Food Chain Combo

[metamet]

I've considered Intuitions, but, as mentioned, I'd be afraid of a well timed Surgical Extraction ruining our day, although not many should/would bring them in against us. If the Intuition target gets countered, we'd also be down two chances of resolving the necessary spell. :/

I have been thinking about Ancient Tombs again, though. I took them out once I went BUG, but I've been really wanting the acceleration again. Not quite sure how it'd work and which land I'd trim, but it's been on my mind.

[nevilshute]

I've considered Intuitions, but, as mentioned, I'd be afraid of a well timed Surgical Extraction ruining our day, although not many should/would bring them in against us. If the Intuition target gets countered, we'd also be down two chances of resolving the necessary spell. :/

I have been thinking about Ancient Tombs again, though. I took them out once I went BUG, but I've been really wanting the acceleration again. Not quite sure how it'd work and which land I'd trim, but it's been on my mind.

Funny you should mention Ancient Tombs as I've been feeling the same way and have just decided to re-introduce them. I'm currently running:

2x Tropical Island
2x Underground Sea
1x Bayou
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Swamp
2x Ancient Tomb
9x Fetch

Still need to test. But have been missing the acceleration, especially against other combo decks.

[gottfrid]

Has anyone been trying glimpse of nature as a wincon, instead of empaths and 6-15 drops that do nthing pre-food chain.

It should draw at least one card early game, sometimes two. It works fine with gaea's cradle, and drawing the deck should make any dedicated wincons unnecessary.

The only real drawbacks I can see is the requirement for one more mana on the going-off turn, and opening up to cards ike spell pierce. They would've probably spent that on food chain though..

Shouldn't 3 glimpse and 2 snapcasters be just better than 3 empaths and 2 fatties?

[nevilshute]

Has anyone been trying glimpse of nature as a wincon, instead of empaths and 6-15 drops that do nthing pre-food chain.

It should draw at least one card early game, sometimes two. It works fine with gaea's cradle, and drawing the deck should make any dedicated wincons unnecessary.

The only real drawbacks I can see is the requirement for one more mana on the going-off turn, and opening up to cards ike spell pierce. They would've probably spent that on food chain though..

Shouldn't 3 glimpse and 2 snapcasters be just better than 3 empaths and 2 fatties?

Glimpse is an interesting idea. I don't like that the effect isn't optional as it could lead to awkward situations in late game scenarios. However those would probably be few and far between. I think I'll give it a go with 3 or 4 Glimpses. Don't think I'll be running the Snapcasters as I don't see enough targets and can't justify them solely for the Glimpses.

Going to try and test it out one of these days. I'm thinking I'll axe my one Jace and sylvan library for a Glimpse each. Will need to find a last card to cut though :)

[bernson]

I've been playing this deck for a while, and following this Thread for tech and development.
I just have a quick question. Once you have Food chain in play with a griffen, I sac the griffen to combo out making five mana,
in respose my opponent cast abrupt decay on food chain. Will I be able to loop infinite mana or will i just be stuck on 5?
Thanks in advance

[nevilshute]

I've been playing this deck for a while, and following this Thread for tech and development.
I just have a quick question. Once you have Food chain in play with a griffen, I sac the griffen to combo out making five mana,
in respose my opponent cast abrupt decay on food chain. Will I be able to loop infinite mana or will i just be stuck on 5?
Thanks in advance

If that happens you won't be able to create "infinite" mana. At most you'll be able to activate your Food Chain in response to the Abrupt Decay to exile any number of creatures you currently have on the battlefield.

If the Misthollow Griffin had flash, you'd be able to make infi mana in response to the Abrupt Decay being put on the stack. But seeing as it doesn't you'll need to wait until the stack is empty before you can re-cast it, meaning that the Abrupt Decay will resolve, destroying your Food Chain before you are able to cast a non-flash creature again.

[metamet]

Which is why I like EOTing Clique and using Therapies against Decay. :-)

Also been testing Spellskite in the board, especially if we're running Sol lands.

[grokh]

Hi metamet and all others Food chain players, i'm proud to show you my last acquisition, i've asked an alterator to make my Food chain altered each for a different season.

Here are my 4 seasons Food chain, painted by Morgege, a french artist !



You can ask me more informations on the alterator if you want !

Morgege Facebook : Morgege art
Morgege website :http://www.coupdpinceau.com/morgege_art_mtg.php

Enjoy !

[metamet]

Wow. Those are beautiful.

Incredibly jealous now, especially since I started foiling my deck out and am partway through a foil Food Chain set. Yours are brilliant. :) Who did them?

[grokh]

Wow. Those are beautiful.

Incredibly jealous now, especially since I started foiling my deck out and am partway through a foil Food Chain set. Yours are brilliant. :) Who did them?

It's Morgege, a very talented french artist i personnaly know, i just edited my post.

If you play Food chain on Grand Prix Strasbourg or Bazaar of Moxen and you're in top 8, i'll lend the playset to you for your top 8 if you want !

[TerribleTim68]

I can't tell you enough how awesome I think those alters are. I would love to have some cards like that, but so far I have not been able to afford the cost on stuff like that. I love those, they look amazing. I also want to alter my playset of Hive Minds so they look like Star Trek Borg. But again, cost is out of my reach.

[grokh]

I can't tell you enough how awesome I think those alters are. I would love to have some cards like that, but so far I have not been able to afford the cost on stuff like that. I love those, they look amazing. I also want to alter my playset of Hive Minds so they look like Star Trek Borg. But again, cost is out of my reach.

Try contacting Morgege, she'll tell you her price, she's not very expensive in general, you know !

[nevilshute]

Wow! Unbelievably well done, those are :) If I hadn't just purchased my four foil Food Chains I'd consider heavily getting mine altered too.

[grokh]

I just found maybe an interesting card, by looking into a trade book of a friend :



It allows us to draw 3 cards each turn, without having to find a cantrip-creature.
Advantages :
- It's a 5/5 Trample
- you can pay instead of it's mana cost then exiling it with Food chain if you need mana !
- it's unconditionnal draw
- it's blue for Force of will and Misdirection if needed

Flaw :
- Its effect begins only next turn

I looked at other Bringers, and the red one seemed interesting too :



Against aggro, you can take one of his creatures every turn, attacking with it and exiling the creature before end of your turn with Food chain
He gost the same advantages than the other one, he's 5/5 Trample, payable in pentacolors too !

Thoughts ?

[nevilshute]

As these aren't win conditions on their own such as Emrakul is I'm guessing these are for those instances where we have a Food Chain in play but no Griffin to go infinite. My thoughts, in short, are therefore: why play these over Griselbrand? We won't be playing them 'naturally', only with Food Chain and if that's the case then I'd rather be paying a mana less and getting Griselbrand (meaning we can get him down with just Fierce Empath and Aethersnipe. I know you can theoretically play them for 5 mana, but this would require a Griffin most of the time as the requirement is one of each colour and then again we're back at: why not just play Griselbrand instead.

This is an overall assessment of course. There might well be fringe examples where either of the Bringers trump Grisel, but all in all I think he wins out.

[grokh]

As these aren't win conditions on their own such as Emrakul is I'm guessing these are for those instances where we have a Food Chain in play but no Griffin to go infinite. My thoughts, in short, are therefore: why play these over Griselbrand? We won't be playing them 'naturally', only with Food Chain and if that's the case then I'd rather be paying a mana less and getting Griselbrand (meaning we can get him down with just Fierce Empath and Aethersnipe. I know you can theoretically play them for 5 mana, but this would require a Griffin most of the time as the requirement is one of each colour and then again we're back at: why not just play Griselbrand instead.

This is an overall assessment of course. There might well be fringe examples where either of the Bringers trump Grisel, but all in all I think he wins out.

I dunno, i've still not tested em.

In my list, i run 4 Birds of paradise and i'm , so it seems easy to have from your lands then from a Birds of paradise exiled for . Then you just need to exile another creature to get and you got your pentacolors.

Why playing these over Griselbrand ?
In the case of the one .
I thought to it in the case i can't get a Fierce empath for digging the deck more and finding a solution faster. The point wasn't to replace Griselbrand but :
- you'll get 3 cards each turn without having to pay 7 life
- Griselbrand is black, he forces you to produce black mana just for him too
- Griselbrand can be neutralized by Pithing needle, the Bringer's ability is a triggered one

In the case of the one.
I thought to it as a SB option against Show and tell combo decks and maybe aggro decks too :
- you can get rid off your opponent's threats by taking em, attacking then exiling it with Food chain
- it must be amazing in S&T MU, when your opponent Show and tell into Emrakul, the Aeons torn and you put Bringer of the red dawn into play. Then next turn, attack for 20 with Emrakul + Bringer

I dunno if these are good reasons, but the point wasn't to play these ones over Griselbrand

[nevilshute]

Hey guys,

So I'm heavily considering bringing Infinnigriffins to a big(ish) tournament in a few weeks (should be around 70 people which is the most I've tried).

I've played it only on a few occasions in the last month or so. I have been running the same list pretty much since RtR came out and, generally, I've really liked it. However I feel that lately, it's a little too fragile against two things:

1) the slew of fast(er) combo decks that have become very popular lately (Tin Fins aside there are a lot of ANT and Sneak&Show in my meta).

2) the influx of permission which I expect to face due to all the combo decks just mentioned.

So, here's the list I've been running:

Creatures:
3x Misthollow Griffins
4x Deathrite Shaman
3x Baleful Strix
2x Wall of Blossoms
2x Vendilion Cllique
2x Shardless Agent
2x Fierce Empath
1x Aethersnipe
1x Griselbrand
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Spells:
4x Food Chain
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
3x Ponder
2x Manipulate Fate
1x Misdirection
1x Sylvan Library
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands:
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Polluted Delta
1x Verdant Catacombs
2x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island
1x Bayou
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Forest
2x Ancient Tomb

Sideboard:
2x Dread of Night
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Flusterstorm

Currently I'm seriously considering dropping the Shardless Agents. They are great value when you're planning longer games versus grindier opponents. However they feel horribly slow and clonky versus a combo opponent. Especially because they will mostly cascade into another creature, which, again, versus slower opposition is usually great, but against combo is mostly meh.

I'm also considering dropping either the singleton Jace or Sylvan Library. I find myself siding Jace out frequently against a range of opposition. I'm tempted to say he should either be at least a two-off or not be played at all. The singleton Sylvan I'm leaning towards keeping. It's great to have permanent library manipulation.

At the moment I'm considering two possible roads:

1) hand disruption

2) (more) permission

Now, I'm at most considering 3-4 slots change so bear that in mind. Ideally I'd like to either fit in 3-4 Spell Pierce or 3-4 Thoughtseize/Duress.

Where do you guys see this going most profitably? I'm leaning towards the more permission and then keeping the 4 Cabal Therpies in the SB.

It takes us closer to Sneak&Show I think, which I'm not sure is optimal. Would love to hear some thoughts :)

[metamet]

Good luck!

I can see dropping the Agents, as they're best served as fodder for the Griffins.

I could see fitting in some hand disruption. We already have Clique, and some Thoughtsiezes would be solid.

Jace is expensive. Maybe a better sideboard option? And how do you feel about the MD Misdirection?

[nevilshute]

Danish Legacy Masters yesterday. 85 players. To my shock and delight TWO other people had brought Food Chain which meant there were three of us. I did extremely poorly myself but I am absolutely thrilled to report that one guy made it to a top4 finish:

http://mtgpulse.com/event/12649#177066

Hoping Gottfried will post his matches at some stage :) Well done sir!

[metamet]

Wow, that's awesome! Food Chain represent!

No Gris or Aethersnipe, but I can't actually recall the last time I did the Gris/Snipe trick in a game... but I am not sure if Sphinx is actually better than Gris, but I assume Sphinx gets hard cast a lot more often than Gris would.

And MD Decays and discard. I'd be interested to see how helpful that was!