players, 1 Jund player, and 1 Jund Death’s Shadow player who was in my car.
Draw
(2-0-1)
Modern Classic:
ROUND 1: Storm (?)
This should be a tough matchup but my opponent was obviously inexperienced.
Game 1: I play some Eldrazi and he panics and starts to Storm off on turn 3. I was about to scoop but Storm can fizzle when going off so early so I decide to wait. He Grapeshots me for 7 and passes. I play a TKS and beat his face in with Skyspawners till he dies.
IN: 2 Cage, 3 RIP, 2 Negate, 1 Stroke (Assuming he is on Gifts Storm because I saw Baral, I wanted to be able to counter Gifts and deal with PiF)
OUT: 4 Drowner, 2 Displacer, 2 Smasher (I feel similarly to Infect, although I would definitely leave in Smashers to race in retrospect)
Game 2: He leads on T1 Delver into T2 Swiftspear and I have no idea what the **** is going on. He gets me down to 5 with a second Swiftspear but he has to start chumping a double exalted TKS. I eventually get there, but my opponent had me dead past turn 4 because he had a PiF in his yard with 2 Bolts and some rituals.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Mirror
Again…ughhh
Game 1: T2 TKS and curve out perfectly into Smasher and Drowner.
IN: 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 1 Elspeth
OUT: 1 EE, 1 Bird, 1 TKS
Game 2: I keep a sketchy hand hoping to get there on the back of my Worship. I get in with Exalted Skyspawner beats and am able to finish things up with a timely Smasher.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Elves
This is a really tough matchup for us, unless we draw EE.
Game 1: He mulligans, but gets some beat going with his dorks. I manage to stabilize by Pathing an Archdruid and Displacing his dudes, and then my own Drowner. Skyspawner beats get there.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 2 Cage (Worship is really medium here, they have Rec Sages and Shamans but it is a great way to stabilize)
OUT: 2 TKS, 1 Smasher, 1 Drowner, 2 Displacer
Game 2: He mulligans again, I land a T2 TKS taking a CoCo. He has no gas and we trade hits. When I hit him for the third time with my exalted TKS I say “go to five?” He has himself going to six, because off the first hit he claimed I missed the exalted trigger. I’m pretty sure I didn’t and I won the judge call and the appeal. I have Worship and 2 Explosives in hand anyway so I wasn’t super worried, I got there in the next couple turns.
(3-0)
ROUND 3: Affinity
I can’t catch a break, this is another tough matchup.
Game 1: He plays a bunch of zero drops into Master of Etherium on turn 2. I fall behind and can’t catch up.
IN: 3 Stony, 1 Worship (these cards are good against Affinity)
OUT: 4 TKS (they empty their hand really fast)
Game 2: I take a bunch of hits off Skirges and Pests, I am nearly able to stabilize with a Drowner, but I miscounted the amount of Artifact
On the contrary, I have been super impressed with RiP against Abzan. It does help with Lingering Souls and it shuts off Goyf, Flayer and Scooze which is worth it to me. I have a mediocre tourney report from SCG Worcester where I had a solid run over the weekend, I'll post it in a minute.
I think Celestial Purge is much better than Natural State right now for dealing with Blood Moon. You should be playing 3 Stonies for Affinity, Lantern, and Tron anyways, and Purge also hits Death's Shadows and Liliana which are super relevant right now.
Well, if Goyf is typically between a 3/4 and a 5/6 in this deck, Mandrils is like an average of Goyf sizes that always dodges Bolt and Decay and has half a TBR built in. I think both are very good, but I like having at least a couple Mandrils in the side. I think Goyf is more maindeckable, however. I think I'll end up with 1 Goyf main with 1 Goyf and 2 Mandrils side.
Going into the tournament I was unsure of whether I wanted to play Dredge, Infect or Abzan. I talked through all of my options in the car and decided on Dredge since I feel like it is more resilient to variance than Infect (it mulligans much better and beats typical interactive decks whereas Infect has trouble) and in this format I definitely want to be the one asking the questions rather than trying to have all the answers. Looking over the metagame it was definitely a good choice, I saw a lot of Jund and Bant Eldrazi (this is considered a close matchup, I feel comfortable calling it 60-40 for Dredge), and few bad matchups for the deck other than a few Affinity lists and one of my buddies on Lantern. I saw some other Dredge, hence the 4 Leylines in the board, and the rest of the sideboard was a hedge against potential hate/decks I wanted help against. If you have questions about card choices, sideboarding or whatever, please ask! It benefits all of us! Anyways, here is my list:
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Scourge Devil
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Conflagrate
4 Faithless Looting
3 Life from the Loam
1 OTHER SPELLS
1 Shriekhorn
SIDEBOARD
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Collective Brutality
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Lightning Axe
3 Nature's Claim
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
ROUND 1 (Lantern):
I knew what I was up against, my opponent was one of my buddies whom I mentioned earlier. I think this matchup is in Lantern’s favor 55-45 because it’s hard to beat a Bridge, and they pack maindeck surgical, but Dredge can definitely race that.
Game 1 – I’m on the play and lead on Neonate, he leads on Lantern and gets to Surgical my Trolls when I go to sac Neonate on the end of his second main. He gets my Stinkies with a second Surgical and lands Bridge, I am able to get something going with Loams and I Conflagrate him down to 5, but he buys back Surgical with a Shredder for my Loams and I can’t fill my hand enough for the third Conflagrate before he nabs that too with another bought-back Surgical.
IN: 2 Grudge, 3 Claim
OUT: 1 Scourge Devil, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Loam, 1 Dakmor Salvage, 1 Stinky (NOTE: I normally never take out the 8 main Dredgers, but because he was aggressively Surgical-ing my Dredgers rather than creatures I shaved a Stinky when I would normally take out a Bloodghast or Amalgam)
Game 2 – I get off to a very good start with the triple 1-mana-enabler nut draw ripping Reunion off the top. I put 9 power into play on T2 and while he is able to drop a Bridge I nab it with a Grudge that I milled.
Game 3 – He mulls, but leads on T1 Lantern, Tormod’s Crypt (NOTE: I don’t like 1-shot grave hate against Dredge. It is relatively easy to play around for an experienced player and easier to recover from than a Leyline or RiP). I T1 Neonate dredge Troll into the face of the Crypt and he doesn’t pop it, but has a Cage as well. On my turn I Dredge again and have the Claim for the Cage. I play a land to trigger my Bloodghasts which forces him to sac Crypt. Luckily I planned for this and fetch to trigger my Bloodghasts a second time before my graveyard gets exiled. I get back some Ghasts and start beating down and he gets stuck on colored sources with only an Inventor’s Fair and Academy Ruins in play while he had 2 Stirrings and a Bridge in hand.
1-0
ROUND 2 (Monoblack Midrange?)
This guy sat at my table round one and beat Dredge, and I saw he was packing the old “4 Leyline - 4 Cage **** Dredge” sideboard plan, so I did not have high hopes going in to this round.
Game 1 – I have a good start with Neonate into Reunion and do Dredge stuff. Kill him really quick with some dorks and a Scourge Devil.
IN: 3 Claim, 1 Lightning Axe, 1 Vengeful Pharoah (I wanted a clean answer to Obliterator)
OUT: 1 Neonate, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dakmor Salvage, 1 Conflagrate, 1 Scourge Devil (His creatures all had 3+ toughness so was not a fan of Conflagrate here, was bringing in a 1 mana enabler in Lightning Axe so a Neonate could go).
Game 2 – He has double Leyline plus Cage into Vampire Nighthawk and Obliterator which is a little much for my 1 Nature’s Claim.
OUT: 1 Loam, 1 Reunion
IN: 2 Ancient Grudge (I may have been overboarding here, but I felt like if I could answer his hate I couldn’t lose so I thought it was justified.
Game 3: He has Leyline but had to mull aggressively for it. I find a Claim off my T1 Looting and get started with the Dredging. He gets stuck on 2 lands with no interaction and my dorks get there.
2-0
ROUND 3 (Bant Eldrazi):
Game 1: I have a T1 Looting into T2 Looting which is a lot of Dredging. He has a Displacer on T2 which is no match for my dorks. I unearth my Scourge Devil and hit him for exactsies.
Game 2: I have a sketchy keep with 5 enablers, 2 lands, and no Dredgers. I looting T1 and hit only a Bloodghast. He T2 Thought-Knots me and takes Conflagrate, but luckily I rip GGT off the top and get to work, Dredging 18 and putting upwards of 10 power into play. He plays a Skyspawner and passes, and I put him to 4 because he chooses not to block. I was wondering why until he untapped and slammed Worship. I untapped and counted my library seeing I was sort of low on cards, but I had only seen 1 Conflagrate. I was 1 short of Loaming + Conflagrate his board for the kill, so I took a normal draw knowing I was drawing to the 1 Claim left in my deck. I put him to 1 with Bloodghasts and pass. He plays Displacer into Skyspawner and now there’s no way I can Conflagrate him out, but being the fantastic magic player I am I rip my 1-of Claim off the top and put everything sideways.
3-0
ROUND 4 (UR Prowess/TiTi/Delver)
I am 2nd seed and can easily draw twice into top 8, but one of my buddies wanted to play his match with the other 3-0 and my opponent didn’t feel comfortable drawing in, so I had to play it out.
Game 1: My deck was firing on all cylinders. I get off a couple of enablers and Dredge a bunch, putting a ton of power into play on T2 then Conflagrating his board on T3. He lands a Thing in the Ice but I reload my hand with Loam to kill it and then kill him.
OUT: 2 Reunion, 1 Neonate, 1 Loam (I wasn’t sure what sort of countermagic he was packing so I decided to cut reunion since it is pretty bad against Remands and the like)
Game 2: He has a good start with Swiftspear into Surgical, but I rebuild quickly with a flashback Looting and am able to Conflagrate his guys and chump Stormchaser Mages with Narcomoebas while getting in there with Bloodghasts, I get him with the Scourge Devil in the end.
4-0
ROUND 5 (Jund):
This was going to be an easy matchup for me but my opponent was one of my buddies from back home and we wanted to go eat so we just drew in, putting me at first seed going into top 8.
4-0-1
ROUND 1 TOP 8 (UR Prowess/Delver/TiTi Same guy as round 6):
My opponent was super nice, he just squeaked into top 8 with absurd breakers since his losses were to both the #1 and #2 seed.
Game 1: Same thing as before, I get a fine start and get him with some good beats. Nothing exciting.
IN/OUT: Same as before
Game 2: I mull to 5 and keep a sketchy hand with Conflagrate as my only enabler. He goes T1 Swiftspear into T2 TiTi Surgical Conflagrate. I can’t get myself off the ground in time to race the TiTi and he gets it.
Game 3: Another mull to 5, this time my only enabler is Reunion, and his T1 Delver flips. For the first time all day I completely whiff on reunion, no Bloodghasts, Amalgams, or Narcomoebas, he has the T2 TiTi again and while I almost assemble enough power to race Delver + Snap/Bolts, the Thing flips and I get my face bashed in.
Turns out TiTi is really good against me, it makes me want to swap the 2nd Brutality in the board for another Lightning Axe for problematic creatures like TiTi and Scooze.
Overall the deck felt great. I was super disappointed losing in the first round of top 8 to what I thought was a good matchup for me, but I think I played very well all day and made very few mistakes. I really liked how I was able to navigate all sorts of hate, I think anyone can pick up Dredge and do well, but those extra few percentage points come from practice in adverse situations. As far as bannings for Dredge go, I could definitely see one, the deck can pull off some busted plays. However, it is pretty easy to hate out if you are willing to dedicate the slots in your sideboard. I like to compare it to Affinity in that respect, and I hope rather than banning the deck the meta can adapt to it.
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask if you have any questions/comments/concerns, I am happy to discuss this and spread the knowledge!
I don't understand why Brutality isn't a 3 or 4 of. Wins against Burn and Infect, has application against uninteractive combo like Ad Nauseum, and is an anti-hate card, while also a discard outlet.
Hey everyone, I am playing in an IQ this weekend and I think I am going to go with Dredge. I've heard the store I will be playing at has quite a few less-competent players and a softer meta. Keeping this in mind, what kind of sideboard should I bring not knowing what decks I am looking to beat?
I've been playing Kent Ketter's list, and the manabase has been unbelievably smooth. I found I had to aggressively fetch/shock to a Stomping Ground and sometimes a Blood Crypt with Haunted Dead in the deck in order to have all my colors. With the rainbow manabase I am averaging 0 damage from my lands in hands where I don't have Confluence, and 3 damage (same as fetch/shock really) in hands with it.
I don't have any Tron and few Angers in my meta so playing around sweepers isn't a huge concern. I run into a lot of Burn and Zoo variants so taking so little damage has been great.
EDIT: I reread Lantern's comment, I think Gemstone Mine is much better than City. You ideally kepp at least 2 land hands, and playing it as your second land is perfect because it lets you curve out from T2 Reunion, T3 Looting, into T4 Loam saccing Mine and getting it back, playing an untapped fastland and lighting their board up with Conflagrate. In this deck 95% of the time Gemstone Mine is just a painless rainbow land which is ideal.
I'm going to try with the mutagenic growth, but with the IoK if you encounter with as a UW you can discard its Mana Leak.
Shouldn't the GB Infect comments be on another thread?
Not hating on anybody in particular, but it isn't quite the same deck and doesn't have the numbers to justify being discussed here in the Tier 1 forum. It also just kind-of detracts from meaningful conversation about UG builds. It feels very wrong to see the latest discussion of arguably the best thread for the arguably the best deck in Modern is about builds that don't run Blighted Agent and Mutagenic Growth..
I agree.
That being said, I am new to piloting the deck and will be at Gp Dallas this weekend. Can anybody please shed some light on game play and sideboard choices (good vs bad matchups?). So far I've been stone dead to sun and moon if they can turn 2 chalice of the void and turn 3 blood moon. For this reason I've thought of adding an island and playing 4x misty rainforest. As well as going up to 4x spell pierce in SB. What do you veterans think? Also Kitchen finks or pulse of murasa. And is dredge a bad matchup for us? Is grafdigger's cage a 3 of or 2 of in the sideboard? What do we do about blessed alliance? spellskite main deck? Rancor or distortion strike? 1 or 2 pendel haven? Dryad arbor SB or MD? 2 or 3 dismembers? cut apostle's blessing entirely? 3 or 4 blossoming defense?Any discussion would be helpful thank you.
One more vote for removing GB Infect discussion.
- Island is bad, this is a Green deck for the most part. If you have a problem with Moons and Chalices play Wild Defiance or the option below.
- 4 Spell Pierce is a meta call. I think the card is good and if you think you need 4 I am not opposed to it.
- I like Finks because it is a resilient body against Jund/Grixis (against Jeskai you don't board it into Path) in addition to hosing Burn and Zoo.
- I'd go 2 Cage. It's also good against Chord and CoCo, but those decks are not prevalent right now and we should be favored against Dredge with Agent and D Strike.
- I don't play Skite main because it doesn't quite plag into our main gameplan, it is protection but then again it is a 2 drop so I don't play it. It is an allstar as a 2 of in the board however.
- Distortion Strike is a fantastic card. At least 2 in the main.
- 2 Pendelhaven, card is great. 2 has just always been the standard number.
- I've moved Arbor to the board, but I'm not sure on this. The card can be awesome or really bad, and I just don't want to risk drawing it game 1.
- I'm playing 2 Dismembers right now. 3 seems like a lot but again, if you feel you need it then go for it. In my meta at least I'm moving both to the side since it isn't relevant.
- I cut Apostle's Blessing altogether. I'm a huge fan of Distortion Strike, and by playing that and Blossoming Defense we don't need Blessing. I was never a big fan of the card, just a worse Vines. The only thing it has going for it is being cast off of Inkmoth, but Defense is miles,better in my opinion.
- 4 Blossoming Defense. I think this card is nearly as good if not better in some cases then Vines. I recently switched from 3 to 4 and I don't plan on going back.
Kent Ketter's list had the 1 Brutality main with 3 Conflagrate and 3 Loam. I'm hesitant because it's a dead card if milled and it's a two drop that's not as good as Reunion in a lot of game 1s. Worth a test I guess though.
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.
I am relatively new to this deck, only having played 50 matches or so prior to this tournament. My boarding was probably not ideal (read: it was really bad) because I was making it up as I went, but I managed to have some success with the deck anyways. The above list is what I played during the classic, during the side events the Worship was a second Disdainful Stroke.
Modern Challenge:
ROUND 1: BTL Scapeshift
Not sure how this matchup typically goes, it seems like it should be favored for Scapeshift, especially with maindeck wraths.
Game 1: I keep a sketchy hand with Temple, Cavern, TKS and Smasher, but no colored sources for my Stirrings or Path. I rip a Temple so I get off to a very good start. TKS shows some ramp spells, Remand, and a Bring to Light. I take the BTL, my opponent shocks to leave up Remand, and I Cavern into Smasher and beat face.
IN: 2 Negate, 2 Disdainful Stroke
OUT: 4 Drowner (Path and EE are pretty bad, but can be used to push damage through a Steve or Snapcaster, Drowner is dead for the most part)
Game 2: I keep an average hand with a dork and a couple three drops, I die to Scapeshift on turn 4. Not much to say.
Game 3: Opponents mulligans to 6, and a T3 TKS reveals they have a Scapeshift, a BTL, a Snapcaster, Khalni Expedition, but just the two lands they have in play. I take the Khalni Heart Expedition and hope they miss on lands. I start to get beats in with TKS, and Path a Snapcaster to push through damage since I drew a Disdainful Stroke for the first Scapeshift. He goes for BTL on 7 lands and I stroke it, but he still has the Scapeshift. I draw into Stirrings which hits Displacer, so I am able to blink my TKS on his draw step and take the Scapeshift and I kill him on my next turn.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Eldrazi Tron.
I think Bant is definitely favored in this matchup. We have Drowner and Displacer which are very good here.
Game 1: Curve out perfectly, Displacer into TKS, Smasher, then Drowner, it’s not close.
IN: 3 Stony, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (I could see bringing in Negate, but between Stony and Stroke I can deal with everything that I would want to Negate, and you don’t want to dilute your deck too much in the midrange matchups.
OUT: 2 EE, 1 Bird, 2 TKS, 1 Smasher (EE is dead, Bird is bad against Ballista and a bad topdeck, TKS is a bad topdeck, and I shaved a Smasher since they don’t run much removal and they can reasonably block it.
Game 2: I had dork into Skyspawner then Smasher and Stony. He traded his Smasher for mine, Dismembered the second one I drew, and dropped an Ugin. I was dead on board to Ugin and some dudes, but I topdecked my last Smasher which combined with a Path and my Skyspawner was enough to kill him.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Infect
Close matchup if we draw our relevant cards, Path, EE and Displacer are awesome, but it’s pretty easy to just get run over by a Blighted Agent.
Game 1: I blow up an Elf and a Hierarch with EE, but get run over by a Blighted Agent after he draws a Spellskite to negate my Displacer.
IN: 2 Blessed Alliance, 2 Negate (Pretty self-explanatory)
OUT: 4 Smasher (Their creatures suck, you can use whatever random dudes on board to pressure them)
Game 2: I keep a 1 lander with 2 dorks, a Path, a Blessed Alliance, an Ewit and a Negate. I path his Elf, but I’m stuck on 2 lands, 2 dorks and no Eldrazis, and I feign mana screw with the ol’ “put your hand on the table, put your head in your hands and look frustrated” bluff. Somehow he falls for it and plays 2 pump spells on his Blighted Agent right into my Blessed Alliance. I Negate his Wild Defiance, and the Inkmoth he has left over isn’t enough to race.
Game 3: I keep a sketchy hand of Dork, Temple, 2 Skyspawners and lands, but my opponent seems to be very happy about his mull to six so I assume he has me on turn 3. Luckily I draw a Blessed Alliance and leave up Dork + Scion to be able to cast it without telegraphing it. My opponent could have attacked with his Spellskite to get around Alliance, but he goes all in again with Distortion Strike, MooK, and a Mutagenic Growth. I blow him out of the water, he goes on full tilt, and from there the game is mine.
(3-0)
ROUND 4: Mirror
We prize-split but play it out for funsies.
Game 1: I curve out nicely again with T2 Skyspawner into T3 Smasher and T4 Smasher, and then finish things off with a Drowner to tap his team.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (Disdainful Stroke is risky because of Cavern, but it can nab an Eldrazi if they aren’t paying attention, and I needed an answer to a Worship)
OUT: 2 EE, 1 TKS (This boarding I am almost certain is wrong, shaving TKS is fine I think, but having EE for board stalls and Scion races is good and I want to keep at least 1)
Game 2: We go super long cause we both stick a Displacer and Drowner. Luckily have 2 more blinks per turn than him since I am majorly flooded, I am able to tap his Smashers and net a couple of Scions a turn. Neither of us draw a mirror-breaker (Elspeth, Worship) and eventually I have 22 more Scions than he has blockers, and he is at 17.
(4-0)
Modern On-Demand:
ROUND 1: Mirror
Game 1: He drops a T3 Worship that I can’t beat. Tried to mill him with TKS but couldn’t keep up with his Drowner and Displacer. Apparently he forgot to unsideboard but it helped him out there. It is worth noting that one of my outs was Birds + EE on 4, but I didn’t see that until we went to sideboarding.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Negate, 1 Elspeth (I saw 2 Worships game 1 so Negates came in here as well)
OUT: 1 EE, 2 TKS, 1 Cavern of Souls, 1 Noble Hierarch (I’d been flooding a lot, so I tried cutting a land. I do advocate for shaving TKS in grindy matchups)
Game 2: He mulligans, I aggressively Negate a T2 Stirrings because he doesn’t have a dork or Temple, and it pays off as he misses land drops and I kill him.
Game 3: It’s another one of the Drowner + Displacer games. I have 2 extra blinks and eventually I am able to attack through his board for the kill.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Abzan
This matchup should be pretty good for me, Liliana is easily their best card against us.
Game 1: the game goes super long but for once I don’t have 10+ mana. He has 12 Souls tokens, 2 massive Goyfs and a Scooze, to my Drowner, Displacer and Smashers. He finds a removal spell for my Displacer so I am left with my board of Drowner, Scions and Smashers. He must not have done combat math, because he swings with 8 spirits, leaving him with exactly enough creatures for me to tap down and kill him through.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Celestial Purge, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Elspeth (Pretty self-explanatory boarding, Rest in Peace is awesome in the matchup because he showed my Flayers as well)
OUT: 4 TKS, 1 Bird, 1 Cavern
Game 2: He lands turn 2 Lilly and has Souls that I can’t get through before the ultimate. There’s a damnation somewhere in there and I am on 3 lands and nothing while I die.
Game 3: T2 Skyspawner, T3 Smasher, Rest in Peace and then Drowner is plenty to get the job done. He has Goyfs which would’ve been able to wall my Smasher but RiP keeps them down.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Abzan
It’s worth noting that in this 8-man, there were 2 Bant players, 4 Abzan players, 1 Jund player, and 1 Jund Death’s Shadow player who was in my car.
Draw
(2-0-1)
Modern Classic:
ROUND 1: Storm (?)
This should be a tough matchup but my opponent was obviously inexperienced.
Game 1: I play some Eldrazi and he panics and starts to Storm off on turn 3. I was about to scoop but Storm can fizzle when going off so early so I decide to wait. He Grapeshots me for 7 and passes. I play a TKS and beat his face in with Skyspawners till he dies.
IN: 2 Cage, 3 RIP, 2 Negate, 1 Stroke (Assuming he is on Gifts Storm because I saw Baral, I wanted to be able to counter Gifts and deal with PiF)
OUT: 4 Drowner, 2 Displacer, 2 Smasher (I feel similarly to Infect, although I would definitely leave in Smashers to race in retrospect)
Game 2: He leads on T1 Delver into T2 Swiftspear and I have no idea what the **** is going on. He gets me down to 5 with a second Swiftspear but he has to start chumping a double exalted TKS. I eventually get there, but my opponent had me dead past turn 4 because he had a PiF in his yard with 2 Bolts and some rituals.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Mirror
Again…ughhh
Game 1: T2 TKS and curve out perfectly into Smasher and Drowner.
IN: 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 1 Elspeth
OUT: 1 EE, 1 Bird, 1 TKS
Game 2: I keep a sketchy hand hoping to get there on the back of my Worship. I get in with Exalted Skyspawner beats and am able to finish things up with a timely Smasher.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Elves
This is a really tough matchup for us, unless we draw EE.
Game 1: He mulligans, but gets some beat going with his dorks. I manage to stabilize by Pathing an Archdruid and Displacing his dudes, and then my own Drowner. Skyspawner beats get there.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 2 Cage (Worship is really medium here, they have Rec Sages and Shamans but it is a great way to stabilize)
OUT: 2 TKS, 1 Smasher, 1 Drowner, 2 Displacer
Game 2: He mulligans again, I land a T2 TKS taking a CoCo. He has no gas and we trade hits. When I hit him for the third time with my exalted TKS I say “go to five?” He has himself going to six, because off the first hit he claimed I missed the exalted trigger. I’m pretty sure I didn’t and I won the judge call and the appeal. I have Worship and 2 Explosives in hand anyway so I wasn’t super worried, I got there in the next couple turns.
(3-0)
ROUND 3: Affinity
I can’t catch a break, this is another tough matchup.
Game 1: He plays a bunch of zero drops into Master of Etherium on turn 2. I fall behind and can’t catch up.
IN: 3 Stony, 1 Worship (these cards are good against Affinity)
OUT: 4 TKS (they empty their hand really fast)
Game 2: I take a bunch of hits off Skirges and Pests, I am nearly able to stabilize with a Drowner, but I miscounted the amount of Artifact
Modern IQ Dredge Tournament Report
Going into the tournament I was unsure of whether I wanted to play Dredge, Infect or Abzan. I talked through all of my options in the car and decided on Dredge since I feel like it is more resilient to variance than Infect (it mulligans much better and beats typical interactive decks whereas Infect has trouble) and in this format I definitely want to be the one asking the questions rather than trying to have all the answers. Looking over the metagame it was definitely a good choice, I saw a lot of Jund and Bant Eldrazi (this is considered a close matchup, I feel comfortable calling it 60-40 for Dredge), and few bad matchups for the deck other than a few Affinity lists and one of my buddies on Lantern. I saw some other Dredge, hence the 4 Leylines in the board, and the rest of the sideboard was a hedge against potential hate/decks I wanted help against. If you have questions about card choices, sideboarding or whatever, please ask! It benefits all of us! Anyways, here is my list:
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Scourge Devil
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Conflagrate
4 Faithless Looting
3 Life from the Loam
1 OTHER SPELLS
1 Shriekhorn
SIDEBOARD
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Collective Brutality
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Lightning Axe
3 Nature's Claim
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
ROUND 1 (Lantern):
I knew what I was up against, my opponent was one of my buddies whom I mentioned earlier. I think this matchup is in Lantern’s favor 55-45 because it’s hard to beat a Bridge, and they pack maindeck surgical, but Dredge can definitely race that.
Game 1 – I’m on the play and lead on Neonate, he leads on Lantern and gets to Surgical my Trolls when I go to sac Neonate on the end of his second main. He gets my Stinkies with a second Surgical and lands Bridge, I am able to get something going with Loams and I Conflagrate him down to 5, but he buys back Surgical with a Shredder for my Loams and I can’t fill my hand enough for the third Conflagrate before he nabs that too with another bought-back Surgical.
IN: 2 Grudge, 3 Claim
OUT: 1 Scourge Devil, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Loam, 1 Dakmor Salvage, 1 Stinky (NOTE: I normally never take out the 8 main Dredgers, but because he was aggressively Surgical-ing my Dredgers rather than creatures I shaved a Stinky when I would normally take out a Bloodghast or Amalgam)
Game 2 – I get off to a very good start with the triple 1-mana-enabler nut draw ripping Reunion off the top. I put 9 power into play on T2 and while he is able to drop a Bridge I nab it with a Grudge that I milled.
Game 3 – He mulls, but leads on T1 Lantern, Tormod’s Crypt (NOTE: I don’t like 1-shot grave hate against Dredge. It is relatively easy to play around for an experienced player and easier to recover from than a Leyline or RiP). I T1 Neonate dredge Troll into the face of the Crypt and he doesn’t pop it, but has a Cage as well. On my turn I Dredge again and have the Claim for the Cage. I play a land to trigger my Bloodghasts which forces him to sac Crypt. Luckily I planned for this and fetch to trigger my Bloodghasts a second time before my graveyard gets exiled. I get back some Ghasts and start beating down and he gets stuck on colored sources with only an Inventor’s Fair and Academy Ruins in play while he had 2 Stirrings and a Bridge in hand.
1-0
ROUND 2 (Monoblack Midrange?)
This guy sat at my table round one and beat Dredge, and I saw he was packing the old “4 Leyline - 4 Cage **** Dredge” sideboard plan, so I did not have high hopes going in to this round.
Game 1 – I have a good start with Neonate into Reunion and do Dredge stuff. Kill him really quick with some dorks and a Scourge Devil.
IN: 3 Claim, 1 Lightning Axe, 1 Vengeful Pharoah (I wanted a clean answer to Obliterator)
OUT: 1 Neonate, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dakmor Salvage, 1 Conflagrate, 1 Scourge Devil (His creatures all had 3+ toughness so was not a fan of Conflagrate here, was bringing in a 1 mana enabler in Lightning Axe so a Neonate could go).
Game 2 – He has double Leyline plus Cage into Vampire Nighthawk and Obliterator which is a little much for my 1 Nature’s Claim.
OUT: 1 Loam, 1 Reunion
IN: 2 Ancient Grudge (I may have been overboarding here, but I felt like if I could answer his hate I couldn’t lose so I thought it was justified.
Game 3: He has Leyline but had to mull aggressively for it. I find a Claim off my T1 Looting and get started with the Dredging. He gets stuck on 2 lands with no interaction and my dorks get there.
2-0
ROUND 3 (Bant Eldrazi):
Game 1: I have a T1 Looting into T2 Looting which is a lot of Dredging. He has a Displacer on T2 which is no match for my dorks. I unearth my Scourge Devil and hit him for exactsies.
IN: 1 Vengeful Pharoah, 1 Lightning Axe, 3 Nature’s Claim
OUT: 1 Neonate, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Scourge Devil, 1 Dakmor Salvage
Game 2: I have a sketchy keep with 5 enablers, 2 lands, and no Dredgers. I looting T1 and hit only a Bloodghast. He T2 Thought-Knots me and takes Conflagrate, but luckily I rip GGT off the top and get to work, Dredging 18 and putting upwards of 10 power into play. He plays a Skyspawner and passes, and I put him to 4 because he chooses not to block. I was wondering why until he untapped and slammed Worship. I untapped and counted my library seeing I was sort of low on cards, but I had only seen 1 Conflagrate. I was 1 short of Loaming + Conflagrate his board for the kill, so I took a normal draw knowing I was drawing to the 1 Claim left in my deck. I put him to 1 with Bloodghasts and pass. He plays Displacer into Skyspawner and now there’s no way I can Conflagrate him out, but being the fantastic magic player I am I rip my 1-of Claim off the top and put everything sideways.
3-0
ROUND 4 (UR Prowess/TiTi/Delver)
I am 2nd seed and can easily draw twice into top 8, but one of my buddies wanted to play his match with the other 3-0 and my opponent didn’t feel comfortable drawing in, so I had to play it out.
Game 1: My deck was firing on all cylinders. I get off a couple of enablers and Dredge a bunch, putting a ton of power into play on T2 then Conflagrating his board on T3. He lands a Thing in the Ice but I reload my hand with Loam to kill it and then kill him.
IN: 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Lightning Axe, 1 Vengeful Pharoah
OUT: 2 Reunion, 1 Neonate, 1 Loam (I wasn’t sure what sort of countermagic he was packing so I decided to cut reunion since it is pretty bad against Remands and the like)
Game 2: He has a good start with Swiftspear into Surgical, but I rebuild quickly with a flashback Looting and am able to Conflagrate his guys and chump Stormchaser Mages with Narcomoebas while getting in there with Bloodghasts, I get him with the Scourge Devil in the end.
4-0
ROUND 5 (Jund):
This was going to be an easy matchup for me but my opponent was one of my buddies from back home and we wanted to go eat so we just drew in, putting me at first seed going into top 8.
4-0-1
ROUND 1 TOP 8 (UR Prowess/Delver/TiTi Same guy as round 6):
My opponent was super nice, he just squeaked into top 8 with absurd breakers since his losses were to both the #1 and #2 seed.
Game 1: Same thing as before, I get a fine start and get him with some good beats. Nothing exciting.
IN/OUT: Same as before
Game 2: I mull to 5 and keep a sketchy hand with Conflagrate as my only enabler. He goes T1 Swiftspear into T2 TiTi Surgical Conflagrate. I can’t get myself off the ground in time to race the TiTi and he gets it.
Game 3: Another mull to 5, this time my only enabler is Reunion, and his T1 Delver flips. For the first time all day I completely whiff on reunion, no Bloodghasts, Amalgams, or Narcomoebas, he has the T2 TiTi again and while I almost assemble enough power to race Delver + Snap/Bolts, the Thing flips and I get my face bashed in.
Turns out TiTi is really good against me, it makes me want to swap the 2nd Brutality in the board for another Lightning Axe for problematic creatures like TiTi and Scooze.
Overall the deck felt great. I was super disappointed losing in the first round of top 8 to what I thought was a good matchup for me, but I think I played very well all day and made very few mistakes. I really liked how I was able to navigate all sorts of hate, I think anyone can pick up Dredge and do well, but those extra few percentage points come from practice in adverse situations. As far as bannings for Dredge go, I could definitely see one, the deck can pull off some busted plays. However, it is pretty easy to hate out if you are willing to dedicate the slots in your sideboard. I like to compare it to Affinity in that respect, and I hope rather than banning the deck the meta can adapt to it.
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask if you have any questions/comments/concerns, I am happy to discuss this and spread the knowledge!
4 Leyline
1 Pharoah
3 Claim
2 Grudge
1 Darkblast
2 Axe
1 Brutality
1 Gnaw
Will probably post a write-up later.
4 Claim
2 Grudg
1 Darkblast
2 Axe
3 Brutality
2 Gnaw
1 Pharoah
I am expecting a lot of Burn hence the double Gnaw/Brutalities.
I don't have any Tron and few Angers in my meta so playing around sweepers isn't a huge concern. I run into a lot of Burn and Zoo variants so taking so little damage has been great.
EDIT: I reread Lantern's comment, I think Gemstone Mine is much better than City. You ideally kepp at least 2 land hands, and playing it as your second land is perfect because it lets you curve out from T2 Reunion, T3 Looting, into T4 Loam saccing Mine and getting it back, playing an untapped fastland and lighting their board up with Conflagrate. In this deck 95% of the time Gemstone Mine is just a painless rainbow land which is ideal.
One more vote for removing GB Infect discussion.
- Island is bad, this is a Green deck for the most part. If you have a problem with Moons and Chalices play Wild Defiance or the option below.
- 4 Spell Pierce is a meta call. I think the card is good and if you think you need 4 I am not opposed to it.
- I like Finks because it is a resilient body against Jund/Grixis (against Jeskai you don't board it into Path) in addition to hosing Burn and Zoo.
- I'd go 2 Cage. It's also good against Chord and CoCo, but those decks are not prevalent right now and we should be favored against Dredge with Agent and D Strike.
- I don't play Skite main because it doesn't quite plag into our main gameplan, it is protection but then again it is a 2 drop so I don't play it. It is an allstar as a 2 of in the board however.
- Distortion Strike is a fantastic card. At least 2 in the main.
- 2 Pendelhaven, card is great. 2 has just always been the standard number.
- I've moved Arbor to the board, but I'm not sure on this. The card can be awesome or really bad, and I just don't want to risk drawing it game 1.
- I'm playing 2 Dismembers right now. 3 seems like a lot but again, if you feel you need it then go for it. In my meta at least I'm moving both to the side since it isn't relevant.
- I cut Apostle's Blessing altogether. I'm a huge fan of Distortion Strike, and by playing that and Blossoming Defense we don't need Blessing. I was never a big fan of the card, just a worse Vines. The only thing it has going for it is being cast off of Inkmoth, but Defense is miles,better in my opinion.
- 4 Blossoming Defense. I think this card is nearly as good if not better in some cases then Vines. I recently switched from 3 to 4 and I don't plan on going back.
Also, Golgari Charm is showing up in SBs. Seems good.
What about the same situation minus Reunion?