I have to say, we are well over a month since its release and I’m still very excited to draft Theros. I’m finding that as pick order becomes more intuitive, the signals sent in any given draft are getting stronger—for instance, P1P5 Voyages End usually means switch into blue. I recently played in a draft where P1P5 and P1P6 Voyaging Satyr pulled me out of a UB tempo deck and into the following BG build chock full of graveyard interactions:
BG Dredge
I plan on giving you all an idea of how each card fared as a role player in this BG Dredge build by pretty much showing you the emotion I felt when I encountered each card. I use the following range of faces to help illustrate the point:
So without further ado, let us begin.
Before you go on judging me for playing this terrible card, hear me out will ya? I knew my goal was to get creatures into my graveyard by trading during the early game, so I felt this guy would do the trick, right? Wrong! The downside of this card is pretty significant when playing against a deck with lot of removal. A lot of times my opponent’s removal spell had the added clause of “tap target creature” attached to it. My deck needed to get to the mid or late game in order to have a shot and this card did very little to help the cause.
It’s priced well, can block a few early two-drops, and most importantly this card allows you to play four drops on turn three. If you take a look at the curve of this deck, the bulk of my creatures sit in the four-drop slot. Getting them out early can prove disastrous for my opponent, especially if they have a slow start.
I like this card for many of the reasons above with the added bonus of it being able to hold a bestow spell later on. Since my deck had a few double colored spells, this card and Sylvan Carytid did a great job of smoothing out my mana just enough so that I didn’t run into many issues during my matches. I was very happy to have two in my deck since it made me more likely to see it within my first two draw steps.
This card was one of only two three-drops featured in this build. If I could do it again, I’d probably want at least one or two more. If I wasn’t able to play a ramp spell on turn two, I really hope I was at least able to play a three drop the following turn. This is definitely a format where you want to build some sort of board presence by turn three while playing a creature based deck, and this card was fine at doing so. It held off early drops, baited a trick from my opponent’s hand, and got in for a few damage from time to time. This little half man never let me down.
I like to have a few “win more” conditions as I like to call them, in any given deck. Even though this little guy wasn’t the best at finishing the game, it did a very good job of getting me just a little bit closer, especially since I was running an ample amount of bestow creatures. I wasn’t in love with this card on its own, but along with any power pumping enchantment, it was a must answer threat.
In the last deck review I did, I called intimidate on a black creature pretty much unblockable due to the lack of popularity for this color. Now that the set is maturing (and Grey Merchant of Asphodel has stolen a few hearts), black has gained popularity. This card was AMAZING when my opponent wasn’t in my colors, but if they were, I was more than happy sticking it on one of my fliers.
This card was one of the key roleplayers in the archetype. Besides having a combat trick embedded into it, it allowed me to fill up my graveyard at will, turning on cards like Pharika’s Mender, Nemesis of Mortals and even March of the Returned. This guy gets the MVP.
I have to say, this little harpy has been growing on me more and more as the set matures. It fits particularly well in this deck where a bit of life gain goes a long way.
Meh, I was very unimpressed by this card. At four mana, this card doesn’t serve much of a purpose in this build since most of my threats cost four or five mana. Since black is my base color, this card usually just served as a blocker with low impact.
This card was a great addition to the deck. A 3/3 trampler is nothing to frown upon in a deck with multiple ways of making it bigger, and as an enchantment, this card was a superstar. A lot of the targeted removal in the set deals with creatures of four or less toughness, therefore bestowing anything with 2+ toughness makes it into a tough to deal with threat.
I wish I had thought twice about playing this card. Granted I have plenty of bestow creatures and an ordeal, but boo to this card. It’s a 3/3 for five that relies on one of six cards in my deck to just be decent. I’ll pass.
LOVE. As I mentioned before, Erebos’ Emmisary was one of the best cards in this deck. Pharika’s Mender not only returned the Emmisary back to my hand, but gave any creatures or enchantments that may have been discarded a second life.
Now this folks, is one of the reasons I decided to try this archetype out. If you’re lucky, its hitting the battle field on turn four or five, and as an added bonus, it can get HUGE! If I were to try this archetype out again, I’d try adding one more Nemesis to the mix.
This card was hard to cast but a necessary evil. With so many heroic decks running around, I needed an instant speed removal spell to keep them at bay. Plus the incidental life gain is nothing to ignore.
This card was great for me. At worst it got me a creature or enchantment. At best it got me a creature and put a few more in the graveyard for later use.
March was great at giving the deck an extra draw spell, and targeted at that. Imagine the feeling you’d get returning your Pharika’s Mender for extra value. Definitely a great addition to this build.
I piloted this deck to a 2-1 finish. It was lacking a smooth curve and had a few do-nothing cards in it. Despite a few negatives, I like the archetype and plan to give it another shot in the future. Have you tried drafting BG dredge? Tell me about it in the comments and as always, thanks for reading!
Monique Garraud is a Brooklyn native who started playing Magic in 2011. “Grinding It Out” is her weekly take on the trials, tribulations, and joys of being a competitive tournament player