BG Ichorid almost goes the distance in Sandusky for a Sapphire 11/11/06

Lands
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Bayou
1x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Swamp

Creatures
4x Ichorid
4x Ashen Ghoul
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Putrid Imp
4x Stinkweed Imp

Artifacts
4x Chalice of the Void
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Jet
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lotus Petal

Sorceries
4x Unmask
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Imperial Seal

Instants
4x Ancient Grudge
2x Darkblast
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Crop Rotation

Enchantments
4x Leyline of the Void

Sideboard
4x Pithing Needle
4x Nether Shadow
2x Dread Return
4x Emerald Charm
1x Darkblast

Yep, it’s BG Ichorid. As I have said before, I’m really not a big fan of the five color manabase. The added flexibility, to me, does not make up for the fact that Gemstone Mines love to crap out on me when I need them. The damage from City of Brass isn’t too much a deal, but it is a problem at times. I switched from the 5 color manabase to a BU incarnation which ran Ancestral Recall and Chains of Vapor, though I didn’t run Brainstorm or Careful Study. I really liked Chain of Vapor, and it saved me a couple of times, but the times it did save me were really lucky topdecks, and I don’t like to have to rely on fortune like that. BG brings in Crop Rotation, which is a handy backup Bazaar and also a decent Wasteland defense. The other bonuses are Ancient Grudge and Emerald Charm. Ancient Grudge is wonderful, and it’s the biggest reason I switched to BG. Artifact removal is pretty darn good in any game, because everybody plays at least some artifacts. Even if you’re just blowing up Moxes with extra mana to reduce their manabase a bit, it’s useful. Emerald Charm is, I think, a very good solution to the enchantment problem. Ray of Revelation does not hit the two biggest threats to Ichorid, which are Planar Void and Leyline of the Void. Yes, I know that Ray of Revelation can be Flashbacked to nix Planar Void by pitching it in and then using the Flashback in response, but that’s a really ideal situation anyway. Emerald Charm is just as good in that situation, as it entails having the card in your hand anyway. Emerald Charm also is basically a miniature Time Walk, because if the scary enchantments are not present you can use it to untap your Bazaar and go at it again. There is also a downside in green, though. Green, as far as I’ve seen in looking, has no answers at G for Darksteel Colossus. I bounced two Colossi last tournament with Chains of Vapor, and I was a bit nervous going into this one with essentially no plan on how to deal with the big man. The best I could hope for would be to race him with dude hordes, which I think looks a lot better on paper than it plays out at a tournament, or I could hope to Dread Return a massive Golgari Grave-Troll to either block Colossus completely or block most of the damage and regenerate to block once again. The Dread Return idea is really crappy, too, though, because I can’t think of any decks that I would bring in Dread Return against who are going to be popping out the big man.

From my last list, besides changing to green, I also cut the manabase a bit. I used to run 4 Underground Seas, 3 Polluted Deltas, and 3 Bloodstained Mires. As you can see, I’m now packing only 2 fetches, 4 Bayous, and 1 Swamp. The 1 Swamp is anti-Wasteland, but it seemed this tournament that every time I busted it out as Wasteland defense a Strip Mine came up. The negative of not having G in the opening hand when I have it is sometimes sucky, but I think it’s worth the added defense against Wasteland is certain matchups. In the mana spots I started maindecking Darkblast again, which I did not do in my last list. This was a solid choice, both from the dredging standpoint and also the fact that there are just a lot of X/1s to kill in Vintage.

I switched up the sideboard a good deal. If you’ll recall my last tourney report (HA! I doubt it) I was packing some crazy stupid tech. The sideboard was 4 Brainstorm, 4 Pithing Needle, 3 Darkblast, 1 Scrubland, 2 Valor, and 1 Chain of Vapor last time. That anti-aggro tech of Scrubland and Valor was bad. Just plain awful, in fact. This time, I decided to pack Dread Return and Nether Shadow against aggro, and they turned out to be pretty good picks. Emerald Charm came in against any matchup where I feared enchantments with the word “Void” in them, and it did not disappoint.

On to the matchups! This is my third tournament I’ve taken Ichorid to, and I strongly believe I’m getting better every time. I don’t get to tourney too much (my girlfriend doesn’t really love me being gone an entire day, but she understands) so I really enjoy the time I get to spend playing against different people and different decks.

Round 1
Justin Dewey playing Pitch Long

This was kinda sucky. Justin’s a good friend of mine, and he’s playing Pitch Long which is a really good matchup for me. Combine this with the fact that it’s the first round, so drawing is probably a bad idea for both of us since we don’t know what the future holds, and I was just not happy to be in this position.

Game 1 I start strong with a Leyline of the Void out. I’m on the play and I toss out a Chalice at 0, which he’s not happy to see, and a Putrid Imp. I was packing a second Chalice in my hand, but I wanted to save it for a Chalice for 1. On his second or third turn, I had started beating on him with Imps and getting into my thing, and he uses I think Vampiric Tutor. I figure he might be getting a bounce spell for my Chalice, meaning he’s got some 0 effects to play, so I toss out the second Chalice at 0, figuring he picked Chain of Vapor to deal with him. I was right, and he is unable to turn the game around as I start swinging with big stuff and disassembling his hand with Cabal Therapy.

None of my sideboard does anything against Pitch Long. Everything that does is maindeck. On the offchance that he’s pulling in Leylines, though, I bring in 2 Emerald Charms for the 2 maindeck Darkblasts. Darkblasts are simply not going to do anything for me in this matchup.

Game 2 he starts out kind of weak, I think it was land-go. I Unmasked him and saw Yawgmoth’s Will, Cabal Ritual, Dark Ritual, Grim Tutor, Force of Will, and Mox Sapphire. I took the Yawgmoth’s Will since I didn’t have a Leyline to lean back on this time. The Bazaar came down and I started getting into my thing. He put down the Sapphire next turn and I Ancient Grudged it the next turn with a Bayou that I played. My dredge that turn was the nuts and I pulled up 4 Ichorids and 2 Ashen Ghouls, so I was in a position to go lethal with those next turn. He played another Mox and wanted to Tinkerlossus, but came up a mana short due to the lack of Sapphire. Even if he had, it would not have saved him from the horrible hordes.

So I end round one at 2-0-0, but I had to beat my friend’s face to do it, which was sad.

Round 2
JR Goldman playing Meandeck Ichorid

This was an interesting match, to say the least. I had never tested Ichorid in the mirror, and he’s got a couple of aces up his sleeve that I don’t run. By the same token, I’ve also got some aces that he doesn’t run, too.

I didn’t know what he was running when we started, but he knew what I was playing. He was on the play, and started with Bazaar and pitched some dredgers, and I knew things were going to get interesting. I played my Bazaar and started out similarly. He second turn Strip Mined my Bazaar, which was painful. With that move, he pretty much sealed my fate by getting a huge tempo boost on me. I tried to stem the tide and counter with Putrid Imp and draw-step dredging, but I couldn’t keep up and in a few turns he went lethal on me.

I sided out Cabal Therapy, Unmask, and three of the four Chalices of the Void to bring in the last Darkblast, four Nether Shadows, four Emerald Charms, and two Dread Returns. Cabal Therapy and Unmask I didn’t think would do anything for me, since I know when people Duress me it’s no sweat. JR seems to play a slow game where he tried to maintain a hand, like I sometimes do, so they might have been decent against him. Still, I like what I brought in from the board more. On the same topic, Chalices just aren’t worth it in the Ichorid matchup, because both of us can take or leave our spells. I bring in good stuff against him, though. Nether Shadows can chump block Ichorids and Ashen Ghouls all day long and just eat up his gas. Emerald Charm is sweet for the reasons I mentioned above. Namely, it kills Leyline or pseudo-Time Walks. Dread Return I put in on the off-chance I might need it. It’ll make a big Grave-Troll that blocks Ichorids, and if I’ve got three Ichorids out than there’s no reason not to. The thing I didn’t really consider is that if I’ve got three Ichorids out things are looking mighty good for me… Darkblast is a no-brainer. These are 3/1s I’m looking at.

In game 2, he starts out and I think he thinks I’m done when he breaks out the Leyline of the Void. I throw him the shocker when on turn 1 I bust out a Bayou and Emerald Charm it down. We both Bazaar and start going to town. We trade back and forth, but he’s got the early game in on me. I had to Bayou first turn whereas he could just go at it and start dredging. Around mid-game, though, my Nether Shadows start popping in and I am able to block his offensive and still swing with my own. Eventually, I sacrifice three dudes to pull out a 9/9 Golgari Grave-Troll, which he can’t stop. He had used Swords to Plowshares on one of my Ichorids, and the other three were in the yard, so with the Grave-Troll out and him unable to swing through to kill me, he scooped and we went game 3. This was the only time in the tournament that I used Dread Return, and I think that it was a bad decision. I got caught up in the “do cool things!” mindset and I decided I wanted to use Dread Return. I had a Putrid Imp, two Nether Shadows, an Ashen Ghoul, and an Ichorid on the board. He had I believe some tapped Ashen Ghouls. Had I simply swung with the Ichorid, I could have used the Nether Shadows and Ashen Ghoul as blockers next turn and really just shut him out of having a possibility of killing me. However, I went into cool stuff mode, and attacked with Ichorid, Ashen Ghoul, and a Nether Shadow before sacrificing them to Dread Return to bring out the 9/9 Troll. He ended up being one Ichorid short of killing me on his turn when I had two blockers, which was closer to winning that I should have allowed him. With the Ashen Ghoul and two Nether Shadows to block, after my next dredge I’d be in a really superior position after Bazaaring at his EOT to put guys on top of my Shadows and Ghoul that, with my large lineup there would be no chance he could possibly win through. I still won, but I made a bad play that came dangerously close to losing it for me.

Game 3 he mulled to five. I mulliganed to six, and the hand was mediocre, but I’m really hesitant to go to five, so if I think the six hand is remotely playable I’ll stick on it. I don’t have many notes on this, but I remember that my dredges were completely awesome and he got very little. He Strip Mined my Bazaar, but it was too late and I had a big swing for the win.

So in rounds I’m 2-0-0, and in games I’m 4-1-0. Pretty good so far.

Round 3
Nam Tran playing Control Slaver

Call me a noob, but I’ve never tested against Control Slaver. I know that the thing to Cabal Therapy for is often Thirst for Knowledge. I didn’t know what he was playing, and since he sat down saying “I lose against you,” I figured it was Stax. Because I’m thick, even after the first game I was still thinking Stax, but then I figured it out, but not before looking like an idiot. Oh well.

Game 1 was a walk in the park. I don’t have any notes, which means I believe there were no insane plays at all. I did my thing and swung for lethal in it appears six turns.

Game 2 I was thinking he’d bring in some Tormod’s Crypts, so I pulled in Pithing Needles to play with those. I think I also brought in another Darkblast, removing Unmasks and Chrome Mox, since I think it’s the worst 1 of in the deck, and cutting four-ofs without cutting them all is a bad idea since they need to start in my hand.

He mulls to 5, and says it’s still a crappy hand. He brainstorms when I Therapy him and I found out pulled up Tinker and Sundering Titan. I go for Brainstorm anyway and see Force, Volcanic Island, and Volcanic Island. Next turn he draws the Tinker, tosses out Sundering Titan, and leaves me scrambling for an answer. I Cabal Therapy myself for Ancient Grudge, attempt to Ancient Grudge, and he Forces it, pitching a Force of Will he drew. That’s game for me.

In game 3 he lays a Mana Crypt early, and then also puts down a Tormod’s. The Mana Crypt dealt him 9 damage over the course of the game before he blew it up with Gorilla Shaman. At this point, I made a pretty big stupid move by laying down a Pithing Needle in Crypt… while he has a Gorilla Shaman on the board. He didn’t break it immediately, but once the timing was about right be broke my Needle and Crypted me. It didn’t win him the game, I still was able to beat him out as the only offensive he was bringing was monkey beats, but it still was a big error on my part.

In rounds I’m 3-0-0, in games I’m 6-2-0. Still doing well.

Round 4
Justin Droba playing Grim Long

I have a good game against Grim Long, but I don’t think my match against Pitch Long is as good. Throughout our matches, Justin is quite unhappy because I’m getting really good control hands against him and it’s making his game difficult.

Game 1 I started with a Cabal Therapy and hit a Brainstorm. He still has Dark Ritual, Duress, and Windfall. Windfall is useless against me, so I’m not too worried about it. I start into things early, and I get serious damage on the board and swinging at him. He Timetwisters into absolute crap, and with him unable to turn it around I use my new hand to destroy his and keep swinging with Ashen Ghouls to win the game.

Game 2 I sideboard out my 2 Darkblasts for 2 Emerald Charms. I don’t think he’ll bring in Leylines, but I’m not sure and want to be safe. Besides, the Darkblasts will do little for me. I Leylined turn 0, and he said that it saved me from the turn 1 win even though he had mulliganed to five cards. He put out a strong first turn, but as he said, he couldn’t win it with Leyline out. He did drop a Tormod’s Crypt, either on turn 1 or 2, I can’t remember. I spent far too much time dealing with the Crypt, which I eventually forced him to blow by Ancient Grudging it. He bounced my Leyline, but I used a Black Lotus to replay it. Still, it wasn’t good enough. He used the time I gave him to break out a Yawgmoth’s Bargain and go broken. Oops.

Game 3 I start out by using a Chrome Mox and Bayou to play a Chalice at 1. I only had one Chalice (oh what I would have done for a second) and I thought that Chalice 1 was the right play. On his turn he dropped a bunch of zero cost stuff, including Tormod’s, and I begin regretting not dropping it at 0. He notes that 0 would be a better choice, but I’m still not sure. 0 cuts him off his mana a bit, but he only needs a single land to use Chain of Vapor to bounce it. At the same time, Chalice 1 stops Chain, Dark Ritual, Brainstorm, Imperial Seal, and Vampiric Tutor, all of which are serious business in Long. It’s a toss-up, and I think both are equally viable. 0 might have been a better play in hindsight, but without seeing his hand first and having no way to do so I think Chalice 1 was a solid play. I start plan to apply a little pressure with Bazaar to force him to break the Tormod’s and allow me to go crazy, but on the single Golgari Grave-Troll I dredge I pull two Ichorids and another Grave-Troll. He Crypts in reponse, and I end up losing three Ichorids and two Grave-Trolls with little to show for it. Sucks, but that’s the way it goes. I go into Ashen Ghoul mode, and even though he uses Rebuild on me to take care of the Chalices, he can’t go off and my Ghouls seal his fate.

That makes my round record 4-0-0 and my game record 8-3-0. Good numbers.

For round 5, I am the only undefeated player, and Ray Kehr and I decide to draw it out. He’s hungry and wants something to eat, so I agree and turn in the results while he goes off for a pizza.

Being undefeated in the swiss, I am top seed for the top 8. I hate being on top for top 8, because my deck performs well against other top tier decks, but I can get slaughtered by things that don’t perform as well against the dominant metagame.

Top 8
Eric Butler with UB Fish

Eric is playing my cousin’s UB Fish deck, and it’s probably the deck I least want to play out of every deck in the tournament. When Nat is playing it, my record against it is abysmal, but I don’t think Eric knows the deck as well as Nat does, so I have a chance. Eric and I agree that regardless of who wins this, if top 4 split we will split that prize, which will be 55 store credit for each.

Game 1 is the game where I have the best chance of winning. He has maindeck Withered Wretch which beats my game, but he doesn’t have the Planar Voids. Unfortunately, he breaks open the Withered Wretch early and I can’t even get threshold for my Putrid Imps to get the +1/+1 bonus. I have two Imps, and they’re swinging hard every turn. Even without anything else, he’s still at 4 life when he kills me with Wretch and a Martyr of Frost.

I break out the Pithing Needles, third Darkblast, Emerald Charms, and Nether Shadows against him. I think I removed Unmask, Ancient Grudge, Leyline, and Chrome Mox for them. Things are looking bad, though. Needles will nullify Wretches primarily and Wastelands on the happy occasion I get two. Emerald Charms will break those Planar Voids that I know he’ll be packing. Darkblast is a no-brainer, and Nether Shadows can hopefully both give me a better clock and also slow down his clock. I’m removing Unmask because it’s almost always the first card I remove. Unmask is awesome, but it has to be in the opening hand and it also reduces my ability to keep a hand in the face of Bazaar because of the necessity to remove a black card. The first downside is much more important than the second. Ancient Grudge won’t do much for me in this matchup. His artifact mana he can have, as it’s not going to do enough for him for me to dedicate four slots to breaking it, and his Null Rods can simply sit there. If he had Aether Vials I might think about keeping the Grudges, but against this list they go. He has no graveyard tricks at all, so Leyline is simply pointless. Chrome Mox is, once again, the worst restricted card in the deck, and therefore the best 1 of to cut.

In game 2, I started out very strong. I was packing Emerald Charm and a Bayou in case of Planar Void, but since I was on the play I dropped my Bazaar and started giving it gas. He didn’t have a Planar Void, so I continued to dredge and I was getting solid heat. It was all creatures, and that’s what I like to see. He dropped second turn Wretch, but without any Moxen to fuel it he was really behind. Third turn I swung for 9 and put him to 9. On his turn he dropped Engineered Plague on Horror. Luckily, with me bringing in Nether Shadows, I had four different creature types that he would have to Engineer: Ichorid is a Horror, Ashen Ghoul is a Ghoul, Nether Shadow is a Shadow but it has been changed with errata to Spirit, and Putrid Imp is a Zombie Imp. I’m still busting out the Ashen Ghouls on my turn, and his Engineered Plague has him tapped out and unable to Wretch my graveyard enough. He blocks the Ghouls, but the Shadows and Putrid Imp still drop him down even lower. On his last turn he drops another Engineered Plague on Shadow to nix the Nether Shadows, but it’s too late. Another Ashen Ghoul and the Putrid Imp come through to put me on top.

I’m feeling better going into game 3. I thought he might shut me out. This game he starts early with Wretch again, so I hold back a bit on the graveyard. I’m packing Bazaar, Putrid Imp, Bayou, Cabal Therapy, and Pithing Needle. I need to get the Pithing Needle through, but it will take time. I take the time to do it right, though. I Cabal Therapy him for Force of Will for my first turn. He frowns and drops two Force of Wills into the graveyard. On my next turn I lay down the Pithing Needle on Withered Wretch and start in on things. He toasts my Bazaar with a Wasteland, then nixes my Bayou with another Wasteland. I had fetched my singleton Swamp using a fetchland I brought up with my first Bazaar, but he topdecked a Strip Mine and blew that as well. Putrid Imp gave me my discard outlet, though, and he was all I needed to overwhelm Eric with Ichorids and Nether Shadows to win.

That makes me 5-0-1 in rounds and 10-4-0 in games. Still solid, and looking forward to top 4.

Top 4
Justin Droba playing Grim Long

I was really hoping to avoid playing against Justin again. Grim Long kind of scares me because if he topdecks heat there is simply nothing I can do about it. I was hoping for a repeat of earlier, but I was still nervous about it.

In the first game I turn 0 Leylined and then proceeded to pretty much destroy his hand. I Unmasked, then proceeded to use a Bayou to Cabal Therapy. I played my Black Lotus and broke it for black to play Stinkweed Imp and used it to flashback the Cabal Therapy, reducing his hand to just Mind’s Desire and Yawgmoth’s Bargain. On the next turn, I dredged and pulled up two more Cabal Therapies, which I used on another turn to take the Bargain. Ichorids came through and he was unable to do anything as they wrecked his day.

Having won the first game, I was much more optimistic about game 2. Seeing my opening hand made it even better. I had no Leyline this time, but he didn’t beat me first turn. I put down a Black Lotus and broke it for black, then dropped Chalice for 0, Cabal Therapy, which he Brainstormed in response to, and named Dark Ritual which I got one of, and then dropped Chalice for 1. I was putting on the pressure, and got him down to 6 life, with a sure kill on my next turn. He played Rebuild, bouncing my Chalices, and won next turn.

Game 3 didn’t look very good on either side. I kept a lame hand because it had a ton of control in it, and it was a bad idea. I Leylined, and then on my turn I Unmasked him and Cabal Therapied. He was sitting on three Polluted Deltas and Dark Ritual after that. He kept on playing lands, and oddly enough so did I. I ended up topdecking two more Bayous and a fetchland, which gave me four lands in play. I was really hoping for a topdecked Chalice of the Void, but I didn’t get it. I hardcast Ashen Ghouls and started swinging. When he was at 5 life, I used the flashback on the Cabal Therapy I had cast first turn by tossing one of the Ghouls. We talked later, and he was right that I should have named Timetwister, since it was the biggest threat to me at that point. I didn’t, and named Dark Ritual hoping to keep him off mana. It didn’t work, he had the Timetwister, and I didn’t get another turn to hardcast Ichorid to have him swing with my remaining Ghoul to go lethal. He went off with Tendrils and smashed my face.

That ended my place in the tournament with a final record of 5-1-1 in rounds and 11-6-0 in games.

A sad ending to an otherwise undefeated (in rounds) afternoon, but that’s the way it goes. I’m still very happy with how my deck performed at the event. Unfortunately, since the tournament only got 22 people and the prize was a valuable one, the people who placed 2nd through 4th got only $13 in store credit. Still, it was enough to get me a real Vampiric Tutor to replace my really shoddy proxy one.

Emerald Charm came through for me the one time it was needed, and also showed up at times when I didn’t need him. Sadly, I didn’t get to use it to untap Bazaar at all, usually because of a lack of mana at the time or the inability to keep it in my hand. Ancient Grudge didn’t get used a whole lot, but I didn’t play many artifact heavy decks. The time when I really needed it to break the Sundering Titan, it war Forced, but I at least had the chance to do it. From the last tournament to this one, I think my ability to blind Cabal Therapy has really improved. I rarely missed, and Justin actually commented that he must be showing me his hand because I literally never missed against him until that last game.

Not to say I didn’t make some mistakes. I certainly misplayed with the Pithing Needle on Tormod’s Crypt when Nam had the Gorilla Shaman out, but even if I had named Gorilla Shaman the result wouldn’t have been any different. Also against Nam, but I don’t remember which game, I bonked and forgot to play my Leyline before the game began. It didn’t hurt me, but I still was very unhappy about that error. A couple of times throughout the tournament, I made mistakes where I didn’t pitch an Ashen Ghoul or Nether Shadow with Putrid Imp before I Bazaared to toss a whole heap of dudes on top of them. That ended with them on the top by discarding them with Bazaar with few dudes on top instead of on the bottom where they should be. Oops. Something I tell myself all the time but still misplay is just knowing when to simply go for broke. I get pretty obsessed with controlling the gamestate, as my Ichorid is a really heavy control build, that I make the mistake to keep trying to keep on top of things instead of just winning. That second game during the swiss against Grim Long I should have just ignored the Tormod’s, forced him to break it to avert the threat, and then just played through it, but I stalled to get and Ancient Grudge, and by then it was too late. There’s a key moment when Ichorid has to leave the control game and go to win the game, and sometimes it’s hard to realize when that time is.

In short summation, I did not regret any of my maindeck or sideboard changes this tournament as I did last time. Last tournament, the Scrubland/Valor combo was just stupid, and Brainstorm in the sideboard did me nothing. This time, the least valuable player turned out to be Dread Return, but that’s because I didn’t face any heavy aggro like Workshop Aggro or Goblins, where I think Dread Return would really shine. It made a brief cameo in the Ichorid mirror, but it was really an unnecessary “win more” move more than anything else.

Until next time, thanks everybody for coming out to the tournament, and thanks to The Gamer’s Lounge for hosting. I don’t think I’ll be able to hit December’s tournament, but I’ll make an effort to hit the one in January. Hope to see you all again.

Fake edit: Having read JD’s report before posting mine, I’ve noticed that his reports of our matches and my reports are quite different. I will be the first to admit that those are the matches I’m having the hardest time remembering, pretty much because, as is his complaint, there were Leylines, Chalices of the Void, and Cabal Therapies pretty much coming out of every orifice. With them showing up in different variations every match, I really just can’t remember which was which. The individual plays that I named happened, but my order on the games is probably screwed up. It makes it even harder to remember because my lack of sideboarding means I can’t tell my deck’s pre-sideboard games from post-sideboard games. I tried to reconstruct it as best I could, but notes sometimes get mixed up in the mind and nutty things come out.