Ichorid is the format's heartbeat. Every upkeep, both players scan the shared graveyard: is there a black creature to exile? Because of the shared pile, the answer is almost always yes — the question is whether you want to spend that resource now or destroy it. Ichorid deals three haste damage and leaves the battlefield itself, however ichorid cannot exile its own body to reanimate. Eight copies ensures the format never lacks for a trigger, but also means the pile fills with Ichorids quickly. The question of which Ichorid to exile for which upkeep is the central recurring skill test.

One mana to swap a hand creature for any creature in the shared graveyard. This is the format's retrieval engine and its safety valve simultaneously. It lets you pull the critical black creature out of the pile before your opponent can use it as Ichorid food — or it lets you trade a dead card in hand for a live threat. In practice, Tortured Existence activates happen at instant speed, often on the opponent's upkeep when they are about to benefit from a graveyard trigger. The format's deepest games are decided by who controls Tortured Existence and when.

Three creatures directly into the shared graveyard at once. Buried Alive is the single most explosive setup spell in the format — and the most dangerous. Cast it at the wrong moment and you have just loaded your opponent's next three Ichorid triggers. Cast it with a Tortured Existence in play and mana open, and you can often retrieve the best piece before they can respond. The correct use of Buried Alive is one of the hardest decisions in Ichordân: this card rewards patience and punishes greed.

The cleanest way to get Ichorid into the shared graveyard — one mana, at instant speed, and it gains flying as a bonus. In a shared format the timing of when you discard is everything. Binning a creature at the start of your upkeep is usually correct; discarding during your own main phase risks feeding their upkeep trigger before you can use yours. At threshold, Putrid Imp also becomes a 2/2 flyer that can't block, which adds evasive pressure in the late game.

One mana to permanently exile any card from the shared graveyard. Withered Wretch is the format's surgical instrument: it lets either player fight over specific targets rather than letting the pile become automatic Ichorid food. Two copies is the right number — enough to appear consistently, not enough to dominate games by exhausting the entire pile. The threat of a Wretch activation keeps both players honest about which cards they let sit in the shared graveyard.

A Thrull bred for one purpose: to die on command. Blood Pet blocks in the early game, sacrifices for mana when you need to push through a key spell, and immediately drops a black creature card into the shared grave — exactly where Ichorid wants it. Under the defender rule, its inability to attack is irrelevant; it was never supposed to advance. It waits, serves, and falls. The core play pattern writes itself: Blood Pet sits. You sacrifice it for {B}. It enters the public grave. On the next upkeep, either player may exile it to return Ichorid. A better drowned creature than anything with ambitions.

Where Blood Pet is cheap fuel, Blood Vassal is the burst offering. Two mana in, two black mana out — a body that holds the line at 2/2 then cracks open into the mana you need to play Buried Alive on the same turn, fire off a Diabolic Edict with extra pressure, or push Tortured Existence activations through a lean mana development. The format needed more than one sacrifice-for-mana creature, but not eight of them. Two Blood Vassals alongside four Blood Pets gives the deck three distinct utility roles without collapsing into a single repeated loop. The Thrull serves. Then it dies. That is enough.

One copy. That is the correct count, and the reasons are all about format texture. Crypt Rats is a mana sink that doubles as a sweeper, a life-pressure valve, and a finisher if the board stalls behind a wall of 0/1 defenders. Activate it for one to clear a cluttered battlefield; activate it for three to drain both players and break a symmetrical grind. Under the defender rule, an opponent sitting behind blockers with no Ichorid in the grave is particularly vulnerable — Crypt Rats reaches over the defensive wall and drains life directly. One copy is enough. Two would make graveyard-filling feel punishing in a way that kills the format's rhythm. One is a threat that changes how both players think about the late game.

One mana, at instant speed, for any card directly to the shared grave. Entomb is the high-agency card: it finds Ichorid at end of step, sets up the upkeep trigger, and lets you sequence the return before your opponent can position a Withered Wretch activation or Tortured Existence response. The most reliable line is end-step Entomb Ichorid → upkeep exile Blood Pet → return Ichorid → attack → sacrifice at end step. Two copies, not four. Four Entombs makes the deck too scripted; the format wants improvisation around a messy shared grave, not a clockwork engine. Entomb is the scalpel. Use it surgically.

Less precise than Entomb, more honest to the format. Corpse Churn mills three cards into the shared grave — which may include your Ichorid, their Blood Vassal, or the one Blood Pet both players were watching — and then lets you claw one creature back to hand. It adds genuine uncertainty. You cannot fully predict what it buries. That unpredictability is a feature, not a fault; it keeps both players reading the same pile rather than executing separate scripts. Corpse Churn is the better format card. Entomb is the better power card. Two of each is the correct starting point.