So Many Insane Plays — Long Live Ichorid

Stephen Menendian’s innovative Manaless Ichorid deck continues to evolve. Sure, it’s fought its way through various hate in the form of Tormod’s Crypt and Jotun Grunt… but can it handle the heat from the new boy in town, the mighty Extirpate? Stephen refines his deck further, and puts it through the mill of a local Vintage tournament…

Everyone knows that design matters. Mike Flores recently lampooned Vintage, saying that in most formats preparation counts for 80%, but that in Vintage it accounts for as much as 99%. Regardless of the veracity of such a claim, design matters a lot. The fact that Vintage cards are so powerful actually cuts both ways – it makes design matter more than other formats, but also means that design matters less than in other formats.

In Vintage, the card pool is so highly powered that cards like Black Lotus, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Ancestral Recall can do more for you than tight or even perfect technical play and often compensate for a lot worse. In that sense, the decision to include those cards matters a lot. On the other hand, the power disparity between Vintage cards is such that you can win games with suboptimal card choices. One example I often give is deck design in the four Trinisphere era. Eric Miller won tournament after tournament with insane win conditions like Illusionary Mask and Phyrexian Dreadnaught combo. It wasn’t that the unwieldy combo of Masknaught was winning games so much as the power of Workshop Trinisphere was locking opponents out of games before they started. In that sense, it didn’t matter whether he was winning with Brassman or Darksteel Colossus – he was going to win the game. For Mishra’s Workshop players in that era, the first forty or so cards accounted for 90% of everything you did. The rest was filler.

For some decks, the razor’s edge between winning and losing can come down to the sixtieth card in your deck. Ichorid is such a deck. The reason for this is that you use almost the entire contents of your library in every game that you win. For that reason, the gulf between perfect design and near perfect design is enormous.

Part of my quest to improve Ichorid has been an attempt to utilize the experience of tournament play to fix or plug design problems. Today, I take one more step closer to that ever just-out-of-reach Holy Grail of Vintage Ichorid.

To recapitulate: In January I showcased the Manaless Ichorid concept to the broader Magic community, illustrating how the deck could perform incredible feats on the back of a single Bazaar of Baghdad. I showed how Ichorid could win through countless disruption and was an essentially unstoppable machine that snowballed into a win. This was because the deck relies on no mana, and generates incredible card advantage through the use of the dredge and flashback mechanic (not to mention the fact of Ichorid and Nether Shadow). I ran a set of ten games against Gifts, showing how Ichorid just demolishes the premier deck in the format, game 1.

Subsequently, I highlighted what I felt were the two key weaknesses in the archetype: 1) the susceptibility to graveyard hate and 2) the weakness to Vintage speed combo. Since the deck works out of the graveyard, cards like Leyline of the Void take you offline before the game has begun. And since the primary reason that this deck beats the rest of the field is that it has an unstoppable goldfish that can’t be bottled up through mana denial and countermagic, faster decks present a serious threat. You can’t choose which disruption spells you will open up with – you have to take what is given to you. Decks like Pitch Long annihilate Manaless Ichorid in game 1 (do not believe what anyone else tells you on the score – they are flat out wrong). The general rule of thumb for stopping combo is that you have to disrupt them twice by turn 2 with some combination of discard and Chalice of the Void. Leyline of the Void does not count toward that math. A single Unmask or a single Chalice is not sufficient to stop them from winning first.

For those reasons, I added just a bit of mana, cutting the weakest disruption spells and a few dredgers. The mana helped me play a few Duresses in the maindeck (with more in the board) and helped me cast sideboard answers to graveyard hate. The mana would also make it possible for me to hardcast Cabal Therapies in game 1. All of this was designed to plug those two weaknesses in exchange for slowing down the deck a little bit.

It turns out I was successful at achieving my two goals. The problem I discovered was that I was over-sideboarding and giving up far too much speed by removing my Sutured Ghoul combo to fight hate. I compensated. I realized that the best strategy for game 2 was to replay game 1 as much as possible. With this strategy you retain your game 1 goldfish speed. If you win the game, you win the match. If you lose the game, then you know exactly what you have do to win game 3. In addition, I discovered that most players only have a few Tormod’s Crypts that are most likely to come down the turn or two before you are going to win. I made a few adjustments to my deck and sideboard and I came up with a deck that I felt was far superior to the list that I started with.

The problem was that Wizards went ahead and printed a card called Extirpate.

Although Ichorid could easily handle all of the top decks in the format except for speed combo before the printing of Extirpate, would Extirpate seriously damage Ichorid’s chances?

I decided that I wanted to take a different route with Ichorid. I returned the deck to its roots with one major change: in the space of the four Leyline of the Voids, I added Mishra’s Factory. Mishra’s Factory was a card that the deck progenitor, Albert Kyle, ran as a one-of for a while. I think Mishra’s Factory is very good.

Imagine this scenario:

Turn 1: Bazaar of Baghdad discarding Stinkweed Imp, Serum Powder, and Dragon Breath. Play Unmask.

Turn 2: Upkeep, dredge Stinkweed Imp revealing Golgari Thug. Dredge Thug revealing Golgari Grave-Troll. Discard Thug, Imp, and another card. In the cards you have dredged you have put a Cabal Therapy into the graveyard. On your draw step, dredge the Troll.

In your first main-phase, play Mishra’s Factory. Tap Mishra’s Factory for a mana to activate it as a creature. Flashback Cabal Therapy.

In that way, Mishra’s Factory operates as Duress plus a mana in one. However, Mishra’s Factory is even juicier on turn 3.

Imagine a possible turn 3:

Upkeep, dredge a bunch. Return two Ichorids and a Nether Shadow to play. Draw step: dredge some more. First main-phase: play Mishra’s Factory. Sacrifice a Nether Shadow to play a Cabal Therapy to clear the path.

Now, activate Mishra’s Factory and sacrifice it and two Ichorids to flashback Dread Return on a massive, trampling Sutured Ghoul.

Mishra’s Factory facilitates Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, and can actually be a potential source of damage while shielding the deck from the full devastation of Extirpate.

If your Ichorids, for instance, are Extirpated, you only need a Mishra’s Factory and two Nether Shadows to flashback Dread Return. In addition, since the deck has four Petrified Fields to protect your Bazaars from Wasteland, you will almost always have access to a Mishra’s Factory. In short, Mishra’s Factory has enormous synergy with the whole deck and makes sense, especially post-Extirpate. Thus, I’m proud to present my revised Manaless Ichorid list:


A few notes on this list. As before, the game plan is five-step strategy;

Step 1: Mulligan into Bazaar. That’s why Serum Powder is here.
Step 2: Dredge
Step 3: Return critters into play
Step 4: Flashback Cabal Therapy to clear the way
Step 5: Flashback Dread Return and swing in with lethal Sutured Ghoul

I played almost this list exactly at the Meandeck Open, a local Vintage tournament here in Columbus. However, it wasn’t until after the tournament that I realized that the deck should have one Sundering Titan in the maindeck. With all of those dredgers, we can cut a Shambling Shell for a Titan because we will have enough Dredgers and Shell is the weakest of the four dredgers. We compensate for the loss of power (the three-power is important) but adding a seven-power creature.

One further cut that you may want to make is a Golgari Thug for a single Underground Sea. I could see you using the Sea with Petrified Field to hardcast a Golgari Thug, or even a Stinkweed Imp if you are in a desperate situation.

This is about as perfect as you can make Ichorid, any Ichorid variant. The only other change I could see is perhaps moving one to two lands into the maindeck and making room for two Duress in the sideboard. That would help the combo matchup.

The reason I was comfortable cutting all the Duresses from the maindeck is twofold: First, this deck is much faster than my mana Ichorid list. It is much closer to a consistent turn 3 kill than the Mana Ichorid, which is closer to a turn 4 kill. Thus, Combo gets less time to recover from whatever disruption you throw at them. Second, Mishra’s Factory can substitute as a weak Land plus Duress. It doubles my chances of being able to throw a turn 2 Cabal Therapy at my opponent, making me more disruptive.

For the very astute among you, you’ll notice that this list is only six cards different from the Manaless Ichorid list I presented in the first week of January. One of the changes was cutting Maze of Ith for Black Lotus. Even though this deck is manaless, I’ve decided in principle that Black Lotus belongs in every deck that can run it. You can play Nether Shadow and Cabal Therapy, multiple Cabal Therapies, or even cast a Stinkweed Imp on turn 1 just to flashback a Therapy.

My confidence that I’ve built an even stronger weapon was tempered with the knowledge that I’d be facing Extirpate. This tournament would be a nice test run for Ichorid.

My sideboard plan is as follows:

Sideboard plans:

For every game 2:

+ 4 Pithing Needle
– 4 Golgari Thug

When I am facing Leyline of the Voids (and only for game 3s):

– 4 Thug
– 4 Petrified Field
– 3 Factory

+ 4 Underground Sea
+ 3 Underground River
+ 4 Chain of Vapor

Round 1: Doug Linn Playing Drain Tendrils

I took my seat across from my good friend and teammate Doug Linn. Doug has enjoyed some success recently with Codi Vinci’s Drain Tendrils deck. I knew that this would be a tough match, but I also knew that it was heavily in my favor. Not too long ago Codi Vinci had messaged me asking for tips on how to handle the Ichorid matchup – a matchup he found very unfavorable.

Here’s the basic lowdown on the matchup. Codi’s deck is one of the most aggressive Mana Drain decks in the format. It consistently combos out with Yawgmoth’s Will between turns 3 and 5, and often on turn 3 or 4. Once in a while it gets a really explosive draw and goes off on turn two. It basically just draws a ton of cards as quickly as possible and then drops Yawgmoth’s Will to end the game. The problem for Codi’s deck is that Ichorid is faster.

Ichorid wins before Codi’s deck does. And the reason this determines the game is that Codi’s deck can’t stop Ichorid. Countermagic is ineffective and preventing Ichorid from going off on turn four. Since I’m playing Manaless Ichorid, my deck is about a half turn faster than Mana Ichorid. And what’s more, because of my four Mishra’s Factories, my deck is even faster than that. It’s pretty much a turn 3 goldfish through countermagic.

But it’s not even just that I’m faster. If it was pure speed, I would only be about a turn faster than Codi’s deck. This deck is also very disruptive. Between Unmask, Chalice of the Void, and Cabal Therapy, Codi’s deck is going to be kicked in the teeth, slowing it down even more. Thus, even if the Drain Tendrils deck is on the play, Ichorid has a hugely favorable game 1.

Doug was bristling with energy and excitement. I knew that he was anxious about the match, but he brought his game face. He was confident and assertive and it did put me a little bit off balance. I was fortunate to win the die roll.

My opening hand is very solid. I have Bazaar and disruption.

Game 1:

I drop Bazaar onto the table. I am holding both Unmask and Chalice of the Void. Nonetheless, the correct play is to use the Bazaar first. I use Bazaar and see another Bazaar.

As a general rule, if you see a second Bazaar, that means that you can dredge your entire deck and then some by your third turn’s upkeep. I fully expect to win this game very quickly.

Chalice of the Void is very strong here. Remember that Drain Tendrils is a Yawgmoth’s Will based strategy. It doesn’t have Tinker or Darksteel Colossus maindeck – just two Tendrils of Agony fueled by Yawgmoth’s Will. Chalice of the Void interferes greatly with that game plan. In the first place, it slows down the draw engine because you can’t just drop acceleration and play draw. And then you can’t play the acceleration you drew off of your draw spells. All of this slows down Yawgmoth’s Will. Part of what makes Yawgmoth’s Will so powerful is that Yawgmoth’s Will is a mana-generating play. The cheap draw you can play after you can Yawgmoth’s Will means that you get to play more artifact acceleration and eventually cast Tendrils. Chalice stops that plan entirely. Drain Tendrils can’t operate efficiently, and barely at all, until it removes the Chalice. It can, however, play control. The problem is that Ichorid has strategic superiority over anything that tries to play control.

I Unmask Doug and I see:

Island
Polluted Delta
Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm
Demonic Tutor
Mana Drain
Yawgmoth’s Will

Suffice to say, that hand is utterly broken. If Doug was on the play, I would actually give him even odds for winning this game. Turn 1 Ancestral is likely to have drawn him mana he could get on the table before I could drop a Chalice. He might also draw a Force of Will that could stop my Unmask from nabbing Yawgmoth’s Will.

I debate what to take. If I take Yawgmoth’s Will, I know that I’ve strategically crippled him. The only way he can win is to Chain spells and then cast Tendrils. On the other hand, if he plays Ancestral Recall there is a chance that he’ll see the juice necessary to pull off the lethal Tendrils without Yawgmoth’s Will. In any case, I will probably be able to play Cabal Therapy on Yawgmoth’s Will before he can do much about it. It is true that he could just hide the Will with Brainstorm, but that means he’s not playing it. Whether it is correct or not, I take Ancestral Recall.

I drop Chalice of the Void for zero on the table, and pass the turn.

Doug plays Island, go.

Turn 2:

I can’t return the Nether Shadow into play quite yet. I dredge on my upkeep and my draw step. Then I play the second Bazaar. I pass the turn.

In my end step, Doug plays Brainstorm. He untaps and plays Delta, go. I was surprised he didn’t play Demonic Tutor, but realistically, what could he get?

In his end step I dredge 12 cards with my new Bazaar.

Turn 3:

I untap, Dredge and return two Nether Shadows and an Ichorid into play. I attack. Although I’ve dredged a significant portion of my deck, I’ve only revealed 1 Cabal Therapy. I play a Cabal Therapy and he plays Mana Drain.

Doug untaps and plays Demonic Tutor. At this point I think I’m going to possibly lose the game from Chain of Vapor. The problem for Doug is that even though he could play Chain of Vapor, he doesn’t have enough mana to play Yawgmoth’s Will.

Turn 4:
I return 4 Nether Shadows and 2 Ichorids into play (the last two Ichorids were in my bottom 6 cards). I Therapy him. He plays Force of Will. I Therapy again and he plays another Force of Will.

I have a dilemma. I only have one more Cabal Therapy. He has two cards in his hand. We can hazard a reasonable guess that he’s still holding Yawgmoth’s Will. But what if he tutored for Chain of Vapor last turn? If so, then if I play Dread Return removing my graveyard from game and putting into play a massive Sutured Ghoul, he can just Chain my man and knock me out of the game.

Although he could Chain my Sutured Ghoul, I reason that if I take his Yawgmoth’s Will, he isn’t winning this turn anyway. If I see Chain of Vapor, I can just attack him with 4 Ichorids next turn. I Therapy him naming Yawgmoth’s Will and I see Tolarian Academy as well as Yawgmoth’s Will.

I flashback Dread Return and kill him.

My sideboard plans: I assume that he’s sideboarding some Extirpate, but I think there is a chance he’ll also have Tormod’s Crypt. I don’t expect Leyline of the Void. Thus, I sideboard:

+ 4 Pithing Needle
– 3 Golgari Thug
– 1 Shambling Shell

With 4 Mishra’s Factory, 4 Petrified Field, 1 Black Lotus, and 1 Strip Mine, I have plenty of mana sources to cast Pithing Needle.

Game 2:

I Serum Powder twice removing an Ichorid and a Cabal Therapy.

Turn 1:

Doug opens as I expect Drain Tendrils to open: Pollute Delta, Mox Ruby, Mox Jet.

My hand is a real puzzler. I play Bazaar of Baghdad and use it. Before discarding I have to decide whether I want to use both of the Unmasks in my hand this turn. I have 2 Unmask, 1 Chalice of the Void, 1 Cabal Therapy, 1 Ichorid, and 1 Golgari Troll in hand among other cards, but no other Black cards. In order to play both Unmasks I’m going to have to remove Therapy and Ichorid. On turn 2 I could easily return an Ichorid into play and flashback a Therapy. The basic question then is: is it worth slowing myself down a little bit to heavily disrupt him now? I honestly don’t know what the correct play is and there is no opportunity to Unmask him first to decide which play I’d like to pursue. I have to resolve Bazaar before I can Unmask. I decide that I’d like to double Unmask him.

I Unmask and I see:

Yawgmoth’s Will
Thirst for Knowledge
Accumulated Knowledge
Accumulated Knowledge

Now think about that hand. If I take an AK, he can play the other AK. Unmasking AK helps him. If I take the Yawgmoth’s Will, he can play Thirst for Knowledge discarding an AK. He could then untap and play AK for two. If I take the Thirst for Knowledge, I’m leaving him with the most important card in his deck in his hand. Nonetheless, I have the ability to play a second Unmask, so I can take the Will. The risk of taking Thirst is that he could AK in response and see a Force of Will. Then he could protect his Will and win the game with it before I can. That risk is pretty slim.

I take the Thirst for Knowledge. I Unmask him again and take Yawgmoth’s Will.

I then drop Chalice for zero and pass the turn.

Yeah, I know – I had the nuts. Double Unmask and Chalice for zero on turn 1 is pretty fortunate.

The problem with Ichorid is that you have no guarantee of having disruption in your opening hand. I’ve built the deck so that it is probable that I’ll have disruption, but I can’t mulligan a hand that has Bazaar in the hopes of getting a more disruptive hand. A hand without Bazaar is dead. Thus, you have to bank on the luck of the draw some of the time.

In my end step Doug plays AK.

Turn 2:

He untaps and plays AK for two, and then casts Sol Ring.

In my upkeep, I dredge quite a bit.

Now things get hairy.

Turn 3:

Doug drew Mystical Tutor. He plays Mystical Tutor on his upkeep (notice he missed his second land drop) and finds Extirpate! Here Doug makes what I think is a mistake. He Extirpates my Golgari Grave-Troll. If he had just removed my Nether Shadow I only have access to two Ichorids total, as I’ve removed one with Serum Powder and another with Unmask. I’ll have to dig for Mishra’s Factory before I can combo out. On the other hand, I could just attack for six damage a turn. In either case, I think that removing my Golgari Grave-Trolls is the wrong play.

On my upkeep I dredge almost as much with Stinkweed Imp. I return one Ichorid and one Nether Shadow and attack him for four. I flashback a Cabal Therapy and see Tormod’s Crypt and Mox Sapphire. Wow! He does have Tormod’s Crypt!

Lesson: Chalice of the Void is still effective on the draw – do not sideboard it out in this matchup.

Turn 4:

Last turn Doug drew Mystical Tutor and now he drew Tinker. He Tinkers up Darksteel Colossus.

As I dredge I am a little miffed to watch the last of my Mishra’s Factories and Petrified Fields drop into the graveyard.

I count up all my creatures. Possibly because of my Serum Powdering, but also because I sideboarded out some creatures, I run the math and I can only get my Sutured Ghoul up to 17/12. (Sundering Titan would have helped here!)

Not only does the Sutured Ghoul have to trample over Darksteel Colossus, but the toughness of the Ghoul has to survive Colossus. It is extremely ironic that I have just enough toughness to survive the Colossus.

I have three cards left in my library and therefore three turns to attack. Doug is at 16 life. I have exactly enough turns to win the game and exactly enough power and toughness to do the job.

If Doug decides to attack me, his Colossus wont be able to block and he’ll die.

Note that Doug sideboarded in Colossus (as Codi Vinci has Tinker and Colossus in the sideboard).

It turns out that I win the turn before Doug would topdeck Chain of Vapor. I also win with no cards in my library.

If Doug has played Extirpate on my Nether Shadows, I would have stopped Dredging and started digging for either a Mishra’s Factory or a Petrified Field. It probably would have taken me one more turn to pull all of that off, which might have been just enough to shift the game back to Doug. On the other hand, I still could have won.

As I explained, my deck was designed to fight Extirpate. However, he had a series of plays that would make that difficult. He opened with Yawgmoth’s Will – I was fortunate to be able to stop it. He also topdecked Mystical Tutor, Tinker, and Tormod’s Crypt. When you have draws like that it’s difficult to win unless you really get them quickly.

Round 2: Matt Hazard playing U/W Fish

U/W Fish is a really great deck. Dave Feinstein has perfected that deck and Matt has been consistently making Top 8 in Ohio tournaments with Feinstein’s creation. I’ve considered playing the deck myself. I see how good it is in testing and I sometimes wonder if I could do even better.

The lowdown on this match is that U/W Fish is actually scary if they know what they are doing. Wasteland + early Jotun Grunt is a game loss for Ichorid unless the Ichorid player has a second Bazaar or a Petrified Field. An early Jotun Grunt can be damaging all by itself. A very complex game state can arise where you are dredging through your entire deck with two Bazaars while Jotun Grunt is shuffling your entire graveyard into your library (you are surviving because you have Nether Shadows to block). The timing is ridiculous. You have to wait to use Bazaars after their Grunt triggers. The matchup is very intense and insanely complicated when both decks are piloted by knowledgeable players.

Unfortunately for me, I experience my first tournament mulligan to oblivion. I mulligan to 1. I keep a hand that has Mishra’s Factory.

Game 1:

Turn 1:

Matt plays Windswept Heath.

I drew a Petrified Field and play my Mishra’s Factory. In my end step Matt breaks Heath for Hallowed Fountain.

Turn 2:

Matt plays Strand into Tundra, and drops Meddling Mage naming Dread Return.

I drew and played a second Mishra’s Factory. I don’t attack because I’d rather hold my man back to block. I can make Factory a 3/3 after he blocks to kill a Mage if Matt attacks me.

Turn 3:

Matt plays Wasteland and Jotun Grunt. This game is over. Even a topdeck of Bazaar now is probably too late.

I drop my Field and pass.

Turn 4:

He Wastes my Factory and attacks me to 16.

I drew Unmask (and I’m holding Imp). I want the Jotun Grunt to go away. It will soon.

Turn 5:

He attacks me to 12 life.

I return Factory to my hand and play it.

Turn 6:

Matt plays Kataki. He attacks me to 8

I drew Shell and play Unmask. His hand is Misdirection and Plains.

Turn 7:

Matt attacks me to 8.

I do nothing relevant.

Turn 8:

Jotun Grunt goes away, but the damage is done. Matt Wastelands my Factory and plays an Isamaru. He starts attacking me and I’m dead within a few turns.

I should note that this is the first time I’ve lost a game 1 with Ichorid in tournament play. But it’s also one of the few times that I had to mulligan to oblivion.

I sideboarded out the 4 Thugs for 4 Pithing Needle.

And we’re off!

Game 2:

Turn 1:

I open with Bazaar of Baghdad and discard a Powder, Dread Return, and a Cabal Therapy. I have no dredgers! I remove a Sutured Ghoul from game to play Unmask.

Here is what I saw:

Isamaru
Mystical Tutor
Brainstorm
Extract
Meddling Mage
Wasteland
Tundra

When you survey Vintage players and ask them what the hardest part of playing Ichorid is, they’ll likely say that it is knowing what to name with Cabal Therapy. That is wrong. Cabal Therapy is one of the more skill intensive cards in most decks involving, as Mike Flores once put it, “bluffs, tells, and format knowledge.” In this deck, the cards you name are perfunctory. The first card you name is almost always Force of Will. After that, you just name anything that can stop you. The usual suspects: Chain of Vapor, Swords to Plowshares, Mana Drain, etc.

In my matchup analysis of the Gifts versus Ichorid match, I described what I felt were the most difficult plays that the Ichorid player is confronted with. The most difficult play, by far, was whether to play Strip Mine or Bazaar of Baghdad. That, however, is an option that arises infrequently. The second most difficult play is what to take with Unmask. This is where the Ichorid player is most likely to flub up, if at all.

Now, having seen the Fish player’s hand, what do you take?

Although I’ve removed a Dread Return from the game, I can still run him over with men if he plays Extract. In any case, Extract is not likely to be his first play. If we assume that his first turn play is going to be Wasteland on my Bazaar, then we can further assume that he is going to have to Brainstorm before playing Meddling Mage – otherwise he won’t have the mana to play it. That puts his Meddling Mage a few turns away from being castable. At this rate, that means that his Meddling Mage will come too late to stem the bleeding. Mystical Tutor can find either Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, or even a bounce spell if timed correctly. In either case, the problem is that Matt is constrained on mana. I don’t fear those cards.

This information may be important to your analysis: my hand has 2 Petrified Fields and 1 Pithing Needle.

In the end, I narrow the options down to Meddling Mage or Brainstorm. I take Brainstorm.

Unfortunately for me, Matt draws the best card he could possibly topdeck: Mox Sapphire. I feel that that card is better than almost anything he could have seen there. Ancestral Recall would have been weaker since he can’t play it because he is forced to Wasteland me now.

He Wastelands my Bazaar.

Turn 2:

I play Pithing Needle off a Petrified Field. I name Tormod’s Crypt.

I pass the turn. In my end step, Matt plays Mystical Tutor for Ancestral Recall.

Matt untaps and plays Ancestral Recall off of Mox Sapphire. He drops Tundra and plays the Isamaru.

Turn 3:

I drop a second Bazaar and draw. I pass the turn.

Matt plays an Island and casts Meddling Mage. After some consideration he names Dread Return. He attacks me to 18.

Turn 4:

I spend my upkeep and draw step dredging as deeply as I can.

Matt untaps and attacks me to 14. He then topdecked one of the more annoying spells he could play: Time Walk.

He untaps and attacks me to 10 and the he plays Extract taking my second Dread Return. This means I’ll have to kill him the hard way.

Turn 5:

I untap and return a few men into play. I dredge a lot and flashback a Cabal Therapy. He lets it resolve. I name Force of Will. He reveals his hand: three Force of Wills and one Echoing Truth. This could not have been more problematic for me.

Here’s the problem: I don’t have much of a library left. We are also running out of time. We have less than six minutes left in the match. If I return a Nether Shadow to play, he can Echoing Truth them to my hand. I’m afraid that I won’t have enough creatures left in my deck – or be able to dredge enough without decking – to get enough men on top of the Shadow to return him again.

I do the math. I calculate that if I attack him now with 4 Shadows and the 2 Ichorids I’ve seen so far, and if he Echoing Truths my 4 Shadows, I can tap the first Bazaar to put two Shadows and one Ichorid in my graveyard and then tap the second Bazaar to put the three more Ichorids on top of that. That will leave me with exactly one card in my library. With only five cards left in my deck and two Ichorids in those five cards, I’ll win so long as the Ichorid isn’t the last card in my deck.

I attack him with the four Shadows and 2 Ichorids. He plays Echoing Truth on my Shadows as expected. Before the two Ichorids in play die, I tap both of my Bazaars. If I don’t use the Bazaars before the end of my turn, the Ichorids will be below the Nether Shadows. I draw two and discard 3 Shadows. I then tap the other Bazaar, drawing an Ichorid and discarding Shadow, and two Ichorids. The last card in my deck is Ichorid.

I pass the turn to him.

He plays draw, go. He doesn’t attack with the Hound or the Mage.

Turn 6:

I draw the Ichorid, the last card in my deck, with no way to get rid of it.

I attack with 4 Shadows and 3 Ichorids. He blocks two Ichorids going to 3 life.

After the game I realize that I could have won if I hadn’t have used both Bazaars on turn 6. It’s true that I wouldn’t have been able to return Nether Shadows, but I would have had more turns to attack with Ichorids.

I wonder what would have happened if I had taken Meddling Mage instead of Brainstorm. It’s hard to tell. I was fearing Jotun Grunt for sure. If I had taken the Mage perhaps I wouldn’t have felt so much pressure to win quickly. His Time Walk I think put me in hyper-aggressive mode – not to mention the ticking clock. I wasted a huge amount of time playing out game one. I should have scooped far earlier. I stayed in on the off hope that I topdecked Bazaar. That was a forlorn hope.

Round 3: JR Goldman Playing Team Reflection Tendrils Combo

JR hasn’t been able to make some of the more recent Vintage events and I think this was his first tournament since joining team reflection. JR had pioneered some major tweaks to Bomberman and since played around with Dragon combo. I’d never seen him play combo before, but he is a competent player.

I was disappointed to lose the die roll.

Game 1:

I have to mulligan to five before I can keep my hand.

Turn 1:

JR plays Delta, go.

I drop my Bazaar, use it, and pass.

Turn 2:

JR plays Library of Alexandria. We have a brief little chat about the merits of LoA. He breaks his Delta for Sea and plays Cabal Ritual off of the Sea and LoA. From that he plays Necropotence and sets aside ten cards. It’s looking pretty bleak for me.

Not surprising. I had to mulligan to five and didn’t see a Chalice or an Unmask. Without a single piece of disruption, it’s very hard to stop combo – especially when they were on the play.

He removes some cards from game. Unfortunately for me, I don’t even have any creatures returning on my turn 2 upkeep.

I untap and think. I have two options: I can dredge or I can try to draw disruption. I have another Bazaar in my hand. What that means is that if I dredge and play the second Bazaar and dredge more I will certainly win on turn 3. However, if I don’t dredge, I can draw cards off of my Bazaars in the hopes of slowing him down. The problem is that I’ll be delaying my kill a turn. That is, if I draw into Unmask and play it, he’ll just Necro some more next turn and I’ll have to do the same again. At some point I’ll have to actually dredge. I decide to dredge.

Huge mistake. My top card was Black Lotus and then the next two cards were Chalice of the Void and Unmask respectively. If I had drawn them I could have played Chalice at 1 and Unmask – a play certainly that would buy me enough time to win the game. Especially when I discover that he isn’t playing with Force of Will.

I must have been out of my mind when I decided to dredge. The only way I can explain it is that I probably wasn’t thinking about the other Bazaar in my hand that would give me five chances to find a disruptive card.

I wasn’t a bit surprised to pass the turn and watch JR go…

Turn 3:

Mox Emerald, Sol Ring, Ancestral Recall, Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus, and then Yawgmoth’s Will. From there it was a formality – all he has to do is replay the Lotus, the Cabal Ritual, and DT up the Tendrils to kill me.

This was only the second game 1 I’ve lost in tournament with Ichorid. It was a massive blunder not to use the Bazaars to dig for disruption. It would be one thing if he didn’t have Necro on the table. He did. I have no excuse.

As I said earlier, design matters. Sideboard decisions also matter. I never thought that this sideboard decision would be relevant, but it was. I sideboard in:

+ 4 Pithing Needle
– 2 Shambling Shell
– 2 Golgari Thug

Note that I had 4 Shells maindeck during the tournament and no Sundering Titans.

Game 2:

I use a Serum Powder and keep a hand of seven.

Turn 1:

I open with Bazaar and discard two dredgers and an Ichorid.

He plays Mox Sapphire, Swamp, and Black Lotus. He taps the Swamp and Extirpates my Ichorids.

I got hit with Extirpate again!

Turn 2:

I dredge a bunch and play Petrified Field.

He plays Underground Sea.

Turn 3:

I use the Field to put a Factory into play after dredging quite a bit.

In my end step, he plays Brainstorm.

He untaps and plays Delta and Duress. His Duress whiffs.

Turn 4:

I dredge almost the entire remainder of my deck and return 2 Ichorids and a Nether Shadow. I activate the Factory and flashback a Cabal Therapy and see Dark Ritual and Sol Ring. I reason that he put the best card on top.

I sacrifice the men and flashback Dread Return. I count up my men and I’m short. I count again. I’m short. I’m wondering what is going on. I look at my RFG pile and I see a stack of critters. Then I hit my hand on my head.

Here’s the problem. 1) He Extirpated my Ichorids. 2) I sideboarded out 2 Shells. 3) I powdered 1 Shell away.

Without the Shells and Ichorids all of my other creatures are 1 power. The power just isn’t there to get the job done. I stare at the two Thugs I left in lieu of the Shells and become angry with myself. I honestly didn’t think it would matter. I Stitch Together the Ghoul and take him to 2 life. This game also illustrated that having the one Sundering Titan would be a boon.

JR untaps and plays Yawgmoth’s Will. He then digs with Brainstorm and finds Timetwister

He finds the tools he needs. He plays Brainstorm, then Mystical Tutor for Tendrils, then Ancestral Recalls into the Tendrils.

It turns out that JR could have comboed out on turn 3 anyway.

I’m frustrated at the way the last two matches played out, but want to finish out the five rounds of swiss to learn as much as I possibly can.

Round 4: Chris Playing Pitch Long

My matchup goes from bad to worse.

Game 1:

I mulligan to four, but so does he.

Turn 1:

Bazaar, use it, pass.

He plays Mox Emerald and passes the turn.

Apparently he mulliganed 4 hands without an on-color mana source.

Turn 2:

I play Mishra’s Factory and swing with an Ichorid.

I flashback Cabal Therapy and see: Time Walk, Mana Crypt, Cabal Ritual, and Tendrils of Agony.

He plays draw go.

Turn 3:

I return two Ichorids and two Nether Shadows and flashback a lethal Sutured Ghoul.

I fully expect Leyline of the Void, but I stick with my plan of only sideboarding for T. Crypt.

I was lucky to come away with that win. Without Duresses, I’m going to be hard pressed to win the match.

Game 2:

I mulligan to six.

Turn 1:

He opens with:

Island, Brainstorm, Mox Pearl, Mox Emerald, Sol Ring.

I open with Bazaar and Chalice of the Void set at zero.

Turn 2:

Oddly enough he plays another Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth’s Bargain. He draws down to fourteen life and then passes the turn.

I feebly play Strip Mine.

Turn 3:

He plays another Brainstorm, Delta fetching Sea, Time Walk, Brainstorm, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Grim Tutor, Yawgmoth’s Will and replays those bombs to play Tendrils of Agony. I’m dead.

Game 3:

Again, I mulligan to six.

Turn 1:

I open with Bazaar of Baghdad and no disruption.

He plays Underground Sea, Mana Vault

Turn 2:

I play another Bazaar of Baghdad. I’ve got him next turn. I have Unmask. I like my chances this game.

I Unmask him and I see:

Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm
Time Walk
Dark Ritual
Tendrils of Agony

I take the Ancestral Recall.

He plays Brainstorm, Delta, Time Walk.

He untaps and plays Yawgmoth’s Bargain again. He draws some cards and kills me.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Ichorid is ill-equipped to beat Combo without Duresses. Speed is nice and important, but unless you play at least two disruption spells, you cannot expect to beat combo.

So, I’m 1-3 – my second worst tournament performance ever. However, as I said at the beginning of this article – there is sometimes a razor’s edge between failure and success. If I had done just a very few things differently, my matches might have swung the other way.

Since it’s only a five round tournament, I play the last round. It’s not worth recounting. I played a guy who had never played in a Magic tournament before. Suffice to say the match involved me contending with turn 2 Mole Wurms, and I still won.

Conclusion

I believe in Ichorid. The concept is fundamentally broken. The tempo and card advantage is outrageous. There has never been a deck where you are willing to sacrifice everything – your entire hand and even parts of your library – just to find one card. And once that card is found, the Bazaar, you are well on your way to generating an unstoppable combo. If you get to untap with a Bazaar in play and you are in game 1, you’ve probably won. The deck also has favorable matchups against the format’s best decks (aside from speed combo). And if you add Duresses, you turn the combo match in your favor as well. If the format where any “fairer,” this deck would be recognized for the monstrosity that it is.

That said, this deck has to be designed and piloted perfectly. The amount of work I had to put in would be more rewarded, I feel, with something with blue. In my match against Doug and Matt, I had make all kinds of careful calculations regarding when to Dread Return, whether to dredge, and how much to dredge. I didn’t reflect some of this decision making in this report because you’d have to see it. I had to balance the need to dig as deeply as possible with the constraint that I not deck or be in a position where I could deck. I also made a number of mistakes – some blunders, some more subtle. In any case, this deck is not forgiving.

On the plus side, I very much enjoy playing this deck. Although I still made plenty of mistakes, there are no tutor chains or insane Brainstorms. Although the key plays are just as hard individually, there are fewer of those junctures with Ichorid than with, say Gifts or Grim Long. Also, I proved that this deck can definitely beat Extirpate. Ichorid is not dead.

Long live Ichorid.

Until next time,

Stephen Menendian