2nd Place w/ Ichorid

Heya,

I took second place in a small tournament last week. Here’s the list I played:

Lands:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
3 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage

Artifacts:
4 Serum Powder

Enchantments:
4 Bridge From Below

Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancient Grudge

Dredgers:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast

Non-Dredge Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Fatestitcher
3 Ichorid
2 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Sun Titan

Sideboard:
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Pithing Needle
2 Darkblast
1 City of Brass

First a report, then my thoughts. It was a small tournament. Just 8 players following the M11 Launch Party. The TO decided to make it 3 rounds of Swiss with the top two players playing in the last round for a small prize. We used to routinely get over 20 players in the 2006-2008 era. The restriction of Flash, Gush, and Brainstorm along with the Time Vault errata really took its toll on the local scene. Anyway, here’s what happened as best I can remember from referencing my notes.

Round 1: John A. w/ BUG Fish

I almost never beat John. Over the last four years we’ve played each other dozens times with dozens decks. I’ve probably beat him five or six times. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this match.

Game 1-

My opening hand was this:

Bazaar
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Grave Troll
City of BrassIchorid
Bridge from Below

I won the roll, so I play first. Drop a Bazaar, activate, draw Bloodgahst and Ancient Grudge. I’m still new to Dredge, so what would be best to discard here? Grave-Troll is obvious. I could do Ichorid and Bloodghast, or two Bloodghasts. It’s game one, so I probably don’t have to worry about Crypt or Trap. I decide to discard the Troll and two Ghasts. I pass the turn.

John plays Wasteland and kills my Bazaar then passes. Discarding the Ghasts looks really smart now. I go to my draw step, dredge 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Grave-Troll, Serum Powder, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. I play my second Bazaar and put 3 Bloodghasts into play. Activate Bazaar. Dredge 6, revealing Thug, Serum Powder, Narcomoeba, Dakmor Salvage, and a Bridge. Dredge 5, revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Undiscovered Paradise, Therapy, and Zealot. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Bridge. I sac a Narco for Therapy calling Force. I get it. Then it’s sac’ing the other Narco and 2 Ghasts for Dread Return on Zealot for the win.

Game 2-

John sideboards in about five or six cards. I bring in 4 Chains, 4 Claims, and 1 City removing 3 Ichorids, 2 Salvages, and 4 Powders. I mulligan to 6. John mulligans to 5. My hand has

Bazaar
Bloodghast
Stinkweed Imp
Undiscovered Paradise
Chain of Vapor
Nature’s Claim

John goes first, plays a Fetch, cracks it for U. Sea and plays Ponder. No Leylines, so that’s good. I play Bazaar, activate drawing Bloodghast and Bridge from Below. I discard Imp and two Ghasts. I didn’t want to risk my Bridges yet incase he had Crypt in hand. I pass. He drops Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar then passes. I dredge for 5 on my draw revealing Narco, Bridge from Below, Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Sun Titan. I drop my Paradise bringing two Bloodghasts into play. I sac them and the Narco to return Titan. No countermagic from John, so Titan returns my Bazaar and I get my two Bloodghasts back. I activate Bazaar and dredge 6 revealing Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Fatestitcher, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Cabal Therapy. I discard Troll, Imp, and Bridge. I tap the Paradise to unearth Fatestitcher, and activate Bazaar again. Dredge 12 total. I get another Narco in play, another Bridge in the yard along with FKZ. I sac my creatures to Dread Return on FKZ and win from there. John showed me his hand. He was holding two Jailers. I guess he went for stripping my Bazaar over neutering my Graveyard. I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made in the long run.

Round 2: Corey w/MUD

Game 1-

I’m on the play. I draw garbage in my opening hand, but I have Serum Powder. I dump what I’ve got and draw a new seven. Corey doesn’t look at the cards I exiled. I was a bit surprised. I keep what I got:

Bazaar
Grave-Troll
Narcomoeba (hate that)
Grave-Troll
City of Brass
Ichorid
Undiscovered Paradise

I lay Bazaar and activate. I draw Ichorid and Serum Powder. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Ichorid then pass. He drops Workshop, Mox, Golem. Yay. During my upkeep, I put the Ichorid trigger on the stack then activate Bazaar. I dredge 12 and get 2 Bloodghasts, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dread Return, 2 Cabal Therapy, 1 Thug, 2 Bridge from Below, 1 Imp, 1 City of Brass, 1 Fatestitcher. I discard the 2 Trolls and my Narcomoeba. I exile a Thug and put Ichorid into play. I put City of Brass into play and then stop to think.

I have some choices here. Right now, I’ve got 1 Ichorid, 1 Narcomoeba, and 2 Bloodghasts in play. I’ve basically stopped his attack for now, and I’ll get two tokens at EOT from Ichorid. I could Therapy or I could play Fatestitcher. I decide that I’m in a pretty decent position and don’t need to win fast, so I tap my City and sacrifice Ichorid to play Therapy calling “Sphere of Resistance.” I nab two of them. Holy crap! I also see Null Rod, Juggernaut, and City of Traitors. I pass.

He draws, plays his City, taps it, and puts a Thorn of Amethyst into play then passes. I stack Ichorid and dredge for 12 again. I get enough creatures in play that I can cast Dread Return on FKZ using the mana from my City and Paradise to win that turn. I tell him I was pretty lucky to get three lands in my opening hand.

Game 2-

I side in 4 Nature’s Claims, 1 City of Brass, and 4 Pithing needle. I mulligan to six. My opening hand has:

Bazaar
Undiscovered Paradise
Grave-Troll
Pithing Needle
Bridge from Below
Bloodghast

I figure he’s probably playing Crypt and not playing Leylines. Maybe Relic. So I keep it based on Needle. He goes first, drops Workshop, Mox, and Juggernaut. Then he passes. I draw Nature’s Claim (yes!), play Bazaar, and activate. I draw Bridge from Below and a second Undiscovered Paradise. I discard 1 Troll, 1 Bloodghast, and 1 Bridge. I pass.

He attacks me for 5 then drops Ancient Tomb. To my surprise, he taps Shop and Mox to play Jester’s Cap, then taps Tomb to activate it. He chooses my last two Bridges and an FKZ. He passes. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar. Dredge for 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Bazaar of Baghdad, Grave-Troll, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. Dredge for 6 again putting Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Ancient Grudge, Pithing Needle, Thug, and a Grave-Troll. I discard 1 Bridge and two Grave-Trolls.

I play an Undiscovered Paradise and put 2 Blooghasts into play to add to my 2 Narcomoebas. I’m afraid he’s holding Crypt, so I play Pithing Needle and call “Tormod’s Crypt.” He laughs out loud, not in a “oh crap, I’m screwed” sort of way but in a “bad call, dude” sort of way. So I’m faced with some unpleasant scenarios. 1) He’s holding some way to kill my needle. Maybe he’s playing Red and has a Mountain and an Ingot Chewer in hand. 2) He’s playing Relic and my call on Crypt was useless. 3) There’s something else I’m not considering, which is very likely the case. Duplicant? Nah, why would he side that in? That’ can’t be it.

I decide to establish a strong board position and just let the chips fall where they may. I sac my 2 Narcomoebas and 1 Bloodghast to play Dread Return on a Golgari Grave-Troll. He comes into play with eight +1/+1 counters I believe. Something like that. I also make 6 tokens. I pass the turn.

He untaps, draws, plays a Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar. Then he (you’re not going to believe this) taps his Shop and Mox and plays another Cap! He taps his Tomb, and pulls out 2 Dread Returns and last FKZ. He has to attack with Juggs. So I block with my last Bloodghast and get 2 more tokens.

I untap, put UP in my hand, and Dredge for 6 on my draw. I reveal a few cards. It doesn’t matter. With my Troll and 8 tokens, I attack for lethal. It was a weird game. He did show me that he boarded in Tormod’s Crypts but thought the Caps would get him there.

Round 3 (Finals): Michael w/Helm of the Void combo

I won’t bore you with many of the details. Game 1 he opens with Leyline of the Void and Wasteland. I’ve got nothing for that, so I suggest we move to game 2. Game 2 he mulligans, then opens with double Leyline and shows me a hand with U. Sea, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and FoW. Yeah, so that was that. I get a few M11 packs and crack a Time Reversal, Foil Lightning Bolt, and a Mystifying Maze. Not bad. All he got was $15 for taking first.

Reflection:

I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but…

Regarding GenCon: I would not play this version at GenCon. This deck is built for absolute speed, and I blew out every opponent by turn 3 and never lost a single game until the finals. However, the GenCon crowd will be prepared for Ichorid since it is so cheap to build. Therefore, the lists packing max disruption like Chalice, Unmask, and Leyline of Sanctity are probably going to do the best.

Regarding Sun Titan: I loved having Sun Titan in the deck. Twice he scored me a turn 2 victory. I like him way better than the Sharuum Combo, especially at GenCon where Null Rods will be all over the place. He’s a big body, with Vigilance, that will give you two Landfall activations in the same turn. He is really strong in this deck, and should be considered. I was happy every time I Dread Returned him.

Regarding my Sideboard: This is the weakest part of my game. The 4 Pithing Needles didn’t do anything for me. Either I won before it was necessary to play them for Time Vault or Crypt, or I never got them in my hand. I’ll probably replace them with Leyline of Sanctity or Unmask.

Peace,

-Troy