I think dredge will forever be fringe playable in Modern. It wins when there's little graveyard hate but loses if there is any. Basically its powerful when the meta isn't prepared for it.
Basically this, it will always prey on the moments that people think it's totally dead, just to show up steal a major win, before fading away again as people bring back the grave hate. Odds are it will be the only deck to disappear and reappear on and off just due to how explosive it can be when hate is no where in sight.
I loved dredge when it was introduced in Ravnica block. My dimir deck made use of some dredge to help keep some consistent removal even after using it. It was a nice tool. Its a shame that it got so powerful as to get some serious nerfs in latee sets
It's a shame that more people don't play Vintage on a client like MTGO, the format caters to a specific playstyle but I feel like a lot of Magic players would enjoy it!
Dredge has to be my favourite archetype in all of Magic. I love having that second library, plus zombies are cool. Issue is graveyard hate has gotten so strong it's no longer as simple as navigating around a Relic or Tormod's Crypt anymore. Like you said, it's a good deck when graveyard hate is scarce. Its success is self-defeating because the moment people are afraid of it the deck becomes irrelevant again. Losing Faithless Looting sucked. It's nice to see it shake up the meta once in a while but we've come a long way from 2005.
After coming back to the game after a 4 year break, these videos help me cope with the changes to Modern (never rotates? Lmaoooo) I often joke that i feel like Red from Shawshank Redemption, complete with a wood carving of “Bogles was here”.
I do in fact go over that! I think it gives a more positive spin on this story than others, but I also explain my skepticism of this translating into becoming higher tier again
It's good to hear that people have been having success with it! And I do bring up the recent success in the video! While I think it's attacking the meta at a specific angle right now, I go into why I think that won't necessarily translate into becoming a "top deck".
Don’t you think it’s a bit misleading to say “Unplayable: Dredge” when it just won the challenge - as you mentioned. My only fear with “Unplayable” in the title is it gets more clicks, but people who don’t watch it through will just assume “I can’t play that deck” - then less people testing/playing causes the deck to die. I’d encourage people to revive these fallen archetypes!
I also encourage people to try and revive the archetypes! One of these videos aging poorly is the best thing that can happen. I feel that the type of people to look at the thumbnail and immediately adopt a defeatist personality without listening to why the deck struggles is not the type of person to want to improve the deck, whereas someone who watches the video and goes "I can retool this to succeed" is more likely to put in work. As for Dredge winning a Challenge - my Valakut video got a lot of backlash in other channels at the time because AspiringSpike was working on the archetype with decent success. However, the deck really never rose back higher in the meta. In the long term, my opinion held. Talking about future playability is much more opinion-based, and I'm more than happy to be wrong about Dredge - it's just my prediction on what the future holds. While it's doing decently now, I personally have doubts on whether or not it will last.
@ Would heart this comment if I could. 💜 Much appreciate the thorough response and discourse! I agree with you on a whole. I play both UW Spirits w/ Vial & Living End in Modern, and to “limited success” in MTGO Leagues. We can all feel the power creep and push. I think WOTC could easily give synergy more powerful payoffs - think cards that are incredibly pushed like Mausoleum Wanderer & Harbinger of Seas. Or lords that give +2/+2 for 2 mana. Or give all creatures of a type Ward 2. In terms of Dredge, unban Looting & Troll. Print more Dredge 6-7 cards. But the issue I see is that maybe WOTC doesn’t want to design super powerful synergy since that would be “too linear”? One could argue Boros Energy is a hyper aggro synergy based deck, in a sense. And it’s brutal to play against, and kinda boring. Just random thoughts. I agree with you overall though!
What decks should I cover next?
Abzan reanimator plz
Storm!
I suppose you have to do Jund at some point right?
Humans
Why Merfolk was never good
Thematically appropriate for Dredge to return from the grave.
As a dedicated dredge player for 4 years that sideboard listing gave me chills.
Shoutout to the brave souls that tried to play Dredge when Rakdos Scam was at its peak 🫡
I think dredge will forever be fringe playable in Modern. It wins when there's little graveyard hate but loses if there is any. Basically its powerful when the meta isn't prepared for it.
Basically this, it will always prey on the moments that people think it's totally dead, just to show up steal a major win, before fading away again as people bring back the grave hate. Odds are it will be the only deck to disappear and reappear on and off just due to how explosive it can be when hate is no where in sight.
Top tier videos, especially for someone who is so new to magic. Please continue
Hey you made a video about my suggestion! Cool stuff, keep it up! 😃 🙌🏻
I loved dredge when it was introduced in Ravnica block. My dimir deck made use of some dredge to help keep some consistent removal even after using it. It was a nice tool. Its a shame that it got so powerful as to get some serious nerfs in latee sets
ThatMillGuy released a video called "No Endurance = Dredge Is Playable Again" half an hour before this dropped, [insert a joke about this here].
Lmao that's pretty funny
He gets pretty unhinged towards the end of the video too. Glad HPuzzle is fully on his hinges. 🙏🏽
Definitely my favorite new MtG content creator.
Great video as always man!
In Vintage Dredge is still incredible. Bazaar of Bagdahd is still legal and so is Grave Troll.
It's a shame that more people don't play Vintage on a client like MTGO, the format caters to a specific playstyle but I feel like a lot of Magic players would enjoy it!
Dredge has to be my favourite archetype in all of Magic. I love having that second library, plus zombies are cool. Issue is graveyard hate has gotten so strong it's no longer as simple as navigating around a Relic or Tormod's Crypt anymore. Like you said, it's a good deck when graveyard hate is scarce. Its success is self-defeating because the moment people are afraid of it the deck becomes irrelevant again. Losing Faithless Looting sucked. It's nice to see it shake up the meta once in a while but we've come a long way from 2005.
Another great video!
After coming back to the game after a 4 year break, these videos help me cope with the changes to Modern (never rotates? Lmaoooo)
I often joke that i feel like Red from Shawshank Redemption, complete with a wood carving of “Bogles was here”.
the "crispy Master" in Doctor Who... could have been the Silvermote Ghoul. basis honestly ..
the one that confronted Tom Baker'S 4th Doctor
oof that hurts
Dredge lives on in pauper (kind of not really i might be coping)
.... dredge just won a modern challenge
I do in fact go over that! I think it gives a more positive spin on this story than others, but I also explain my skepticism of this translating into becoming higher tier again
I feel like Flare of Denial from MH3 should improve Dredge as well.
people do play dredge. It just won a challenge and had a resurgence and I won two RCQ with it last year. I lost to scam once ever in an RCQ last year.
It's good to hear that people have been having success with it! And I do bring up the recent success in the video! While I think it's attacking the meta at a specific angle right now, I go into why I think that won't necessarily translate into becoming a "top deck".
Don’t you think it’s a bit misleading to say “Unplayable: Dredge” when it just won the challenge - as you mentioned.
My only fear with “Unplayable” in the title is it gets more clicks, but people who don’t watch it through will just assume “I can’t play that deck” - then less people testing/playing causes the deck to die.
I’d encourage people to revive these fallen archetypes!
I also encourage people to try and revive the archetypes! One of these videos aging poorly is the best thing that can happen.
I feel that the type of people to look at the thumbnail and immediately adopt a defeatist personality without listening to why the deck struggles is not the type of person to want to improve the deck, whereas someone who watches the video and goes "I can retool this to succeed" is more likely to put in work.
As for Dredge winning a Challenge - my Valakut video got a lot of backlash in other channels at the time because AspiringSpike was working on the archetype with decent success. However, the deck really never rose back higher in the meta. In the long term, my opinion held. Talking about future playability is much more opinion-based, and I'm more than happy to be wrong about Dredge - it's just my prediction on what the future holds. While it's doing decently now, I personally have doubts on whether or not it will last.
@ Would heart this comment if I could. 💜 Much appreciate the thorough response and discourse!
I agree with you on a whole. I play both UW Spirits w/ Vial & Living End in Modern, and to “limited success” in MTGO Leagues.
We can all feel the power creep and push. I think WOTC could easily give synergy more powerful payoffs - think cards that are incredibly pushed like Mausoleum Wanderer & Harbinger of Seas. Or lords that give +2/+2 for 2 mana. Or give all creatures of a type Ward 2.
In terms of Dredge, unban Looting & Troll. Print more Dredge 6-7 cards. But the issue I see is that maybe WOTC doesn’t want to design super powerful synergy since that would be “too linear”?
One could argue Boros Energy is a hyper aggro synergy based deck, in a sense. And it’s brutal to play against, and kinda boring. Just random thoughts. I agree with you overall though!
Is mill unplayable 😥
Honestly, a good question worth looking into
🔫 always has been
I was gonna come down here to suggest the same thing. I'd love a look at how "Burn 2" became crab beach and why it's just not keeping up anymore