[Article] The Cutting Room Floor: He-Brand and the Masters of the Dredgeverse.

[Michael Keller]

Dredge (http://jupitergames.info/articles/2012/52467/the-cutting-room-floor-he-brand-and-the-masters-of-the-dredgeverse) is fun!

(Kind of an article for newer players looking to break into the format that want to try Dredge.)

[Plague Sliver]

Enjoyed the read. I liked the fact that you went into the card selection process rather than throw out a decklist.

The humility you show is also refreshing; it's rare to see that in an article these days.

Nice work!

[Michael Keller]

Enjoyed the read. I liked the fact that you went into the card selection process rather than throw out a decklist.

The humility you show is also refreshing; it's rare to see that in an article these days.

Nice work!

Thanks!

I really wanted to make certain I was letting folks understand the most important cards to use and how they workas opposed to what you were saying about tossing out a list and rolling with it.

Good feedback.

[Oiolosse]

Great read. Thank you!

[Michael Keller]

I'm glad you guys liked it.

If you have any recommendations for article ideas, feel free to let me know.

[Plague Sliver]

Take this with a grain of salt, as I've never piloted a Dredge deck before in my life.

But I'd like to get more understanding of when to slow dredge, fast dredge, and how to play around grave hate in Games 2 and 3.

I can tell from your tourney reports that you're quite adept at doing this, and it would be good to get your thought process behind it. Also I think it was Feldman who said that playing hate for anti-graveyard is pointless - I'd also like to know your views on this.

I was envisioning some types of scenarios in the article, like actual board state and how you would play in each situation. Not unlike Alex Shearer's or Mons' articles in the past.

I suspect that many Dredge pilots would benefit from such advice/analysis.

[Michael Keller]

Take this with a grain of salt, as I've never piloted a Dredge deck before in my life.

But I'd like to get more understanding of when to slow dredge, fast dredge, and how to play around grave hate in Games 2 and 3.

I can tell from your tourney reports that you're quite adept at doing this, and it would be good to get your thought process behind it. Also I think it was Feldman who said that playing hate for anti-graveyard is pointless - I'd also like to know your views on this.

I was envisioning some types of scenarios in the article, like actual board state and how you would play in each situation. Not unlike Alex Shearer's or Mons' articles in the past.

I suspect that many Dredge pilots would benefit from such advice/analysis.

Absolutely. I completely understand your points. Allow me to explain:

Because there is an active interest in Dredge as an archetype, a lot of people ask me for advice as far as how to perform the actions you mentioned throughout the course of a match. That requires a massive undertaking, and unfortunately would take more than one article to do. I wanted this article to be a more friendly appetite-whetter for folks who have never played the archetype or are unfamiliar with the cards that make up the basic framework of the deck. The primer here on The Source indicates a lot of that information already, but I'm also taking into account folks who just want to read the article without actually referencing back here for information.

Additionally, complex board states and anti-hate strategies require a bit of thought and consideration. Because I wanted to start off light, I want to give newer players the benefit of the doubt as overloading them with information in my opinion is not the way to go. To sell someone on playing Dredge, you have to entice them with the card selection and how powerful the cards in the deck can be, as indicated by my analysis of playing Cabal Therapy accurately (which this week's article will cover dramatically more).

Eventually the idea is to get more in depth about certain scenarios and boarding strategies. A lot of Dredge's strength derives from pilot play, which is something that requires tons of hours logged training, goldfishing and tournament play.

Good points, though.