Adam Haggerty's Knights of Dredge
 
Type: Deck Idea
Format (legal 👍) legLegacy
Approx. Value:
$531.86

0 Likes 0 Comments
Avg. CMC 2.13
Card Color Breakdown
Card Type Breakdown

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Main Deck - 72 cards, 24 distinct
Columns
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (34)
4 Corpse Knight
$2.00 Creature - Zombie Knight
4 Dauntless Bodyguard
$0.13 Creature - Human Knight
4 Fervent Champion
$0.23 Creature - Human Knight
2 Golgari Thug
$0.31 Creature - Human Warrior
4 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
$0.97 Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight
4 Inspiring Veteran
$0.08 Creature - Human Knight
4 Smitten Swordmaster // Curry Favor
$0.07 Creature - Human Knight // Sorcery - Adventure //
4 Stinkweed Imp
$0.94 Creature - Imp
4 Venerable Knight
$0.07 Creature - Human Knight
Instant (2)
2 Darkblast
$0.37 Instant
Sorcery (17)
4 Cathartic Reunion
$0.10 Sorcery
3 Collective Defiance
$0.31 Sorcery
2 Conflagrate
$0.10 Sorcery
4 Creeping Chill
$0.19 Sorcery
4 Smiting Helix
$0.03 Sorcery
Land (19)
1 Ancient Ziggurat
$1.74 Land
4 Cavern of Souls
$37.67 Land
4 Dakmor Salvage
$0.44 Land
1 Darksteel Citadel
$0.93 Artifact Land
1 Mutavault
$6.69 Land
1 Silent Clearing
$3.92 Land
1 Sunbaked Canyon
$3.55 Land
4 Tournament Grounds
$0.14 Land
2 Unclaimed Territory
$0.31 Land
Sideboard - 115 cards, 92 distinct
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (69)
1 Accorder Paladin
$0.16 Creature - Human Knight
1 Ardenvale Tactician // Dizzying Swoop
$0.04 Creature - Human Knight // Instant - Adventure //
2 Blacklance Paragon
$0.20 Creature - Human Knight
4 Bloodghast
$5.95 Creature - Vampire Spirit
1 Cairn Wanderer
$0.30 Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Cavalier of Dawn
$6.98 Creature - Elemental Knight
2 Cavalier of Flame
$1.97 Creature - Elemental Knight
1 Cavalier of Night
$4.15 Creature - Elemental Knight
1 Cavalier of Thorns
$1.93 Creature - Elemental Knight
1 Cavalry Drillmaster
$0.03 Creature - Human Knight
4 Changeling Outcast
$0.81 Creature - Shapeshifter
2 Deathless Knight
$0.10 Creature - Skeleton Knight
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel
$3.46 Enchantment Creature - Spirit
1 Embereth Shieldbreaker // Battle Display
$0.10 Creature - Human Knight // Sorcery - Adventure //
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
$52.12 Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
1 Fervent Cathar
$0.03 Creature - Human Knight
1 Fiendslayer Paladin
$0.65 Creature - Human Knight
4 Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight
$0.13 Creature - Zombie Knight // Instant - Adventure //
2 Hero of Oxid Ridge
$0.78 Creature - Human Knight
1 Heron's Grace Champion
$0.10 Creature - Human Knight
1 Insolent Neonate
$0.15 Creature - Vampire
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
$3.17 Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
4 Knight Exemplar
$1.40 Creature - Human Knight
2 Knight of Autumn
$0.42 Creature - Dryad Knight
1 Knight of Infamy
$0.12 Creature - Human Knight
1 Knight of the Ebon Legion
$1.62 Creature - Vampire Knight
1 Knight of the Reliquary
$3.28 Creature - Human Knight
1 Knight of the White Orchid
$0.92 Creature - Human Knight
1 Knotvine Paladin
$0.23 Creature - Human Knight
1 Midnight Reaper
$0.32 Creature - Zombie Knight
1 Mirran Crusader
$0.47 Creature - Human Knight
2 Murderous Rider // Swift End
$0.50 Creature - Zombie Knight // Instant - Adventure //
2 Olivia, Mobilized for War
$0.55 Legendary Creature - Vampire Knight
2 Order of Midnight // Alter Fate
$0.07 Creature - Human Knight // Sorcery - Adventure //
1 Paladin en-Vec
$0.34 Creature - Human Knight
1 Phyrexian Crusader
$10.34 Creature - Phyrexian Zombie Knight
4 Rimrock Knight // Boulder Rush
$0.01 Creature - Dwarf Knight // Instant - Adventure //
1 Silverblade Paladin
$0.60 Creature - Human Knight
1 Skyknight Legionnaire
$0.03 Creature - Human Knight
1 Stitcher's Supplier
$0.74 Creature - Zombie
1 Stormfist Crusader
$0.60 Creature - Human Knight
1 Unsettled Mariner
$2.73 Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Valiant Changeling
$0.10 Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Vengevine
$7.58 Creature - Elemental
1 Vona, Butcher of Magan
$0.36 Legendary Creature - Vampire Knight
1 Wintermoor Commander
$0.07 Creature - Human Knight
Instant (11)
1 Blades of Velis Vel
$0.14 Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter
1 Crib Swap
$0.39 Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter
1 Fatal Push
$1.87 Instant
1 Kolaghan's Command
$0.86 Instant
1 Lightning Bolt
$1.21 Instant
1 Magmatic Sinkhole
$0.03 Instant
1 Nameless Inversion
$0.17 Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter
1 Risk Factor
$0.57 Instant
1 Soul Spike
$49.38 Instant
1 Surgical Extraction
$2.63 Instant
1 Thrill of Possibility
$0.08 Instant
Sorcery (13)
1 Bump in the Night
$0.22 Sorcery
1 Burning Inquiry
$3.73 Sorcery
1 Collective Brutality
$0.90 Sorcery
1 Immortal Servitude
$0.37 Sorcery
1 Maximize Velocity
$0.05 Sorcery
1 Nightmare Void
$0.13 Sorcery
1 Pick the Brain
$0.03 Sorcery
1 Proclamation of Rebirth
$0.31 Sorcery
1 Shattered Perception
$0.20 Sorcery
1 Shenanigans
$0.07 Sorcery
1 Thoughtseize
$8.21 Sorcery
1 Unearth
$0.33 Sorcery
1 Whispers of Emrakul
$0.09 Sorcery
Artifact (6)
1 Aether Vial
$4.21 Artifact
1 Altar of Dementia
$8.10 Artifact
1 Locket of Yesterdays
$2.19 Artifact
1 Mesmeric Orb
$14.15 Artifact
1 Mox Amber
$39.20 Legendary Artifact
1 Shriekhorn
$0.09 Artifact
Enchantment (11)
1 Blind Obedience
$1.94 Enchantment
1 Burning Vengeance
$0.02 Enchantment
1 Call the Bloodline
$0.13 Enchantment
1 Deafening Silence
$1.99 Enchantment
1 Force of Virtue
$0.35 Enchantment
1 History of Benalia
$0.87 Enchantment - Saga
1 Illness in the Ranks
$0.17 Enchantment
1 Knights' Charge
$0.59 Enchantment
1 Leyline of Sanctity
$0.71 Enchantment
1 Mass Hysteria
$5.10 Enchantment
1 Stony Silence
$1.91 Enchantment
Planeswalker (2)
1 Liliana of the Veil
$21.35 Legendary Planeswalker - Liliana
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
$0.28 Legendary Planeswalker - Nahiri
Land (3)
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
$13.15 Land
1 Flagstones of Trokair
$4.29 Legendary Land
1 Murmuring Bosk
$0.72 Land - Forest

Notes
 
Well knights is soooo much deeper than I thought possible. Prior to seeing Eldrane, when I heard knights would be a tribal theme, I just assumed they would be like they always are: lackluster. To be a tribal deck that could compete it would require something special. After all, interactive tribal is cornered by both Humans and Spirits, and straight up beats merfolk. But then I heard that Haakon worked with the new knight split spells where you can cast their spell half, and knights finally got what it needed, it's own unique line. Haakon allows you to play all your knights from graveyard. This means that knights can be a graveyard dependent strategy and basically never run out of action. It also gets to utilize the graveyard for selection and card advantage. Self mill then is basically sphinx's revelation.

I'm uniquely suited to explore this archetype. I made the graveyard cube for love and to master all the interactions of the graveyard, it is an extension of my own hand. Last spring and early summer I dedicated my standard run to an aggro mardu recursive based zombie deck to try to get my head around aggro again. Most importantly, I made a mardu haakon stromgald deck in Legacy. It's the most disgusting deck I'v ever built, being trully unstoppable. I know what makes the deck tick already. Also, the format at the moment is freshly neutured from the banning of faithless looting. The stupid cut and paste chumps who don't know how to buld their own packages haven't recovered, and as such there is a sharp decrease in graveyard decks, and more importantly graveyard hate. The perception is that graveyard decks are bad, and need not to be worried about. Everyone is hyper focused on artifact combo. Bigger control and midrange decks are trying to capatilize on this, historically weak to aggro (hence burns recent finish). There is a wierd suprression effect happening on creature based decks, but I don't really know what;s checking them. My guess is nothing. Low removal, low sweepers, low graveyard hate, a lot of slots dedicated to artifact T3-4 combo. Common graveyard hate is 1-2 of relic, tormod's crypt, nihil bomb, rest in peace, and incidental exile. Notably absent is full boat leyline and RIP and mixed hate pieces, people are fatigued from Hogaak summer and kind of refuse to. As long as I have a plan to navigate each kind of hate, I should be able to just play through all of it. This is the perfect storm.

I think we essentially get to play a cross between humans and dredge, being better than both. More card advantage, resilience, and burn plan than humans, more synergy than dredge. I've always wanted to play DREDGE in legacy. It inspired the graveyard cube. So many cards are jumping out to me that have been haunting me for years. Mesmeric orb, locket of yesterdays, call of the bloodline, burning inquiry, smiting helix, whispers of emrakul, and Haakon himself are all cards are inherently powerful, and now congeal into one pool like never before. And although the permutations in this pool are vast, the overlapping packages are so synergistic, so singularly focused, that all the lines I've been thinking about turn out, it's about optimizing lines. The sideboard slots are wild as well, ranging from full boat lockout pieces to nuanced toolbox and everything in between. Shit, history of benalia as a playset in the side single handly side steps any deck with a reasonable amount of graveyard hate. Can you even imagine that thing going off with the board states I can create?

Some packages that immediately jump out are:
-an all 1c knight deck that trys to blaze out utilizing the grave based burn package I've together. Blades of ves vel, cavalry seargent, and boulder toss might play a roll in an aggressive reach package as well.
-A slightly higher curve version that utilizes more of the spell creatures.
-A version that utilizes changelings to good effect.
-And most boldly, a version that utilizes delirium to the most devastating effect. I stumbled on this one and it has kind of blown my mind. I incidentially am SUPER GOOD at turning on delirium. I'm considering a variety of cards of all types, the spell creatures have two types, I'm dredging, and I'm already playing tribal spells to cast with Haakon. I can probably build a version that can cast whispers of Emrakul on T2. If have locket of yesterdays, I could even potentially cast Emrakul for 4 naturally. Could you imagine! I can hit creature/sorcery/artifact/land/instant/tribal in 3 cards! How's that for a go over the top strategy? I also was checking out Nahiri as a card, just incidentially also helps delerium anda flavor win!

Things I need to figure out:

-What is my enabler package? 12 dredgers (Dakmor, Thug, Imp) and 10+ ways to get them in the graveyard should be the package, but which cards are best? And are there cards that are part of the set up that are better, like locket, mox, and aether vial? How much bang can I get out of my enablers while still maintaining their purpose (e.g. call the bloodline and collective brutality and defiance).

-How much room do I have for non-enabler, non-knight payoffs, like the burn package, and tribal spells?

-How many knights do I need to run to be paid off for the effort and consistent? 18-36? Do they need to be ultra consistent to ensure peak efficency, or can I run some functional toolbox options to recur back if need be?

-After all is said and done, what's my manabase look like? 19 is the conensus for humans and dredge. With so many options and basically never running out of gas, mana was always the bottle neck in zombie knights. What lands can I play that allow me to play all knights, all knight spells, and the enablers, while still affording the dakmor's? How much mana do I usually get play with, and what does this mean for my curve? Is their room for adjustment to make different shells possible?

-What's the best possible nut draw? In each configuration? What are my mulligan decisions like?

-What do I peter out to? What can't I beat without warping my deck? Can I suceed that matchup?

-How do I approach side boarding?

The target is a T3-4 deck that has incidental life gain. The reach will bridge me in my grindier match ups, and the consistent clock should get the whirza, scapeshift, control, and tron decks by half a turn, or prevent their big play from snowballing into a win as I have reach through most things. There will be some specific bars like Ensnaring bridge, infinite life/tokens, and chalice that need to also be crossed, but the deck has a lot of shatter options built in, and some room to cover wholes besides.

I am beyond stoked to work on this.

So I've noticed that most of dredge's creatures are free, hence why it can operate on such a low manabase. I don't think I want narcomoeba's and prized amalgams as they are slow and anemic. I would prefer to play a version that just closes out really hard. Haakon goes well with vengevine, and corpse knight triggers off vampires and elementals just as much as knights. Dredge for a million should be KO. If we consider self mill as cantrip, selection, and free spells, it far outweighs the mana advantage of aether vial, and is a better top deck. In this graveyard version, the curve is as follows:

T1- 1 drop
T2- 1 Drop, 1 Drop or 2 drop (1 drop mill ok, 2 drop mill lackluster I think)
T3- 1 drop, 2 drop, 3 drop (something explosive here)
T4- Haakon, Dauntelss Bodyguard.

Takeaways for me are that I really want to spew out my hand the first 3 turns, I'm trying to incidentially get a Haakon and a bodyguard in the graveyard by T4 (which also means an early dredger), and if I stick it I continue to play out for the rest of the game, if not I'm dead in the water.
This really splits me on my options, as I have a suite of 1 mana spells, a suite of 2 mana spells, and a couple enticing more expensive options. However it turns out, I don't want more expensive cards particularly as I get bound by mana real easily. Also, the best long game is corpse knight and dauntless bodyguard. Every cast burns 1 and indestructibles a teammates until end of turn. It also recurs vengevine.
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