There are very few ways to play Magic. For the most part you draw a card, then you cast it from your hand. While there are ton of a variations to the style of cards you use - control, combo, aggro - there really isn't much beyond drawing and casting. You might do it fast, you might do it slow, but, in the end, the flow of the game is the same - draw and cast. Then Ravnica came along and revolutionized the way many people play Magic. It was no longer so much about drawing as it was about massively expanding your graveyard for dredge players. The era of the graveyard had officially begun, and dredge was its king. The fact that Leyline of the Void would often be mainboarded at tournaments was a sign of just how powerful the graveyard monster was.

Cards with Dredge:

Dakmor Salvage, Darkblast, Golgari Brownscale, Golgari Grave-Troll, Golgari Thug, Grave-Shell Scarab, Greater Mossdog, Life from the Loam, Moldervine Cloak, Necroplasm, Nightmare Void, Shambling Shell, Stinkweed Imp

The immediate impact of Dredge was on the Standard scene, and it turned out to be the uninspired intended use - straight-up recursion. Red-Green Aggro decks made use of Moldervine Cloak, enchanting creatures to be bigger stompers and dredging for lost cloaks as needed. Nightmare Void and Darkblast made it into almost any deck that included Black for their recurring control. Beyond that, Shambling Shell, Stinkweed Imp, and Scarab were often used to lock down Standard decks with recurring threats. It was completely boring and not the revolutionary impact it would soon have - however, Life from the Loam offered a glimpse of what was to come.

Seismic Loam

The combo was obvious to everyone, but how to pull it off wasn't obvious at first. Use Life from the Loam to constantly recur lands and toss them with Seismic Assault, offering free instant direct damage to the player and creatures. Smart players immediately honed in on lands that go to the graveyard on their own, like Ghost Quarter, fetchlands, and cycle lands. This left many players with the question of how to build the rest of the deck.

Almost every set since Ravnica has offered at least one card that benefits from the style of play Seismic Loam uses. Powerful cards such as Tarmogoyf and Countryside Crusher are empowered by the deck, but it was Eventide that introduced a sister mechanic to dredge that was useful and actually thrived by being dredged into the graveyard. The mechanic that helped tie the entire deck together is Retrace.

Using the tech of Retrace, Seismic Loam players were able to add a variety of tricks to their deck. The most accepted Retrace cards for Seismic Loam are Worm's Harvest, Raven's Crime, and Flame Jab. These three cards added needed tech and alternative ways to deal damage, should Seismic Assault not be in play. Oona's Grace also occasionally gets splashed, allowing an additional Life from the Loam each turn. Most players have decided it is too slow and mana intensive to try and play that way and often include cards such as Jitte or Garruk to flesh out the deck.

The following is a Extended, tournament level Seismic Loam deck. It plays extremely simply, using the graveyard to empower its creatures and drive the namesake combo. This deck utilizes Black in order to add control elements allowing early control elements to turn into direct Seismic damage or creature damage. Meaning this variation of Seismic Loam can still survive after a Leyline of the Void or graveyard wiper gets thrown into the mix.

Ichorid

Of course, not all players use Dredge simply as recursion. Innovative players quickly realized that by utilizing high Dredge level cards such as Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll they could quickly feed their graveyard and deck themselves with little effort. Extended felt the impact first as Ichorid and Psychatog, which were already powerful forces, started getting fed faster than ever. Then, when Future Sight released, a major four card combo hit the ground running in Standard, then Extended, and finally as far back as Vintage.

The combo wreaked devastation across all formats, with a consistent turn three game clock. Ultimately, any graveyard hate would bring it down quite easily, but unsuspecting players were dominated. The entire thing was driven by Magus of the Bazaar or Bazaar of Baghdad creating a kill shot combo that could go off without a single mana. Of course, Standard and Extended relied on some mana to play Magus and other key cards, but Vintage Ichorid easily operated without a single mana producing land.

If you are interested in Vintage, this is the absolute cheapest staple deck to play, and it is still amazingly effective. Dredge isn't used to simply recur a card here, it is used to empower your draw. Since you are playing from the graveyard, each basic draw is a six card Dredge, and the Bazaar adds an additional twelve cards of Dredge per turn. It is quite easy to Dredge into the win condition on turn three. You'll notice in this deck the key to a quick victory is the second sister mechanic to Dredge - Flashback.

Putting it All Together

Flashback is the perfect companion to Dredge for the obvious "from the grave" replayability. While retrace requires pretty much a staple cost, flashback costs vary, and, while some are not ideal for playing from the yard, many are actually better played that way. Dread Return is one that fits perfectly for the dredge mold, allowing itself to be played with no mana. Another flashback spell I regularly use is Roar of the Wurm, since it can create a 6/6 creature for four mana. Flashback, of course, also comes in a new creature variety that is virtually the same, although slightly different - Unearth.

The final existing sister mechanic to Dredge is Threshold. While Retrace and Flashback thrive fully in Dredge decks, Threshold cards aren't able to be played from the yard. They instead become much more powerful when the yard reaches the magic number seven, which creates a dilemma about whether to draw or Dredge. So Threshold may not be the best match-up, but it definitely benefits by how fast Dredge fills a yard.

The fun part about Dredge is that it can be enjoyed by casual players and competitive players alike. You can use it fuel Seismic Loam decks, or you can play it simply as a kitchen Golgari Guild theme deck. Either way, it offers a level of power and natural recursion that is beyond most other decks. My favorite way to play Dredge is in a homebrew deck that usually gets me compliments on the design, even if I lose horribly. It is by no means as reliable as existing tournament decks, but it wins a lot, and I always have fun with it.

The deck plays much like Seismic Loam and has some of the elements of it, however it also easily converts into a pure Dredge deck, should Seismic Assault not be found right away, utilizing Flashback, Retrace, and Unearth to play from beyond the grave. The deck has been an evolution over the years, originally focusing around the Rites of Spring + Nantuko Cultivator draw combo. Countryside Crusher eventually replaced Cultivator, due to it's synergy with Seismic Loam and because it gave you a preview of your draw, which helped to answer the question - Draw or Dredge?

Ultimately, the fun of Dredge is all the fun ways you can do it and different tricks you can pull off. From things like Seismic Loam to Manaless Ichorid, the face of Magic has changed as the graveyard became a viable place to play. It might have been done without Dredge, but not as well or as powerfully. One can only hope there will be more Dredge cards in the future, but, even if not, Dredge has created a lasting legacy for itself as one of the best mechanics in Magic history. To leave you on a yet to be fully abused note, try making a deck around this easy to obtain infinite combo:

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

Articles Spotlights from 2009:
Magus of the Bazaar – Merchant Magic
Parasitism: The Devolution of Magic Players. - by Kozy
Mechanic Week: Kicking a Bad Habit - by Streetz
MTG Theory: Card Design 101 . - by Cashew
Potatobrain's Guide to Token Decks. - by Potatobrain
The Magic of Friday Night. - by hamsandwich
Memories of an Old Magic Player: Recrossing the River Jordan. - by Chris Newton
Mechanic Week: Offering Up Mechanic Week. - by Dan Wright (Drathro)