Is Dredge an Activated Ability?ĭredge is a static ability that introduces a replacement effect. And things can get out of hand quickly when it pairs with cards that just so happen to benefit from being milled or in the graveyard like Narcomoeba and Ichorid. Your opponent also can’t normally interact with that cost either since the chances of you running into a mill-based deck are slim to none in most tournaments.ĭredge decks transform your graveyard into an extension of your hand, and it’s much easier to fill up a graveyard than it is to fill your hand. The “cost” of using dredge cards (the cards in your library) is only a detriment if your deck isn’t meant to use those cards from your graveyard. But you get access to an extra 15 cards if you dredge it three times. Sure, casting Stinkweed Imp a couple of times doesn’t win a game. There’s also no way to interact with the mechanic which is another issue on its own.īut the main reason that dredge is so powerful lies in the ability to recur these cards as often as you need. Why Is Dredge So Powerful?īeing able to mill almost at will disrupts the balance of other cards that weren’t designed with dredge in mind. Outside of the original 12 cards from Ravnica we’ve only seen two other cards printed with the keyword since once in Time Spiral and another in Modern Horizons. But the mechanic still proved to be very powerful despite this change in design and still is to this day. That proved too powerful and was redesigned to its current iteration. Instead of drawing a card you could just put the reclaim card in your hand. I’m pretty sure dredge was first spoiled on Grave-Shell Scarab in September of that year during the preview of the set’s mechanics, but it was a different time so I can’t be 100% sure.ĭredge was originally called “reclaim” and was basically a regrowth effect. But we don’t have much info on how it was initially revealed thanks to its age. The History of Dredge in MTGĭredge was one of the many now-iconic parts of the Ravnica block from 2005. Did you play Cerulean Wisps? One more chance to dredge at instant speed.ĭredge also can’t be responded to since it’s a replacement ability that doesn’t use the stack. Have you got a Howling Mine in play? That’s two chances to dredge. This triggers every time you go to draw a card. If you do, put the card with dredge in your hand. If you have a card with dredge in your graveyard, you can mill N cards from the top of your decks whenever you draw a card, where N is the number next to the dredge keyword on the card. Shenanigans | Illustration by Lindsey Look

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