[Free Article] Night of the Living Dead: The Ultimate Vintage Dredge Primer

[voltron00x]

For those about to Dredge, I salute you:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/19090_The_Long_Winding_Road_Night_of_the_Living_Dead_The_Ultimate_Vintage_Dredge_Primer_Part_1.html

This week, I present Part 1 of a comprehensive look at Vintage Dredge.  This part reviews the cards that form the Dredge strategy in Vintage, along with some relevant strategy and rules tips.  Next week, I examine some of the different builds, sideboarding cards and strategy, and go through an example of how to build a Dredge deck to attack a specific metagame.

In total, the two articles are 10,000 words on one of the most powerful strategies in modern Vintage. 

Enjoy!

[Yare]

Extremely thorough article. I look forward to part 2.

[Valorale]

Good read, one question. My understanding of stacking and the rule changes over the last 10 years is shaky at best due to my hiatus from the game during that time.. but ..

So, in the previous example, let’s say that instead of casting Cabal Therapy, I instead move to my combat phase and attack with the Ichorid, and my opponent blocks with Dark Confidant. In this case, both the Ichorid and Dark Confidant will go to the Graveyard, and then I will receive two 2/2 Zombie tokens (one for each Bridge).

It was always explained to me that if my opp blocked my creature and we both go to the yard, I lose the bridges, have I been getting bad information?

[Evenpence]

This article is extremely well-written.

I haven't enjoyed a Magic read like this in quite some time.  I'm looking forward to Part 2, don't let me down!  I expect it to be better than Part 1.

If you haven't already (and if possible), could you please include a few different lists in the next article with explanation as why you chose certain cards in one list over another?  I'd like to know your thoughts on different synergistic relationships in dredge builds (if it wouldn't be too much trouble).

Fantastic article, better than at least 90% of featured articles.  Keep up the good work.

[BruiZar]

Great stuff voltron. 2010 may become the year that dredge goes from boogieman to frankensteinmonster

[Troy_Costisick]

Great article, Matt.  I've been practicing with Dredge for about 6 months now.  I feel like I still have a lot to learn about how to play it, so I'm looking forward to part 2. 

Peace,

-Troy

[LotusHead]

I finally got enough of the shitty cards of Dredge to build a build with 12 proxies.

I'm looking forward to modern example lists.

[meadbert]

It was always explained to me that if my opp blocked my creature and we both go to the yard, I lose the bridges, have I been getting bad information?

Both triggers are on Bridge so you can choose the order they come off the stack.

If you stack the tokens trigger on top, then it resolves and you get two tokens.  Then the exile trigger resolves.

If you stack the exile trigger on top, then Bridge is exiled first and because the token trigger says "if Bridge from Below is in your graveyard" the second trigger will not happen so no tokens for you.

So you can choose whether to get tokens or not, but you definitely lose the Bridge.

[Valorale]

If you stack the tokens trigger on top, then it resolves and you get two tokens.  Then the exile trigger resolves.

If you stack the exile trigger on top, then Bridge is exiled first and because the token trigger says "if Bridge from Below is in your graveyard" the second trigger will not happen so no tokens for you.

Make sense. Yes I didnt clarify my question, the bridges are gone regardless, that was understood. Whether or not I got the tokens was never explained correctly to me.

[voltron00x]

If you stack the tokens trigger on top, then it resolves and you get two tokens.  Then the exile trigger resolves.

If you stack the exile trigger on top, then Bridge is exiled first and because the token trigger says "if Bridge from Below is in your graveyard" the second trigger will not happen so no tokens for you.

Make sense. Yes I didnt clarify my question, the bridges are gone regardless, that was understood. Whether or not I got the tokens was never explained correctly to me.

Meadbert is correct, you control the order of the triggers from Bridge.

So, as an example:

I attack with an Ichorid into a Dark Confidant and have three Bridge from Below in my Graveyard.  My opponent blocks with the Dark Confidant, and both go to the Graveyard.  A bunch of triggers go onto the stack as all the Bridges trigger twice.  Each Bridge triggers once for the Ichorid going to my Graveyard (make a 2/2 Zombie token), and once for the Dark Confidant going to my opponent’s Graveyard (Exile Bridge from Below).  So, I have six triggers to stack.  If I stack them like this:  “Exile, Exile, Exile, Token, Token, Token”, then I will get my tokens.  At the time the Token trigger is resolving, the Bridges haven’t yet been Exiled, so I will get a 2/2 token, then another, then another, and then Exile all three Bridges.  If I do the reverse, I wouldn’t get anything, because when the token triggers are resolving, they check again (upon resolution) to make sure Bridge is still in your Graveyard.  If they’re not, you don’t get the token.

[voltron00x]

This article is extremely well-written.

I haven't enjoyed a Magic read like this in quite some time.  I'm looking forward to Part 2, don't let me down!  I expect it to be better than Part 1.

If you haven't already (and if possible), could you please include a few different lists in the next article with explanation as why you chose certain cards in one list over another?  I'd like to know your thoughts on different synergistic relationships in dredge builds (if it wouldn't be too much trouble).

Fantastic article, better than at least 90% of featured articles.  Keep up the good work.

Thanks!

Next week's article has five full decklists, from tournaments in 2010 (basically a sample of the different styles) plus a breakdown on how I designed my deck for the Philly Open V in February... also sideboard cards, techniques, match-ups, and so on.  For people that are familiar with the deck, its the meatier of the two articles, I think.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Amazing introductory article to dredge so far and I love how you compared it to dredge lists in other formats to relate to other players. A+

[Smmenen]

matt: this was very good.    It was compact and engaging.  You were telling me things I knew, but I was still interested.   You also said interesting tidbits, and melded those tidbits in with core information well.    great work.    this is what vintage needs more of.  keep it up.  i hope when you are finished with dredge you do the same thing for other decks. 

[blackice]

Very nice article. For someone who is starting out in vintage like myself, I find it very informitive. Wish there was more articles like this.
Funny this is: was gonna ask you the other week about what you thought of dredge and get some tips. Seems like you read my mind