So Many Insane Plays — Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

There is no substitute for the crucible of tournament experience. A well-organized testing regime can tell you many things. If you have competent testing partners, you can get a decent estimation of how particular matchups will play out and a sense of the variation in game play, both in general and in those matchups. You can observe the benefits and drawbacks of particular cards and particular lines of play. You can even learn precisely how damaging certain counter-strategies may be, although this insight is limited by the fact that the same card – say Tormod’s Crypt – may be more or less painful depending upon the deck shell it’s situated in. Nonetheless, you will learn something. Since most decisions in Magic operate in the domain of imperfect information, decision-making is educated guesswork. Some information is of more use than none (although there is a good case to be made that too much testing can lead to “automatism” (see Raphael Levy article here) – or as I call it, improper reliance on pattern recognition). Testing can also tell you how effective certain cards may be at combating anticipated counter-tactics. Much of my testing with Ichorid – particularly Mana Ichorid – was aimed at beating Leyline of the Void. Hence, my inclusion of Chain of Vapor into the sideboard.

What testing can’t give you as easily is the general ebb and flow, the general rhythms of tournament play. You can test a particular matchup, but testing won’t tell you the importance of that matchup. You can test against a particular card, but testing can’t tell you how often the card will show up (outside of the matchups you’ve tested), or when, or in what quantities.

Testing is the world of theory – where the possible is examined and organized. It is where metagame knowledge is used to filter the possible into a set of expectations with some built-in margin of error. Tournament is the place where the information gained in testing is distilled and purified. It’s where your margin of error becomes actual error. The wheat separates from the chaff.

It took three rounds of tournament Magic for me to realize some huge gaps that my testing regime did not, and could not, reveal without enormous amounts of additional effort.

I walked into RIW, located in Livonia, MI, just outside of Detroit, eager to finally run Ichorid through the tournament gauntlet. I was excited – beaming, a bystander might have observed – to play something so fun, so different, and something imprinted with the sweat of my labors. It was a relief to not have the burden of having to weave through intricate tutor chains involving Gifts Ungiven, Grim Tutor, and numerous restricted tutors that interact to thread the nets that define the usual Vintage strategies. The deck also obviates the general tactical interaction that Vintage is known for – the stack. The fact that you don’t play your spells with mana means that you bypass many of the narrow alleys of Vintage play that so many players and decks get stuck in.

I sat down with a positive frame of mind, eager and excited to play.

Here is what I ran:

The only change from my last list was for the metagame. Since I didn’t anticipate any combo, I cut the two sideboard Duresses for Ancient Grudge number 4 and Riftstone Portal number 2.

Round 1: Nicolai Playing Mana Drain Control

Pairings go up and I take my seat across from a genuinely nice guy. He has a relaxed bearing, a friendly mien, and a polite disposition. Upbeat and animated, he greets me with the attitude of someone who is at least an acquaintance, even though I’ve never met Nicolai before.

A few moments later, he apologizes to me. Before I had a chance to inquire, he explained that this was the first time he was playing this deck in tournament. Immediately, I put him on combo – probably Pitch Long. A part of me takes what he says at face value and in good faith. Another, smaller part of me reads his comment as an attempt to preemptively justify unreasonably slow play, should the need arise.

I’m a bit ashamed of being so suspicious as he explains that he has been a long-time Fish player who decided to switch over rather than face Empty the Warrens again.

Game 1

Not only did I win the play, but my hand has the Bazaar, Strip Mine, and Unmask. I announce that I keep.

He thinks for a moment and finally decides he’ll keep.

Turn 1:

I drop the Bazaar. Nicolai says “uh oh.” I giggle inside. Bazaar is so amazing.

I tap the Bazaar and draw into Chalice of the Void. I discard Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, and Serum Powder.

I Unmask him, pitching a Shambling Shell, and I see this cluster of cards:

Lotus Petal
Brainstorm
Echoing Truth
Mana Drain
Mystical Tutor
Accumulated Knowledge
Burning Wish

Nicolai made a mistake in keeping that hand. Now he’s going to pay for it.

He assumes I’m going to take the Lotus Petal. I nab the Brainstorm instead.

I then drop Chalice for zero into play, cutting him off from his Lotus Petal.

All he could do was “draw, go.”

Turn 2:

Turn 2 involved me doing a lot of dredging. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar and dredge Golgari Grave-Troll revealing another Troll. I dredge that Troll. On my draw step, I dredge the Troll again.

I play the Strip Mine in my hand, even though it has no target as of yet.

I pass the turn.

He drew, and the discarded Mana Drain.

Turn 3:

I dredge a lot on my upkeep and then put an Ichorid into play. I swing him down to 17. Ironically, although I dredged over half my deck, I hadn’t yet seen a Cabal Therapy.

He drew another card and then discarded another Mana Drain. He only had two cards that I hadn’t seen, now I know that one of them was Mana Drain.

Turn 4:

I return multiple Ichorids and Nether Shadows into play. I Dread Return Sutured Ghoul into play removing 20+ power of Shambling Shell, Ichorids, and miscellaneous Stinkweed Imps and Nether Shadows. The Dragon’s Breath attaches itself to the Ghoul, giving him haste and killing Nicolai.

I crack open my sideboard and just start shuffling cards in.

Since Nicolai isn’t playing with Wastelands, I pull out my three Petrified Fields. I also pull out the two Duresses, which are there for the combo match. I know that I want to bring in Gemstone Caverns, so I cut the Gemstone Mine, Mox Jet (since it only produces Black mana) and a City of Brass. So far I have:

– 1 Mox Jet
– 1 Gemstone Mine
– 1 City of Brass
– 3 Petrified Field
– 2 Duress
+ 4 Gemstone Caverns
+ 4 Chain of Vapor

I need to make more room for Grudges, so I cut the 2 Dread Return, 2 Sutured Ghoul, and 2 Dragon’s Breath for 4 Ancient Grudge and 2 Riftstone Portal. Sideboarding complete, we shuffle up for game 2.

Game 2

Although in retrospect I clearly over-sideboarded, it didn’t matter. This was one in 20 games where I mulligan into oblivion. I mulligan all the way down to three. Then I see Serum Powder, which I use.

At three, my hand is: Gemstone Caverns, Stinkweed Imp, and Shambling Shell. I figure that it would be best to keep this hand simply because a mulligan to two only seems me two new (probably) cards. If I continue to mulligan toward its inevitable conclusion, I will see at most three new cards. I might as well keep this hand and hope to draw what I need to see in the next couple of turns. I’ll have a better chance of finding Bazaar this way and at least have a half decent turn 0:

Turn 0:

I play Gemstone Caverns with a luck counter removing the Shambling Shell.

Turn 1:

He plays Volcanic Island and passes the turn.

I draw Duress.

I tap the Caverns and play Duress. In response, he plays Brainstorm. Damnit! He saved his Brainstorm! I thought that was odd since it was clear I didn’t have many cards in hand. Nonetheless, he did it.

He shows me: Force of Will, Force of Will, Polluted Delta, Underground Sea, Mox Emerald, Tolarian Academy.

I take the Mox. Pass.

Despite my dire predicament, Nicholas complains about being mana flooded, which gives me hope.

Turn 2:

He plays Polluted Delta and passes the turn.

I draw nothing of value and pass.

Turn 3:

He drops Underground Sea and passes.

He must have no business.

For me, it’s a repeat of turn 2.

Turn 4:

He says “Draw, Go.”

I draw City of Brass. Another mana source and I can hardcast Stinkweed Imp!

In my end-step, however, he casts Accumulated Knowledge for a lonely one card.

Turn 5:

Now he gets going: he plays Mox Ruby, Ancestral Recall, Polluted Delta…

My slim chances are suddenly dwindling. He breaks the Delta for Underground Sea and plays Brainstorm.

In that Brainstorm he finds Tormod’s Crypt, which seems to just float onto the board.

I know that I’m toast, but I’ll make him play it out.

I topdeck Chalice of the Void and play it.

In my end-step, he plays Brainstorm.

Turn 6:

He plays Time Walk and astonishing plays “draw, go.” Time Walk is still the best cantrip ever.

I topdeck Cabal Therapy naming Force of Will. I see: Tendrils of Agony, Repeal, Mox Jet, and Dark Ritual.

Turn 7:

He untaps and draws Demonic Tutor. That’s game. He plays Repeal on my Chalice, Dark Ritual, Mox Jet, Demonic Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will, Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus, Repeal on his Jet, Dark Ritual, Tendrils. I lose the game.

Game 3

I slip the Caverns back into the sideboard, but I can’t recall exactly what I put back in. I’m pretty sure it was probably just two Duress and two mana sources.

Although a bit apprehensive, I’ve optimistic. Not only am I on the play, but my opponent isn’t very experienced with his deck.

My opening hand is about as strong as it gets:

Turn 1:

I drop the Bazaar onto the table. I activate it and discard double Golgari-Grave Troll and Serum Powder. I play Lotus Petal.

The decision I have to make here is figuring out what I want to pitch to Unmask. I have two Unmasks and a Duress, which I could theoretically play on turn 2. I decide to pitch the Duress to the second Unmask, as you’ll see.

I play the first Unmask and I see:

Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Mox Sapphire
Pithing Needle
Merchant Scroll
Echoing Truth
Empty the Warrens

It’s clear that I have to get rid of the Needle, but what then?

In my Ichorid versus Gifts article, in situations like this I almost always went with the accelerant. Turn 2 Merchant Scroll off two lands is problematic for the control player because a) you have to reveal what you tutored up and b) you are open to getting Therapied. If he has turn 2 Scroll I’ll have a great chance to peal out the target (presumably Ancestral Recall) with a Cabal Therapy.

For these reasons, I take the Sapphire (and the Needle).

As luck would have it, he topdecks Mox Jet. I’m still quite confident. He plays Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to peel that card out before he can play it, but my goal is to try and win before he can drop Warrens for any substantial amount.

I am beginning to realize here – if inchoately – that siding out the Sutured Ghoul and Dread Return combo that makes this deck’s game 1 so ferocious to pack in additional sideboard cards may not be optimal. If he drops some Goblins onto the table with Empty the Warrens, I don’t have the trample necessary to get over them unless he misplays or unless I have lots of time – time in which he doesn’t find and use Tormod’s Crypt.

Turn 2:

On my upkeep, I dump 18 cards into my graveyard by activating Bazaar and dredging two Golgari-Grave Trolls and then again on my draw step. Before passing the turn, I decide to sacrifice my Lotus Petal to Ancient Grudge his Mox Jet.

Nicholai plays his Ancestral, drops a land and passes the ball back to me.

Turn 3:

One Ichorids and two Nether Shadows trigger. With the triggers on the stack, I activate Bazaar and dredge another third of my deck.

I return two Shadows into play and one Ichorids. At this point I realize that if I had the “combo” still in here, I could win right now…

I decide to go for the next best play: Therapy the hell out of him. I take the Empty the Warrens and everything else relevant.

He topdecks Mystical Tutor and plays a land.

Turn 4:

I return more men, but I’m still short on damage. I get him under ten life, and then he plays Mystical Tutor in my end-step.

This is not good.

He untaps, plays Yawgmoth’s Will.

He replays Jet and Sapphire. He plays Ancestral Recall on himself. He drops Black Lotus onto the table. He has just enough mana to play Empty the Warrens, but that’s it. After some consideration, he goes for it.

Empty the Warrens Storm 6 puts 12 goblins into play.

He didn’t realize that I sided out the Sutured Ghoul combo. It is going to be very hard for me to win.

Turn 5:

I put some Shadows into play, but there isn’t much I can do. To be honest, I’m not sure if I attacked here or not. I don’t have life totals, but it is possible that I swung and he still had enough life to suck it all up. Whatever the case is, I know that when he untapped for his fifth turn, he had 12 goblins.

He swung at me for 9, sending me to 11 life. He held back three men to block.

Turn 6:

I swing at him. He blocks. He swings back at me sending me to 5 life.

He then plays Demonic Tutor for Time Walk.

He attacks me with 7 men and I only have 2 blockers. I die.

I was bothered by the way that match played out. In my thinking at the time, there were two events that were necessary conditions to my loss in the match: the Empty the Warrens in game 3, but also the eleventh hour Tormod’s Crypt in game 2. Without the Tormod’s Crypt, I would have won. And if he hadn’t have topdecked either the Jet and or the Mystical at crucial points in the game 3, he wouldn’t have had Empty the Warrens in time. But what I was only imperfectly aware of at the time was that if I had had kept in the Sutured Ghoul Combo I also would have won both games. This was because my deck would have had the speed and (trample) to win before either card became the threat that it was. Had I had the time to come to this realization, it would have helped me in my next match. As it was, we finished just before time was called and had to move onto the next round.

But what bothered me about the match wasn’t so much the loss, as the fact that I felt that my opponent was a much less capable player, as much as I may think of him as a person. By his own admission he had never played that deck before and he made many play mistakes over the course of the match (his game 1 hand, not just Vamping for Tormod’s Crypt and Repealing my Chalice to wipe me out were two big ones among many).

Round 2: Canadian Jeremy with UG Madness

When I took my seat for round 2, I experienced a rosy mix of hope and optimism. My opponent was Jeremy from Canada. Not only did I know what he was playing (U/G Madness), but the last time we played it was among the most lopsided matches I’ve played in some time. Given that I wasn’t playing Gifts, I expected this to be even more one-sided. I played Jeremy round 2 of my last tournament here at RIW. As you can see, my last match against him was quite brief.

Nonetheless, his aggressive bearing and loud conversation with a teammate does leave me a bit rattled. He is rather forcefully explaining to a teammate how his deck never loses to Stax because of how effective Stifle is. He belabors the point by explaining that they ramp their Smokestack and then you Stifle it when it hits your turn, and you win when they are forced to lose their board. I don’t say anything, but most Stax players leave Smokestack at one nowadays. That’s because of the Crucible of Worlds (ask me in the forums if you are curious as to why this is).

Game 1

Turn 1:

I won the die roll and elected to keep my opening hand, as it contained the requisite Bazaar. My opening was a rather bland Bazaar, activate it drawing and discarding, pass the turn.

He led with Mox Emerald and Black Lotus. He immediately broke his Black Lotus for UUU. My sense, wrong or right, was that he didn’t yet have land, but didn’t care. He played Brainstorm. Island, and Looter Il-Kor.

I had to read the Looter. Even if Jeremy didn’t have a land drop right there, with Brainstorm and an active Looter, he was bound to find one eventually.

Looter Il-Kor seemed a bad design choice. Why not stick with the tried and true Aquamoeba? Or better yet, add Bazaar to your deck?

Turn 2:

On my upkeep, I dredge a Golgari Grave-Troll and a Shambling Shell.

I played a City of Brass and cast Duress, hoping to get a peek at his hand that might inform my subsequent Cabal Therapy picks. He would have none of it. Perhaps sensing that it would give me valuable information, or perhaps uncertain that I would have any targets worth counter in the future, he played Daze on my Duress.

He attacked me with Looter and I went to 18. He drew and discarded a card. He played Tropical Island, and cast another Looter Il-Kor.

Turn 3:

At this point, I return an Ichorid. I attack him to 17 and then flashback a Cabal Therapy naming Force of Will. I see Chain of Vapor and Trygon Predator.

He draws and then swings at me with two Looters. He draws, discards, draws, discards. He then plays Time Walk. Repeat, rinse, sending me to 14.

Turn 4:

On my upkeep I dredge quite a bit. I return two Nether Shadows and three Ichorids to play. I therapy out the Chain of Vapor, flashback Dread Return, and kill him with a hasty Sutured Ghoul.

Sideboard: I pull out my sideboard and repeated the same mistakes I made in round 1, as I was not yet fully aware that they were mistakes.

I pulled out the combo pieces (Dread Return, Sutured Ghouls, etc) and put in the Gemstone Caverns, Chain of Vapors, and Ancient Grudges. I sideboarded exactly the same as last round.

Game 2

My opening hand has: Gemstone Caverns, Black Lotus, Cabal Therapy, Ancient Grudge, Stinkweed Imp, and two other cards I can’t recall. I thought, briefly, about the first game. He beat me down for several turns with Looters. Perhaps he cut some of the faster elements of his deck from the last time we faced. I decided that this hand could be keepable in the face of hate (as it answered any hate card) as long as his clock was as lethargic as it had been last game.

Turn 0:

I open with Gemstone Caverns.

Turn 1:

He plays Tropical Island, Brainstorm, Mox Sapphire.

I play Cabal Therapy off of my Caverns targeting, him. I whiff and see:

Nimble Mongoose,
Windswept Heath
Brainstorm
Rushing River
Daze

I thought it odd that he let me see his hand this time when he didn’t last time. Perhaps he thought I’d miss with Therapy, and I did.

I decided to wait to play Black Lotus, after I Therapied him again nabbing the Daze.

Turn 2:

He played Heath: Tropical Island, Nimble Mongoose and Brainstorm.

I played another Cabal Therapy off my Caverns, this time taking the Rushing River. I see Tropical Island, Looter Il-Kor, Werebear, and Nimble Mongoose in hand. I played Black Lotus, which he let resolve. I then tried to cast Stinkweed Imp. If he didn’t Daze it, I was going to flashback Therapy naming Daze. He Dazed it.

Turn 3:

He attacked me with Nimble Mongoose.

I dredged five on my draw step, bringing the Imp back to my hand. I played Ancient Grudge on his Mox Sapphire, destroying it.

He attacks me to 17 and then plays Werebear and Nimble Mongoose.

Turn 4:

I draw nothing of consequence and cannot dredge.

He attacks me to 6. I lose the following turn as the Green men rush into the red zone.

Afterward, I’m left wondering why I kept such an awful hand. I had plenty of answers, but he had no threats that needed to be answered! I should have mulliganed into the Bazaar.

However, I can’t dwell on this fact as I have to turn my attention to the next game. I sideboard out the Caverns and bring back in the mana I took out. Since I haven’t seen Wastelands, I decide to keep my Petrified Fields in the sideboard.

Game 3

Turn 1:

I lead with Bazaar and draw some cards. I play Unmask pitching a Shambling Shell.

I see:

Polluted Delta
Flooded Strand
Black Lotus
Force of Will
Stifle
Wild Mongrel
Wild Mongrel

I consider my options for a moment. The only two targets that merit attention are the Force of Will and the Black Lotus. Which would you take?

Force of Will needs to be addressed, but I reason that there is no pressing need to deal with it now. Black Lotus is immediately useful and will result in four damage being applied to the board. Hence, I take the Black Lotus.

He plays Flooded Strand.

Turn 2:

On my upkeep, I purposefully outstretch by Bazaar and overemphasize “On my upkeep… I’ll….” I’m glad that he walks into my trap and plays Stifle on my Bazaar. I smirk inside. By playing Stifle he’s cut himself off from being able to play Force of Will unless he draws another Blue card. In any case, I have a second Bazaar in hand.

How could I lose this game?

He plays the Delta, fetches out a land, and plays Wild Mongrel.

In his end-step, I activate my second Bazaar and dredge. A bunch.

Turn 3:

On my upkeep, I use both Bazaars to practically unload my entire deck into my graveyard. It’s looking grim for him.

I return a few men into play and flashback a Cabal Therapy naming Force of Will. I see Misdirection, Force of Will, Werebear, and Mongrel. I pass the turn.

He scares the hell out of me when he topdecks Brainstorm. He plays Brainstorm but passes the turn.

Turn 4:

I think to myself: this should be it.

Under normal circumstances, I would win the game by now. I have double Bazaar active and plenty of men returning to play. The problem is that he has exactly enough blockers to keep himself from dying. The fact that I sideboarded out the Dread Return + Sutured Ghoul combo means that I can’t kill him here.

I Therapy the rest of his hand, but he hid Brainstorm on top of his deck. He put it there knowing that he’d see one more card if he waited to Brainstorm next turn.

He plays another Brainstorm and drops, with relief, Tormod’s Crypt on the table.

He debates whether to use it. Twice, it motions as if he is going to sacrifice the Tormod’s Crypt, but he waits. With a sigh, I tap a Bazaar and flashback Ancient Grudge. He wonders how I do that. I explain that there is a Riftstone Portal in my graveyard. Confused, I further explain that Portal gives my Bazaar the ability to tap for Green or White mana. In response, he Crypts me.

Suddenly, my chances have flipped. What I thought was going to be automatic win has become an almost certain loss. Nonetheless, I was farsighted enough to save enough of my deck to clog up the ground for some time. Plus, I have enough life that he may not have enough time to kill me.

Turn 5:

I start the process of dredging again, even though there is little of my deck left. I need to get some men on the ground.

He plays a man then Time Walk. There is some dispute about what happens next. I was so intent on the game state, that when time was called, I wasn’t sure whether it was on his actual turn 5 or his Time Walk turn. To me, it looked like time was called as he was untapping on his Time Walk turn. A few of the growing number of spectators around us intervenes and claims that it was on his actual turn 5.

My memory clearly encoded the sight of him untapping his lands (with this hands gripping three lands simultaneously) with the sound of time being called, but I didn’t want to have to instigate a difficult debate between a judge when it was my word versus everyone else’s in my vicinity – even though these spectators were his Canadian teammates. I let it go and in doing so let the match slip away. At the time, I still thought we were both going to draw.

He played a Looter Il-Kor and passed the turn.

Turn 6: (Turn 2 and 3 of additional turns)

I untapped and brought two Nether Shadows into play. I counted my library and I had very few cards left. I wasn’t going to have enough creatures to bring back Nether Shadows indefinitely as I wasn’t going to be able to get enough men on top of them. The way I calculated it was that if he killed one of these Shadows, I would have enough men and an Ichorid to dump onto one of them next turn. That should be enough to save me at a very low life.

He attacks me and I block with Shadows. He plays another Looter Il-Kor.

Turn 7 (turn 4 and 5 of additional turns)

During my upkeep, I return the last and only one Nether Shadow to play. This will cause me to live unless he has a bounce spell like Rushing River. The downside to all of this is that I now have only 2 cards left in my deck. I had to dredge down to three cards last turn to ensure that my Shadow would return.

On the very last turn, he untaps with two cards in hand. He attacks me with Shadows and men and I survive the assault. He then plays Ancestral Recall targeting me.

I am shocked but impressed. I lose the game and the match.

Results: I am undefeated in game 1s, but have not yet won a single post-board game. That leaves me 0-2 in the standings and 2-4 in games.

To say that I’m disappointed would be on target. The one upside was that I was doing something right: my game 1s played out as expected. The downside was that my post-board plans were clearly in error. I would have to figure out exactly what it was that went wrong.

I knew that there was going to be a side event for a free Mana Drain. However, before dropping to jump into that event, I decided to play one more round. Once again, I had no time to reflect on what I was doing wrong. It was clear to me that I was losing to Tormod’s Crypts – and not like I supposed.

They weren’t coming down immediately or in the quantities that I expected. They were eleventh hour solutions that were found after my deck would normally goldfish. But this understanding did not yet lead me to the important or logical next step… a realization I’ll explain after discussing this next match.

Round 3: Lyle playing Night’s Whisper Gifts Control

I decide to stay in, mostly to figure out exactly how to win post board games. I haven’t faced Leyline yet, although I’m equipped to fight it. I also haven’t faced early Crypts, which is what my general play strategy and experience is most used to. I’m dying to these last minute Tormod’s Crypts instead. I play to learn.

Unfortunately, I’m paired up against my teammate Lyle Hawkyard, who is also in the Ornithopter bracket. Lyle has played two Ichorid decks already, meaning that I’ll be the third Ichorid match of his three rounds so far. Seems pretty good for me.

I mulligan to six and then use Powder.

I recorded in my opening hand, one of the few times I did that this tournament:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Bazaar of Baghdad
Mox Jet
Duress
Duress
Unmask

I was the on the play.

Turn 1:

I wasn’t quite sure how to play this. Should I Unmask first? Should I go: Mox, Duress first? If I play Bazaar first, I’ll have to discard one of the relevant cards. Yet, if I Duress and Unmask first, I’ll have to discard a second Bazaar.

I tentatively decide on a fourth course of action: I’ll Duress and Unmask but not use Bazaar this turn. That way I can play turn 2 Bazaar and that will compensate from my lack of turn one Bazaaring.

I lead with Unmask and see:

2 Land
Mox Emerald
Duress
Brainstorm
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk

This is a rather astonishing and powerful hand. I first take the Ancestral and do not hesitate to Duress a second card (I think I took Mox Emerald, although it may have been Brainstorm).

He played land, Duress seeing my Bazaar.

Turn 2:

I do not dredge on my upkeep or use Bazaar. Instead, I go to my main-phase and play the second Bazaar. I then pass the turn.

Lyle plays a second land and Time Walk. He then plays Brainstorm and a land.

In his end-step, I activate a Bazaar and then use the other Bazaar to dredge quite a bit.

Turn 3:

On my upkeep I return a Nether Shadow and an Ichorid and use the Bazaars to dredge up nearly half my deck. I Therapy him twice and see land, land, Brainstorm and two Force of Wills.

He plays a land and passes the turn.

Turn 4:

I win.

I make exactly the same sideboard decisions as I did in rounds 1 and 2:

+ 4 Chain of Vapor
+ 4 Gemstone Caverns
+ 4 Ancient Grudge
+ 2 Riftstone Portal
-2 Duress
-1 Mox Jet
-1 Gemstone Mine
-1 City of Brass
-3 Petrified Fields
-2 Dread Return
-2 Sutured Ghoul
-2 Dragon’s Breath

Neither of us feels very much stress or frankly cares that much about the outcome of this game or match. We are both looking forward to the side tournament. Nonetheless, it wont be starting until a while after this round, so we head in to finish this business up.

Game 2

My original opening hand:

Serum Powder
Ancient Grudge
Gemstone Caverns
Unmask
Nether Shadow
Chain of Vapor
City of Brass

I find myself amused by this hand. This definitely beats someone who mulligans into Leyline. I have turn 0 Chain of Vapor, Unmask, and turn 2 Nether Shadow to start attacking for 1. It can knock out a Mox or two with Ancient Grudge and hopefully draw off the top. That said, because of my experience with game 2 in round 2, I use the Powder to draw:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Gemstone Caverns
Lotus Petal
Serum Powder
Cabal Therapy
Cabal Therapy
Nether Shadow

Turn 0:

I remove Serum Powder to put Caverns into play.

Turn 1:

Lyle plays Bloodstained Mire and Mox Jet.

I play Bazaar and activate it. I tap Caverns to Therapy him.

I see:

Volcanic Island
Gifts Ungiven
Gifts Ungiven
Yawgmoth’s Will

When he hits four mana, he can Gifts and then easily Yawgmoth’s Will for the win. I’ll have to strip his hand quickly.

Turn 2:

He plays Volcanic Island, go.

On my upkeep, I dredge a whole bunch digging as deep as I can. I do the same on my draw step.

I see one of my four Ancient Grudges and do not hesitate to blow it on his Mox Jet. This puts him further off of his ability to Gifts.

Turn 3:

He plays Delta and passes the turn.

I bring back some men and then Therapy him twice naming Gifts and Yawgmoth’s Will. In response to the first Therapy, he plays Coffin Purge on my two Golgari Grave-Trolls. His hand is now defunct but he’s bought some time.

Turn 4:

He plays Draw, go.

I attack for five damage.

He plays Mystical Tutor for Timetwister at end of turn.

Turn 5:
He taps out to play Timetwister!

He plays Swamp, Black Lotus, and passes the turn.

I Unmask and see Yawgmoth’s Will and Brainstorm number two.

I play another Bazaar and Chalice of the Void at zero.

Over the next two turns he tries to slow me down by playing Coffin Purge on a third Troll, and his Night’s Whisper avails him nothing as I swing in for the win.

Now it was time to think.

I had two options: rebuild my entire deck and sideboard for the side tournament or just rebuild the sideboard. It was clear that something was wrong. I knew that I was losing to eleventh hour Tormod’s Crypts – a tactic that my preparation had not adequately tested. I tested against Leylines, Planar Voids, and early Tormod’s Crypts, but I wasn’t used to being in a winning position, on the precipice of victory only to lose to Crypt. My thinking turned immediately to Pithing Needle.

I was on the right line of thought. Pithing Needle was good and something that I definitely should have included. My traditional way of dealing with Tormod’s Crypt is generally two pronged. It looks like this. First, I dredge just enough to make my graveyard a threat. Thus, a turn 1 or 2 Tormod’s Crypt is going to have to blow my graveyard without me having to dredge too much of my graveyard. Thus, I can start the dredging up again and win within a turn or two after getting Crypted. The other tool I used to fight Tormod’s Crypt is Chain of Vapor and, more importantly, Ancient Grudge. You only have to dredge a little bit of your deck to be able to flashback Grudge. The problem is that neither Chain of Vapor nor Grudge deal with the eleventh hour Tormod’s Crypt – when I’ve already dredged too much of my deck to recover because, since they haven’t seen Crypt so far, I just assume that they won’t see it by now. The reason is that the line between going “all in” and having enough to win post-Crypt is finely drawn. It is generally crossed within the space of a single turn. In both of the games in the matches that I lost above, it was crossed in either the turn immediately proceeding Crypt or the turn before that.

Still, there was something missing – some flaw in my logic. The answer to my problem was not simply using Pithing Needle. And, in the short term, I would not have realized this on my own. It was the fortuitous intervention of fate that righted my sinking ship.

The first principle of Ichorid is that your game 1 is enormously favorable across the field – existing in percentages that are frankly unheard of in Vintage. To illustrate this point, in six rounds of tournament play, I won every single game 1 from Workshops, to Drains, to Fish, to Combo. This simple fact is counterbalanced by the uncomfortable truth that this deck strains and struggles against ubiquitous answers like Tormod’s Crypt. I took it as my singular task to devise tactical plans that would effectively combat these cards and result in clear match victories. And I succeeded, partly.

As I strained and stretched my deck to be able to fight the most fearsome combinations of hate cards, as I struggled to gain each and every percentage point against combinations of Leyline of the Void, Planar Void, Tormod’s Crypt, Pithing Needle, and Wasteland, I lost sight of the reality of tournament play and became a victim of the Fear.

There were many reasons for this. First of all, it is my perception of my team dynamics that I am often put in the position of “advancing” a particular deck to convince teammates to go along. This is a recurrent phenomenon. I’ll hype something up – on the team boards or on some other message board to convince others to go along with me. At first, I’m almost always met with resistance – which comes in waves – generally the second wave of resistance is the most fierce. Combating it requires that I defend and explain my position against most avenues of attack. This kind of extreme team dynamic probably leads me to focus on things that are unimportant. A year ago March I faced the same condemnation from one teammate for championing Ichorid in what he believed would be a sea of Leylines at SCG Richmond in March, 2006. (Which never materialized.)

I should have learned my lesson. It was a lesson I had once learned well. Back in 2004, Wizards had just printed Forbidden Orchard. I convinced my team that we should all play a blue-based Oath deck in Vintage built around the card. After trying many different shells, I finally settled and persuaded everyone on one particular list. This list selected, as the sole two win conditions in the maindeck, an Akroma and a Spirit of the Night over many other potential options. These options were selected for their speed – not their agility or versatility. Pages and pages of team threads were spent arguing over the obvious weakness of Platinum Angel. Many teammates were flat out angry at the suggestion that we were unlikely to see Big Platz. They argued, rather strenuously, that there needed to be some solution to her. I resisted and once again reminded everyone that we would probably not see her.

We put half our team in the top 8 and won the tournament. At the next big tournament, at least 40 players out of 120+ played some variant of our list at SCG Chicago and almost all did poorly, many of which succumbed to Platinum Angel. I received many private messages and emails congratulating me and my teammates on building such a fine decklist, but careful to note that my “deck dies to Platinum Angel,” so that I would be aware of this fact. I probably did not take the time to explain to them that I was aware of this weakness.

The Fear is a stifling and self-defeating form of paralysis. You can anticipate and fight most hate, but that doesn’t mean you should. At least not yet.

And that is the key subtlety: My teammates misconceived the nature of time. Decklists are not and should never be static. If we were truly far thinking when designing Oath, I should have crafted my arguments in terms of that simple dimension. The metagame constantly changes. I could have explained to my teammates that we shouldn’t fear Platz at this tournament, but if Oath does well, then we should expect it in the future.

The same is true of Ichorid. I should have more carefully attuned my sideboard plans to face a far more minimal enemy and revised my expectations upward if Ichorid gained steam. The fact that I tested mostly against early Tormod’s Crypt and Leylines flew directly in the face of the most likely scenario: the last minute Tormod’s Crypts that took me out game after game.

The important, yet counterintuitive truth, is this: rather than under-anticipating hate, it is more likely the case that we over-estimate hate, and are more likely to lose because of it.

The false assumption is that you can never be over-prepared. Learning how to beat certain hate cards is a curve. At first, you get some advantage, but the more you devote to that objective, the curve begins to slope downward again. This is true for more than one reason. It’s true because of the reason that should be obvious by now: dynamic metagames have varying quantities of hate cards. But it is also true because there is only one point at which you maximize your decks effectiveness against a given field – anything done to boost your chances beyond that has the ironic and unintended consequences of weakening your deck. This is because you’re taking away from your decks inherent strengths to combat threats that don’t exist. And thus, I was beginning to inchoately awaken to the second key, and perhaps more important, epiphany of the day.

Although I dropped from the tournament, I walked over to watch another guy – Matt Bobek – who had pulled my decklist card for card out of my article three weeks ago, make a run for the Top 8. He was only a few minutes into round 4 playing the venerable Brian DeMars. DeMars is one of the stronger Vintage players in the Midwest with a history of tournament success that can be seen first hand by clicking his name. DeMars has numerous SCG Top 8s to his name and some experience on the Pro Tour. Brian has been playing Control Slaver for three years and was playing his signature list.

I watched as Matt, not a Vintage player, rifle through his cards with such speed and dexterity that was indicative of someone who obviously has played a lot of Magic. The way he let his graveyard stretch out like the shed skin of a uncoiled snake, removed his cards from game to feed Ichorid, and the speed with which he made key decisions would lead a casual observer to hypothesize that this is a guy that has been playing Ichorid for as long as Brian’s been playing Control Slaver.

I knew better – I noticed at the onset of the tournament that this guy was throwing the deck together for the first time. But now, in his match, it was like watching Tommy Kolowith or Pat Chapin pilot Pitch Long. They played fast, but with confidence and the certainty that they knew what they were doing. Even when I play fast, it is a clumsy fast that belies some amount of hesitation. In other words, I saw in this player the marks of a competent Magic player. It wasn’t the fact that his plays mirrored what I would do that impressed me, but that he made those plays faster than I would have, his decks designer (note that I consider Albert Kyle the deck’s progenitor… I just added mana to his deck).

And where Matt’s play deviated from the script I set out in my introductory article and in my mind, I wondered about and questioned my own play. As game 1 was rapidly coming to a close, it was unfolding exactly as Ichorid’s game 1 script always unfolds, in a one-sided crushing win. It was once that Matt picked up the sideboard that my astonishment grew.

Recall that my published sideboard was:

4 Gemstone Caverns
4 Chain of Vapor
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Riftstone Portal
2 Duress
1 Petrified Field

After winning game 1, with the clear presumption that Brian would elect to play game 2, I was astonished to watch Matt quickly tuck the Duresses into the deck and pull out mainboard Petrified Fields with no other changes.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And then as I watched Brian and Matt play and my amazement turned to laughter. Not the “lol” where you may smirk and type those three letters. No, I was laughing in a manner that was audible to most people present. It was a laughter that traveled up my brain and released loads of endorphins.

I abruptly understood what he was doing. And suddenly, my tremendous failure in this tournament turned into an epiphany that shone the ray of hope on my beleaguered brain. He was playing game 1 again. If he lost, then he knew exactly what his opponent’s hate cards would be. He’d have to. If Brian didn’t play something that stopped Ichorid from winning, Brian wasn’t winning – and hence there would be no game 3. If Brian played something, then Matt could bring in those cards that were most pertinent.

My game 2 strategy was the complete opposite: I pulled out critical cards – in fact, I slowed down my deck by 2-4 turns by pulling out the combo: Dread Returns, Dragon’s Breath, and Sutured Ghoul to make room for all my Ancient Grudges, Chain of Vapors, and Gemstone Caverns. I stuffed my deck silly with answers, fattening it up. Predictably, it became slow and noncompliant. Look at my post-board losses. They were incurred precisely because I took out the combo. But I didn’t know how to bring in all the answers I needed without doing that. I felt like I had to slow my deck down to not lose to hate.

I didn’t understand what Matt knew. Instead, game 2 is a fishing expedition. You learn exactly what bait you need, what the size of your lure should be, how far and deep to cast your line and where to sit. You use game 2 to learn information knowing full well that you could always catch the fish with no bait at all. Game 3 is then an adjustment – a surgical operation of tactical counterstrikes. Instead, I was trying to carpet bomb my opponent into submission without realizing that cute counter tricks rarely shock or awe. And shock and awe doesn’t win wars.

The direction I needed to take the deck was clear. My game 1 was fine. There was no need to change a single card. What needed to be changed was my post board plans.

I needed a new sideboard. But more importantly, I needed new sideboard plans. Game 2 should have almost no changes. Game 3 is where you bring in the solutions to their hate. In any case, you must keep in the Dread Return threat. I lost to Empty the Warrens because I couldn’t trample over (look at Round 1). I also lost to an eleventh hour Tormod’s Crypt that never would have showed its ugly head if I had just won first with Sutured Ghoul (or eliminated all of Jeremy’s mana with Sundering Titan).

My new sideboard:

4 Pithing Needle
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Ancient Grudge
1 Sundering Titan
2 Riftstone Portal

Some of these cards are flexible. Perhaps if you are in a combo metagame, you’ll want two Duress. However, I decided that no matter what, I want 4 Needle and 1 Titan. You’ll also need 4 Chain of Vapor to have any hope of beating Leyline of the Void. The idea behind Titan is that it gives you a way to slow down your deck by bringing in answers, but still have a necessary Dread Return target. In many cases, this will buy you the time you need. In my games against Jeremy, it would have helped quite a bit.

It was time to put this new sideboard plan into action. The side event pairings had gone up, but I had been given a bye. It was being run as single elimination and there were 13 or so players.

It was time to see this new sideboard in action.

Round 1: Ray Kher

Game 1

Turn 1:

I dropped Bazaar, used it and played Black Lotus.

I sacrificed the Lotus for Black. I named Swords to Plowshares. I knew that he was playing with White and I figured that this would be the most annoying turn 2 threat he could play.

His hand:

Swords to Plowshares
Island
Tundra
Mox Emerald
Quirion Dryad
Tinker
Wipe Away

That hand, if on the play, is turn 1 Dryad, turn 2 Tinker for Colossus. Savage.

He loses all of that with my swift play of Chalice for 0.

All he can do is play Tundra, go.

Turn 2:

I dredge a metric ton of cards into my bin.

He plays an Island.

Turn 3:

I return some men, Therapy out the Wipe Away and anything else relevant.

He plays draw go.

Turn 4:

As is the usual case, I Sutured Ghoul in his face.

Sideboarding:

I take to heart the lesson: less is more. Let’s learn what he has and playing it as close to game 1 as possible. I sideboard out 3 Petrified Fields, 2 Dragon’s Breath, 2 Sutured Ghouls for: 1 Sundering Titan, 4 Pithing Needle, and 2 Ancient Grudge. I think I still probably over-sideboarded.

Game 2

My opening hand is:

Pithing Needle
Mox Jet
Nether Shadow
Nether Shadow
City of Brass
Ancient Grudge
Golgari Grave-Troll

Mulligan into the sickness.

Turn 1:

He plays Flooded Strand into Tropical Island, Mox Pearl, Time Walk

On his Time Walk turn he plays Underground Sea and Nimble Mongoose.

My turn for some fun.

I play Bazaar of Baghdad and use it. I play Black Lotus and then Unmask. In response, he plays Brainstorm.

He reveals: Disenchant, Wipe Away, Flooded Strand. I take the Wipe Away.

I play Nether Shadow off of my Black Lotus and attack for one.

Turn 2:

He plays Strand into Tundra and taps his lands for Quirion Dryad.

On my turn, I return Ichorid and a Shadow to play and dredge a bunch. I attack. He goes to 14.

Turn 3:

He plays a main phase Brainstorm. He attacks me with a 2/2 Dryad. He breaks a fetchland and finds Island.

On my upkeep, I return three Ichorids into play. He Darkblasts one of them. However, in my first main-phase, I Dread Return Sundering Titan to destroy all four dual lands he has in play, leaving him with Mox Pearl.

He draws a card and scoops.

Round 2: John Frank playing Workshop Aggro

My opponent had just beaten my teammate Lyle and I watched some of the match. I knew he was playing a weird mix of hate with Mishra’s Workshops to pump out scary threats.

Game 1

My opponent opened with:

Mana Crypt
Gemstone Mine
Dark Confidant, Burn one.

I felt like my work was already partly done. He had just given himself plenty of expected damage over the next few turns. I would just have to finish him off.

I’ll gladly be his second.

I open with Bazaar, Black Lotus, and Unmask seeing:

Arcbound Ravager
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
A land

My hand has another Bazaar, Cabal Therapy, Nether Shadow, City of Brass, Duress, Strip Mine, and a Petrified Field. I don’t know what to discard to the Bazaar.

I Unmask out the Ravager and use the Lotus to Therapy out the Juggernauts. I use the remaining two mana to cast Nether Shadow. My hand collapses to a second Bazaar and the Field. I attack him with the Shadow. He doesn’t block, to my consternation. He has a land in his hand.

Turn 2:

He loses the die roll to Crypt, sending him to 15 life. Confidant reveals Mishra’s Workshop. He attacks me to 18.

I dredge on my upkeep and attack him back.

Turn 3:

He wins the die roll, reveals Time Walk, going to 12. He plays Time Walk. He attacks me to 16. He wins the die roll again and reveals Black Vice going to 11. He attacks me to 14.

I am seeing massive amounts of men. But before I can kill him, he reveals a Triskelion which sends him from 7 to 1 and we shuffle up for game 2.

Sideboarding:

I sideboard in 4 Pithing Needles, 2 Portals, and 4 Ancient Grudges. I cut out Mox Jet, 2 Duresses, 4 Chalice of the Void, and 1 Dragon’s Breath.

Game 2

My hand in game 2 is astounding. I Serum Powdered into the perfect hand of double Bazaar, Petrified Field, and a great assortment of Dredgers.

Unfortunately, his turn 1 beats my hand:

Turn 1:

Wasteland, Mox Emerald, Tormod’s Crypt, Tormod’s Crypt.

All of a sudden, I’m thanking myself for playing with Pithing Needle.

My first card that I draw is Pithing Needle. I play Petrified Field, Needle naming Tormod’s Crypt.

Turn 2:

He plays Arcbound Ravager.

I play Bazaar and draw some cards.

Turn 3:

He attacks me for 1 and Wastes my Bazaar.

I Unmask him and see:

Triskelion
Dark Confidant
Disciple of the Vault

What would you take?

I think about it for a while and can’t decide. I choose the Disciple because I can’t kill the Ravager yet and that could do the most short term damage.

I play City of Brass and kill his Ravager on sight.

Turn 4:

He Wastes my second Bazaar.

I return some men into play and Therapy him twice taking the Confidant and the Trike. I flashback Ancient Grudge on his Emerald.

Turn 5:

I field my Bazaar back into my hand and play it. I flashback another Grudge on his Sapphire. I win next turn with him only having two permanents in play: two worthless Tormod’s Crypts.

The Finals: Danny Playing Storm Combo

Danny was an interesting character. I wouldn’t say that he struck me as a particularly gifted magic player, but he was focused. Over the course of the tournament I had the opportunity to observe some games he was playing. In the third game of his previous match, he had the fortune of being on the play against Stax. He played turn 1 Island, Brainstorm. His Stax opponent had this hand:

Mox Jet
Mishra’s Workshop
City of Brass
Wasteland
Smokestack
Demonic Tutor
In the Eye of Chaos
Crucible of Worlds (drew it on turn 1)

After some thought, the Stax player played Mishra’s Workshop, Mox Jet, Smokestack.

Danny got a free turn unmolested.

Danny untapped and played Ritual, Ritual, Mox, Land, Yawgmoth’s Bargain. Danny seemed to have a penchant for playing turn 2 Bargain (Yawgmoth’s).

He drew down to 1 life and couldn’t figure out how to seal the deal. After some time, he figured out the play: Black Lotus, Chain of Vapor on his Moxen to generate two more colorless, then Tinker up Mox Jet (or Lotus Petal) and Mystical Tutor for Tendrils and Brainstorm into it. Then drop the Tendrils for the game.

His deck resembled Intuition Tendrils as it seemed to lack Grim Tutor and ran Intuitions instead. He also ran Duresses over Misdirection.

I knew this would be a rough match. I took out the Duresses from my sideboard that would give me a post-board edge. Nonetheless, I felt like my precision would give me an edge while he might be inclined to make some game changing omission or miscue. However, this was counterbalanced by the fact that I knew that he had Leyline of the Voids in his sideboard.

I was particularly miffed that Danny won the die roll. I needed to win game 1 to win this match.

Game 1

We shuffle up and I keep my hand. He plays Island and passes the turn. A rather innocuous start. I’m relieved.

My opening hand has Bazaar, but I make a quick decision that if I’m going to not lose this game I need to interact ASAP. Essentially, I’d be mirroring his last game – where the Stax player played the turn 1 Smokestack and Danny went off on turn 2. If I interact now, I will live to see another day. I don’t have a choice. I have to play Duress despite the fact that I’d rather just Bazaar now. The only way Bazaar is better is if I draw Unmask or Chalice off of it. I play Gemstone Mine and cast Duress.

In response, Danny plays Brainstorm. What is it with these people waiting to Brainstorm!?

I see:

Flooded Strand
Underground Sea
Lotus Petal
Hurkyl’s Recall
Time Walk
Demonic Consultation.

What would you take?

I took Time Walk. Here’s my reasoning.

First of all, the two lands are invalid targets. The Lotus Petal accelerates him somewhat, but Time Walk will give him another land drop and another draw. That narrows the choice to Time Walk and Demonic Consultation. Consult here can be used to find Dark Ritual. If this player was really good, he could use Consult most effectively to find a restricted card at the opportune moment with a low risk of losing. However, as I see it there is a good chance that he’ll misuse Consult and pay the price or it won’t be more effective than a Cabal Ritual without Threshold (i.e. Consult for Dark Ritual, play it – BB for BBB). Keep in mind that I am fully aware of the fact that he has put the best cards on top. As a result, I guessed that he isn’t planning on playing Consult any time soon.

He honestly seemed quite surprised by my Duress.

Turn 2:

I find out what he concealed as he plays Black Lotus and Lotus Petal. He orally remarks that he should have played the Petal last turn – he knows that I play Chalice of the Void.

Well, I play my Bazaar and what do you know – Chalice was the second card on the top. If I had played Bazaar on turn one I would have had turn 1 Chalice and turn 2 Duress.

Turn 3:

And now we find out what he put underneath Black Lotus.

He plays the Strand and fetches out Underground Sea.

He comments: “I better go for it!” I get a bit nervous.

He plays Demonic Consultation for Dark Ritual. About three cards down he sees a Dark Ritual, but he has to keep going. After about 20 cards he sees another Dark Ritual, but not until he has removed Yawgmoth’s Will, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and Timetwister.

He plays his Dark Ritual. There is some discrepancy in my notes, but I have that he played Mind’s Desire for four here. I’m not quite sure how he got four, but he must have Hurkyl’s Recalled me instead of himself, although that doesn’t make much sense.

Anyway, his Desire reveals:

Duress
Force of Will
Flooded Strand
Mox Emerald

Fizzle!

Things are looking good for me.

On my upkeep I use Bazaar to dredge.

Turn 4:

Danny plays draw, go.

I kill him with Dread Returning a lethal Sutured Ghoul. GG

Sideboarding: Since I know that he has Leylines, I have to bring in Chain of Vapors. I probably over sideboard, but I bring in:

+ 1 Sundering Titan
+ 3 Pithing Needle
+ 4 Chain of Vapor
– 3 Petrified Field
– 2 Dragon’s Breath
– 2 Sutured Ghoul
– 1 Dread Return

I leave a Dread Return in for me to reanimate the Titan. This plan gives me some hedge against Tormod’s Crypt.

Game 2

I am much relieved, when he announces that he’ll keep his hand and I do the same, that he doesn’t put any Leylines into play.

Turn 1:

He plays Flooded Strand, Mox Jet.

I play Bazaar and discarded two Golgari Grave-Trolls and a Nether Shadow.

He babbles to himself for a moment, but he breaks the Strand for a dual land and then cycles Rebuild.

Turn 2:

He plays Island and then casts Demonic Tutor.

I sigh inside.

He looks through his library and pulls a card aside.

He plays:

Black Lotus
Mana Crypt
Cabal Ritual

He tries to take it back, but I draw the line.

He plays Intuition with the Black Lotus. He finds Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, and Tendrils of Agony. I gave him the Tendrils, but figured out that the last card in his hand had to be Yawgmoth’s incredibly broken Will. Indeed it was.

He used his last three mana floating to play Yawgmoth’s Will and then Lotus into Ritual into Ritual into Ritual into Tendrils.

Well, that was exciting. I got a turn I suppose.

Game 3

I mulligan to six. Then I Serum Powder away:

City of Brass
City of Brass
Pithing Needle
Golgari Grave Troll
Stinkweed Imp

No Shadows, No Ichorids, and No Chains are removed from Serum Powder.

My opening hand:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Bazaar of Baghdad
Chalice of the Void
Nether Shadow
Duress
Cabal Therapy

Of course, he had double Leyline without having to mulligan once. He put two Leylines into play on turn 0. I knew that if I was going to win this game, I was going to have to put in a Herculean effort and that this was going to be a very long game.

Turn 1:

I turn 2 Bazaar into another Chalice. I discard Nether Shadow, Golgari Grave Troll and Cabal Therapy. They all are removed from game.

I play Chalice for 0 and pass the turn.

Danny draws a card, plays Island and passes the turn back.

Turn 2:

I use Bazaar and discard Chalice, Cabal Therapy, and Duress. I realize that with two City of Brasses removed from game, I’m looking for one of my two remaining Cities or a Gemstone Mine. Black Lotus and Lotus Petal won’t be helpful with my Chalice in play.

Danny plays Brainstorm and sees no land. He’s stuck on one land.

Turn 3:

I activate my Bazaar and discard Duress, Lotus Petal, and another Cabal Therapy.

I play Unmask and see:

Brainstorm
Leyline of the Void
Time Walk
Lotus Petal
Dark Ritual
Tendrils of Agony

I debated for a while. What would you take? I ended up taking the Dark Ritual.

My plan depends upon my ability to find Chain of Vapor and bounce Leylines. Rituals not only accelerate his ability to combo out, but they help him replay Leylines, if that arises.

He plays Brainstorm and is frustrated to see no more land. My Chalice for 0 is keeping him out of the game.

Turn 4:

I activate Bazaar and discard Nether Shadow, Stinkweed Imp, and Bazaar.

He plays draw go.

Turn 5:

I can only now use Bazaar every other turn if I want to be holding onto a card.

I say draw, go.

He plays draw, go.

Turn 6:

I activate Bazaar and discard Chalice, Bazaar, Shell.

In my end-step, he plays Vampiric Tutor.

He plays draw go.

Turn 7:

I draw Unmask. I have a choice: Unmask now and lose two turns in digging, or not Unmask and possibly lose the game. I Unmask and see:

Mana Crypt
Lotus Petal
Mox Sapphire
Chain of Vapor
Cabal Ritual
Necropotence
Tendrils of Agony

I realize immediately that he could have won. All he had to do was Chain my Chalice and play Cabal Ritual, Necropotence. I am forced to take the Necropotence. A single mana topdeck (or a Dark Ritual) and he can play Necropotence via Cabal Ritual. If he resolves Necro, I lose for sure. I take the Necro.

He plays draw, go.

Turn 8:

I play draw, go.

He plays draw, go.

Turn 9:

I draw Gemstone Mine and play it.

He plays draw go.

Turn 10:

I draw and activate Bazaar. I see my first Ichorid as well as another Chalice. I discard Ichorid and remove it from game. If I see one more mana I can play Chalice 1 and knock him out of the game.

Too late. He plays Chain of Vapor on my Chalice.

I sacrifice my Bazaar to bounce it to one of his Leylines.

He drops Mana Crypt, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual (he has been discarding cards over the last few turns), and Memory Jar.

He breaks the Jar.

I draw:

Chain of Vapor!
Serum Powder
City of Brass
Nether Shadow
Shambling Shell
Black Lotus
Unmask

If he doesn’t kill me, I can Chain of Vapor his last Leyline at end of turn. Also note that there are 20 cards left in my library.

I never get the chance.

He draws Demonic Tutor and uses it to find Yawgmoth’s Will, from which he easily wins.

Ugh.

So, after a humiliating start to this whole RIW event (the last time I was in RIW I lost one game in the entire tournament), I climbed my way out of the pride hole only to lose in the finals to a moderately capable Canadian combo player. It happens. In game 2, there was really nothing I could have done differently. In game 3, all four of my Chain of Vapors were in my bottom 30 cards. He had just too much time. Three of the Chains were right next to each other in my deck, in the second to last 10 cards.

Having to remove two Cities to Serum Powder actually hurt as well. Perhaps my deck should have more Gemstone Mines somewhere. Or the two Duresses in the sideboard could have helped. Theoretically.

The real problem was the double Leyline. I shouldn’t have to plan on how to beat double Leyline, so I won’t.

Conclusion

My first opportunity to test Ichorid in a tournament setting demonstrated to me those areas of the matchup that I had figured out, and which areas I underemphasized. Although my sample was small, I think I’ve learned enough to make huge improvements.

First of all, I put a lot of energy and testing into beating Leyline of the Void. While this testing has proven worthwhile and fruitful, I did not prepare for the way that Tormod’s Crypt is actually used in most cases. It isn’t an automatic threat, but generally comes down at the last minute. In most post board scenarios, the thing that is most likely to occur is that you’ll be proceeding into a mid-game fight and your opponent finally finds and plays a Tormod’s Crypt. If you do not have an answer, you are going to be much further behind that I thought.

In addition, I was definitely oversideboarding. I’ll just direct your attention once again to the epiphany I had watching Matt play. He didn’t sideboard for game 2 at all. Matt realized that playing game one again is your best game two strategy. If you don’t see any of your opponent’s hate, you win the game and the match. And when you do see something, should you lose, you will know exactly what you need for game 3 and won’t risk over-sideboarding. In any case, you always keep in Dread Return.

People say that Ichorid is easy to play. In a sense it is easier – there are fewer decisions per game and those decisions are generally less complex than many other vintage decks. But the real genius of Magic is that no matter how many decisions or how complex, there is still ample room to use skill to win.

For that reason, I’ll conclude this article by recounting some key parts of the match between Matt versus Brian Demars.

In game 1, Brian led with Land, Mox, Time Walk, Land, pass.

Matt led with the standard Bazaar and began to dredge. Brian held back his Brainstorms, hoping to dig as deeply as possible.

At the crucial turning point – around turn 3 or 4, Matt threw a Cabal Therapy up that whiffed. Brian revealed his hand: an Echoing Truth and some other card.

Brian was very careful about how he did this. He kept he cards close to him and close together in distance. He flipped them up and showed Matt what they were, but then he quickly turned them back over. If Matt hadn’t been paying attention, he easily could have missed what Brian revealed. This was all the more so because Brian’s Echoing Truth was foil Japanese.

Matt hadn’t forgot. Rather than walk into the Echoing Truth trap, Matt only returned 2 Ichorids instead of the 4 he was capable of returning. Matt played it perfectly. But most impressive was game 2.

In game 2, Matt mulliganed to six and removed Serum Powder.

Brian led with typical blue mana.

Matt started with Bazaar and Unmask seeing Empty the Warrens.

Brian Demars played Darksteel Citadel and passed. He was holding Brainstorm and draw in his hand, knowing full well that his goal was to beat the discard – something Braintorm is great at doing, and dig as possible to find his Tormod’s Crypt.

On turn 3, Matt had his first opportunity to play Cabal Therapy. Shockingly, he didn’t. I’m sure I would have. Yet, Matt wasn’t playing Ichorid versus Slaver, he was playing Ichorid versus Brian Demars. He was reading Brian. He knew that he could only Therapy once this turn and he guessed, correctly, that Brian was holding Brainstorm.

In Matt’s end-step, Brian played Thirst discarding Sundering Titan.

Brian played a Flooded Strand and passed the turn.

When Matt flashed back Cabal Therapy Brian played Brainstorm.

Brian untapped and played Goblin Welder and Time Walk.

Brian took his Time Walk turn – drew a card and passed a turn.

Do you see what happened?

It was what Brian didn’t do. Brian was laying a trap. Brian had one card in hand – the card he just drew off the Time Walk turn draw step. This was a card he had seen with Brainstorm. Yet he had a Fetchland in play and didn’t break it. This meant that Brian wanted to draw it.

Correctly, Matt put Brian on having Echoing Truth. Brian was laying the same trap: Echoing Truth the Ichorids, but worse. Brian can weld in Sundering Titan and start swinging at Matt.

Instead, Matt had a total read on Brian and played accordingly. Brian went down with pride.

Matt taught me not only that Ichorid is far from simple to play, but also helped me realize the actual role of game two in the match.

This old dog definitely learned some new tricks.

Until next time,

Stephen Menendian

P.S. Thanks to Nat Moes for driving me all the way to Michigan! His entertaining blog and his tournament report can be read here. Check it out.