Meadbert Manaless Ichorid Primer

[vroman]

Round 4: Vroman (Sam Remy lol) playing hexmage depths

Whats the joke?

[Womba]

I played this list at the philly open and won the black lotus with it.

4 Bridge from Below
4 Bloodghast
2 Golgari Thug
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Ichorid
3 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Narcomoeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Cephalid Coliseum
3 Dread Return
1 Angel of Despair
1 Iona
3 City of Brass
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Breakthrough
4 Careful Study
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Life From the Loam

Board:
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Contagion
1 Wispmare
4 Force of Will
4 Unmask

This is my 3rd different version of Ichorid I have top 8ed with (1 manaless, 1 FoW, 1 Ghasted) and second I have won with. I feel that mana ichorid gives you better draws and more consistency for games 2 and 3 rather than having to mull to bazaar and hoping it sticks in the manaless versions.

I didn’t cast unmask all day

I would say Unmask was as dead in my sideboard has having 4 squire, I never wanted to board it in over force or chains because I wanted my deck to be able to flow properly games 2 and 3, and even in testing I found it to be meh IMO. I am testing other cards for it now, possibly more dread return targets (woodfall primus?) or some more wispmare and contagion action.  

Overall I felt the deck was really good against the hate, I had won through every hate card except extirpate (only "hate" card not played on me in the day), and my only loss on the day, to Paul Mastriano (with Iona Oath) in the swiss, had beat me without even playing the hate really. As for my dread return targets, Iona really locked down games for me all day when I didn't hit a Flame-Kin to just win, and was very relevant games 2 and 3 as a big body to shut off opponents hate cards. Angel of Despair was also really good destroying enemy confidants, time vaults, and tezzs. Also in the mirror Angel of Despair was able to destroy opposing bazaars and really slow them down which helped me win the mirror vs a manaless ichorid build. Flame-Kin........well just does what it does and it wins.

Looking at the land package, I found 2 dakmor to be too many in testing as well as 4 undiscovered paradise, so I cut each one down to 1 and 3 respectively. Life from the loam was HUGE vs both my stax matchups. I was able to dredge into it and after getting two bazaars blown up I ran into dakmor and with the city of brass in my hand was able to get 3 bazaars back out of the yard.

Other than that a pretty standard mana ichorid build, I believe the bloodghast really makes the deck faster especially with ichorids in the deck as well. I believe the "control" somewhat given to you with a mana version makes it more consistent than manaless for games 2 and 3, however I look to continue to test both and top 8 with ichorid for tournaments to come.

[Ravager Sam]

Round 4: Vroman (Sam Remy lol) playing hexmage depths

Whats the joke?

Yeah, really weird story.  Guy is registered as Sam, Remy & I ask him if Sam is his last name.  He says that the people like to mess around with him and sign him up as a name other than his own.  He says his name is Roman...and I ask if it's like the Vroman guy I saw on themanadrain (he already knew my deck and knew I got it from here) and he says yes and that he helped create it.  He goes on about how he's from the midwest and drove out to pilot a deck he was handed when he walked in the door, but clearly, he was just messing around with me.

@ Womba - I definitely like the dakmor salvage + bloodghast, and will be considering adding one to make sure bloodghast always works.  I'll try out the Breakthrough/Study and see how that works.  Overall, what would you say your board plan is? Mine was really simple -> put the whole thing in and take out the sharuum engine.

[Womba]

Side-boarding is complex due to the fact for me it depends on a couple of different factors.

1. Did I win game one (90-95% of the time) or did I lose game one?
2. What deck am I playing against and what is the usual strategy they have for side-boarded games against me?
3. If am going to game 3, am I on the play or draw, and what did I see game 2 that shut me down?

I would say that between every game 2 and 3 I would reside-board EVERY TIME, it is something you usually don't see most ichorid players doing, although there are certain cases in which you wouldn't (the mirror comes to mind). The general strategy was to bring in FoW and Chains game 2 if I was up a game and bring out most of, if not all of the dread return package pending the match up. Game 3 I usually would reside out the FoW and bring in a wispmare if I saw Leyline at all or if it was vs oath, and side back in the dread return package to be more aggressive on the play and use my chains to blow through stuff. Still working on replacing the unmask in the board so it may change a little bit strategically once I finish my new board. Since the addition of bloodghast I have found that you only need one turn of dredging with bazaar or breakthrough and usually you go the distance vs most decks before than can get you, since bloodghast doesn't keep returning to your yard like ichorid does allowing it to dodge most hate. I mean who plays creatures in this format to block a bloodghast?.......In vintage?!?!.......Really?!?!?........

In closing though I would have to agree with Stephen Menendian and his article in saying that Leyline is the single most devastating card against us and the only one I really fear playing against. The rest of the hate cards I have beaten in tournaments and testing with smart play, which leaves me feeling I am always in the match unless its something where they have 3-4 pieces of hate by turn 2.    

[Quasimodo]

For anyone following the progression of Dredge, a new thread has been started:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=39323.0