Modern Dredge is back!

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Seth Manfield is the best Magic player in the world.

Typing that sentence is weird to me because I've known Seth for almost a decade. Back when he beat Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa in the finals of Grand Prix Daytona Beach in 2007, many saw it as a fluke. Who was this young kid beating one of Magic's all-time greats? Well, that young kid just added a fourth Grand Prix title to his mantle with a win at Grand Prix New York, and he did it as he always does — to the beat of his own drum.

One thing I've always respected about Seth is that he has strong, well-informed opinions that he has no problem defending. At Grand Prix New York, Seth could have played any of the decks that did well at Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad. Heck, he could have played the Esper Control deck he made the Top 8 of that Pro Tour with! But what did he do instead? Play a W/B Control deck of his own design that he built at 1:00 a.m. Friday morning without consultation, preparation, or practice. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut, and Seth's gut has been very trustworthy over the past decade.

Normally this is the spot where I would transition into talking about how there's an SCG Tour event taking place this weekend (there is in Indianapolis), the format of the event (Modern), and the team bringing you the event (myself, Patrick Sullivan, Nick Miller, and the rest of the @SCGLive crew). And trust me when I say that I'm very excited to head to Indianapolis and team up with PSulli for another weekend of Magic coverage. But instead, I'm going to bring your attention to a number: 82.1%. That's Seth Manfield's win rate in his last four professional events.

Something special is happening in Magic right now. Don't let it pass you by.

Cedric Phillips, Media Manager @CedricAPhillips

 

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If I told you someone came within a match of a Grand Prix Top 8 with The Great Aurora in their deck, who would you guess it was? Sam Black, right? Well, you'd be correct! But how did this brew come to be? And is it good? Sam is here to explain why it's not just a one-hit wonder.

 

Dreams Come True In New York *4th*

I like to refer to Michael Majors as The Next Big Thing, but if he keeps winning at this rate, I'm going to have to find a new nickname for him. GP New York marked Majors' third GP Top 8, but more importantly, locked him for Platinum. And to think he almost hung his wand up a year ago!

 

15-1

The reigning Player of the Year is at it again! If you've kept up with Mike Sigrist, you know he's rather fond of G/W Tokens, and at GP New York he put his money where his mouth was and 15-0'd the Swiss. But after his dominant performance, does Siggy believe G/W Tokens is still the deck to beat?

 

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What I'd Play At The Open Series

With a format as large as Modern, it's very easy for players to embrace one deck they will play in every event. There are a ton of different archetypes, and knowing your deck inside and out will often be your best avenue to getting a competitive edge. That said, it's important to pay attention to the new cards entering Modern, which was strongly evidenced by the utter domination of Eldrazi up until the banning of Eye of Ugin. Abzan Company is being lauded as the best deck in Modern, but Shadows over Innistrad has provided the tools for Dredge to become a serious contender in the format.

I've been tinkering with Dredge on Magic Online all week, and after trying a lot of different things I've found what I believe to be a very explosive and consistent build. If you're looking for something spicy and unexpected to for #SCGINDY this one is worth a look.

Dredge by Ryan Overturf

Maindeck

4 Hedron Crab
4 Gravecrawler
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Bloodghast
1 Rotting Rats
1 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Vengevine
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Faithless Looting
4 Gather the Pack
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground

 

 

1 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Mountain

Sideboard

2 Darkblast
2 Thoughtseize
2 Lightning Axe
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Conflagrate
3 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Spellskite

 

Hedron Crab, Faithless Looting, and Golgari Grave‑Troll are old news with regard to enablers, though the updates featured in this list are what I believe transform Dredge from an obscure archetype to a serious tournament consideration.

 

Prized Amalgam card preview

 

The most obvious update is Prized Amalgam. I'm sure that many players had the idea to pair Prized Amalgam with Bloodghast as soon as they saw the card, and this interaction has proven to be very powerful. It's also worth noting that recurring Prized Amalgam with Bloodghast also gives you a zombie on the battlefield to start casting Gravecrawler from your graveyard, which helps trigger Vengevine. That chain is just as obscene as it sounds.

 

Insolent Neonate card preview

 

Insolent Neonate looks like an innocent card, though it's deceptively powerful. It doesn't pack quite the same punch as, say, Ideas Unbound, but there are subtle ways in which it is better. Only costing one mana and being a creature to help recur Vengevine are two major points in favor of Neonate. Where Insolent Neonate really shines is when you have a Golgari Grave‑Troll or a Vengevine in your hand. The way Insolent Neonate is worded enables you to discard Grave‑Troll to activate the ability to draw a card, and since you now have a Grave‑Troll in your graveyard, you're able to dredge it right back instead of waiting to replace a different draw. With regard to Vengevine, you can cast the Neonate as your first creature for the turn, use it to discard Vengevine from your hand, and then cast a second creature to recur that Vengevine.

 

Gather the Pack card preview

 

Gather the Pack isn't out of Shadows over Innistrad, though it's a card that to my knowledge hasn't yet made it in Modern. I've seen Dredge lists that feature Tome Scour, and while Gather the Pack costs twice as much mana it does a lot more for the deck. Being able to trigger Vengevine is huge, and a self-mill effect that can find one or both creatures to do so is extremely powerful. One thing to remember when casting Gather the Pack is that you don't have to take anything, and sometimes you'll just want to put all five cards into your graveyard. Having a Bloodghast in your hand is often worse than having it in your graveyard.

I've put in a good number of games with this build in recent days, and initial testing is very promising. Fair decks like Jund realistically don't stand a chance, and you are generally just too fast for Tron to compete. The Abzan Company matchup is all about whether they can combo you before you kill them or apply enough pressure to start chump blocking with combo pieces, though Darkblast and Conflagrate out of the sideboard make post-board games more favorable.

On the topic of sideboarding, it's important to remember to sideboard light. This is an engine deck after all, and while the deck can goldfish some turn three kills, over-sideboarding will take away your strategic edge if you're not careful. Some of your opponents will have Rest in Peace, and a seven card hand with that card will probably just beat you, though other hate cards like Relic of Progenitus are very much beatable.

Dredge isn't a deck for the faint of heart, though I think you'll be surprised by the power level and consistency of this list. With Modern being so flush with decks playing an honest game on the battlefield, this a great window for a graveyard deck to take a tournament by surprise. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Dredge had a breakout performance this weekend, and I truly hope to see Bloodghasts beating up on Jund and Abzan at #SCGINDY.

Ryan Overturf, @RyanOverdrive

 

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