Last Friday night, I had to make a decision for the next day’s Vintage tournament: Ichorid or Oath of Druids? I’ve piloted Oath to two Top 8s in my last three events including one win, and my overall win percentage is still north of 70% with the deck, even after going 2-2 at the Philly Open 3. However, it is still unclear whether or not I will be able to borrow the power I don’t have for this year’s Vintage Champs, and I very much want to be able to compete in that tournament without having to run something semi-powered (by which I refer to a deck meant to be fully powered with less powerful substitutes as opposed to a deck purposefully designed to include only some pieces of power). To that end, I recently acquired a play-set of Bazaar of Baghdads, guaranteeing that I can play one of the best decks in Vintage in the Champs tournament: Ichorid.
Yes, I said it. Ichorid is one of the best decks in Vintage, and the recent metagame analysis completed by Stephen Menendian proves it. Even without a broader look at Ichorid’s results nation-wide (or globally), I can simply look in my own backyard:
4/4/09 – Blue Bell PA – 44 players, 0 Ichorid
4/19/09 – Princeton NJ – 26 players, 1 Ichorid, 1 Top 8
5/9/09 – Philly Open 3 – 55 players – 6 (approximate) Ichorid, 2 Top 8
In the latter two events, around 40% of the players piloting Ichorid made Top 8, with the deck claiming 3/16 slots (19%) despite making up only 7/81 decks (9%). Further, the deck continues to see new innovations, such as the adoption of Sadistic Hypnotist as a reanimation target and the widespread use of Evoke creatures and their synergy with both Bridge from Below and Dread Return. Further, the two Top 8 Ichorid decks from the Philly Open included unique variations: one ran Realm Razer as a Dread Return target, while the other ran two Force of Will main.
I have been following some threads on the Mana Drain forums discussing the current Vintage metagame, specifically people’s unhappiness with Tezzeret and the idea that the DCI has to step in and do something to “fix” the format. Many of these same opinions can be overheard at any Vintage event, and most of the participants fall into one of two camps: un-restrict cards to rebalance the format (usually some combination of Gush, Balance, Burning Wish, and Flash), or simply re-errata or ban Time Vault. The basic argument is that Tezzeret is too powerful and makes up too large a percentage of the overall population of most events and corresponding Top 8s, as well as the majority of tournament winners. Another possible option some have considered is the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge, which I consider completely unnecessary.
Underpinning this discussion is the idea that the Vintage metagame has attempted to adapt to the dominance of Tezzeret, and has failed. Essentially, the printing of Tezzeret and Inkwell Leviathan, along with the removal of power level errata from Time Vault, has unified what was a set of disparate Drain decks into one dominant shell. Tezzeret decks are still evolving and they don’t all look the same, but at this point I’m relatively certain that the best build fielded yet is the list that Paul Mastriano played at the Philly Open 3. Having spent an evening play-testing with this deck and throwing theoretical anti-Tezzeret lists at it, the robust card draw engine contained in this list is phenomenal and easily the best in Vintage. For reference, here is the list Paul used to win the Philly Open 3:
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (12)
Spells (42)
- 1 Sensei's Divining Top
- 1 Brainstorm
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 4 Duress
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Hurkyl's Recall
- 2 Island
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Imperial Seal
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Time Vault
- 1 Gifts Ungiven
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 4 Mystic Remora
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Voltaic Key
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 1 Repeal
- 1 Ponder
- 1 Thoughtseize
During testing I made only one change to the deck, which was to replace Imperial Seal with a second Repeal. Besides the obvious applications of bouncing troublesome permanents played by opponents (such as Confidant, Tarmogoyf, Null Rod, etc), adding the second Repeal gives this list another way to bounce its own Remora, or a Dark Confidant when heading into “infinite” turn mode via Time Vault, as well as providing another way to bounce a first-turn Chalice of the Void set on zero. The beauty of this list is that it runs full play-sets of Dark Confidant and Mystic Remora, putting most opponents into a lose-lose situation and guaranteeing a continued flow of cards throughout the game. There are two main changes in this deck compared to a more traditional Tezzeret list. Noticeably absent are any number of Mana Drains (so should this even fall into the heading of a “Mana Drain” archetype?), and this list also has no Thirst for Knowledge, again showing that TFK would make a poor target for restriction. Many people showed up for the CCGames Vintage event on 5/23/09 with decks based on this list, but with varying degrees of changes. Some players added Red, while others crammed Mana Drain or Thirst for Knowledge back into the deck. In my opinion, these changes simply add random variance and stretch the mana-base of a deck already designed to do exactly what it needs to: beat everything Tezzeret beats while similarly beating “normal” Tezzeret lists on the back of the superior engines of Confidant and Remora.
Regardless of which list you consider to be the “best”, this idea that the Vintage metagame has attempted, and failed, to combat this style of deck – that is to say, base-Blue control decks running the win conditions of Tezzeret, Time Vault, and Inkwell Leviathan – strikes me as inaccurate at best, and purposefully misleading at worst. Despite the relative dominance of Tezzeret locally (certainly it dominates Top 8s, yet already in 2009, two 40+ person events in PA have been won by non-Tezzeret decks: Landstill and Oath of Druids), actual metagame changes were minimal. Until recently Ichorid was barely a player, and is still showing up in numbers far below what you’d expect the metagame to produce. Ichorid, in its current form, is a perfect foil for Tezzeret decks, especially those designed around Mana Drain and set up with technology to win the mirror. Tezzeret is at its best when it doesn’t need to worry about devoting 7-8 slots for Ichorid, and can instead shore up its post-board match-ups against Aggro, Fish, Oath of Druids, and Workshop decks. When Ichorid begins to show up in numbers, it begins to warp Tezzeret’s main-deck and sideboard, using up slots that give other decks in the format a chance to compete. Further, while some players still attempt to beat Tezzeret with Fish decks based on builds from years past, base-red “Fish” decks running considerable numbers of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon can prey on the existing metagame. How many outs does Ichorid really have to a first-turn Blood Moon?
I honestly believe that people calling for the banning of Time Vault are doing so because they’re caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak, and I don’t mean to say that I fail to understand their position. They hate that there is a two-card combination as powerful as Tezzeret and Time Vault or Voltaic Key and Time Vault, and the fact that it has unified a previously disparate set of blue control decks into one shell deck. Similarly, they hate Ichorid – in fact many people actually loathe Ichorid more than Time Vault. Many players despise and disparage this deck, stating that it isn’t really “playing Magic” and that skilled players shouldn’t run it, and find it ridiculous that the deck requires 7+ sideboard slots devoted to beating it, and that even then Ichorid sometimes still wins anyway. A metagame that revolves around Tezzeret and Ichorid probably meets the definition of “un-fun” for many players, and this is certainly an issue.
Having said that, I hope that most Vintage players would agree that we don’t want the DCI to begin to issue power-level errata again, and that similarly we don’t want to open the door to bannings simply because we’re unhappy with how powerful a certain card or strategy has become, as this goes against everything for which Vintage is meant to represent: a final resting place for the most powerful cards and strategies throughout Magic history. I think it is clear that the DCI’s first objective should be to clean up the Restricted list in an attempt to diversify the field and create opponents to Tezzeret. Preferably these changes would be made gradually so that the result of each could be measured, as opposed to the “hatchet” style we saw last year.
Back to the event on 5/23, and my decision regarding which deck to run. I wanted to get at least one tournament in before Gen Con, should I indeed have to run Ichorid at Vintage Champs, as my one and only tournament experience with Ichorid was an Extended PTQ in January 2008. On Saturday, 6/6 there is a terrific Vintage event at the Philly Convention center: The Dan Herd Memorial Tournament. Beside the fact that the prizes for this event are unbelievable, this event is for a good cause and I hope that anyone with any interest at all in Vintage will show up. Because of the level of prize support, I didn’t want to make that event my test run. Similarly on 6/27, there is a CCGames event at AU Blue Bell for a Black Lotus. The event on 5/23 was for a Mox Pearl (with a Time Vault for second), and seemed like the best time to give Ichorid a shot. The list I ran was based on the Ichorid deck from the Waterbury this year and was slightly modified by Chas Hinkle:
Creatures (26)
- 3 Sadistic Hypnotist
- 4 Ichorid
- 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
- 4 Golgari Thug
- 4 Stinkweed Imp
- 4 Narcomoeba
- 3 Fatestitcher
Lands (12)
Spells (22)
Sideboard
I won’t give a full tournament report as Ichorid doesn’t really lend itself to particularly interesting game recaps, however I will offer some thoughts on the deck as well as my results. First and foremost, I cannot state strongly enough that Sadistic Hypnotist is unbelievably good. I would guess that I won at least five or six games on the day by using Dread Return to reanimate a second-turn Hypnotist, setting up a chance to make my opponent discard their entire hand while leaving behind an army of 2/2 Zombie tokens. With this card in the deck, there is no need for any type of “big beater” like Akroma or Hellkite Overlord. Similarly, I feel that any mana denial creatures you might choose (Sundering Titan, Woodfall Primus, Angel of Despair, Realm Razer) just aren’t as effective as cleaning out the opponent’s entire hand, especially with that level of speed. Further, it isn’t insignificant to include another three black creatures to provide fuel for Ichorids. During one game I was able to reanimate all four Ichorids for two consecutive turns due to the inclusion of a full play-set of Thugs and the three Hypnotists.
Fatestiticher is also an extremely potent inclusion, providing another creature to fuel Cabal Therapy and Dread Return, and often helping to set up that turn-two Hypnotist by untapping a Bazaar and then being sacrificed for the flashback cost on Dread Return. While that is his typical use, I also won one game by actually attacking with an Ichorid and an unearthed Fatestitcher to deal exactly 4 damage for the win, and Fatestitcher also tapped down a blocker in my final Swiss round to let my army of Ichorids through. While the exact list above isn’t perfect, I do consider this version of Ichorid (Mana Ichorid including Hypnotists and Fatestitcher) to be the best version of Vintage Ichorid.
Having run the deck through a five-round event as well as the elimination rounds, there are a few changes that I’d suggest to the sideboard. First, I actually never used the Pithing Needles to much effect. In theory they shut down Tormod’s Crypt or Relic of Progenitus, but Ingot Chewer is a better option. Similarly the Oxidize was wholly unnecessary and should be a fourth Ingot Chewer. The sideboard option of choice for Tezzeret seems to be Yixlid Jailer, so I would definitely suggest adding another Darkblast. There is also the possibility of pulling a page from Legacy Ichorid and running Firestorm, which has the benefit of being able to kill multiple Jailers as well as Teeg. One Emerald Charm could also be switched to a Wispmare for added flexibility. While the Wispmare can be Evoked to generate Bridge tokens as well as brought back into play with Dread Return, the Emerald Charm is capable of untapping a Bazaar, which is a relatively significant option. Were I to run the deck again today, I would change the sideboard to look like this:
1 Platinum Angel
4 Ingot Chewer
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Emerald Charm
2 Contagion
2 Darkblast
1 Wispmare
This configuration allows you to bring in a flexible package heavy on Chain of Vapor for game two, before you know what type of hate you’re against, and then lets you focus in on specific answers for game three (if needed). You may notice the absence of Leyline of the Void, which is due to the fact that Ichorid remains under-represented locally. If that were to change, or if you play in an area heavy on aggro decks such as Affinity or Goblins, it would be wise to include Leyline of the Void in the sideboard. Generally speaking, my sideboard strategy on the draw was to remove 3 Unmask, 1 Fatestitcher, 1 Sadistic Hypnotist, 1 Chalice of the Void, and 1 Golgari Thug for seven answer cards, typically 2 Darkblast, 2 Chain of Vapor, and 3 Ingot Chewer. Depending on the opponent, it might be wise to remove all Chalice of the Voids, as the deck typically only plays Chalice on zero.
One interesting question that was raised after the tournament was the idea of when you should activate Bazaar during your first turn of side-boarded games when on the play, if ever. I maintain that there is little to nothing to lose by activating a Bazaar during your main phase provided you don’t have a Chalice of the Void in hand and are digging for one. This build does not run Force of Will and unless you use Unmask or hit blind with Cabal Therapy, you are basically open to whatever your opponent wants to do on their first turn. A Chalice of the Void against these decks not only shuts down Tormod’s Crypt but has the potential to cripple their mana and allow you to easily race. However, using Bazaar before their end-of-turn means that you are exposing your graveyard to whatever hate cards they might have (such as Relic or Crypt), especially should you not draw Chalice (which is the statistically likely outcome). I’m curious as to what the community considers the correct play. Personally, I have to admit that I’m going to try to draw into the Chalice of the Void, because it is such a powerful play and makes it nearly impossible to lose the game. Another interesting question is when to use Powder versus when to mulligan down a card. For instance, do you use Powder if you have two Bridge from Below in your hand?
To briefly recap the event, we had 32 players and five Swiss rounds. I lost in round two, having to mulligan to three in game one, and then again to five in game two, and then lost to a Pithing Needle on Bazaar. I won all four other rounds, defeating two Tezzeret decks, a Zoo deck, and a 5C Stax deck. The Zoo list I played against in round 5 was a hyper-aggressive build that seemed geared toward beating Tezzeret, with main-deck Teeg and Canonist supported by aggressive creatures like Tarmogoyf, Figure of Destiny, and Wild Nacatl. At the time we were both X-1 and playing for a win-and-in to the Top 8. Because this deck is also so strong against Remora decks and has game against Ichorid, it is another potential player in the metagame (yet one that continues, for the most part, to be ignored).
For the most part, I didn’t have too much trouble finding a Bazaar between the Powders and aggressive mulligans. While not capable of winning the game particularly quickly (generally you’re winning on turn three or four), this deck is still unbelievably fast. Often the first game involved me playing Chalice on zero to slow down my opponent, and then Dredging myself into a second-turn Hypnotist for the “win.” I won a game by Evoking Ingot Chewer and then using the tokens to Dread Return it back to play, destroying two artifacts (including a Time Vault). I also managed to beat 5C Stax game two despite taking a mulligan to five and then staring down first-turn Pithing Needle on Bazaar and a second-turn Wasteland and Crucible of Worlds. Despite this great start, the Stax deck could not find any threats, and I was able to simply draw up to seven and begin manually discarding and Dredging for six cards a turn without ever playing a single land.
In the top eight I beat Josh running a Gro deck that I believe was similar to the one Stephen Menendian ran at the Waterbury. I won the die roll and had an outstanding hand the first game, while in the second game Josh’s two Yixlid Jailers shut me down. In game three, Josh had to mulligan and exposed his Black Lotus without playing any hate cards. I evoked an Ingot Chewer, and then was able to Dread Return a Hypnotist and clean out his hand.
In the semi-finals I had to play Chas Hinkle running my Oath of Druids deck. Before the event, I’d made a few additional changes to freshen up the Oath deck. At the Philly Open 3 I ran two Hellkites and an Inkwell to max out on speed, as I knew more people were playing Ichorid and TPS and I might have to race. Blue Bell generally has a higher percentage of Workshop and Fish decks (where Progenitus is terrific) so I switched back for this event. I also removed the remaining Negates (as they’ve been increasingly weak against Remora and Tezzeret running additional Duress / Thoughtseize, as well as Fish) and the Echoing Truth, adding back in Misdirection, a fifth discard spell (going to a 3/2 Thoughtseize / Duress split) and a Crucible of Worlds. I then cut the Island, which is useful against decks trying to set up a Wasteland lock, but those decks are on the decline. I replaced it with a second Wasteland, and then added a third to the sideboard as well as a Life from the Loam. This would give the deck a third path to victory, especially against Remora and Tezzeret: mana denial by way of Strip Mine / Wasteland lock through Life from the Loam and/or Crucible of Worlds (as well as a way to generate advantage through recursion of fetch lands and a way to bring back a Forbidden Orchard).
The final list looked like this:
Creatures (3)
Lands (17)
Spells (36)
This list has a pretty robust anti-Dredge package, including Leyline, Echoing Truth, Needle, Crypt, and Wasteland at the expense of a weaker match-up against Workshop decks. While Oath has been relatively kind to me, this tournament offers a little bit of confirmation that the deck is, in fact, a solid choice that is capable of beating Tezzeret in the hands of a skilled pilot as well as one that can hold its own against Dredge and aggro. On his path to our meeting in the semi-finals, Chas won a quasi-Mirror against Oath, then lost to Jeremy Beaver‘s hybrid Tezzeret / Tendrils deck (a match that he said was winnable save for a potential misplay), defeated WUG Fish, Painter, and Tezzeret. In the Top 8, Chas defeated Tezzeret again to face me in the semi-finals. Going back to December, this Oath deck is now 7-4 against traditional Tezzeret decks, 2-0 against Tezzeret running Remora, 0-1 against Tezzeret with hybrid Storm, and 0-2 against traditional “Shaymora”-style Remora control. Chas felt that the Crucible of Worlds wasn’t necessary, suggested that we add Merchant Scroll back into the deck, and said the additional Duress in the main and SB were powerful additions.
I would’ve been bounced right out of the tournament save for some ridiculous luck against Chas. In the first game, a combination of mulligans and Serum Powders left me with a 40-card deck and a six-card hand before I found a Bazaar. I led with Bazaar and activated to dig for Chalice, but whiffed. Chas drew, played Wasteland and destroyed my Bazaar, and then played Gaea’s Blessing and shuffled the three cards I discarded (I believe a Stinkweed Imp, Ichorid, and Dread Return) back into my deck. What a beating! After a good shuffle, I untapped and drew another Bazaar. Playing and activating, I drew into a third Bazaar. This was enough to just barely win the race against the Oath deck. In the second game I was totally blown out by a Pithing Needle on Bazaar combined with a very fast Oath + Orchard. In game three I had some absolutely terrific Dredges and was able to Dread Return a turn-two Hypnotist for the win. Chas was sandbagging his Tormod’s Crypt for turn 2 to set me up for the blowout, but as it happened all day, that Hypnotist was ready to go before anyone (myself included) expected.
The finals saw me paired up against Jeremy Beaver, who made the Top 8 of the Philly Open 3. He was again running a hybrid Tezzeret / Tendrils deck, one which I think is very promising and quite powerful. He won the die roll and played Underground, Sapphire, Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, pass. Naturally I had Chalice of the Void sitting in my hand, useless. I played Bazaar and did my thing and sent the turn back to him. He untapped and dropped Tezzeret and tutored up Time Vault. I Dredged a few times and then set myself up to Dread Return an Ichorid into play and attack and kill Tezzeret. Unfortunately for me, Jeremy had a Vampiric Tutor for Voltaic Key, and that was that. In game two, I again didn’t have Chalice of the Void, but my hand was very strong. Jeremy took one mulligan, and his six-card hand had no lands, but it did have Mana Crypt, Black Lotus, and Tezzeret. Tezzeret again tutored up Time Vault, but this time I had Ingot Chewer to destroy it. From there I was able to win, while Jeremy was unable to draw any additional mana sources. The last game was anti-climatic as Jeremy played Underground Sea, Sol Ring, two Pithing Needles on Bazaar, and a Tormod’s Crypt for good measure. Jeremy told me that his change from the Philly Open was to cut Necropotence for a second Tezzeret, and it certainly was fantastic in our games.
The top four for this event (in order) was Tendrils / Tezzeret hybrid, Ichorid, Oath of Druids, and Ad Nauseam. I know that the Top 8 also included a 5C Stax, Tezzeret, and another Ichorid (Steve Silverman again, this time packing a full play-set of Force of Will) but I can’t recall the eighth deck. Both Ichorid players at the event made Top 8, again showing how strong this archetype is in a field dominated by Tezzeret. Traditional Tezzeret decks had to battle through the mirror match all day and actually struggled to make it into a Top 8 that allowed only one loss.
The metagame at this event showed that players are finally actively attempting to adapt to Vault / Key and the Tezzeret shell. I firmly believe that much of the concern regarding Time Vault, and Tezzeret in general, is a bit over-stated and that the format can adapt to some extent. Still, it would be greatly beneficial to the format if the DCI saw fit to un-restrict a few cards to make more viable archetypes (certainly Flash, Burning Wish, Balance, Gush, and Entomb all fit the bill to varying degrees).
I eagerly await the decision (or lack thereof) by the DCI and hope to see some interesting discussion in the forums…
Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on Xbox Live and SCG forums