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The unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll in Modern has significant financial and metagame repercussions.
The most immediate financial reaction has been an extreme increase in the demand for Golgari Grave-Troll, which, since the announcement, has drastically increased in price online and in paper. The online price has already pulled back modestly, while the paper price has seen a slight decrease. The prices are likely to fall a bit more before stabilizing, but any early showings in tournament results could easily drive the price to new highs.
I have read many opinions that Golgari Grave-Troll is not actually relevant in Modern because there are already strong dredge cards available, but I wholeheartedly disagree.
Graveyard decks thrive on their consistency and redundancy, so Golari Grave-Troll will not simply be replacing previous options, it will quite often be used alongside them. There is a form of synergy between each and every card in a Dredge deck, because dredging is most powerful when it chains itself into another dredge card.
Also, Golgari Grave-Troll is the most powerful of the dredge cards, and, in dedicated graveyard decks, every card really does count, and the sixth card will often be the difference between life and death.
Regardless of how impactful Golgari Grave-Troll ultimately ends up being in Modern, it’s going to generate a lot of interest. It’s going to see play.
Golgari Grave-Troll brings with it a host of support cards that are currently fringe players or perhaps brand new in the metagame. Understand that Golgari Grave-Troll has never before been Modern legal, so it technically unprecedented.
I have studied the history of graveyard decks in Modern, along with the impact of Golgari Grave-Troll in the Extended format made defunct by the inception of Modern. I have identified the cards that are most likely to support Golgari Grave-Troll and carry the potential to be significant winners in the wake of Golari Grave-Troll’s unbanning.
Some of these cards are sure bets with moderate upside, while other options are more speculative but come with the potential of bigger upside. If Golgari Grave-Troll is successful at the upcoming Pro Tour, rest assured that at least a handful of the cards mentioned today will be supporting it and will spike accordingly.
Dredgers
The most obvious winner is the second-best dredge card in the format, Stinkweed Imp.
It joins Golgari Grave-Troll to create a reliable and powerful dredge base. It’s also a reasonable piece of defensive board presence that stands up well against some powerful threats in the metagame, including Tarmogoyf, Siege Rhino, Restoration Angel, and even Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Golgari Thug is the third-best dredge card in the format and another winner. While some decks won’t want the full 12 dredgers, many will. Golgari Thug is also arguably the most useful of the dredge cards, in terms of utility, because it costs a mere two mana to play and comes with a situationally excellent triggered ability.
It isn’t particularly powerful as a dredge card, and it’s a very weak land, but the renewed interest in graveyard strategies is surely a net positive for Dakmor Salvage. I expect it to see minimal play at best, but it’s a card to keep in mind.
I absolutely love Darkblast as a repeatable source of creature removal. It took a big hit from the bannings, which will result in far fewer one-drop mana creatures--Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer--to kill.
On the other hand, Dark Confidant, Vendilion Clique and Snapcaster Mage will see more play, and it’s actually quite good against Affinity. There will always be good targets for Darkblast. It’s a relevant card in this discussion because of its synergy in Dredge decks as both a dredge card and a spell with a ton of utility that can be easily found by other dredge cards. A popular sideboard card to be sure, and it may have maindeck potential in an extreme metagame.
Life from the Loam has Dredge and also benefits from a stocked graveyard. It comes with many potential synergies, but my favorite is how good it is with Golari Grave-Troll. Golgari Grave-Troll does actually have a cost and can very realistically be cast, at which point it has the potential to be a huge threat. Casting Golgari Grave-Troll becomes a sure proposition with Life from the Loam involved.
Graveyard Enablers
Now we enter the land of the best graveyard enablers. The cards that support dredge generally fall into a few camps: discard spells, card drawing and mill. Some cards blur the lines between two or more of these abilities.
Glimpse the Unthinkable has a lot of raw power as a mill card because it puts ten cards into the graveyard for just two mana. In a graveyard-centric deck, this generates significant card selection power while setting up the graveyard with dredge cards and payoffs.
Glimpse the Unthinkable has already seen some Modern play in Dredgevine decks, but it was a particularly important piece of the Dredge deck in Extended, such as when two Japanese players piloted it to the Top 8 of Pro Tour Austin in their Dredge decks, competing against Dark Depths-Vampire Hexmage combo and Hypergenesis.
Milling only eight cards, Breaking // Entering is a weaker version of Glimpse the Unthinkable, but it’s still a potentially playable card in a deck looking to add redundancy to the self-mill plan.
Perhaps the best self-mill card is Hedron Crab. It can be cast on turn one or two and paired with a land, particularly fetch lands, to generate some immediate mill value. It demands attention from the opponent or will mill a significant amount of cards as turns progress. This sees play in Dredgevine and it was a crucial component of the aforementioned Extended version of Dredge, so I see no reason why it won’t be useful tomorrow. Hedron Crab is particularly useful because it’s a creature, which lends itself to many potential synergies.
At this point we have entered the realm of card that draw and discard cards to help enable powerful Dredge draws. Drowned Rusalka is another card with pedigree in both Dredgevine and old Extended Dredge. It is interesting in that it discards first, so it’s best used as a way to get that first Dredge card into the graveyard, ideally cast on turn one and sacrificed in the upkeep of the second turn. It’s also excellent because it can sacrifice any other creature to activate the ability, so it can easily convert an army into many dredges.
In Vintage, Dredge players turn to Bazaar of Baghdad, while Modern Dredge players are forced to play Magus of the Bazaar. This was an all-star in the old Extended deck, and it's poised to make an impact in Modern. While fragile, it’s very powerful as a mill engine that’s capable of effectively ending the game by itself if left unanswered for a few turns.
Ideas Unbound saw play in old Extended versions as a powerful draw spell that could yield three opportunities to dredge, also putting them back into the graveyard. Ideas Unbound is a fine graveyard enabler that can draw three cards normally place any three cards into the graveyard , particularly dredge cards, at end of turn.
A popular graveyard enabler in Dredgevine is Lotleth Troll. It’s purely a discard outlet, but like Putrid Imp in Legacy, its repeatable and can be used to place the same dredge card into the graveyard turn after turn. It’s also a very reasonable threat that could take over a game by itself. Lothleth Troll is also, very importantly, a zombie, which makes it great for enabling the payoff card Gravecrawler.
A similar concept as Lothleth Troll is Zombie Infestation, which is a repeatable source of discard that doubles as a way to generate board presence. Both of these cards are particularly excellent with Life from the Loam.
One of the most fringe graveyard enablers of all is Greenseeker, which is actually much better than it seems because it can allow for dredging as early as turn two. It has seen scattered play in past graveyard decks and has some future Modern potential.
Graveyard Payoffs
The biggest payoff in past Modern graveyard decks has been Vengevine. It’s pure value from the graveyard, card advantage and tempo, and it’s more or less a game-winning plan. It’s best in a very creature-centric deck that uses as many creatures as possible as graveyard enablers.
Gravecrawler is perhaps the best way to take advantage of Vengevine, because it can be milled then cast from the graveyard to count towards Vengevine. It’s also a very reasonable threat in its own right.
Fatestitcher had its day in the sun as part of Jeskai Ascendancy combo, and it’s very reasonable in Dredge. Importantly, it’s a Zombie, so it can be Unearthed to start a Gravecrawler chain.
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge can be cast from the graveyard, but it’s particularly interesting because it’s a Zombie, which means it can start a Gravecrawler chain even with no Zombie currently in play.
Skaab Ruinator is also a Zombie, and it too can be cast from the graveyard, so it’s another great way to start a Gravecrawler chain. It’s significantly more powerful than Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, but it comes at a steep cost. This will be best in very creature-centric builds.
Bloodghast is a safe bet and a strong graveyard payoff. Bloodghast doesn’t combine super well with Vengevine, but it’s a Vengevine in its own right. It’s a strong card in any graveyard deck and works particularly well with fetch lands.
Bridge From Below is the classic Dredge payoff in a world of Dread Return, but it’s still a great card in Modern because of how much value it can create.
Narcomoeba isn't particularly powerful without access to Dread Return, but it's still a very powerful card with some Modern application.
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What are your thoughts on these picks? Do you have picks of your own? Share in the comments!
-Adam
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