[T2 w/Planar Chaos] - U/G/b Dredge

[alamoth]

You may remember my B/G Dredge deck several posts down. This is my first attempt at a type2 dredge deck once PC hits constructed:

// Card (Dis)Advantage
4 Compulsive Research
4 Magus of the Bazaar

// Graveyard Fun
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Nether Traitor
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Shambling Shell
4 Stinkweed Imp

// Reanimation
4 Dread Return
4 Life From the Loam

// Win the Game?
2 Simic Sky Swallower

// Play Spells With These
4 Breeding Pool
1 Dimir Aqueduct
4 Gemstone Caverns
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Rot Farm
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Simic Growth Chamber
2 Watery Grave


Life From the Loam + Dredge is an incredible toolbox for lands allowing you to both fix your mana quickly and then recur Ghost Quarter to annihilate your opponent's lands.

The simple combo of using Shambling Shells to both pump and play Nether Shadow is also very powerful.

Note that this deck is virtually immune to Wrath of God. There should be no reason why a turn 2 Magus of the Bazaar doesn't result in a turn 3 Simic Sky Swallower.

[rollerking540]

no damnation?

[alamoth]

Damnation is easily a 4x on the SB for Aggro decks. Otherwise I don't think it warrants being maindecked. I'm hoping to start testing this deck as soon as patches for MWS with Planar Chaos come out.

EDIT: I retract my statement about "I don't see any reason why a turn 2 Magus doesn't produce a turn 3 SSS." I forgot about Extripate, Tormod's Crypt, etc. etc. Luckily I don't think any of those cards are going to be too heavily played in Standard.

[optimystic]

I think you'll find Extirpate will be very well played in quite a few decks playing Black. Dralnu will play it, the ability to potentially 8 x4 cards from an opponents library will be a little too tempting.

I've tested dredge decks, and magus doesn't live long enough - you spend too much time trying to get him into play and frankly, it's not worth it. Damnation also gets ditched too often. You spend most of the time dredging through your deck and sorcery's don't get much play - especially ones that can't be retrieved.

[alamoth]

I realized there were some errors when I transposed the deck:
1: -4 Careful Considerations, +4 Compulsive Research
2: -4 Nether Shadow, +4 Nether Traitor
3: +4 Gemstone Caverns

Here's how the deck rolls:
Step 1: On turn 0 play Gemstone Caverns
Step 2: On turn 1 play Magus of the Bazaar
Step 3: On turn 2 activate Magus of the Bazaar, begin dredge shenanigans
Step 4: Continue dredging and playing creatures until you can Dread Return SSS for the win

Misconceptions:
1. You should protect Magus of the Bazaar.
This is untrue. He only needs to be activated once.
2. This deck dies to Extirpate.
Also untrue. Extirpate will get rid of 4 copies of one card. No single card is the glue of this deck. The best target is Dread Return. It will force you to win off of the Shambling Shell / Nether Traitor combo. If that disappears too then you can dredge and play Golgari Grave-Troll.
3. Damnation / Wrath of God kills SSS and all your creatures
And then they come back, wasted Wrath.
4. Tormod's Crypt & Leyline of the Void wreck your deck.
Who the hell is running those cards? Sideboard in bounce and artifact hate against this.

The Sideboard:
4x Ancient Grudge
4x Trickbind
4x Venarian Glimmer
3x Magus of the Library

Ancient Grudge vs. Tormod's Crypt
Trickbind vs. Combo
Venerian Glimmer vs. Tormod's Crypt, Extripate, and Combo decks
Magus of the Library vs. Lot's of Creature hate. If the Bazaar is gone, then you'll probably have 7 cards in hand pretty often.

[optimystic]

I didn't say that Extirpate will kill the deck, I was pointing out that Extirpate is going to make life very difficult for you.

If you're going to Dredge as much as you should - you probably won't draw a Dread return and will need to use it's flashback cost. Removing Nether Traitor, or Shambling shell will make it very difficult to get 3 creatures into play at any one time since you'll only be able to dredge 1 creature at a time once Magus is gone - this is on the back of spot removal which alot of decks are now playing.

If you only intend to us Magus once - why? Aren't there better pitching effects than that?

I tested a similar dredge deck a hell of alot pre chaos, and whilst it had a lot of success against aggro, control caused it some real problems. I then tested it with all kinds of chaos tricks, and the deck still gets taken down. Blink Riders made very light work of it. Life from the Loam can only do so much, and if they focus on green producers, you're screwed - this is probably your worst matchup.

Testing on App, I've seen quite a few people running Crypt and Leyline - and your deck can't just beat Tier 1 decks in a tourney, it also has to be able to beat rogues consistantly, can you really afford the odd match loss?

Instead of Magus of the Lib, I prefer the Sindbad shift - doesn't require 7 cards and if you don't draw (ie dredge) you don't discard. If you do draw and get a land, it helps out. If you have to discard a dredge card, big deal.