I split 1st place in TMD 13 with Dredge/Mana'd Ichorid/whatever you want to call it these days. It was a 113 person tournament with 7 rounds of Swiss + cut to T16.
I barely took any notes and most of this is from memory. If I played against you feel free to make any corrections to our games. I doubt anyone wants to read a Dredge report other than a Dredge player but here it is anyways
. I'll give a full explanation of the card choices and why the list was successful after the tournament report. Here's the list:
main (60)
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Ichorid
4x Narcomoeba
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Golgari Thug
4x Fatestitcher
2x Sadistic Hypnotist
4x Serum Powder
4x Bridge from Below
2x Dread Return
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Unmask
side
1x Platinum Angel
4x Ingot Chewer
3x Oxidize
3x Pithing Needle
2x Darkblast
2x Contagion
Round 1 vs Nick w/ Painter
g1 - I mull to 3 and end up with 2 Bazaars and a non-dredger. I get both Bazaars active after turn 2 and proceed to win from there. A therapy shows me Yawg Will Echoing Truth, Thirst, and REB. I figure he's playing painter because of the REB.
g2 - In comes the artifact hate. I Therapy naming E.T. I whiff and see Walk, Gifts, Volt Key, and Tinker. On to game 3...
g3 - Back in come the Unmasks and Chalices. I have an amazing 7 consisting of Bazaar, Unmask, and Chalice. I Unmask him and lay the Bazaar and Chalice down. It's nearly impossible for any deck to overcome that kind of hate from a Dredge deck on the play.
(1-0)
Round 2 - Andy w/Bomberman
g1 - I have a solid hand but he is on the play. He has an E.E. on 0 once he sees Bazaar and gets a turn 2 Trinket Mage for Pithing needle and plays it. On my draw step I dredge Golgari Thug who yields no dredgers and I'm pretty much screwed from there because I only have 3 cards in my hand. 4 turns to get a dredger online doesn't cut it in Type 1, especially with an E.E. on the board. I scoop. Great, Ichorid doesn't lose turn 1, WTF, lol?! I can't stand having to win two post board games with Dredge; it usually doesn't work out so well.
g2 - I see hate for his hate and I win.
g3 - I have an amazing hand with Bazaar, City, Darkblast, Chewer, and 2 dredgers. It was the best post board hand I saw all day. That would win against 95% of the match-ups out there. Unfortunately, he plays Leyline turn 0. I did not expect him to play Leyline at all because he I saw Jailers and and T.C. game two. He later tells me that he only runs 1 Leyline as in his board. I am both pissed that he saw it and I disagree with his logic of only running it as a one of in Bomberman. You should run 4 Leylines or no Leylines; consistency is better than a silver bullet. He's a nice guy and he wishes me luck anyways. Great, a loss on round two of a seven round tournament. I figure 5-2 is not strong enough to make it so this means that I need to win out, or only draw one match-up.
(1-1)
Round 3 - Mike French w/ MUD + a splash of artifact aggro
Mike is a really nice guy that flew all the way from Japan to see if he was a match for a relative that needed an organ transplant. He tells me that unfortunately he was not a match for his relative. He has some downtime before going back to Japan though, so he gets to play with expensive cardboard!
g1 - I get a solid hand and do the dredge thing + Sadistic Hypnotist on turn 2 to make him discard his whole hand. I win from there.
g2 - I'm not sure about the chain of events this match. I know there was copious amounts of hate on both sides. He played a Pithing Needle naming Bazaar and played a Crypt. I had a City and played a Needle naming Crypt. He plays a second Needle naming Golgari Thug. I proceed to dredge off Thug during my draw step, informing him that a Needle doesn't affect replacement effects. He sighs and says "yeah, I really haven't played Magic in awhile; I should probably know these things!" We get a good laugh off that. I proceed to Oxidize his Needle naming Bazaar and go nuts from there. I give him some pointers on his boarding tactics for dredge decks and he is very appreciative.
(2-1)
Round 4 - Aaron w/ 5c Stax
g1 - We both mull to 5 and take up I do nutty things with Fatestichers and win game one.
g2 - He wins it. I have no idea what happened this game.
g3 - This game takes a very long time. He gets a Welder and a Masticore (circa Urza's Destiny) out and lays out beats. I have Needle on Crypt and the only artifact in my graveyard is a Platinum Angel. I almost convince him into welding in the Angel so he can crypt me. He realizes though that he would not have an answer to Platz and she could just fly over his creatures and smash him in the face to win the game. My Jedi Mind Tricks do not work on him though. I end up needing to dredge up more stuff to stay afloat in the game. This causes Serum Powder to enter my graveyard. He promptly welds out my Needle for Powder and proceeds to Crypt me. I'm able to stabilize, but time runs out.
(2-1-1)
Round 5 - Dan Gagooch - the mirror but w/Flame-Kin combo kill
I've played T1 and T4 with Dan for several years at a local shop. He's a laid back, chill guy.
g1 - He wins game one via Flame-Kin kill. He ended up having to dig pretty deep to see Flame-Kin, but he got there from Fatestitchers. At this point I think I'm screwed because he's a lot faster than me. Then I realized I should just leave my Unmasks and Chalices in for his spells, such as Breakthrough, Lotus, etc., and bring in a Platinum Angel.
g2 - Turn one I play Bazaar and do stuff. His turn he plays Bazaar and passes. My turn I play City and hardcast Cabal naming Breakthrough - bingo! That play won me this game because he didn't see enough dredges to combo out quick enough. A Platinum Angel finishes the job.
g3 - This was a very intense game. Both of us emptied our libraries with crazy Fatestitcher shenanigans. I had a better board position the entire game. I made a huge misplay and somehow forgot to activate 2 Ichorid triggers one turn. This would have ended the game much sooner. I end up getting a Platz and am able to get him to 2 life. He Dread Returns and Ingot chewer to kill my Platz and has another Return + Flame-Kin in his yard. I am still at 20 life though and he is unable to get enough gas to finish me off. I win my next turn. Apparently he forgot to dredge somewhere in the match. Thankfully I pulled it off despite sloppy play. Platz was a huge help in this match-up.
(3-1-1)
Round 6 - Bob w/ Tez
g1 - I have the nuts and go off. Sadistic Hypnotist was clutch in this match. It discarded 4 of his cards and won me the game where Flame-Kin or Realm Razer/Titan would not.
g2 - I'm pretty sure I had the nuts in this game. Bazaar + Needle for his Crypt and Darkblast for his Jailer. At some point in this match I mistake a dredge of Stinkweed and dredge 6 instead of 5. Bob knows that this is an honest mistake and I felt really bad for doing it. Also, it sucked because Narco was the 6th card which had to be shuffled back into my library
. The judge gives me a warning for the action. I don't remember how exactly the match went down but I know that my hands could not have been better. Running 14 hate cards was awesome.
(4-1-1)
Round 7 - young guy w/ landstill (I forgot his name)
This is do-or-die time. I need to win to make top 16.
g1 - He sees I'm running Dredge and scoops to a Therapy on stack. I really didn't have a good idea what he was playing, but he gave me the impression he was not prepared for the match-up.
g2 - He plays Mishra's Factory and Relic of Progenitus. I have a Chewer for his Relic and he has no blue mana after that. I Therapy his hand away and he scoops shortly after.
(5-1-1)
I sneak into the top 16 in 15th place.
First round - Andrew with R/G/W/B beatz
Andrew pile shuffles like a champ, 2 or 3 times every time he mulls. It tags on a lot of time to the matches, but who cares, there's no time limit post Swiss rounds.
g1 - I Serum Powder a couple of times and he puts on his 'oh crap, this is a bad match-up for me' face. I see two Ooze creatures that remain 1/1's for the entire game. The game would have ended much sooner if I ran the Flame-Kin kill. Andrew and I exchange laughs over the awesomeness of THA OOOOZZZE.
g2 - He wins game 2. I have no recollection what happened.
g3 - He plays lots of interesting critters that are good against most decks, but not so hot against Dredge. Children of Korlis is not enough to do the trick against Dredge. I ended up Darkblasting it for good measure though. At one point I make the mistake again of dredging for 6 instead of 5 on a Stinkweed. It was the freaking second time I mistook it for a Troll. Anyways, the judge comes over and asks me if I had gotten any warnings for the same action earlier in the day. I manned up and said "yes, I did the exact thing in an earlier match." He informs me that I have a second warning for the same action. If I make that mistake again, I will be DQ'd from the entire tournament. That is
not something I wanted to do, seeing how I made it that far. From then on out I play painfully slow, as to not allow myself to make the same mistake again. This obviously frustrated my future opponents, but I absolutely had to make sure I would not make the same mistake again due to fatigue from a long ass tournament.
Top 8 - Noah w/ U/G/W fish
Noah was a really laid back guy with some cool boots from Vermont. He said he was glad he made it this far in the tournament.
g1 - I take damage from his fishy dudes but I Unmask/Therapy away the rest of his threats and overrun him with Zombies. This was another game that would have ended much sooner with the Flame-Kin kill. He admits that he is unprepared for the Dredge match-up. I let him know that many of my opponents have not packed enough hate which has allowed me to progress this far.
g2 - He did not seem to pack any hate for Dredge. I ended up playing Contagion killing two of his creatures. The spell resolved, his creatures entered the graveyard, about 20 seconds passed and I went to move to my attack step. Noah then announces that he will cast Force of Will, pitching Daze. I feel kind of bad for him but I call the judge over and the judge states that since the creatures have already entered the graveyard zone it is too late to respond to Contagion. This error may may not have cost him the game, but it definitely did completely turn the tides and allowed me to Dread Return a ridiculous 20/20 Troll.
Top 4 - Steve Menendian w/ a Grow variant
I didn't even take notes this match. I was pretty exhausted from a long day and I was happy to be where I was. I talked to Steve about his long ass trip here, old school Star Wars toys, and the old Decipher CCG. Steve was hacking up a lung the entire match which caused onlookers to back up, lol. If anyone gets sick, call it "The Smemmen!" Steve, please correct/add to these crappy notes as you see fit:
g1 - He makes comments about Ichorid/Dredge before I sit down. The mulliganing made all these games very long and drawn out. I played very slowly game one due to the fact that if I made the aforementioned play error one more time I would be DQ'd. Steve and the onlookers seemed a little frustrated by my slow play, but whatever. That was the speed that made me comfortable and assured I would not be DQ'd for a dumb misplay. Steve never mentioned or complained about my slow play which was nice. I eventually over ran him with tokens and Ichorids for the win.
g2 - I side in 14 cards including a Platz. He makes it quite clear that he has a good hand early on. By turn 2 he has both a Jailer and a Crypt out. I'm able to deal with the Jailer but he Yawg Wills turn 3 and replays it -> prompt scooping ensues.
g3 - He gets his mull on, from 6 to 5 to 4. An opponent mulliganing is, has, and always will be, the best hate out there. This was obviously a very anticlimactic game. Bridge tokens + Ichorids go the distance. "It's the nature of the beast."
I made a couple minor play errors during the match, but they were inconsequential in the end. I was absolutely beat after that match.
Finals w/ Matt McNally w/ Tez
Matt and I have known and bashed each other for years, all in good fun. We used to play a lot at Sam Best's old shop in Meriden. He initially states that he wants to play it out. I say "fuck you Matt, you would." Upon learning that if we agree to a split he will be declared victor due to better standing, he agrees to the split. I couldn't care less about a tittle. We each get $588. He had to split his winnings so I ended up walking away without a tittle but with more cash anyways.
Now, onto the decklist discussion:
The maindeck is more of a disruptive control styled Dredge deck than a combo deck. Unmask and Chalice were pure gold all day. I opted to cut the Flame-Kin combo kill for Sadistic Hypnotist. In testing, Flame-Kin was more of an "all-in" combo strategy that did not suit my playstyle. Hypnotist has three things going for him:
1. Surprise factor - no one knew what his ability was and some opponents did not make correct decisions when they saw him hit the yard.
2. He doesn't need 6 tokens out to be good - Let's face it, unless you're playing the uber-agressive Chrome Mox/Breakthrough version of the Dredge deck, Flame-Kin is going to suck in a lot of match-ups. If you have 6 tokens out, chances are your board position is so good there is no reason you should lose the game anyways. Hypnotist only needs 1 or 2 Zombie tokens/creatures out to dump an opponent's hand (don't forget, you can sac him to his own ability for another 2 card discard). This strategy is pretty strong against decks like Tez and Combo. If your Flame-Kin kill fizzles, those decks are most likely going to kill you next turn. If you can get off 2 Hypnotist activations, in combination with Therapy, you're all set.
3. He pitches to Unmask - meh, it was relevant in at least 3 games.
In reality, no matter what Dread Return target you chose, albeit Flame-Kin, Titan, Razor, Troll, Angel of Despair, Hypnotist, etc., you will probably have the game locked up anyways had you not D.R.'d anything. I probably would not run Hypnotist again. He usually just sat in my graveyard while I animated a 13/13 Troll or got boarded out games 2 and 3. Fatestitcher was amazing every game one. He adds enough speed to consistently give you the game 1 victory. It's almost imperative that Ichorid wins game one. Overcoming the 2 following games of hate is never an easy task. Ichorid's primary strength game 1 is in it's consistency; if you find a Bazaar, you can pretty much lay down some disruption and auto-pilot it to victory. If you're running Unmask you should always activate Bazaar the turn it comes into play. I often dug up either an Unmask or fodder for the Unmask I was holding. Also, you need to be aggressive with Unmask - if you have an Unmask, and your only fodder for it is a Bridge, screw the Bridge. Pitching it for Unmask would just about always be the correct call against any deck.
Now for the sideboard:
The most noticeable feature is the complete lack of Leyline/Planar Void disruption. Going into this TMD I had a very strong suspicion both these cards would not be making an appearance in anyone's deck. That suspicion was right. Out of the 10 total opponents I faced for the day, a only singular Leyline was present in one opponent's deck. My suspicion was founded on the premise that Leyline had barely made an appearance of the last 20 major top 8's therefore, no one is going to run it at TMD. With freed up room from Leyline hate, I devoted a solid 10 spots to Crypt/Relic of Progenitus hate. Those are were the most prevalent Dredge hate cards in the last 20 top 8's. Chewer is great because he can't be targeted from Duress and you can D.R. him to blow up annoying artifacts such as Time Vault/Painter's Servant. Oxidize is good because you can blow up one piece of a 2 part artifact-combo at instant speed (not to mention taking out Crypt/Relic). Pithing Needle is obviously more of a utility card and it's good when you're on the draw. Shutting down Wastes, Welders, Trikes, and a slew of other annoying activated abilities is always handy.
I devoted 4 slots to Jailer hate. Two Darkblasts and two Contagions proved to be the correct number. I hate that ugly looking little wizard bastard. Damn your scrawny white ass to hell.
Platz was pretty strong and I'm glad I included it. It makes people waste their Echoing Truths/other bounces and creature removal on Angel while your Bridge tokens and Ichorids go to town. It's a strategy many of opponents did not expect and it threw some of their post board strategies off balance.
Here was the general board plan:
game 2
- 3 Fatestitcher, -4 Unmask, -4 Chalice +4 Chewer, +3 Oxidize, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Platz
in addition, if I saw a black source game 1:
-1 Hypnotist, -1 Thug, -1 Ichorid +2 Darkblast, +2 Contagion -1 Needle
Game 3:
Bring back in the Unmasks and Chalices and cut what needs to be cut. My sideboard and proper metagaming definitely won me this tournament.
Thank you Ray for hosting another well run TMD. The judges were great and every player I faced was fun to play against and courteous.
Closing sentiments about Dredge - "it's the nature of the beast" pretty much sums it up. You win a lot of game 1's and you have to eek by a lot of game 2/3's. It's not the best deck in the format, but for $50-$60 it does a damn good job.
-Sean
