This week Modern Monday won’t be streamed live, but rather will have all the videos included in this very article! Be sure to let us know whether you like this format better or not.
Welp, Dredge is definitely back. And we’re not talking about Dredgevine, where we’re actually casting creatures and having our Vengevines return to play. No, we’re talking about Golgari Grave-Trolls and Stinkweed Imps. Check out the list we’re going to be piloting today, courtesy of a 5-0 Finish by Magic Online user sren.
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Bloodghast
4 Burning Inquiry
4 City of Brass
1 Conflagrate
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Darkblast
4 Faithless Looting
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Rally the Peasants
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Street Wraith
Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Darkblast
2 Gnaw to the Bone
3 Lightning Axe
1 Memory’s Journey
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Vengeful Pharaoh
Now I’m not Erin Campbell in terms of my love for Dredge, but I can definitely appreciate a sweet new archetype (in Modern anyway) complete with sweet new cards. In fact the deck is using eight new cards in the form of full sets of Prized Amalgam and Insolent Neonate. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s actually take a look at how the deck performs.
I hate ending videos with more losses than wins, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. Like I said, this was the first time I ever piloted the deck, so I’m certain I made some misplays. Ideally we caught them, and you can avoid them in the future during your own matches. Or maybe you picked up on something I may have missed. If so, feel free to let me know in the comments!
There always seems to be a Modern Dredge list lurking just below the surface, and Prized Amalgam might be exactly what the archetype needed to truly shine. Well, that and Insolent Neonate. The best part of the latter card is that it allows you to discard first. This lets up put a dredge card into the graveyard to actually dredge back in the same activation, rather than drawing first and hoping we already have a dredge card in the graveyard. This makes a huge difference.
One thing I sometimes notice about Modern decks is that there will be some that are literally one turn too slow. This was the case so many times in our matches. That isn’t to say our opponents didn’t simply put themselves into a position to win on the turns they needed to, but even despite that, we came very close in a lot of the matches we lost, and I think that says something.
One of the biggest problems we came up against was the turn zero Leyline of the Void. I’m not actually sure how we beat that other than naturally drawing one of our three Nature’s Claims. It felt super awkward though, especially since so many of our cards also force us to discard, such as Burning Inquiry, Faithless Looting, and Insolent Neonate. Additionally, drawing one card at a time with this deck, naturally, is not at all what we want to be doing, and it gives our opponents an excruciating amount of time to set up their game plan.
All that being said, man, Pyromancer Ascension is pretty unfun to play against. I used to bemoan playing against things like Tron and Scapeshift – just really powerful, linear decks that you needed very specific answers for – but with those decks nowhere to be seen, it’s pretty obvious how one-sided playing against Storm can be. Nevertheless, hopefully you guys still thought the deck was sweet despite our shortcomings.
That’s about all I have for today. Be sure to check back later in the week for another Magic Minute here on NumotGaming.com!
Frank Lepore
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