The Most Boring Deck in Type One (ELD 3rd Place)

[The Atog Lord]

The Most Boring Deck in Type One (ELD 3rd Place)


I have been, for the greater part of this past year, sitting amid the corn and cows in West Lafayette, Indiana. The removal of myself from the New England area to further my education is, I believe a worthwhile sacrifice. I've just obtained my Master's Degree from Purdue in Computer Science.

However, it does not escape my noticed that the superb Vintage scene found in New England does not manifest itself in all areas. New England has a true gift in the form of frequent Vintage events, and this is a gift given by dedicated tournament organizers. Nothing like their absence to call one's attention to their necessity.

Therefore, I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of those who work hard to provide us, the Magic-playing populace, with chances to play this game we all love.

This event, the subject of my report, is ELD's tournament for a Mox Emerald which took place today, the 19th of May. This is the first of ELD's events which I have been able to attend, and I had an excellent time. The tournament was well-run, organized, and Eric did a great job of ensuring a smooth event. The only downside to Eric's running the event, of course, is that he himself did not play. Eric is an excellent player, and I always enjoy my matches against him.

The deck which I played at this event is Ichorid. This deck's history is well-documented, but few can deny that the deck has recently been infused with a new burst of power from Future Sight. You may note that Ichorid is not the sort of deck I usually play. However, when a deck is broken, a deck is broken. I had initially included Ichorid among the decks in my test gauntlet. However, after testing a lot, my teammates and I realized that Ichorid beat everything which didn't either answer it well or win quickly. In fact, against most decks in the format, Ichorid has a very positive first game. The post-board game can be a bit more difficult for Ichorid, but I didn't think people would have sufficient hate to handle the deck properly. In time, I think that people will adjust to Ichorid, as they do to all powerful decks. But until that happens, Ichorid remains a powerful force and a very viable deck choice.

Here is the list I played:

// Lands
    4 Bazaar of Baghdad
    4 Dryad Arbor

// Creatures
    4 Golgari Thug
    4 Ichorid
    4 Stinkweed Imp
    4 Golgari Grave-Troll
    4 Narcomoeba
    4 Street Wraith
    2 Flame-Kin Zealot
    2 Cephalid Sage

// Spells
    4 Serum Powder
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Dread Return
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Bridge from Below
    4 Leyline of the Void

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Reverent Silence
SB: 3 Emerald Charm
SB: 4  Contagion
SB: 2 Tropical Island
SB: 2 Wooded Foothills

You're certainly already familiar with how the deck works, so I'd like to mention first the sources for the card choices. Becker brought up the choice of Flame-Kin Zealot and Sage main, as well as the maindeck Dryad Arbor. Josh (Veggies) came up with the Reverent Silence tech, which was great all day. Brassman suggested the inclusion of Contagion in the sideboard to handle Yixlid Jailer.

Now, a note on a few specific choices. The maindeck Leylines over Unmasks are going to become a necessity as Ichorid and Flash decks become more common. Ichorid mirror matches will go to which player has Leyline, and Flash decks are slowed by Leyline as well.

The more unusual choice, I believe, is including Dryad Arbor maindeck. However, she's proven herself quite effective, as Becker has advocated. She allows a creature for sacrificial purposes. She saves four sideboard slots becomes she prevents the entire manabase from having to go in the board. She lets you Dread Return under Sphere, which came up today. She even attacks. I was quite pleased with her.


Round 1: Kevin with Pitch Long

Game one: I Powder and keep. Kevin extirpates my Ichorids, but Bridge and Moeba give me all I need to win against him. This deck is far more resilient than many people give it credit for.

Game two: I mulligan to 5. I drop a Chalice this game, which stops a Crypt he draws in the following turn off a Brainstorm. Kevin then plays Planar Void. I Reverent Silence, which he Forces. Then, I Charm the Void and win.

This game illustrates the Affinity Principal. Affinity is a scary deck, and a deck many people hated. However, the problem with hating Affinity was that if you brought in a bunch of Oxidizes and Naturalizes, you would find that your actual game plan is impaired. So, likewise, was Kevin's Long plan. He spent his time and his tutors finding answers to me and therefore I had the time to find the answers to his answers.


Round 2: Dan with Mountains-Type-Deck

You'll find no opponent more sportsmanlike than Dan. Dressed in his The-Mountains-Win-Again themed shirt, the Myriad Games proprietor makes a habit of beginning each round by offering his opponent a signed Foil land and asking the opponent to sign another one of his lands. Dan, however, recalls that I don't care for foils, and has been carrying around a Beta mountain to sign for me when we next played. He is, in addition, one of those tournament organizers of which I spoke well earlier in this report. You can be sure that a round against Dan is an enjoyable round.

Game one: Dan begins with 2 Moxen and a Trinisphere, preventing my casting spells for the game. However, I get a few Moebas and an Ichorid going. The deck doesn't need to win like a combo deck; against slower decks such as TMWA, hitting for 5 per turn is perfectly acceptable. Dan can't race my threats or answer them in time, and Ichorids and Zombie tokens end the game in which I didn't cast one spell.

Game two: Powder, keep: Dan Wastes Bazaar early, but I draw a second one. Dan then gets out 2 Sphere of Resistances and a Ghostly Prison. He also gets out an Exalted Angel. However, using two Dryad Arbors, I am able to pay for and cast Reverent Silence, and with Prison out of the way I can win. This illustrates a key point: Silence costing 0 enables it to be much stronger against cards like Sphere of Resistance. This is key to my winning this game.




Round 3: Travis with Control Slaver / Stax / Travis Thing

While he makes not secret of his dislike of the moderation staff here, I genuinely enjoy my games against Travis. He is a good sport whenever we play, and always provides a challenging match. Today is no exception to either.

Game one: Travis has a second turn Tinker, and I die to getting Mindslavered after taking only two turns.

Game two: Travis has Leyline, but I have two Silences. The first meets Force, but the second resolves. We go back and forth for a bit, building resources. Travis gets out a Mindslaver on the fourth or so turn. I am able to win the following turn, facing a certain loss otherwise.

Game three: This is certainly the most spectacular win of the day. I mulligan to one. I keep a Dryad Arbor and sigh, thinking the match over. Travis ends my dreams of Arbor Beats with a pair of Welders. However, on my third turn, I rip a Bazaar. From there, because Travis had a slow draw and hit nothing off two Brainstorms interrupted by a Fetchland, that Bazaar carries me. I've never won a tournament game by Mulliganing to one before.



Round 4: Tool with Gifts

Game one: I mulligan and drop Leyline. Tool has Tormod's Crypt for disruption, Ancestral Recall, and Timewalk. However, Leyline is very powerful against Gifts. Despite his Crypt, and despite his relatively early Tinker for Colossus, I am still able to race. Without Leyline, I believe he would have won the game, as he resolved Gifts Ungiven.

Game two: Tool watches as I mulligan to four cards. After I watch Tool Demonic and pass, I Cabal Therapy first for Force of Will and then for Jailer. I hit the Jailer that he had tutored for, only to see him rip another Jailer the next turn. This slows me down, and this time Tinker beats me as I'm slowed enough by Jailer to lose. I do have Contagions to handle Jailer, but they didn't show up this game.

Game three: Tool mulligans and resolves a first-turn Tinker for Colossus. I race and win. Type One is fun.



From here, I draw into Top Eight


Top Eight: Bill Copes with Stax (Or maybe Staxless Stax)

Game one: Bill doesn't do much and this ends quickly.

Game two: Bill opens with a Leyline and a Dark Confidant. I contagion the Confidant, untap, play Arbor, and Silence the Leyline. From there, it is simple as the Ichorid deck wins.


Top Four: Donald Belcastro with Bomberman

Yuck! Donald's deck is loaded with both hate and tutors for that hate. I've been told this match was terrible for earlier builds of Ichorid. Today I learned that this is likely still true.

Game one: Donald mulligans, and I have Leyline. Donald begins with two Moxes and a fetchland. He gets an early Tormod's Crypt and then uses Trinket Mage to find a Pithing Needle. Two Mages and a Salvager beat me to death.

Game two: I mulligan to four. Donald mulligans to six. This game, I get hit with two Honor the Fallen which slow my Dredging and gain Donald life. Donald removes my Chalice at Zero with Engineered Explosives cast with a Sol Ring. The time gained from Honor the Fallen  enables him to get out a Salvager and start recurring a Tormod's Crypt.


Playing for 3rd and 4th: Ray with Staxless Stax

Game one: I mulligan to four. However, on the play, I drop a Chalice for 0 which shuts down Ray entirely. He Wastelands my Bazaar, but its single use enables me to chain into more Dredge cards and win before Ray can recover. Ray nearly wins on his last turn with an explosive set of plays involving Tinker and Timewalk, but he can't make up for the time lost to Chalice.

Game two: I mulligan to six. Ray uses the power of Coalition Relic to get out a quick Goblin Welder and Trike. Trike is great against Ichorid because it easily removes Bridges. Ray wins through those two cards.

Game three: I mulligan on the play. Ray has Ancestral Recall on his first turn and triple Street Wraith. Despite Ray getting an Aeon Hub into play quickly, I am able to win through Bridge and Moebas.

Final Record of Played Matches: 6-1
Final Standing: 3rd
Ultimately, I win an Alpha Demonic Tutor for my efforts.

Ichorid is a deck I didn't think was very powerful before Future Sight. Now, however, I believe that it is among the best decks in the format. The deck has proven itself to be both fast and adept at overcoming the various forms of hate directed at it. Moving forward, there is much innovation to be done not only in the list itself but also in the sideboard. I brought in between 11 and 15 cards for every single post-board game I played. All of them. That's a lot more sideboarding than I usually do. In fact, I think Ichorid sideboards more cards per game than any other deck without a transformational sideboard. Making those cards count, and adjusting to a fluctuating metagame, is key to making this deck as strong as possible.

In conclusion, it was great to see everyone at the event. Thanks to Mike Lydon for giving me a ride there, and Demonic Attorney for giving me a ride back. Thanks to Jeff, Jesus, Josh, and Mike (Reflection Teammates) for working with me to get ready for this. It was a great time, and I'm looking forward to being able to play more Type One this summer.

Rich Shay
Team Reflection

[TopSecret]

     Thanks for the report, Rich!
     This Ichorid deck sounds ridonkulous.
I am very scared now.

 I have one question about your deck:

     During the tournament, you won a lot of games through Leyline
     and a lot of other dedicated Ichorid hate.

      Are there any cards you found during testing that completely destroy Ichorid,
      or is it just that strong?

[Kowal]

Artifact solutions are typically more solid.  The deck really loads up on sideboard solutions to things like Leyline and Planar Void, and doesn't often have room for junk like Ancient Grudge or whatever other artifact removal you'd want to run.  Ensnaring Bridge I have found is the best solution.

However, Leyline is still really good against Ichorid in a deck that can run some countermagic to keep it on the table.  Typically Ichorid doesn't remove it THAT rapidly, so a tutor-tastic deck like Gifts (with the scroll->force play) or a deck running more than adequate countermagic (some bomberman builds with mana leak, or oath, or something along these lines) can really do just fine.

[The Atog Lord]

On the matter of optimal hate. Leyline is the clear winner here. Against Pithing Needle and Wasteland, Ichorid may still chain Dredges into one another, using its draw step. I recoveded and won against both Tormod's Crypt and Extirpate. However, Leyline is a card which must be first removed before the deck can function.

However, and here is the key: Ichorid is seldom stopped by a single hate card. Rather, a set of cards combined is often used to beat the deck. Against Bomberman, for instance, it was in the first game the combination of Tormod's Crypt and Pithing Needle which defeated me. In the second game, Honor the Fallen and Tormod's Crypt together beat me.

So, to answer your question, Top Secret, a combination of hate cards works better than a single card. Even so, builds of Ichorid themselves fluctuate. My build, as you've noticed, lacks responses to Artifacts, and so is not able to answer Platinum Angel, for instance; whereas, if I had no creature removal, Yixlid Jailer would be an instant victory against the deck. All builds of Ichorid may be considered to have enchantment removal because Leyline is the finest hate card one might have. Beyond this, however, which hate works best against Ichorid is as much a function of the Ichorid deck's sideboard answers as anything else.

[policehq]

The combination of Chain of Vapor end-of-turn and Cabal Therapy during your mainphase solves the Leyline, Jailer, Ensnaring Bridge, etc. problems.

Reverent Silence is still, in my opinion, essential because of the number of Leylines.

That said, maybe trading 1-2 maindeck Dryad Arbors for the same number of fetchlands and playing 1-2 Tropical Islands in the side would allow for 3 Chain of Vapor instead of 3 Emerald Charm. Then you have anti-hate versus Leyline of the Void (Reverent Silence), Yixlid Jailer (Contagion), and everything else but Extirpate (Chain of Vapor).

-hq

[Kowal]

Why would you dip in to blue?  That sounds terrible.  It's not like your mana is reliable at all.  You can get all the removal you'd need from black (contagion) and green (emerald charm, reverant silence, ancient grudge, oxidize) without having to butcher your mana.

Also, Extirpate is really, really bad hate.  The best use of Extirpate is if you get lucky and hit Dread Return or Bridge, and in that case whichever one you didn't get kills you.

[policehq]

The question "Why would you dip into blue" is akin to the question I interpreted to be in previous posts that asks how to handle multiple answers to your deck's strategy.

Cabal Therapy is always a resource at your disposal, so combining it with Chain of Vapor, or relying on the opponent's inability to re-cast the hate card in question (in Leyline of the Void's case) is an all-purpose removal tool that works just as well as Emerald Charm, Ancient Grudge, and/or Contagion.

I still think that Reverent Silence is needed because I have had more occasions than I'd like when my opponent starts with more than one Leyline of the Void on the table.

I'm surprised to see Yixlid Jailer in a Gifts sideboard. I expected it would only turn up in new decklists or pre-existing UWB Fish sideboards. Did you know it was coming in for that game 2 when you mention having Contagions, or did you side them in for game 3? Before reading this tournament report and your use of Contagion on the sideboard, I was set on Pithing Needles and/or Ancient Grudges in those slots, but I suppose time will tell whether Contagion will be consistently needed.

With only 12 Dredgers in your main deck, what was your common sideboarding strategy for the 12-15 card swap? Did you take out hate cards like Leyline and Chalice for anti-hate?

I didn't think that Eon Hub was a good enough source of hate against Ichorid before, but I'm especially glad with how easy it is to beat it post-Future Sight.

-hq

[Zherbus]

Also, Extirpate is really, really bad hate.  The best use of Extirpate is if you get lucky and hit Dread Return or Bridge, and in that case whichever one you didn't get kills you.

I could not have said that better. Basically, it might have worked well on OLD Ichorid, but this new one just views it as a speed bump.

[The Atog Lord]

Extirpate is a non-issue. As I wrote above, Ichorid himself was removed in my first game of the tournament, and the Moeba was sufficient to provide a win on my next turn. Two extirpates would of course be likely to end things, but this doesn't seem like a realistic plan.

As for the matter of Chain of Vapor: While my Tropical Islands certainly bluff the card, I didn't miss it during the day. The card certainly allows its caster a chance to free up a single turn before "going off" on his next. However, what Chain fails to do well is remove a threat longer than a turn. This is notable because the Ichorid deck must slow itself in the face of hate, thereby in fact reducing its ability to win as a combo deck. In other words, adding cards like Chain to the deck makes cards such as Chain worse. The only card especially well handled by Chain is Leyline itself; and yet Emerald Charm serves this funtion far better.

As Kowal has pointed out, Green and Black provide all the hate one needs. Against Bomberman, some Oxidizes or may be Grudges would have been quite good. However, these require no additional colors. All other sorts of permanents are already handled by the sideboard. Green has the further advantage of Dryad Arbor, a very excellent card itself.

As for Dredgers, recall that a longer expected game allows the Ichorid deck to assume a slower role. The 12 Dredge cards often became 10 as a pair of Thugs is often removed. Other cards to remove are some number of Zealots and Sages, though one Zealot ought to remain most of the time; and disruption cards from the maindeck, according to the particular matchup. There is of course no general guide to how one should sideboard; it is a function both of the match being played and the particular hate one expects.

As for Jixlid Jailer, I often found myself bringing in Contagion even when I expected nothing more than Bob or Welder from the opponent. Better safe than sorry, as they say.

[policehq]

Chain of Vapor may not be better than Emerald Charm for removing Leyline of the Void, and it may not be better than Contagion for removing Yixlid Jailer, but it does have the advantage of conserving sideboard space by being able to target all of the cards. As I said before, in combination with Cabal Therapy, it acts as permanent removal of the offending hate.

It would be impossible to include the requisite 4+ enchantment-hate cards for Leyline of the Void, artifact hate for when people use optimal sideboard cards such as Sphere of Resistance, Ensnaring Bridge, etc. and creature removal for Yixlid Jailer and cards that may be used like Samurai of the Pale Curtain.

I'm not sure why Extirpate brought along any debate. No sideboard space can be used against it or Honor the Fallen, and I agree that it is insufficient against the deck as it had been before Future Sight's release.

-hq

[Moxlotus]

Yay! Somebody else thinks Dryad Arbor is awesome.  I love the card.  He is very underestimated.

How were the Sages?  Personally, I like Zealots and either Ghoul or 7/10.

[policehq]

I find Sages awesome enough to include a third, whether you use Flame Kin or Ghoul.

Due to the ability the deck has at resolving a turn 2 Dread Return, Sundering Titan loses some of his gusto. Angel of Despair offers more versatility and at the time either come into play, will probably be able to destroy the same amount of lands regardless of what mana-base the opponent is playing.

I know you're not asking me, but there you have it anyway.

-hq

[The Atog Lord]

Dryad Arbor was great all day.

Sage found himself boarded down to a single copy in nearly all post-sideboard games. This is because having to spend time handling hate means that the gameplan is slowed down a bit. He was certainly useful, and I returned him two or three times in the event. However, he certainly wasn't beyond question, and going to a single copy of him if the need for more space arose.

In fact, I lost one game to the Sage. Travis had Mindslavered me, but he was only able to translate that into a win because he removed my entire library by returning the Sage. In a similar spot, Ghoul could have removed my graveyard's creatures, also making me impotent. Zealot, however, cannot be used against me in such a way.

So, Sage was good, and a very clever idea by Becker. However, I don't know for certain that I would run a pair of them again.

[ELD]

In a similar spot, Ghoul could have removed my graveyard's creatures, also making me impotent.

You would not be left entirely impotent, as you would have a massive Ghoul for your next attack step.  Cabal therapy and Dread returns could possibly remove him, but that isn't always possible. 

Thanks for the report and congratulations on the Top 8.  It seems like Wizards has not learned that free spells are too good.  Street Wraith, Narcomoeba, Dryad Arbor and Bridge from Below is an insane amount of free effects to be added to an existing deck all at once.  The fact that they are not affected by 3sphere, chalice or counters is just amazing.  I look forward to seeing how Dredge decks improve, and how the metagame reacts to this new threat.