[Primer] Dredge

[Mr. Safety]

I saved "The Dark Art of Dredge Fu" in pdf form. PM me if you would like it.

Here is Richard Feldman's List from that article:

4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Tireless Tribe
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Tarnished Citadel
4 Bridge from Below
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal therapy
4 Careful study
2 Dread return
Sideboard
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Angel of Despair
1 Ichorid
3 Leyline of the Void
4 Firestorm
2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
3 Winds of Change

Tarnished Citadel becomes Mana Confluence now. The Dread Returns can become an Ox of Agonas (most seem to be running 1x right now). The double red does make it a little harder to cast without LED though. Faithless Looting, as mentioned above, is another reason to run LED.

Anyway, if you want the article for his reasons for the card choices, let me know.

Big necro here, sorry for that, but I was wondering if there still exists a streamlined non-LED Dredge list? I have started piloting Manaless Dredge, it's a ton of fun but super reliant on a couple of factors. If there is a way to make the deck slightly more consistent with lands but not need LED I would be really interested to try it.

[Reeplcheep]

Big necro here, sorry for that, but I was wondering if there still exists a streamlined non-LED Dredge list? I have started piloting Manaless Dredge, it's a ton of fun but super reliant on a couple of factors. If there is a way to make the deck slightly more consistent with lands but not need LED I would be really interested to try it.

Without LEDs, you should just play Jund Gaak IMO. If you can't afford non-blue duals a rainbow manabase should work if you cut ghast for something like satyr wayfinder.

[Mr. Safety]

Well, I still want to play Dredge in some form, not Hogaak. If playing LEDless Dredge isn't viable I'll just stick to Manaless Dredge for now. The reason for adding lands would be so I could have a lot more agency in the first few turns by opening up mulligan possibilities and allowing for velocity to find sideboard cards, ie Faithless Looting > Nature's Claim etc.

[Ronald Deuce]

Well, I still want to play Dredge in some form, not Hogaak. If playing LEDless Dredge isn't viable I'll just stick to Manaless Dredge for now. The reason for adding lands would be so I could have a lot more agency in the first few turns by opening up mulligan possibilities and allowing for velocity to find sideboard cards, ie Faithless Looting > Nature's Claim etc.

This specific problem is one reason I've gravitated more toward manaless over the last few years. Getting god-hands with one City of Brass only to get Dazed and Wastelanded feels bad, man.

If you've got the right duals, I've seen some older lists running fetches with Volcs and Underground Seas that might fit the bill. I think the pilots were taking a different tack in trying to reduce dead dredges by thinning, but you might try something a bit wild. Maybe you could try approx. 10 fetches, 4 Coliseums, and some number of duals (maybe one or two each of Volc and Underground Sea).

I know that for a long time people ran Lotus Petals in the sideboard to power faster starts and give more game against Daze. You could try running a few Petals and maxing out on Breakthrough, not least because Breakthrough lets us dump our hands.

Depending on your sideboard, you could try maindeck Sphinx of Foresight and/or Once Upon a Time to feed the Forces of your choosing and help you dig on turn 0 or 1.

EDIT: Realizing I didn't really answer your question. I hope my food for thought helps, though.

[Mr. Safety]

Great response, thanks!

I was thinking of doing something like 11 lands + 4x OUAT + Xx lotus Petals. The bad dredgers/threats go away (Shambling Shell/Prized Amalgam), the combo goes out (Spy + Oracle) and Careful Study/Breakthrough goes in. No Faithless looting because I need room for OUAT, but Study still allows for sideboard Force of Will.

The next question becomes how many Putrid Imps go in, and whether Phantasmagorian is still worth including. Without LED we really need a way to dump our hand. Breakthrough and PImp seem like the best options.

Long story short (too late...) it's a thought experiment. I really think Once upon a Time adds a lot to the archetype, not the least of which is adding a higher green count for potential Force of Vigor out of the sideboard.