One of the major difficulties with Dredge is sideboarding. In Modern, as all the decks are different and every player has an affinity for certain cards. That's also true for sideboard cards against Dredge. Some players just give up the matchup, or just play one Relic of the Progenitus, just in case. Some others run Rest in Peace even when they run Snapcaster Mage or Lingering Souls in their own deck, because they know Dredge is a terrible matchup.

In both cases, you have to be ready.

First let's talk about the decks you're not boarding in the Failure to Comply package. That includes a lot of decks, from all versions of Death's Shadow, to White-Blue Control, to Abzan, Eldrazi...

In most of these matchups, I board in two Ancient Grudge and an Abrupt Decay. If I believe my opponent is boarding in Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, I board in Ray of Revelation. If I strongly believe he's boarding RIP, I board in the two Ray of Revelation and the second Abrupt Decay. If I'm absolutely certain he brings in a six-card package (Relic + RiP), I board in Destructive Revelry as well. There's no set rule. You have to pick up hints whenever you can. A quick review of all the winning decks from previous tournaments is a good start.

If you win game one, except against the decks you know will board the whole package against you (Eldrazi), you can lower your “level of worry” and only sideboard three or four anti-hate cards. The reason behind it is that you are more likely to sideboard wrong with the information you currently have (board in too many cards that aren't necessary), make your deck worse and lose a regular game with no hate involved. When you see that they boarded in six cards and you lose to them in game two, board in more anti-hate cards.

When you lose game one and are in the dark about what they're going to do for game two, up your “level of worry” by boarding four to five cards and adjust for game three if needed.

If you know you'll be facing Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, replace a Dakmor Salvage with a Hallowed Fountain so you're able to hardcast Ray of Revelation more easily. As for the cards you board out, they should be a mix of Cathartic Reunion, Driven // Despair (especially on the draw), Golgari Thug and Insolent Neonate.

When you're boarding in Darkblast against decks running Noble Hierarch or small creatures (like Affinity), you can afford to take out more Golgari Thugs.

Collective Brutality is there exclusively for Burn. You could board on in against Scapeshift (helps you call the right card with Comply), but I'm not sold on that plan too much.

As for the matchups you board Failure to Comply against:

Scapeshift

+3 Failure // Comply
+1 Hallowed Fountain
+2 Ancient Grudges

-1 Dakmor Salvage
-2 Cathartic Reunion
-1 Conflagrate
-1 Golgari Thug
-1 Insolent Neonate

This is a solid plan against Scapeshift that gives you a better chance in the matchup, though this is still not a match you want to face. They have different ways to win so you'll have to call the right card at the right time, which can be tricky.

In Birmingham, I played only one Scapeshift deck, and Simon Nielsen was piloting it. Ironically enough, he was one of the players I played on Magic Online and he knew about my tech. In game three of our match that you can catch on the coverage (starts at min 50), Simon is down to one card that I strongly suspect is a Scapeshift. I had played a Despair and he discarded two Primeval Titan in the process. We're down to the last turn, and I need to mill one Failure to Comply to keep him from playing his Scapeshift. As I was looting/dredging away my first ten cards, Simon held to his seat not to see the Blue-White aftermath card. I failed to hit one and lost that match.

Storm

+3 Failure // Comply
+1 Hallowed Fountain
+2 Abrupt Decay

-1 Dakmor Salvage
-1 Golgari Thug
-1 Insolent Neonate
-1 Haunted Dead
-2 Cathartic Reunion

Try to keep Baral, Chief of Compliance and Goblin Electromancer off the table with Conflagrate or Abrupt Decay and try to catch them off guard with Failure to Comply.

Ad Nauseam

+3 Failure // Comply
+1 Hallowed Fountain
+2 Ancient Grudge
+2 Ray of Revelation
+2 Abrupt Decay

-1 Dakmor Salvage
-3 Cathartic Reunion
-2 Conflagrate
-2 Golgari Thug
-1 Insolent Neonate
-1 Haunted Dead

Ad Nauseam players usually have a pair of Gravedigger's Cage. In that matchup, you'll try to have some pressure on the board while disrupting their combo. Ray of Revelation deals with Phyrexian Unlife and your artifact removal will deal with their Pentad Prism. It will be hard for them to reach six mana thanks to Comply on a Lotus Bloom. Adding a Pact of Negation to the mix to go off makes it more complicated for them to win. When you play Comply on your turn, they can counter it with a Pact and kill you during their upkeep with the Pact trigger on the stack.

For some reason, they like to board in Leyline of Sanctity against you to protect themselves from Conflagrate. You have ways to destroy it ( Ray of Revelation) and you're taking two Conflagrate out anyway.

As for my tournament, I started the GP at 4-3 (1-3 after three byes) and felt the deck underperformed. Then I started a comeback by winning seven in a row, but eventually lost the last rounds to end up at 11-4, enough for two Pro Points but a couple of spots away from money (It's my fourth GP in two seasons where I end up 11-4 and failed to cash…). I beat Goblins, White-Blue Control, Colorless Eldrazi, Affinity, White-Black Death and Taxes, White-Black Smallpox, Jeskai Control, Jund Shadow, and lost to Grixis Shadow, Scapeshift, Colorless Eldrazi and White-Green Eldrazi in the last round.

I didn't get the chance to use my Failure to Comply plan too often (only once actually), but I played every round next to at least one Scapeshift player, a deck that was heavily represented.

Dredge is a very hard deck to play. When everything goes right, it's a walk in the park. When you're looking for a missing piece of the puzzle, that you have to optimize your card count, your life total, the land drops, the timing of the Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam triggers, play around hate cards, it starts to get really complicated. There's too much to say in an article as there are just too many little tricks in very specific situations. I'll try to be streaming some Dredge sometimes next week (or make videos for TCGplayer), to show you what I'm talking about.

Dredge is also a frustrating deck at times – I lost my last round because I couldn't find a dredge card in the top 15 cards in both game one and three – but a powerful strategy that leaves a lot of room for the pilot to outplay his opponents. Sure, you'll lose to hate cards sometimes, but in the end, remember that no one ever packs enough cards against you.

- Raphael Levy