[Deck] Food Chain Combo

[theMonster]

Been thinking about possible cards to try. I think the deck could use a more offensive 2-drop to compliment Baleful Strix's defense. Originally I thought about a singleton Scavening Ooze because it can exile dead Griffins and become huge in the right circumstances. But how about a little off-the-wall inclusion?:

Lotus Cobra

Lots of lists play sideboard Carpet of Flowers to ramp up. Well how about a card that allows you to do it on your terms, attacks for 2, and is a body to start the chain? It's not a great topdeck, of course, but I feel like it can do some silly stuff like T2 Cobra --> T3 fetchland, crack it, do what you will with five mana (like cast Chain, exile Cobra to play Griffin and be able to pay for Daze perhaps). Maybe that's a corner case, but if you play enough fetchlands, you can probably maindeck an 8-drop dude - Griselbrand, Tidespout Tyrant, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, whichever flavor you fancy - and cast it more reliably. And if your opponent is gonna Bolt or Plow your snake, you're winning.

Thoughts?

[DireLemming]

A cool piece of tech from http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...een-Food-Chain
Woodland Bellower enables any fatty from just FC & Empath. On its own the Bellower is nothing to write home about, but he is a decent body and at worst draws into a DRS.

[Ricardio]

New griffin!

http://mythicspoiler.com/emn/cards/eternalscourge.html

[Zirath]

We have a new toy:


http://mythicspoiler.com/emn/cards/eternalscourge.html

Does this change anything? My thought is no because of the fact that Griffin flies and can be pitched to our disruption. Maybe the mono-green build will have a field day with their new toy.

EDIT: I took too long to post. My statement doesn't change.

[Ricardio]

potentially being griffin 5-8 is a big deal and the fact that it is colorless, making it easier to cast, as well as exiles when targeted by opponent, I feel like it will be potentially positive for the archetype overall.

[NeckBird]

We have a new toy:


http://mythicspoiler.com/emn/cards/eternalscourge.html

Does this change anything? My thought is no because of the fact that Griffin flies and can be pitched to our disruption. Maybe the mono-green build will have a field day with their new toy.

EDIT: I took too long to post. My statement doesn't change.

It does make Manipulate Fate far better beyond the first, even easier to play a value and attrition game, and is resilient to all spot removal even without Food Chain or DRS out. I doubt it's an automatic 4x of, but it should be excellent as a 2-3 of. Not going to make Food Chain Tier One, but I can see it improving the Miracles and Death & Taxes matchup, which is still an improvement.

[Zirath]

It does make Manipulate Fate far better beyond the first, even easier to play a value and attrition game, and is resilient to all spot removal even without Food Chain or DRS out. I doubt it's an automatic 4x of, but it should be excellent as a 2-3 of. Not going to make Food Chain Tier One, but I can see it improving the Miracles and Death & Taxes matchup, which is still an improvement.

But do we benefit from more Griffins? We don't even play all 4 consistently. This deck has always had the issue of needing to dilute its plan to handle other decks better.

[theMonster]

But do we benefit from more Griffins? We don't even play all 4 consistently. This deck has always had the issue of needing to dilute its plan to handle other decks better.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think one reason we don't all play four Griffins is because of its mana cost. is a steep investment in Legacy. But perhaps now we can run, say, 3 Griffin and 2 Scourge(?). Perhaps then it would be worth it to play the full set of Manipulate Fates.

[maharis]

It's cool that we have another Griffin to play with, but I don't think it's a matter of a tweak to the current "stock" lists. I don't think the things it does "better" than Misthollow Griffin outweigh the things Griffin does better than Eternal Scourge -- in particular having evasion and pitching to Force.

Scourge is better against Lightning Bolt and Blood Moon, but those just aren't cards I feel we lose to a lot.

So if you are looking at this card, I think you're talking about re-architecting the deck a bit. That could be fun. In my experience, the issue with this deck hasn't been getting Griffins; between Manipulate Fate and cantrips and stuff they're easy enough to find. The problem has been finding and sticking a Food Chain. So maybe you're talking about a G/W version with this dude as the creature half and some more ways to find Food Chain. Of course you lose the Griffin/Force/Fate power, so you have to make it up in other ways. Just spitballing.

[JackaBo]

It's cool that we have another Griffin to play with, but I don't think it's a matter of a tweak to the current "stock" lists. I don't think the things it does "better" than Misthollow Griffin outweigh the things Griffin does better than Eternal Scourge -- in particular having evasion and pitching to Force.

Scourge is better against Lightning Bolt and Blood Moon, but those just aren't cards I feel we lose to a lot.

So if you are looking at this card, I think you're talking about re-architecting the deck a bit. That could be fun. In my experience, the issue with this deck hasn't been getting Griffins; between Manipulate Fate and cantrips and stuff they're easy enough to find. The problem has been finding and sticking a Food Chain. So maybe you're talking about a G/W version with this dude as the creature half and some more ways to find Food Chain. Of course you lose the Griffin/Force/Fate power, so you have to make it up in other ways. Just spitballing.

In my mind Griffins are way better than this dude for the reasons stated above and I also dont need griffin 5-8 in my deck, 3 is good enough for me. However, I consider replacing one griffin with Eternal Scourge just because the fact that you can go T1 DRS, T2 MF exiling 2 griffin, 1 Scrourge, T3 chain, eat land with DRS and exile for 3 mana total, then get 9 power on the board, where only griffins would have to wait one turn. Also the blood moon argument is valid. What this deck would really benefit from is an in-colour dork that fetches an enchantment, that would be sweet.

[Thorhammer]

I think griffin is still better. If you don't have an emrakul (or vela or tidespout or whoever you want to run) "getting the flock out" means a bunch of underpowered ground pounders. With griffin you get 9 or 12 points of flying power off a manipulate. Clearly worth testing though.

[Dice_Box]

I think griffin is still better. If you don't have an emrakul (or vela or tidespout or whoever you want to run) "getting the flock out" means a bunch of underpowered ground pounders. With griffin you get 9 or 12 points of flying power off a manipulate. Clearly worth testing though.

Force foder is also handy.

[HdH_Cthulhu]

Maybe a new fast combo deck. Like Turn 1 Chrome mox sol land into Food chain; Turn 2 griffin/new guy?

[ProBlue]

Maybe a new fast combo deck. Like Turn 1 Chrome mox sol land into Food chain; Turn 2 griffin/new guy?

T1 Chrome Mox (Removing Eternal Scourge), Ancient Tomb, Elvish Spirit Guide x4, Food Chain, Emrakul - 9 card, T1 18dmg combo!

[ProBlue]

T1 Chrome Mox (Removing Eternal Scourge), Ancient Tomb, Elvish Spirit Guide x4, Food Chain, Emrakul - 9 card, T1 18dmg combo!

For real though... could there be a version of the current deck that is just black green with discard instead of counters?

[Ricardio]

For real though... could there be a version of the current deck that is just black green with discard instead of counters?

What are you trading griffin, counters and can trips away for? Budget friendly sadness?

[The Nobodys]

Hi, the spoiler for eternal scourge got me interested in this deck. I was wondering if having 8 copies of Griffin means Serum Powder could be a thing in this deck? I checked the primer but found no mention of it. You could just exile openers looking for food chain, and/or value-exiling Griffin.

Alternatively, the thought of mixing this deck with Eldrazi seems interesting. Casting manipulate fate with an eye of ugin sounds amazing, and having medium to high threats that can be ramped to through sol lands as well as food chain seems sound.

[Zombie]

Tired train of thought / question: Tempo decks run out of cards. Necro was broken because gas. Squadron Hawk was good because of gas. Manipulate Fate is hilarious. => Scourge Tempo?

[Ol' Dr. Teeth]

Hello all,

I'm a long time lurker and Legacy player (since the birth of the format)
I stil play Burn, Infect and all kinds of Reanimator, having given up my beloved Psychatog when it died many years ago.

Recently I've been having a lot of fun with Food Chain. I really wanna make it great!

Check out this list from a recent IQ:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=105417

A few discussion points:
1) One-of Vendilion Clique is pretty much standard in the deck now huh? So many tricks right?
2) Why have both Emrakul & Tidespout? Isn't it one or the other?
3) 2 Birds appear to replace part of the discard suite there - is that due to the lack of Ponder?
4) 3 or 4 Strix? What say you?

I have been having minor success testing with Eternal Scourge. The 3CMC is enough to matter (especially against decks without Daze) and the fact that it's not blue doesn't come up really - it's more that it can't fly or compete with big creatures. It does of course make the second Manipulate Fate a real draw - fetching Griffon, Scourge and the last Fate. Still not sure however, and I'd certainly never play more than one. I don't think it's viable as a 'Scourge Tempo' option

Great to see the maindeck one-of Misdirection - I really think it belongs here.

[JackaBo]

Hello all,

I'm a long time lurker and Legacy player (since the birth of the format)
I stil play Burn, Infect and all kinds of Reanimator, having given up my beloved Psychatog when it died many years ago.

Recently I've been having a lot of fun with Food Chain. I really wanna make it great!

Check out this list from a recent IQ:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=105417

A few discussion points:
1) One-of Vendilion Clique is pretty much standard in the deck now huh? So many tricks right?
2) Why have both Emrakul & Tidespout? Isn't it one or the other?
3) 2 Birds appear to replace part of the discard suite there - is that due to the lack of Ponder?
4) 3 or 4 Strix? What say you?

I have been having minor success testing with Eternal Scourge. The 3CMC is enough to matter (especially against decks without Daze) and the fact that it's not blue doesn't come up really - it's more that it can't fly or compete with big creatures. It does of course make the second Manipulate Fate a real draw - fetching Griffon, Scourge and the last Fate. Still not sure however, and I'd certainly never play more than one. I don't think it's viable as a 'Scourge Tempo' option

Great to see the maindeck one-of Misdirection - I really think it belongs here.

Hi

1) I'm currently running two to 1) up the game versus combo 2) to fight planeswalkers 3) to play end of turn before I go off. I like two so far.

2) I wouldnt run both. If I were to run another finnisher I would pick one I could ramp into without griffins and that does something powerful without griffins. Probably good old griselbrand.

3) Guess he really wants to play t2 food chain.

4) I run 4. But three seems fine.

Misdirection. With four griffins sure, otherwice... I think no.