Dredge
| Dredge | |
|---|---|
| Keyword Ability | |
| Type | Static |
| Introduced | Ravnica: City of Guilds |
| Last used | Modern Horizons 3 |
| Reminder Text | Dredge N (If you would draw a card, instead you may mill N cards. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.) |
| Storm Scale | 10[1] |
| Statistics |
14 cards  35.7%  7.1%  35.7%  14.3%  7.1% |
| Scryfall Search | |
| keyword:"Dredge" | |
Dredge is a keyword ability first introduced in Ravnica: City of Guilds for the Golgari guild. If a player would draw while a card with dredge is in their graveyard, they may instead return that card to their hand and mill a specified number of cards.[2][3] Dredge has seen competitive play as a means of quickly stocking the graveyard.
Description
Dredge is a recursion mechanic, where the owner of a card in a graveyard with Dredge can return the card to their hand by choosing to skip their draw and mill cards equal to the Dredge number. That number is written on each card with Dredge. Dredge only appears on green and/or black cards except for the land Dakmor Salvage from the Future Sight keyword land cycle and the card Shenanigans from Modern Horizons.
Dredge rates near Storm as an unsalvageable mechanic on the Storm Scale. The mechanic is inherently repetitive, and while the dredge value is intended to scale with power (i.e. costing more to mill the more powerful cards), it went the opposite way. The low-numbered ones can be constantly rebought, while the high-numbered ones are never cast and are instead used to fuel self-mill decks. As a consequence, changing the mana cost of dredge spells does not do much to its playability, making it impossible to balance.
Change in reminder text
The original reminder text was If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly N cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card. With the introduction of the Mill keyword in Core Set 2021, the dredge reminder text keyword was updated to use "mill".[4]
History
Dredge was occasionally reused in supplemental sets like Conspiracy, Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 3.
Rules
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (April 4, 2025—Tarkir: Dragonstorm)
- Dredge
- A keyword ability that lets a player return a card from their graveyard to their hand. See rule 702.52, “Dredge.”
From the Comprehensive Rules (April 4, 2025—Tarkir: Dragonstorm)
- 702.52. Dredge
- 702.52a Dredge is a static ability that functions only while the card with dredge is in a player’s graveyard. “Dredge N” means “As long as you have at least N cards in your library, if you would draw a card, you may instead mill N cards and return this card from your graveyard to your hand.”
- 702.52b A player with fewer cards in their library than the number required by a dredge ability can’t mill any of them this way.
Opponent Dredge
Opponent Dredge is a mechanic seen on the Trash Panda test card from an Unknown Event. It works as dredge does but for the opponent, giving the player the option that if an opponent would draw a card, the player may instead have them mill exactly four cards and put this card into their hand from their graveyard.
Rulings
- Dredge lets you replace any card draw, not just the one during your draw step.
- Once you decide to replace a draw using a card's dredge ability, that card can't be removed from your graveyard "in response" (replacement effects don't use the stack).
- You can't use dredge unless you're going to draw a card and the card with dredge is already in your graveyard.
Competitive play
Dredge decks
One of the most popular uses of dredge is to use it to quickly fill your graveyard. A famous deck based on Ichorid originated from this concept. Such decks use all the high dredge value cards such as Golgari Grave-Troll and Stinkweed Imp. The Extended Friggorid deck was a common deck archetype built around this mechanic. As more graveyard payoffs and discard enablers were printed, Dredge decks became mainstays of all Eternal formats - Prized Amalgam and Creeping Chill in Modern, Bridge from Below and Breakthrough in Legacy, and Bazaar of Baghdad and Serum Powder in Vintage. While other forms of self-mill exist such as Oops! All Spells, Dredge decks have an edge that they utilize draw spells that let it find sideboard counter-hate.
Life from the Loam
The dredge card Life from the Loam has since its release found widespread tournament use fueling a wide array of decks, and is the only Dredge card that was regularly cast. Life from the Loam works as an engine producing additional targets for itself when dredging. In combination with Onslaught cycling lands it is dredgeable at instant speed and Onslaught fetch lands it gives color stability. It then was used to regrow other utility lands like Wasteland and Cephalid Coliseum. The card has been widely used to fuel cards requiring discard and specifically discard of lands such as Solitary Confinement, Seismic Assault and Retrace cards such as Raven's Crime.
Examples
Example
Greater Mossdog 
Creature — Plant Hound
3/3
Dredge 3 (If you would draw a card, you may mill three cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Trivia
- Darkblast is the only instant with dredge.[5] This let players give -2/-2 by casting Darkblast in the upkeep and recasting it after dredging it.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (2025-01-20). "Is dredge a 10 on the storm scale?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Aaron Forsythe (September 23, 2005). "Ravnica: Review and Preview". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Aaron Forsythe (October 28, 2005). "Golgari Query". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
- ↑ Eli Shiffrin (June 23, 2020). "M21 Comprehensive Rules Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-07-02.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (October 13, 2005). "Double Darkblastin' with Dredge". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
