Played four rounds in a local tournament today. Went 2-2 so I did not do that great.
First round against Affinity 2-1
Lost the first round because she cast two Galvacic Blast to kill me.
Second and third game I went more into the controlling route with Darkblast and Abrupt Decay while in the meantime I was building up my board with creatures.
Second round against Burn 1-2
Lost the first round because of bad dredges, so nothing special.
Second round I won because of very good and fast dredges and just beat him down.
Third round was very very close. A RIP was cast and detroyed by my Malstrom Pulse a couple turns later. After that a Gnaw to the Bone showed up wich got cast and I gained 12 life BUT in the end I did not have enough to close them game
It was a very fun game so I was not devastated or anything.
Third round against some homebrew stuff with Tron lands 2-0
Won the first round because he mulled to 5 and did not find a third land.
Second round I won because he did not fin dhos creatures and I jsut beat him down again.
Fourth round against Death and Taxes 0-2
Held a greedy hand. Took the gamble but it did not work out. Was getting greedy because I mulled to 5.
He just beat me down with me not finding my second land.
Second round turn two RIP, did not find an answer and that was game.
I have to say the deck performed really good and I am happy with my main and sideboard.
I just love dredging and I will keep doing it. I am happy that graveyard hate went down at my local store because Death Shadow is not played that much anymore and I am the only regular Dredge player. Sometimes another guy with Dredge shows up but that is about it. THe meta is very wide and open so boarding to much grave hate is not optimal and that makes me pretty happy.
I just use a Ghost Quarter, not great but it is something, Lightning Axe and I try Maelstrom Pulse against them. It works but it is not the fastest card as we all know.
Thanks for the write up. I always love reading reports.
I am playing Modern Dredge for some time now and I absolutly love the deck, favorite deck I ever played.
I am also looking at getting the Legacy version so this is of great help to me.
I am getting a bit tired of Modern because it is the only format I ever played and I find the meta now just so stale and boring but that can always change.
The whole banhammer and negativity around Modern is also starting to push me away from it but luckily at my local store there is a very big Legacy group and they even host Legacy tournaments and FNM so I am set to go when I have the cards for it.
I see you are not running any Thoughtseize.
How is that working out for you because I am also looking at taking them out because I am using 3 Maelstrom Pulse as an answer to everything.
I am also loving your land base and sideboard but I think your sideboard will improve a lot if you take out Abrupt Decay for 3 Maelstrom Pulse. I can`t recommend that card enough. It is my favorite card and it is the one I bring in the most by far. In the matches that you are not sure on what to board in or what kind of hate they have it is always a good call to board in Maelstrom Pulse. It answers all the problems you can think of and even the problems you never thought of.
Thank you for saying that.
I've played with Thousghtseize in the past, and did not like it at all, mainly for 2 reasons:
Firstly, we're already a deck that mulligans aggressively. A decent hand needs a land, an enabler and a dredger. For Thoughtseize to be good, it basically has to be in our opening hand, since we need to resolve it on turn 1 on the play to deal with Grafdigger's Cage, or turn 1 on the draw and turn 2 on the play against Rest in Peace. That means we need to mulligan aggressively for another card, of which we probably just have 3. Using a hypergeometric distribution to model this, an opening hand of 7 cards has a ~63% chance of having at least one dredger, land that can produce red mana and an enabler (assuming 18 red sources (no GQ), 13 dredgers (counting Dakmor salvage) and 12 enablers). If you in addition need at least 1 Thoughtseize (of 3), that chance drops to ~20%, which is not even factoring in that you need black mana to cast the spell. The acute timing the card requires to be good reduces its effectiveness substantially. It is a similar situation to what we see when our opponents mulligan too aggressively for graveyard hate and the rest of their hand does nothing.
Secondly, our deck is already good at digging for reactive answers, since we run looters like Neonate, Looting and Reunion. This way, we can keep a regular, good dredge hand, and if our opponent slams hate, we use the enablers to dig for answers instead, or mana to cast those answers. We can use our deck's strength to our advantage, rather than amplifying one of its weaknesses.
In my opinion, Thoughtseize is better against big mana decks like Tron and Scapeshift, but as an anti-hate card it is not good at all.
I've been running Decay since Leyline of the Void has not been present in my meta, and I feel like Decay is better than Pulse in such a scenario, being 2 mana, instant speed and uncounterable. However, since I ran into Leyline twice at my last tournament, I have to reconsider that. It is good to hear that other people have had success with the card, and you describe precisely what I want: A ubiquitous answer that always does work. I'll still try Sultai Charm for a bit. It seems elegant, answering all hate cards and doubling as an enabler, all at instant speed. It may turn out to be a total bust, in which case I'll take your advice and go for 3 Maelstrom Pulse. Although 3 mana is a lot for an answer, I do feel like we want 3, just so we can better avoid games where we die while digging for a singleton answer.
I am allways wondering why Beast within is not named... Instant speed is a premium the pulse does not have, and the 3/3 is rarely a serious problem for us in the battlefield, while general sideboard against any hate as well as a "surprise i kill your death's shadow" is i think quite relevant. Opinions?
Thanks for the breakdown and your thoughts mate. I am also not a fan of THoughtseize for the same reasons but I had a hard time getting rid of them until now. Next week I am going to a tournament on Saturday and I will be using your sideboard and landbase because it looks very consistent.
About Pulse. I know 3 mana is a lot but the fact that it will and can take out everything, also Planeswalkers, is a big deal for me.
As an example I was playing against a friend of my who plays Abzan loaded with Goyfs and all the good stuff. He knew that I was boarding in Pulse and he was afraid to play his second Goyf on turn 3 only because I could have had Pulse in my hand. That saves me a lot of life and won me the game.
I even tested them against Affinity and taking out 2 Cranial Platings and with them all his win conditions was also a very big deal.
People think differently about cards ofcourse but I love the card and it gets boarded in in most of my games and it is my most played sideboard card.
Try it out and let me know how it goes
I see you are not running any Thoughtseize.
How is that working out for you because I am also looking at taking them out because I am using 3 Maelstrom Pulse as an answer to everything.
I am also loving your land base and sideboard but I think your sideboard will improve a lot if you take out Abrupt Decay for 3 Maelstrom Pulse. I can`t recommend that card enough. It is my favorite card and it is the one I bring in the most by far. In the matches that you are not sure on what to board in or what kind of hate they have it is always a good call to board in Maelstrom Pulse. It answers all the problems you can think of and even the problems you never thought of.
I think the more aggresive get in your opponents face is the way to go with Dredge.
Maybe it is just me but I always like to play aggresive and I do best when I am putting the pressure on.
Hey'all, I've been playing dredge for a month now.
How do you guys sideboard against Eldratron and titanshift?
Against eldratron I'm desperately using lots of sideboard, as they also do, and today I managed my first win against the demon:
out: 2 lightning axe, 2 abrupt decay, 1 maelstrom pulse, 2 ancient grudge
in: 1 dakmor salvage, 1 darkblast, 2 insolent neonate, 1 conflagrate, 1 narcomoeba, 1 golgari thug
Against titanshift I don't even know how to begin. Do you guys use ghost quarter/tectonic edge? Sheltered Thicket?
What is the general strategy here that I'm probably missing?
Seems you are baording in the right cards.
I also play one Ghost Quarter, card is really good against Eldrazi Tron
i am new to dredging, i have a question please. Vengeful Pharaoh what is this cards purpose? i understand what it does but surely a decent magic player would simply play around it? Im trying to put my sb together and see this card mentioned a lot but i just can't bring myself to add it, for it to have any effect I've already taken damage and that just seems a bit meh. Please enlighten me.
It also makes sure that people don`t want to attack you when it is in your graveyard.
For example: I played against my friend who had a Goyf out and I did not have much for blocking. He could have attacked me a couple times for free but he did not want to lose his Goyf because he had nothing else in hand to play with.
Also they don`t want to attack you on the backswing with one big creature when they don`t have to kill because they will lose it to the Pharao.
It looks like it won`t do much beside sit in the grave but that is exactly the spot he needs to be ofcourse as a scare tactic.
Thanks for the list.
I started playing with two Blood Crypts and got rid of all the Blackcleave Cliffs for the same reason you gave and it is working out pretty good.
Well, finally some time to post. I lost to storm, again on game 1. Had the haunted dead on the gave, sitting there, being useless like most of the games. It's quite irrelevant for most of the time. My oponent was letf at 5 life on my turn 4 just to go off in his turn 4.
The 3 wins came against interactive fair decks that we pray upong. WB Tokens, Abzan Traverse and Death Shadow. They brought the traditional hate, 2 relics 1 rip for the token match, Nihil Spellbomb for Abzan Traverse and Shadow matches. Was able to dodge it well. I tied the final round and went to top 8. The loss was a 0-2 against Krak Klan combo. Just horrible, like storm. The 2 times it was a 1 turn game to slow, both times missing the win for having the Haunted Dead instead of the Scourge Devil or Rally the Peasant. I think we need to go on the aggresive side, instead of the grindy side. The grinds, we win them anyway, but against uninteractive combos the extra damage is what wins us the game on those matches.
Maybe some Thoughtseize in the side will do some work for you.
My meta is a lot of Tron and deacks with a lot of creatures like Elves. Affinity also shows up from time to time and there is a Storm player doing some work lately but I keep holding him in check with Driven//Dispair.
First round against Affinity 2-1
Lost the first round because she cast two Galvacic Blast to kill me.
Second and third game I went more into the controlling route with Darkblast and Abrupt Decay while in the meantime I was building up my board with creatures.
Second round against Burn 1-2
Lost the first round because of bad dredges, so nothing special.
Second round I won because of very good and fast dredges and just beat him down.
Third round was very very close. A RIP was cast and detroyed by my Malstrom Pulse a couple turns later. After that a Gnaw to the Bone showed up wich got cast and I gained 12 life BUT in the end I did not have enough to close them game
It was a very fun game so I was not devastated or anything.
Third round against some homebrew stuff with Tron lands 2-0
Won the first round because he mulled to 5 and did not find a third land.
Second round I won because he did not fin dhos creatures and I jsut beat him down again.
Fourth round against Death and Taxes 0-2
Held a greedy hand. Took the gamble but it did not work out. Was getting greedy because I mulled to 5.
He just beat me down with me not finding my second land.
Second round turn two RIP, did not find an answer and that was game.
I have to say the deck performed really good and I am happy with my main and sideboard.
I just love dredging and I will keep doing it. I am happy that graveyard hate went down at my local store because Death Shadow is not played that much anymore and I am the only regular Dredge player. Sometimes another guy with Dredge shows up but that is about it. THe meta is very wide and open so boarding to much grave hate is not optimal and that makes me pretty happy.
I am playing Modern Dredge for some time now and I absolutly love the deck, favorite deck I ever played.
I am also looking at getting the Legacy version so this is of great help to me.
I am getting a bit tired of Modern because it is the only format I ever played and I find the meta now just so stale and boring but that can always change.
The whole banhammer and negativity around Modern is also starting to push me away from it but luckily at my local store there is a very big Legacy group and they even host Legacy tournaments and FNM so I am set to go when I have the cards for it.
Thank you for saying that.
I've played with Thousghtseize in the past, and did not like it at all, mainly for 2 reasons:
I've been running Decay since Leyline of the Void has not been present in my meta, and I feel like Decay is better than Pulse in such a scenario, being 2 mana, instant speed and uncounterable. However, since I ran into Leyline twice at my last tournament, I have to reconsider that. It is good to hear that other people have had success with the card, and you describe precisely what I want: A ubiquitous answer that always does work. I'll still try Sultai Charm for a bit. It seems elegant, answering all hate cards and doubling as an enabler, all at instant speed. It may turn out to be a total bust, in which case I'll take your advice and go for 3 Maelstrom Pulse. Although 3 mana is a lot for an answer, I do feel like we want 3, just so we can better avoid games where we die while digging for a singleton answer.
Thanks for the breakdown and your thoughts mate. I am also not a fan of THoughtseize for the same reasons but I had a hard time getting rid of them until now. Next week I am going to a tournament on Saturday and I will be using your sideboard and landbase because it looks very consistent.
About Pulse. I know 3 mana is a lot but the fact that it will and can take out everything, also Planeswalkers, is a big deal for me.
As an example I was playing against a friend of my who plays Abzan loaded with Goyfs and all the good stuff. He knew that I was boarding in Pulse and he was afraid to play his second Goyf on turn 3 only because I could have had Pulse in my hand. That saves me a lot of life and won me the game.
I even tested them against Affinity and taking out 2 Cranial Platings and with them all his win conditions was also a very big deal.
People think differently about cards ofcourse but I love the card and it gets boarded in in most of my games and it is my most played sideboard card.
Try it out and let me know how it goes
I see you are not running any Thoughtseize.
How is that working out for you because I am also looking at taking them out because I am using 3 Maelstrom Pulse as an answer to everything.
I am also loving your land base and sideboard but I think your sideboard will improve a lot if you take out Abrupt Decay for 3 Maelstrom Pulse. I can`t recommend that card enough. It is my favorite card and it is the one I bring in the most by far. In the matches that you are not sure on what to board in or what kind of hate they have it is always a good call to board in Maelstrom Pulse. It answers all the problems you can think of and even the problems you never thought of.
Not me but I am having a lot of succes with Scourge Devil and Driven//Despair mainboard.
I think the more aggresive get in your opponents face is the way to go with Dredge.
Maybe it is just me but I always like to play aggresive and I do best when I am putting the pressure on.
Seems you are baording in the right cards.
I also play one Ghost Quarter, card is really good against Eldrazi Tron
http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/133/527/636404124639076994.png
It also makes sure that people don`t want to attack you when it is in your graveyard.
For example: I played against my friend who had a Goyf out and I did not have much for blocking. He could have attacked me a couple times for free but he did not want to lose his Goyf because he had nothing else in hand to play with.
Also they don`t want to attack you on the backswing with one big creature when they don`t have to kill because they will lose it to the Pharao.
It looks like it won`t do much beside sit in the grave but that is exactly the spot he needs to be ofcourse as a scare tactic.
I started playing with two Blood Crypts and got rid of all the Blackcleave Cliffs for the same reason you gave and it is working out pretty good.
Maybe some Thoughtseize in the side will do some work for you.
My meta is a lot of Tron and deacks with a lot of creatures like Elves. Affinity also shows up from time to time and there is a Storm player doing some work lately but I keep holding him in check with Driven//Dispair.