Good point, but that would mean he wouldn't have enough mana to activate voltaic key.

In one of the matches, I think it was round 4 (around 3hrs:35mins). At the start of the turn this guy had time vault, grafdigger's cage, lightning greaves, workshop and city of traitors. In his upkeep he taps greaves and cage (opponent had tangle wire at 2 counters). Draws a card then proceeds to his main phase, plays a 2nd workshop and casts forgemaster and immediately searched for a voltaic key. As far as I can tell they were arguing about the city of traitors he had in play that he should have sacrificed and thus he had no mana to activate the key. What I can't get over was that they never even realized that he shouldn't have been able to get key in the first place.

http://www.twitch.tv/watchdamatch/b/402520077

I think he meant using Unmask to target yourself and then discard WGD.

I think the best answer to this guy is curfew.

He may be a turn slower but if your able to come up with a list that could successfully put dragon's breath (as already been suggested) then this will surely be a great creature for oath.

More than the protection it has, its the annihilator 6 thats putting this guy off the charts.

It depends on what build you're using. If your using Life from the Loam you could probably go 20-21 lands and use 1-2 mox diamond. The Moxen Lotus replacements are lotus petal and mox diamond after that you just have to up your land count. If your using CoW, Helm and Titan maybe Mana Vault will be useful for you.

The really expensive ones are sets of
Goblin Welder
Metalworker
Tangle Wire
Smokestack
which runs around 30-40 per set.

Grats on the finish.

A very well thought out deck. I like how it doesn't have any removal like darkblast, fire/ice or bounce like other oath decks. But rather focused on putting oath into play or force a bomb like tezz, tinker or vault-key.

Nice article.

Regarding the game 3 loss to Dark Times wasn't a big mistake, sure it cost you the game but it was just unlucky that he ripped Dark Depths when he did, you can't beat topdeck. If you hadn't milled and he topdecks Dark Depths the next turn you would lost the game otherwise.
Although as you've said you were still at 15 life and you already 1/2 of the combo in play both of you were actually waiting for the other half of the combo. Since there isn't a need to hurry you didn't really needed to lose the Helm and could've waited for the Leyline.
I know that enlightened tutor does still warrant a space in this deck but would entomb have any use in this deck or is it just a bad tutor? Its synergy with an active welder is quite nice.

Legacy staple cards and casual friendly cards like Show and Tell, Dream Halls and Entomb have really jacked up in prices even on this side of the ocean. Its getting more and more expensive to get into the eternal format nowadays and might continue for a couple of years with the popularity of Legacy and Vintage.

1. Being able to slip that edict anytime has a huge advantage over being able to reuse it. And 5BB to reuse is still hard to resolve with counter backup.

2. As been said there is no definitive list its just that most peeps are more comfortable with 4FoW + 4 Drain setup. I've used 3Drain + 2 Spell Pierce. Owen Turtenwald has been successful with 4 pierces. I believe it should be meta dependent as which it should be when approaching to build The Deck.

3. It might prove to be useful and would need testing to prove its worth. I just think it might be a glorified sylvan library in this deck.

With 17 1cc cards, chalice @ 1 early would slow the deck down. Obviously with 4 pridemage you have outs but it will affect your early game. With only 7 colored mana producing lands stax wastelands will be effective on 5 of those 7. Maybe a trygon main prove to be helpful.

For the most part Sundering Titan comes on top as the best tinker target. Great against Tezz and Noble Fish, as I've tested myself and won 2 games in a tourney by having resolved tinker and getting Titan.

With the anticipated rise of shops deck is running another tinker target in the sideboard a good choice? If so which one do you run?
I've personally used SotSW, what have you used?

I've ran both and for me it boils down to playstyle.

I give CoW the slight edge over LftL. But it can obviously be argued both ways.

CoW is great because its a tinker target and after the initial mana investment its good to go. Especially if you resolve it early you'll most likely setup be ahead with your mana than your opponent. Which is much faster than LftL can.

The thing I like about LftL is when you don't have a fetch, wasteland or strip mine to abuse. Sometimes I dredge a couple of times just to get me a wasteland or strip mine if I don't have vamp or demonic to tutor one up. You don't get to do this with CoW. It can also setup a devastating will turn.

Pardon my ignorance but I always thought stroke was used to gain card advantage. How do you generate tons of mana to deck your opponent?

Our past 2 tournaments have been at least 40 players with 8 Ichorid in the meta. There were also 16 selkie based decks.
In our year-end tournament we are expecting an attendance of about 60+ with at least 10 Ichorid and possibly 10-15 selkie decks again. Its already a guarantee that 25% of attendees will sport some sort of random aggro deck. The rest rounding up by 2-5 copies of Tez, MUD, NSA, Oath, ANT, Belcher and TPS

I still think that Ichorid is still the best deck to bring to a meta like this. I would have to go with manaless (no spell) version.

Post board I do have a very low blue count. I will probably be siding out the fatestitchers so that makes my blue spell count at 15.

I have to debate if going the force route is the better one for this deck.
This is the other sideboard plan I was thinking of.
4 Contagion
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Emerald Charm
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Ancient Grudge
1 City of Brass

Great read, this has been very helpful on the build I'm working on.

Just a clarification, isn't the total 54.

I'm not familiar with the metagames that you guys have but recently Ichorid has seen a rise on our meta that its been winning consistently. Tez has been a non performer in our meta due to the heavy fish and selkie decks that are designed to beat those decks.

My question is for a meta with around 9-12 ichorids and will most likely face at least 1 in the top8, which version would you guys run? Manaless or Mana Ichorid?

Second will maindeck Leyline help

This is my proposed list so far. It

4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Fatestitcher
2 Golgari Thug
2 Ichorid
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Darkblast
2 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 City of Brass
3 Undiscovered Paradise
2 Dakmor Salvage

Sideboard
4 Force of Will
4 Chain of Vapor
3 Echoing Truth
3 Contagion
1 City of Brass

I see, so basically an early Tinker with protection would just be gg.

In our meta, which has a lot of fish, gw, parfait and other random aggro, Oath almost always gets Empyrial Archangel so stp won't do much. Its just me I guess I like having 2 tariff between the main and board.

Also, cutting Aven Mindcensor are you missing it in the deck or is it really just a weak disruption overall.

With no maindeck or board removal for Inkwell. Will this become an issue?
As an oathed Hellkite can easily ruin your day, this can also be an issue against Oath.

Will tariff be a sufficient answer?

Could you give a link to the source of the new wording.

I played a list a couple weeks back that was similar to what meadbert had listed.

Check out the list here: http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1111

I decided not to play Leyline of the Void and instead maindecked 3 Unmasks and went with 8 colored mana maindeck. I also went with the 2-1 config for Hypnotist and FKZ.

I found that I usually boarded out 3 Unmask, 1 Hypnotist, 1 FKZ, 2 Dread Return, 0-4 Chalice. The sideboard was very flexible and had a lot of answers to different hate. The only change I would make is taking out the 2 wispmare for 1 more emerald charm and 1 more ancient grudge.

Hypnotist was spectacular the whole day and completely caught everyone by surprise, there were 3 other Ichorid decks but non played with Hypnotists. They mostly used Angel, FKZ and Cephalid. There were a only a handful of Tezz decks, surprisingly as it was more common the previous tournament. There were a lot of GW aggro and fish decks in all shapes and forms. The most common deck was combo either TPS or AdN. Also I was very lucky not to face a mirror matchup as I had no Leylines main or boarded.

Although a different metagame with lots of random aggro and homebrew combo, the 52 player attendance was still very competitive. The tournament was mainly for a cause, a fellow vintage player suffering stage 5 diabetes and other complications, was the reason for the event and all proceeds went to him.

I battled against GW Parfait(2-0), Mono-Black Sui(2-0), BUG Fish(2-0), TPS(2-0), TPS(2-1) and ID with 9Sphere in round 6.

And played against another TPS in the Top8 losing game1 and somehow winning the next two. Won 2 Close games in the semis against the 9sphere aggro I drew with in the last round. And finally winning 2-1 against a 5c Oath deck sporting 11 cards anti-Ichorid hate for the win.

note:
I was very lucky the whole day as I rarely mulliganed and probably mulled only once below 5. Plus I kept on getting double bazaars or bazaar/colored mana in may games 2 and 3 w/o mulling that is why I was able to find answers quickly.

Point taken.

With the black splash and with the meta having 30% up being fish, bug, or R/G adding a smother or two will prove to be useful. Tarmogoyf is really the reason for this, so with a meta that I face would it be a pretty good idea?

Would adding standstill help?
+3 Standstill
-1 Duress
-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 Null Rod

I'm not too sure if I made the right cuts just to fit standsill.

Taking all suggestions into account, would this be a better build then?

Instants 21
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries 15
3 Serum Visions
1 Mind's Desire
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
4 Duress
2 Tendril's of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor

Enchantements 2
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Artifacts 9
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Memory Jar
1 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring

Lands 13
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy

I'm definitely running Tolarian. If I were to cut red altogether I'd be doing this:

-1 Wheel of Fortune
-1 Recoup
-1 Volcanic Island
-1 Badlands
+2 Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand (still can't decide which is better)
+1 Swamp
+1 Tolarian Academy

About LED, it takes some getting used to before liking it. It usually works best with Duress or if your quite sure you won' get countered, it helps a lot when in response to a draw 7, bargain or will than off-color moxen. It's not a win more as it might seem at first and makes for some interesting situations. Also I've been accustomed to it being quite powerful with recoup.

How crazy am I to think that Intuition has a place with my decklist? Given my unique constraint?
Instead of running 2 serum/sleight maybe I can run +1 Intuition and +1 Windfall.

I really should be running Tolarian Academy.

Is the Volcanic Island and Badlands too much to run just 2 red cards?

I haven't played in months and I've been eyeing to play TPS with all this Tez decks running rampant even here in Manila. With the meta probably Tez, RG Aggro and Ichorid. Will going the TPS route the best option?

Here is the decklist:

4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Mind's Desire
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Tinker
1 Rebuild
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Recoup
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Memory Jar
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands

Possible sideboard
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 REB
2 Pyroclasm
1 Massacre
3 Yixlid Jailer
2 Phyrexian Negator
1 Swamp


Most the of the reasons for lacking cards like Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal and off-color moxen are due to the fact that I don't have the cards and the tournament being sanctioned... I know proxy is not that big on this side of the planet.

Some questions:
1. Do I run Tolarian Academy? If yes, what do I cut?
2. Am I right to run 2 Tendrils of Agony being that I lack tutors?
3. Do I cut red and just run UB but what do I run? Windfall(lack of timetwister)? 2nd Misdirection? 2 Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand?
4. Does thoughtseize have a place in a deck like this?
5. Do I run confidants instead? (taking out Misdirection, Minds Desire, Gifts Ungiven, Colossus)
6. I do have the option of running Tarmogoyfs in the board is it too ambitious and might put a strain in my manabase?

Due to unique (budget) contraints on my part, I have some very interesting card choices that are not typically the norm.

Cards I lack that are usually found on decks like this:
Grim Tutor
Imperial Seal
Timetwister
Time Walk
Mox Emerald
Mox Pearl

Thanks for your comments and suggestions