[Deck] Dredge

[slave]

Yeah I would almost exclusively name S&T because they wont be able to cast Omniscience otherwise. I don't believe the most current Omni lists are running Dream Halls.

I have a few fellaz I play regularly against. I don't think I've seen them play Dream Halls for quite a while....

[birdbrains]

I took Dredge to a GPT last night and took the whole thing down. I've been running a similar list to Que the past couple of weeks.

The event was 5 rounds of swiss with a cut to Top 8.

Round 1 - Belcher

Game 1 we both mull to 6, and he Probes me on the play before passing. I had kept a solid, but slower hand and start dredging. I hit a couple therapies and am able to keep him off the combo while I get there with zombies over a few turns.

Game 2 is a turn 1 Belcher. Fun.

Game 3 was really stressful. We both mull to 5, and I don't have the fastest start. I end up having to go on the Narco/Thug beats plan while I wait for him to kill me. After keeping his hand under control for a couple turns, he makes 10 goblins to face my team of 2 Narcos and 2 Thugs. I have 2 Bridges in my graveyard, so he holds off on attacking while I get in for a few more points with Narcomoebas. At 4 life, he wishes for Pyroclasm, thinking it will save him, but he's new to legacy and doesn't know that I still get zombies, so I take the match.
1-0

Round 2 - Storm

Game 1 I get a good hand and make an 11/11 Grave-Troll and a few zombies on turn 1, while he has a slower hand and can't get there in time.

Game 2 he doesn't do much for a few turns while I beat with some early Ichorids and zombies. I have him at 7 with lethal the next turn when he goes for the combo and hits what he needs.

Game 3 I get another 11/11 on turn 1 and am able to take his hand apart in the first couple turns.

We had a discussion after the games about what's correct to name with Therapy. I usually name Dark Ritual in the early turns to stop early mana acceleration, while my opponent believes that LED is the correct play because it can lead to more broken turn 1s.
2-0

Round 3 - Storm

I'm starting to see a pattern with my matchups this tournament. I know my opponent is playing storm, so I'm able to "blind" Therapy turn 2 with a pretty good chance to hit. Based on my conversation at the end of the previous round, I name LED, but he has the Dark Ritual and combos me out on his turn 2.

Game 2 I'm able to control his hand from the early game and get there with some zombies.

Game 3 I keep a hand of Petal, LED, Dredger, Faithless, Study and Surgical and he Probe/Therapies for the Lotus Petal to keep me off my turn 1 mana. I managed to rip a Gemstone mine, Surgical his probe to see what his hand looks like, but it's all card selection and lands and start dredging. Unfortunately, I half brick and get a narco/bridge/therapy but no more dredgers. I try to keep his hand under control, but at 12 life he's able to Ad Nauseam into what he needs and he's able to kill me.
2-1

Round 4 - Jeskai Stoneblade

Game 1 I have a slow start, while he has a turn 2 Stoneforge/turn 3 Batterskull. I take a few hits down to 6 life while I try and get things going, and eventually hit a couple of Ichorids and Bridges to start making zombies. He got a little caught up on killing my Bridges and bounces his Batterskull at 4 lands. I could care less about the bridges, and am able to Therapy away the Batterskull and get the game back in control.

Game 2 he doesn't see much action and my zombie hoard grows slowly over a couple turns until it overwhelms him.
3-1

Round 5 - Burn

My opponent and I are locked for Top 8, so we decide to draw. I'm in 7th at the end of Swiss.

Top 8
Semis - Infect

Game 1 he has an early Glistener Elf, but I'm able to get a Putrid Imp and Narcomoeba early. His Noble Hierarch makes it so that my Narcos can block profitably and I'm able to overwhelm him early without taking a single point of Infect.

Game 2 I get going pretty quickly with a Putrid Imp, but he has a Bog on turn 3 to slow me down. I held back Faithless Looting and a Thug, rip an LED and have a few of the most incredible dredges I can remember. He's able to get in a couple infect damage, but doesn't have any pump spells to accelerate it and I take the game easily from there.


Quarters - Omni Tell

Game 1 we both have slow starts, but I'm able to get some zombies and a Thug online and beat for a few turns while he tries to find a Show and Tell, but fails.

Game 2 I Dread Return Iona on turn 1, and there's not much he can do about it.


Finals - Burn

Game 1 I'm able to get some early zombies while he has a turn 2 Eidolon. It's all good, though as I'm playing out of the graveyard by then with an Ichorid and a Bridge. I make a risky play of attacking with the Ichorid into his Eidolon with 2 bridges, but he lets the damage go through and I'm able to keep the zombie train rolling. He landed a second Eidolon, but I have no need to cast anything at this point and he dies to a ton of zombies.

Game 2 I mull a bit, and don't have that great of a start while he's able to burn me out easily.

Game 3 he has some fast burn, but I'm able to exhaust his hand quickly between throwing burn at me and a couple Therapies, but I don't have much in the way of zombies. I get things going, though and am able to make an Iona on red to keep him out of the game and win me some byes.


I got fairly lucky during the tournament and due to people not expecting Dredge was able to dodge a lot of the hate. I feel like the deck has some really excellent sideboard answers to pretty much everything except Leyline of the Void, so I may end up adding in a Wispmare or Nature's Claim to help deal with it for the GP.

[meffeo]

I got fairly lucky during the tournament and due to people not expecting Dredge was able to dodge a lot of the hate. I feel like the deck has some really excellent sideboard answers to pretty much everything except Leyline of the Void, so I may end up adding in a Wispmare or Nature's Claim to help deal with it for the GP.

Well done buddy. Haven't you played any copy of Nature's Claim during the day?
I'm running two copies at the moment but they remain in sideboard most of the time.

[Alexorrr]

Firstly, congratulations on the win bird!

I was looking through the spoilers for BFZ, and I came upon Void Winnower, the 11/9 Eldrazi that prevents opponents from casting even-CMC spells, and prevents opponent's even-CMC creatures from blocking. I was wondering about its potential as a sideboard DR target against certain matchups that either win through token production, as zero is considered even, or with the help of 0-cost spells like Chalice, Mox Diamond/Opal, LED's, Lotus Petal,DTT, JTMS, etc.

My own concerns with it are that it might be too situational to be really effective, or at best a win-more card, and something like Iona or Elesh Norn would do similar jobs better already. The other thing is that the stuff that really concerns us, the GY hate, either comes down before it's possible to DR Void Winnower in, like Leylines, or simply aren't affected by it's abilities at all, as everything that really hurts us is CMC-1.

What do you think? Is there potential there for a sideboard slot, or is it like most spoiler seasons for Dredge, spicy, but not a good fit for the deck?

[birdbrains]

Well done buddy. Haven't you played any copy of Nature's Claim during the day?
I'm running two copies at the moment but they remain in sideboard most of the time.

I don't run Nature's Claim, personally, because there are much better options. Abrupt Decay hits every relevant piece of hate that you need it to without turning on your opponents counterspells, and it gets around Chalice on 1 and counter-top. I did run a one-of Ancient Grudge in my board at the event, but it was never relevant.

I was looking through the spoilers for BFZ, and I came upon Void Winnower, the 11/9 Eldrazi that prevents opponents from casting even-CMC spells, and prevents opponent's even-CMC creatures from blocking. I was wondering about its potential as a sideboard DR target against certain matchups that either win through token production, as zero is considered even, or with the help of 0-cost spells like Chalice, Mox Diamond/Opal, LED's, Lotus Petal,DTT, JTMS, etc.

My own concerns with it are that it might be too situational to be really effective, or at best a win-more card, and something like Iona or Elesh Norn would do similar jobs better already. The other thing is that the stuff that really concerns us, the GY hate, either comes down before it's possible to DR Void Winnower in, like Leylines, or simply aren't affected by it's abilities at all, as everything that really hurts us is CMC-1.

What do you think? Is there potential there for a sideboard slot, or is it like most spoiler seasons for Dredge, spicy, but not a good fit for the deck?

I don't really see why we would want to play him. 0-cost spells aren't really what we want to be stopping most of the time, unless it's a Crypt, but if we already have our DR target on the field, we should be winning. You want your Dread Return target to either have an immediate effect or put the game away completely. Iona does that by stopping mono colored decks cold, Elesh Norn severely hampers any sort of creature deck from doing what it wants, and Ashen Rider can get rid of any troublesome permanent we need it to.

As far as the blocking part, we shouldn't really need to worry about that. Unless it's Belcher making 10+ goblins turn 1 against a slower hand, you can always just not attack with Ichorids and grow a huge zombie army over a couple of turns and then start turning them sideways. Even against turn 1 goblins, if we can get a few zombies going early we can stay in the game fairly easily by blocking profitably, since losing 1-2 Bridges early can be totally acceptable.

[JPoJohnson]

Since StP takes it out, I think it won't make the cut.

[RhoxWarMonk]

Hey guys,

I apologize if this has been asked before as I didn't go back through EVERY page on this thread (though I read quite a few) but I'm considering building Dredge for a GP coming up here and wondering if this is a good choice.

For reference, this is the list (or similar) I'm considering running with: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=89527

I expect there to be a LOT of OmniTell, with Miracles, Lands and Grixis Delver rounding out the most played decks. Do you feel this be a good choice, given the meta I'm expecting?

I've already read the primer and started watching videos and obviously Ill need to do a lot of real playtesting between now and then but is there any advice you can offer for a first time dredge player? I've played AGAINST Dredge plenty of times (I only play legacy), so I know what it can do but have never physically sleeved it up myself to give it a run. That's likely about to change :) In general, how terrible are hate cards against you? Are RIP and Leyline of the Void things you can fairly easily win through? Assuming, of course, you can get a nature's claim or something equal in the SB to combat it.

Any insight or helpful suggestions is most appreciated! TY!

[Que]

@Birdbrains. Hey dude good job on the win. Congrats! I guess I'll be seeing you in Seattle! :)

@Alexxor. As bird mentioned the DR target has to flat out win the game for you for it to even be a consideration (remember Dread Returning is a privilege, not a right). I personally don't include any in my maindeck currently as a giant Troll is good enough; I would rather gain consistency points by including something else that promotes Dredging. My sb targets of choice are Iona and Ashen Rider though I've been known to also pack an Elesh depending on the Meta. I feel those are the only ones you would probably want. Other targets lend themselves to being too narrow.

@Rhox. That list seems fine, seems pretty standard. The only real differences between lists is how many dredgers are run (either 11 or 12), how many lands (either 12 or 13), and how many Putrid/Ichorid are ran (usually 3-4 Putrid and 3-4 Ichorid). It also depends whether you're running a dedicated target maindeck, if so you would want to run at least 2 Dread Return so as to not sacrifice consistency.

The deck is fine to be playing if your opponent is not prepared. Also sometimes you gain a slight advantage since many of the interactions in Dredge can lend themselves to being convoluted. Your opponent will miss opportunities if he doesn't know how the deck works.

First time Dredge players:
- Don't miss your Triggers! and remember all of them as well ie.. Ichorid, Narcomoeba, Golgari Thug (yes I use his ability to recycle dead Narcos), Bridge from Below.
- You control Bridge from Below Triggers. So if you and your opponent trade creatures you can stack the Bridge triggers so that you get zombies before they're exiled!!
- You only want to keep a hand that has some way of starting your engine, otherwise you will find yourself needing to use the end step which is a lot slower (were not Manaless Dredge). These will be cards like Careful Study, Faithless Looting, LED, Putrid Imp, and lower on that spectrum something like Cabal Therapy which I would only keep if I knew I had something to follow it up with usually a Cephalid Coliseum.
- When you Dread Return GGT he counts himself as part of the Power/Toughness counters he gets.

Cards like RIP and Leyline are lights out for this deck unless you can dispatch them quickly to rebuild your board. You can try the mediocre beats plan, but that doesn't end well normally xD I personally include Abrupt Decay in my sb as well to get rid of anything you could care for, however, this doesn't beat Leyline. As for Leyline I'm hedging and trying to dodge it as one would not normally commit 4 sb lots to beat 1 matchup. (the only other one it applies to is Reanimator both of which are "niche" decks); most people would prefer versatility in their sb as space is limited.

But all in all yes if your opponent has no way of interacting with your graveyard its normally a decisive game in your favor.

Also a disclaimer to playing the deck: You should have the stomach to play it because sometimes variance can be a bitch and you can lose to your bad dredges or flat out lose to a RIP/Cage as you fail to find answer. Its the way it goes. This is the purest graveyard deck.

Hope that helps some. :)

[RhoxWarMonk]

@Rhox. That list seems fine, seems pretty standard. The only real differences between lists is how many dredgers are run (either 11 or 12), how many lands (either 12 or 13), and how many Putrid/Ichorid are ran (usually 3-4 Putrid and 3-4 Ichorid). It also depends whether you're running a dedicated target maindeck, if so you would want to run at least 2 Dread Return so as to not sacrifice consistency.

The deck is fine to be playing if your opponent is not prepared. Also sometimes you gain a slight advantage since many of the interactions in Dredge can lend themselves to being convoluted. Your opponent will miss opportunities if he doesn't know how the deck works.

First time Dredge players:
- Don't miss your Triggers! and remember all of them as well ie.. Ichorid, Narcomoeba, Golgari Thug (yes I use his ability to recycle dead Narcos), Bridge from Below.
- You control Bridge from Below Triggers. So if you and your opponent trade creatures you can stack the Bridge triggers so that you get zombies before they're exiled!!
- You only want to keep a hand that has some way of starting your engine, otherwise you will find yourself needing to use the end step which is a lot slower (were not Manaless Dredge). These will be cards like Careful Study, Faithless Looting, LED, Putrid Imp, and lower on that spectrum something like Cabal Therapy which I would only keep if I knew I had something to follow it up with usually a Cephalid Coliseum.
- When you Dread Return GGT he counts himself as part of the Power/Toughness counters he gets.

Cards like RIP and Leyline are lights out for this deck unless you can dispatch them quickly to rebuild your board. You can try the mediocre beats plan, but that doesn't end well normally xD I personally include Abrupt Decay in my sb as well to get rid of anything you could care for, however, this doesn't beat Leyline. As for Leyline I'm hedging and trying to dodge it as one would not normally commit 4 sb lots to beat 1 matchup. (the only other one it applies to is Reanimator both of which are "niche" decks); most people would prefer versatility in their sb as space is limited.

But all in all yes if your opponent has no way of interacting with your graveyard its normally a decisive game in your favor.

Also a disclaimer to playing the deck: You should have the stomach to play it because sometimes variance can be a bitch and you can lose to your bad dredges or flat out lose to a RIP/Cage as you fail to find answer. Its the way it goes. This is the purest graveyard deck.

Hope that helps some. :)

Thank you very much, this was a great reply :)

[Alexorrr]

Both Que and Birdbrain,

Thanks for the replies, and what you've both stated were pretty much my feelings as well. I'm curious about trying the no DR special mainboard target (I currently run it with FKZ, and side into either Iona, or Elesh Norn for the token/mirror). I was curious about the card though, because it always seems like dredge gets more hate with every new set, and very rarely gets something worth adding to it!

[Que]

Both Que and Birdbrain,

Thanks for the replies, and what you've both stated were pretty much my feelings as well. I'm curious about trying the no DR special mainboard target (I currently run it with FKZ, and side into either Iona, or Elesh Norn for the token/mirror). I was curious about the card though, because it always seems like dredge gets more hate with every new set, and very rarely gets something worth adding to it!

No worries. I'll talk about this deck to anyone who wants to hear. I feel with this deck there are no hard and fast rules sometimes. You have to calculate odds (based off whats in your graveyard and the likelihood you're going to hit a certain card over the next dredge or two) and follow through with whichever line you decide to take.

I would only really run Grisebrand as a dedicated target maindeck as it is a significant threat on its own. FKZ is decent in that you don't have to pass the turn back. Just 6 zombies + FKZ for 21 points of damage isn't that difficult to achieve. Luckily the decline of Sneak Attack has meant not as many people are playing Ensnaring bridge which would stop both of these types of strats; that is part of the reason you see Flayer of the Hatebound in some Sbs.

And yeah hate nowadays is running rampant, but feel some solace in knowing that most likely they only have 2-3 pieces and they have to find those cards for them to be useful. This means they either have to mulligan aggressively which can end badly for them if they mull too low or go with a solid hand with a couple of cantrips and hope to find their hate before you kill them. Its really what it boils down to.

[JPoJohnson]

Hey Que,

Are you going to replace your Ashen Rider in the side with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, or has flying been a big enough deal for you against some of the URx aggressive Delvers?

[L10]

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's double vindicate only triggers when you cast it.

[JPoJohnson]

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's double vindicate only triggers when you cast it.

I misread the card, appreciate the correction. (:

[Vandalize]

Sup guys, there's a pretty long time I don't post in this thread, mainly due to the fact that I've switched to other decks like RUG Delver and Zoo. But, it seems that OmniTell is pretty strong nowdays, and Dredge is most likely their worst nightmare (and a really fun deck when no one is expecting it).

My list is quite outdated (there's like 1.5 years I don't touch my Ichorids), but this deck doesn't seem to update a lot with time, so I'd like some input on what you guys have been rocking lately.

List:
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Mana Confluence
1 City of Brass
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
1 Darkblast
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
3 Putrid Imp
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Faithless Looting
4 Careful Study
3 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
1 Dread Return
SB: 4 Abrupt Decay
SB: 3 Firestorm
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 City of Brass
SB: 1 Wispmare
SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Dread Return
SB: 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

List has been solid since forever. Any input or tips?

[gibbousm]

Given the current meta, I feel running Iona in the main deck is the right choice. It hoses Omnishow and other combo decks and even against non-combo decks cutting them off their primary color or removal color is decent. She's a 3 turn clock but with Ichorid/zombie back up is probably going to be a 2 turn one. I'd fill in that sideboard slot with either Elesh Norn or Ashen Rider.

[meffeo]

SB: 2 Thoughtseize

What are your opinions about them? I do not play any other discard spells in the board.

[Que]

SB: 4 Abrupt Decay
SB: 3 Firestorm
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 City of Brass
SB: 1 Wispmare
SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Dread Return
SB: 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

List has been solid since forever. Any input or tips?

Your list is fine.

My question is more for the sb. In what instances have you used these cards? What do you bring in against what and in how many quantities/what do you take out?

I think we should be more focused on combating decks post board and discussing how to improve our games 2 and 3. I think we don't spend enough time discussing tech for the sb. Granted its difficult to board in too many cards as it impacts our consistency. I just want to hear about the success everyone has had on their end and which cards they thought were lack luster.

Sometimes I want to try a transformational sb not unlike the Painter/Grindstone sb, however, I think that one might be too cute.

[birdbrains]

Given the current meta, I feel running Iona in the main deck is the right choice. It hoses Omnishow and other combo decks and even against non-combo decks cutting them off their primary color or removal color is decent. She's a 3 turn clock but with Ichorid/zombie back up is probably going to be a 2 turn one. I'd fill in that sideboard slot with either Elesh Norn or Ashen Rider.

I'm not sure Iona in the MB is a good call. You will absolutely shut out any mono colored decks you play, but there's a significant portion of the metagame that just doesn't care about her. I only sideboard her into the Burn, Omni and Elves matchups because they get instantly hosed and have little to no recourse to a resolved Iona, but in most other matchups the decks have ways of dealing with her and your best bet game one is just to smash face as quickly as possible before you need to disrupt your opponent's game plan.

Your list is fine.

My question is more for the sb. In what instances have you used these cards? What do you bring in against what and in how many quantities/what do you take out?

I think we should be more focused on combating decks post board and discussing how to improve our games 2 and 3. I think we don't spend enough time discussing tech for the sb. Granted its difficult to board in too many cards as it impacts our consistency. I just want to hear about the success everyone has had on their end and which cards they thought were lack luster.

Sometimes I want to try a transformational sb not unlike the Painter/Grindstone sb, however, I think that one might be too cute.

I copied your most recent sideboard mostly out of laziness/not having played for a significant period of time, but I feel it's in a very good place with a couple changes.

We have so many solid game 1 matchups that the main focus of the board should be combating hate, as it's always been. We're in a really cool place right now where hate is very easy to predict, and therefore easy to do something about if you're paying attention. We don't really have to worry anymore about boarding in the wrong cards because we have some awesome blanket answers. Basically the main cards we're playing against right now are Rest in Peace, Surgical/Extirpate and Cage. I haven't seen Crypt in ages, and Leyline is fairly dead tech outside of a couple matchups. So the core of our sideboard should be able to handle those cards. I'm really liking the set up of 3 Abrupt Decay, 3 petal/1 extra land and 1-2 Surgical Extraction. We have additional insurance against targeted hate with Street Wraith, as long as it's targeting a dredger.

As of right now, I'm skeptical on Ancient Grudge being in the board. It's strength is in putting pressure on the opponent's Crypt or Relic, but it's half a dead card against Cage which is seeing a lot more play due to it's interaction with decks like Elves. I'd love to hear additional input on it, though I feel that Decay has us pretty covered here. Ray of Revelation may be worth bringing into this slot as some sort of out to Leyline.

Ashen Rider is another card I'm losing steam on. Iona just feels stronger in the Show and Tell matchups, especially since Sneak Show has declined in favor of OmniTell. It's possibly just a reflection of my local meta and being out of the competitive scene for a while, but I'm considering dropping to one, or possibly zero.

Firestorm seems like another very strong card right now, and I'd like to bump the number up to 2-3. At the GP, I think we can expect a fair amount of creature decks and some amount of DRS.

In thinking about the expected meta, specifically for the GP, we may want to be prepared for Grindstone. If we have decking insurance against it, we can win on the following turn virtually every time, so I'm considering running a one of whatever I'm able to find before the GP to fill that slot.

I just got around to reading Richard Feldman's pre-NJ article, and I think Reveillark is a super interesting choice. I'm not 100% sold on it's viability, but it could be worth a look.

So for the GP, I'm looking at sleeving up something like the following:

3 Abrupt Decay
3 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Confluence
1-2 Surgical Extraction
1 Iona
0-1 Ashen Rider
1 Dread Return
2-3 Firestorm
1 Blightsteel Colossus
0-1 Ancient Grudge/Ray of Revelation

It's 3 am, so I'm going to get some sleep, but strategies about individual decks is definitely something I'm into discussing. At some point I had begun a pretty comprehensive list, so I'll see if I can dig that up.

[Que]

I'm not sure Iona in the MB is a good call. You will absolutely shut out any mono colored decks you play, but there's a significant portion of the metagame that just doesn't care about her. I only sideboard her into the Burn, Omni and Elves matchups because they get instantly hosed and have little to no recourse to a resolved Iona, but in most other matchups the decks have ways of dealing with her and your best bet game one is just to smash face as quickly as possible before you need to disrupt your opponent's game plan.

Yeah I think Iona is great option in the board for the reasons Birdbrains mentioned. I would also add Storm to the list of decks she shuts down because generally Iona on Black is lights out unless they have the bounce spell available. With the recent DIG ban I think its all the more reason to leave her in the board.

I copied your most recent sideboard mostly out of laziness/not having played for a significant period of time, but I feel it's in a very good place with a couple changes.

We have so many solid game 1 matchups that the main focus of the board should be combating hate, as it's always been. We're in a really cool place right now where hate is very easy to predict, and therefore easy to do something about if you're paying attention. We don't really have to worry anymore about boarding in the wrong cards because we have some awesome blanket answers. Basically the main cards we're playing against right now are Rest in Peace, Surgical/Extirpate and Cage. I haven't seen Crypt in ages, and Leyline is fairly dead tech outside of a couple matchups. So the core of our sideboard should be able to handle those cards. I'm really liking the set up of 3 Abrupt Decay, 3 petal/1 extra land and 1-2 Surgical Extraction. We have additional insurance against targeted hate with Street Wraith, as long as it's targeting a dredger.

As of right now, I'm skeptical on Ancient Grudge being in the board. It's strength is in putting pressure on the opponent's Crypt or Relic, but it's half a dead card against Cage which is seeing a lot more play due to it's interaction with decks like Elves. I'd love to hear additional input on it, though I feel that Decay has us pretty covered here. Ray of Revelation may be worth bringing into this slot as some sort of out to Leyline.

Ashen Rider is another card I'm losing steam on. Iona just feels stronger in the Show and Tell matchups, especially since Sneak Show has declined in favor of OmniTell. It's possibly just a reflection of my local meta and being out of the competitive scene for a while, but I'm considering dropping to one, or possibly zero.

Firestorm seems like another very strong card right now, and I'd like to bump the number up to 2-3. At the GP, I think we can expect a fair amount of creature decks and some amount of DRS.

In thinking about the expected meta, specifically for the GP, we may want to be prepared for Grindstone. If we have decking insurance against it, we can win on the following turn virtually every time, so I'm considering running a one of whatever I'm able to find before the GP to fill that slot.

I just got around to reading Richard Feldman's pre-NJ article, and I think Reveillark is a super interesting choice. I'm not 100% sold on it's viability, but it could be worth a look.

So for the GP, I'm looking at sleeving up something like the following:

3 Abrupt Decay
3 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Confluence
1-2 Surgical Extraction
1 Iona
0-1 Ashen Rider
1 Dread Return
2-3 Firestorm
1 Blightsteel Colossus
0-1 Ancient Grudge/Ray of Revelation

It's 3 am, so I'm going to get some sleep, but strategies about individual decks is definitely something I'm into discussing. At some point I had begun a pretty comprehensive list, so I'll see if I can dig that up.

I like my current sb except I might be inclined to add that 3rd Firestorm. The only reason I'm on the fence about adding more is that generally my experience has been lack luster with it as its more of a reactive card. However, with the influx of creature based hate (i.e. DRS, Containtment Priest, Ooze, Gaddock Teeg, Thalia even..) it just seems like the best way to go.

I actually like Ancient Grudge because its one of those cards you don't need to have in your opener for it be good and if you do open with it then you gain a lot more value. Generally I use it to blow up troublesome equipment (Jitte namely), artifact hate (Tormond's Crypt, Nihi Spellbomb, Relic of Prog), and other random artifacts I might care about (Ensnaring bridge which I can't actually beat via Attack step, Chalice of the Void, Painter, Grindstone, etc.)

If Ancient Grudge is only half an answer to Cage, then Ray of Revelation is the same to Leyline, though I would agree that Cage is definitely seen a lot more. And there is at least the added benefit of being able to take out a RIP.

IDK how I feel about the DIG ban. Probably better for us in that it gives the opponent less time to find the hate piece. But then again Sneak & Show will come back which I felt was a weaker matchup. Agains Omni Cabal Therapy almost exclusively names S&T. However, against sneak and show you now have more options to choose from weather it be S&T, Sneak Attack, or Griselbrand so there is slightly more guess work.

If you expect Grindstone.dec to be there then I would agree on your inclusion of Blightsteel Colossus. This matchup can be atrocious though since they have hate game 1 in the form of Ensnaring Bridge and games 2 and 3 they actually have some decent GraveHate; RIP if they're playing W/R Grindstone with Enlightened Tutor, and Tormond's Crypt and the like if its mono red not to mention they have goblin Welder which means they get their pieces back the next turn.

Reveilark is definitely interesting and I've seen it in some people's lists. I haven't personally tried it out though. I guess having the chance to grab huge GraveTrolls after a Terminus or something seems quite dank. lol Didn't know Richard Feldman was still keeping up with the Archtype though it doesn't change much. Take his suggestions with a grain of salt remember he told us to go Fearless. ;p doesn't really apply to us nowadays when we actually have to worry about a good amount of things.

Idk how much Reanimator is going to show up, but that matchup is the worse for us I feel so I wanted to maybe even include 3 Surgical, but I'm not sure if thats overkill for that 1 matchup. They're still good against Lands, storm, so they have some other usefulness i guess.