1st Place - SCG Open: Atlanta - Dredge

[4eak]

This was my 2nd SCG Open tournament. I was lucky enough to play in Louisville over the summer (visiting family and randomly saw it was happening that weeked), but my Merfolk deck faced Grim Lavamancer decks in 5 out of 6 matches, and so I didn't do well. It was fun, so I decided to take the opportunity to go to Atlanta. A friend (funyun45 on these forums) and I traveled from Baton Rouge to Atlanta to have fun at the tournament - we didn't have any expectations about doing well (I'm highly skeptical of what other people think tournament data actually means).

I played MWC at the 4-round tournament the night before - many epics games were had. I knew I was going to play a deck that can consistently win 2 of 3 in 50 minutes (thus, not MWC), but I didn't know what deck. It looked like I was going to play Merfolk, but I hate piloting the deck (boring). Funyun and I ended up re-building LEDless Dredge that night, making a hybrid from manaless dredge concepts. We didn't get much testing with the last build I used for the tournament (but that's okay, I trust theory more than practice), but I was confident in the deck and I knew I liked the deck more than Merfolk.

The List:

// Lands - 13
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tarnished Citadel

// Dredgers - 13
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast

// GY Goodies - 14
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge from Below
2 Dread Return

// Draw/Discard - 20
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Street Wraith
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Careful Study

// Sideboard
1 Ancestor's Chosen
1 Angel of Despair
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Nature's Claim
2 Ray of Revelation

The gameplan is to DDD, and when it is either safe or necessary to cast spells, then do so. The deck can play fast (which is important against opposing combo/aggro decks), and remains capable of playing against permission. The problems I had with both manaless and my old LEDless dredge lists were largely solved in this build.

I've done my best recall what happened (any corrections are appreciated - I am trying to accurately represent what happened), it is somewhat hazy, and the order of rounds 5-7 might be off. I don't remember most names, sorry.


Round 1 - Sligh - 2/0
I rolled him a turn before I would lose both games. I won turn 3 in the first game and turn 4 second game. He opened both games with Goblin Guide, but they ended up helping me a great deal. His Goblin Guide gave me gamebreaking lands in both games. Importantly, in the first game the Guide reveal was important for helping me to avoid the timewalk penalty of my mulligan, while in the second game it sped up my no-land hand (w/SW) with a breakthrough. For game 2: -2 SW; +1 Iona, +1 Chosen. He also elected to play in g2 (oops). I saw both targets, but he had Vortex on t3, so I couldn't profitably DR Chosen. Stupidly, I forgot to DR Iona (it was hidden underneath a card) to seal the deal in g2 (doh), but he didn't topdeck what he needed to win. He didn't burn out his own creatures to hit my bridges (but, he was tapped out at critical moments).


Round 2 - UW Stoneblade - 2/0
Game 1 wasn't even close. If I remember correctly, he opened the game with 3 StPs on my Ichorids and used Jace to bounce a token, but he had no relevent interaction otherwise. Game 2, he sides in 2 Wrath, 2 PtE, 2 Relic, 2 Surgical Extraction (I asked him after). He elected to play in g2 (oops). I sided: -4 SW; +4 Grudge. I beleve he had counters for my draw, so I was mostly in DDD mode. Therapy and Grudge made the T2 SFM->T3 Batterskull route much weaker, and Grudge handled manlands when I didn't have bridges. He had some actual beats in this game though. Eventually, the board was 2 SFM and 1 Clique, my board was mediocre with a few tokens, a giant GGT and Narco; I was at low life. I overthought, choosing not to go with my first instinct, and blocked, removing bridges, only to eat a Wrath (which I knew he had). I should have taken the damage, he'd have wrathed, and I'd have made tokens, but I didn't (doh). I made a board faster than he did though, and so I got there.


Round 3 - Merfolk - Played this guy the day before (he wasn't polite the day before) - 2/0
Game 1 was fairly close, from what I remember, as he had a strong lord + Cursecatcher hand, while I had weak dredges and made minor play errors (I believe I misordered the hardcasting of discard and draw). I ended up doing the normal merfolk route, which is taking as much damage as you can accept while letting Ichorid (which you don't swing with if he possibly has a blocker to die) build a large army, choosing only to block when I don't lose bridges and/or at the last possible moment if I do lose bridges in the block (which becomes a bit more complicated when they have evasion). Cursecatcher forces us to bend over backwards not to play spells - thank goodness we have Ichorid. He sides in crypts, jittes, and (I believe) echoing truth. I believe he had a 16-lord build, so I didn't side Elesh (the odds of resolving it aren't great), but I did go: -4 SW; +4 Grudge. He elected to play in g2 (oops). Game 2 was a blowout. Because he lacked vital information about my hand (sandbagged grudge = awesome), I was able to force him to make major sacrifices, getting rid of most of his board and his Jitte. I basically had to fight through 4 counters to get rid of Jitte, but it was game over from there - he played correctly, and I got lucky.


Round 4 - UWb Stoneblade - (Sam - IsThisACatInAHat? on The Source) - 1/2
Game 1:
This game was somewhat close, he had some relevant board and stack interaction, but I still got there. From what I remember, T2 SFM fails against Cabal Therapy (bye bye Batterskull) - this happened over and over in the tournament. Therapy wrecks him 3 times (hitting both his SFMed Equipment, Jace, and the 4th was MMed).

Game 2:
Noteworthy, he elected to draw (smart man)! I side: -4 SW; +4 Grudge. Game 2 wasn't close, he opens with Leyline, and we goto G3 (I just didn't expect Leyline).

Game 3:
For the last game, I side: -4 Grudge (because I am retarded), -1 DR, -1 DBlast; +4 Claim, +2 Ray. Of course, I elect to draw. Game 3 was ridiculously close. I mull to 6 (with a ray, claim, land, etc.), he keeps his 7 (if I remember correctly). He opens with Leyline, I Claim it. He gets the ball rolling while I'm drawing more cards trying to get to 8, and turn 4 he hardcasts Leyline. I ray it. Eventually, I dredge my deck out, and he's got 35ish life with Batterskull active. I had to dredge hard (I was at very low life), and ended up with 5 cards left in my library, a few tokens, GGT (which he eventually answers), and 4 Ichorids in recursion. I forgot to DR->GGT, and was a turn late (a mistake which cost me the game). Problematically, he had 5 mana, SFM and Batterskull to pwn my Bridges (return, germ dies, Bridges exile, SFM it back in). I keep returning Ichorids over and over, but Batterskull does a good job at making it very hard to kill him. I end up decking myself a turn before I'd win. Fuck. I sided incorrectly (I needed 2 Grudges - which would have wrecked Batterskull) and I misplayed by DRing GGT a turn later than I should have.


Round 5 - GW Maverick - 2/1
I got to play at the featured match tables from about this match onward.

I won the roll, and sadly, I had to tell him he was playing first (I hate winning the roll). He essentially looked at me and told me I was bad at magic (he was serious), but he also didn't know what I was playing. Vindicatingly, we weren't even playing magic in game 1 - Dredge did its thing. It was a turn 4 win with an army and 2 giant GGTs. And, that's what the deck is about -- if you want to win at magic, then avoid playing magic (as you normally do) and interacting as usual. He elects to play in Game 2 (oops). I do the usual -4 SW; +4 Grudge. He end step e-tutors on my first turn, and plays t2 Wheel (shit), so we move to g3. I didn't expect an e-tutor board in metagame filled with MM. I side: -2 Grudge, -2 DR, -1 Phantasmagorian (could have been study), -1 Thug (DBlast can be powerful in this matchup); +4 Claim, +2 Ray. I mull to 6, he mulls into 4 (opting not to keep his initial 1 land + crypt + 5 more cards hand). I have a slow start, slow enough that eventually he has some interaction (but not dangerously so). I remember that he KoTR'd for a Dryad Arbor, but ended up not KoTR'ing his arbor to get rid of my bridges (which made my job just that much easier). It didn't matter though, I was too far ahead.


Round 6 - BUG (a hybrid of Landstill and TA) - (Gerry Thompson) - 2/1
Game 1:
I believe I won the roll (damnit), telegraphing what I was playing, and he made sure he had a relevant hand. Game 1, he Thoughtseizes me, and I comment that he was timewalking me, he agreed (he seemed to be the only player I played that day who instantly understood what I was doing). He then goes back to back Hymns (no dredger hits the GY), timewalking me all day until Goyfmath won.

Game 2:
I side in a mix of hate, not knowing what to expect: -4 SW, -1 DBlast, -1 DR; +4 Claim, +1 Grudge, +1 Ray. I elected to draw, ofc. He did the same discarding shenanigans, goyfmath, and had a deed to make my life hard. I honestly didn't expect to win this (I wasn't paying very good attention to lifetotals), but noticed in the last possible turns that he was in danger just as I was. Two turns before I won, I had a difficult choice. I needed two blockers and a bridge in the next two turns, and I had to flip a combination of cards to surive. I had a breakthrough in hand, but no land in play. I did some quick math on whether it was better to dredge twice or attempt to draw a land to break (his hand was safe at the time), and it turned out that the correct thing to do was draw instead of Dredge. I drew a Bridge (sadly), so I had one more turn. He topdecks a Thoughtseize and I lose my break, so then I'm relegated to dredging next turn. My Dredge turns out to have all the money cards I need and a phantasmagorian to empty my Bridge in hand (pure luck), so I was able to stall and squeek out a win (as he was low on life after MM/Dismember/FoW/Fetches/a few beats).

Game 3:
I figure he doesn't have Leyline: -4 Claim, -1 Grudge; +1 DR, +1 Ray, +3 SW. He elected to draw (smart man). Game 3, he does more discard timewalks, and he played well. I eventually am able to get to the position of squeeking lethal through (yet again) 3 lethal goyfs and a Deed. Very close.


Round 7 - Merfolk (Alfonso) - 2/0
I rolled him both games. I basically didn't cast a single spell until it was already over, as he had early Cursecatchers and I had very vulnerable bridges in both games. I basically amassed tons of tokens to alpha strike him. He elected to play g2 (oops). I side as usual for Grudges. In game 2, he also made a play error in swinging with a lord and 4 Cursecatchers (he had another lord which had summoning sickness) while I had enough zombies to blow him out by multi-blocking the lord and blocking the Cursecatchers, and when his lord died, his cursecatchers did too. It would have been much closer had he done the math right.

Round 8 - Team America (Nikita, we took this guy to his bus stop after the tourney) - 2/0
First turn he Thoughtseizes me, swears with a wonderful Russian accent (a long stream of them) - he didn't want to play against Dredge at all. He gets pwned so quickly that I wasn't even sure what deck he was playing (never got to Therapy, he scooped before I could see his hand) - I guessed TA given his cantrips. I side: -4 SW, -1 DR, -1 DBlast; +4 Claim, +2 Ray. He elects to play g2 (oops). I draw and discard Phantasmagorian, he extirpates it (ouch). I'm forced to actually play magic, I'm on the losing end, and eventually I'm at 5 life staring down a Goyf and TS (each of which are lethal). I activate CC and dredge my deck over, DR an Imp to handle TS, get a Narco, and a few tokens. I roll him from there (he made the misplay of attacking with both, and I double block, and get my tokens to be lethal).

Round 9 - Zoo - (Lementor, here on the source) - ID
We didn't know for sure if we would make top 8 by IDing, but we were convinced that the probability was very high to make top 8, so we just IDed. We had played the day before (nice guy). He made top 8.


Quarter Finals - UWb Stoneblade - (Sam) - 2/0
I get to avenge my only loss. I love being able to read my opponent's decklist before a match - it gave me more useful information than it gave him (he got see my deck in the GY anyways). Game 1 he gets rolled, not much to say. I side: -4 SW, -1 DR, -1 DBlast, -1 Phantasmagorian, -1 Careful Study; +4 Claim, +2 Ray, +2 Grudge. Game 2 he mulls into 4 with a Leyline, I mull to 6 with Claim/Land/etc. I Claim Leyline. I make the somewhat risky play of following it up with Break the next turn (he didn't counter the claim on Leyline, so I thought it was worth trying, particularly as he was far enough behind that just getting the ball rolling would end him). It resolves and so I get some dredgers into the GY, and eventually start dredging as usual. Later, after some brainstorming, he telegraphs what is in his hand (he had 2 cards in hand), as he hasn't been using permission or board control (given plenty of opportunities), he doesn't make a land drop (and has 3 lands in play), and so I blind Therapy on Leyline (it could have been Jace or his singleton Batterskull), hitting 2 Leylines in his hand that he could play next turn (I believe he topdecks the land next turn). Later he gets Bob going. He ends up getting his 4th Leyline (I saw from Bob reveal), I have ray in the GY, but I just Therapied it (either to bait the permission or rip it out of his hand), and then rolled him.

Semi Finals - UW Standstill Stoneblade - (Chris Boozer) - 2/0
I roll him game 1. He elected to play in g2 (oops). Side: -4 SW; +4 Grudge. G1 was massacre. G2 was so freaking close - I barely survived two relics, but squeaked out the win. I assume the video of this match will eventually be found here.

Finals - Merfolk - 2/0
General notes: after seeing my decklist, he elected to play in g1 (oops) and g2 (oops). Side: -3 Careful Study; +2 Grudge, +1 Elesh. He was smart with his use of Wasteland on manlands. He had a crap sideboard for this match, and there wasn't much he could do. You can read the specifics here.



Quick Thoughts:

• Phantasmagorian was outstanding.
• My anti-GY hate was outstanding.
• The DR targets were almost useless. If I had different matchups, that could have been different.
• 13 Dredgers is beautiful, as you really, really need to open hands which have a dredger (or you very well might get timewalked).
• In the event I did mulligan, it was still possible to race with blue draw effects and land (so, you don't necessarily have to suffer getting timewalked if you choose to risk playing spells before getting your DDD engine going).
• While every deck except my finals match had graveyard hate, the decks I faced were even to favorable matchups for Dredge. I made lots of mistakes (and so did my opponents), but I still won anyways (I was lucky). I had fun.
• I sided out Street Wraiths in every match except the finals. That might look weird to you, but the guy had no GY hate, which made Careful Study less useful than SW because it gets hit by permission (and SW feeds Ichorid, while CS doesn't, which is very important in this matchup). Careful Study is one of the best ways to recover from GY hate, otherwise, you are stuck drawing to 8 (which can take quite a while in the midgame). But, since he didn't have GY hate, I didn't need Careful Study as badly.

peace,
4eak