This is my Standard Dredge deck that I have been working on since RTR was released. Every set that has been released since then has contributed something important to this deck, and after months of playing, I believe this is the strongest iteration. Now for the rundown!
MAIN DECK:
Deathrite Shaman - this card pulls serious weight in this deck. With 12 self mill spells, this one mana planeswalker is almost always online. Many opponents forget or have been caught out by his drain for 2 ability. Don't underestimate him.
Lotleth Troll - perhaps the best creature in the deck. Best to play on turn 3 after a turn 2 dredge spell, leaving mana up to regenerate. Filthy when you bestow Nighthowler onto him as every discard gives him +2/+2.
Satyr Wayfinder - a godsend from BNG, this is the best turn 2 dredge spell. If you have a choice between this and either Commune with the Gods or Grisly Salvage, choose this first as it provides a body plus card advantage.
Herald of Torment - the evasion choice if you don't have a Lotleth Troll or Nylea, God of the Hunt in play. Great to bestow onto pretty much anything, and also good to bestow Nighthowler onto.
Nighthowler - another absolute house in this deck. He gets massive quick and turns anything, especially your early Satyr Wayfinder, into threats. Unbelievable with Strength of the Fallen.
Pharika, God of Affliction - utilising the singleton theory, this as a one of that gives you options for a later game. The snakes are useful blockers against a board stall and the fact they are enchantments is relevant with Strength of the Fallen. She can create an aggressive draw too, as Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is great at making her online. At worst she even discards to Lotleth Troll.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - the only thing potentially bigger than this is Nighthowler. It's a huge beater, provides great reach to kill out of nowhere, and the recursion creates a serious problem for control to deal with.
Nylea, God of the Hunt - another singleton, and again for a later game. If topdecked, it can suddenly push through all your attackers. Also provides a useful mana sink if you flood out.
Nemesis of Mortals - a great filler creature, has the potential for turn 3 play and turn 4 monstrous. A great bestow target with Herald of Torment. Unfortunately no natural evasion and the potential to be a dead card in hand if dredging doesn't reveal enough creatures makes it just a 3 of. However it is useful as a distraction with the threat of it going monstrous and becoming a serious problem, whether it has evasion or not.
Abrupt Decay - a singleton main deck as I found myself siding at least two in against every opponent I played. Yes it can be dredged and thus be redundant, but having one at least gives me the out of drawing it. It's been great so far.
Golgari Charm - see the above description.
Commune with the Gods - part of the dredge package. I wish it could fetch a land, but the ability to hit enchantments is huge as Strength of the Fallen and Whip of Erebos push the deck over the top, especially when fuelled by this dredge spell.
Grisly Salvage - the best dredge card. You can cast it on the opponent's end step which is huge. You can also cast it, turn over 4 creatures and a land, choose the land and follow up with a 2 mana Nemesis of Mortals. It also fuels the deck as mentioned above.
Strength of the Fallen - an opponent I played said that this card gives the deck a combo feel. While that isn't technically correct, it certainly feels like it when you play with it. It generates absurdly huge creatures out of nowhere, and don't let me get started on having 2 of these cards out at the same time. It works wonders with bestow, with super fast wins being possible by playing this and targeting a Lotleth Troll, then bestowing Nighthowler on Troll, triggering Strength on Troll again, and in response to the Strength trigger, discard all the creatures from your hand to swing for often 18+ trample damage.
Whip of Erebos - the only thing better than swinging for huge amounts of damage as I mentioned above? If you gain stupendous amounts of life at the same time. Optimum plays include triggering Strength of the Fallen with this as it's just so much value. It also gives the deck a late game, and control decks have to deal with this as whipping back Nighthowler and triggering Strength on itself can kill from nowhere.
The land base is self explanatory, I don't want to run all 3 dual lands available as I want to keep the Swamp and Forest count high for Jarad recursion. At the moment I prefer Temple of Malady over Llanowar Wastes as early game the scry is useful. However in the late game, the fact the temples come into play tapped can seriously slow me down. Maybe I'll split the temples with the wastes later.
SIDEBOARD
Abrupt Decay - great against control mostly, and monsters variants. Weaker against mono blue and mono black, so I probably won't side the 2 sideboard copies in against those, but the one in main deck is ok.
Brain Maggot - great against mono black. I have to get an early game advantage against mono black so their Pack Rats have to be defensive and their one-for-one removal is super weak. This card helps me disrupt their game plan and if they waste a removal spell on this, then I'm even further ahead.
Golgari Charm - my local meta is filled with constellation decks hence the 2 copies, although I often side one more in against control.
Mistcutter Hydra - a different angle of attack against control to combine with the recursive threats like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Whip of Erebos. Also good against mono blue obviously.
Rot Farm Skeleton - actually unbelievable against control. It provides an uncounterable way to continue dredging and is another recursive threat. They can only have so many Detention Spheres.
Shadowborn Demon - for the monsters decks. They can sometimes go bigger than me more quickly, so it's nice to have a kill spell on a creature plus a huge blocker for Stormbreath Dragon.
Thanks for reading and any suggestions are welcome!
