Recently I’ve been tweaking around with random concepts in this lack luster meta. The boredom has driven me to explore the artist formerly known as dredge. Now, I’m quite familiar with dredge as I have piloted the deck in vintage a couple of times and I have to say, some of these top 8 lists make me question if people really understand why certain cards are in the deck. Hopefully I can clear up some of the questions and give you a current twist I’ve placed on the deck.       

Now, before I begin breaking down dredge, here is a quick lecture on how the deck works. Using Bazaar of Baghdad in combination with the mechanic dredge enables you to dump your entire library into the graveyard. Cards like Breakthrough, Careful Study, and Cabal Therapy are fast discard outlets to dump dredge cards into the yard. Once you begin dredging, your goal is to net Narcomoeba and dump Ichorid into the yard’s pile. Finally you flash back Dread Return resurrecting Flame-Kin Zealot from the yard with the combination of Bridge From Below triggering, and thus you swing in for the win!

There are many cards though that some people may not understand, and others that have no business in the deck in this humble author’s opinion. (Those who know me will promptly say “Humble? Child please.”)

Here are two lists that stem from Ichorid decks in vintage. This one finished 4-0, and was piloted by Dunkle_Stille:

Mana Ichorid

Piloted by Dunkle_Stille

Creatures 1 Cephalid Sage 1 Fatestitcher 1 Flame-Kin Zealot 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Golgari Thug 4 Ichorid 4 Narcomoeba 4 Stinkweed Imp 23 cards Other Spells 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 3 Breakthrough 4 Bridge from Below 3 Cabal Therapy 4 Careful Study 1 Chain of Vapor 2 Dread Return 4 Leyline of the Void 21 cards

Lands 4 Cephalid Coliseum 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 12 cards Sideboard 1 Ancient Grudge 3 Chain of Vapor 1 Darkblast 1 Echoing Truth 4 Emerald Charm 4 Tormod's Crypt 1 Wispmare 15 cards

 

Manaless Ichorid

Piloted by Tilt1983

Creatures 4 Dryad Arbor 2 Cephalid Sage 2 Flame-Kin Zealot 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Golgari Thug 4 Ichorid 4 Narcomoeba 4 Stinkweed Imp 4 Street Wraith 32 cards Other Spells 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Ancient Grudge 4 Bridge from Below 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Dread Return 4 Serum Powder 20 cards

Lands 4 Gemstone Mine 4 cards Sideboard 4 Darkblast 4 Emerald Charm 1 Empyrial Archangel 2 Ingot Chewer 2 Llanowar Wastes 2 Wispmare 15 cards

There are major differences in these deck lists even though they appear nearly identical in the build. Dunkle’s list is closely related more to Mana Ichorid. Mana Ichorid is a vintage dredge list that relies more on a combo engine rather than Ichorid beats. The list is better against agro builds which can use Wasteland and control magic to stop Bazaar of Baghdad ( BoB ). It is more consistent with its combo as it has tools to just flat out win on any given turn, but at times may lack in the aggressive department and can ultimately lose the game with a lackluster dredge.

Tilt’s list is more related to Manaless Ichorid. This deck uses less mana sources and relies heavily on its ability to mulligan aggressively into a hand with Bazaar of Baghdad by using Serum Powder. The game against control vastly improves as the deck is more aggressive than combo with the majority of threats being unable to be countered. Dread Return and Cabal Therapy in combination with Dryad Arbor enable an ability to generate more tokens but take away from consistency of comboing. This is more of an aggressive deck with a combo back bone.

Each deck also has certain types of hate that can shine through. Manaless Ichorid is much more vulnerable to Leyline of the Void due to its lack of mana sources to deal with the card. Remember BoB doesn’t produce mana so it must rely on color specific cards such as Emerald Charm. This limits the ability quite a bit to play its hate against such cards and can often times lose game one against a very heavy Leyline of the Void main decked metagame. Its biggest advantage though shines through clearly with the ability to deal with (Tormod’s Crypt)/Relic of Progenitus. With the ability to play multiple copies of its combo cards, it can afford to slow roll its dredge and not lose to a single Relic/Crypt while being able to create tokens through bridge and Ichorid.

Mana Ichorid has enough main deck mana sources that it can deal with those pesky leylines. The problem here is the exact opposite of Manaless Ichorid. The deck tries to dump the majority of its library into the graveyard in a single turn and this often leads to a vulnerability to crypts and relics. It doesn’t have as strong of a beat down game to really afford to play manaless Ichorid style.

I do have problems with each build in it starts with the leylines main decked. I find they get in the way and even in mirror aren’t that great. If you are going to main deck hate, Tormod’s Crypt is a much better choice as you can cast it any time. I prefer to not main deck any hate though as decks like helm line are in the current metagame. In the Manaless Ichorid I’d replace the Leylines with any combination of Emerald Charm, Oxidize, or Pithing Needle. Emerald Charm is rather obvious. Oxidize is good to deal with the pithing needles main deck shutting down BoB. Pithing Needle is very versatile card that can deal with Wasteland or Relic/Crypt. Mana Ichorid can replace the leylines with a combination of Chain of Vapor,Emerald Charm, or Pithing Needle. In this case, it is much more likely that the Emerald Charm can untap a BoB or tap down a Tormod’s Crypt. Chain of Vapor is the ultimate answer to the majority of hate in the metagame and is easier to cast with twelve mana sources that can all produce blue. The needles will stop crypts, relics, or situational creatures that can sacrifice themselves i.e. Mogg Fanatic.

I’m not a fan of the deck playing Dryad Arbor as we don’t have Reverent Silence yet. I’d replace the arbors with City of Brass. This will allow the pilot to effectively cast Chain of Vapor or Wispmare. Dryad Arbor also has summoning sickness, giving the opportunistic Wasteland to make it go bye-bye before it can add mana.  Putrid Imp is a suitable replacement to Dryad Arbor. Making room for the imps may be tricky, but I found that cutting Ancient Grudge for the Imps actually helped a bit with consistency of the deck. I made these changes to the main deck for stability and adding a second discard outlet the deck sorely needed:

Mana Ichorid

Created by M E L K O R and FatManInALittleCoat

Creatures 3 Ichorid 2 Fatestitcher 3 Golgari Thug 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Narcomoeba 1 Flame-Kin Zealot 4 Stinkweed Imp 21 cards Other Spells 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Bridge from Below 3 Cabal Therapy 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Careful Study 3 Breakthrough 3 Chain of Vapor 2 Dread Return 4 Lotus Petal 27 cards

Lands 4 City of Brass 4 Cephalid Coliseum 8 cards Sideboard 1 Chain of Vapor 2 Pithing Needle 3 Emerald Charm 4 Tormod's Crypt 2 Tolarian Winds 1 Gemstone Mine 1 Gemstone Mine 1 Pithing Needle 15 cards