Unlocking the Vault #8: Dredge Primer, Part 2

In the last UTV, the Dredge pilot’s pre-board strategy was discussed in detail. You can find it here if you missed it. In Part 1, the Dredge archetype was described in detail, but with regards to the pre-board match-up. Since Dredge is a deck that breaks just about every rule in Magic, most decks simply cannot match-up with Dredge without the help of cards practically dedicated to beating it and only it. There are two schools of thought when constructing your sideboard in Eternal formats like Classic: either you devote a significant chunk of your sideboard to beating Dredge, or you hope to avoid the deck in a tournament altogether. Most people in Classic will take the route of the former, as opposed to the latter (likely because of how small the tournaments are, as well as how many Dredge decks are being played). Consider that 99% of Classic DEs fire with the minimum of 16 players, if simply three players choose to play Dredge, it would comprise nearly 20% of the field!

With that having been said, Dredge pilots must assume that their opponents will be bringing in a handful of cards to counter their strategy. Pre-board, Dredge is built to take advantage of the fact that there are few cards that can be found in the top Classic decks that can interact with Dredge in Game 1. Thus, the deck is built to be as fast as possible with as much threat density as can be fit into the deck. To deal with the cards that an opponent will be boarding in, the Dredge pilot must also board in answers of their own.

But before I get into further detail regarding the sideboard, a dredge pilot must take a second to understand the cards that will be typically played against them in Games 2 and 3. Here are all the relevant Dredge hate cards:

Leyline of the Void
Tormods Crypt
Relic of Progenitus
Nihil Spellbomb
Ravenous Trap
Yixlid Jailer
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Bojuka Bog
Pithing Needle

Constructing a Dredge sideboard is not very complicated, but it does require a great deal of thought to anticipate properly what cards you will see. The cards above are a mix of enchantments, artifacts, and creatures as well as a single land. All work very well at what they do (removing cards from a graveyard), even though they differ in how they accomplish that goal. Because each is effective in shutting down Dredge, the Dredge sideboard must be prepared to stop all of the threats with enough flexibility to ensure they draw the cards necessary to do so. In this way, the Dredge sideboard is much like a transformational sideboard. If you aren’t bringing in 13-15 cards when you sideboard, you’re probably doing it wrong!

(Note: there is no real solution to Bojuka Bog. It cannot be countered aside from cards like Stifle, and its effect occurs when it enters the battlefield, so the damage has already been done. Luckily, it enters the battlefield tapped, and is nearly equal to missing a land drop. Since it only taps for black mana, many people choose not to use the Bog in Classic. It’s a much better option in Legacy where Knight of the Reliquary is an playable card and can fetch the Bog at instant speed without its pilot “missing” a land drop.)

Public Enemy #1

Leyline is simply the best anti-dredge card available and the most commonly-played as a result. The allure to the card is that it is able to come into play even if the Dredge player is on the play, thus keeping the key card, Bazaar of Baghdad, in check right away. If Leyline is in an opponent’s opening hand, there is nothing a Dredge player can do to stop it from entering play.

That’s not to say that there is nothing the Dredge player can do to deal with Leyline. The biggest drawback to Leyline is that it costs four mana, two of which are black. This makes it an enticing bounce target since most decks running the card will be unable to recast it quickly, if at all. Nonetheless, every Classic Dredge sideboard must have several answers to Leyline, as it is the Dredge Boogieman.

The Rest of the Dredge Hate

Yixlid Jailer comes in at a close second on the list of cards that Dredge fears the most. The Jailer turns off dredging, Bloodghast and Ichorid recursions, flashback for Cabal Therapy, and token generation from Bridge from Below. Basically, it stops Dredge cold in its tracks. Additionally, it is a win condition, as well, since it is a creature and has a power of 2. Luckily, it can’t be played for free like Leyline, so there is opportunity to prevent it from hitting play, such as using a timely Cabal Therapy. Jailer is not seen nearly as much as Leyline quite simply because decks need to be running black mana to cast it.

Artifact hate spells have the added bonus of being able to be utilized in every deck. They are far more common than Jailer as a result, even if their power level is significantly lower. The artifacts, specifically Tormods Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Nihil Spellbomb all require their user to time them perfectly. This can and often will lead to play mistakes from inexperienced players, which can be exploited by a seasoned Dredge pilot. I’ll elaborate on this later.

Ravenous Trap is aptly named. When playing in paper, there are many tells that a Dredge player can detect that might indicate their opponent is playing the Trap. Some of these tells include continuously sifting through your graveyard, fidgeting or shuffling cards in their hand when no on board actions are available, etc. Sadly, none of these can be detected as readily in the MTGO client. Thus, the only way to know if someone is playing with Traps is to fall into one or scout previous matches and hope that they played another Dredge deck before you. You can also proactively cast a Cabal Therapy or Gitaxian Probe to try and peek into their hand to see if they have it, though it’s entirely possible for them to draw it in the next turn or two and still surprise you.

Fighting Through Hate without Using the Sideboard

I mentioned earlier how seasoned Dredge pilots can exploit poor decisions by inexperienced players (or perhaps players who are at least inexperienced playing against Dredge). When facing an opponent with a Crypt or a Relic in play, you can try to goad your opponent into using their hate too early. Slowly Dredging to the tune of saving your Golgari Grave-Trolls and using Stinkweed Imps and other lower value Dredgers can cause your opponent to panic as your graveyard slowly builds up. Sometimes simply recurring an Ichorid or a Bloodghast a couple of times can be enough to convince your opponent to crack their artifact hate, which you can then try to capitalize on by dumping the good cards into your graveyard and Dredging aggressively.

Additionally, Cabal Therapy is your best main deck solution to stopping hate cards not named Leyline of the Void. Once you know which hate cards your opponent is running, you can try to strip them from your opponent’s hand before they hit the battlefield. Since this requires some knowledge of their sideboard plans, it’s likely only an option for Game 3. The beauty of Therapy is that it will punish a player that uses multiples of the same hate card (which is why it’s best to vary your sideboard threats against Dredge!). There is no greater feeling for a Dredge player to cast Therapy and rip two of your opponents hate cards from their hand, safely eliminating something along the lines of 30-50% of their solutions.

Fighting Through Hate with Sideboard Answers

In Part 1, the importance of rainbow lands (Undiscovered Paradise, City of Brass, and Gemstone Mine) was stressed when compiling a mana base for Dredge. Specifically, they are the lands that allow Dredge to play solutions for opponents’ Dredge hate. As you’ll note below, the best sideboard cards for Dredge vary across all five colors. The rainbow lands are the only means that Dredge can have access to each color. Additionally, it eliminates the rare cases that you run into land-walking creatures or land-specific hate, such as Choke and Sundering Titan.

Also of note, since Dredge packs very few mana producing lands (usually no more than ten), the answer cards should not cost more than 2 mana and preferably only 1 mana. I’m going to refer to this as the “1 mana cost test”. It leaves Dredge open to a game altering Chalice of the Void and other sphere effects, but only one deck plays those cards (even if it’s one of the most popular decks in Classic).

Enchantment Removal

There are many ways to deal with enchantments for Dredge. The best card for the task is Nature’s Claim. Claim is probably the best removal card Dredge has access to due to its flexibility, while its drawback is quite minimal since the goal is to win with a large army of zombies in the red zone rather quickly. With regard to enchantments though, Claim can hit some of the best cards, most notably: Leyline and Wheel of Sun and Moon. Since these two enchantments are particularly troublesome, running fewer than four copies of Claim in your 75 is not advisable.

Other enchantment removal spells include Wispmare and Emerald Charm. Charm is particularly interesting in that all three modes are useful to Dredge in some capacity. Wispmare is a good option if you suspect playing against a lot of Shop decks or other decks packing Thorn of Amethyst or Glowrider. Wispmare also triggers Bridge tokens when it goes to the graveyard, and in a pinch could be a Dread Return target when the going gets particularly tough.

Artifact Removal

Among options for artifact removal, perhaps the best option is Ancient Grudge, since it’s still valuable when dredged into the graveyard. It’s not a particularly strong play for destroying Crypt, Relic, or Spellbomb, but it is quite good at keeping other problematic artifacts off the battlefield such as Time Vault, spheres, Crucible of Worlds, and Lodestone Golems. Ancient Grudge also can help solve an otherwise game breaking Chalice of the Void set at one counter.

Similar to Wispmare, Ingot Chewer offers the same effect for artifacts. As a sorcery-speed effect, it isn’t a great option for stopping the Crypts, Relic, and Spellbombs, but it can be used to great effect to generate value in making your opponent break the artifact sooner than they would like.

Pithing Needle is an option against Crypt, Relic, and Spellbomb. It requires either some lucky guesswork, or knowing which, if any, your opponent is using. Needle does provide some additional flexibility in shutting off a host of other cards in the format, but for the most part they won’t be protecting Dredge, rather they will be used to slow your opponent for a turn or two. Worst-case scenario, you can use it to name a fetch land or something similar.

Along the lines of Needle, Leyline of Sanctity is also a possibility against Crypt, Trap, and Spellbomb. Unfortunately, it is not a good option against Relic since it does not target.

Creature Removal

Because Yixlid Jailer exists, it is necessary to include some cards capable of destroying creatures. Luckily, Darkblast also can be dredged (although for a rather modest dredge number), so it can pull double duty. Conveniently, it can kill a Jailer, and several other common Classic creatures such as Dark Confidant, etc. Darkblast also passes the 1 mana cost test. Another problematic creature is Goblin Welder, which can chain recursive Crypts, etc. from their graveyard.

Contagion is a seldom-used option for Dredge in Classic. It is a powerful effect, as it comes from the same cycle as Force of Will, meaning it can be cast for “free” and can hit the same target twice to kill any pesky two toughness creatures. Since it creates a rather large differential in card advantage and cannot be recurred through a dredge, it’s not a popular sideboard choice, not to mention the low number of Jailers running around in today’s meta.

When Firestorm was printed all the way back in Weatherlight, there were very few scenarios where the card would have much value. With the advent of dredge, though, Firestorm became a great alternative to Bazaar by allowing the Dredge pilot to dump nearly their entire hand into their graveyard if desired. Even if the spell is countered, the cards are still discarded since it’s part of the casting cost.

Multi-purpose Removal

This category of removal is very flexible and often best in Game 2 when you do not know which, if any, graveyard hate cards your opponent will be bringing in. It’s advisable to have access to some of these options in your sideboard to deal with any problematic cards that may come up.

Bounce spells are an excellent choice as a sideboard option in Dredge. Their utility in being able to hit nearly every permanent can be quite valuable. Chain of Vapor is the single best bounce spell available, especially because it passes the 1 mana cost test. Against Leyline, it is nearly a 1 mana Vindicate, as most decks will be unable to cast the Leyline, or at least won’t be able to for a turn or two (hopefully enough to establish a board presence and deal with it again later. Against Wheel of Sun and Moon, it offers a similar effect, though decks that pack it will likely be able to recast it the following turn. This should, again, buy some time to establish a board presence. When Chain is used against the artifact hate, it presents the opponent with a choice: use it this turn, or risk the Dredge pilot going off this turn. Thus it’s best to use it when it appears there is a window to combo off the turn you cast it, or would like to goad the opponent into blowing up the artifact too early.

Another bounce spell that can be quite valuable is Echoing Truth. It does not pass the 1 mana cost test, but it does have the ability to deal with a nearly lethal double Leyline draw from an opponent. Getting up to 2 mana can be difficult in many games; thus the Dredge pilot must be willing to accept the risk/reward that this card can offer.

In Part 1, Force of Will was mentioned as the “Great White Hope” for Dredge pilots to help prevent the various broken plays (especially Storm) in Classic. Force can also be used to counter a hate card from being played, even when you are on the draw and especially as protection from Ravenous Trap.

Of note, Dredge does have an option in the mirror match, which is to counter with their own Leyline. Leyline can also stop any other decks that will utilize the graveyard such as Hermit Druid and Yawgmoth’s Will. Leyline will help prevent your Bridge from Belows from being exiled from the graveyard since it prevents you opponents creatures from hitting their graveyard. Most Dredge decks that are looking for this type of effect will want this in the maindeck, but it’s worth noting here for possible Dredge-heavy metagames.

Which Cards Do You Side Out?

With a (nearly) transformational sideboard, Dredge pilots have yet another difficult choice in determining which cards to take out of their deck post-board. Many people will take out the entire Dread Return package, or simply leave a singleton Return to target a Golgari Grave-Troll, which is a reasonable target in its own right. Any additional acceleration (Lion’s Eye Diamond, Fatestitcher, etc.) would also be a good choice to take out.

Perhaps a better way to look at this difficult task is to decide which cards are sacred enough to be immune from siding out. That short list would include Cabal Therapy, Bridge from Below, and the two best dredgers: Grave-Troll and Stinkweed Imp.

Another option is to dilute some of the other cards, such as taking out one Narcomeoba, or a Bloodghast or Ichorid or two. Adding up all those options should yield the 13-15 cards you are looking to take out. The key is to keep consistency and increase the answers to opponents’ graveyard hate.

Chicken, or the Egg?

Quite possibly the most difficult decision for Dredge pilots in Games 2 and 3 is when evaluating whether to mulligan or not. Whereas the mulligan strategy in Game 1 is quite simple (find Bazaar at all costs), sideboard games are much more difficult. The age-old question is this: do I keep a hand with Bazaar and no hate cards, or do I keep a hand full of hate, but not Bazaar?

Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer. It is a matter of feel, and often based on your matchup and the build of your Dredge deck. Of course, the ultimate goal is to sculpt a hand that includes a Bazaar, a mana source, a dredger, and one or two hate/solution cards. As you can imagine, that is not often a realistic possibility. The best way to evaluate a post-sideboard hand is to think rationally and analytically:

What type of deck is my opponent playing? Is it often faster than my deck? Can my hand possibly out-race them? Do you suspect that your opponent is playing with Leyline, Wheel, or Jailer?

Those are all questions a Dredge player should be asking themselves. In the end, you will need a hand that provides some sort of game plan. Even if you go the route of keeping a hand with a Bazaar, it is possible to use Bazaar to not only fill up your graveyard, but also to find answers. Bazaar is not considered one of the best draw outlets ever printed without good reason! It is also within the realm of possibility to get around a Turn 0 Leyline with only a Bazaar and digging for the answer you need. You can view the 2011 Vintage Championship match for a great example.

Wrap-up

That wraps up this two-part look into Classic Dredge. Dredge is a powerful Classic deck that is a near-direct port to its Vintage counterpart. Being able to break all the traditional rules of the game of Magic make the deck very difficult to beat in Game 1.

It should be noted that the best way to get better with Dredge is to practice, practice, practice. It’s a tired cliche, but it’s more true for Dredge than perhaps any other Classic deck because of the subtle decisions post-sideboard.

Unfortunately, the Tournament Practice room is not the best place to test Dredge decks. Due to the lack of any incentive to keep playing in the TP room, it’s not uncommon to find that people will simply concede once they realize they are playing a Dredge deck (with the argument being that it’s not fun to play against). Therefore the best way to practice is to find a playtest partner and have them choose a deck the maindeck of which is stacked to beat Dredge, much like a post-sideboard game. Anyone can play Dredge in Game 1, which is much like playing a game of solitaire, so practicing your post-board matchup as much as possible will help you increase your skill in piloting Dredge.

I’m looking to branch out from the series of Primers in future articles. I’ll certainly being writing more primers in the future, but let me know what types of articles would be of interest to you. I have some ideas, but perhaps there is something that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of. Please share your thoughts in the comment section!

enderfall
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