Edna

Well, seeing as Modern is super new and I haven't really played much of it yet, I'm not entirely sure what the biggest concerns are or should be if that makes sense. However, I am curious to see your take on what I've come up with. I mean, perhaps the deck is counter-happy, but I'm not sure. I'm curious to see where you think this deck's weaknesses lie.

At this moment, I can promise you I've overlooked at least a couple solid card choices for a deck like this and I'm coming to you for an extra mind to figure out what I may be missing. Also, the sideboard is a total pile at the moment and was hastily put together without having a clue what's going to be in the format for tier 1 decks. Ideas on top decks and good answers would be awesome.:)

For Reference:

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=222789

Really? I think modern is awesome! Only problem is the ban list is way over the top (Mental Misstep? Really!?)

Anyway, neat deck Ethan. Idk about the Llanowar Augur... Not sure what he's doing there to be honest (though I guess he function's nicely with Doran...). One card I feel that could help you is Kitchen Finks. It rocks all the zoo/aggro decks in modern and provides a resiliant body against wrath while beating down reasonably quick. Also, Murmuring Bosk is AMAZING in a deck like this - it can even be fetched out with Verdant Catacombs!!
Also, while you're running black, may as well add IoK and/or Thoughtseize. I hear it's pretty good.;)

Btw, I made a modern list, too. Mind giving it a look over? It's really rough right now.

Ok, any help would be great! I don't have Bloodbraid Elf because cascading into a Mana Leak just sucks. Also, I should probably have 1-3 more land somewhere but idk what to cut... The sideboard needs a ton of help but I just am using general catch-alls since the format is so new and no one really knows for sure what will be played or not. So yeah, critique it as much as you can, but please try to be nice about it. Just a rough sketch at this point.:)

Flusterstorm is pretty sub-par as a main-deck inclusion unless you really believe storm is going to be all over the place. As it stands, however, I feel like it's best kept in the sideboard. Batterskull, like Ethan said, is a great card... with SFM. On it's own (especially in Legacy), it's pretty terrible though. At 5 mana, it's WAY too expensive and is terrible with your Bobs. While it seems fun, I do feel like Fatespinner is just a little too "cute" for what you need it to do. Since the opponent always chooses, it will always only be stopping the thing you least need/want it to stop. :/

Jitte is such a powerful card that I honestly feel like it's just fine as a 1-of, though probably not a needed card. I could see it being pulled, but could see the argument for keeping it.

Like Ethan was saying, Jace certainly deserves a spot. I think he also had it right when he said 8 discard spells was almost too many and you could easily cut 1 Hymn.
Other great additions would be some real, solid counterspells, as well as some spot removal. Dismember certainly could be included, at the very least as a 1-of and possibly as a 2-of. I could see some combination of 2-3 Dismembers/Go for the Throats somewhere in here. You could even cut just 1 Pulse for them. As for counters, you could run the actual "Counterspell", though I'm not sure your mana is the best for it. Force of Will is the best, though you don't have enough blue for it. I'd probably go with a mix of Mental Misstep, Daze, and perhaps a Spell Pierce. 4-6 counters seems appropriate with some assortment of these.
Now, my biggest concern/question for the deck is why there are absolutely no Brainstorms in the list! If you're in Legacy and running blue, you almost always should be running these as a 4-of (obviously there are exceptions, but not too many!). If you do add them, it does make fetch-lands considerably better, so 8 is the minimum I would want to run, most likely. Also, with the land base, cutting maybe 1 Underground Sea and 1 Bayou for 2 Tropical Islands would work just great, I'd imagine.

Hope this helped a bit. Good luck with it.:)

There's always room for GSZ! It's the best of every creature in your deck, every time as long as you have all (or mostly) green creatures in the deck. This deck seems to qualify. So, to start you could just cut a few of the cards down by 1 because adding 4 GSZ is like adding 4 more of that card anyway so you're really (sorta) just upping the count on everything you cut! Also, adding 1 Dryad Arbor would make it even better as it's a ramp spell at x=0 on turn 1 if you need. Plus, it's just a cool Forest that can attack! I'd probably add 3-4 GSZ for 1 Dourbark, 1 Arbor Elf, and 1 or 2 Khalni Heart Expedition (I'm just not a huge fan of this card, even in ramp decks...).

Certainly don't have to agree with me on all of it, but I hope it helped give a few ideas or views to kick around with the deck. Looks fun to play.:)

Someone may have mentioned this already, but this may actually be a deck where Xenograft could work! Think about it, you drop it and choose illusion and suddenly the final 2/5 of your creatures are now Illusions as well. Just dropping this with 1 Lord of Unreal makes it a 3/3 hexproof for 2! Not bad at all! The only problem I could forsee is it costing 5, but it seems decent regardless.

The total lack of Preordain is perplexing as without any fetchlands or anything like that to shuffle your deck, it's almost strictly better than Ponder, and running both is not the worst either if you'd want. If it were me, I'd stick with Preordain over Ponder, and probably even Forsee over Divination. Hope this helps a bit.:)

Haha, that's sweet! Man, EDH has the best stories.:)

It is quite absurd in EDH. True Story: Just yesterday I was playing with a few friends. I cast Time Stretch with almost everyone tapped out, while one of my friends tapped his only 2 remaining Islands to cast Redirect! Oh, and he had Wrexial already out... In other words, he had 4 turns almost for sure coming his way. Thankfully, I was able to stop it by legend ruling the Wrexial out with a clone-type card. Once I finally got my turn back, I topdecked an Eternal Witness with mana to cast it and replay the Time Stretch. In those 2 turns, I was able to get out and fully level a Lighthouse Chronologist, cast Praetor's Cousil (Getting back tons and tons of good stuff). Then, I could recast Time Stretch yet again.... At this point, my friends/opponents quickly scooped after realizing I even had ways to protect the Chronologist and his 5 friends, thanks to a kicked Rite of Replication.

Yes, that did all actually happen. Yes, it was crazy. And yes, it was sooo much fun! :) I love commander!

Looking pretty solid. As always, playtesting is the key to figuring out the correct numbers now, though. I would still look to add a 4th Ichorid somehow, and definitely swap one Thug for a 4th Imp. The entire point of the dredge cards is basically only to dredge and nothing more. That being the case, Imp is clearly superior to the Thug as the extra card can be critical. Other than that, you're off to a great start and looks like a solid starting point and isn't too netdecky. Dredge decks naturally always look fairly similar of course, because the engine is so specific and whatnot, but I like what you have going. As always, best of luck.:)

Hey Ethan. I read through some of the comments and well, here's some thoughts... First off, Iona is a clutch part of the deck because like you'd mentioned, all it takes is one sacrifice and they've gotten rid of your Bridges. Thankfully, not many players play a ton of creatures that self-sacrifice and ruin your day. A fourth Ichorid is almost a must, as half your games it can be/is crucial to your game play. You really only need 1 Flame-Kin, 2 at most, as you should be able to also dredge your entire deck within 3 turns, max. The biggest problem with your deck as it stands is that you have 7 total dredge cards (or am I missing something?). You NEED another Imp and probably even a couple Golgari Thugs wouldn't hurt.

I agree on Thoughtsieze actually being relatively weak for dredge decks. Your deck is super mana intensive, in that it runs a bunch of stuff to do in the 1st 2 turns or so and doesn't have time/mana to spare for Thoughtsiezing if you want to combo off quick/right. Elesh Norn isn't the worst as a target, though I think she is probably not quite as useful, at least in the maindeck. Probably could easily drop her to the sideboard.

While I mentioned 3 Flame-Kin being too much, the same holds true for Dread Return. 2 Should be plenty.

A couple final things to note with a deck like dredge - It is hands down one of the most consistent and powerful decks in all of Legacy, but it is incredibly skill intensive. Do NOT go into any tournaments expecting to win without a great deal of playtesting as you will get rocked as a result. Very few pros fully know how to handle the deck without a healthy amount of testing. Again, it is incredibly powerful, but fairly easy to hate out. Your biggest enemy is actually Leyline of the Void as people can side these into any deck and have been known to win games by mulliganing down to absurd numbers like 3 just to find the Leyline and have won as a result, particularly against less experienced dredgers. So, against an unprepared field, dredge likely will dominate if piloted right. Against an even semi-prepared metagame, dredge will likely struggle to make top 32 even.

For fun, check out the really cool "manaless dredge" deck that just dominated at the Star City Games tournament in Cincinnati. It completely rapes blue decks by not actually casting spells hardly at all or using any mana - practically negating every counter in their decks.:)

Preordain is a card I've experimented slightly with. It has been amazing on occasion, terrible at other times. So I'm just not sure what to do with it yet. If you draw it in the "late" game it's pretty sweet, but it's always kinda one of those cards you don't want in your opening hand, at least in my experience. I'm gonna keep experimenting with it, but it may be appropriate to put it in as a 2 of, perhaps in place of the Gitaxian Probes.

Ok, I'll look into giving that a try then. It may be a few days, but I'll let you know once I've finally built and tested a list like that a bit. Thanks for your help/input.:)

haha, well thank you! I'll definitely take that as a compliment.:) It does seem like an incredibly fun Archetype, even if potentially risky in some ways (Reanimate on a 10 cmc creature has to be at least somewhat risky! haha). Because my Reanimate deck is looking to be more budget, what are your thoughts on a more control/Reanimate type list? Kinda like the Team America in that it will run a few counters and probably some sweet discard like Hymns and stuff, but will "combo-out" with reanimation and everything. Seem at least semi-valid as an option? I'll probably try it regardless but I'd like to know what the expert says about this.:)

Yeah, I actually had a few Mana Leaks in addition to 3 Spell Pierce at FNM. I found that, while good, it's really difficult to SB in more because the deck is already so streamlined, though. Like, I wanted more counters, but the deck doesn't play control as well as it does play "combo." It is a lot of fun, though for sure.:)
Btw, I've been slowly (very slowly) working to acquire a bunch of fun cards for a relatively cheap Reanimator deck. It's in the works and maybe wont even go up on here, but I can't wait to get it together. It seems like a blast! Idk if I'll ever get a playset of Entomb, but budget will just have to do. Don't plan on any Legacy tourneys too soon anyway.

Idk.. I love Dismember and am trying to fit more in. GSZ just doesn't seem to do enough with only 1 real utility target... I'd rather just have that target for 1 less mana! As for Natures Claim, it's like I said to Ethan, Spellskite basically rapes my deck. Plus, it is very good against Tempered Steel decks, Tezzeret Decks, and Splinter Twin decks. So I like the four honestly. I used those more than anything else at FNM for sideboarding. The Necropedes are a concession to more of the aggro matchups, though addmittedly the matches that they're best in, I already have a decent matchup against... I could see cutting a couple!

Like I asked Ethan, any ideas for Spellskites and BSZ or Gatekeepers? Those tend to be the best cards against my deck...

Yeah, I'm looking at a way to fit in another Dismember to the main but I'm not sure what to cut honestly. I actually have tried Tezzeret's Gambit a little bit, but was not too thrilled with it at all. 1 game it was kind of nice but it generally sat in my hand, costing too much (yes, 3 is far too much) and did too little usually. If it could cost 2 and 2 phyrexian mana, it'd be a major auto-include, though. Green Sun's Zenith kind of has the same problem I think. I almost feel like it may just be better to just have more Corrupters instead since it's really my only main target...

The biggest problem card for the deck is quite easily Spellskite as it can essentially shut down half the cards in the deck and turn my turn 3-5 turn kill deck into a turn 6-8 turn kill deck which is horrendously slow. That's a large part of why there are so many artifact removal spells in the sideboard.

This deck can be flukey, but it's actually far more consistent then I had expected! If you can draw basically 1-2 creatures and a few pump/protection spells, you're golden. The only real issue is mana flood or random 1/no land hands.

Any ideas for better beating Spellskite and cards like Black Sun's Zenith or Gatekeepers?

Hey Ethan! I know I basically haven't been on here at all recently but I've been super busy with summer jobs and whatnot. Anyway, I've finally been up to a bit more magic and just recently top 8'd an FNM with a sweet UG Infect deck. Was wondering if you had any ideas or suggestions for it. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are.

Surewhynot and WhiteAndBlue - I know neither of you are really too big into standard, but any thoughts/advice woulud be appreciated if you could. Thanks. :)

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=206772

Oh, interesting. Thanks for explaining some of those. Especially Recoup. I never even considered using it as part of a Gifts package! And yeah, I've seen the Time Vault combo which just seems sick, although you do at least have to be careful not to kill yourself with infinite turns and a Dark Confidant. Haha. I have heard of it happening before so you wouldn't be the first! :P

Well, I'll be honest. I don't see this EVER winning a Legacy tournament as it is. That's because a few of the cards (Sol Ring, Mana Vault) are BANNED in Legacy and if you try to run the deck as it is, you will be disqualified. ;) haha. However, banned cards aside, it seems fine. I would definitely not want to be running Memnites and Ornithopters in the deck as they do nothing besides add to the storm count. Your average converted mana cost is pretty high too, with so many Tendrils, Fact or Fiction, and 3 Ad Nauseam. I'd add in a full set of Lion's Eye Diamond and 4 Infernal Tutor. Plus, I'd add in a bunch of cards like Brainstorm, Preordain, and Ponder but that would mean going blue as well... 2 Tendrils should be enough I think, as well. Hope this helped a bit.