Sunday, September 30, 2007

Dredgimation

Dredgimation
or Ravnica in Flames

10 Swamp
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Necroplasm
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star
4 Grave-Shell Scarab
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Zombify
4 Nightmare Void
4 Vigor Mortis
4 Putrefy

SB: 4 Naturalize
SB: 4 Blazing Archon
SB: 4 [Insert your favorite big fattie here]
SB: 3 Recollect

The deck is very simple to play. Just hit three land and play a Necroplasm or Stinkweed Imp. Then hit four land and play Nightmare Void. Dredge a guy into the graveyard and animate him.

Use the Top to fix your draws or dredge. You do not need shuffle effects because your dredges pull the crud off the top.

Nightmare Void catches problem cards in hand. Putrefy gets them if they hit play. Naturalize or Plague Boiler can come in from the sideboard if you have to get rid of enchantments. (And if you really, really have to, Nightmare Void can get those uncastable bombs from your hand into the graveyard as well.)

Necroplasm kills tokens and weenies. You have no problem with him dying, immediately or later, because you get to dredge.

Stinkweed Imp stops attacks and, once again, you are fine with him dying. However, he is more dangerous than Necroplasm or Nightmare Void because even with top you lose two unknown cards and putting a reanimator into the graveyard can ruin a good setup.

You have your choice of 8 slots for bombs to reanimate; Blazing Archon, Grave-Shell Scarab and Kokusho are just the current recruits from a pool that includes Autochthon Wurm, Razia Boros Archangel, Firemane Angel, The Unspeakable, and Kuro Pitlord. Personally, I find it important to have at least a few that you can hardcast, in case your deck refuses to give up a reanimator. However, since you have Necroplasm and Stinkweed Imp and Nightmare Void, you are not so reliant on getting a reanimation spell "right now" to stay in the game.

If you have the choice, Vigor Mortis with green mana is best for Blazing Archon.

This deck took second place in an O-Gaming trial, losing in the finals to Heartbeat/Maga. I would have had a very, very good chance of winning the second game of that match (dredging Nightmare Void kills their hand) if only I had kept Naturalize in my sideboard instead of Plague Boiler (I was holding 2-3 Boilers when he went off; those would have been Naturalizes and they would have stopped the Heartbeat mana he needed).

My sideboards are usually 15-30 cards that I am testing in the deck, so when I join these tournaments I have to quickly get rid of half the cards to be legal. Oh the pain.

Also, this is not exactly my favorite deck. As I did when Champions came out, I have created my own deck to play and tweak as the block progresses. And it was that deck, Five-Finger Discount, that is my favorite deck. Those cards just love me.

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