Dredge

Dredge is the keyword attributed to the Golgari in the Ravnica block.
==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 <c>Dakmor Salvage</c> from the Future Sight keyword land cycle and the card <c>Shenanigans</c> 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".
===History===
Dredge was occasionally reused in supplemental sets like Conspiracy, Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 3.
==Rules==
===Opponent Dredge===
Opponent Dredge is a mechanic seen on the <c>Trash Panda</c> 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 <c>Ichorid</c> originated from this concept. Such decks use all the high dredge value cards such as <c>Golgari Grave-Troll</c> and <c>Stinkweed Imp</c>. 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 - <c>Prized Amalgam</c> and <c>Creeping Chill</c> in Modern, <c>Bridge from Below</c> and <c>Breakthrough</c> in Legacy, and <c>Bazaar of Baghdad</c> and <c>Serum Powder</c> 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 <c>Life from the Loam</c> 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 <c>Wasteland</c> and <c>Cephalid Coliseum</c>. The card has been widely used to fuel cards requiring discard and specifically discard of lands such as <c>Solitary Confinement</c>, <c>Seismic Assault</c> and Retrace cards such as <c>Raven's Crime</c>.
==Examples==
==Trivia==
*<c>Darkblast</c> is the only instant with dredge. This let players give -2/-2 by casting <c>Darkblast</c> in the upkeep and recasting it after dredging it.
==References==