Canal Dredger MTG Card

Canal Dredger ensures tailored draws by selectively reordering the top of your library. Its tap ability allows the return of key artifacts, bolstering your resource access. High activation cost can be a deterrent, despite its potential for deck enhancement.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact Creature — Construct
Released	2014-06-06
Set symbol
Set name	Conspiracy
Set code	CNS
Power	1
Toughness	5
Number	55
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	John Avon

Text of card

Draft Canal Dredger face up. Each player passes the last card from each booster pack to a player who drafted a card named Canal Dredger. : Put target card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library.

Cards like Canal Dredger

Canal Dredger joins the ranks of Magic: The Gathering utility artifacts that play with the bottom of one’s library. Comparable in this niche is Tel-Jilad Stylus, which, much like Canal Dredger, offers a way to protect cards from graveyard interactions by putting them on the bottom of your library. However, the Stylus does so at an activation cost of zero, making it a more cost-efficient, if less versatile, tool.

Another parallel can be drawn with Junk Diver, a card that not only acts from the graveyard but also brings an artifact from the graveyard to your hand when it dies. While Junk Diver has a body capable of attacking and blocking, unlike the Dredger, it’s a one-time effect. Canal Dredger’s continuous ability to reorder any player’s graveyard makes it unique in its strategic implications.

Evaluating these artifacts altogether, Canal Dredger holds its own as a repeatable means of graveyard manipulation. Its ability to target any player’s graveyard adds a layer of tactical depth, particularly in multiplayer formats where graveyard strategies are prevalent.

Cards similar to Canal Dredger by color, type and mana cost

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Canal Dredger’s ability to reorder the top of your library provides valuable card selection to ensure you draw into key pieces or avoid unwanted cards, effectively fine-tuning your draw step.

Resource Acceleration: With Canal Dredger’s tap ability, you can potentially return powerful artifact cards from your graveyard to your library, accelerating your access to these resources and enhancing your long-game potential.

Instant Speed: Although Canal Dredger doesn’t operate at instant speed, its tap ability can be utilized at the end of your opponent’s turn or during your upkeep to adapt to the evolving game state without consuming mana from your main phase.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One drawback of Canal Dredger lies in its inherent design that requires a player to delve into their own graveyard, potentially discarding valuable cards that might be of use in upcoming turns or could be recurred for additional value.

Specific Mana Cost: Canal Dredger comes with a mana cost that includes generic and artifact-specific mana. This condition means it demands a deck built with enough resources to consistently generate the required mana types, potentially limiting its inclusion to artifact-centric or mana-flexible decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an activation cost that is on the higher side, Canal Dredger’s utility might be overshadowed by other cards in the same mana range that offer immediate impact or more potent abilities, especially when considering the rapid pace of many MTG formats.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Canal Dredger offers a unique ability to manipulate the bottom of one’s library, which can be an asset in decks that use graveyard strategies or shuffle effects, ensuring key cards are within reach.

Combo Potential: This card can synergize with cards that interact with the library’s order or dredge mechanics, thereby enabling potent combinations that can outmaneuver opponents through superior deck manipulation.

Meta-Relevance: In formats where long games are common and decks require precise tuning, Canal Dredger can sustain an edge, maintaining an effective deck flow and recycling crucial resources in the late game.

How to beat

The Canal Dredger card offers a unique approach to library management in Magic: The Gathering. It allows a player to dig into their deck and recycle resources by putting a card from their graveyard on the bottom of their library each turn. This continuous engine of card selection can be a subtle yet powerful tool in longer, grindier games where attrition can play a crucial role.

Defeating a strategy centered around Canal Dredger often requires disrupting the graveyard synergy. Cards that offer graveyard hate, such as Scavenger Grounds or Bojuka Bog, can nullify the Dredger’s ability by exiling the cards before they can be reused. Targeted removals such as Unsummon or Path to Exile can also be effective as they provide a means to temporarily or permanently eliminate Canal Dredger from the battlefield, halting the engine it provides and forcing the controlling player to reinvest resources if they wish to reactivate it.

Keeping in mind the Dredger’s draft capacity, players should assess the significance of allowing their opponent this sort of library manipulation. Ensuring that their own decks are equipped with answers to such strategies will enhance their resilience against Canal Dredger and similar cards that seek to exploit graveyard resources. Ultimately, recognizing and preparing for this level of deck manipulation can be a decisive factor in winning matches.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Canal Dredger MTG card by a specific set like Conspiracy, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Canal Dredger and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Canal Dredger has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Canal Dredger card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2014-05-29	If multiple players have drafted a card named Canal Dredger, each player chooses which of those players to pass the last card to.
2014-05-29	If you draft a card named Canal Dredger, you pass the last card from each booster pack to yourself. In other words, when you are passed two cards, you draft both of them.
2014-05-29	You draft all cards passed to you this way one at a time. If you also drafted a Cogwork Grinder, you may remove any of those cards from the draft.