[Premium Article] So Many Insane Plays: Long Live Ichorid!

[dicemanx]

The new Ichorid dodges grave hate much better because it can create permenant beaters and doesn't need a huge graveyard to gain huge board advantage. Tormod's Crypt is not scary anymore.

You probably meant to say "not *as* scary". Still, it depends on the nature of the opposing deck. The opposition doesn't have to beat you with one card, they might use it to stall long enough to beat you.

[bleakill]

From personal experience, I believe that crypt is much less of a threat than waste (assuming one activation of each), since early crypt doesn't hurt that much and later you'd have control over their hand. However, a 1st or 2nd turn waste on bazaar is very hard to recover from, assuming you aren't holding fields. Therefore I believe 4x Field should be included in the new list as well. Now, addressing the claims that post-FS ichorid shouldn't care about the hate and just outrun the opposition: that will work in a rare case where the opposition doesn't try to stop you from winning. However, with it being a better contender we are to see more hate coming out which should eventually balance things out. Therefore stripping new ichorid of defenses and focusing on consistent turn 2 goldfish is just stupid.

[Neonico]

@everyone about the stax matchup : i playtested against some of the best stax french players. Perhaps they arent as good as you are, but the mathup is clearly favorable to ichorid. Its against some none anti ichorid builds, i didnt loose any game 1 and im about 50/50 post side. Bridge is clearly key card in the matchup.
Some french players play MUD aggro with metalworker and furnace Md and those versions are alot harder to win against.
As i allready pointed, your worst ennemy is clearly wasteland. Thats why i ant a solution against it both maindeck and sideboard. Fish is clearly a matchup i hate actually the most and the hardest to win....

[bleakill]

As i allready pointed, your worst ennemy is clearly wasteland. Thats why i ant a solution against it both maindeck and sideboard. Fish is clearly a matchup i hate actually the most and the hardest to win....

You took the words out of my mouth. They have wastes, jotuns, yixlid, some even side in jittes. I believe that in post-fs environment, combating fish will remain a top priority. What are you suggesting as wasteland solution in side? As well as the solution to new yixlid. Is darkblast finally worth running?

[policehq]

Is there a particular reason Chain of Vapor end of turn plus Cabal Therapy next mainphase not going to work against Yixlid Jailer? It's already the tech in your sideboard for Leyline of the Void.

-hq

[yespuhyren]

@everyone about the stax matchup : i playtested against some of the best stax french players. Perhaps they arent as good as you are, but the mathup is clearly favorable to ichorid. Its against some none anti ichorid builds, i didnt loose any game 1 and im about 50/50 post side. Bridge is clearly key card in the matchup.
Some french players play MUD aggro with metalworker and furnace Md and those versions are alot harder to win against.
As i allready pointed, your worst ennemy is clearly wasteland. Thats why i ant a solution against it both maindeck and sideboard. Fish is clearly a matchup i hate actually the most and the hardest to win....

I've tested against a lot of people with Stax vs their Ichorid and won.  I would say if you want to set up a meeting and try to beat me I'll have no problem testing and showing you.  Then again I hear my deck is notoriously hard to beat for Ichorid all the time.

[meadbert]

There are several ways to defend against Jailer.
First you can Unmask him.  Second you can Chain of Vapor him.  Third you can bring out creatures before he shows up.  Remember, most fish decks do not run much in the way of acceleration so Jailer is usually a turn 2 play.

Finally you can Cabal Therapy him.

Notice that two of these four solutions involve being on the play.  For this reason being on the play is a significant advantage versus Fish.

Also, it is worth pointing out that Fish runs few tutors and thus has a harder time finding Jailer.  Fish can instead have a favorable matchup by hating you out with quantity.  Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt, Wasteland, Jotun Grunt, Jixid Jailer, Extirpate, Echoing Truth and Swords to plowshares can combine to be farily annoying.

[thokash]

It might now be irrelevant with the release of Steve's new list (it also might have been mentioned in one of his newer articles as I don't have SCG Premium) - another FS that has sort of gone under the radar thansk to the 3 massive introductions I believe has been Dryad Arbor.  In versions still running Mishra's Factory, I think this card might be better.  The advantage is that it can produce green mana the turn after to help cast flashback Ancient Grudge and Emerald Charm.  Although it comes into play as a creature and can be killed relatively easily, I think i'm right in saying you can flashback Cabal Therapy without passing priority so that isn't a huge disadvantage in itself.

[Titanium Dragon]

It might now be irrelevant with the release of Steve's new list (it also might have been mentioned in one of his newer articles as I don't have SCG Premium) - another FS that has sort of gone under the radar thansk to the 3 massive introductions I believe has been Dryad Arbor.  In versions still running Mishra's Factory, I think this card might be better.  The advantage is that it can produce green mana the turn after to help cast flashback Ancient Grudge and Emerald Charm.  Although it comes into play as a creature and can be killed relatively easily, I think i'm right in saying you can flashback Cabal Therapy without passing priority so that isn't a huge disadvantage in itself.

I agree that Dryad Arbor is worlds better than Mishra's factory, but I think it is more or less irrelevant. You're running 4x Narcomoeba, 4x Bridge from Below, and 4x Street Wraith now... ichorid, nether shadow, the dredgers, the factories, the serum powders, plus those 12 and therapies leave a lot less space to play around with. I think in the end you've got about 5 slots that are malleable, and while these could go in those slots, I think Unmask and/or baubles (preferably Urza's Bauble, so you can take a peek at their hand and possibly gain Therapy information) are better. It might be worth testing, though.

[Neonico]

I think that even better than darkblast, which require mana, the 2 best answers to the little fellow black 2/1 is contagion and/Or soulspike. Dont laugh, both are really strong and increase greatly the fish matchup.
The good thing about soulspike is that it deals with jotun grunt as a bonus, but jotun seems a bit slow anwswer for the deck. The bad news is the 2 black cards pitch.
Contagion is great because it can deal with Confidant on Dread return, Jailer + Confidant etc etc... For 1 Black card pitch, and usefull bot on the play and on the draw (considering Smennen's list being the best and unmask is definatly cutt from the deck)

My actual sideboard, considering my meta, is :
7 lands (4 gemstone carvern, 3 gemtsone Mine(or dryad arbor which can be strong in this slot))
4 Contagion
4 Emerald charm

And i still play Phantasmagorian or petrified feild maindeck to avoid the wastelands.

[Jacob Orlove]

Okay, people haven't been talking about the article itself for several pages, and Ichorid discussion is now happening in Smmenen's new article thread, so I'm going to close this down. If people really have more stuff to say that can't be said elsewhere, feel free to PM me and I'll reopen this.