The reason for drawing first is we want to end our turn with eight cards in hand.

Never choose to play first as that simply means our opponent is getting a free. We want to be on the draw in every game we play. I've played my fair share of different Constructed formats and decks, but never did I see a deck that has more extreme matchups than Manaless Dredge.Īll those quirks work together, and in order to make you understand what I'm talking about, let me explain what the deck is trying to do. There are opponents like fair midrange and control decks that we almost beat every time we play against them, and then there are other strategies we can't hope to beat ever if we face them. Also, we never want to take the first turn and we absolutely never take a mulligan, no matter how bad our hand is. We don't play lands, we don't produce mana, we don't even need to cast or resolve spells to win a game. John Tollison's Manaless Dredge, 17th at Grand Prix Atlantaįirst of all, forget everything you've learned about Magic when you try to understand this deck and learn its ways. But this version doesn't need the luxurious and powerful and no other cards from the reserved list either, specifically no dual lands, because it doesn't contain any lands or sources of mana at all! You can still get the deck for under €200 and it is better positioned in the current metagame than it was ever before. Manaless Dredge is a variant of the LED Dredge deck I wrote about in 2018. Even the budget deck that I bought as a cheap alternative for €100 then, LED Dredge, costs over €1,000 now.

Today, those eight cards can't be purchased under €1,400 and the same is true for most format staples. For example, Canadian Threshold, also known as Temur Delver, which I wanted to build as my first deck, required a play set of and, eight cards that cost €400 back then. Format veterans told me not to buy into Legacy as prices had become unbearable. I wanted to play with all available cards and I loved the older cards the most. When I started with tournament Magic in 2009, Legacy was my format of choice.

Modern budget dredge