At the inception of Modern, both Dread Return and Golgari Grave-Troll were banned in order to prevent Dredge from being an overbearing strategy. We saw a handful of takes on Dredge fueled by the combination of Vengevine and Gravecrawler, but the deck never really took off because it lacked the ability for truly explosive starts. With the recent unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll and the printing of Prized Amalgam in Shadows over Innistrad, this deck may be ready for the spotlight. Let’s take a look:

Dredge ? Modern | bent1337

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Vengeful Pharaoh
• 2 Stitchwing Skaab
• 4 Bloodghast
• 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
• 4 Insolent Neonate
• 4 Narcomoeba
• 4 Prized Amalgam
• 4 Stinkweed Imp

• Spells (13)
• 2 Gnaw to the Bone
• 2 Lightning Axe
• 2 Unburial Rites
• 3 Life from the Loam
• 4 Faithless Looting

• Lands (18)
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 4 City of Brass
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Dakmor Salvage
• 4 Gemstone Mine

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Vengeful Pharaoh
• 3 Ray of Revelation
• 2 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Dark Blast
• 1 Gnaw to the Bone
• 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1 Lightning Axe

Buy This Deck

This deck is capable of some truly explosive starts. Turn one Tome Scour hitting a Narcomoeba and some Prized Amalgams is not out of the question. On turn two you can Dredge, cast Faithless Looting or Insolent Neonate to both discard an additional graveyard creature and also get an extra Dredge. Oh, you’re still able to rebuy Bloodghasts off of your land drop, which will rebuy any Prized Amalgams you’ve hit. This deck is more than capable of having upward of eight power in play by the end of turn two, which is terrifyingly similar to Affinity.

But so what? There’s plenty of decks with fast starts, don’t they just all fold to sweepers? This deck is a little different. Infect and Affinity don’t care about sweepers due to the presence of creature-lands, while this deck doesn’t care about sweepers because you have an Unburial Rites backup plan. Sure, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Craterhoof Behemoth are both better if you have an army in play, but Elesh Norn and Iona, Shield of Emeria can still lock opponents out, and you always have the option of putting something like Griselbrand or Sphinx of the Steel Wind into play.

One of the other exciting things about this deck is the density of powerful sideboard spells which play out of the graveyard. Ancient Grudge and Ray of Revelation are both completely reasonable. Vengeful Pharaoh is a powerful pseudo-spell against midrange decks you can cycle back into your graveyard using Faithless Looting and Insolent Neonate. There’s even the option to play Ghost Quarters and Life from the Loam against decks like Tron. The moral of the story is, there are lots of options, and all of the Tome Scours and dredging help you find your powerful sideboard cards.

This deck may still be a card or two short from being ready for the limelight, but this is an explosive and powerful shell definitely worth keeping your eye on.