Bloodghasted Ichorid Primer- Looking to the future

[Troy_Costisick]

I've been checking Morphling for a good list with Sharuum in it.  Can't really find one.  Does someone have a list they feel is consistent?

[Far]

In the last twenty tournament matches I have played with non-Sharuum dredge, I have never lost a game in which I resolved a Dread Return. It may increase the win percentage on game one from 95% to 98%, but winning tournaments with Dredge is all about games 2 and 3, where Sharuum is at an obvious disadvantage.

This is just my empirical two cents--and an echo for everyone saying Dredge players need to focus on dealing with post-board games.

[meadbert]

I've been checking Morphling for a good list with Sharuum in it.  Can't really find one.  Does someone have a list they feel is consistent?

4 City Of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Serum Powder
2 Altar Of Dementia
3 Sharuum,The Hegemon
4 Bridge From Below
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Thug
3 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Fatestitcher
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
sideboard
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Darkblast
4 Chain Of Vapor
4 Nature's Claim
2 Wispmare

[BruiZar]

I've been checking Morphling for a good list with Sharuum in it.  Can't really find one.  Does someone have a list they feel is consistent?

4 City Of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Serum Powder
2 Altar Of Dementia
3 Sharuum,The Hegemon
4 Bridge From Below
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari Thug
3 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Fatestitcher
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
sideboard
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Darkblast
4 Chain Of Vapor
4 Nature's Claim
2 Wispmare

My list played +1 Ancestral Recall -2 Gemstone Mine +2 Cephalid Colliseum -1 Thug -1 altar +1 akroma's memorial (not optimal) and a different sideboard (with 4 fows)




@Adan:
You do realize that playing Nature's Claim can give your opponent a time walk because you are not lethal with FKZ. If you play Nature's Claim with Sharuum, life doesn't matter since you combo out.

[Adan]

@Adan:
You do realize that playing Nature's Claim can give your opponent a time walk because you are not lethal with FKZ. If you play Nature's Claim with Sharuum, life doesn't matter since you combo out.

Okay, you are wrong on so many levels:

- Just because I had such an awful luck doesn't mean that FKZ is not lethal. You basically animate him when you can deal lethal damage then. If 4 life should be an issue, you can use my trick and spawn a obese Troll which should be bigger than 3 tokens anyway.

I have already listed that there were at least 4 things that could have saved my ass, but you obv. can't rely on statistics. The scenario is just not representative. Plus, your g2 opening hand was the most ridiculous you could have against Dredge (1st Turn Oath with Demonic, Walk and Mystical for Trap, wasn't it something like that?).

- In the generic SB plan, FKZ usually get's boarded out, so there won't be such an antisynergy as described by you. Against fast combo, I usually don't board Claims and maintain Stitchers and the FKZ. Chains are enough here, also to bounce random Robots.

- In Sharuum Dredge's generic Sb plan, the Sharuum Engine usually gets boarded out, so your scenario also won't happen.

The deal is to drop the ridiculously broken shit and make your deck consistent and resilient against hate. You will be slowrolling things postboard anyway which is the best thing to dodge hatecards.

The Sharuum Engine consumes 8-10 slots, there's no chance you can maintain the whole engine AND pack in hate postboard. How would you do that?!

[Womba]

Instead of everyone yelling about what is better game 1, who is 87% game one compared to 95%, Sharuum Dredge or other dredge builds; I want to know what everyone thinks is the best 60 card list for GAMES TWO AND THREE. I believe if we use this as a starting point we can find a build worth yelling about. Bascially list out the 60 you would want to play games two and three and tell me about those win percentages.


PS. FKZ owns Sharuum.....lol

[meadbert]

4 City Of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
4 Serum Powder
4 Bridge From Below
3 Stinkweed Imp
4 Bloodghast
1 Golgari Thug
1 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Fatestitcher
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Darkblast
4 Chain Of Vapor
4 Nature's Claim
2 Wispmare

I would probably run something along the lines of what is above.
I could see dropping to 11 lands.
Also adding a 4th Darkblast or a Serenity could make sense.

[Womba]

Why keep the Dread Return or Fatestitchers in?


2 Darkblast
3 Nature's Claim
4 Ichorid
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
2 Golgari Thug
4 Bridge from Below
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari-Grave Troll
4 Serum Powder
1 Dakmor Salvage
4 City of Brass
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Chain of Vapor
1 Contagion
3 Unmask
1 Serenity
1 Ancestral Recall

This 60 allows for a consistant flow of pressure and anti-hate cards. Obviously Petrified Field could make it in there againsrt wasteland/strip mine decks. It has cards that allow it to be proactive and reactive to your opposing threats.

[meadbert]

Why keep the Dread Return or Fatestitchers in?

Dread Return is for Extirpate.  If you run the Ichorids, then it is less needed.

Fatestitchers make a big difference with Chain of Vapor.  They allow you to EOT bounce Leyline/Jailer/Needle and then get 3 Bazaar activations to get something useful.  They are almost a full Time Walk post board when it will take a few turns to win.

[Far]

I want to know what everyone thinks is the best 60 card list for GAMES TWO AND THREE.

I think for this to be productive we need to be more specific. I board quite differently if I am on the play or on the draw (ex: Chalice and Unmask are wicked on the play and only viable on the draw against certain decks). Also, my choices are radically different against Leylines than against a spread like 1 Yixlid, 2 Crpyt, 2 Relic etc. How do we board blind--if we have no inkling of what they are putting in game 2? Not to mention--are we siding for a Dredge mirror? Oath? Stacks?

Each one of the above factors significantly affects any sideboard decisions.

[Womba]

I want to know what everyone thinks is the best 60 card list for GAMES TWO AND THREE.

I think for this to be productive we need to be more specific. I board quite differently if I am on the play or on the draw (ex: Chalice and Unmask are wicked on the play and only viable on the draw against certain decks). Also, my choices are radically different against Leylines than against a spread like 1 Yixlid, 2 Crpyt, 2 Relic etc. How do we board blind--if we have no inkling of what they are putting in game 2? Not to mention--are we siding for a Dredge mirror? Oath? Stacks?

Each one of the above factors significantly affects any sideboard decisions.

I agree, I would say outside of the mirror and maybe stax to a degree, boarding remains the same game 2. The only factor to then consider is on the play or draw. Logically, the best place to start would be to assume a game one win putting the dredge deck on the draw. Ignoring the possibility of being in the mirror or against stax. I would say that would reflect my 60 game two on the play not playing against stax or mirror. Also a lot of the time we aren't going to know what they are exactly bringing in so in technically we would be siding blind anyway.

Why keep the Dread Return or Fatestitchers in?

Dread Return is for Extirpate.  If you run the Ichorids, then it is less needed.

Fatestitchers make a big difference with Chain of Vapor.  They allow you to EOT bounce Leyline/Jailer/Needle and then get 3 Bazaar activations to get something useful.  They are almost a full Time Walk post board when it will take a few turns to win.

I like the idea and thought process behind keeping in the fatestitchers, it just seems worse if they hit one extra piece of hate, or if they have ravenous trap. It seems to open yourself up more to the hate instead of being able to playing through it. With ichorids, you can put them in really tough spots on having to blow a crypt or trap without exposing too much of your library. Also if they have a leyline out you have extra creatures and pressure cards you can discard to it while looking for outs against leyline. 

[meadbert]

Also if they have a leyline out you have extra creatures and pressure cards you can discard to it while looking for outs against leyline. 

So Ichorid is so bad with Leyline out that you do not mind pitching it to Bazaar.  How does that make it a good card?

[Womba]

Also if they have a leyline out you have extra creatures and pressure cards you can discard to it while looking for outs against leyline. 

So Ichorid is so bad with Leyline out that you do not mind pitching it to Bazaar.  How does that make it a good card?

Yes OBVIOUSLY ANY card with leyline out is dead. In terms of pressure/creature cards in my deck, I am going to have 12 post-board, compared to your 10. All twelve of mine can trigger a Bridge from Below, only 8 of yours can. If i ditch two of my creatures to a leyline while digging for answers I have 10 relevant creatures that can apply pressure, you will have 6. I am saying that fatestitcher, while really good when it is good, is really bad when its is bad, there is no in-between with it. You bounce XYZ hate on board and try to power through, and say u hit only ghasts, you have to expose your graveyard more often in that kind of build since you will have less relevant creatures. Your taking away consistency from the deck post-board as well as making the deck more vulnerable to hate. Your Bridges, the most broken card in the deck,  become inherently weaker since you have less creatures that are going to trigger them. With your kind of configuration it seems to sacrifice consistency and resilience in the hopes of them not hitting much hate and I am not sure that's what you want to be banking on in games 2 and/or 3.

[Far]

The argument over Fatestitchers vs. Ichorids post-board stems from two distinct strategies: with Fatestitchers, the idea is that you get a one turn opening, dredge your heart out and establish enough of a board (or cast enough Cabal Therapies) to finish the game--compared to the other idea that by Dredging a little and using Bloodghasts and Ichorids you can provide enough of a threat to draw threats like Rav Trap and Relics, then you start again. Arguments exist for both strategies, but at the end of the day 'Finding your Moment' (characterized by Fatestitchers) tends to work better against fast combo decks like TPS, and 'Partial Dredging' (Characterized by Ichorids) tends to work better against aggro decks with varied boards.

Leyline screws everything, but lends itself better to the 'wait for the moment' approach, unfortunately, 4x Leyline tends to only represent about 25% of decks out there. Now, since the big three (excluding Dredge itself) are Noble Fish, MUD and Oath, all of which typically stay off Leylines because of the lack of black (except for some MUD's, but the pile of Sphere effects makes it nigh impossible to sac your warm bodies anyway), in very loose statistical terms, the partial dredging strategy tends to be a safer bet.

A closer look at recent top 8's on Morphling also suggests that decks more towards Manaless Ichorid (I include the 'Turtle Dredge's described by Matt Elias in his articles in this class) on the dredge spectrum have been fairing better than the Power Dredging fatestitcher builds.

Below is a list of all the Top 8 Dredge sightings listed on Morphling.de and their respective Ichord/Fatestitcher counts. I also included the land count, since it is often reflective of the deck's overall strategy.

May Dredge Results from Morphling.de

Matt Hornoung—Rank 2—3x Ichorid (+1 SB), 13x Land
Michael Knight—Rank 3—4x Ichorid, 2x Fatestitcher, 14x Land
Gerwin Ruijterkamp—Rank 2—3x Fatestitcher, 15x Land
Abel Planting—Rank 5—4x Ichorid, 8x Land (Pure Manaless)
Tom Dale—Rank 1—2x Ichorid (+1 SB), 12x Land (Turtle)

(None of the above involved proper casting like Breakthrough)

April Dredge Results from Morphling.de

Marco Deligos—Rank 1—2x Ichorid , 10x Land (Turtle)
Sam Berse—Rank 1—2x Ichorid (+1 SB), 13x Land (Turtle)
Ryan DuBois—Rank 3—2x Ichorid (+1 SB), 13x Land (Turtle)
Tucker Foster—Rank 7—2x Ichorid, 2x Fatestitcher, 15x Land (Cephalid Col)
Daniel Scherer—Rank 4—2x Ichorid, 3x Fatestitcher, 15x Land

[BruiZar]

Why keep the Dread Return or Fatestitchers in?

Dread Return is for Extirpate.  If you run the Ichorids, then it is less needed.

Fatestitchers make a big difference with Chain of Vapor.  They allow you to EOT bounce Leyline/Jailer/Needle and then get 3 Bazaar activations to get something useful.  They are almost a full Time Walk post board when it will take a few turns to win.

It isn't relevant often, but sometimes, you can also follow up with cabal therapy after the chain to get rid of something permanently. You could go tap land, unearth, untap land with stitcher, chain of vapor, cabal therapy from graveyard.

Also, unearthing Fatestitcher forces your opponent to crack a crypt right now, since it can either go broken with bazaar or simply tap your tormod's crypt and go broken then.

You can go: Tap land, Unearth fatestitcher, Tap Tormods Crypt, Therapy Ravenous trap, then Bazaar. That's playing through hate without a single sideboard card.

[meadbert]

It isn't relevant often, but sometimes, you can also follow up with cabal therapy after the chain to get rid of something permanently. You could go tap land, unearth, untap land with stitcher, chain of vapor, cabal therapy from graveyard.

The problem is that Ichorid is part of the reason that it is not relevant more often.  As you mentioned earlier you will be eager to ditch your Ichorids to Bazaar with Leyline out because they are so bad.  Then you bounce Leyline EOT with presumably no Ichorids in hand.  You now have exactly two cards to find an Ichorid when you activate Bazaar EOT.  On your upkeep you can activate Bazaar again Dredge a lot, but any Ichorids Dredged on upkeep will not come into play this turn and cannot be flashed back to Therapy.  Meanwhile Fatestitcher can be flashed back to Therapy and it gets another Bazaar activation.  So long as Bazaar is still activate Fatestitcher is worlds better than Ichorid.

Where Ichorid shines is when Bazaar was Wasted or Needled.  I do not disagree with your conclusion that Ichorid is good post board.  The justifications just do not make sense.  The primary justification for Ichorid getting better post board is that there will be more Needles and to a lesser extent Wastes.

If folks started running an average of a total of 4 Wastes and Needles in the board then I would be more inclined to add Ichorid to allow the slow roll plan in case of those cards.  Instead, to use Bridgewater as an example there were a total of 0 Wastelands and 7 Pithing Needles in the sideboards of the top 8.  This less than one additional Needle/Waste post board so it is not worth slowing down my deck by a full turn to add a bit of resilience against a token card in my opponent's deck.

There are still plenty of Wastes in main decks and that can be an argument for Ichorid and against Fatestitchers, but I do not find that argument persuasive.  Preboard you have access to many Dread Returns and Fatestitchers can be sacrificed to Dread Return thus they are still a turn or more faster than Ichorid preboard.

[BruiZar]

I completely agree. Fatestitcher is much much better. Also, decks utilizing Fatestitcher and Sharuum can actually support Force of Will which is miles better than Unmask. There are several fundamental flaws to FKZ that encourage me to play with Sharuum.

If people still like to play with FKZ, they should. My personal opinion is that the aggro route is weaker than the combo route. Combo elves is another deck that I like due to its ability to fall back on aggro when combo fails.

[Adan]

That reasoning absolutely makes sense meadbert, however, the meta I play in doesn't allow me to remove Ichorids from my 75 since basically any deck that is not Oath plays Wasteland main and some Needles SB.
Even the Oath players here have started to play a Strip Mine maindeck and some Wastelands in he sideboard. Not only to hate Dredge's Bazaars but also to wreck MUD's manabase under a Sphere, gaining a huge speedadvantage.
And it may sound absurd, but people like Tobi (Horden Tendrils, fastcombo) have started to run Wastelands and Strip Mine in their SB for the same purpose.

In these cases I just love Ichorids because it spawns tokens, tokens, tokens over and over again.

I have also top8ed another medium size (aka. 25ish) tournament with my 75, 3-1-1 in the swiss rounds and then got annihilated in the Quarters by Fabian Moyschewitz. That single loss was against Oath which topdecked me away with Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale after using Oath to put in Iona and milling away every hatecard he had. He'd have dies 2 turns later due to Ichorid and zombieswarms. MEH.

I will just show you the play-by-play against Fabian Moyschewitz to illustrate where the problem of Dredge is:

g1 he wins the diceroll and drops a 1st Turn Golem. I bazaar, go. He wastes my Bazaar and droips a 2nd Golem, swings for 5. I dredge the Stinkweed Imp I discarded (I just had that single Dredger) and don't hit a 2nd Dredger. He attacks me for 10 and drops a Trike. I die.

0-1

g2 I bazaar, go. He goes Ancient Tomb, Relic, Relic and taps them both. I remove everything but the Dredger. I upkeep dredge, drawstep dredge, drop a 2nd Bazaar, dredge further, hit 3 Moebas, 2 Bridges, a GGT which will be 11/11 and the single Dread Return. I Dread Return and win.

1-1

g3 goes like g1. He drops a 1st Turn Golem, I bazaar, go, he wastes, drops a Karn. I dredge, he drops a Relic and a Sphere. I die.

1-2

Basically MUD can slow you down like non other deck in the current metagame so I see playing Ichorid as inevitable. Sure, the way Fabian ripped his cards could also be seen as lucky, but he plays every card like... 4 times? Nothing to compare to BruiZar's opening hands.

[BruiZar]

Why don't you play with more mana sources like I do? At the tournament my brother (playing the list i mentioned above) was able to win through a chalice for 1 and 4, a trinisphere AND a golem. Sure that was a weird game, but he still managed to pull it off and could only do it because he had more land. He also went Land, Lotus, Serenity against workshop, cleaning the board of 3 moxen and a sphere. Next turn, bazaar, fatestitcher bazaar win. If it's really such a big problem you can play some ancient grudges to forcecrack relics and shoot up some spheres / timevault.

[BruiZar]

After testing, I came back disillusioned. It is still very hard to get 2 mana and a bazaar without your opponent interfering too much. I also tested not sideboarding but simply racing and managed to pull of several wins on the draw, one of which was a turn 1 kill with LED stitcher Bazaar.

The last trick I have up my sleeve is to try and board in Gemstone Caverns with Orim's Chant and Silence. This way, you can force being on the play on game 2 at the cost of 'mulligans', something dredge does anyway. Gemstone Caverns also has synergy with fatestitcher, or nature's claim. I am also going back to the idea of using Street Wraiths because they allow you to first turn dredge, which is important because that means you can potentially use Cabal Therapy or have some creatures in play. I'm also going to up my use of Dakmor Salvages.

[kikoo]

Instead of everyone yelling about what is better game 1, who is 87% game one compared to 95%, Sharuum Dredge or other dredge builds; I want to know what everyone thinks is the best 60 card list for GAMES TWO AND THREE. I believe if we use this as a starting point we can find a build worth yelling about. Bascially list out the 60 you would want to play games two and three and tell me about those win percentages.


PS. FKZ owns Sharuum.....lol

I've tested all the different kinds of Dredge builds because I was assembling the deck IRL, and I have found the Turtle build to be the absolute best for g2 and g3. In g1 it's often half a turn or a turn slower than other Dredge builds, but that doesn't really matter since you destroy the opponent's hand in turn 2, and you disrupt them with Chalice and Leyline as well. The only g1's I have lost with the deck are the ones you would also lose with any other Dredge build (silly stuff like turn1 Vault + Key + activate). I think Turtle dredge is extremely resilient in g2 and g3, and none of the other builds I tested came anywhere close the win percentages I got in the sideboarded games with the Turtle build. In one game I fought through and won against 4 hate cards (Yixlid Jailor, Tormod's Crypt, 2x Ravenous Trap) AND a resolved Yawmoth's Will that got back Jailor and Crypt and some broken cards, so essentially 6 hate cards. I have a hard time believing any other Dredge deck could have won that game, so therefore I am now a fanboy of the Turtle (if you hadn't already guessed).  

[Adan]

I've tested all the different kinds of Dredge builds because I was assembling the deck IRL, and I have found the Turtle build to be the absolute best for g2 and g3. In g1 it's often half a turn or a turn slower than other Dredge builds, but that doesn't really matter since you destroy the opponent's hand in turn 2, and you disrupt them with Chalice and Leyline as well. The only g1's I have lost with the deck are the ones you would also lose with any other Dredge build (silly stuff like turn1 Vault + Key + activate).

You are right, I just want to point out that my maindeck and Matt's maindeck look the same postboard. I think I'm just 2 cards off (Gemstone Mines instead of Petrified Fields). I am just comfortable with my build because if you don't have the Chalice when playing Turtle, you are 1 Turn slower just because you don't have it while the 5color land - which is otherwise "dead" - transforms into a 2nd Bazaar via Stitcher and is not only a landfall enabler and manasource for Spheres.

I think Turtle dredge is extremely resilient in g2 and g3, and none of the other builds I tested came anywhere close the win percentages I got in the sideboarded games with the Turtle build. In one game I fought through and won against 4 hate cards (Yixlid Jailor, Tormod's Crypt, 2x Ravenous Trap) AND a resolved Yawmoth's Will that got back Jailor and Crypt and some broken cards, so essentially 6 hate cards. I have a hard time believing any other Dredge deck could have won that game, so therefore I am now a fanboy of the Turtle (if you hadn't already guessed).

Turtle Dredge might have a slight advantage in compairison to my build simply because Chalice in g3 is very strong. Okay, in my build you could just board in Stitchers in g3 to win on Turn 2 potentially, but Stitcher doesn't really punish shaky openers unlike Chalice. When I played Fabian the last time, he just didn't dare to keep Mox, Lotus, Crypt, 3x stuff simply because this hand - which is otherwise good - automatically loses to Chalice.

I really think Fatestitcher and Chalice are the thin line between Turtle and Turbo (or whatever you might want to call my list). But so far I wasn't really lucky enough to have Chalice in my opener and always died in my playtesting against fast combo while I was just faster with Stitcher-Dredge.

[nineisnoone]

Sun Titan
{W}{W}
6/6
Creature - Giant    Mythic Rare
Vigilance
Whenever Sun Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

New Dread Return of choice? 

1) It can put an Altar of Dementia into play on it's own. 
2) It can put another Bazaar into play, accelerating you a turn. 
*Bonus, it triggers Landfall for Bloodgast.
3) It can also put a colored land into play, allowing you to Unearth a Fatesticher accelerating you another turn, giving you a creature to sacrifice to Cabal Therapy or Dread Return, and giving you a color mana to cast spells with if necessary later on.
*Bonus, it triggers Landfall for Bloodgast.
4) Enables the chaining of Dread Returns making multiples actually useful. 
- Dread Return Sun Titan.  Put an Undiscovered Paradise into play.
- Landfall triggers, return Bloodgast(s) to play.
- Unearth Fatesticher.
- Untap Bazaar and dredge.
- Cabal Therapy, Sacrificing Sun Titan.
- Dread Return Sun Titan sacrificing Bloodgast(s), Fatesticher, etc etc.
5) It keeps returning stuff each turn when it attacks.

To me it seems like the Dread Return target of choice.  It can do what both Sharuum and Cephalid Sage (mostly) can do in terms of "combo"ing out, but it has so much more flexibility with so many more targets and synergies.  Plus, I feel it is a much better threat than either of those cards on it's own.

[BruiZar]

I have considered Sun Titan as well. The limitation of 3 mana cost and less is what makes the card a little bit bad. Returning lands to play is good though. I feel like this would like to play vault / key to snatch up the random inf turns.

[nineisnoone]

I don't really see what you'd want to play over 3 mana though. 

I think the card that might put this card over the top is Concordant Crossroads/Mass Hysteria (All Creatures have Haste).  It turns makes all your zombies hasted AND it allows you to return another card via Sun Titan when it attacks.  Plus, at one mana it is castable on it's own and a perfectly fine play.

[BruiZar]

I think you're right about crossroads.

[meadbert]

Sun Titan is insane for all the reasons nineisnoone said.

It should work best with the Zealot engine rather than the Sharuum engine.  

I would probably replace the 3 Sharuums and 2 Altar's in my list with 3 of these and 2 Zealots.

EDIT:Oblivion Ring might make sense for dodging hate.

[nineisnoone]

Sun Titan is insane for all the reasons nineisnoone said.

It should work best with the Zealot engine rather than the Sharuum engine.  

I would probably replace the 3 Sharuums and 2 Altar's in my list with 3 of these and 2 Zealots.

EDIT:Oblivion Ring might make sense for dodging hate.

You don't like Crossroads?  Perhaps, I'm overvaluing it but I could see it as being a worthwhile card (but only playable due to the fact that it's part of the main deck package) in the sideboard when you are just trying to slow roll them with creatures.

I'm not really sure about Oblivion Ring.  What is it supposed to beat out?  The only 2 pieces of hate I really worry about are Leyline and Jailer both of which wouldn't let me Dread Return.

[Adan]

Well, when I saw Sun Titan, I thought it's just the right thing to abuse Serenity. You Dread Return him, return Serenity and then have recurring Sereniy which hardlocks MUD out of the game.
But he is actually a better combo-guy than Sharuum. Didn't see that.

[meadbert]

Sun Titan is insane for all the reasons nineisnoone said.

It should work best with the Zealot engine rather than the Sharuum engine.  

I would probably replace the 3 Sharuums and 2 Altar's in my list with 3 of these and 2 Zealots.

EDIT:Oblivion Ring might make sense for dodging hate.

You don't like Crossroads?  Perhaps, I'm overvaluing it but I could see it as being a worthwhile card (but only playable due to the fact that it's part of the main deck package) in the sideboard when you are just trying to slow roll them with creatures.

I'm not really sure about Oblivion Ring.  What is it supposed to beat out?  The only 2 pieces of hate I really worry about are Leyline and Jailer both of which wouldn't let me Dread Return.

I see a lot of random stuff like creatures that make me pay to attack, Ensnaring Bridge, Moat, the Oath creature that won't let me attack, Platinum Angel etc.
Oblivion Ring is good for those, but Serenity is probably better. 

Is Crossroads better than Zealot?  As I see it, if I have Sun Titan they are about the same since either should lead to a win, but if I do not have Sun Titan, then I would much rather have Zealot.