Modern Musings: Dredge in 2022

Dredgerunners 2022: A Dread Return

After a small hiatus, we're back! I blinked, and Yorion was banned – which alters the metagame considerably. Perhaps Mill is back on the menu?

But back in reality, we have other lists to look at – and pulling one up from the bottom of the swamp, we have Dredge. No longer the Modern heavyweight, Dredge has fallen deep into the pit of viability; but the printing of Otherworldly Gaze has certainly helped to bring it to the forefront once more. Dredge has resilience, inevitability, and specifically annihilates Murktide Regent. Who cares about casting two spells per turn, when we barely cast spells at all?

Dredge

Caleb Gordon

Stinkweed Imp

Silversmote Ghoul

Prized Amalgam

Ox of Agonas

Narcomoeba

Merchant of the Vale

Golgari Thug

Thrilling Discovery

Otherworldly Gaze

Darkblast

Creeping Chill

Cathartic Reunion

Steam Vents

Scalding Tarn

Sacred Foundry

Gemstone Caverns

Bloodstained Mire

Blood Crypt

Arid Mesa

Grief

Portable Hole

Path to Exile

Nature's Claim

Leyline of the Void

Leyline of Sanctity

Isolate

Conflagrate

Ancient Grudge

Dredge is an easy deck to pilot, but a difficult deck to pilot well. Using a creature-based axis without casting many creatures means that we circumvent many of the possible manners to be shut down. Utilizing game actions (I.e. using our draw for turn to fill our board or move specific cards to hand) means that our opponents cannot always interact in a meaningful manner. Finally, recurring threats means that our opponents have to deal with our creatures permanently, with exile – otherwise, they can simply come back the next turn (and the next…)

This is a combo deck masquerading as an aggro deck. We're looking to put specific cards into specific zones, and then recur those threats consistently, until our opponent stops moving. It can be great fun, running circles around Ledger Shredders and counterspells and watching your opponent realize they should have countered a small spell way back on turn one. It's also quite difficult to interact with, as all of our effects function in the graveyard – and who runs Yixlid Jailer these days?

We're looking to cast a Cathartic Reunion, Thrilling Discovery, or other card that allows us to discard our dredgers, then replace our draws, spilling more of our deck into the graveyard. We want our Narcomoeba s to go directly into the graveyard, then trigger, causing them to be put into play. Prized Amalgams sees this, then follows half a turn later. Creeping Chill and Silversmote Ghoul are the other side of the combo, giving you a drain and a 3/1 to start bashing in with. Finally, we have Ox of Agonas to close out games and find those final Creeping Chills. 

Initially, this seems like a poor pair of combos – after all, who cares about a 3/3 and a 1/1? However, as one sees the deck play out, it quickly becomes obvious that it's not just two creatures: it's usually closer to 5 or six 3/3s, as we quickly run through the deck, and our opponent has usually lost life from a Creeping Chill or two. Suddenly, your opponent needs a board wipe, or they'll be forced out of the game quite quickly!

Of interest in the manabase is the four-of Gemstone Caverns. This deck doesn't need a lot of mana, but it wants multiple colours, and fast. Going second isn't as great an issue for Dredge, as we can never dredge on the first turn anyways. Being able to start with a land is even better, as a turn one Thrilling Discovery is almost always back-breaking to our opponents.

Sideboard

Obviously, we are extremely resilient unless our opponent brings in graveyard hate, which they will (and should) frequently do. Games two and three are entirely dependent upon how well you can mitigate the many different possibilities. As discussed earlier, we are a combo deck, and we need to protect that combo, sometimes before the first turn. Accordingly, we play Leylines to stop initial issues, and Grief can preempt problems as early as turn one. We also have Nature's Claim, Portable Hole, and a little-known card named Isolate to deal with most issues that we miss with our other defenses. This is where meta-knowledge comes in handy, as knowing exactly what graveyard hate your opponent utilises will give you an extreme edge in any matchup.

Dredge keeps taking down events and finding its way into the top-8 across the world. Most graveyard hate that people currently run are angled towards Murktide players, not Dredge, and that's a weakness worth exploiting.

This week's skill testing question is worth knowing in a competitive setting: If I have a Prized Amalgam in my graveyard, and a Narcomoeba is milled, then put into play, do I have to announce the Amalgam trigger? If so, when? When is this trigger officially “Missed”? Engage me @Melitius!