[Deck] Food Chain Combo

[mcbain]

Played in GPT today. Punted game 3 of round seven.

Should have been 5-1-1 Going into top 8. Insteaded ended 4-2-1.

Happy with the deck. 3 ponder feels way better than 1 sylvan on 19 lands.



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[.Ix]

Played the deck at a local going 3-0-1. Unintentional draw vs Czech Pile, would have killed him on turn 6. I beat Infect, Moon Blade, and Elves. 2 Trinket Mage, 2 Ballista, 1 Leo, 1 Clique, cut a ponder for the 20th land. Not a fan of Trinket Mage, but Clique is fantastic.

The last time I played this, we still had Dig Through Time, and I really miss being able to Delve my dead Griffins away. I think I'll play an Angler over the 20th land in here.

[Holmen]

Played the deck at a local going 3-0-1. Unintentional draw vs Czech Pile, would have killed him on turn 6. I beat Infect, Moon Blade, and Elves. 2 Trinket Mage, 2 Ballista, 1 Leo, 1 Clique, cut a ponder for the 20th land. Not a fan of Trinket Mage, but Clique is fantastic.

The last time I played this, we still had Dig Through Time, and I really miss being able to Delve my dead Griffins away. I think I'll play an Angler over the 20th land in here.

I agree, one angler or tombstalker is a good route. Tombstalker is a bit better for working as a wincon with griffins for 14 flying damage. I think the extra mana is fine. Trinket mage seems weak, it has the same problem that empath had.

[Goose]

Recently put Food Chain together and played it for the first time today to a top 4 finish in a 21 player tournament.

Rd1 W 2-1 Infect
Rd2 W 2-0 Grixis Delver
Rd3 L 0-2 Grixis Delver
Rd4 W 2-0 BUG Delver
Rd5 ID

Top 8 Same Grixis opponent from round 2. He conceded because he wanted to play in a standard tournament and said he didn't feel it was a good matchup for him.
Top4 L 1-2 UB Landstill. Game 3 started off well but my draws just never really came together, couldn't deal with Jace after he destroyed my Needle, and Ballista got Surgical'd.

Played a fairly stock 20 land list with 3 Ponder, 2 Manipulate Fate and 2 Thoughtseize. Overall happy with my performance for the first time playing the deck. First time playing with Brainstorm in a long time and my play was far from optimal at times but not bad overall. Deck was a blast and hopefully I'll get to play in another event next weekend.

[.Ix]

I agree, one angler or tombstalker is a good route. Tombstalker is a bit better for working as a wincon with griffins for 14 flying damage. I think the extra mana is fine. Trinket mage seems weak, it has the same problem that empath had.

I hadn't considered Tombstalker. That's good, too. I have encountered some situations where I have only 1 mana open to accelerate into the combo kill, though, so that might be an issue.

Either way, I'm cutting Trinket Mage for the 2 Ballista. I would have been able to clear opposing Strixes in time if I had Ballista instead of Mage. It just wastes too much tempo for not enough flexibility.

[Nightrider]

Played at a GPT today and did relatively well today, still loving this deck in the new meta.

List:
4 Walking Ballista
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
3 Misthollow Griffin
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge

4 Food Chain
1 Sylvan Library

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Manipulate Fate
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize

4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp


Sideboard:
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Duress
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hydroblast
2 Engineered Plague
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Vendilion Clique

5 rounds + cut to top 8

round 1: nathan - mono red sneak attack

g1: Forced his Through the Breach, he had nothing else, so I combo'd easily
g2: didn't have any green mana, or 4th land to use Hydroblast to counter his Through the Breach through a Defense Grid (could've decayed it with green mana), lost to Worldspine Wurm
g3: Forced his through the breach, combo'd off easily

1-0 (2-1)

round 2: Jeremy - D&T

g1 I thoughtseized his prelate away and combo'd off before his assembled pressure could take over
g2 i mulled to 5 but a thoughtseize showed 3x Thalia -- strix held off everything but one thalia, and i eventually EOT decay into combo while at 3 life.

2-0 (4-1)

round 3: Tejan - Infect

g1 was weird in which we both brainstorm locked ourselves, and i was stuck on one land with 2 DRS while she just drew mono-pump spells -- I exiled the last 2 GY lands and went for the FC kill, she pierced/dazed but I double forced and killed her with combo

g2 she got a quick 5 infect in with nexus, but i dropped a balista on 1 and prevented her from going for it -- eventually i got a strix and leovold backup and started pumping ballista before winning with beatdowns

3-0 (6-1)

round 4: Aaron - MUD post

g1 he cast a TKS and not much else, so I comboed off after chaining some cantrips

g2 he cast multiple pithing needles on ballista, so i made an inf/inf ballista and passed -- he cast map with like 15 mana available so I forced it, then he cast Ulamog exiling chain and ballista, ulamog attack exiled both my edicts, so I had no option to win -- thinking now he also cast the new orb card that gives hexproof and prevents damage by 1 which double hosed ballista

g3 I thoughtseized and saw sphere of res and lodestone; i took lodestone cause he had cavern in hand and forced his t1 sphere -- a drawstep clique revealed only a needle which he cast naming ballista -- i started hardcasting ballistas for x=2 and won with beatdowns before he could cast his emrakul

4-0 (8-2)

round 5: grixis delver

drew the round and got dinner

4-0-1 (8-2)

Top 8: Tristan - 4c Aggro Loam

g1 I cast a sylvan library on t2 off usea and bayou which got wastelanded -- i drew aggressively off library to find my basics and eventually got to a boardstate where i cast food chain at 2 life. he eot fetched dyrad arbor and put me to 1, i had ballista in hand and needed an island to cast leovold -> griffin or scourge, luck was on my side and i topdecked scourge on last possible turn to win

g2 he cast chalice on 1 and 3 and was loaming every turn but i had 4 basics -- i forced a chains of meph pitching griffin and eventually cast and started attacking. ballistas for 2 tried joining the party but kept getting pfired so pinged him. eventually he found 2nd grove and tried pfiring griffin but i forced 2nd pfire twice over 2 turns to get the last few points of damage in

5-0-1 (10-2)

Top 4: Zach - Burn

g1 he had an amazing hand and I wasn't able to chain enough resistance together to stop him -- a t1 thoughtseize revealed mono-gas plus one land (i took guide) and he peeled off the lands he needed to run me over quickly

g2 i didn't see hydroblast and got stuck on usea + island with full combo in hand and lost rather quickly

5-1-1 (10-4)

Burn is a bad matchup so it's not a surprise to lose to it, but it sucks to devote SB spots almost solely for it and still lose :( Overall very happy with the list and my lines of play today, I think I maximized my ability to win nearly every match. The sylvan library in the deck is meant to be a ponder, but I don't have a 3rd foil ponder yet ;)

Thanks to your post, very usefull.

Can I ask you if you can explain sideboard-in and sideboard-out of every match? I got a lot of trouble when I have to sideboard. My sideboard looks so close to yours.

Thanks in advance.

[Kaono]

Thanks to your post, very usefull.

Can I ask you if you can explain sideboard-in and sideboard-out of every match? I got a lot of trouble when I have to sideboard. My sideboard looks so close to yours.

Thanks in advance.

Sure, probably should've included that in main post.

Mono-Red Sneak:

in- 2 duress, 2 flusterstorm, 2 hydroblast, 1 abrupt decay
out- 3 baleful strix, 1 sylvan library, 1 tropical island, 2 leovold

strix and sylvan self-explanatory, i side out a land vs combo usually, leovolds are too slow and only good vs griselbrand

D&T:

in - 2 Engineered Plague, 1 Diabolic Edict, 1 Abrupt Decay
out - 4 Force of Will

force is dead vs cavern, so I bring in live topdecks

Infect:

in - 2 engineered plague, 2 diabolic edict, 1 abrupt decay, 1 vendilion clique, 2 flusterstorm, 2 duress
out - 4 food chain, 1 island, 1 eternal scourge, 3 manipulate fate, 1 sylvan library

take out combo/grindy cards, bring in creature/combo hate

MUD Post:

in - 2 diabolic edict, 1 abrupt decay, 1 vendilion clique
out - 1 sylvan library, 2 leovold emissary of trest, 1 island

bring in stuff that can kill his fatties, and clique to provide more disruption/pressure to prevent topdecked eldrazi

4c Aggro Loam:

in - 1 abrupt decay, 2 surgical extraction
out - 2 thoughtseize, 1 food chain (draw) / 1 force of will (play)

self explanatory, FC/FoW decision based on preventing him from getting too fast of a start -- thoughtseize is bad vs chalice and in the common topdeck wars the decks get into

Burn:

in - 2 flusterstorm, 2 hydroblast, 2 duress, 1 abrupt decay
out - 2 thoughtseize, 1 sylvan library, 1 tropical island, 2 manipulate fate, 1 misthollow griffin

early disruption replaces late game grind

[beta]

I play maindeck thoughtseize (2 copies) and they do come in handy with combo match ups.

My sb goes like this:

2 Duress
2 Flusterstorm
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Engineered Plague
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Krosan Grip
1 Hydroblast
1 Vendillion Clique
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage

Been having some problems against RUG Delver and Elves as of late, I know what to board in against RUG cause my opponent will board out goyfs for more TNN so maybe i will be cutting one decay, 2 FOW for 1 Toxic Deluge, 1 Engineered Plague and 1 Edict. Can't seem to find space for flusterstorms to board in.

Elves i have been boarding in the plagues, deluge, cage but i am unsure what to board out. Baleful strix? Abrupt Decay?

[JackaBo]

Elves i have been boarding in the plagues, deluge, cage but i am unsure what to board out. Baleful strix? Abrupt Decay?

I board out strix for three sweepers and a flusterstorm. If I run cage I might board it in instead. However they usually board into decay for the foodchain so perhabs fluster is better anyway.

[meffeo]

I see more and more people cutting Mindbreak Traps from their sideboards. Since S&T is a pretty awful matchup, won't it be better than solely Flusterstorm, since it could counter Sneak Attack too? I'm running 2x Traps and 1x Fluster, plus usual stuff (Plagues, Edicts, Surgicals, Hydroblasts, Cage, Duresses, Clique).

[JackaBo]

I see more and more people cutting Mindbreak Traps from their sideboards. Since S&T is a pretty awful matchup, won't it be better than solely Flusterstorm, since it could counter Sneak Attack too? I'm running 2x Traps and 1x Fluster, plus usual stuff (Plagues, Edicts, Surgicals, Hydroblasts, Cage, Duresses, Clique).

I'm not a fan of trap. The idea to get ToA'd with Leo in play and draw into it to win seems like Magical Christmasland to me. It's applications are versus decks that chain a lot of spells: storm, elves and high tide. Fluster do the same job versus those decks but also counters show n tell, glimpse, hymn and other annoying spells that are cast first. If i wanted to counter sneakattack BEB, pierce and swan song are fine choices. With trap you probably need to hold up 4 mana to counter it.

[mcbain]

Last event and two weeklies puts me at 11-2-1. Really liking the stock list. Lots of play to the deck. Very impressed with the mana base.

We're almost never the beat down. All my losses have been to either miss a signed role or sejeri step 20/20



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[Nightrider]

Hi to all community, I'm an italian player and this is my list I usually play in my local store

List:
4 Walking Ballista
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
3 Misthollow Griffin
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Gurmag Angler

4 Food Chain
1 Sylvan Library

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Manipulate Fate
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize

3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp


Sideboard:
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Chill
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Hydroblast
2 Engineered Plague
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
2 Leyline of the Void


My meta is full of D&T, Infect, BR Reanimator and Death Blade decks and Burns.

I usually sideboard:

VS D&T:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Pithing Needle 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:2 Thoughtseize 4 Force of Will 1 Food Chain

VS Infect:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:1 Manipulate Fate 1 Eternal Scourge 4 Food Chain

VS Death Blade:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Pithing Needle 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:2 Thoughtseize 4 Force of Will 1 Sylvan Library

VS BR Reanimator:
Side-in:1 Surgical Extraction 1 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Thoughtseize 2 Leyline of the Void
Side-out:4 Food Chain 1 Abrupt Decay

VS Burn/ UR Delver:
Side-in:1 Hydroblast 2 Chill 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:1 Sylvan Library 1 Eternal Scourge 2 Thoughtseize

Do you have any advice to give me? Or do you have any other matchups to add to this list?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[Rekk]

Hello Nightrider,

I would suggest -2 leyline of the void + 2 faerie macabre. -2 chill + 2 flusterstorm.

[Medea_]

Hey folks,

What are your thoughts on Toxic Deluge vs Engineered Plague in the sideboard? I know the strengths and weaknesses of each card, I'm just curious on which you all believe is more optimal to improve bad matchups.

[Nightrider]

Today I've tested a lot versus an Infect and I changed my standard sideboard,

VS Infect:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:1 Manipulate Fate 1 Eternal Scourge 4 Food Chain

into:

VS Infect:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Thoughtseize 1 Pithing Needle
Side-out:1 Manipulate Fate 1 Force of Will 4 Food Chain 1 Gurmag Angler

and I win all the matches, most of them 2-0

Anyone with experiences agains Infect?

Thank you.

[JackaBo]

Hey folks,

What are your thoughts on Toxic Deluge vs Engineered Plague in the sideboard? I know the strengths and weaknesses of each card, I'm just curious on which you all believe is more optimal to improve bad matchups.

I play one of each. Usually I board them in in the same match ups but if I had to chose only one I'd keep Deluge since it has more applications. Plague is more narrow but better at what it does.

[JackaBo]

Hi to all community, I'm an italian player and this is my list I usually play in my local store

List:
4 Walking Ballista
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
3 Misthollow Griffin
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Gurmag Angler

4 Food Chain
1 Sylvan Library

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Manipulate Fate
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize

3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp


Sideboard:
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Chill
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Hydroblast
2 Engineered Plague
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
2 Leyline of the Void


My meta is full of D&T, Infect, BR Reanimator and Death Blade decks and Burns.

I usually sideboard:

VS D&T:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Pithing Needle 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:2 Thoughtseize 4 Force of Will 1 Food Chain

VS Infect:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:1 Manipulate Fate 1 Eternal Scourge 4 Food Chain

VS Death Blade:
Side-in:2 Engineered Plague 1 Toxic Deluge 2 Golgari Charm 1 Pithing Needle 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:2 Thoughtseize 4 Force of Will 1 Sylvan Library

VS BR Reanimator:
Side-in:1 Surgical Extraction 1 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Thoughtseize 2 Leyline of the Void
Side-out:4 Food Chain 1 Abrupt Decay

VS Burn/ UR Delver:
Side-in:1 Hydroblast 2 Chill 1 Abrupt Decay
Side-out:1 Sylvan Library 1 Eternal Scourge 2 Thoughtseize

Do you have any advice to give me? Or do you have any other matchups to add to this list?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Hello and wellcome!
Your sideboard and sideboarding strategy seems very sketchy.
For instance,why do you side out sylvan library in the most grindy match up, Deathblade?
Why do you sideboard out food chain versus reanimator, it's our best way to actually win.
Why do you side out scourge versus burn and UR?They will add red blasts to prevent us from comboing with griffins.
I also believe thoughtseize is better than baleful strix versus Death and taxes.
I hope this was helpful!

[Nightrider]

Hello and wellcome!
Your sideboard and sideboarding strategy seems very sketchy.
For instance,why do you side out sylvan library in the most grindy match up, Deathblade?
Why do you sideboard out food chain versus reanimator, it's our best way to actually win.
Why do you side out scourge versus burn and UR?They will add red blasts to prevent us from comboing with griffins.
I also believe thoughtseize is better than baleful strix versus Death and taxes.
I hope this was helpful!

Thank you JackaBo.
1) I side out Library because most of the time I can't pay 4 life for an extra card and I'm scared from unblockable TNN
2) I think Reanimator, in special way BR Reanimator, is a combo deck faster than us, so I side in elements of control their combo and then win the game with my creatures
3) I side out Scourge because I think he isn't a good blocker
4) I think that Strix force the use of Mother of Runes to pass through the block, so I can Abrupt Decay her. And I draw one more card.

Anyway I try your advices, thank you again!

[meffeo]

Had a pretty bad run at Ovino yesterday. We were only 108 players, due to a national holiday in Italy, it meant 7 rounds of swiss.

RW Painter 2-0
G1 I comboed one turn earlier than my opponent, no interactions at all.
G2 I was able to Decay a Grindstone and Push a Painter, comboed the turn after.


ANT 0-2
G1 We durdled a bit till the point a lethal Tendrils killed me with no interactions by my side.
G2 It was a pretty interesting game, we get to the point where he knew my hand (Mindbreak Trap, FoW, Plague) but one card (BS) and went for AN with two cards left in hand, I force it, he fluster it. I could have responded with Trap but if the last card was Tendrils, I was dead anyway. No way out from there.


S&S 2-0
G1 We cantripped a bit until a great fight for Leovold began. He forced it, I forced it back, he pierced it, I bsed through a Drs looking for answers and found another FoW and a Griffin (feelsgoodman). The Emissary finally resolved and even with a Griselbrand in play, my opponent wasn't able to recover neither finding an answer to a resolved Food Chain + multiple Griffins.
G2 He went for classic Ancient Tomb, Petal, S&T which I forced. I duressed the turn after seeing Brainstorm, Griselbrand, Pyroblast and Impulse (I took the BS). After that multiple Strix and DRS came into play, without any resistance. When he finally found a Volcanic Island, the match was already compromised.


Grixis Reanimator WTF 0-2
G1 He started with Probe, Entomb for Griselbrand. In my turn I Tseized him, seeing Badlands, Volcanic, Delta, Exhume, Reanimate. I did not find a counterspell either a Strix in the following turns.
G2 Three Strix in play made me pretty happy until he began to Bolt and Blast the tiny birds. He had two Young Pyromancer in play, facing a lonely Drs. He went to 2 and would have been dead the next turn, he drew and probed into... Bolt.

Grixis Delver 2-1
G1 If I'm not mistaken and it could probably be since the weather in Milan was extremely hot, I won through a classic Food Chained Ballista after some turns of creatures damage.
G2 It's pretty hard to beat a double Delver + double Drs start.
G3 We came to a point when we were both hellbent, a board full of Pyromancers + tokens, flipped Delvers, Drs, Griffins + Food Chains. A Brainstorm showed me a lethal Ballista but a Null Rod was on his side. I played it nonetheless as a 250.000/250.000 and he scooped right after that.

Esper Miracles 0-2
G1 JTMS vs Leovold, it was a fair fight until Terminus cleared the board (not you again...), the card advantage became insurmountable in few minutes.
G2 Again JTMS but this time no Leovold for me, an Engineered Plague slowed down his Mentors but a timely Tsize took my Griffin together with the chance to win that game.

3-3, drop.

The deck underperformed a bit and I missed the Needles in the sideboard, from which I sided every card.

I sided the full combo package out in two matchups (Ant + S&S) and felt very comfortable with it.

List for reference:

4 Walking Ballista
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
3 Misthollow Griffin
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
4 Food Chain
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Manipulate Fate
3 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Duress
1 Flusterstorm
2 Hydroblast
2 Engineered Plague
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Mindbreak Trap