Surgical’s a really elegant answer. And yeah, I think all versions of Dredge play 1-2 VP.

What does you facebook pic look like, I can’t find you :S

Thats my goal, but it rarely happens. At least in the past 2 match ups. Does the less color intensive version still run VP? I have surgical extraction in SB just for him.

That card can be a real pain if they set it up. Simic Charm will protect your guys from him; just try to get a lot of threats on the table and clean him up in 2-3 attacks and VP won’t hurt you too much.

Ive played against him many times, and the main reason I lose is Vengeful Pharaoh. Its games over when that card hits the GY. I can deal with most other things in his deck.

Thanks for the insight. I always thought it was a little weird, too, but I’ll take it!

Yep, in Plateau. Find me on facebook!

I have tested against this deck a little online, and the less color-intensive versions are much better than the one Charles ended up winning the event with. His build would probably have been pretty easy to beat because Blood Moon wrecks it. I don’t think that list is optimal, but this deck is real, and we’ll see it in the future for sure.

-1 Snapcaster Mage
-3 Mana Leak
-3 Gitaxian Probe

+3 Blood Moon
+2 Pyroclasm
+1 Curiosity
+1 Mountain

I keep Shoal because getting a Looting or Neonate slows them way down. My plan is basically to counter the enablers and get ahead on the board so I can finish the game before he starts playing multiple cards per turn out of the graveyard. Scour is important to get to Mandrills faster. They don’t block much so Curiosity is also fine. Denial’s great against his Unburial plan. I think Leak is too slow and it doesn’t do much once he gets dredging. Also, if Blood Moon comes down, the game is pretty much over.

Goldfish a couple Game 1s and see how often you get to four lands 🙂

Mountain might not be an optimal choice for that sideboard slot, but this deck really wants 17 lands main. I have experimented a lot with the land count and found that 18 is too many and 16 is too few. I’ve also found the deck to mulligan an unnacceptable amount of openers with fewer than 14 turn-one blue sources in the main, so cutting Pool for Mountain would not work. I like 15 blue sources to be safe. I’d only cut Pool for Mountain in Games 2 and 3 for matchups where I still want 17 lands, but also want to cast Blood Moon on time (not that many of them).

I don’t think you understood what the card is truly for – it’s there to give us an 18th land for matchups we have to be very aggressive in. I’m not swapping it for another land in this case. Some obvious examples include Burn and Affinity, which punish you for missing land drops, especially when you’re relying on Huntmaster. Some less obvious examples are Tron and Infect.

Of course – Vault Skirge, Lingering Souls, Flickerwisp, etc.

Just out of curiousity, what would have been your gameplan against the Amalgam Dredge player, had you faced him instead of taking a draw?

Meant “serious” instead of ” competitive” in the last line.

Happy to see old brews coming back along with new decks in this new meta.
Don’t think I’ve ever took a disrupting shoal during a match 🙂

Yes. Most (all?) serious sports or competitive games frown upon arranging/manipulating results to gain an unfair advantage.
In most places, where is proven or highly suggested that such thing occurred, the parties tend to receive a harsh punishment.

But Wizards thinks is fine showing on camera, in their most prestigious tournament (pro tour), everyone that manipulating results in a “competitive” game is fine.

My mistake, the RIP came down a turn or two later. My notes were a little fuzzy for this round, since I left right after losing and didn’t finish writing them down. Fixed!