[FREE Article] So Many Insane Plays: Vintage On a Budget -- GW Beatdown!

[Smmenen]

Last Fall I embarked on a new journey in Vintage: an attempt to revisit and energize budget deck construction in Vintage, a woefully underdeveloped area of the format.   The changes I made to Suicide Black were radical, and the changes I built into R/G Beatz were revolutionary, and in some ways, with the help of Troy Costisick, it has changed the archetype, both the way people look at it and the way that archtype and design for it.  

But both RG and Suicide are archetypes with long histories.   GW is an unusual combo, and one that is really defined by recent printings, creatures that the DCI has created within the last half decade.  Although I said I'd devote my next "Vintage on a Budget" article to Elves, this deck jumped the queue.  

I hope you all enjoy this!

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17429_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Vintage_on_a_Budget_GW_Beatdown.html

Editor's Blurb:

Monday, May 4th - In this latest edition of Stephen Menendian’s Vintage on a Budget mini-series, the Vintage Maestro takes us through the options for a low-priced aggro build using the two most maligned colors in the format. If you’re looking for a low-cost and rogue strategy for your next Vintage tournament, look no further!

[Almighty]

I'd like to add that these types of decks are very deceivingly difficult to play correctly. It's very easy to drop a game simply by playing the wrong lock piece. I liken it to Stax where everything you drop swings. This deck required very intimate knowledge of the metagame to succeed.

One thing that I absolutely think needs to be addressed is the threat of Chalice@ 2 dropped when you are on the draw. I expect any halfway decent shop player to aggressively mulligan for this kind of hand.

I must say that I like the direction you are taking Null Rod aggro in, and I appreciate how you have acknowledged the fact that this deck is very capable of winning any matchup you happen to be sitting across from. Cheers!

[Stormanimagus]

Steve-

Certainly an intriguing article and deck. I applaud you for making a contender out of solely a GW shell. I do, however, disagree that GW is more effective than my GUW list with Noble Hierarch and Cold-Eyed Selkie. I think that deck is more explosive and powerful and has the ability to refuel with an actual effective draw engine in Cold-Eyed Selkie. Now that Pridemage has been printed I think that is just gravy for my deck as Pridemage easily replaces Trygons for my MD and allows for sick lines of play like this one:

Turn 1: Hierarch
Turn 2: Pridemage (daze backup)
Turn 3: Selkie (even if I dazed on turn 2)
Turn 4: Swing for 3 with Selkie and Ancestral myself.
Turn 5: Swing for 3 again and Ancestral myself. if this occurs I should win. That sort of CA is pretty hard to beat.

with such a weapon as Noble Hierarch at our disposal I simply don't see why GUW would not be superior to plain GW in almost every way. Here are the pros:

1. Can run FoW, Daze, and Stifle. All still amazing disruptive instants.
2. Meddling Mage. Answer to Tinker on legs
3. Hurkyl's recall (splash hate against Tinker but really meant for Shops)
4. Trygon Predator (really takes cares of shops all by its lonesome)

I mean, Noble Hierarch can add G, U, or W so why not take advantage of that and use all 3 colors?

Not to tout my own build too much, but I really think I had it pretty much right. And I don't think 3 colors cannot be done on a budget. that's where Hierarch is the brilliance. He plays through null rod and does not cost as much as moxen to get your hands on.

Honestly, I can get in to more detail if you'd like on my reasons for my decklist, but here's what I'd run at any upcoming Vintage Tournament given the current over-all field:

Selkie-Slam

Land (17):
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Artifacts (8):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
4 Null Rod

Creatures (19):
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Meddling Mage
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Cold-Eyed Selkie

Instants (15):
4 Force Of Will
4 Stifle
4 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sorceries (1):
1 Time Walk

SB
3 Children Of Korlis
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Trygon Predator
3 Swords To Plowshares

I also disagree that Grunt is too slow. Even if he only gets to do his upkeep on your turn 3 that can be enough if you remove some bridges on turn 1 or 2. I'm not saying he's an answer like Crypt or Relic are, but he certainly can be devastating because you get to pick the cards you put on the bottom.

[Almighty]

That's an entirely different deck, man. Saying your deck is better than this one is like saying Drains are better than Shops. Apples and Oranges.

[overseer1234]

What's you plan against Ichorid? You could let canonist die to kataki, or sacrifice the pridemage to kill your own stuff (or their chalice/leyline).

But isn't that way to slow? I Would've expected some combination of T.Crypt/Pithing needle/Wheel of Sun and Moon to fight of Ichorid.

[Kaiser von Hugal]

Steve - I became a Premium Member specifically due to this article.  Im a big fan of GW in vintage and appreciate your article.  Ive been working a list myself.  I like your innovations.  Moving STP to the board and MD'ing Shusher - brilliant.   What do you think about swapping Seal of Primordium for Deglamer as a one-of response to DSC.  Its nice to see Tariff in the board.

[Smmenen]

Honestly, I can get in to more detail if you'd like on my reasons for my decklist, but here's what I'd run at any upcoming Vintage Tournament given the current over-all field:

Noah,

I appreciate your response, but perhaps you've forgotten how much input I provided on what you should play at the Waterbury.   Not only did you send me several article-length emails, which I responded to, but I spent nearly two hours on the phone with you walking you through what I felt were the strengths and weaknesses of each of your proposed lists, and making suggestions and providing feedback on your Selkie deck.

How quickly we forget :p

FYI, I tested Hiearch in this deck.  I will talk about third colors in the future, but for now I wanted to keep this GW.

[Guli]

I am happy you finally wrote an article about the only relevant colors (joking)

Maybe you can email the article to me so I can read it, it is my area of expertise. (if you wish feedback on a more personal note)

I don't have an account on SCG and won't be able to achieve one for the time being.

[Explosion]

Stephen, this was a very enjoyable article, and it made me want to sleeve up the deck to take it for a spin. One small quibble, and this is more about your writing style:

Ethersworn Canonist

Against some matchups, the resolution of Canonist spells death. Other matchups can safely ignore him or pace themselves around him.

Ethersworn Canonist is pretty clearly a "she" or "her," not a "him." Using kinda-masculine, kinda-gender-neutral words like "guys" or "dudes" is one thing, but "him" is not a gender-neutral pronoun. Assuming the masculine would even be forgivable for ambiguous beasts like Tarmogoyf, but when an anthropomorphic creature is pretty clearly gendered on the card, it's strange to read an article referring to the creature with the wrong pronoun. It's about as jarring as if someone referred to Gaddock Teeg as "she."

This may be something to take up with the SCG editors as much as with you, but little continuity errors like this distract from the flow of the article as much as typos.

Regarding the content rather than the message: does this deck just kind of hope to find a way to get a creature to the graveyard to halt Bridge from Below against Ichorid? Did it just run out of sideboard slots, and main-deck creatures are sufficient? I ask only because the wisdom you've proffered in the past has been to run around 7-8 spots for Ichorid hate, and we're seeing zero here.

[Stormanimagus]

Honestly, I can get in to more detail if you'd like on my reasons for my decklist, but here's what I'd run at any upcoming Vintage Tournament given the current over-all field:

Noah,

I appreciate your response, but perhaps you've forgotten how much input I provided on what you should play at the Waterbury.   Not only did you send me several article-length emails, which I responded to, but I spent nearly two hours on the phone with you walking you through what I felt were the strengths and weaknesses of each of your proposed lists, and making suggestions and providing feedback on your Selkie deck.

How quickly we forget :p

FYI, I tested Hiearch in this deck.  I will talk about third colors in the future, but for now I wanted to keep this GW.

Oh, I remember . And I was only too grateful for the help. And I DO understand that a simple GW list is going to be more "budget" than my GUW list because of:

a)more duals
b)Force Of Will
c)the need to include Ancestral Recall and Time Walk for Blue to be the best it can be

So yeah, if I couldn't run ANY proxies I might steer more towards a GW list, but I'm curious on a couple things. Is Canonist really MD material? And is Kataki for that matter? Do you really need 4 MD Goyf or could 3 work. I find that I don't often want a turn 1 or even turn 2 Goyf. If you cut those cards from the MD that would be 5 slots now available. If you then dropped a single Gaddock Teeg (which may not be correct) and cut a fetch + basic land that's now 8 free slots and you can now add 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Cold-Eyed Selkie. That gives this deck more mana stability (even though you are dropping 2 land you have 4 new mana sources) and it gives the aggro matchup a lot more punch because you have 8 creatures with exalted instead of just 4. I really think Selkie is a solid choice (however, it might be better in builds with Daze and FoW like mine) for any deck running Green and exalted dudes as he really is a beating against Tezz and Remora.

I also wanted to chime in that Tariff is pretty brilliant. I never thought straight GW would have a viable answer to Inky, but that card seems like it could be it. Well done.

I also really like Choke, and could see squeezing 1 more in to the MD. Perhaps 1 less Hierarch or something. Other than those changes I might make I really like your deck and would love to test it out and compare it to my current GUW Selkie deck.

Question: Do you think this deck has a better matchup than mine did against Ichorid? Is that matchup just plain nuked? I'm really curious as to why you think Jotun Grunt won't help enough.

[Explosion]

And is Kataki for that matter?

Kataki effectively turns Moxes into mono-colored Lotus Petals (though 1 could pay for another and then be sacced, it roughly halves their artifact mana if they don't want to pay for all of them every upkeep). Nearly every Vintage deck runs artifacts, and Kataki slows down combos like Vault-Key, since going infinite requires 3 non-artifact mana to maintain, rather than 1. Remember, the first goal of a Budget deck is to survive until turn 2. Kataki isn't quite as good as Null Rod, but it seems pretty sweet.

[nineisnoone]

Honestly, I can get in to more detail if you'd like on my reasons for my decklist, but here's what I'd run at any upcoming Vintage Tournament given the current over-all field:

Noah,

I appreciate your response, but perhaps you've forgotten how much input I provided on what you should play at the Waterbury.   Not only did you send me several article-length emails, which I responded to, but I spent nearly two hours on the phone with you walking you through what I felt were the strengths and weaknesses of each of your proposed lists, and making suggestions and providing feedback on your Selkie deck.

How quickly we forget :p

FYI, I tested Hiearch in this deck.  I will talk about third colors in the future, but for now I wanted to keep this GW.

Oh, I remember . And I was only too grateful for the help. And I DO understand that a simple GW list is going to be more "budget" than my GUW list because of:

a)more duals
b)Force Of Will
c)the need to include Ancestral Recall and Time Walk for Blue to be the best it can be

So yeah, if I couldn't run ANY proxies I might steer more towards a GW list, but I'm curious on a couple things. Is Canonist really MD material? And is Kataki for that matter? Do you really need 4 MD Goyf or could 3 work. I find that I don't often want a turn 1 or even turn 2 Goyf. If you cut those cards from the MD that would be 5 slots now available. If you then dropped a single Gaddock Teeg (which may not be correct) and cut a fetch + basic land that's now 8 free slots and you can now add 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Cold-Eyed Selkie. That gives this deck more mana stability (even though you are dropping 2 land you have 4 new mana sources) and it gives the aggro matchup a lot more punch because you have 8 creatures with exalted instead of just 4. I really think Selkie is a solid choice (however, it might be better in builds with Daze and FoW like mine) for any deck running Green and exalted dudes as he really is a beating against Tezz and Remora.

I also wanted to chime in that Tariff is pretty brilliant. I never thought straight GW would have a viable answer to Inky, but that card seems like it could be it. Well done.

I also really like Choke, and could see squeezing 1 more in to the MD. Perhaps 1 less Hierarch or something. Other than those changes I might make I really like your deck and would love to test it out and compare it to my current GUW Selkie deck.

Question: Do you think this deck has a better matchup than mine did against Ichorid? Is that matchup just plain nuked? I'm really curious as to why you think Jotun Grunt won't help enough.

Nor premium but here are some responses from my own personal testing...

Cannonist - in aggro decks, yes.  in fish decks, not really. it depends on the clock. random cannonists for win happens, but i only find it reliable if you are playing an aggressive strategy (or as SB material for storm combo).  

Kataki - he sucks as a early piece of disruption, but he is strong as a later piece of disruption. pay 1 upkeep is the same as pay 2 or more when they don't or can't pay for it. he's always a good character to throw in. in a 3 color build, i would imagine there would be better cards, but in GW, he sneaks in there solidly.

4 MD 'Goyf - Yes. I really don't see a reason an aggro or fish deck would run less than 4 if they could.  I would only go down to 2 or 3 if it was a SB plan.

1 MD Choke - it's randomly awesome, but it has the double drawback of being expensive and situational.  i ran more in the SB in a zoo deck, but for the main deck i would only run 1. granted i had a tutor for it, but even if i didn't i wouldn't run a second main.

i don't really see the big deal about selkie/noble, but in that vein isn't heretic better? you lose the islandwalk, but aside from fish decks, which I don't think would be a bad match-up, it's not especially relevant. i always thought the exalted + selkie was a bit too situational. (but i'm not a standstill + ninja guy either, so take that for what its worth).

tariff is cool. i'm not sure it's optimal though. swords was great because it worked well against DSC and other aggro/fish. tariff won't be so hot against aggro/fish.

Jotun just isn't fast enough.  it's 2 mana and a turn for removing 2 cards for their graveyard. it's nice as a supplement, and if you run a handful of proper ichorid cards he becomes solid, but it's not something of a non-factor on it's own. game-impact wise, he's sort of like kataki. nice early against rough hands. weak against decent hands. strong when following up heavy disruption.


as i stated, don't have premium, but just curious.... does this go the 3-4/4 Chalice/Null Rod route?

I'm realizing I should run 3-4 Chalice as a SB-in-the-MD card in aggro lists, for pretty much the reasons Smmenen has suggested in the past.

[Troy_Costisick]

Steve - I became a Premium Member specifically due to this article.  Im a big fan of GW in vintage and appreciate your article.  Ive been working a list myself.  I like your innovations.  Moving STP to the board and MD'ing Shusher - brilliant.   What do you think about swapping Seal of Primordium for Deglamer as a one-of response to DSC.  Its nice to see Tariff in the board.

If people are still running DSC, then Degalmer is fine.  I had success with it in the Christmas Beatings deck.  However, I have found that most, if not all Tinker decks, have switched to running Inkwell Leviathan.  If that is the case in your area, then Deglamer will do little good and in fact becomes inferior to Seal or Krosan Grip.  I nice package of Thornweald to stall Inkweell and Kataki or Tarrif to kill him are the best ways to deal with Inky.  

Kataki isn't quite as good as Null Rod, but it seems pretty sweet.

They each attack different archetypes, so saying one is better than the other is probably unfair to both.  With Chalice of the Void not making an appearance in this deck, then it's safe IMO to run both.  And they do work well together even when they are both in play.

Peace,

-Troy

[zeus-online]

I think you might have to change the name of your articles to "So Many Sane Plays"...

Anyway, cannonist is pretty good, but as others have stated, it needs a clock...o U/W/B Fish deck has been using it to great effect...Cannonist + random 2 power creature is likely to get the job done...And against storm it pretty much wins every time (reminds me of a match where my opponent went land, rit, necro and i went land, lotus, cannonist, null rod) Keep in mind that cannonist still allows you to play artifacts (I.E. Cannonist #2, null rod or something like tidehallow sculler)

[Marco]

My SCG account expired. Can someone please post just the decklist from Stephen's article?

Edit: Thank you, Stephen!

[Smmenen]

Sideboard is premium :p

Artifacts
1 Lotus Petal
4 Null Rod

Artifact Creatures
2 Ethersworn Canonist

Creatures
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vexing Shusher

Enchantments
2 Choke
1 Seal Of Cleansing
1 Seal Of Primordium
   

Legendary Creatures
4 Gaddock Teeg
2 Kataki, War's Wage

Basic Lands
3 Forest
3 Plains

Lands
4 Savannah
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

[Suicideking]

Qasali Pridemage is a beating.  Im certainly not looking forward to playing against them.  This article is really good and the deck looks pretty excellent too. 

I found it interesting that you said good player dont build budget decks, but even you were in disbelief when Jamison Bryant used R/G beatz to win a star city. 

Do you feel your deck can win a major vintage tournament?

[Clint_NZ]

Do you feel your deck can win a major vintage tournament?

I believe his closing statement addressed this. It wouldn't increase his chances but give him a chance.
And anything that has a chance could pull off an upset.

I am really loving these Budget decks. As I live at the bottom of the planet it is hard to get my hands on power, and
when they do pop up for sale it is at stupid prices (Damn the exchange rate!!!)

In New Zealand we only have 2 non-proxy events per year, and first place is the BIGGEST trophy in New Zealand MTG.
We do not have a large vintage scene and decks like this promote it to those that are interested.

One question I have is do you believe that there is a viable Budget Tendrils combo? or is Elves and Belcher it?
At our last non-proxy event I ran Ad Nauseam Tendrils w/Bob Switching the power for more disruption.
got destroyed as there was to much burn 

Anyway, thanks
Clint

[urweak]

Sideboard is premium :p

Artifacts
1 Lotus Petal
4 Null Rod

Artifact Creatures
2 Ethersworn Canonist

Creatures
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vexing Shusher

Enchantments
2 Choke
1 Seal Of Cleansing
1 Seal Of Primordium
   

Legendary Creatures
4 Gaddock Teeg
2 Kataki, War's Wage

Basic Lands
3 Forest
3 Plains

Lands
4 Savannah
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Interesting deck, how does it deal with the Inkwell problem? My guess is the Mindsensors, did you consider Thornweald Archers? They were nice when I was playing R/G Beats, at the time it seemed like tinker for Platz was the move of choice and that helped a lot. I was surprised to not see Teeg in your list, is that holding a SB slot? I am really digging the Choke's.

[Guli]

I was surprised to not see Teeg in your list

I think you misread, it is in the Legendary Creatures category.

[Smmenen]

It is very important for all budget decks to find ways to address Inkwell Leviathan.    There remain a host of possible solutions.   Although the simplest and most efficient of these solutions are in blue (Hurkyl's, etc), the other colors are loaded with possible solutions.   

In this deck I advocate the use of Tariff, but it is far from the only solution.   Other answers in White alone include Wing Shards, Retribution of the Meek, Serenity, etc.

In addition to Aven Mindcensor, this deck has 4 Sideboard Tariff and the combo of Kataki+ Choke (+ Null Rod) to try and stop Leviathan. 

[overseer1234]

Agreed, but what about Ichorid?

[Beralt]

Over on the Starcity forums Steve mentioned Meekstone and Sculpting Steel as additional answers to Inkwell - I had to check Steel to make sure and was pleasantly suprised.   Steel copying Inkwell also has the bonus that it probably will be able to Islandwalk while your opponent's will not unless something odd happens.

[Smmenen]

Agreed, but what about Ichorid?

To be perfectly honest, I just decided to punt the Ichorid matchup.    There is nothing this deck can really do about Ichorid, if the Ichorid player is good.    The sideboard right now is dedicated to matchups where you really need certain effects, like Tariff.   Since this deck has no consistent way to make turn one plays, you are basically toast.   Sure, you could run Needles and Crypts, but that would easily take up half of your sideboard and still not be enough .   Jotun Grunt was good against Ichorid before Future Sight was printed.  Now, it's just far too slow.   Canonist and Teeg help, but they aren't even remotely enough to stop Bridge tokens from overwhelming you.  You *could* beat Ichorid, but it's not worth it.   Even with 12 dedicated anti-Ichorid cards, it would still be a coinflip. 

[OwenTheEnchanter]

3 Plains and 4 Vexing Shusher seems a little off to me, if im playing a card like Vexing Shusher I want to be able to cast it on turn 2 everytime. Also in the past when I have played Vexing Shusher in other formats I always look to play 3 because the second one is so much worse than the first, this is especially true for vintage since the decks he is actually good against don't play spot removal.

Also 1 Seal of Cleansing 1 Seal of Primordium seems like overkill when you have 4 Pridemage already, I would rather just play 2 more Ethersworn Candyman.

[Guli]

Agreed, but what about Ichorid?

To be perfectly honest, I just decided to punt the Ichorid matchup.    There is nothing this deck can really do about Ichorid, if the Ichorid player is good.    The sideboard right now is dedicated to matchups where you really need certain effects, like Tariff.   Since this deck has no consistent way to make turn one plays, you are basically toast.   Sure, you could run Needles and Crypts, but that would easily take up half of your sideboard and still not be enough .   Jotun Grunt was good against Ichorid before Future Sight was printed.  Now, it's just far too slow.   Canonist and Teeg help, but they aren't even remotely enough to stop Bridge tokens from overwhelming you.  You *could* beat Ichorid, but it's not worth it.   Even with 12 dedicated anti-Ichorid cards, it would still be a coinflip. 

Canonist doesn't help at all, teeg can't really help either. They just play more conservative and slowly kill you with tokens. In fact ichorid is too fast for any bears except Jailer. And that is black. That is why I promoted to splash black instead of blue a couple weeks ago. Black can cover the Tinker problem aswell as the ichorid problem with Jailer and Edict. Not much black is needed, the mana base should be a green mana base with 3 colors.

In this version the 3 plains are not an issue, it is not off at all. I find it hard to believe though that there is nothing in the entire white/green card pool that can do something against ichorid. At least consider something like Samurai Pale Curtain. Just ignoring ichorid is not going to work at a tournament. If that is your only argument to not address ichorid, then you should understand my argument about Aether Vial, I also ignore the super fast long versions out there and hope they don't kill me 2 out of 3 turn 1. I put down my vial and worry about the rest alter on. If you can put aside things like ichorid you should be able to put aside the turn 1 weaknes of Vial. At least with Vial the tables turn the very next turn and the window is CLOSED for the opponent to make the kill. Then again, I ll say it myself, Vial doesn't do anything against ichorid either.

If we know that we will most likely face at least 1 ichorid deck during the road, then I suggest to run either a lot of tutors to find that 1 Jailer in game 1. Or go for 4x Jailer main deck. Winning game 1 is a big deal against ichorid, it usually is the other way around. They win game 1 and you try to win 2 and 3 with massive hate. I like the tutor approach because with 4x Jailer, which is the alternative if you want to be consistent, you compromise your main deck more.

Green is the main new fish color with Shusher and Tarm, white comes second with Canonist and Aven but is also very key. The splash should be black for Confidants and Tinker/Ichorid control.

[nineisnoone]

3 Plains and 4 Vexing Shusher seems a little off to me, if im playing a card like Vexing Shusher I want to be able to cast it on turn 2 everytime. Also in the past when I have played Vexing Shusher in other formats I always look to play 3 because the second one is so much worse than the first, this is especially true for vintage since the decks he is actually good against don't play spot removal.

Also 1 Seal of Cleansing 1 Seal of Primordium seems like overkill when you have 4 Pridemage already, I would rather just play 2 more Ethersworn Candyman.

I agree on the Vexing, I really think it (and probably Gaddock) should be 2-ofs.  IMO, Survival should be considered.  You have a pretty good creature density for it.  Uncounterable search and spells.

Pretty sure the seals are more there for Tarmogoyf then anything else. I think it's fine. Really in any fish/beats deck there is not such thing as "overkill."  As overloading hate, is typically the only way you'll beat power decks consistently.  It's just a matter of where you want to focus yourself.  Personally, I like keeping the angles of attack diversified so if I wanted to cut back I'd probably cut a Pridemage (then one of the seals if I wanted another cut).

Over on the Starcity forums Steve mentioned Meekstone and Sculpting Steel as additional answers to Inkwell - I had to check Steel to make sure and was pleasantly suprised.   Steel copying Inkwell also has the bonus that it probably will be able to Islandwalk while your opponent's will not unless something odd happens.

I've liked Meekstone before but mostly in Bomberman.  It's a pretty big hinderance when also running Tarmogoyf.

Steel looks hot though. 1x Steel + some creature removal seems like a really good answer for Tinker. Steel (heh) their creature and just let it block until you get some removal and then swing with it. Of course, it's slow and sadly I don't really see any other good things to copy, except opposing Crucibles and Stacks.

Agreed, but what about Ichorid?

To be perfectly honest, I just decided to punt the Ichorid matchup.... You *could* beat Ichorid, but it's not worth it.   Even with 12 dedicated anti-Ichorid cards, it would still be a coinflip.

Care to give a non-premium sideboard for an Ichorid infested meta?   
Just curious to see your approach.

[Troy_Costisick]

Care to give a non-premium sideboard for an Ichorid infested meta?   
Just curious to see your approach.

With my experience in the R/G version, I have found that I never had to get real fancy with my Ichorid hate.  Since I board out the Chalices and Rods, I could board in Tormod's Crypt.  The Seals, and this deck's case the Pridemages, are enough to get rid of opposing Chalices to clear the way for Crypt.  4 Crypts and maybe two other cards like Wheel of Sun and Moon, Elephant Grass, Moment's Peace, or Pithing Needle will probably be enough to fight Ichorid.

Peace,

-Troy

[nineisnoone]

Care to give a non-premium sideboard for an Ichorid infested meta?   
Just curious to see your approach.

With my experience in the R/G version, I have found that I never had to get real fancy with my Ichorid hate.  Since I board out the Chalices and Rods, I could board in Tormod's Crypt.  The Seals, and this deck's case the Pridemages, are enough to get rid of opposing Chalices to clear the way for Crypt.  4 Crypts and maybe two other cards like Wheel of Sun and Moon, Elephant Grass, Moment's Peace, or Pithing Needle will probably be enough to fight Ichorid.

Peace,

-Troy

That looks like a very interesting card.  I'll have to try it out some.

[Kaiser von Hugal]

What about including 2 or 3 Ghost Quarters?  Similar to Oath - targeting the source, Oath of Druids or Bazaar of Baghdad in this case - may be the best strategy.  Likewise - Ichorid doesnt run any basic land so its like having Strip Mines 2, 3 and 4 in addition to 4 Wastelands.  They cant be Chaliced, Masked, Charmed, Cabaled, or Vapored.  Supported with Jotun Grunt to fight the dredgers and even casting a second Legendary creature to force critters to the GY to remove bridges are options in support of the strip effects.  Throw in 3 Needles and Id be confident going against Ichorid.