T.E.S vs Dredge

[yutang]

I am able to get into either T.E.S or Dredge - I have almost all the cards for both of them but I only have one playset of Lion's Eye Diamond.

Which deck is better in an unknown meta?
Which one is better to learn with (ie. more rewarding the more I learn it)?
Which one is better to stick with over the long run?

Not sure if this is the right forum for my question.

FWIW other Legacy decks I own are UW Miracle Control and UR Delver. I want a third combo deck that rounds off what these other two decks don't have.

[Lejay]

Dredge is a bit of a glasscannon, but TES really has too much trouble since Thalia and griselbrand. Go with dredge.

[joemauer]

Dredge is better right now. However, that changes from day to day. TES may be better in something like two days.

[PhantomLotus]

Neither deck is particularly interactive, TES less so.

I used to play TES, now I have a Dredge deck. I find Dredge to be less mindcrushingly difficult to play properly than TES, though it is still skill-intensive (especially game 2/3, after the hate comes). That's worth considering if you're going to enter larger tournaments with it.

[thefringthing]

TES can actually beat hate. Dredge is pretty demoralizing since you'll lose to Snapcaster Mage + Surgical Extraction a lot.

[Michael Keller]

Dredge is pretty demoralizing since you'll lose to Snapcaster Mage + Surgical Extraction a lot.

So naive.

A competent Dredge player who knows how to play through hate with a properly configured sideboard can fight Snapcaster Mage and Surgical Extraction easily. In fact, Snapcaster Mage is starting to see much less play and along with it to a certain extent Surgical Extraction. I get a good chuckle when my opponents try to pull those shenanigans because it's really easy to beat if you play around it properly, in addition to being mindful of your Cabal Therapies when naming a card. Snapcaster Mage and Surgical Extraction is more of a joke than anything else. I am more afraid of a sandbagged or well-timed Crypt/Relic than that.

It depends on what variation of Dredge you're running, who is on the play, who has the faster hand, etc. T.E.S. is still good, as is Dredge, but there are instances where a T.E.S. player can shit the bed just as easily games two and three and fall victim to hate-bears. Both decks have their fundamental flaws, but assuming you'll lose (a lot) to a combination of cards that has fallen out of flavor rapidly and requires some setting up (off aggressive mulligans, no less) is a bit ludicrous.

[Awaclus]

Dredge is currently the more popular deck. It might mean that it's a little bit better in the current meta, but it also means that more hate is played against it.

I would personally prefer Belcher with maindeck Pyroblast or Guttural Response at the moment, because after the B&R announcement, a lot of Show and Tells are going to be played for a while and nothing's better than dropping a Goblin Charbelcher with the opponent's SnT and exiling three spirit guides to activate it. Though it won't be that good after people have realized that Show and Tell decks are vulnerable to a lot of things (including the 'belcher).