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Thread: [Deck] Food Chain Combo

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    [Deck] Food Chain Combo

    Food Chain Combo - Currently being revised as of February 17th, 2015.



    (link to the old primer: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...od-Chain-Combo)

    I - What is the deck about?
    II - Examples of decklists
    III - How does the deck win?
    IV - Key Cards
    V - Utility creatures
    VI - Protection
    VII - Cantrips
    VIII - Lands
    IX - Less common Cards
    X - Sideboarding
    XI - Why Play This Deck?
    XII - Matchups
    XIII - Articles, videos etc.


    I - What is the deck about?

    The Food Chain deck is a midrange BUG deck, utilizing strong, grindy bug-cards such as Deathrite Shaman, Baleful Strix and Abrupt Decay, but with the possiblity of a combo finish. The combo revolves around resolving a Food Chain and a Misthollow Griffin. Once this is achieved the griffin is exiled with the Food Chain to generate five blue mana. Four of those five mana are used to recast the griffin from exile. This process is repeated an arbitrary large amount of times each time netting an extra mana and creating infinite mana of all colors - which can only be used to cast creatures. From here there are usually two ways to win. Either the 'half-combo' where "all" you are doing is casting 3-4 Misthollow Griffins which can then act as a vigilent, flying, unremovable army of 3/3, or the 'full combo' where you cast a big fatty to just end the game. This was once Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Many have since moved on to play Tidespout Tyrant as the winning fatty. Bouncing your opponent's entire board is usually just as effective as swinging with Emrakul. And being blue and CMC8 is a lot better than being non-blue CMC15.

    The deck should not be viewed as a straight up combo deck as in that respect it isn't even remotely as consistent (or consistantly fast) as some of Legacy's other combo decks (like storm or sneak and show). Instead it should be viewed as a robust midrange deck that has it in its arsenal to just win on the spot, but which will often not do so but instead grind out victory. The Misthollow Griffins are actually also very effective at grinding. They can often be recycled for very good value out of the graveyard, either by getting eaten by your deathrite for life or being delved away to pay for a Dig Through Time. The fact that the griffins can't be hit by Abrupt Decay and that they usually make for a very, very unprofitable Swords to Plowshares target also enhance their value and help towards making up for the relative weakness of a 3/3 flier for 4 mana. We haven't even mentioned how good it feels to pitch one to a Force of Will or Misdirection.

    II - Examples of decklists
    Jeffrey Chen - SCG Premier IQ, February 15th, 2015 - First place finish http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=80067

    4x Baleful Strix
    1x Birds of Paradise
    4x Deathrite Shaman
    2x Genesis Hydra
    4x Misthollow Griffin
    1x Tidespout Tyrant
    2x Vendilion Clique
    4x Food Chain
    3x Abrupt Decay
    4x Brainstorm
    2x Dig Through Time
    1x Dimir Charm
    4x Force of Will
    1x Misdirection
    3x Manipulate Fate
    1x Forest
    1x Island
    1x Swamp
    1x Bayou
    4x Misty Rainforest
    2x Polluted Delta
    3x Tropical Island
    3x Underground Sea
    4x Verdant Catacombs

    Sideboard:
    2x Grafdigger's Cage
    2x Relic of Progenitus
    1x Abrupt Decay
    2x Disfigure
    2x Golgari Charm
    2x Umezawa's Jitte
    1x Venser, Shaper Savant
    3x Duress

    Jonathan Job - SCG Open Los Angeles, March 23rd, 2014 - Fourth place finish http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=65228

    4x Shardless Agent
    1x Deathrite Shaman
    4x Misthollow Griffin
    4x Noble Hierarch
    2x Tidespout Tyrant
    2x Wall of Blossoms
    1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2x Vendilion Clique
    2x Venser, Shaper Savant
    4x Food Chain
    1x Sylvan Library
    4x Brainstorm
    4x Force of Will
    1x Misdirection
    3x Manipulate Fate

    3x Forest
    4x Island
    4x Misty Rainforest
    1x Scalding Tarn
    4x Tropical Island
    1x Underground Sea
    3x Verdant Catacombs
    1x Karakas

    Sideboard:
    2x Grafdigger's Cage
    2x Null Rod
    2x Phyrexian Revoker
    4x Obstinate Baloth
    1x Misdirection
    4x Submerge

    Martin Bosco - TLA - 2013 - Legacy - Jouernaut. First place finish out of 497 (27.10.2013) http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=12104

    1x Dryad Arbor
    1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2x Birds of Paradise
    2x Mulldrifter
    2x Progenitus
    3x Misthollow Griffin
    4x Fierce Empath
    4x Noble Hierarch
    2x Daze
    4x Brainstorm
    4x Force of Will
    3x Manipulate Fate
    4x Natural Order
    4x Food Chain
    2x Sensei's Divining Top
    2x Forest
    2x Scalding Tarn
    2x Windswep Heath
    4x Island
    4x Misty Rainforest
    4x Tropical Island

    Sideboard:
    3x Leyline of Sanctity
    3x Relic of Progenitus
    4x Show and Tell
    1x Griselbrand
    2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2x Omniscience

    Gottfried Sjödahl - Danish Legacy Masters 23.03.13 - 4th place finish out of 85 players http://mtgpulse.com/event/12649#177066

    3x Misthollow Griffin
    3x Fierce Empath
    1x Consecrated Sphinx
    1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    4x Baleful Strix
    4x Deathrite Shaman
    4x Brainstorm
    3x Abrupt Decay
    4x Force of Will
    3x Manipulate Fate
    4x Ponder
    3x Inquisition of Kozilek
    4x Food Chain
    1x Swamp
    1x Island
    2x Underground Sea
    2x Bayou
    3x Tropical Island
    4x Polluted Delta
    3x Verdant Catacombs
    3x Misty Rainforest

    Sideboard:
    2x Obstinate Baloth
    3x Spell Pierce
    3x Golgari Charm
    1x Abrupt Decay
    1x Misdirection
    1x Duress
    1x Cabal Therapy
    3x Relic of Progenitus

    III - How does the deck win?

    Fighting Fair:
    You have a decent shot at winning many of your matches simply by playing fair, grindy magic. Deathrite Shaman, Baleful Strix and Abrupt Decay are mighty good magic cards and if you get into a grindfest then Misthollow Griffin synergizes very well with Deathrite Shamans and give you a boon in grinding out a game (an example could be to repeatedly chump block a big Tarmogoyf and just keep eating your own griffin and replaying it). Manipulate Fate also works very well when trying to gain a foothold in a grindy game as it is effectively card advantage. The trick in this scenario is often to play like a control deck. Kill their relevant threats with Abrupt Decay, hold down the fort with Strix and attack their life total and graveyard with Deathrite Shaman. If you get to resolve a Manipulate Fate start thinking about shifting gears and going on the aggressive.

    Half Combo:
    If you have a Food Chain out as well as access to one or more of your griffins you get to go infinite a.k.a. you can now produce as much mana of any color as you want with the only caveat being that you can only use it to cast creatures. This means that your griffins now effectively have vigilance as you can attack with them and then, during your second main phase, you can exile them to Food Chain and recast them. It also means that any griffin is able to step in front of an attacker and block, and then, before damage, you can exile it to Food Chain to pseudo Fog them. Ideally you will have resolved a Manipulate Fate earlier during the game and have access to at least three griffins. A lot of the time, opponents will have a hard time dealing with this and you can steam roll them to victory.

    The Combo Kill:
    Calling it a kill might be a bit of a stretch as your opponent probably won’t die until your attack step during your next turn, but in a vast, vast majority of cases it will de facto mean victory. Like with the ‘Half Combo’ you have Food Chain out and access to one or more griffins granting you infinite mana. The difference is that you now also have access to your combo finisher. This card can be a variety of different bombs or creatures that tutor for them. In days past it was either Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, or a Fierce Empath that tutored him up. These days we use Tidespout Tyrant and/or Genesis Hydra to tutor him up.

    The way it works with Hydra is: you make infinite mana. You cast Hydra for X = [the size of your library or more]. This way, as Hydra is cast, its trigger lets you reveal your library when you cast it and put into play one permanent with CMC X or less. You choose Tidespout Tyrant. Tyrant gets put into play (it isn’t cast, so it cannot be countered) and then Hydra resolves and is now X/X. Winning from here is usually arbitrary. You exile and replay your griffins each time bouncing one of your opponent’s permanents. Once done with that you can start bouncing your own Hydra and replay it to start putting in Baleful Strix and then bouncing those and replaying them, drawing as many cards as you feel like. Usually a scoop will have occurred by now.



    IV - Key cards

    Combo enablers:

    • Food Chain: Not much to be said about this card. The combo engine of the deck. It’s worth it to note that Pithing Needle naming Food Chain will do exactly nothing. Food Chain’s ability is a mana ability and therefore cannot be stopped by a Pithing Needle. Nor can it be Stifled or even responded to. Phyrexian Revoker can stop Food Chain as it stops mana abilities, so be aware of that sucker.
    • Misthollow Griffin: The other half of the infinite mana loop. A 3/3 flyer for UU2 is not something to write home about. They shine in two situations. 1 is to pitch to a Force of Will or a Misdirection (value town) and 2 is in conjunction with a resolved Food Chain. In both situations the griffins are worth their weight in gold. But if you are able to resolve a Manipulate Fate then just casting a Griffin every turn is not too shabby.
    • Tidespout Tyrant: When comboing off most often our win condition.




    Tutors:

    • Genesis Hydra: For the most part a fantastic upgrade to Fierce Empath. Lets you "tutor" for Tyrant for the win and - more importantly - when without Food Chain can still be a very effective card that will do a pseudo Cascade and can put a Deathrite, Strix or Food Chain uncounterably into play while acting as a relavent threat by itself.
    • Manipulate Fate: Ah, the most efficient tutor in the deck and one of the most fun cards to resolve. Will nearly always be a “reader” as not very many people will have seen it before. In this deck it’s stupidly good. The card might as well read: U1, sorcery. Search your library for 3 cards named Misthollow Griffin and put them into your hand. Shuffle your library. Draw a card. Seeing as this is a bit of a rogue deck most opponents won’t know what this is for the first time they play you. I mean, reading the card, it just looks bad. The truth is that this is often what allows you to set up a win. If you already have one of your griffins in hand then go find 2 griffins and another copy of Fate. Once an opponent is wise to what you’re up to this card will have a big countermagic bulls eye on it so be mindful of that. But that can also work in your favor as it can be used to bait out countermagic when you already have a griffin in hand.



    V - Utility creatures

    Having a saturation of spells at both 2, 3 and 4CMC ramping mana is often where you want to be. Ideally you want creatures on the board already before resolving a Food Chain too. That means playing enough cheap creatures that actually matter. Examples of those:

    Mana Dorks:
    • Deathrite Shaman: The jack of all trades when it comes to mana dorks. Ideally you want your dork to always be able to generate mana on turn 2 and as such an argument can be made for Noble Hierarch over DRS. But the versatility, ability to act as a win condition of his own and his synergy with a griffin in the yard (the only place we do NOT want our griffins to end up) make him quite exceptional.
    • Noble Hierarch/Birds of Paradise: Mana ramp is great and is an integral part of the deck as it allows us to power out a Food Chain on turn 2. The Exalted from Hierarch can often become relevant as well.


    2cmc 'cycle' creatures:
    • Baleful Strix: A fantastic value creature. Pitches to Force of Will and Misdirection, replaces itself and trades with flipped Delvers and Tarmogoyf. The effectiveness of this guy usually is connected to how many Tarmogoyfs are being played in a current meta. The more Goyfs, the better Strix usually is. A very effective tool in prolonging games to the point where you start to gain control.
    • Wall of Blossoms (RETIRED): We need a 2CMC creature to help our mana curve out and make comboing off with Food Chain more smooth. The wall is also great at blocking
      Nimble Moongose and Mishra’s Factories all day long and cycles when he enters the battlefield. The advantage of this creature over Baleful Strix is that it is mono colored. Occasionally it is a problem to get a strix down using Food Chain as it can only create one color mana per activation.
    • Coiling Oracle(RETIRED): Like Strix this pitches to force of will and has the added bonus of occasionally giving you a 2nd land drop in one turn. Downside is that you have to reveal the card drawn. Also 1/1 Vanilla is infinitely worse than 1/1 flying deathtouch in most situations.


    Evoke creatures: (Mostly retired mechanic. While Evoke is very abusable if you have a Food Chain out, the creatures with Evoke are too weak without Food Chain. Playing them fills up your deck with clunky cards that situationally can be very strong, but will often be weak).

    Evoke is a mechanic that has a very abuseable synergy with Food Chain. When you cast something for its evoke cost the "must sacrifice" clause in the Evoke cost is actually a triggered ability. This means you can respond to it by exiling the creature to the Food Chain. Now because Food Chain only cares about the converted mana cost of the creature, and the converted mana cost is always what is printed in the top right hand corner then you get to ramp mana from this interaction. As an example: pay UU1 to cast Aethersnipe for its evoke cost. With the evoke sacrifice clause on the stack, exile Aethersnipe for its converted mana cost 6+1 = 7 mana of any one color. Now both the evoke trigger and Aethersnipe's bounce trigger will try and resolve. Aethersnipe is no longer on the battlefield to be sacrificed so that ability fizzles. If what it targeted with the bounce effect is still a legal target upon resolution, the bounce will still happen, and you now have 7 mana in your pool. Pretty neat

    • Aethersnipe: The bounce effect will from time to time become your only main deck answer to some permanent based hate. An example of this is its relevance in game one against Death and Taxes as a Phyrexian Revoker colds our Food Chain. Is also a nice additional answer to Show and Tell and of course acts as a way to get our own Griselbrand into play without a Griffin (see above).
    • Mulldrifter: As with Aethersnipe, Mulldrifter is another way to exploit the synergy of Food Chain and Evoke. Some players (including myself) have moved away from playing this creature as it is really only a card when there is a Food Chain resolved. That being said, when that is the case it is awesome. It then nets us 3 mana of any one color and draws us 2 cards.
    • Others:
      • Shardless Agent: Some people have chosen to go all in on the midrange plan. This creature symbolizes that transition. If you play this, then you want enough value cards to cascade into. With it, you can make some sweet plays like cascading into a Manipulate Fate with Food Chain out and turn one Shardless Agent into three griffins plus drawing a card for your troubles. This card requires more build-around than most people care to consider and I'm not sure I favour it in this deck.
      • Vendilion Clique: Significantly improves our storm matchup to run a few of these. It's just an all round value creature that our mana base can support and I like running one to two.
      • Venser, Shaper Savant: A nice utility creature that can put some work in, in some odd situations, like saving our Food Chain (for a turn, at least) from an Abrupt Decay, to bouncing a land with an Infernal Tutor on the stack. Still, at 4cmc, and in relation to your main combo plan, you've got to ask yourself how often you're going to enjoy this guy sitting in your opening hand.



    Warning: the rest of this primer has yet to be updated (February 17th, 2015).

    VI - Protection

    Counterspells:

    • Force of Will: this card is particularly relevant when playing with the Griffins as they can be pitched and still played later from exile. Pretty straight forward.
    • Misdirection: this will be meta dependant. It’s awesome to have 1-2 extra force of wills in counter wars, but Misdirection can also do a lot of work to re-direct an Abrupt Decay trying to pick off your Food Chain or a wayward Hymn to Tourach.
    • Daze: Can be used to protect the combo while going off on early turns. Quickly loses its relevance though.
    • Spell Pierce: stays relevant for longer but not as good on the combo turn as Daze unless you have waited an additional turn to leave up the U required. Would rarely see how both Pierce and Daze can be fit in so it will usually be one or the other if either at all.

    Targeted discard:
    • Duress, Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek. They can all be relevant in different scenarios. Running discard should mainly be to pick off something like a Thalia or Revoker, or alternatively, an Abrupt Decay or to help fight faster combo decks. Some people prefer to have discard in the sideboard to bring in and then rely solely on countermagic to protect the combo game 1.


    VII - Cantrips
    • Brainstorm: Not going to write an essay on why Brainstorm is awesome.


    Whether or not you want to run Brainstorm's less beautiful cousins, Ponder or Preordain, will depend on how you decide to balance your deck between cantripping creatures and cantrip non-creature spells. This is actually a point of some contention. Most people recognize that the deck needs to run a critical number of creatures to opperate. As such and argument can be made for running cantripping creatures over cantripping instants and sorceries. Examples of these creatures are the aforementioned Mulldrifter and Court Hussar as well as Raven Familiar. The issue with these creatures are that they are quite mediocre up until you get a Food Chain resolved. Once that happens it quickly becomes value town. The problem with this is, that we want our cantrips to help find the Food Chain, not to be awesome once we've found it. I believe the proper way to go about it is to run some number of "elvish visionary" type creatures (2-drops that draw a card when entering the battlefield) along your mana dorks. As such we can meet our need for having enough creatures but should still have room for some non-creature cantrips.

    VIII - Lands
    • This will greatly depend on your deck construction. For a combo deck this deck is hungry for mana and so don't get too overreliant on our mana dorks thinking that means we can skimp on land. I'd say we need to run at least 19 lands. 20 might be more correct. I'd argue that you should be working to include some basics in whichever list you end up with. Against wastelands you'll often need to be able to fetch out an island and a forest. The first to be able to cantrip and the latter to be able to put out mana dorks and eventually ensure you can produce the G for Food Chain.
    • Ancient Tomb: I personally like running at least two of these. Especially if you're running Natural Order as you will more often be able to combo on turn 2.


    IX - Less common cards
    • Natural Order: Some people are having success with running a Natural Order package as a secondary combo plan to Food Chain. The upside is that you are able to attack your opponent from different angles and won’t get colded by an ill-timed Surgical Extraction or the likes. The downside is mostly the space it takes up in the deck. You typically sacrifice either cantrips or counterspells both of which are needed to enhance your Food Chain plan. You also need to up your green creature count. You are also likely to have to make consessions on your "plan B" as it is hard to fit in main deck grindy cards like Baleful Strix and Abrupt Decay when you have dedicate space for this combo. Makes the deck more explosive but worse at its midrange plan.
    • Lim-Dűl’s Vault: The main issue of the deck has always been to find a reliable way to tutor for Food Chain. Cards such as Intuition have been tried to limited success. Even a white splash for Enlightened Tutor. LDV seems like the best option if your mana base can support the black splash. I’d recommend running this as a one- or two of.
    • Show and Tell: Some decks run a transformational sideboard plan which seeks to transform the deck into a show and tell deck siding in more emrakuls and griselbrands.
    • Vela the Night-Clad: An alternative win con to Emrakul. Avoids combat so isn't bothered by cards like Ensaring Bridge. Also pitches to Force of Will and can be tutored up Empath. One problem, though, is that targeted creature removal will stop us from winning. Once she enters the battlefield they can respond to us casting our first Griffin by casting a Swords to Plowshares on her.
    • Drift of Phantasms: This is at times used as a one-of because of its versitility. It can tutor for Food Chain (albeit at sorcery speed and for UU1) as well as for Fierce Empath. It can, alternatively, also do quite a decent job at blocking. And if it does end up on the battlefield like that it can always be fed into the Food Chain for mana when you need to.
    • Shardless Agent: An argument can be made about running Agent as a way to strengthen our non-combo plan. Also, Agent into Manipulate Fate with a Food Chain on board will usually = three Griffins in play and infi mana. Playing this card or not will depend on how big of an emphasis you want to put on being a combo deck.



    Retired cards
    • Maga, Traitor to Mortals: Used, predominately early on, as an alternative win con to Emrakul. Maga has pretty much been retired now. You can’t use the Empath to tutor for Maga and the win depends on an EtB trigger than can be stifled.



    X - Sideboarding
    How you sideboard with this deck will depend wholly on your strategy. Some people aim to run transformational sideboards. Either something like a Show and Tell package or alternatively a beatdown plan including Tarmogoyfs and Vendilion Cliques. In my opinion, all plans need to take into account our weak matchups which is primarily other combo decks. We need graveyard hate to fight dredge and reanimator and we need answers to storm combo decks as well.

    Other than that we need a way to answer hatebears. Abrupt Decay is great at this and since our mana base is much stronger than many other combo decks (it needs to be as we are more mana hungry) we don't have to settle for bounce spells. Running sweeping effects such as Golgari Charm or Dread of Night is also a good way to go about hitting Death and Taxes and Maverick.

    A template for a sideboard might look something like this:

    4x Gravehate
    2-4x Additional countermagic. Flusterstorm or Swan Song are strong
    2-4x Abrupt Decay
    2-3x Sweeper effects, Golgari Charm for instance.

    Some other cards to consider would be:

    Misdirection
    Thoughtseize
    Spellskite
    Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    XI - Why Play This Deck?

    How does this deck compare to other (combo) decks?

    So why play this deck? Well it's a lot of fun first of all. There are other faster and more consistent combo decks out there, but this does have some merits when compared to them:
    • No reliance on the graveyard: Unlike many other combo decks of the format we don't care one iota about graveyard hate (extraction effects on a discarded or countered Food Chain notwithstanding).
    • Combo unaffected by Gaddock Teeg: Okay mr T(eeg) stops Natural Order, but our main plan shits all over him seeing as our combo is mainly creature based and Food Chain is 3CMC.
    • Combo (largely) unaffected by Thalia: Getting a Food Chain on the battlefield at 4CMC can be tricky but otherwise your combo, much like with Teeg, doesn't care about the Tax that Thalia demands.
    • An Emrakul that doesn't care about Karakas: You hard cast Emrakul. It's the only way for you to get him into play. That means you get an extra turn. That means screw Karakas. If they bounce him, make another million mana with your griffins and re-cast him, get another extra turn and Bob's your sister
    • The ability to play a "normal" game of magic: Unlike nearly all other combo decks in legacy The Food Chain deck is able to actually cast spells that can fuel a non-combo win strategy. Guess what, Deathrite Shaman is a really good creature, Baleful Strix is a really good creature. In a weird way, Misthollow Griffin is even - in this deck - a really good creature. It flies, it is immune to two out of the format's three most played removal spells (Abrupt Decay and Swords to Plowshares) and the deck runs a tutor that for 2 mana tutors up all three of them and lets you cantrip (Manipulate Fate).

      In practice this means, that where most combo decks get completely shut down by certain combo hosers, the Food Chain deck is able to deploy a secondary strategy that is quite solid. I like to run this deck like a midrange BUG deck with a strong combo element to it. That means running a full set of Deathrites as well as some Abrupt Decays in the main.
    Last edited by nevilshute; 02-17-2015 at 09:04 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Food Chain Combo

    XII - Matchups
    • Death and Taxes - even-to-slightly-unfavourable
      This matchup becomes a lot more managable if you are splashing black. What will kill you is if they get a clock on you (Stoneforge Mystic) AND are successful with their mana denial strategy (so fetch basics). As an added wild card in game 1, Phyrexian Revoker will also be a big problem for you as you now need to find your Aethersnipe to bounce it if you want to combo off. That being said we can still win before they get set up but I'd say we are probably the underdog game 1 against a skilled pilot although not by a huge margin.

      After sideboarding they get to bring in Ethersworn Canonist but not much else. The canonist shuts you down in your tracks and will need an answer. Luckily we get to bring in Abrupt Decays and Golgari Charms which will often be enough to hose them. Dread of Night is also an option instead of the Golgari Charms but it doesn't deal with Revoker.

      Try to be fast in game 1 as they will most likely win the long game. After sideboards you still have the possibility of a quick and dirty combo win, but you will probably end up taking up a more controling role. Get down your Food Chains even if they have a revoker naming it. Build up your hand and board and then, when everything is assembled, kill their hatebear(s) and win. This setup might involve creature combat and chump blocking but can often come out favorably for us.

      *If you are running a NO package then you can sidestep the revoker issue in game 1. The problem will be to a) have a green creature survive for long enough to get NO'd and b) to get to 4 non-food chained mana.

    • Sneak and Show - around even
      They are faster than us. They also have as much if not more countermagic to protect themselves. They do, however, run the risk of you holding something relevant for their Show and Tell such as your own Emrakul, Griselbrand or Aethersnipe. They also won't have a way to deal with a resolved Food Chain. They won't be bothering to counter your 1 and 2 CMC creatures so try and set up your board. This will most likely come down to a race to see who gets there first. This will usually be them and that's tough. Your counterspells (and targeted discard if you run it main) will be very valuable to you in this matchup.

      You will have to bank on getting a little lucky and either go off before them, have enough counter to deal with their combo or have a "hate" piece in hand for their show and tell.

      Natural Order seems quite weak here as Progenitus is just embarrassing when facing emrakul or griselbrand.

      After sideboard be mindful of their Red blasts as they will be looking to counter your griffins. This is true against any red deck and something to be aware of. Normally your opponent will ALWAYS attempt to counter your Food Chain. If they let your Food Chain resolve you can normally be completely sure they won't be holding any countermagic that can target your griffin (disregarding corner cases with Daze). But here you might get to resolve your Food Chain only to have your one griffin red blasted and uselessly now in the yard.

      After board, Golgari Charm can be a hedge against Sneak Attack. Other than that I'd advise bringing in more counterspells. Vendilion Clique is a great card in this matchup if you have them.



    • Omniclash
      A lot of the same principles apply against Omniclash as against Sneak and Show. One major difference is that your spoiler cards in hand (Emrakul, Griselbrand) are by and large cold against them (Aethersnipe notwithstanding). They resolve show and tell and turn over Omniscience, your emrakul is not doing anything. Griselbrand might draw you into enough countermagic to counter their incoming Enter the Infinite but it's not for sure and if they are already holding countermagic it's going to be an uphill battle.

      They are slower than Sneak and Show and do not have access to red blasts post board.

    • ANT/TES - unfavourable
      One of our worst matchups. We go into this a pretty big underdog. This should be reflected in your sideboard where we need to be able to get in more tools to fight them. They are faster than us, more consistent and play proactive disruption in the form of targeted discard which can both target our combo pieces as well as our countermagic. That being said it's by no means an unwinnable matchup. Hope to get a hand both with force of will(s), a Deathrite Shaman as well as some cards that actually matter to your gameplan (Food Chain, Manipulate Fate etc). Then, also hope that your opponent hasn't gotten a discard heavy hand. In this matchup we need to hurry up and win. We need to be able to do this while having some countermagic to protect ourselves with.

      After sideboard it does get better. I advise boarding in both targeted discard and more countermagic. Also, if you're running the NO package having access to Ruric Thar post board helps a lot. Be mindful of their Xantid Swarms when you stare into that beautiful counter heavy hand.

      All in all a bad matchup.

      *Update 26 May 2014: I've begun running 3 Meddling Mages in the sideboard to some success. The cost of this in my build currently has been to replace a Tropical Island with a Savannah. If you, like me, expect to face this weekly then I recommend this plan.

    • Delver Tempo - slightly-unfavourable (RUG, BUG UWR et al)
      Depending on which tempo deck you meet this is a very swingey matchup. If they manage to do what a delver deck does and strangle our resources while dropping an early threat, our mana- and creature hungry plan will quickly become untenable. You need to play against the tempo deck like you would if you were playing with most other decks which means that you fetch basics and do so while playing around Stifle and Daze. You might also need to invest countermagic into protecting your early creature drops from their removal. This can be hazardous as you might need the countermagic to be able to go off through their countermagic.

      A resolved Manipulate Fate can be very strong against them. 3/3 flyers blank their delver of secrets which is often their quickest threat. They also have no way to interact with a resolved Food Chain*. Your plan against these decks will be to play out your creatures while cantripping. You need to build up a mana base and some creatures and ideally win on the turn you resolve your Food Chain. The half-combo (Griffins + Food Chain but no Emrakul) will be enough 90 % of the time against them, but of course the full combo is better.

      They typically don't run any hatebear type effects in their sideboard (caveat: UWR might side in Canonist and/or Meddling Mages). Only thing to really watch out for after boards is Krosan Grips in RUG-delver.

      If they get the nuts (a flipped delver, countermagic and are able to stifle/wasteland/bolt your mana sources) prepare to lose. If you are able to sidestep this then the matchup improves a lot. The same logic prevails in at least 2 of the 3 varients (BUG and RUG) which is that they can't handle a lot on the board very well. So the more Baleful Strix and Deathrite Shaman you play, combined with resolving a Manipulate Fate and you can reach a point where they can't apply pressure any more. Main deck Abrupt Decays also goes some way to tip this towards us as they are quite thread-light decks and decaying a delver or goyf at the opportune moment can buy us quite a bit of time. The longer the game goes, the more favourable it becomes for us.

      *The BUG variants have Abrupt Decay so they are exempt from this statement.

    • Elves - favourable
      A favorable matchup. They will probably be a little faster than us at reaching their combo turn but that's not a given. During game 1 they will in all likelihood have zero ways of interacting with our combo whereas we have countermagic to interrupt them. Therefor be sure to counter their combo pieces (Natural Order if it kills you, like, count their creatures including how many are summoning sick, ask yourself 'do I die to a craterhoof right now?'; Glimpse of Nature most of the time, but be mindful of the board state and size of their hand as they might be bating). As long as you can keep them from comboing (which, of course, is not a given that you can) you will often be able to goldfish them as they don't mess with your plan.

      Also, don't go for the NO plan yourself unless you have sufficient countermagic to protect yourself during the turns in takes for Progenitus to kill them. Your Progenitus won't be a match for their Craterhoof alpha swing for 40+.

      After sideboards watch out for discard and Abrupt Decays. Some lists also run Qasali Pridemages so be mindful of those. Bring in Golgari Charms.

    • Shardless BUG
      Prior to the printing of Abrupt Decay this was a fine matchup. But Abrupt Decay pushes it towards them being favourites. Their discard spells can be rough. Misdirections shine against Hymns and can be decisive. They don't have enough countermagic nor a particularly fast clock but you will need to dodge their discards. If you go for the NO plan (which is a fine option in this matchup) be mindful of Liliana, ie. leave up another creature to sack if at all possible. If you've been able to dodge their discard you still need to keep an eye out for Abrupt Decay. You often won't win from the first Food Chain you resolve. Targeted discard works quite well against them.

      This matchup can often drag out long enough for a suspended Ancestral Vision to become relevant. Misdirection is a house against vision.

    • Esper Stoneblade (and Deathblade variants)
      A matchup that can be troublesome depending on what build they're running. Playing against both countermagic and targeted discard is always a challenge. Generally I find the more controlling builds with Snapcaster Mages and Vendilion Cliques to be most challenging. The NO backup plan is good as they will often have no way of answering Progenitus and won't put you under enough early pressure to have a meaningful clock if you can resolve NO on turn three or four. The best you can hope for is for them to ignore you and focus on developing their own board. Ie, if they just stampede towards resolving a Jace or a turn four Batterskull. If they - which most skilled pilots will do - in stead focus on disrupting your hand and board with Thoughtseizes and Swords to Plowshares on your mana dorks etc and back that up with Snapcaster Mages for recursion then you're in for a bumpy ride. They'll resolve their big spell eventually.

    • Dredge
      Depending on your setup you'll have access to Deathrite Shamans during game one but will still be the underdog. As most players will tell you, a single Deathrite Shaman will seldom be enough to hold back dredge. Hope to be faster than them which will pretty much only happen if they brick and/or you get the nuts. We need sideboard hate for this matchup. I like to always carry four pieces of targeted graveyard hate. I like to mix it up between extraction effects and stuff like Relic of Progenitus or Tormod's Crypt. Games 2 and 3 get much better although I never like facing this matchup.

    • UWx Miracles - slightly favourable
      A fine matchup. They have pretty much no way of dealing with a resolved Food Chain pre-board. Watch out for Terminus on your attack with Emrakul. It is recommended that you resolve a Manipulate Fate and thus have all three griffins at the ready. In that case, simply exile them and play them again during your second main phase (if you have the mana of course). They typically won't be able to handle three griffins that are immune to removal. Counterbalance isn't great to stare down, but Food Chain being a 3CMC and the Griffins 4CMC mean we are much better suited to combo through a CB compared to combo decks with lots of 0, 1 and 2CMC spells. Still, I'd side in Abrupt Decays to handle the enchantment as they can still lock us out of the game.

    • Goblins - around even
      Not as good a matchup as it would be for many other combo decks due to a few different things. As a combo deck we are often not fast enough. If they get to run out goblins at their desired rate then that alone can sometimes mean that they beat us to it. It tips in their favor if they can manage to port and/or waste us in the process. It might there for sound like a good idea if we can slow them down through Abrupt Decay and/or getting in the way of their Lackeys. And yes that is often a necessity. But if that means that we slow ourselves down too much in getting to combo off then it's a problem. Say if they lead with mountain, Lackey and all you can do on the draw is play forest into Noble Hierarch then you're in a bit of a bind. Do you get in the way of the lackey and set yourself back a turn on mana? This can be especially brutal if they drop down a port and tap you out. If you don't block (which is almost assuredly the correct play here) then you risk things getting out of hand quite rapidly on their next turn.

      That being said I would still consider this to be a quite winnable matchup. Maybe around 50/50. Just watch out for their wastelands and ports. Don't keep greedy one-lander hands, especially if that land is a dual. If they open on Lackey then Force of Will it unless you are able to resolve a (profitable) blocker before it can connect ie. Wall of Blossoms or Deathrite Shaman preferably (be aware of Gempalm Incinerator when it comes to blocking Lackey, especially if your blocker is a 1-toughness dude like a Baleful Strix). After sideboarding expect them to bring in Thalia and Ethersworn Canonist. I'd side in some Abrupt Decays for this (unless you already run them in the main of course). The decays can also be used in a pinch to prolong the game a turn or two by sniping a Goblin Piledriver or a lackey at the right time.

    • Merfolk - unfavourable
      This is a poor matchup, make no mistake. We play islands so all of their dudes are unblockable. Their dudes also represent a quick clock. They play wastelands to hamper our mana and they play enough countermagic to pose big problems for us resolving our combo pieces. Some of them also play the nastiest sideboard card ever in Llawan, Cephalid Empress. If they ever resolve her your only shot will be to resolve a Natural Order IF you're even running NO. She dodges Abrupt Decays and all relevant sweepers we might run.

      The plan against this deck is to ignore their board development and develop your own board with 1cmc and 2cmc creatures. Then try and resolve a combo win through their countermagic. This usually means having some countermagic of your own and/or targeted discard.

    • Maverick
      A decent but potentially troublesome matchup. They aim to strain our mana by wastelanding us and landing a Thalia so fetch basics and hope you have more mana dorks than they have Swords to Plowshares. If you get a Food Chain resolved but need more time to set up the win then be sure to counter any Green Sun's Zenith where X is more than 1. Otherwise expect them to fetch up a Qasali Pridemage to do the nasty on your Food Chain. After sideboarding they'll have Ethersworn Canonist and, depending on the build, might also have a black splash for some thoughtseizes and the likes. Bring in Abrupt Decays for the Canonists. Also, board sweepers like Golgari Charm are also good here. If you plan to win through resolving a Fierce Empath to tutor up emrakul then be mindful of them having access to W2 as they might be slowboating an Aven Mindcensor.

    • UB Tezzeret - favourable
      Most of the time a good matchup. Their trademark chalice@1 play on turn 1 is not anywhere near as crippling for us as for a lot of other decks. It's bad if you've kept a hand of Deathrite Shaman and 2x Brainstorm but otherwise you should be able to get past it easily. They'll never make Chalice@2 and you should be able to set up shop and win before they make a Chalice@3. They play precious little countermagic, usually just 4x Force of Will. After board watch out for targeted discard. They might also bring in Lodestone Golem although, like Thalia, it won't really dent your combo.

    • MUD - favourable
      Their game plan will be to either try to lock you out by playing a Sol land and dropping a Chalice@1 or a Grim Monolith into a Trinisphere, or by comboing off quickly with Metalworker and Lightning Greaves - or a combination of both. Depending on how cantrip heavy your build is this is a favorable matchup. Which is to say, much like against Tezzerator, the more 1CMC spells your deck relies on to win the more vulberable it will be to a Chalice@1. Their Chalice @1 or trinisphere plays have no impact on our combo at all as every piece is either 3CMC, 4CMC or EmrakulCMC . If you've kept a hand with little or no counter magic there's always a risk of them comboing off quicker than you with Kuldotha Forgemaster, but all in all your combo is more consistent than theirs and they have few meaningful ways of interacting with you seeing how Chalice, Trinisphere and Loadstone Golem all fail to really cripple you. That doesn't mean you can't lose to all those cards, mind you.


    XIII - Articles, videos etc.
    Really good introduction article by Tyler Tyssedal:
    http://www.quietspeculation.com/2012...-fate-and-fun/

    Avacyn Restored legacy preview by Drew Levin has a section devoted to (an admittedly very early) version of the deck:
    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...cy_Review.html

    Video of Jonathan Job, SCGLA, March 2014, round 4 of 9. Vs Punishing Maverick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkSm...lGaeG0NgOKuvVD

    Video of Jonathan Job, SCGLA, March 2014, round 9 of 9. Vs BUG Delver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2th7...lGaeG0NgOKuvVD

    Deck Tech with Jonathan Job, SCGLA, March 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVo2O2K_dUE

    Video of Tyler Tyssedal, SCGMIN, September 2012, round 3 of 9. Vs RUG Delver: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...nneapolis.html

    Deck Tech with Tyler Tyssedal, SCGMIN, September 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6WuzCtn434
    Last edited by nevilshute; 05-26-2014 at 09:19 AM.

  3. #3
    Thinking about Magic...
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    Re: Food Chain Combo

    Very good job nevilshute and thanks for your hard work!

    The only advice I give is to group the list by role of the cards, I.E. accelerants, protection, enablers and so on. It would make the lists more readable and makes easy to understand for neophities how the deck functions (I hate when the lists are grouped by creatures/instants/... since it doesn't explain well the decks...).

    GOOD JOB!!!
    Last edited by kingtk3; 07-02-2014 at 06:44 AM.
    Ignorance is strength

  4. #4
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Very good primer IMO. It was really easy to read and gave a good listing of how the interactions worked and the different matchups. I really like this deck idea and have been slowly picking up some of the pieces Im missing for it over the past six months or so. I absolutely cannot wait to try out a version of this deck!

    Keep up the good work this deck looks like a ton of fun!
    "I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them" -Volrath

  5. #5
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Thanks Umbranex :) I hope you enjoy playing the deck. Please post your own experiences in this thread if you feel like it!

  6. #6
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    I will of course! It will probably be few and far between though as there is basically no legacy around me

    I am in the process of trying to get an MTGO account to play legacy events on but that is slow going as I dont have much disposable income atm... but I will definitely watch the thread and chime in with any suggestions I may have!
    "I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them" -Volrath

  7. #7
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    The only card I play that isn't mentioned in the primer is drift of phantasms. It is tutors for food chain and fierce empath, and can be pitched to force. It is just a one of in my list, but I is almost never dead. Because it is a creature, you can use it as a solid blocker and can sac it to chain for mana. You cannot use food chain mana to transmute it though.

    4 noble hierarch
    3 deathrite shaman
    3 fierce empath
    1 drift of phantasms
    4 misthollow griffins
    4 mulldrifters
    1 aethersnipe
    1 griselbrand
    1 emrakul

    4 brainstorm
    4 ponder
    4 force of will
    2 misdirection
    2 manipulate fate
    4 food chain

    2 island
    2 forest
    2 ancient tomb
    4 tropical island
    4 misty rainforest
    4 verdant catacombs

    Sideboard is...
    3 pithing needle
    3 spell pierce
    4 surgical extraction
    2 krosan grip
    3 spellskite

  8. #8
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Heya cb4, sorry for the slow reply. Been busy! I will add Drift of Phantasms as one of the possible utility cards. I've actually never played with it myself as I'm not a big fan of the transmute mechanic's sorcery speed. But I like it in principle, in that it can be used to find both Food Chain and Fierce Empath.

  9. #9

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Hi, I played yesterday with my food chain deck in a GPTrial Paris Legacy-event in a local store. 21 players showed up and we played 5 rounds of swiss and top8. I went 3-1-1 with the following list and was 3rd after the swiss and made myself to the tops.

    Lands
    4 Misty Rainforest
    3 Tropical Island
    1 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Wooded Foothills
    1 Dryad Arbor
    2 Ancient Tomb
    2 Forest
    2 Island

    Creatures
    3 Misthollow Griffin
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    3 Fierce Empath
    1 AEthersnipe
    1 Griselbrand
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Noble Hierarch
    1 Progenitus
    2 Birds of Paradise

    Spells
    4 Food Chain
    4 Force of Will
    2 Ponder
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Misdirection
    4 Natural Order
    3 Manipulate Fate

    Sideboard
    3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Spell Pierce
    1 Wipe Away
    4 Show and Tell
    2 Omniscience
    1 Empyrial Archangel
    1 Relic of Progenitus

    R1 vs. BUGstill 2-1
    R2 vs. Affinity 2-1
    R3 vs. UR-delver 1-2
    R4 vs UWR-delver 2-1
    R5 vs. BUG id (played for fun and I won 3-0)

    Top8 R1 vs. another UR-delver 0-2

  10. #10
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    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Heya Obould. That looks like a solid list, and grats on your result :)

    Can I ask how the Show and Tell sideboard was to play? I've been planning to give it a try but haven't been able to yet. Against what did you bring it in and how was it?

    Quote Originally Posted by Obould View Post
    Hi, I played yesterday with my food chain deck in a GPTrial Paris Legacy-event in a local store. 21 players showed up and we played 5 rounds of swiss and top8. I went 3-1-1 with the following list and was 3rd after the swiss and made myself to the tops.

    Lands
    4 Misty Rainforest
    3 Tropical Island
    1 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Wooded Foothills
    1 Dryad Arbor
    2 Ancient Tomb
    2 Forest
    2 Island

    Creatures
    3 Misthollow Griffin
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    3 Fierce Empath
    1 AEthersnipe
    1 Griselbrand
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Noble Hierarch
    1 Progenitus
    2 Birds of Paradise

    Spells
    4 Food Chain
    4 Force of Will
    2 Ponder
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Misdirection
    4 Natural Order
    3 Manipulate Fate

    Sideboard
    3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Spell Pierce
    1 Wipe Away
    4 Show and Tell
    2 Omniscience
    1 Empyrial Archangel
    1 Relic of Progenitus

    R1 vs. BUGstill 2-1
    R2 vs. Affinity 2-1
    R3 vs. UR-delver 1-2
    R4 vs UWR-delver 2-1
    R5 vs. BUG id (played for fun and I won 3-0)

    Top8 R1 vs. another UR-delver 0-2

  11. #11

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    I bring it in against every deck to get a surprise factor. Against BUGstill I lost first game when trying to get food chain online but lost the counter war. Game 2&3 I sided the food chain out because of abrupt decays and surprise. Game 2 I won with early progenitus and game 3 with turn 3 omniscience to emrakul. Against affinity I got the food chain online and managed to get griselbrand, but it wasn't enough. Game 2 and 3 I sided natural order package + misdirections and something out, because progenitus is too slow. Game 2 I won with food chain to emrakul and game 3 turn 2 show and tell to emrakul. Against UR-delver the food chain is too hard to get online because it needs more combo-pieces and UR has a lot of counters. I managed to get natural order through counters once and got angel for the win (in top8 I kept 2 land hands, but didn't drew more lands and managuys got bolted when they hit the table). Against UWR I won first game with food chain to emrakul in turn 4 or 5. Flooded second game and game 3 won with omniscience to empath to emrakul turn 3 (A sidenote, he bring medling mages in and named food chain :D). Against BUG (that we id) I won first game with food chain, second game with natural order to progenitus (sided food chain out) and third game with show and tell to emrakul with 1 or 2 other guys on table).
    Last edited by Obould; 01-28-2014 at 11:09 AM.

  12. #12

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    I like this deck, but I feel like it's... not optimized.

    As in, something hasn't been done yet that could be done to make it significantly better. And I'm not talking about color splashing. Hmmm...


    SUGGESTION 1:

    How about adding Tarmogoyf to our beatdown plan?


    1 AEthersnipe
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    4 Fierce Empath
    1 Griselbrand
    4 Misthollow Griffin
    4 Noble Hierarch
    4 Tarmogoyf
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    3 Manipulate Fate
    4 Misdirection
    4 Food Chain
    2 Forest
    4 Island
    4 Misty Rainforest
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Scalding Tarn
    4 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea

    Sideboard
    2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 Griselbrand
    4 Show and Tell
    3 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Omniscience
    3 Relic of Progenitus



    SUGGESTION 2: nvm, can't cast with Food Chain.

  13. #13

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by DragoFireheart View Post
    I like this deck, but I feel like it's... not optimized.


    SUGGESTION 2: Did you ever consider Green Sun's Zenith? If you have the Griffin and Food Chain but no big creature in hand, you can make a bunch of mana and cast GSZ to get a Progenitus or something. Also lets you fetch a Fierce Empath.
    You can only cast creatures with the mana from food chain.

    As for your suggestion 1, I have tried food chain with beatdown plan with 3 tarmogoyfs and 4 deathrite shamans main. It was ok but I have liked natural order package more.

  14. #14

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by Obould View Post
    You can only cast creatures with the mana from food chain.

    As for your suggestion 1, I have tried food chain with beatdown plan with 3 tarmogoyfs and 4 deathrite shamans main. It was ok but I have liked natural order package more.
    Why not try and just shove NOPro, Show and Tell, and Food Griffin all in? Make it so that every spell is a must counter/kill or be killed. This gives you three different ways to drop a giant monster onto the battlefield.

    - They have to remove any of your green creatures or risk a NO.
    - They must counter the Empaths or risk you getting a creature in hand for Show and Tell.
    - They almost certainly have to counter Show and Tell. They have to nuke your Food Chain or risk you getting mana to cast your creature.
    - And if all of that fails, you can beat face with Griffins.

    Note: I prefer 2 Misdirection to 2 Daze since you can redirect their counters to the Misd. or deal with Abrupt Decays targeting your stuff.


    3 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    4 Fierce Empath
    1 Griselbrand
    3 Misthollow Griffin
    3 Noble Hierarch
    1 Progenitus
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    3 Manipulate Fate
    2 Misdirection
    4 Natural Order
    4 Show and Tell
    4 Food Chain
    1 Dryad Arbor
    2 Forest
    4 Island
    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Tropical Island
    4 Verdant Catacombs


    Conditioning my opponent to counter or kill Fierce Empath is pretty amusing.

  15. #15

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    I'm currently brewing this deck.
    First of all - sorry if I'm missing something in the discussion or is off topic (new to this forum).

    MAIN:
    3 Baleful Strix
    1 Aethersnipe
    3 Misthollow Griffin
    3 Fierce Empath
    2 Manipulate Fate
    1 Intuition
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Deathrite Shaman
    3 Force of Will
    2 Noble Hierarch
    2 Wall of Roots
    3 Abrupt Decay
    3 Cabal Therapy
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 Griselbrand
    4 Food Chain

    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Flooded Strand
    1 Underground Sea
    2 Tropical Island
    1 Bayou
    3 Forest
    2 Swamp
    2 Island
    1 Tundra

    SB:
    2 Viridian Shaman
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Swan Song
    1 Green Sun's Zenith
    2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    1 Force of Will
    2 Dread of Night
    2 Mindbreak Trap
    2 Faerie Macabre
    1 Tidespout Tyrant

    The deck doesn't need a 3rd game plan, I've won games just by wrecking my opponent with strix (super important over WoB etc because FOW) + therapy and with just griffins swinging.
    The deck can easily play out like a slower BUG-control, but also got hands that combo out T2 (rarely) and more often T3.

    Board is mostly against other faster combo, lands, reanimate, DnT, but for me the deck has not cared much for other decks except combo.
    It easily breaks a lot of decks, since it doesn't care about most hate bears, is hard to play against, wins in multiple ways (opponent who boards in FC-hate gets punished) and the board fits really smooth into the main deck without losing the game plan.

    Matches so far (local tournament)
    1-2 Naya Hatebears
    2-0 Infect
    2-1 TES
    2-0 UW Standstill
    2-0 RUB Planeswalker
    2-0 Stoneblade
    2-0 Belcher
    2-0 Dragonstompy
    1-2 Maverick
    2-0 Meat Hooks
    2-1 Merfolk (TNN)
    2-0 Enchantress

    Maindeck is pretty solid, unsure about the board with the 2 Dread of Nights. The only games I've lost are against decks that run hate bears – which should be my best matchup. (done some play mistakes also)
    Think I need something for them, thinking about Bone Shredder…

    The TES matchup is getting better, they have a really hard time after board and often problem before with our suit of removal, hand-disrupt and FoW. Won many games when they go for the goblin-plan, since Food Chain often combos out one turn after the storm-decks.

    Just some thoughts!

  16. #16

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by Obould View Post
    Hi, I played yesterday with my food chain deck in a GPTrial Paris Legacy-event in a local store. 21 players showed up and we played 5 rounds of swiss and top8. I went 3-1-1 with the following list and was 3rd after the swiss and made myself to the tops.

    Lands
    4 Misty Rainforest
    3 Tropical Island
    1 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Wooded Foothills
    1 Dryad Arbor
    2 Ancient Tomb
    2 Forest
    2 Island

    Creatures
    3 Misthollow Griffin
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    3 Fierce Empath
    1 AEthersnipe
    1 Griselbrand
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Noble Hierarch
    1 Progenitus
    2 Birds of Paradise

    Spells
    4 Food Chain
    4 Force of Will
    2 Ponder
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Misdirection
    4 Natural Order
    3 Manipulate Fate

    Sideboard
    3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Spell Pierce
    1 Wipe Away
    4 Show and Tell
    2 Omniscience
    1 Empyrial Archangel
    1 Relic of Progenitus

    R1 vs. BUGstill 2-1
    R2 vs. Affinity 2-1
    R3 vs. UR-delver 1-2
    R4 vs UWR-delver 2-1
    R5 vs. BUG id (played for fun and I won 3-0)

    Top8 R1 vs. another UR-delver 0-2
    Hi Obould,

    Have you tried Wall of blossoms in your list ?

    Cos
    - it's a 0/4 Defender, so it can give you lots of time vs aggro
    - it gives you a card when entering
    - it's a sac-target for Natural order

    After testing with your list with a friend, we wondered if it couldn't have a place in !

    Thanx

    Grokh

  17. #17

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    My Food chain altered in Winter mode was refused by a Head judge on a BIG event, so i asked the alterator to do it again but with not so much snow, here's the new Food chain Winter :


  18. #18
    Member

    Join Date

    Jul 2012
    Location

    Copenhagen, Denmark
    Posts

    684

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    So absoloutely gorgeous mate! Could you post a picture of all four?

  19. #19

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Hi,

    I have tested wall of blossoms without natural order but with beatdown plan b mainboard. It is ok but it doesn't make the deck faster or protect the combo. It also doesn't block delver. I think wall of roots would be better to get around daze or spell pierce, but also blocks guides and other in the same way as wall of blossoms. I might test two wall of roots in place of deathrite shamans, because shaman is the most unreliable manasource of the managuys (if opponent plays shaman or no fetches in graveyard). Also there haven't been too many graveyard based decks in the meta right now.

    ps. I have started to foil my deck and now I have empaths, food chains, manipulate fates, bops, griffins, emrakuls (only prele for now) and one natural order in foil :)

  20. #20

    Re: [Primer] Food Chain Combo

    Hi,

    As you asked here are my 4 Seasons Food chain alters :



    If some of you are in Grand Prix Paris this week-end, you'l be able to see it for real !

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