Help with the "Old School With a New Twist" Ichorid

[ConF1ictZ]

well, ive been playing Ichorid for almost 2 years already, and ive come to the conclusion that a lot of cards have become useless, or the meta has changed. ive always been stubborn, and never wanted to play lands, so dont critizes me for that = ). i came up with a rather old school deck list, plus some things i thought would be interesting. im an experimental player and i really try everything.Deck List--


Lands

4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Dryad Arbor

Creatures

4x Ichorid
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4xGolgari Thug
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Narcomoeba
1x Sundering Titan
2x Cephalid Sage
2x Flame-Kin Zealot
3x Sadistic Hypnotist
4x Nether Shadow

Spells

3x Chalice of the Void
4x Bridge From Below
4x Dread Return
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Serum Powder
1x Ancient Grudge

SideBoard

my Sb can change, but i have 19 potential cards in it

3x Ancient Grudge
4x Leyline of the Void
4x Contagion
2x Emerald Charm
3x Wooded Foothills
3x Reverent Silence



Why no -

Unmask - seems useless, i only use it a handfull of times, maybe 1 every 5 games, considering it gets dredged out anyway. i put Sadistic Hypnotist in instead because he has a similar ability, and i can remove him for Ichorid, where Unmask is a dead card if its in the grave. In addtion to that, Sadistic Hypnotist and be brought out turn 2 quicker, because im mainboarding Nether Shadow(even though its ultra oldschool), and Narcomoeba can help too, and maybe i can get a nice dredge going.

Leyline - whats the point, Mirror?...my meta doesnt have any lol, im the only one lol. and just like Unmask, its a dead card!


Why -

Nether Shadow - its honestly a great card, i can use the creature help, and i can start dread returning turn 2, maybe i can get a Cephalid Sage for a massive dredge, and win turn 2. On the other hand, i have Sundering Titan, and Sadistic Hypnotist, which i can use for massive destruction early game, either destroying all lands they control, or making them pictch thier entire hand to Hypnotist. Nether shadow is in place of Leyline, which llike i said, is useless. Plus, hes black, and Ichorid can remove him and come into play. I think thats a solid enough reasonto play Nether Shadow!

Anicent Grudge - Just for a back up, im in the right situation type of play. i got Dryad Arbor, why not have one of these..Time vault is scary, and my game is slowing for some reason, so why not get rid of it if i got the power to

Sundering Titan - Ive always loved this guy, hes cool lol. He can kill Fish, and slow Pitch. Hes almost is great against everything.

Sadistic Hypnotist - Like i said, destruction. this guy can do it. If i see my game slowing, this dude, can shut the oppnent down. i can also pitch him to Ichorid, unlike Unmask, which is great



the reason i like this deck is because i have answers, and with Narcomoeba, Nether Shadow, Ichorid, and Zombie tokens, i have a huge turn 2 win capability. I would really like some help with this, please suggest me some options..THANKS GUYS

[Harlequin]

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Nether Shadow is in your graveyard with three or more creature cards above it, you may put Nether Shadow into play.


With the way that is worded, it's next to impossible to bring Nether Shadow into play on turn 2.  The trigger will only go on the stack if it already has 3 creatures on top of it The moment your Upkeep starts.  So if on turn 1 you activate bazaar and discard: Shade, Dude, Dude.  Next turn your upkeep starts and Nether Shade trigger is NOT put onto the stack because the condition is not met.  So there is nothing to respond to. 

This is unlike Ichorid who reads:
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Ichorid is in your graveyard, you may remove a black creature card in your graveyard other than Ichorid from the game. If you do, return Ichorid to play.

The only "If" here is that Ichorid is in your GY.  So if you Turn 1 discard: Ichorid, Troll, Troll; you're in good shape to respond to the trigger.  Ichorid DOES go on the stack because the If condition is met.  Now the entire ability is on the stack and you have priority.  so you can activate bazaar a second time and dredge your brains out - in response to the trigger.  Now you have your pick of the black creature litter, when the ability finally resolves.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

I’ve found unmask to be one of the best cards in ichorid, aside from chalice of the void (which should definitely be a 4 of)
unmask makes sure your therapies hit and slows down your opponent a great deal.

[ConF1ictZ]

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Nether Shadow is in your graveyard with three or more creature cards above it, you may put Nether Shadow into play.


With the way that is worded, it's next to impossible to bring Nether Shadow into play on turn 2.  The trigger will only go on the stack if it already has 3 creatures on top of it The moment your Upkeep starts.  So if on turn 1 you activate bazaar and discard: Shade, Dude, Dude.  Next turn your upkeep starts and Nether Shade trigger is NOT put onto the stack because the condition is not met.  So there is nothing to respond to. 

This is unlike Ichorid who reads:
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Ichorid is in your graveyard, you may remove a black creature card in your graveyard other than Ichorid from the game. If you do, return Ichorid to play.

The only "If" here is that Ichorid is in your GY.  So if you Turn 1 discard: Ichorid, Troll, Troll; you're in good shape to respond to the trigger.  Ichorid DOES go on the stack because the If condition is met.  Now the entire ability is on the stack and you have priority.  so you can activate bazaar a second time and dredge your brains out - in response to the trigger.  Now you have your pick of the black creature litter, when the ability finally resolves.

thats a great way to look at it actually, Nether shadow must have the 3 creatures above it first. but anyway, hes not the most important thing, what im most concerned about is the destructin effective and worth it, like the Hypnotists, Grudge, and Titan, are these useful

i can always go with Unmask instead of Nether Shadow, but looking at it, 9 of 10 times, it goes to the grave because of dredging

[Harlequin]

To be clear, I'm not saying that nether shade is an auto-bad-card.  I could see it being used in ~Slow~ build of Ichorid.  My comment was point out that this...

Nether Shadow - its honestly a great card, i can use the creature help, and i can start dread returning turn 2

... Is simply not true.  Nether shadow adds consistancy, stability, resilance to sphere effects - Yes; but the cost is that It makes you a turn or two slower than standard builds of ichorid.  And a +2 turn costs is BIG cost to a deck planning to win on turn 3 or 4.

[policehq]

Phantasmagorian and Baubles used to be used to get Nether Shade out on turn 2, but that was before Bridge from Below and Dryad Arbor (the latter being little used today).

[MagicMan]

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Nether Shadow is in your graveyard with three or more creature cards above it, you may put Nether Shadow into play.


With the way that is worded, it's next to impossible to bring Nether Shadow into play on turn 2.  The trigger will only go on the stack if it already has 3 creatures on top of it The moment your Upkeep starts.  So if on turn 1 you activate bazaar and discard: Shade, Dude, Dude.  Next turn your upkeep starts and Nether Shade trigger is NOT put onto the stack because the condition is not met.  So there is nothing to respond to. 

This is unlike Ichorid who reads:
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Ichorid is in your graveyard, you may remove a black creature card in your graveyard other than Ichorid from the game. If you do, return Ichorid to play.

The only "If" here is that Ichorid is in your GY.  So if you Turn 1 discard: Ichorid, Troll, Troll; you're in good shape to respond to the trigger.  Ichorid DOES go on the stack because the If condition is met.  Now the entire ability is on the stack and you have priority.  so you can activate bazaar a second time and dredge your brains out - in response to the trigger.  Now you have your pick of the black creature litter, when the ability finally resolves.

I Believe nether shadow says at the end of upkeep if there are 3 or more creatures above it put it into play, not the beginning.  But im not looking at it right this second so i could be wrong.

[MagicMan]

-edit- I was wrong. the actual card says end of upkeep, but i guess the oracle text says beginning. Does anyone know why they changed the original text from end of upkeep to beginning?

[ConF1ictZ]

well, i was thinking this whole time it was the end, i m wondering the same thing...does anybody have an idea why they switched it?

[GNU]

All upkeep triggers occur at "the beginning of upkeep" This was changed a number of years ago on all cards.

[ConF1ictZ]

so its useless, yes!

[Smmenen]

-edit- I was wrong. the actual card says end of upkeep, but i guess the oracle text says beginning. Does anyone know why they changed the original text from end of upkeep to beginning?

Go read Alpha Nether Shadow.  That will blow your mind.

[MagicMan]

LOL your right Steve if I may call you that. Holy crap the wording on the alpha version is crazy!!!

[ConF1ictZ]

the alpha nether shadow evolved so much, why though, thats what were trying to find out. according to the Alpha version, it seems to me like you have to pay BB to put it into play