Dredge – Vintage
We have never wrote about Vintage – up until now. Reason behind that is the fact that this format is not so popular in my country. It’s not that popular in the World to be exact, there is no Grand Prix or Pro Tour played in Vintage format because it’s not enough globally popular. There is only one big tournament, sponsored by Wizards per year – Vintage Championship, where first place every year gets something wicked cool – oversized, original alternative art power nine card. Something like this:
There is 2 big problems with vintage: price of cards is the main one. When you need 5000$ or something like that for a deck, it’s not really easy to buy a deck and enter a tournament. Magic is an expensive hobby/game per se, but this is just ridiculous. Other problem would be – reserved list. Most of the cards that are staples in Vintage are on the long ago established reserved list and can not be reprinted ever again. This makes them very rare, valuable and expensive. And since Magic: the Gathering cards were printed in much, much smaller quantities at the beginning of the game, there are only so much copies circulating around, which is the reason Vintage as a format is doomed on stagnation.
But, at the same time, Vintage is much beloved format and players who do actually have needed cards and play it wouldn’t change it for anything else. I guess feeling that you’re playing with a deck of cards worth as a car, or feeling that you’re playing with the most powerful cards in the history of the game have something to do with it.
That’s the reason Vintage players organize small tournaments with saucy prizes whenever they can.
One of those tournaments was held in Milan, Italy couple of days ago. Friend of mine attended that tournament, and not only that but he also top8-ed in a pretty large field. He played dredge, and here is the list:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
4 Bloodghast
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Darkblast
2 Dread Return
2 Golgari Thug
2 Ichorid
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Narcomoeba
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Unmask
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Dakmor Salvage
4 Petrified Field
4 Undiscovered Paradise
Dredge is certainly one of the most powerful decks of all time, and the reason why Leyline of the Void was shoved 4 ofs so many times in sideboards wherever it was legal. Standard, Extended, Legacy, and now, as you can see, in Vintage as well. There are some adjustments to the deck to make it the most lethal in Vintage field, and now I’m gonna go through them.
Four Leylines in the main is the biggest thing for me. This is good against mirror, against Yawgmoth’s Will, and to protect you Bridges from Below!
Serum Powder is also in there, and here is why: the most important card in this deck is Bazaar of Baghdad. You need it and you need it almost every game. It is your path to fast victory. This deck mulligans a lot. Whenever you don’t have Bazaar in your hand, you probably need to mulligan. And that’s where Serum Powder shines: if you don’t have Bazaar, just exile your hand and draw another seven. That’s twice the chance of hitting much needed land.
You kill them in the usual way, nothing special in that department: couple of Bridges, Narcomoebas, Dread Return for Flame-Kin Zealot, killing them with bunch of 3/3 haste zombies. Some games you’ll also win with Bloodghasts and Ichorids and you won’t complain.
That’s it. This deck is also pretty cheap(considering other deck’s price tags), so if you want to play in a Vintage tournament and don’t want to mortgage your house, this is a great choice!
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