We’re still in January and this is already a year for firsts. This is the first article I’ve ever written, the first article on this site not by Frank, and most important, as it will be my subject today, I recently made my first foray into the world of vintage. I’ve written up a little deck tech for you guys complete with a detailed analysis of card choices and a tournament report.

Before this past tournament, I looked at vintage much the same way I imagine most players do: as some completely broken format dominated by cards so powerful that you can use only one of each, that only the rich or well-connected can afford to play and that games would be determined solely based on die rolls as everyone could win on turn one. In fact, I was so disinterested that it took two very enticing tidbits of information to get me to play. First and foremost, the winner would receive a Black Lotus. Combined with the other top eight prizes, this was essentially a $1k event, which is very appealing when compared to winning a couple a draft sets or at best a box of packs. Second, players would be allowed to use fifteen proxies. While many decks are made up almost exclusively of expensive cards, I was able to find one that used just four, meaning I could be easily on my way to owning Magic’s most coveted card.
Enter Ichorid. This deck shattered my preconceptions of vintage magic. For one, there was not a single restricted card in the list. No Power Nine, no tutors, not even a Ponder. Second, the deck was insanely cheap to build, once you were allowed the proxies. The only really expensive cards are Bazaar of Baghdad and, to a much lesser extent, Chalice of the Void and the singleton Bayou and Wooded Foothills in the board. If you ever played Dredge in extended or legacy, you already have most of the cards for this deck and the rest can be easily obtained well before really needing your fifteen proxies. Finally, Dredge is fast, but it is very rare to get a first turn kill and most often won’t land the finishing blow until turn three. That’s roughly extended speed, just with much more consistency and a better chance for a really explosive start.
So the night before the tournament, I looked up some lists that had done well and came up with the following:

Spells (27) 3 Dread Return 4 Unmask 4 Leyline of the Void 4 Chalice of the Void 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Bridge from Below 4 Serum Powder Creatures (26) 2 Flame-Kin Zealot 1 Sphinx of Lost Truths 3 Golgari Thug 4 Street Wraith 4 Nacromoeba 4 Stinkweed Imp 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Ichorid Lands (7) 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 3 Dryad Arbor Sideboard (15) 3 Reverent Silence 1 Woodfall Primus 3 Ancient Grudge 2 Slaughter Pact 1 Emerald Charm 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Bayou 1 Dryad Arbor 2 Contagion

4 Bazaar of Baghdad – This is the single most important card in the deck. In fact, rule one is “mulligan to a bazaar.” It doesn’t matter if you have to go down to one card; you just take mulligan after mulligan until you hit this powerhouse. It is the entire engine of the deck and it is very difficult to win without it. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have or how powerful it is.
4 Serum Powder – This seems at first like an unnecessary four-of but once you realize how badly you need the Bazaar in your opener, this card makes perfect sense as it allows you to see a ridiculous amount of extra cards at very little cost. Some people have recommended cutting it but I would strongly advise against that.
4 Golgari Grave-Troll – There’s really not too much to say about this card other than it is the best dredger available and has the added benefit of being a huge reanimation target if your opponent has gained a large amount of life.
4 Stinkweed Imp – The second best dredger ever printed. While you’ll almost always be dredging your Grave-Trolls, this little guy is much more versatile than his big brother, mainly because he’s black. He can be fed to an Ichorid in a pinch or dredged back to your hand to help cast your Unmasks and Contagions.
3 Golgari Thug – He’s the least impressive dredger but still a necessity in the deck. I was originally running four but cut one to make room for Unmasks. If I were to play in another tournament though, I would definitely go back up to a set just because it’s so important to have a dredger.
3 Dread Return – If there’s something to call a kill card in the deck, this is it. It triggers your Bridges, gets back your Flame-Kin Zealot, and almost always lets you win the game when it resolves. Not bad for a free spell. I’ve been debating the number of slots for this card and I’m not entirely sure, but I think that three is fine. The only problem arises when they are all clumped at the bottom of the deck or your opponent has a lot of roadblocks for you. Space permitting, I would run four, but I was happy with what I chose.
4 Narcomoeba – This is one of the most important cards in the deck. Without it, dredge wouldn’t be nearly as explosive as it is. Never underestimate the power of free guys, no matter how small.
4 Ichorid – While not as good to dredge into on the turn you’re going off, he not only helps with your main plan of action if he starts the turn in your yard, but serves as an excellent back up plan if there’s something like a Gaddock Teeg or Iona, Shield of Emeria in play. Also, if you know your opponent has a Ravenous Trap in hand, simply returning a couple of these to play and refusing to dredge anymore is a great way to play around it without neutering yourself.
4 Bridge from Below – Another one of the pieces that makes this deck possible. Combined with free sac outlets and free creatures, this card, especially in multiples, makes the game move quickly as a single Dread Return can easily end the game. This card gets even better in vintage due to the lack of creatures your opponents will be playing that can remove it.
4 Cabal Therapy – Speaking of free sac outlets, vintage gets back what used to be a dredge staple in extended before the rotation of Odyssey block. This card is even more important in vintage with the prevalence of Force of Will as it clears the way for your Dread Return. It’s also nice that with enough Bridges, Cabal Therapy can let you win the game without a Dread Return, albeit a turn slower than you would with a Flame-Kin Zealot.
4 Street Wraith – I wasn’t sold on this card until I started playing and was able to dredge an extra six cards as early as turn one at essentially no cost. Not only do they make your draws more explosive, but they help ensure that you have plenty of black creatures for Ichorid fodder.
4 Leyline of the Void – As a deck without reliable access to mana, nearly any free spell is welcome but this is really one of the better ones. While you’ll often board it out, it greatly helps in the mirror match while not being completely dead elsewhere.
4 Chalice of the Void – Another free spell, Chalice is really only useful if you’re on the play due to player’s tendency’s to play all of their free spells on their first turn. Combine this with the amount of cards you end up bringing in for games two and three and the Chalices will almost always be coming out for something better. Because of this, I’ve only played six games with Chalice in the deck and never once had it in my opener. In theory, I imagine it locking up the game versus many decks but in practice, I haven’t found it to be too useful and this would be one of the first cards I would cut.
4 Unmask – The card has two purposes. First and most obviously, it is a free Thoughtseize that can help you get past a Force of Will, Mana Drain, or Ravenous Trap. The really cool part though is that you can target yourself, discard a dredger, and start dredging with Bazaar on turn one, which makes the turn one kill a remote possibility. I’m not entirely sold on this card though as you hoops to have you jump through when you target yourself often are not worth it and Cabal Therapy has the pinpoint discard already covered pretty well.
2 Flame-Kin Zealot – The best target for Dread Return available if you want to kill with tokens. I would like to run just one but that’s the cost of playing Serum Powder. Suppose you have a hand that you wanted to powder away but it had your lone zealot in it; you would have to take a regular mulligan or reduce the speed of your kill by an entire turn. When you aren’t playing lands though, you get to play so many spells that it’s okay to give one extra space to make sure things like that don’t happen.
1 Sphinx of the Lost Truth – This is your secondary Dread Return target. If you’re a little short, reanimating him is essentially the same as milling yourself for fifteen to eighteen cards, as well as possibly getting some cards trapped in your hand into your yard. As opposed to Flame-Kin Zealot, you only need one in the deck, as you won’t need him every game and exiling him with Serum Powder probably won’t make a difference to big a difference.
3 Dryad Arbor – These are in the deck for a number of reasons. Mainly, it’s because they’re free guys and they can cast all of your sideboard cards that need mana. The forest subtype is also very important after you board in your fetchland.
As for the sideboard, every card is an answer for their answers or a way to cast said spells.
1 Bayou, 1 Wooded Foothills, 1 Dryad Arbor – These are brought in whenever you are going to be trying to cast cards that cost mana. The Arbor is generally the best land as it acts as another Narcomoeba but sometimes you need a land that doesn’t have summoning sickness. That’s where Bayou comes in. I was going to run a basic forest, but I think the ability to cast Cabal Therapy and the occasional Golgari Thug or Stinkweed Imp outweigh the risk of having it Wastelanded, especially since most of their land destruction will be pointed at or saved for Bazaars. The Wooded Foothills serves as a second Bayou or another Dryad Arbor but could easily be replaced by any forest-seeking fetchland. I would recommend Verdant Catacombs because after getting a Bayou it has the greatest chance of misleading your opponent.
2 Contagion – This is the best answer to Yixlid Jailer. Like all the other board cards, we’re looking for spells that cost nothing or just one green mana.
2 Slaughter Pact – I thought the deck needed an answer to Gaddock Teeg and that Teeg would be much more popular than it was. These definitely get the axe for something that deals with a more popular hate card.
3 Reverent Silence, 1 Emerald Charm – These are your answers to Leylines. I ran this split because I had more Silences than Charms in my possession but I am really not sure which is better. Silence can be cast the turn you get an arbor into play, but the six life can actually be significant. Also silence deals with multiple leylines from a lucky opponent but it is much worse in the mirror where it kills yours as well. Emerald Charm is a bit slower when you have to wait for you arbor to lose summoning sickness, but it can untap a Bazaar if there are no leylines to get rid of or even make an Iona or Platinum Angel lose flying and get eaten by zombies. I would recommend some sort of split, but again, I’m not really sure which is better. I would imagine certain metagames call for different configurations.
3 Ancient Grudge – This is brought in against Stacks decks to deal with things like Ensnaring Bridge, Powder Keg, and whatever other silly cards they have. Also, you can use it on a Tormod’s Crypt which will force them to use it prematurely. While it may seem that this would be a great card to bring in against Tezzeret decks, I found that I was already boarding in enough and that I didn’t really care enough about any of their non-Time Vault artifacts.
1 Woodfall Primus – This is in the board as an answer to a lot of things. It can get rid of much the same things that Ancient Grudge can but it does double duty thanks to persist. Sacrificing this bad boy to a Cabal Therapy is a quick way to make a bunch of tokens while destroying a couple of disruption pieces. I choose this over the more popular Angel of Despair because there aren’t too many creatures that you would want to kill that you would be able to cast Dread Return under anyway.
Onto the tournament! It was six rounds, or roughly three less than a local PTQ, so I was already happy I came. Even though I hadn’t played a game with my deck, or in the format, I was confident. Plus, I was sure to have beginner’s luck. I’m not going to go over every play that was made each game as I feel that it is mostly a waste of time, but I will mention the parts of games that I feel will help in teaching how to play dredge.
Round 1: Tezzeret
For game one, he casts a Dark Confidant on turn one. The next turn, he reveals a Force of Will and plays Imperial Seal, going to thirteen. My first dredges are rather unimpressive and there’s no way I can combo him out, but I do some tricks and wind up being able to attack him for nine that turn. Thanks to the damage he’s done to himself, I win the next turn. I feel like a play like this will often go unseen by most vintage players. Just because you can’t make ten tokens doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make two. Foreshadowing: This will come back in the top eight.
Still new to vintage, I board in all my enchantment hate expecting him to bring in leylines. When he plays a Yixlid Jailer, I know I have no answer to it. That is, until he attacks. I happened to have my single fetchland in play and was able to get a surprise blocker in the form of Dryad Arbor. Shortly after, he taps out and plays his last card: Gifts Ungiven. He gets Black Lotus, Tormod’s Crypt, Yixlid Jailer, and Ravenous Trap. I give him the lotus and the trap but just bring back Ichorids the next turn and never activate the trap.
Round 2: Tezzeret
Game ones with dredge all go more or less the same way, so expect to be on the draw a lot for game two. I board in Contagions in addition to my enchantment destruction this time and he starts with a leyline in play game two. I make a pretty poor misplay and try to destroy it thinking he doesn’t have Mana Drain mana open, but his Mountain is actually a proxy for a Volcanic Island and the next turn I’m facing down an Inkwell Leviathan courtesy of my Reverent Silence. Game three he mulligans to two, keeping a Swamp and a Sensei’s Divining Top that I Unmask away. The game ends shortly after.
This match is one of the main reasons that I kept Unmask in the deck instead of Chalice. I feel that often times you’re going to want to clear the way for your Disenchant effects or drawing your answers won’t be enough.
Round 3: Stacks
Game one he plays a turn one Sphere of Resistance that I thought would lock me out of the game but he didn’t do much else and I was able to win with Ichorids. I don’t anticipate any Leyline of the Void or Yixlid Jailer from him so I just bring in some lands, Ancient Grudges, and a Woodfall Primus. At one point, his board is two Powder Kegs, Ensnaring Bridge, and some artifacts that don’t really do much to me so when I hit some grudges and start casting them, he packs it in.
Round 4: Noble Fish
I finally win a die roll but game one I mulligan a total of eight times by using two Serum Powders. Luckily, the one card in my hand is Bazaar of Baghdad and I win on turn three. That’s how insane the card is. Once again I board in all my leyline hate and he starts with one in play for game two. He plays a Mox Pearl, but has nothing else for the rest of the game and I’m able to destroy the leyline and win pretty easily afterwards.
So after my first four rounds in vintage I find myself undefeated and two draws away from top eight, meaning that I’m already guaranteed to win at least a Force of Will for my efforts. My next two opponents have no problem drawing and I move onto the single elimination.
Top Eight: Keeper
As I sit down, my opponent is talking about how he wishes he could play dredge because it’s such a good matchup for him. I figure he’s playing some deck with Leyline of the Void main and I’m happy when he starts the game without one in play. He deeds away a bunch of my tokens but I’m able to continue making more. At one point, he is at nineteen and I am faced with a choice. I can either Dread Return my Flame-Kin Zealot and swing for eighteen or target my Sphinx of Lost Truths and swing for lethal. The problem is, if I don’t hit another Dread Return, I have very little and he may be able to pull out of it using his life as a resource. I decide to bring him to one and it pays off. He casts Fact or Fiction revealing City of Brass, Mind Twist, and Vampiric Tutor. He gets one semi-useful card but scoops the next turn.
The next game, he doesn’t start with a leyline either, so I’m pretty happy about that. He plays a Yawgmoth’s Will and now it’s his turn to make a choice. He can either replay Ancestral Recall and hope to draw a free mana source or play it safe and just replay Time Walk. He correctly elects the latter but winds up losing shortly after anyway.
Top Four: Dredge
I like my chances going into this match because I have my leylines main and I know he doesn’t. When my opening hand contains a Bazaar of Baghdad and a Leyline of the Void, I am pretty sure I can’t lose, but when I draw my second Bazaar for turn two, I am positive. Of course, my graveyard doesn’t fill quite as well as I need and he plays Chain of Vapor main so he winds up winning.
Game two I mulligan to two cards and we both start with a leyline in play. Needless to say, it’s a pretty long game and I’m about to lose when I realize that I have to Dread Return a gigantic Golgari Grave-Troll and then a Flame-Kin Zealot to win.
Game three is another long one and I feel like I’m ahead but I wind up not hitting enough Narcomoebas and he finally gets there the turn before I would.
I wind up taking home an Underground Sea for my troubles, putting me ahead on the day, though not by too much. Considering my complete lack of experience, I think that I did extremely well. Sure I got lucky at points, but I made a lot of good plays and it paid off. If I were to play this deck again, which I definitely will at the next vintage tournament, I would use the following list:

Spells (24) 4 Dread Return 4 Unmask 4 Leyline of the Void 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Bridge from Below 4 Serum Powder Creatures (28) 2 Flame-Kin Zealot 2 Sphinx of Lost Truths 4 Golgari Thug 4 Street Wraith 4 Nacromoeba 4 Stinkweed Imp 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Ichorid Lands (8) 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Dryad Arbor Sideboard (15) 2 Reverent Silence 1 Woodfall Primus 3 Ancient Grudge 3 Emerald Charm 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Bayou 3 Contagion 1 Pithing Needle

Most of the changes are explained above. Chalice only ever does anything fifty percent of the time it was in the deck and even then only if it was in you opening hand. I decided to cut it over Unmask because, as I said, post-board you need to clear the way for your answers. The cards added just give you more consistency. As for the sideboard, I found Yixlid Jailers to be the hate card of choice from Tezzeret decks so I added the Contagion while leaning more towards Emerald Charms to help against Oath decks and the mirror. The Pithing Needle is for cards like Tormod’s Crypt, Pernicious Deed, or Powder Keg.
Overall, I found playing vintage and writing an article to be pretty positive experiences and would strongly recommend both to anyone out there. Tune in next time when I talk about something else magic-related!