I agree. I’m just wondering how would a fair archetype get a boost against the velocity of unfair modern decks without a card that could be broken by said combo decks?

I’m in agreement with David. Phoenix is a really good deck because it attacks from multiple angles and it is consistent and redundant. However, surgical and fatal push hurt Phoenix hard. These are decks that any kind of Rock or Jund or Death shadow deck should be able to side in with 0 interruption to its main plan.

And dredge goes down hard to leyline of the void or ravenous trap. If players sideboard correctly for the meta, Phoenix and dredge shouldnt end up any better than death shadow, burn, or tron.

First of all, I don’t see the widespread adoption of those cards that Ryan mentions anywhere. There’s the odd Spellbomb in Jund but that’s not uncommon if you look through the last few years. Also, I didn’t see much of what I’d consider Dredge hate at GP LA, so maybe we just disagree. Surgical Extraction isn’t effective Dredge hate, and maindecking it isn’t a great idea since its only good in specific circumstances against one deck and effectively dead the rest of the time.
I think what Ryan actually meant is that the hate there was limited Dredge and Phoenix to only half the Top 8. Given the actual starting population, I find it extremely unlikely that those two decks could have closed out the Top 8. They’re good deck and players weren’t prepared enough for them, but they’re hardly format dominating decks.

David, there is a SCG fact of fiction article that talks about whether or not Faithless Looting should have been banned. This is not really the point I want to touch upon, but more whatever Ryan Overturf mentions in his judgement in regards to Looting: “Dredge and Izzet Phoenix are pretty clearly the two best decks in Modern at this time, and these graveyard decks have pushed the format to the point where we are seeing quite a lot of maindeck Nihil Spellbombs and Surgical Extractions. These adaptations caused Dredge and Izzet Phoenix to be only… half of the Top 8 and the winning deck at Grand Prix Los Angeles…”. What he is basically is saying is that; Dredge and Phoenix only made such an appearance because of the hefty amount of hate. Which is the direct opposite of what you advocate. Can you elaborate on that?

You can read it, here: http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38407_Should-Faithless-Looting-Have-Been-Banned-In-Modern.html

Blue-Black Control by Yuta Takahashi ran 3x Nihil Spellbomb, 1x Relic, 2x Surgical. I don’t think he forgot about dredge. Similarly all the BGx decks also ran multiple copies of Nihil Spellbomb, next to their already incidental graveyard hate as I have mentioned before. It’s stupid that you specifically needs Leyline in order to beat dredge, even then they can Assassin’s Trophy or Nature’s Claim it, after you mulled to your Leyline. It’s a joke. The London mulligan rule will probably push Dredge over the edge and get Looting banned.

I do. I expect players to remember that Dredge exists and to pack the correct hate for the next few weeks. Come Calgary the hate will die down and Dredge will resurface.

I don’t know about the Mistcallers and Grafdigger’s in general since I don’t know if Collected Company is any consideration where you live. As a former Merfolk player, I wouldn’t worry about Dredge in general since you can Spread a land, grow bigger than the threats and swing for lethal, and I always play Echoing Truth maindeck so I have outs to Ensnaring Bridge. The main worry is having an answer to Conflagrate.
The real consideration about graveyard hate is other matchups. If there’s another matchup where Mistcaller or Grafdigger’s are good then by all means run them. However, if the only reason you’re thinking about them is Dredge, stick to Relic since it’s more useful against control and midrange decks.

So as a Merfolk player heading to regionals this weekend, should I alter my planned GY hate suite from 3 Relics and a Grafdiggers to 4 Relics? Or should I consider some Mistcallers? Echoing Truth has also proven itself and is in the board, and it’s not a bad option against Dredge. I feel pretty confident about the match up.

Do you think that dredge will be a poor choice for gp Bilbao?

I’ve covered this extensively before, but Surgical Extraction is not Dredge hate. Dredge has too many targets and too many ways around Surgical to be effective. It’s fine against Storm and Phoenix, but not Dredge. Grafdigger’s Cage also doesn’t count because Dredge sides in Nature’s Claim and/or Ancient Grudge. Since Cage doesn’t remove the graveyard, a single answer unlocks Dredge. You need to eliminate their yard.
Similarly, Scavenging Ooze and a Kalitas or two aren’t sufficient. They’re too slow to fight a reasonably fast start from Dredge. They’re great midgame value, but that is frequently too late. Effective Dredge hate is persistent and/or fast, like Relic of Progenitus, Leyline of the Void, and Rest in Peace. There weren’t many of any of them in the data set.

Standard is great right now because they’ve realized they can print powerful cards and decks into standard as long as they have answers. Standard can be very powerful as long as all the powerful cards don’t all go into one deck (temur energy), and you end up with a bunch of very different, very good decks, which is healthy.

That’s something I’d also like to see, especially given the good weekends Dredge and Phoenix decks have been having.

I think you’re conflating two separate teases. They said that the strongest and “spiciest” card in the set was blue, and they said that the set would have a box-topper which was a reprint. Unless I’m mistaken, nowhere did they say that those two were the same card, or that the “spicy” blue card was a reprint and not a new card.

I’m quite a bit more sanguine about this set than you are, mainly because the new Play Design has been hitting it out of the park with Standard. Cards like Experimental Frenzy, Runaway Steam-Kin and Wilderness Reclamation are pushed in ways we haven’t seen in Standard-legal sets in many years, and all of them (especially Reclamation) have been called the next Aetherworks Marvel by hyperventilating pros on CFB and SCG. And the Standard with all these “obviously broken” cards is the healthiest the format has been since the end of three-set blocks, the complete opposite of the misery that was the Year of Nine Bans.