Modern Dredge!

Hello Everybody!

So Modern has basically replaced Extended in every form except that Extended is still "technically" a format. However, Modern is being played at Worlds and Modern is replacing Extended as the PTQ format, so basically its the new big thing. Modern s basically intended to be like Legacy except without Dual Lands and Force of Will. However, a huge amount of Strategies are also nuked from Legacy, for example:

Show and Tell
Sneak Attack
Natural Order
Hymn to Tourach
Painted Stone
Aluren
Enchantress
Tendrils Storm

Also, in their banned list they try to attack a variety of archetypes, including one of my favorite Legacy decks: Dredge. However, with a strategy as degenerate as everything coming from the Graveyard for almost free, taking out 2 cards can't kill the deck by itself! David Ochoa got 4th place in the 2010 US Nationals with Dredge-uh-Vine, which is where i pulled inspiration for this deck.

So the first place to begin with a Modern Dredge deck is to compare it to its legacy counterpart. Some notable cards we lose are: Breakthrough, Ichorid, Careful Study, Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, and Cephalid Coliseum. After doing a search of flashback spells in Modern, the only ones I could see myself playing are Ancient Grudge, Unburial Rites, Gnaw to the Bone, Purify the Grave, and Dream Twist. None of these cards are really exciting reasons to be dredging ourselves too quickly. The only cards that we can put in our maindeck is Unburial Rites and Dream Twist.

So then we need a different reason to be dredging ourselves, and this is where we go back to Ochoa. He played Vengevine and Extractor Demon to recur from the Graveyard and bring fast beats. So instead of the Combo deck that we see in Legacy, it was a very efficiant beatdown deck. Because were dealing with modern, and not old standard, we have a wide variety of other options available to us, including Skaab Ruinator and Bloodghast (Ochoa had Bloodghast available to him, but didn't use it). I feel that is the direction that this deck will want to go in. In fact, even though Bridge from Below is legal, I don't think we will even want it! Here's a huge list of cards that I am thinking about using:

Enablers:
Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug

Dudes:
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Bloodghast
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Narcomeba
Tarmogoyf
Kessig Cagebreakers
Eternal Witness
Reya Dawnbreaker
Doomed Necromancer
Renegade Doppelganger

Value-town:
Visions of Beyond

The way it looks, everything I am interested in is in the BUG wedge, so that's where I will focus. The first thing I noticed when making this is that this is starting to look like a Zoo deck, and so everything should cost little. Kessig Cage Breakers, while it would probably attack for 50 in this deck, costs 5 mana when everything else costs 1 or 2. I think we have enough undercosted cards that we don't need Reya Dawnbreaker to Reanimate or Doomed Necromancer/Unburial Rites to do it. I do really like Avatar of Woe and Tombstalker though, and they both cost little enough to have them help recur Vengevine.

I think Bloodghast, while nice, is too small compared to the titans surrounding him to really make an impact in this deck. We have already determined we don't have much useful ways to sacrifice dudes, and so Bridge From Below is unnecessary, so Bloodghast just becomes the Goblin Piker that won't stop annoying you. This also makes the think about Narcomeba, a card that normally fits perfects naturally into Dredge decks as a cheap dude that can be utilized to.... well just be sacrificed.... and as I already stated, were not going that route.

And one last cut: Renegade Doppelganger. We want every card in our deck to be incredible on its own, and I don't really see much to be gained from him. Compare him to another 2 drop: Tarmogoyf, and you will see what I'm getting at.

So what does that leave us with?


Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Tarmogoyf
Eternal Witness
Visions of Beyond

Our deck curves out at 3, so I think just 22 lands should do us fine:

4x Vengevine
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Extractor Demon
4x Hedron Crab
4x Golgari Thug
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Tombstalker

4x Glimpse of the Unthinkable
3x Darkblast
3x Visions of Beyond

22x Land

Obviously I'm VERY tight for space here, but this is a rough draft of where this deck could go. I'm not going to get into the mana base right now, as I currently have over a dozen and a half lands pulled out that I may use including:

Zen Fetch Lands
Ravnica Shock Lands
Shadowmoore Filter Lands
M10/Inn Duals
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Darkslick Shores
Creeping Tar Pit
Nephalia Drownyard
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

So that very well could be a whole post by itself! Anyways, I have talked too much today, so I will hopefully return with a more refined decklist soon along with a full manabase! Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack