Meadbert Manaless Ichorid Primer

[nataz]

oh, I told Dan to run Needle in his maindeck that morning over something like STP.

[TheBigShow]

with fatestitcher now, does ichorid even need to b in the deck?

[darkh0rse]

with fatestitcher now, does ichorid even need to b in the deck?

I think so, there are still enough games that come down to a slow attrition after a wasteland or two from your opponent where having Ichorid + Bridge to fall back on puts you over the top.

[nataz]

It's a huge fall back in game 2/3 for me. I use it to pressure activations of needle and relic so that I can have enough deck to reload my gy for the win. They are also good in aggro match up's where briges get knocked out quickly, and reanimated trolls get blocked/stp'ed. Not to mention they are naro's 5-8 if you want them.

[TheBigShow]

yeah; what was i thinking?  lol.  i think i am going down to 3 though.

well, what would u guys do?  i have 6 spots available for thugs and ichorids.  3 and 3?  i'm running just a vanilla manaless build with fatestitchers, sages, zealots.

[nataz]

I don't think you need sages for starters

[TheBigShow]

i know; i know.  i'm a fool for the turn 2 kill though.

[TheOrangePet]

with fatestitcher now, does ichorid even need to b in the deck?

They don't actually have the same purpose.

Ichorid is for beats, bridge triggers, and sacrificial cards. Fatestitcher is for bazaar activations and sacrificial cards. Don't forget that a Fatestitcher will never trigger bridge.

[BruiZar]

I played a Hypnotist build today with a sideboard ancestors chosen and went 4-2 today. This is what happened.

1-2 Redshop Aggro
g1, played 3 bazaars and he scooped
g2, died to excessive hate (2 relic 1 t.crypt 2 pithing needle)
g3, had 5 cards left, was on 6 life, had an ichorid and some zombies. Was facing 2 Magus of the Moons and an active welder and gorilla shaman. Attacking had left him with only Welder, one life and a mana vault. I boarded out 1 hypnotist for 1 ancestors chosen and decided to dread return an Ingot Chewer to put him off his tolarian academy mana so he would die off mana vault, but he could still untap it. Memory Jar was in the graveyard so i thought i was dead. He played trike off workshop and welded in another trike to kill me. Afterwards he didnt even know memory jar was in his graveyard and i wouldve won through with ancestors chosen. bad start of the day.

0-2 Tezzeret
g1 mull to oblivion, so i have no clue what his kill condition was. Probably tezvault.
g2 Misplayed my ingot chewer. He had relic of progenitus and needle, I didn't have bazaar. I use chewer to chew on needle naming bazaar. Next turn I play another chewer on relic. He follows up with another needle and then i draw the bazaar. I should've kept the chewer and force through his relic with bazaar. In this game I managed to get rid of his voltaic key, time vault, 1 of 2 tezzerets, a bunch of hate, some force of wills and his tinker. Basically the only way for him was to draw yawgmoths will but then he starts smacking me down with razormane masticore and all hope is lost.

2-0 Drain/Mask Nought
G1 I win the die roll for the first time, I open with bazaar, lions eye diamond, chalice, serum powder unmask and stinkweed imp. I play bazaar and LED, he forces my LED with Time Walk. I unmask him with stinkweed imp and see Tolarian Academy, Mana Vault, Mox, Mox, Mana Drain. I take mana vault and play chalice for 0 and start to dredge. He cries because of the die roll and plays tolarian academy and finds himself mana screwed until 12 zombies and a hypnotist eat up the rest of his hand + life.

G2 he keeps a hand 2x tormods crypt, 1x pithing needle, fow, and something else but no land and opens with the 2 crypts. I chew the first crypt and somehow manage to force through the other cracking it. I use another chewer for the needle. He draws into recall/tfk gets alot of artifact mana and ends the turn with illusionary mask on the table. I hardcast cabal therapy naming dreadnought which grabs 2 of em away. Kill him with narcomoeba and ichorid.

2-0 Coinflip Painter?Wtf?

Some weird painter coinflip burn deck. Both games I faced, all I had to do was keep cabal therapy'ing his painters and pyroblasts so he couldn't kill my moebas and stitchers before I consumed them with sorceries. He was a nice guy, props for the weird deckchoice.

2-0 TPS
G1 I am on the draw and go bazaar, led for UUU, chain into fatestitchers and end the turn with my opponent therapied into oblivion and 12 zombie tokens for a 2nd turn kill.

G2 I am on the draw (again), i mull a bit and keep a hand without bazaar but with 2 cabal therapies, 2 chewers, a chain of vapor, and 2 gemstone mines. I destroy 1 tormods crypt and 1 pithing needle with the chewers but he plays another needle. Somehow wanted to go off that turn with tendrils because he then cast time twister to rid my graveyard, to which i respond with chain of vapor on his 2nd needle shuffling it back, but he verifies with me that because i play chain, his twister is the 6th spell this turn. He skips the turn though. I grab a fresh hand with fatestitchers and a bazaar and I end up winning due to correctly calling him by naming therapy for dark ritual (he didnt have threshold so no cabal rits) and grim tutor. After a dread return hits my sb ancestors chosen and I'm on 54 life, his hand is further stripped with a dread return on hypnotist marking his demise.

2-0 Tezzeret

g1 Mulled to 2 and won off bazaar.
g2 He mulls to 4 and just can't find his hate before I go off.


While the deck can definately do crazy things, Sadistic Hypnotist never shined. All day I would have much rather wanted Woodfall Primus, Eternal Witness or Flame Kin Zealot. Woodfall Primus is nice because you get to remove a combo piece while still having that threat around of second activation, the same way Sundering Titan is just as scary on its way out. Eternal Witness would have been nice with my Black Lotus and Lion's Eye Diamond or for return a bazaar or unmask or cabal therapy (so i can therapy twice) or even a sideboarded ingot chewer so that evoke produces some more tokens.

I'm thinking of playing timevault and sharuum over flamekin zealot because that combos very nicely with fatestitchers. While FKZ wins now, Dread Returning Sharuum the Hegemon and bringing back either lotus or time vault allows you the choice between 3 stitchers into bazaar or stitching into additional turns (=additional dredge+attack phase) Besides that, you can sack through therapy and dread return him again for both lotus/led and time vault. A sideboard Platinum Angel will help you against decking your self. Sharuum+Platinum Angel is a 2 turn clock most of the time and sometimes 1 turn clock (Fatestitchers+ichorids)

In hindsight, I would've loved taking this list with me instead (untested)

TimeSticker

Kill Condition

2 Dread Return
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sharuum The Hegemon
1 Time Vault
4 Fate Stitcher

Dredge Engine
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Golgari Thug
4 Golgari Grave-troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Serum Powder

Dredge Hits
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below

Maindeck Disruption

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Unmask
4 Cabal Therapy

Land
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Pithing Needle
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Dark Blast
1 Platinum Angel

[PltnmNgl]

@meadbert- what's your current list like? Since we are reaching our "tipping point," do you plan on making any changes or taking a break from Ichorid?

[meadbert]

@meadbert- what's your current list like? Since we are reaching our "tipping point," do you plan on making any changes or taking a break from Ichorid?

4 City Of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
4 Serum Powder
4 Chalice Of The Void
4 Leyline Of The Void
4 Bridge From Below
3 Sadistic Hypnotist
4 Ichorid
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Thug
3 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Fatestitcher
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
sideboard
1 Gemstone Mine
4 Unmask
2 Darkblast
4 Chain Of Vapor
4 Emerald Charm

That is the list I am currently running and would play today.
Leyline is still crucial for the mirror and pretty much every deck either uses their yard or creatures.
A 12th land is suboptimal as too many hands end up with 3 lands.  Also with 3 Fatestitchers you almost always dredge into one.
When I tested with 2x Dread Return and 2xHypnotist I frequently found I was missing 1 or the other.

I would like to make a few comments regarding the tournament report.  First of all, I almost always board out my Dread Return targets and in fact I frequently board down to 1 Dread Return.  The 1 Dread Return is important for dodging Extirpate on Bridge from Below.  I board out targets because Grave-Troll is already pretty good and games post board are more about playing through hate than going broken first.

Although Hypnotist was criticized, its only purpose is to win game 1.  Post board I board it out.  I notice that all game 1s were won except for the game where Dredge mulled to oblivion.  Therefore, I claim that Hypnotist did its job.  When evaluating Dredge Return targets it is important to keep track of games where you Dread Returned (or at least could have) but lost anyway.  These games are fairly rare.  Although I am currently pushing Hypnotist, and I am pretty confident that it is the best target, I cannot say that the right solution is to run 3xHypnotist.  Perhaps 2xHypnotist and Ancestor's Chosen would be the better solution.
Also, I could still see putting Darkblast back in the main deck now there are 7 on color sources. My perception is that Welder is not common enough to justify that, but if you find yourself in a Stax/Slaver heavy meta then maindeck Darkblast could make sense.

[BruiZar]

Hi Meadbert,

The list I played was nearly the same as yours.

I had mainboard:
-4 Leyline of the Void
-1 Dread Return
-1 Sadistic Hypnotist
+3 Unmask
+1 Fatestitcher
+1 Black Lotus
+1 Lion's Eye Diamond

My sideboard had:
-1 Gemstone Mine
+1 Ancestor's Chosen
-4 Unmask
+4 Ingot Chewer

In hindsight, the list you posted looks better, because from my experience I just kept hitting Hypnotist too late.
You said you board out your dread return targets. Doesn't that weaken your own clock to the point where another deck may just ignore your hate and go off?

Ancestor's Chosen is worth a spot in the deck, either side or main, mostly because of TPS and the fact that fishlike aggro decks like BUGfish can put you on low life. I felt that the only matchups where I truly needed to race was TPS, but Ancestor's Chosen wins the game just as well as Hypnotist does there, so it doesn't weaken that matchup but strengthens it.

The biggest problem I have with Hypnotist is that against workshops, it is just useless because they run so many permanents and power them out so fast. I really struggled against shop aggro because trike can take out bridges, ichorids/narcos, they can block off your dread returns and therapies with spheres. Atleast Ancestor's chosen is 4/4 first strike affectively killing trike, juggernaut, and everything else besides duplicant, plus it doesn't matter if they hit you when you have 55 life.

Concerning your mainboard leylines, I missed them the entire day. between Yawgmoth's Will, Tarmogoyf, Goblin Welder and the Ichorid Mirror, it is almost never dead. Oath of Druids is hurt by Leyline as well. Thats another deck where ancestor's chosen is better than sadistic hypnotist.

I never once sided in Emerald Charms (had no leylines boarded in against me) and always went for chain of vapors and ingot chewers due to the high amount of peedle/crypt/relics played. I'm not sure if I will play with emerald charm next time or just completley rely on chain of vapor for enchantment removal. Although it does hit oath, artifact hate is just so much more useful in the current meta.

[mutedequilibrium]

In hindsight, I would've loved taking this list with me instead (untested)

TimeSticker

Kill Condition

2 Dread Return
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sharuum The Hegemon
1 Time Vault
4 Fate Stitcher

Dredge Engine
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Golgari Thug
4 Golgari Grave-troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Serum Powder

Dredge Hits
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below

Maindeck Disruption

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Unmask
4 Cabal Therapy

Land
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Pithing Needle
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Dark Blast
1 Platinum Angel

This is by far the coolest Ichorid variant I've ever seen. Have you put any testing into this, yet?

[the boogie man]

It seems to die to null rod, and the sharuum and vault have to be in the yard for the dread to be effective. hypnotist wins by himself.

[mutedequilibrium]

It seems to die to null rod, and the sharuum and vault have to be in the yard for the dread to be effective. hypnotist wins by himself.

In theory, if your opponent's best play is Null Rod game 1 you're probably winning. I'd think they'd board Rods out, anyway, game 2 & 3. Could be trash, could have some potential. Either way, it's still cool as hell.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

It seems to die to null rod, and the sharuum and vault have to be in the yard for the dread to be effective. hypnotist wins by himself.

In theory, if your opponent's best play is Null Rod game 1 you're probably winning. I'd think they'd board Rods out, anyway, game 2 & 3. Could be trash, could have some potential. Either way, it's still cool as hell.

What is the reasoning for Time Vault instead of Possessed Portal, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sundering Titan, Akroma's Memorial, Platinum Angel, Composite Golem(sac for fatestitcher+hardcasting grave-troll), Feroz's Ban(if creature decks cause you problems), Salvaging Station(bring back lotus/led/petal multiple times) for Sharuum?

[Vegeta2711]

hypnotist wins by himself.

This is crap; or at least put a disclaimer on here. Not only does he not win by himself, there are other games you'll win off other dread return targets and not this guy.

It seems to die to null rod, and the sharuum and vault have to be in the yard for the dread to be effective. hypnotist wins by himself.

In theory, if your opponent's best play is Null Rod game 1 you're probably winning. I'd think they'd board Rods out, anyway, game 2 & 3. Could be trash, could have some potential. Either way, it's still cool as hell.

What is the reasoning for Time Vault instead of Possessed Portal, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sundering Titan, Akroma's Memorial, Platinum Angel, Composite Golem(sac for fatestitcher+hardcasting grave-troll), Feroz's Ban(if creature decks cause you problems), Salvaging Station(bring back lotus/led/petal multiple times) for Sharuum?

Hell, even Sharuum and another Sharuum creates infinite guys with Bridge from Below.

[BruiZar]

@ FlyFlySideOfFry:
possessed portal doesn't win you the game on the spot. Getting back a time vault simply stops your opponent from ever having a turn and you can take your time killing him off with sharuum, even when your bridges are extirpated or can't do lethal damage very quickly. 1 ichorid in the yard will be able to come back 5 times before your opponent gets another turn.

I would rather run Lich's Mirror over Possessed Portal because that helps against getting decked or raced by oath/dsc/storm. I like that sharuum puts an artifact into play so its unaffected by Chalice. I thought of Nullstone Gargoyle too but you're still giving your opponent a chance to go broken next turn. I wouldn't play feroz' ban because ensnaring bridge is better.


I have tested it, I'm still not sure how effective it is because it was just gold fishing, but what I like about it is  that virtually everytime I could have dread returned a sadistic hypnotist, I could just chain multiple turns with stichers / time vault and win without the chance for a topdeck tutor from my opponent. I really don't want to run any fatestitcher build without lion's eye diamond, it is such a degenerate card with bazaar. Bazaar led, dredge into stitchers and getting a maximum of 4 bazaar triggers on turn 1 is unbelievably fast. With Serum powders, these hands come up more often than any other deck.

Realistically speaking, I don't believe Null Rod is going to be a problem. By the time they figure out you're running time vault its already too late. They are expecting flame kin zealot. Pithing Needle could be a problem, but thats going to be naming bazaar anyway. Also, if you unearth stitchers first and then dread return sharuum, there is nothing an active goblin welder can do to stop the time vault.


@Vegeta: Could you explain how the sharuum/sharuum trick works? I never really understand that portion of the rules. Can you stack the legendary rule and the comes into play effect in your own chosen order?

EDIT: I asked on Mtgjudge, thanks Dracon|s for explaining the sequence.

<Dracon|s> you cast dread return targeting one sharuum
<Dracon|s> it's comes-into-play trigger may return the second
<Dracon|s> if it does, then the second sharuum's comes-into-play trigger triggers
<Dracon|s> then state-based effects are checked, putting both sharuums into the graveyard
<Dracon|s> then you actually put that second citp trigger on the stack, and choose a target
<Dracon|s> so you can churn them in and out of the graveyard as much as you want
<Dracon|s> then stop with 1 or 0 sharuums in play

[nineisnoone]

hypnotist wins by himself.

This is crap; or at least put a disclaimer on here. Not only does he not win by himself, there are other games you'll win off other dread return targets and not this guy.

I think the most accurate statement would be that he is the best "go-broke" dread return target you can get.  Other targets are more conservative, like a Sundering/Razor/Primus, but don't have the same sort of explosiveness.  Powering these out early are great, but not as great as Hypnotist tends to be.  It's also less resource hungry than Flame-Kin, but with similar power-levels.

The main thing is that I'm not sure "go-broke" is the best standard for targets, as it ends up being something of a G1 concern which tends to be fairly strong anyways.

[the boogie man]

nineisone basically explained way better than I did. What I meant by wins by himself is that you don't have to wait to find both sharuum and timevault, which could possibly be the difference between a turn 2 return and a turn 3 return, which could be huge. And I wasn't saying that null rod is a great hoser to ichorid, but If I was playing fish, null rod would likely be one of the first things I'd drop, even against random decks. If that comes down, timevault no worky.

you also don't have to have 9 zombies pre-dread return to win off a dread return.

[nataz]

Have people really tested with eternal witness? I mean if you want an explosive dread return target in a fatesticher build, that has to be your go to girl.

[BruiZar]

I tested eternal witness but sharuum is just better. You play witness to grab a lotus, bazaar, chalice or unmask and maybe the occasional cabal therapy. Sharuum grabs lotus (and puts it into play so it cant be countered by your own chalice), is bigger and allows you to put into play disruptive artifacts and artifact creatures. I wouldn't run eternal witness knowing the card pool has sharuum. Sure you can't grab a bazaar, but if you are playing with lotus and stitchers, that's the equivalent of it. Also, its useless if you already made a land drop. If you would want to go that route you could even just put crucible of worlds in play with sharuum, but there are far stronger options than that amongst the available artifacts.

[nineisnoone]

With 2-3 hegemon 3-4 fatestichers and 4 narcomoebas.... has anyone considered playing FOW? 

And I also agree that Hegemon is better than Witness.  I'm not sure it's the best option as it requires some stuff in the graveyard to be effective, whereas Hypontist (and Witness I suppose) pretty much are solid regardless of what hits the 'yard.  And then there is still Titan/Primus/Razer to consider.

[nataz]

The problem with Sharuum is that it either = witness when you are getting lotus/LED, or It can't fetch one of the pre-exisiting best cards in the deck, eg. Bazaar. If you are looking for a body to reanimate, grave troll will almost always be better, and the whole argument about putting disruptive artifacts into play seems misleading. I find Dredge lists to be wicked tight on space. Sure there are lots of cool things I'd like to add to the maindeck (right now I squeeze in a riftstone portal and a grudge and want to find room for unmask) but I always run against a wall of space. The addition of fatesticher makes this even more of a problem.

So where as witness = bazaar, chalice, a colored land drop, unmask, cabal therp, and LED/Lotus by itself, sharuum does only one of those things (LED/Lotus) by itself, and requires more slots for other tricks (another copy for infiny zombies, or another artifact for random tricks).

also, how does this work?

I have tested it, I'm still not sure how effective it is because it was just gold fishing, but what I like about it is  that virtually everytime I could have dread returned a sadistic hypnotist, I could just chain multiple turns with stichers / time vault and win without the chance for a topdeck tutor from my opponent

so, you dread return a sharuum -> tv (tapped). How do you get the mana to bring back fatestichers? Do you assume that you will have a land to play on turn two -> unearth. And even then, doesn't a single land only get you one extra turn with sticher, or are you going for more stichers on your tw turn?

To have 1) dread return on sharuum, b) timevault in gy, c) mana for a sticher, and d) sticher in the gy seems idealistic, more so with serum powder added into the mix.

[nineisnoone]

but the thing is why would you want to do anything other than Lotus/LED if you are running Fatestichers? sure witness is better in those cases where you can't do that, but in those cases i'm not sure witness is that much more relevant.

also i think infinite tokens is actually pretty relevant as it wins you the aggro match-up probably better than Ancestor's Chosen would.

[nataz]

but the thing is why would you want to do anything other than Lotus/LED if you are running Fatestichers? sure witness is better in those cases where you can't do that, but in those cases i'm not sure witness is that much more relevant.

Maybe you don't have enough dredgers availible for a single activation of fatesticher to be worthwhile (or you know you lost key components to your serum powder), and would rather have the reusable bazaar. Maybe your bazaar got wastelanded or pithing needled. Maybe you absolutely need to get 2 cards out of your opponents hand (or some permutation of x cards with availible resources) and you need to get a 2x cabal therp active, or you don't have any cabal therepy's and need to use an unmask. Maybe you know they have a pithing needle in hand and you need a second mana source for a chalice at 1. Maybe you need colored mana to cast creatures over multiple turns.

Sharuum is cute. The deck really doesn't need cute. I'll give you that Sharuum + Sharuum -> tokens in cool, but is it really more practical then a golgari grave troll at 16/16 with regen that requires only 1 target in the gy and is already in your deck as a 4-of?

Which aggro match up are you having trouble with that a grave troll or stinkweed imp can't solve? Wasn't chosen in the deck for the combo match?

I will say that a huge positive on Sharuum would be its color. I never liked river kelpie, and additional sharuums could be used to a) up the blue count to try and shoehorn force again, and b) pitch to chrome mox for fatesticher activations if you run it.

[BruiZar]

Usually what happens is that I start recurring lotus for additional bazaar activiations. By that time I hit my other dread return and time vault.  I sacrifice hegemon + stitchers or tokens to cast dread return on hegemon and take 1 or 2 turns. And yes, I often just use a gemstone mine to get a vault activation. You're right that it sometimes happens that you can't dig fast enough.

Last night I tested the deck again, and went first turn bazaar, led, tap for UUU discard golgari thug, bazaar dredge thug, hit a stinktweed imp, dredge, hit a fatestitcher, discard stink / thug, unearth fatestitcher, dredge stink hit a gravetroll, dredge gravetroll, discard  troll and stink, dredge troll, hit another troll, dredge troll again. By that time I digged through 32 cards from my library (39 if you count my hand).

I had only 1 more fatestitcher left in my deck and didn't have a land drop but had enough to cast all my dread returns. In this case, hypnotist would be better because it doesn't require a setup. But then again the only deck i know that can race that is flash so giving a turn isn't a problem. I could also just sharuum a chalice for 0 into play and pass the turn, to prevent broken turn 1's.

Getting the mana in play isn't the hard part nor is getting time vault in play, going overboard on your stitcher unearths for bazaar is what foils the combo most of the time. If I could run more fatestitchers I would.

Eternal Witness
You say that the deck is tight on space, but Sharuum serves as a witness and a win condition by itself whereas witness' role is primarily supportive. You say that Witness+Gravetroll solves aggro and gravetroll is a 4 off, being more reliable than sharuum. But Playing multiple Sharuums gives you more reliability because the swing is garantueed to be lethal which gravetroll isn't lethal in 1 turn all of your games.


Chrome Mox
Pitching Sharuum to C.Mox provides mana to tap for Cabal Therapy in addition to stitching but I'm not sure if I would try C.Mox because right now, Chalice of the Void for 0 doesn't hit you turn 1. On the other hand, you'll mull to a hand with bazaar anyway so your first drop is a bazaar, even if theres a chalice out, you just discard the mox.

Force of Will
Playing Force of Will  would be pretty awesome because you get a bit more time with the deck. therapies + force of wills is enough to win counter battles against control. Im not sure whether or not I would cut  Unmask in that case, because unmask affectively reads: remove 2 cards to remove 1x ichorid hate, something that Ichorid needs more instead of less. Board out Chalice for Unmask and put Force of Will in the place of Leyline of the Void/MB Unmask?

Has anyone else tested the Timesticker combo in dredge yet?

[BruiZar]

ps Chrome Mox doesn't work with Sharuum because you h ave to imprint a non artifact card for it.

[meadbert]

Nataz hit the nail on the head when he said the primary advantage of Sharuum is being blue.

With 4 Chain of Vapor, 4 Fatestitcher and a few Sharuums you can get enough blue cards to support Force and with Leyline be so lightly played Force is amazing out of the board!

[nataz]

My point on troll v. sharuum as a win condition was that troll takes up zero extra spaces, whereas sharuum *needs* another sharuum in the gy to do the infiny zombies trick. Say you dredge half of your deck, so 30 cards in the gy, 30 cards in the deck by turn 2. By all accounts thats pretty good. However, on avg. there will prob only be 1 sharuum in your graveyard if you are running 2. Sure you can up the sharuum numbers, but now you are looking at something like 3+ dread return targets that do nothing on their own if you aren't dread returning. Then, add in the "other" artifact combos, and you find your self looking for 2 of a 3-of, AND a singleton in your graveyard. When you add in real game considerations (not just goldfishing), and serum powder, have 3 specific cards in your graveyard early in the game just seems greedy.

Zelot, Witness, Troll, Fatesticher, Hypnotist, sage etc. all have one thing in common. The only thing they need to work is a Dread Return. I've played thousands of games with dredge, and over the years I've decided that redundancy is better then multi-card combos in the deck. I will say that this is a step up from the last infiny guy combo I tried years ago - safi. That said, whatever floats your boat on this one. It's not like sharuum is terrible or anything.

P.S. in the aggro match-up, one of the reasons why I harp on troll is the commonly run e-truth. You find it in all kinds of fish.dec's (although that may be changeing due to the shroud tinker guy), and it really puts a damper on only attacking with zombies. I'd rather have 2 zombies and a troll then 8-9 zombies with no backup.

On FOW-

I will say that I tested this a while ago in lists that had either careful study + breakthough, or careful study + fatestichers. I think unmask > then FOW because it lets you be proactive and slows your opp down pretty much no matter what. FOW on the other hand is reactive and needs a harder to find color. I found that I more often had to pitch important cards to FOW, or I just couldn't wait with enough cards in hand. Perhaps you can get it to work. Like I said though, the main issue wasn't color req (I was running 8x draw spells + all the normall blue stuff), it was more the hand size issue and having to wait for my opp to take a turn.