BG Ichorid comes up just short of a Ruby in Sandusky, 2-11-07

First off, I will start as I usually start with the list and some discussion about that list.

“Black/Green Ichorid Control” by Geoffrey Moes

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

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

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

Instants
2x Darkblast
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Vampiric Tutor
3x Extirpate

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

Sideboard
1x Darkblast
2x Ancient Grudge
4x Pithing Needle
4x Emerald Charm
4x Nether Shadow

If you read that, I know what your first thought is. My guess would be, “What is Extirpate doing in there?” It’s a good question, one that, in hindsight, I should have asked myself more. It sounded good on paper, but admittedly I did not test it nearly as well as I should have. I put it in for several reasons. First of all, I tend to play many more spells than the average Ichorid player. I play Cabal Therapy from my hand often, I set Chalice for one when I think it’s the right play, and I cast Putrid Imp all the time. Extirpate is just as easy to cast as the rest of those, and it hits the bread and butter spells that opponents are likely to play early on, the time when Extirpate is online for me because I still have a hand. That was my theory. Also, Extirpate could throw a monkey wrench in something that I see all too often, which is Brainstorm in response to Unmask when I’m on the draw. I know that my opponent has just hidden the two cards he doesn’t want me to see with that Brainstorm, and with Extirpate I can Unmask the best remaining card in his hand and then Extirpate either the Brainstorm or whatever I just pulled with Unmask, probably the Brainstorm. That means I got one card with Unmask, four Brainstorms with Extirpate, and also removed the two cards my opponent didn’t want to see from his reach. Insane play, eh? Well, it didn’t happen. Extirpate never showed up for me in an opening hand even once in the tournament. Not a single time. If it did, it would also rely on me having an Unmask to pull something good (unless they Brainstormed or otherwise fed the yard with something I wanted to take) or slowing myself down to Cabal Therapy first. Suffice to say, I had high hopes for it, and it could’ve been pretty awesome in a couple of situations had I only drawn it, but alas, it was not to be.

Why do I still play this build when everyone else has jumped on the combo bandwagon? Well, I like this build, for one thing, and I’ve been playing it in this “style” since even a little before Menendian broke things open something like a year ago with his Friggorid for Vintage articles. His builds were better than mine, not surprisingly, but I liked the amount of customization that is possible even when so many cards have to remain the same. I think it’s more versatile than some people will give it credit for, but I also think that the Dread Return combo removes some of that versatility. For instance, I was very surprised in reading Menendian’s most recent article on Ichorid that he was siding out his combo to combat the hate and hoping to win with only a clock of Ichorids and Nether Shadows. That’s a pretty bold move, in my opinion, and it’s one that I try to stay far, far away from, and it is because of that that not once have I come even close to removing Ashen Ghoul from the deck. Ashen Ghoul both adds power and he also has the wonderful ability to stay on the board, which Ichorid, of course, doesn’t do. That means that Ashen Ghoul is in play for as long as you can keep him, even through Tormod’s Crypt, which Ichorid can’t boast to. Ghoul is dependable, and I like that a lot.

The next question might be, “Why not the five color build? It can run Chain of Vapor and a whole host of other stellar cards, which would add more flexibility to the deck.” Quite so. However, I loathe Gemstone Mine. I ran the five-color build for one tournament, and all too often Gemstone Mine crapped out on me when I needed it most. As I noted earlier, I use mana a lot, and I don’t like being cut off from it unless it’s the opponent that’s doing it to me. I can’t really help being Strip Mined, that’s part of the game, but I can certainly opt to use a more dependable land than Gemstone Mine. I know that Jerry Yang was running a five color with four City of Brass and one Gemstone Mine, but that isn’t enough land to consistently have one in your opening grip, which I prefer. In my playing, I’ve always felt that seven was the right number, and it’s the number I still stick to. Getting back to the original question, I play green as the secondary color because I think Ancient Grudge is an absolute house. It has saved my bacon in so many ways that I’d have to find something seriously stellar to make me decide to switch colors. Blue was good to me when I played BU, but I am really feeling the green, and have liked it ever since I switched. Green also brings Emerald Charm, which lacks the flexibility of Chain of Vapor, but moves the enchantment in question to the graveyard instead of their hand. You don’t want a card that hoses your deck in unholy ways in the hand of a deck whose sole purpose is to make mana. I’m also not too shy about bringing in Emerald Charm because it can untap Bazaar if no Leyline presents itself. I haven’t been in that situation before, as usually I guess pretty well on whether to bring it in, but the option is there.

The last question might be, “Why do you call it Ichorid Control?” This deck is optimized to facilitate my playstyle, which I’ve said before is a much slower Ichorid that tries to maintain some kind of board control. It has many of the same control elements that other Ichorid decks play, but I don’t see many Ichorid players opting to make early control plays instead of aggro/combo plays when the choice is presented. Therefore, the name of the deck is as much the way I play it as the cards inside it.

On to the matchups! If you have any questions that I didn’t get to, by all means ask and I would be glad to extol my views in large amounts of text for you.

I should say here that I wasn’t expecting to do well at this tournament. I’ve played Ichorid for, as I said, about a year now or so (Maybe don’t quote me on that since I didn’t check dates) and I’ve done very well with it so far. However, with Menendian breaking Ichorid open (again!) and the introduction of Extirpate, I was guessing that I was going to get hated under the table and cry my way home.

Round 1 – Bye

I’d never had a bye before, but I think I like it! I got the chance to scope out the tables, and I also took some pictures of the games going on for posterity and for Nat to post on his blog. By far the most interesting was a game of Belcher versus Easter Tendrils which I am sure was full of chaotic, fragile, combotastic goodness. I tended to hover around Nat Moes playing his UB Fish against Jerry Yang’s five color Dread Returns Combo Ichorid. Nat smashes my Ichorid pretty well with that deck, and I assumed correctly that Extirpate would be a nightmare for Jerry. With Jerry falling 0-2 with a deck that is theoretically the next evolution of mine, I was getting more and more certain that my premonitions of failure would come to pass.

Round 2 – Anthony Michaels (Twaun!) playing NOT PSYCHATOG, but Control Slaver

First thing you should know is that Twaun is a dirty liar and full of lies and deceit. I rode with him from Toledo, and he was all like, “Dude! ‘Tog is my deck, I wouldn’t be being true to myself if I didn’t play it.” He was untrue to himself just as he was untrue to the rest of us. I had never played Twaun before, which is odd because he’s at all the tournaments that I’m at and we only live about ten minutes from eachother. Despite that, we had never really talked to any extent before this tournament and as I said, we had never played.

In game one, I opened with a turn zero Leyline, which I figured would be good. He’s playing ‘Tog, right? He popped a Flooded Strand for a Volcanic Island and played a Welder. I should have known right away that something was up. I Unmasked on my turn to reveal Tinker and Time Walk, and I chose the former. I dropped a Black Lotus and Mox Jet along with my Bazaar, but didn’t have much to do with the Lotus at that time. I hate that, but it can come in handy later, too, and that’s what I was hoping for. I did my discarding thing and started filling the yard, then let him go. He chose to Time Walk and Welder beat, then Echoing Truthed my Leyline. On my following turn I did not Bazaar, choosing to save the Leyline, and dredged a Darkblast for my draw. I smashed the Welder, then played the Leyline off the Lotus the following turn. He Forced it, which was sad. Soon after, I had the entire aggro thing going, and double Cabal Therapied him. I missed on the first, revealing Fact or Fiction and Vampiric Tutor. I tossed my second Ichorid to my only remaining Therapy in the yard, and he Vamped in reponse, which made me choose the Fact. Next turn, he drew Tormod’s that he Vamped for and cracked it on my face. I lost a lot, but I still had an Ashen Ghoul out and he easily came through for the win without me having to do much more.

I sideboarded out three Extirpates and four Unmasks to bring in four Pithing Needles, a Darkblast, and the other two Ancient Grudges.

Game two I didn’t do quite so well. I don’t have nearly as good of notes for this one, but I do know that Twaun Crypted me pretty well again, this time before I had really established myself, and then managed to get Trike out with Welder backup. I turned to Nat, who had finished his game, and asked him how long was left in the round. With only five minutes left, I hurridly asked for game three and we proceeded to it.

Game three we both shut eachother down. I Leylined and tried to Chalice zero, but he forced it to drop Lotus, Mox, Mox. He kept me off my spells and I got bad dredges, and as we headed into turns I knew he couldn’t kill me and was pretty sure I couldn’t kill him. Sure enough, we drew.

1-0-1 in rounds, 1-1-1 in games.

Round 3 – Mark Trogdon playing… Ummm… Trogdon Jank: Jester’s Sceptre variant

I always lose against Mark Trogdon. He’s both a much more experienced player than I and he also usually plays Shops with big beefy creatures that I can’t handle. Darkblast doesn’t stop that Synod Crusader with an O-Naginata beating me into a pulp. Nevertheless, I like the guy, and I do enjoy playing against him even though I usually end up gritting my teeth in frustration as his deck outperforms mine every step of the way.

Game one my deck hated me. People say that Ichorid needs Serum Powder to smooth out mulligans and get good starts, but I will hear none of it. I don’t mulligan too often, as I have a couple of different options for good hands, and I’ve never mulliganed to three like I did in this game. Nevertheless, sometimes fortune is against you, and any deck can simply not draw well at times. I kept a three card hand of Unmask, Chrome Mox, and Chalice of the Void, which he beat on turn one by dropping his own Chalice for zero. I was unable to draw any kind of land until my last turn alive, which by then was far too late.

I sidedboarded out Extirpates (seeing a trend starting?) and Unmasks in favor of Grudges, Darkblast, and Pithing Needles. I should note that Unmask, though powerful, is the first thing I take out if I have no dead cards in a matchup. Unmask is good, but I think it is often the card most easily gone without in a lot of matchups.

Game two I start out with Bayou and Imperial Seal into Bazaar. He starts doing his thing, and I start doing mine. I had a pretty good opening on hand, and I wanted to stay in control of the board. With one Ancient Grudge in the yard and also a Darkblast to deal with Welder if he should show his face, I made the decision to break the Solemn Simulacrum that Trogdon put down. It turned out badly for me, as next turn he dropped Eon Hub on my face. No trouble, right? I have three more Ancient Grudges! His next turn he drops Jester’s Sceptre and I am afraid. When he picks up the five he pulled to show them to Jerry Yang sitting next to him, I fear the worse. Sure enough, Trogdon pulled out all three remaining Ancient Grudges with the Sceptre, and I could do nothing but watch myself die.

That makes me 1-1-1 in rounds, 1-3-1 in games. Not great.

Round 4 – Nick Sherwood playing Easter Tendrils

I was somewhat afraid here. Easter Tendrils can go off really fast when unimpeded, and I might not be able to stop him in the early game without a good draw. He’s also on the play after winning the die roll, which also has me worried.

This game ended in two turns. He started out turn one with some Moxen, Helm of Awakening, and then he tried to go off. He failed, and passed it to me. I played a Mox Jet and Bazaar, then Bazaared up a Chalice of the Void. I at first thought I should hold off for another mana to drop Chalice at one, but then I realized his handy dandy Helm of Awakening would help me. I dropped Chalice for one and he wasn’t able to do a thing about it. Later on I Unmasked him to take Bargain, then stole Wheel of Fortune with Cabal Therapy to really seal the deal.

I boarded out two Darkblasts for two Pithing Needles, mostly for kicks. He had slipped up and told me he still could’ve won with Charbelcher, so I decided I would do that one in, too.

Game two he did nothing on the play and caught him without a blue card to pitch to Force when I dropped Lotus to Pithing Needle Charbelcher and Chalice for one again. Once again, that wrapped up the game as I’m pretty sure he wasn’t packing any bounce. Chalice at one, guys. It’s a house.

After losing to Trogdon, I wasn’t expecting to make it to top eight, but I was surprised to actually end up fifth overall coming out of the swiss. That puts me up against Ray Kehr in the first game of top eight. He’s playing Pitch Long, and it was quite an epic fight. More on that tomorrow, when I finish up the epic saga up to its heartwrenching finish.

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Now, the epic saga continues on with… the top eight.

My record of 2-1-1 was good enough to get me into fifth at the end of the swiss, as I was told I had excellent tiebreakers. I don’t really know how tiebreakers work and are calculated, so I just took their word for it. I settled in to face off against Ray with his Long.

Top Eight – Ray Kehr playing Pitch Long

I’m supposed to have a good matchup against combo, but every time I lean too hard on that I find out that “good” matchups aren’t really won before they’re played. Two months ago I was knocked out of the top four by Justin Droba playing Grim Long, but I think my game is better against Pitch Long than Grim.

Ray wins the die roll (I think I only won one all day), and plays first. I mulligan pretty hard, down to five if I recall correctly, and end up with a decent hand hosting Putrid Imp and both my fetchlands. We start establishing ourselves, but he throws a monkey wrench in my plans with a Timetwister, but fails to combo out off it. Now, I’m sort of on the fence about how bad Timetwister is, especially when it’s played at the wrong time. If an opponent Timetwisters in late game, when I have removed most of my black creatures to bring back Ichorids, then it can be a game-ending play. In order to start up my offensive again I have to dredge through all of my crap, and I don’t have nearly as much gas mixed in. However, early on, when I have not removed any cards from the game, it can be awesome for me. Giving me a second grip of seven, especially once I’ve already got two lands on the board and can pretty much cast anything in my deck, can be bad unless I lose on the turn that I’m Timetwistered. I picked up a decent new bunch of seven, but unfortunately had no Unmask, Cabal Therapy, or Extirpate. I dropped a Bazaar and attempted to play a Chalice for one, which he Force of Willed. I was hoping to really shut him down with that, but sometimes gambles don’t pay off. He draws and does nothing special, then gives me my turn. I draw Imperial Seal, but my Bazaar last turn had worn down my hand to the point where I couldn’t use my Bazaar this turn to draw what I sealed for. I must have played another spell or something, because that math doesn’t sound right, but I can’t remember what it was. This turn I dropped Putrid Imp, played Imperial Seal, and then Bazaared in response. Ray questioned this… and he might be right. I’m not good at priority rules, so it would be nice if someone would shout out the ruling. Basically, I emptied my hand by playing my lone card, then Bazaared to dredge some, and then the Imperial Seal resolved to put a card on top. He let it through, since we both weren’t sure, and I was fairly sure of myself at the time. Now I am less sure. Anyway, I put an Extirpate on top of my library. Without Duress, I could pretty much sit on an Extirpate all day long and prevent him from doing anything, since he can’t Force to stop it. The next turn, with Extirpate on top of my library and me tapped out, he went off, bringing about fifty goblins in with Empty the Warrens to rain smelly wrath down upon me.

I didn’t think he was packing much that I would need my sideboard for, but just on a whim I tossed two useless Darkblasts for two maybe less useless Emerald Charms. I thought about siding out the Ancient Grudges for the other two, but breaking Moxen against Long can be pretty good at times.

This time he mulligans and I don’t. Turn zero we both drop Leylines, and on his turn he Chain of Vapors mine. Most people watching were expecting me to be dismayed, but I busted out the Bayou followed by Emerald Charm and I got that really satisfied feeling that I always get when I pull that move. Next turn I drop a Bazaar and, with him unable to draw much gas and me getting pretty sweet dredges, I end the game in short order on what looks like turn five. That’s decently fast for my build of Ichorid. Yeah, I can hear some of you snickering.

I side out the Grudges for the last two Emerald Charms. Last time I was lucky, but this time I wanted maximum chances for an opening Charm to back me up.

And I don’t get it, but I get a hand that’s so good that I’m willing to risk it. I don’t make a habit of mulliganing to certain cards, and so far it’s paid off for me. I’ve steamrolled a couple players when they mulliganed to Leyline, thinking it would make me scoop, and they either fail and end up with a small hand or get it, I break it, and they have a small hand and can’t manage to make up for what they lost by mulling. I don’t think Ray mulligans to Leyline. He didn’t have it in game three. I have no notes for this match, but I remember what happened pretty well. I started in on my thing, and I started getting dudes on the board and swinging home. My Ghouls are out, securing my victory, and he Timetwistered. I have three lands untapped, so I’m really hoping for an Extirpate. I don’t get it. He specifically did not drop the Island in his hand before Timetwistering, and it cost him the game. He ended up tapped out and unable to really do anything with his new hand, and passed the turn. I Unmasked him, and I saw pure gas. Ancestral, Time Walk, and I think Will were all sitting there, but he was unable to play any of them. It was a hand of all business but no mana, and with him unable to do anything I swung home for the win.

I looked over and saw that Trogdon and Twaun were almost finished, and it didn’t look good for Twaun. That made me sad, as I’d much rather have a rematch against him than Trogdon. Like I said, I don’t win against Mark Trogdon’s deck. Trogdon, on the other hand, was really hoping I’d beat Ray, as his deck has a weak combo matchup.

Top Four – Mark Trogdon playing Trogdon Jank, Jester’s Sceptre Variant

I began this match by telling Trogdon that he will always be my arch-nemesis, even if I like him. He seemed satisfied with that. I also told him that I have a bad history of being knocked out in the finals by decks that I beat in the swiss, and I was hoping to turn the tables. To tell the truth, though, hope was about all I had on my side at that point.

I won the die roll this time, and chose to play. I only got one offensive in this game, using a Putrid Imp and an Ichorid, before he broke out the Goblin Welder and Triskelion that spells doom for Ichorid. On top of that, the Trike was carrying a Sword of Fire and Ice, which made every attack phase absolute misery. On top of that, he pulled out a Chalice at one which stopped me from Darkblasting the Welder he had left on the board. I did manage to Ancient Grudge the Chalice on his end step, dredge a Darkblast and assassinate the Welder, but it simply wasn’t enough with the Triskelion going medieval on me.

It’s going about as I thought it would. I dropped Unmasks, Leylines, and Extirpates (I didn’t see them panning out in this match) for Nether Shadows, Pithing Needles, the two Ancient Grudges, and the last Darkblast.

I start off on a hot streak with Chalice at zero and a Pithing Needle on Welder. This makes me pretty happy until he drops a Mox Monkey off a Mountain on his first turn. Not to be dismayed, I savagely rip a Darkblast for my draw and send him to the bin. Soon, though, he pops down an Eon Hub. Then he drops another Eon Hub. I dredge furiously with my Bazaar to get Ancient Grudges in the yard, and finally I break one of the Hubs the turn before he plays a Jester’s Sceptre. I fear that we’ve had a recap of the previous match when he smiles and looks at the removed cards, but I keep dredging. I pull an Ancient Grudge with a triumphant shout, but know that he will counter it. Thankfully, when Jester’s Sceptre counters a spell that is cast, the one that Jester’s Sceptre removes from the game returns to its owner’s graveyard, so it could only delay me by a turn. I broke the second Eon Hub and pulled a massive offensive that ended the game.

I was surprised to win a game, but figured it was only a fluke. It was amazing that Trogdon could not draw enough pressure to finish me off while I dug for answers. Game three he started out strong and started bringing in Juggernauts it seemed by the dozen. Those Juggs got Sword of Fire and Ice, which made them really dwarf my lone Putrid Imp who was playing my dredging enabler that game. Trogdon made the mistake of not killing my Putrid Imp with the Sword of Fire and Ice when I let his Juggernaut through, and it was a bad mistake. Early on I dredged all four Nether Shadows, which got them into the recycling motion that I love. They started chump blocking the Juggernauts while I tried to stabilize the game. He had me at four life, but was unable to draw either a Triskelion, Eon Hub, or Tormod’s Crypt to destroy my game position. When I got forces large enough to move in and still maintain a defense, I started overrunning his guys and he just couldn’t stop me.

Trogdon’s defeat put me up in the top two, facing off against Brain and his Dark Gifts. We could have split, and I know he wanted to, but it wasn’t all too late yet and I wanted to see how far I could go.

Top 2 – Jeff “Brain” Blystone playing Dark Gifts

I’ve got game against Gifts, right? It’s supposed to be my best matchup. Nevertheless, I’ve learned not to be overconfidant. This was an intense match, and I did not take any notes during it, which was foolish. I had a turn zero Leyline against him, which made me feel pretty happy about where the game was progressing. Using Gifts into a Leyline is a dangerous proposition, as suddenly you’re going to permanently lose two of your best cards if you use a traditional Gifts pile. He fired back with a turn two Dark Confidant, which I knew would be terrible news, but I had nothing to answer it with. Like the lucky jerk I am, I once again ripped a Darkblast to get Bob off the board. I dredged a little bit and he got set up. He Mystical Tutored for Tinker with two Islands and a Mox Ruby on the board. During his upkeep, I Ancient Grudged his Mox Ruby, to which he responded by Chain of Vaporing it back to his hand in an epic misplay. By tapping his Island to chain, he could not Tinker that turn, and when my two Ichorids came out next turn, I was in a position to take Tinker away from him. He Force of Willed the first with the Force he should have used on my Ancient Grudge, and the second Cabal Therapy got Tinker. He was unable to stabilize the game, and the following turn I swung in for victory.

I had some hard decisions to make sideboarding. Since Brain is playing Dark Confidant, removing the Darkblasts like I normally do against combo would be practically suicide. However, since he’s playing Dark Gifts, I’m guessing he’ll be tricksy and packing Leyline of the Void. I ended up dropping the Unmasks for Emerald Charms, which is not my favorite move but I still feel that they are the, comparatively speaking, least useful card in my deck against Gifts. Not to say they aren’t good, but in a match like this I really wanted to have Emerald Charm to back me up.

Brain mulled to six, but I kept my original seven which contained Bazaar, Bayou, and Emerald Charm. He dropped turn zero Leyline, then totally blew my mind when he Force of Willed my Emerald Charm. That satisfying feeling that I get when I break a Leyline on the first turn suddenly melted into the unpleasant realization that I had to get really desperate with my Bazaar without looking like I was too desperate with my Bazaar. Can’t let ‘em think they have you. So I started digging. And I did a lot of digging. I dug for five or so turns before I finally hit my Emerald Charm, but by that time it was too late. Next turn I ended up taking a nasty death that was filled with nasty tentacles.

By this time, things were pretty tense. Though we got a 21 “BAOOM” salute as we shuffled up, the third game was almost utterly silent. I had never made it this far in a tournament before, and it all came down to this single game. That’s not to say I was sweating with fear, but it’s kind of that situation that gets your adrenaline going and your heart beating with a quickness.

He turn zero Leylines again, and so do I. This time, I don’t have the Charm, but I Imperial Seal for it on the third turn or so and successfully break his Leyline. That being done, I start doing what my deck does using a Putrid Imp, and it was awful. I wasn’t getting much at all. I got an Ashen Ghoul on the board and it waltzed in with the Putrid Imp to knock away at his life total, and they were soon joined by a second Ashen Ghoul. Brain up until this time really hasn’t done anything. When he was at 8 life and I was threatening lethal next turn, he ripped a Dark Confidant off his library and played him as a blocker, staving off death for one more turn and leaving him at 3 life. Earlier, when he was at 8 life, he was counting my power and his life, and just staring at his hand. I said, “Tendrils me for 2,” and he said, “I want to.” That was a mistake, since he basically let me know he had Tendrils in hand, but I didn’t capitalize on it. I fell victim this game not to the lethal Tendrils kill he made on the turn before he died using Rebuild and Hurkyl’s, but because I fell victim to tunnel vision. I wasn’t watching my graveyard for anything other that Ashen Ghouls and Ichorid, and I was skipping the cards that would have saved me: Cabal Therapies. It was stupid, but I was trying so hard to win it quickly that I forgot to play my control. At that point in time, sacrificing an Ashen Ghoul to Cabal Therapy would have been well worth the loss. I even knew he had the Tendrils, and I had a Leyline on the board, but I didn’t put it together. All the observers were like, “Whoa man, did you not see a Cabal Therapy throughout all that dredging?!” I imagine there must have been at least one. They all saw the play that I should have made, but I didn’t. He drew the Mox Emerald that he needed to make the storm happen and Tendriled me for 18, which was the right number because of the earlier Imperial Seal.

And so, I shook Brain’s hand, gestured toward the Ruby, and said, “It’s yours. Congratulations.” I’m still glad I played it out, because I had a much more thrilling experience because of it, and I can only hope that if I had won Brain would have been happy that we played it out as well. Splitting is nice, but winning feels good, even if you sometimes have to lose along the way. That’s part of the game.

And now, the post-tournament talk. I’ve got a couple subjects to talk about in retrospect, because I learned some things at this tournament.

First of all, people will always hate losing to Ichorid. Conventional, general hate doesn’t do much against Ichorid. Force of Will is usually ignored or laughed at in all but a few situations. That’s irritating to people. The deck also can pretty much run itself sometimes. I personally think that my variant is one of the more interactive ones, but that might just be my personal bias and the desire to not have a “simple” deck. So people don’t like it, and I know that they don’t like the deck, but I can’t help not enjoying that because I’m the one inflicting Ichorid upon them. Perhaps I’m being a softie and blurring the lines between myself and my deck, but it can just be uncomfortable sometimes.

Second, and these will probably be kind of disjointed, but bear with me, is that decks that run both Leyline and Force of Will are a whole lot more threatening than decks that just run Leyline. Most of the time I can ignore Force, but when a Leyline is down that’s the critical time I can’t ignore Force, and that makes an Ichorid player sad. In game three against Brain, if he had been packing Force when I Imperial Sealed, I wouldn’t have been even close to being victorious against him. If a deck can force Ichorid into a position where it has to cast spells, like with Leyline, Planar Void, or Eon Hub, then that deck has just robbed Ichorid of its greatest advantage against the format.

I spoke to this in my response to Dave Feinstein, but I feel I should reiterate. Nether Shadow is really good, but he’s not crucial. Extirpate was terrible for me because Ichorid can’t really be choosy about when it plays spells, and for that reason it’s going to get canned. It could have been cool, but it wasn’t. Nether Shadow may take its place. In my game against Brain, another three damage would have done it. Would Nether Shadow have closed that gap? The answer is no, because the Shadows would have been sided out for Emerald Charms instead of Unmask. It might require more sideboarding experimentation, but my philosophy right now would lead me to almost never have Nether Shadows in against any deck that doesn’t mount a decent creature base. They would never be in against Gifts or Long, the two decks that, when they beat me, consistently beat me at the last possible moment before their demise. I think it will be awhile before I really have an answer to this issue, assuming I ever manage to find one. The balance between control and clock is not an easy one to strike.

I like Putrid Imp a lot. There are some situations where I’d say he’s even better than Bazaar, if you’d believe it. A first turn Wasteland will shut Bazaar down, but in my experience very few people give Putrid Imp the attention to shut him down that they should. Imp is 2/2, dodging a lot of the mainsteam hate of Vintage, he swings for two with flying, and he is an infinite discard engine. That’s a pretty nice package for just B to cast. He can’t match the speed of Bazaar, surely, but he can often be dependable in games where Bazaar just isn’t. Admittedly, however, I did not face a single Wasteland at this tournament, which surprised me. Not to say that Ichorid can’t operate through Wasteland, but life is just so much easier when one doesn’t have to worry about it.

Going to this tournament, I thought that my time playing the deck was coming to a close. While I still haven’t decided on that yet, it has made me realize that the deck still has a lot of life in it, even in the face of a metagame packing a lot of graveyard hate. To any of you still reading this (I don’t know how you made it through this wall of text), thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at the next Gamer’s Lounge tournament. I’ll be the one with the pink plasties.