1 Wonder
4 Psychatog
4 Ichorid
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Putrid Imp
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Life from the Loam
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Deep Analysis
4 Chrome Mox
4 Zombie Infestation1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Watery Grave
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Riftstone Portal
2 Swamp
Sideboard:
3 Smother
4 Oxidize
4 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Riftstone Portal |
   Ichorid
2005.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
The real story of the week, though, is the
emergence of another aggressive deck, Ichorid. Moving from zero to sixty
in less than seven days, Friggin' Rizzo's pet deck has gone from a
completely unknown commodity to the dominating deck of the format. I am
certain that it was the strongest performer by percentage of all decks
last week, and the raw numbers put it in fourth place already (third if
you don't count Affinity's lack of invitations despite number of raw Top
8s). For example, in the PTQ in Newington, Connecticut, there was, I
believe, one Ichorid deck played total, and it went undefeated in the
Swiss; the deck took both first and second place in Butler, PA along the
way to its lone Blue Envelope, and peppered additional PTQ Top 8s.
Consider if you will the raw number of players who consistently don't
make Top 8 with highly popular decks like Boros Deck Wins and NO Stick
and then compare the numbers on the week's Top 8 tallies. Ichorid
finished within two rungs of top position with perhaps 1/20 the player
support that Boros Deck Wins commands.
This is the deck I used in Newington (this deck on this page).
This version remains fairly close to the Osyp Lebedowicz deck discussed
in the World Championships Blog. The most important difference, other
than cleaning up the main deck numbers (i.e. no Dimir Infiltrator) is in
mana base and aggressive sideboard. I played two Riftstone Portals in
the main deck and two additional copies in the sideboard to support an
overwhelming thirteen total anti-Affinity cards.
Affinity is, if not the deck's worst match-up, its worst expected
opponent. The problem is that a bland Affinity draw of Myr Enforcers
will be able to trump Ichorid's nuttiest 3/1 draws (though almost no
deck can stop the deck's most Wonderful Teeth draw). As such, the
direction I decided to take the deck was to ensure that Affinity
couldn't win sideboard games (turn 1 Putrid Imp discarding Riftstone
Portal, turn 2 Kataki, War's Wage was a common opening), relying on the
fundamentally superior game plan of Ichorid to beat any other
strategies. This worked up until the Top 8, where I lost my first (and
last) match on the day after cleverly declaring three mulligans into a
four card, no land, hand.
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