It's finally happening. Historic is becoming a format! Early on, Historic struggled to stand apart from Standard and form its own identity. After three anthologies, Jumpstart, and now Amonkhet Remastered, Historic is finally getting some depth. On top of that, the format is also getting some stakes being featured in this year's Mythic Invitational. This is my favorite kind of moment. Fresh off two sweeping bans, and right before the pros "break it"- Historic is the wild west where brewers are kings!

As a brewer myself, I wanted to get to work on a Historic deck that I'd enjoy playing. I figured it wouldn't be hard, since the format features one of my favorite cards, Knight of the Reliquary! My first instinct was to try to make a rock style deck with Knight and Elvish Reclaimer; but, I kept getting sidetracked with graveyard synergies. My builds included Glowspore Shaman and payoffs like World Shaper and Field of the Dead (pre-banning). I quickly realized it was time to abandon my Knight dreams and lean hard into a graveyard theme. If you read my early Pioneer "Dredge Primer" then you're not surprised. Here's where I ended up.

"Dredge" | Pioneer | Jonathan Medina

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Cavalier of Thorns
• 1 Thassa's Oracle
• 2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 2 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 3 Archfiend's Vessel
• 3 Cauldron Familiar
• 4 Mire Triton
• 4 Silversmote Ghoul
• 4 Stitcher's Supplier

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Call of the Death-Dweller
• 4 Creeping Chill

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Witch's Oven

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 2 Forest
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Blast Zone
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Memorial to Folly
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Watery Grave
• 4 Zagoth Triome

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Eliminate
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Murderous Rider
• 2 Necromentia
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 2 Questing Beast
• 2 Ritual of Soot
• 1 The Scarab God

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The deck is pretty straight-forward. I'll talk about each type of card and go over the nuances for some of them. The first batch of cards is the self-mill cards.

Self-Mill

The all-star here is Stitcher's Supplier. You always love to see it turn one. It combines nicely with Witch's Oven and with Lurrus of the Dream-Den who can re-buy it. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales gives us texture in our threats by being a planeswalker. Both abilities are relevant. Tamiyo can mill you to get your engine going or rebuy key cards.

Next up is Mire Triton. This might seem like an odd choice, when compared with other options. It doesn't mill as many cards as Merfolk Secretkeeper or Compelling Argument, but it has more utility. It can attack, and brick-wall opposing threats (thanks deathtouch). It can also be rebought with Lurrus. Lastly, the life gain is not inconsequential. It can offset damage taken from your shock lands and trigger your Silversmote Ghoul. Speaking of which, let's talk about payoffs.

Cashing In

Silvermote Ghoul is the reason to build this deck. Sometimes you mill them early and flip a Creeping Chill. Those games don't seem remotely fair, but even when you're not high rolling there are plenty of other ways to recur your Ghouls. The life gain from Uro, or an attack with Lurrus often does the job. You can also piece together a Mire Triton trigger and a Cauldron Familiar drain to get them back. Silvermote Ghoul has a fantastic card draw ability which allows for some nice plays. For example, you can sacrifice your Ghoul after attacking, and re-buy them if you gained three life that turn. I've also used the sacrifice ability to dodge a Settle the Wreckage or other exile effects. Silvermote Ghoul allows you to grind with the best of them, much like this next combo.

I have an unhealthy love for Cauldron Familiar. There's only a picture of the cat above, but we all know that the cat comes with the oven. Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven is a flexible engine that provides the deck a lot of options. It can slow down games against aggressive decks. It can also provide reach, along with Creeping Chill, when you're the aggressive deck. I'm only running three copies of Cauldron Familiar because you only need one. I could see bumping this up in a different configuration of the deck, especially if we see an uptick in exile removal like Extinction Event.

You don't need an excuse to run Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. The card is busto. However, I do feel like I need to justify only running two. Here's the short answer: Uro's escape ability is parasitic to the strategy of the deck. Which is bringing back Silvermote Ghoul and Cauldron Familiar. The pair of Lurrus adds to this tension because you don't want to exile something you might re-buy later. On top of all this, our mana base makes it difficult to escape Uro early sometimes. Two seems like the right number.

Dreams and Archfiends

I'll be honest, this part of the deck may feel shoe-horned in but hear me out. Lurrus plays very well with our self-mill creatures. It also gives us access to Witch's Oven from the graveyard. These synergies are too strong to ignore. If we're going to play Lurrus, we might as well squeeze in some Archfiend's Vessel. They've been preforming well for me. I've found the flying 5/5 to be relevant when trying to get some damage in on a muddled board. There's some room to tweak numbers in the decklist. I could see cutting some number of Archfiends. But as far as Lurrus goes, I'd want to add more Lurras, rather than cut them down. Especially, when you consider my secret win condition.

This deck is excellent at stalling the game. Between the life-gain, and Mire Triton gumming-up the ground games can be a slog. Sometimes it's hard for you to close the game. Enter Thassa's Oracle. You can tear through your deck by milling yourself and utilizing the draw of Ghoul and Uro. To your opponent, it'll look like you're trying to get more graveyard shenanigans going. Then boom, out of nowhere, you'll slam a you-win-the-game trigger on the stack. This is great against slower decks and can give you another axis to win on.

Playing Around the Hate

This deck sound fun, right? Well, it's all fun and games until someone brings sideboard cards to the party. Some of the key cards to worry about are: Rest and Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, and Scavenging Ooze. Let's talk about each of these cards, some are scarier than others:

A timely Rest in Peace can hurt, especially if they nab a Uro. Playing through it will depend on your hand. Sometimes you curve out with Questing Beast and The Scarab God and win the game! If not, I usually try to put some pressure on the board, while waiting to draw my removal spell. Keep in mind if they played a Rest in Peace, they aren't furthering their own game plan. You have a little bit of time to find a Blast Zone, Maelstrom Pulse, or Reclamation Sage.

Grafdigger's Cage is a weak sideboard card against this deck. It allows you to stock your graveyard and use Tamiyo to re-buy key cards, especially removal spells. You can go about your business while cage is in play and then remove it later if needed.

Scavenging Ooze is the card I worry about most. It can disrupt your game plan while also putting on pressure. You'll have to be careful what you expose to open Green mana. Sometimes, you can get lucky and find an opening which will allow you to do stuff with your graveyard, but most of the time you'll need to find a removal spell. This is where our pair of Eliminates comes in, as well as Maelstrom Pulse and Murderous Rider.

General Sideboard Thoughts

There's some shifting that happens after sideboard that can favor us. I like to sideboard into more of a mid-range deck. I'll swap Crippling Chill and other cards for removal and more threats. This makes your opponent's graveyard hate less effective and punishes over-sideboarding. One of the strengths of the deck is its flexibility.

The deck has some flex slots in the pair of Call of the Death-Dweller. You can drop those for sideboard cards or new cards to tune for certain matchups. I can tell you right now, the Goblin matchup is brutal! As it should be for a deck with no removal in the maindeck.

If you expect to see a lot of Goblins, you could run things like Massacre Girl (or Wurm). I've even seen some people rocking Plague Mare in the board as an option against Goblins. The Sultai color combination gives you plenty of options to play with. Speaking of options, there are a few cards I'd like to try in the deck.

Other Possibilities

Champion of Wits is a card I'd love to have in the deck. It can help by ditching a stranded Ghoul or some extra lands to fuel Uro. Champion also gives me more agency in post-board games. Allowing me to dig while discarding less relevant cards. I will likely be trying a pair of these out in the flex slots I mentioned above.

Driven // Despair is a Sodek special from his Pioneer dredgeless-dredge deck. Thanks to Amonkhet Remastered we now have access to it in Historic!

I like Fiend Artisan. It can give us a sizable body and access to silver bullet cards. What I don't like is that it leans heavily on the graveyard, making our deck weaker after board. I'm looking forward to trying this out once I can bring myself to cough-up the cash for mythic wilds cards.

Your Turn

All right, I took my best shot at building this deck. Now it's your turn to try it out, and maybe innovate on the idea. Did I miss an obvious inclusion? Let's talk about it in the comments. Until next time, stay safe and thank you for reading.

<3 JM