Instant (9)
Sorcery (9)
Creature (22)
- 4x Bloodghast
- 2x Eternal Witness
- 2x Ghoultree
- 1x Golgari Grave-Troll
- 2x Golgari Thug
- 4x Gravecrawler
- 4x Lotleth Troll
- 2x Tombstalker
- 1x Tymaret, the Murder King
Land (20)
Sideboard
Instant (1)
Creature (8)
This deck plays similarly to Legacy's Mana Dredge combined with a Modern Junk or Jund deck; it dredges at a deliberately slower pace, and has much more mana to work with.
Similar to a Dredge deck, this deck has the chance to be totally explosive, and suddenly pop tons of creatures out of nowhere. It also has the ability to play big smashies... Just not necessarily from the graveyard. But while the draw step and first main phase may feel like a dredge deck, the combat/second main phase feels much more like a typical Jund or Junk deck. You'll want to swing in like a stereotypical aggro deck, and you'll want to control the game as best you can in your second main.
If you like Dredge, and/or Jund Aggro, this deck is for you.
Original deck idea by Davide Salomoni, and can be found here: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=8875&d=250620&f=MO
How to Play This Deck
Lotleth Troll is the key card in this deck. The best hands will have him in it, along with a lot of creatures to feed him. Use him as you would Putrid Imp in Mana Dredge. Except, instead of just redundantly gaining flying, Lotleth Troll becomes huge, and you can swing in with him on turn 3 for 5-7 damage on average (and don't forget, he has trample too). After swinging in on turn 3, pull out your Gravecrawlers and Bloodghasts you placed into your graveyard (casting any Faithless Looting or Grisly Salvage that you have in hand before doing so), and you've got a fantastic turn 3 board position.
Turn 4/5
Turn 6/7
Turn 10/11
As you can see above, the deck has a good early game, a great mid game, but a rough late game. Most losses are to decks like Midrange, UrzaTRON, or similar decks that thrive on late game advantage.
With Lotleth Troll
Play a land, cast Thoughtseize / Faithless Looting (keeping as many creatures in hand as you can afford to in order to pump up your Lotleth Troll).
Play a land, cast Lotleth Troll. Only activate his discard ability in response to things that would otherwise destroy him.
Attack with Lotleth Troll; discard all creatures in hand except Eternal Witness, Ghoultree or Tombstalker. Cast either Abrupt Decay, Ghoultree , or Tombstalker. Play a land to return any Bloodghasts to the field, cast any 1 drop spell (Gravecrawler from your graveyard, Thoughtseize, or Faithless Looting ).
Draw or dredge (see "When to Dredge" section below). Swing with all creatures. Cast any Ghoultree or Tombstalker, if you still have one in hand. Cast non-creature spells if needed. Play a land only if needed or if you have more than one in hand (better to save them to return Bloodghast should it die).
Draw or dredge. Attack with everything. Cast Eternal Witness if you have one, to return a card to hand (Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, Grisly Salvage, Tombstalker, Pyroclasm, and Ghoultree are typically the best choices). Play a land to return Bloodghast, if needed. From here on out, you will likely be topdecking and playing cards mostly from your graveyard.
Without Lotleth Troll
This walkthrough assumes you do not draw a Lotleth Troll at any point; should you draw a Lotleth Troll before discarding/playing creatures, follow above.
Play a land, cast Thoughtseize / Faithless Looting , discarding all Bloodghasts, Golgari Thug s, and Gravecrawlers (remember however, Gravecrawler needs another zombie on the field to be played from the graveyard, so discard only if you know you'll be able to play a zombie at some point).
Draw or dredge. Play a land to return any Bloodghasts to the field. Cast Grisly Salvage, if you have it, keeping an Eternal Witness, Ghoultree , Tombstalker, Lotleth Troll, or land, prioritized in that order. If you don't have Grisly Salvage, cast any 1 drops you can, or Abrupt Decay if necessary. If you cast Faithless Looting turn 1, and dredged turn 2, but found no Bloodghasts, and have a Tombstalker in hand, exile your graveyard and cast it (that may seem specific, but it happens more often than you'd think).
Draw or dredge. Swing with whatever you have on the field. Play a land only if you need the mana, need to find a Dryad Arbor, or need to return Bloodghasts to the field. Cast Ghoultree if you have it and can. Cast Tombstalker if you have it and/or did not turn 2. Cast Eternal Witness if you have it and need something from your graveyard. Cast Gravecrawler if you can and have extra mana and/or none of the above. Cast any non-creature spells you may have if you have none of the above. When all else fails, flashback Faithless Looting and either draw or dredge.
Unlike Legacy Mana Dredge, this deck may or may not want to dredge every turn. Instead, this deck uses dredge as it was originally intended: as a tool to find a few cards, rather than to dump your entire library into your graveyard. Learning when to dredge and when to draw will take practice, but there are a few simple questions you can ask yourself to help make the right decision about when to dredge, and when to draw.
Do I have a response to what my opponent is doing?
This is the one that will take the most practice. Many times, you can find a response by dredging. Many times, dredging will end up putting a card you wanted in your hand into your graveyard. The rule of thumb to follow here is, if you need a response to what your opponent is doing, you should not dredge unless you can get said response from your graveyard to your hand (usually with Eternal Witness), or play said response from your graveyard (usually Gnaw to the Bone ).
Do I NEED more cards in my graveyard?
Most of the time, the answer is yes! But there will be times when you have 0 cards in hand, and you could really use a Ghoultree or Tombstalker right about now, or another land, or any other number of cards; when there's something you need that you cannot easily get back from your graveyard to your hand, don't dredge! But in most cases, having more cards in your graveyard will be a good thing.
Do I have a way to get Golgari Thug back to my graveyard?
Lotleth Troll + Golgari Thug = a +1/+1 counter and 4 cards in your graveyard, every turn, for no mana. When you have a Lotleth Troll on the field, it's almost always a good time to dredge. If you don't have a way to get him back to your graveyard, you can still dredge, but keep in mind, Golgari Thug will more often than not end up as a dead card in hand. Sometimes, having 1 useful card in your hand will be better than having 4 more cards in your graveyard, and 1 useless card in your hand.
Card Choices
The most common question I get asked is why I don't run Vengevine in a deck like this. The reason is simple: it's just not as consistent as the alternatives. Running Vengevine requires that you're prepared to cast two creature spells whenever you want it back. Well, unfortunately, this deck doesn't really do that! Bloodghast and Dryad Arbor aren't cast. I'll typically only cast 1 Tombstalker in an entire game; same with Ghoultree . You really never want more than one Lotleth Troll on the field; a second is almost always better off in your graveyard. And of course, we're rarely casting our Golgari Thug unless we need something from our graveyard and have Tymaret, the Murder King sitting in our graveyard ready to sac our Golgari Thug . The only time it's really possible is if you are able to cast a Gravecrawler and any other 1 or 2 drop (which, if Gravecrawler is already in your graveyard, must be a zombie). Granted, if you do actually return Vengevine from your graveyard to the battlefield, it will make for a pretty explosive turn (especially if you have multiple Vengevines in your graveyard). But the truth is, we would more often than not be stuck with it as a dead card in our graveyard, or hardcasting it from our hand. I would rather drop a Ghoultree for G or a Tombstalker for BB than a Vengevine for 2GG any day.
I've had several people suggest Bridge from Below to me. The problem is, there are only 3 ways to get Bridge from Below into my graveyard: Faithless Looting , Grisly Salvage, and Golgari Thug . None of these are particularly reliable, and can easily land us with a Bridge from Below dead in hand. Furthermore, I would need a consistent sacrifice engine. Tymaret, the Murder King works, but only if I'm willing to pay 2 mana just to get it back to my hand and trigger some Bridge from Below zombies. I experimented with Nim Devourer , but that too proved unreliable. The only other potentially viable option that I haven't really played around with is Demon of Death's Gate, however I expect it to be still plenty inconsistent due to the fact that I would need it in hand to cast it rather than in my graveyard (which means if I dredge into it, I'd need to bring it back with Golgari Thug + Tymaret, the Murder King combo, which is just too many steps for a card that would likely be overkill, not to mention the fact it costs 6 life in addition to the 3 creatures that have to be black). There just isn't anything nearly as consistent as Dread Return and Cabal Therapy, so unfortunately, I believe Bridge from Below is a poor choice for this deck.
Bloodsoaked Champion is an interesting card for a deck like this. In my initial build, I ran 4 of these instead of Tymaret, the Murder King and Golgari Thug . When I decided I wanted the two of them in, I had to cut either Bloodsoaked Champion, Bloodghast, or Gravecrawler. Bloodghast is obviously the best of the 3, because you can get it back for free. What I found was, because Lotleth Troll is a zombie, it is easy to discard Gravecrawler for a +1/+1 counter, and then replay them from the graveyard. Bloodsoaked Champion on the other hand, will take an extra turn to play from the graveyard in most cases, so in the end, it's just all around slower (not to mention that it costs more mana), and thus it has been cut. I have considered the fact that Bloodsoaked Champion is potentially more consistent against certain decks (like any deck that can kill your Lotleth Troll before you're able to recast your Gravecrawler), but as of now, I prefer Gravecrawler and Bloodghast.
Just prior to writing this, someone suggested Tarmogoyf for my deck. Which, no offense to the person who suggested it, is probably the dumbest suggestion I've ever heard. First of all, why the hell would I ever want to pay $200 for one card. Second, the biggest Tarmogoyf will ever get in this deck is 4/5, which makes Lotleth Troll an all around better choice given that he is typically at least a 6/5, and allows me to funnel creatures into my graveyard. I haven't done testing with it, but if anyone out there is willing to drop the $800 to do so, be my guest and let me know how it goes.
When the unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll was announced, I was ecstatic... Until I realized, it's actually not that great in this deck. First, dredging 6 may actually be too much for this deck. Second, it doesn't have the utility of the Golgari Thug + Tymaret, the Murder King combo. And finally, I will rarely have the mana to cast him (not to mention the fact that it's just flat out slower than Tombstalker or Ghoultree ). I run one of him because there are some times where dredging 6 would be nice, and I think being able to cast him might be good against late game decks like urzaTRON and Midrange. Once the unban is in effect on MTGO, I'll do some testing and post back.
Pyroclasm in mainboard? Really? Yes, really. Versus Red Deck Wins, Zoo, Merfolk, or any aggro deck ever, Pyroclasm will often be the difference between winning and losing game 1. You can always sideboard it out versus decks that it's not much good to you against, but seeing as you can just replay from the graveyard anything of yours that dies to Pyroclasm, there's no reason to not run it in mainboard.
I've had a few people ask why I run Dryad Arbor, saying "Isn't it slower than a shock land? And it only produces green mana? And it's easy to kill?" While yes, it is "slower" than a shock land, easy to kill, and only produces green mana, having lands that are also creatures in this deck makes the deck that much more explosive. It means I have more cards to easily funnel into my graveyard with Lotleth Troll, have a higher chance of dropping a Ghoultree for G, and more cards to exile to play Tombstalker. Not to mention the fact that Wooded Foothills can search it out for an easy blocker in a pinch. Furthermore, while using a removal spell on a Dryad Arbor might seem like a good idea, in most cases, it would have been far better to use that removal spell on something else (unless, you know, I took a hand with 2 Dryad Arbor's as my only land... which I would never do, so, it seems like a moot point). All that to say, Dryad Arbor is actually a staple in this deck, and I believe it would be a poor choice to try playing this deck without it.
Ghoultree and Tombstalker are the kill cards I've chosen for this deck. The reason I chose them is simply because they are the most consistent, with the smallest drawbacks. Ghoultree is admittedly less consistent that Tombstalker (slower by about 1 turn), but it gums up ground combat, and is quite difficult to remove. If I can get both a Tombstalker and a Ghoultree on the field turn 3 (which happens about 1 out of every 5 games), it's basically a guaranteed win in the current meta. The two cards just have such good synergy together, and work perfectly in this deck, and so I've chosen them as the "finishers".
Matchups
These matchups are listed in order of easiest to hardest. Typically the easiest matchups are versus aggro, and the worst are versus decks that thrive off of late game.
These are the easiest matchups for this deck. Their low cost 2/2's and 3/3's are no match for your low cost 5/5's and 10/10's (not to mention your cheap/free/replayable 2/1's). Additionally, Lightning Bolt isn't so great versus our deck. Pyroclasm wrecks these decks, and Gnaw to the Bone buys you more time if you've got a bad draw. Keep them on the defensive with your bigger creatures, kill their little ones, and this should be an easy matchup.
-2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Gnaw to the Bone
It will be tough to tell what this deck will look like post-bans, but given that this deck was easy to beat pre-ban for the same reasons as the previous set of aggro decks, I'd imagine it will be just as easy to beat (if not easier). The only sideboard difference is that we'll swap in Necroplasm, as it can wipe all tokens created by Young Pyromancer as well as any transformed Delver of Secrets during the end step of the same turn it's played (and, it's easily returned from the graveyard).
-2 Abrupt Decay, -1 Golgari Grave-Troll, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Gnaw to the Bone , +1 Necroplasm
These decks are already slow, and with the new bans, they'll be even slower. Our deck wins consistently on turn 4/5, and with Gnaw to the Bone , you can buy yourself a little more time versus all but Twin Exarch. Your Abrupt Decays will destroy Jeskai Ascendancy, Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite, and Pyromancer Ascension, and Thoughtseize allows you to pick their combo apart before it even begins. This should be an easy matchup as long as they don't pull a perfect hand and combo out turn 3.
-2 Pyroclasm, -1 Golgari Grave-Troll, -1 Ghoultree , -1 Eternal Witness, +1 Duress, +1 Despise, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +1 Gnaw to the Bone
Rx Burn decks are a little more tough because they're much less creature focused, and a little more aggressive. Gnaw to the Bone has a spot in mainboard specifically for this matchup. Your Pyroclasms and Abrupt Decays don't do much to them, and your Thoughtseizes often cost you nearly as much life as the card you force them to discard. But if you play it right, this matchup should fall in your favor (especially post-sideboard). Save Abrupt Decays for Guttersnipes. Take the damage from Vexing Devil if played turn 1 or 2, or just block it if played turn 3 or later. Gnaw to the Bone for as much health as you can. After you sideboard, life does become a little easier.
-2 Pyroclasm, -2 Thoughtseize, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +1 Duress, +1 Gnaw to the Bone
While all of these aggro decks are different, the matchup plays out pretty much the same. Scavenging Ooze, Courser of Kruphix, and Tarmogoyf are usually consistent across all of their lists. Unfortunately, none of these are hit by our Pyroclasms, and Gnaw to the Bone really doesn't buy us more than one turn (maybe two, max). Scavenging Ooze wrecks our deck, and Courser of Kruphix makes it easier for them to top deck, is a solid blocker, and gains them life in the process. Despite this, the advantage our deck has over theirs is that we run the same removal and hand disruption, and our deck is faster. What's more, our end game is better than theirs, and can't be hit by Abrupt Decay or Inquisition of Kozilek. Both decks have some advantages over the other, making this a very even matchup.
-2 Pyroclasm, -1 Gnaw to the Bone , -1 Ghoultree , -1 Golgari Grave-Troll, +1 Avatar of Woe, +1 Vengeful Pharaoh, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +1 Duress
I actually played against another revised version of the "Dredgevine Deck" that's posted in the description yesterday. The differences from the deck list posted in the description included Birds of Paradise instead of Bloodghast (he kept Gravecrawler in order to have more creatures to cast to bring Vengevine back), Life from the Loam as his only mainboard dredge card (he sideboarded in Darkblast ), and no Tymaret, the Murder King/ Golgari Thug combo. As I said in the section on card choices, I believe Vengevine is a poor choice for a deck like this, and in the game I played, that proved true. I won the match 2-1, as his deck proved too inconsistent compared to mine.
-1 Gnaw to the Bone , -1 Eternal Witness, -1 Ghoultree , +1 Pyroclasm, +2 Vengeful Pharaoh
This is a tough matchup for aggro in general, and our deck is no exception. Oblivion Stone and All Is Dust on turn 3 buys them the time they need to find and drop a Wurmcoil Engine, which is incredibly hard to get rid of without Path to Exile. The lifelink from Wurmcoil Engine draws the game out even longer, and as soon as Karn Liberated (or worse, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn) hits the field, you're as good as done. Your Abrupt Decays are virtually useless, your Pyroclasms are useless, and putting cards in your graveyard risks losing your advantage to a Relic of Progenitus. Game 1, you're most likely going to lose unless they get a terrible draw, and you get a perfect one. Your best bet is hand disruption, speed, and ending with creatures that are bigger than their Wurmcoil Engine. Post-sideboard, we can get some more hand disruption, some more big creatures, Phyrexian Revoker (for Karn Liberated and Oblivion Stone), and a Necroplasm to wipe the tokens created by Wurmcoil Engine. It's easily one of the hardest matchups, but it's not impossible.
-1 Gnaw to the Bone , -2 Pyroclasm, -4 Abrupt Decay, -2 Golgari Thug , -1 Tymaret, the Murder King, -1 Grisly Salvage, +1 Despise, +1 Duress, +1 Dreadbore , +2 Vengeful Pharaoh, +2 Avatar of Woe, +3 Phyrexian Revoker, +1 Necroplasm.
This is by far the hardest matchup. UrzaTRON is tough, but at least we have some reliable responses to their deck after sideboarding. We have some good options versus Midrange too, but they're hardly reliable, because being able to play them is dependent on whether or not we've burned enough of their counterspells before casting them. Path to Exile hurts, because we only run one basic land, and having more lands doesn't really help us anyway. Wall of Omens draws them a card and provides a reliable blocker. Detention Sphere removes anything we play multiples of (which means we can't bring them back from the graveyard like a regular removal spell). Venser, the Sojourner + Lavinia of the Tenth keeps our creatures at bay infinitely. Spell Snare hits our Lotleth Troll. Geist of Saint Traft has hexproof so we can't easily remove it, and swings for big damage. And if it's UWR Midrange, they have many of those advantages, in addition to fast, reliable creatures like Lightning Angel and Mantis Rider , or the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. Your Pyroclasms are again mostly useless, your Abrupt Decays won't usually be able to kill anything important. Thoughtseize is helpful, but it's still usually a "pick your poison" kind of scenario. And the hardest part is, because there is so much variation in Midrange decks, you'll rarely be able to know what you should sideboard in; instead, you're stuck guessing based only on what you've seen in game 1. I'm not going to lie, I have yet to beat Midrange with this deck. I've included sideboard suggestions of my own, but if you've got a suggestion for me, I'm all ears.
-2 Pyroclasm, -1 Gnaw to the Bone , -4 Abrupt Decay, -2 Ghoultree , +2 Avatar of Woe, +1 Despise, +1 Duress, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +3 Phyrexian Revoker
Updates
I intend to keep this guide updated as changes are made, and as I continue to test the deck. Check back often for new matchups as the new meta develops, and for changes to the deck, as I work to perfect it.
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 9 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 4 - 2 Mythic Rares 37 - 7 Rares 10 - 4 Uncommons 8 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.48 |
| Folders | Modern, Potential Decks, good, 5. Inspirations, decks I like, Modern Ideas, jesus , modern, Interesting Deck Ideas, bleh |
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