Pitch Dredge - Declaring Victory

ajfirecracker

Pitch dredge out-placed anti-hate dredge this weekend in both 2016 Vintage Champs (based on @ChubbyRain 's initial results) and the Power 9 Challenge on MTGO (based on official results). I made a little video to celebrate.

Pitch Dredge - Declaring Victory

I view myself as a deckbuilder first and player second, so this is extremely exciting for me. I've been playing and tweaking the Pitch Dredge deck for the past 2 years and promoting it heavily. I could not be more excited to see it perform well in somebody's hands other than my own.

Congratulations to the pilots David Long (Champs) and KDBKGB (P9C) for their strong performances!

rikter

Congrats to David Long, but just for the record he outperformed me by like two places

I checked out the list though, its pretty sweet!

vaughnbros

I appreciate the work you've done on the list.

I finished in top 16 of the P9 too on Pitch Dredge with my own list of course, missing top 8 on breakers. I'm working on a report to come soon. I just want to add some other stuff I've been working on to it.

As for future content, I'd love if you did a video or article on playing the deck. I feel there are potential lines that I may be missing, even though I've played the deck a lot. Simply because its so rare to see someone else play it.

ajfirecracker

@vaughnbros said:

I appreciate the work you've done on the list.

I finished in top 16 of the P9 too on Pitch Dredge with my own list of course, missing top 8 on breakers. I'm working on a report to come soon. I just want to add some other stuff I've been working on to it.

As for future content, I'd love if you did a video or article on playing the deck. I feel there are potential lines that I may be missing, even though I've played the deck a lot. Simply because its so rare to see someone else play it.

Congrats!

I could do another theory video, I think the biggest evolution I've had is in my sideboarding strategy, which might be of interest.

vaughnbros

@ajfirecracker That would be good too!

sfielder002

I top 64ed with the deck at champs and really appreciate all the hard work you did, both in tuning the deck and making it all public so that switching to this new version was easier for those of us who have been playing the anti-hate version for so long.

KDBKGB

Thanks for developing such a sweet deck. I had a blast practicing with it the last couple months, and at the power 9 on Saturday.

Tutor

What you think about Prized Amalgam ?
Congrats for the deck!!

yugular

@ajfirecracker said:

I could do another theory video, I think the biggest evolution I've had is in my sideboarding strategy, which might be of interest.

This would be amazing. I have the deck built and I have tested it few times in mtgo, but could use more help with it

ajfirecracker

I'm going to stream some FAQ streams (with the intention to upload to YouTube), starting now

twitch.tv/ajfirecracker

Edit:
First FAQ video up here about deck construction, planning more in the future

ajfirecracker

Streaming another FAQ episode at twitch.tv/ajfirecracker

I'm covering gameplay decisions today. My intention is to go through a match very painstakingly highlighting every decision and the thought behind it

Video is up here and covers in-game decisions

matori

Hello Pitch Dredge lovers

I Top8ed November P9C, losing "only" to @The-Atog-Lord Stax twice.

During rounds I faced :

Call1Me1Dragon (UW Standstill) 2-1
mtgosalseo (Saheeli Oath) 2-0
The_Atog_Lord (Stax) 0-2
Mr.Random (Griselbrand Oath) 2-1
K0de (TKS Ravager) 2-0
lsv (Mentor Gush) 2-0

I madeTop8 with 5-1 result positioned as 3rd after 6 rounds.
In Top8 I lost to The_Atog_Lord 1-2
I missed land drop to assemble Marit Lage for several turns during game 3 before he found double Wasteland+ Crucible sealing it with Smokestack. All 3 post board games (during rounds and Top8) he had Leyline of the Void which pretty much shut downed dredge plan leaving Marit Lage combo as an only option.

I already replied to @Lesbimagical about my MD reasoning but I will paste it here as well :

I am playing Pitch Dredge for some time now. I started with standard Adams list, slowly modifying it during time.
First modification was Dragonlord Kolaghan MD since deck was missing classic dredge explosives.
Great weakness of post board plan is Karakas, Wasteland, and Jace -1 ability, so 2nd modification was Pitting Needle in sideboard ( @Islandswamp credit). Due to needle I was forced to trim lands, so I abandoned Library of Alexandria plan trimmed Urborg to 3 and included 1 MD.
Urborg MD can be great for hard casting therapies and even creatures if we face Containment Priest game 1 which we can easily beat by casting creatures and sacking it to therapies with GY full of bridges.
Last modification was including Ashen Rider MD, which can answer bunch of threats and is really mvp against many decks.
Since I wanted lots of heavy filers to deal with Moat, or block Blazing Archon until I found solution for it and I love “free wins” there are 3 Chancellor of the Annex MD.
Chancellor is basically flying Lodestone Golem and can easily steal games if opponent kept hand which is reliable of Ponder/ Preordain or mana light.
Since I want Kolaghann, Ashen Rider and Chancellor to be easy accessible hence 3 Dread Returns MD. Also it is useful to sac/ return Ashen rider multiple times.

I feel that Pitch Dredge is positioned very well right now, just we need that fine tuning for particular meta from time to time.

ajfirecracker

Congratulations!

So far as I can tell, that puts Pitch Dredge finishing ahead of Anti-Hate Dredge in the past 5/6 or 6/6 major events.
(I don't know about the October BOM event because the published results don't include any Dredge variant)

footemanchu

I really love this list. I used to be a big naysayer about it. But I think amalgam really pushed it over the top to a point of being explosive with the defense needed to survive games where you cant go broken.

Thanks so much @matori !

Some more Q's:

Was Needle good for you?
How did Ashen Rider perform throughout the day?

Chancellor seems like an excellent meta call at the moment, what with Paradoxical Outcome being such a thing.

Islandswamp

Pithing Needle does a lot of work. Once I tried it I realized that there were even more applications for it than I thought. I was just thinking Wasteland/Karakas, but I've shut off a Tormod's Crypt and just used my Graveyard cards post board before.

Congrats on your finish!

deibler

@ajfirecracker 9th Place at Eternal Weekend Europe (October BOM) was a Pitch Dredge List with Amalgams. I won against him in round 5 but unfortunately we both didn't made Top 8 (me at 12th, he at 9th)

matori

@Lesbimagical said in Pitch Dredge - Declaring Victory:

Thanks so much @matori !

Some more Q's:

Was Needle good for you?

How did Ashen Rider perform throughout the day?

Chancellor seems like an excellent meta call at the moment, what with Paradoxical Outcome being such a thing.

Needle is all star. During that evening I used it for Sensei's Divining Top, Griselbrad, Saheeli Rai, Wasteland, Jace...you name it, in some crazy setup you can even name Bazaar in mirror if you have Marit Lage combo ready and opponent have Leyline or he can out race you with classic build. At least it can by you one or two turns to set up win or find answer for threat.
Ashen Rider is an answer to threats that stick around, I didn't used it very often that evening but I felt more comfortable having it as an option.
Regarding PO decks, Mindbreak Trap is also thing against it, and I prefer it instead of Gitaxian Probe which I was testing last few weeks.

Thanks for the insights!

I tend to agree about Mindbreak Trap - @OriginalOestrus played Vintage last night with @thedoh and I co-piloting, and it was just bonkers. Good to hear on Needle, might give that a shot.

ajfirecracker

http://www.themanadrain.com/topic/826/a-guide-to-playing-pitch-dredge-in-vintage

Various thoughts on how to play the dern thing