Shattering the Glass Jaw, Or - Why I won't be playing Ichorid at Waterbury

Quick and Dirty mini report-Myraid, Dec 8
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

// Lands
4 Petrified Field
2 Bayou
1 Strip Mine
4 Bazaar of Baghdad

// Creatures
4 Ichorid
2 Ashen Ghoul
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Sutured Ghoul
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Nether Shadow
3 Shambling Shell

// Spells
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Unmask
4 Serum Powder
2 Dread Return
2 Dragon Breath
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Leyline of the Void

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Emerald Charm
SB: 4 City of Brass
SB: 1 Ray of Rev
SB: 4 P-imp
SB: 1 7/10
SB: 1 Dark Blast

Match 1: Oli playing bomberman

R1: Frownz, I hate playing against bomberman, and he knows what I'm playing. Non-real life playtesting catches up to me in the first game as I mentally, but not verbally, note an ichorid in my gy at the start of my upkeep turn 2. The cabal therp I dredge out is therefore harmless. This proves critical since I know he is playing bomberman and is telagraphing a t2 trinketmage -> crypt with his island, sol ring start. Predictably he crypts t2, and then follows up with and early salvagers ftw.

R2: I have a dream opening with bazaar, ichorid, dredge-card, unmask, black card, and chalice. I lead with bazaar dropping ichy + dredgers into the yard. Follow up with unmask for his FOW (leaving hits such as brainstorm, trinket mage, and I think grunt), and play out the chalice. A grunt hits the table along with the mage, but it isn't enough to stop the cookie monster on turn 4. This is why you play ichorid.

R3: I slap an early layline, and start with a decent curve of bazaar -> shadows plus dredgers. I'm feeling really good when I pop a cabal therp next turn nabing a wipe away and leaving the wonders of FOW x2 and non-castable stuff. Oli top decks a demonic (I think) and has to decide if he should get a Tolarian or a Crypt. He settles on Tol realizing correctly that I am in a good enough situation to quickly play around it, while still being low on gas himself. My memory gets fuzzy here, because for some reason I am not able to capitalize on my early curve, and eventually he is able to land a crypt against my chalice-less board. This game was close with Oli in a final do-or-die turn drawing into a brainstorm -> gas -> trinket mage -> crypt, and oh yea, I'll just play a grunt also. I play it out for a few more turns, but it's obvious the man from England has it well in hand and I move to scoops ville.

0-1-0

Match 2: Sarah playing Elvish Inquisition (or for all intensive purposes Planar Void Main Deck@#@!.dec)

R1: I am on the play, and curve nicely into chalice + bazaar pitching ashen and dredgers. I'm feeling good here. Sarah plays a land -> planar void. Nice. Deck. Our hero (me) vainly tries to capitalize by laying petrified fields and bayous to facilitate the hardcasting of nether shadows in hand. This plan ultimately fails to a turn 2 wasteland, and a turn 3 withered wretch (just in case I could actually remove the void).

R2: I win. No really, I do. I manage a nice curve for a start (bazaar, dredges, ichy, bla-bla-bla), and an early unmask nabs a vamp. Petrified Field snags a stripper to prevent a turn 3 demonic, followed in quick succession by cabal therp in multiples and beats. Without the fear of STP and edicts, the coooookie monster attacks for lethal and quickly seals the deal. One word, mize.

R3: I am visited by a strange Asian man claiming to be from the future. He tells me I must save the cheerleader to save the world. When I ask why he can't just go save the cheerleader himself; considering he is the ulti-trump with the whole warping of space and time thing. He scowls at me and shouts, "don't you understand, it's all about the T-REX!" and disappears into a blue flash of light. I awaken and the round is over, pairings are being posted for round 3, and I find myself with 0 points, a strange tattoo, and memories of a creepy Haitian (how do I know he is Haitian?) standing over me.

or

I forget to put my RFG cards back into my deck for game 3 and lose the game, lose the match.

0-2-0

Match 3: Unknown playing Mono-Black aggro

6 rounds, low 30's, some 4-2 (albeit probably not me b/c of tiebreakers) will make it. WTF, I drove an hour and paid my 25 bucks. I resolve to win out.

R1: He has to read leyline of the void, I'm feeling good. When he has to read ichorid, I know I have it. The cookie monster swings past a black shadow dood on t3 after cabal clears out any edicts ftw.

R2: You know what is good. Waste effects and Withered Wretch. You know what is bad, decking yourself in a vain attempt to find nether shadows to hard cast. Did I mention he also has planar void. *sigh*

R3: He gets an early wretch, but it just doesn't cut the mustard with out wastelands. It is however scarily close even with 2x bazaars on my side, but I pull it out with a surprise emerald charm on his endstep, stealing an extra bazaar activation, and getting multiple creatures out on my turn for therp and ghoul combo.

1-2-0

Match 4: Unknown (Sorry forgot your name) playing U/W/R Goblins

R1: I win. Nice curve, nice everything. I therp out a commander, warcheif, and STP, which slows him down long enough for the win.

R2: He gets a vial. He gets wastelands. He gets blockers, and lacky, and does mean things. All by t3. Sigh, gobbo's can actually win pretty fast. Vial lets him race, and I scoop to dmg on stack. What stands out about this match is I got greedy remembering how good therp was in g1. I play out a bayou -> cabal therp turn 1 hoping to get lucky against a lacky. I wiff, play a bazaar on turn 2 which is then wasted on t3, and the game is over from there. I was just too slow after that.

R3: SB back in grudges which I had earlier taken out. This proves to be critical as I mulligan down to 6 into bayou, p-imp answered by a vial. EOT I dump the grudge I had been holding, along with gravetrolls and ichorids, and it is smooth sailing from there.

2-2-0
.500 Baby!

Match 5: Unknown playing Bomberman

R1: Again, wtf. Sigh. Thankfully I win. Early Leyline, Chalice, and a nice curve keep me in control of the game.

R2: It comes down to a countered t1 chalice, followed quickly by bomberman himself and crypts. FTL.

R3: Leyline, Chalice, Unmask, and a nice curve. Details are fuzzy, but again the disruption comes enmass, and he doesn't stand a chance. Grudges save the day a few times keeping his spellbombs off the table.

3-2-0

Match 6: Unknown (although I have meet you before, sorry!) playing ... SALVAGERS@#$@!

I have hit every salvager in the room. I have hit ZERO Gifts, CS, Combo, Stax, or Fish. Must. Be. Nice. To be fair, he was playing SLAVERgers, but it has all the relevant stuff against me. Namely trinket mages, crypts, and salvagers.

R1: I know from the reports of others he is playing salvagers, but then he goes t1, volc, welder, pass, I am so confused. Was the intel wrong, did I match the wrong face to the wrong deck? I end up cabal therp for TFK (assuming slaver) only to see a salvagers, trinket mage, and other really bad stuff (tm). Dazed and confused I quickly lose to the infiny annoying combo of crypt and salvagers.

R2: For the first time today, the mulligan monster hits. I go all the way down to like 4 cards before keeping a bazaar + chalice + random x2. I announce my steps, announce my bazaar, draw, dump my hand, and go to play the chalice. He says okay, and I go to pass the turn. He stops me and says he wasn't "playing" yet and tries to force the chalice. Whatever, looking at tiebreakers we both know neither of us will make it in even at 4-2. I let the FOW stand without challenge, and proceed to lose the game to t1 crypt, turn 2 random, t3 second crypt and a trike.

Final Standings 3-3

Final notes:

I think the deck is better then my record suggest. Playing 6 rounds against 3 salvagers and planar void MD.deck can't be normal. I'm pretty much of the opinion that this is a classic glass jaw deck; meaning over the short term YMMV. However, depending on how the meta-game holds up, over time I think you could do well. It also means that every once-in-a-while you will hit two almost unwinable matches (or one nightmare match and one mulligan self destruct) and be unceremoniously jettisoned from contention, making this deck anything but consistent in anything above 5 rounds (playing this at Waterbury = CRAZY). However in the more standard 5-round events, this could be a very solid choice for someone who is looking for a tactical edge on the meta-game and a 3-0 -> draw into the top 8.

As for my specific card choices:

P-Field: Pre-SB against wastelands. Nice for getting back bazaars and strip mine while still being able to use ashen and grudge. Downside is the inability to run duress (or almost ever hard cast a therp), and not being able to run a full compliment of ashens (hard to bring back until turn 4).

Grudge: I like it MD, but I still miss chain of vapor. It's nice for added disruption, threatening big artifacts (slaver, 7/10), moxen that have slipped by your chalice, and random hate cards like crypt/e-bridge/p-needle.

Shambling Shell: He was a gap filler playing the role of ichy food, Unmask pitch card, extra dredger, and Ghoul feeder all day long. Not great at anything, but good for everything.

SB: The COB's came in for all g2's that I wasn't worried about wasteland, e-charms came in as a 2x if I was unsure about leyline, 4x if I knew it was there, and p-imps against almost everything that I had dead cards against. I also ran a ray of revelation (worthless), darkblast (mildly useful), and a 7/10 (alt.animate against bomberman).