[Deck] Food Chain Combo

[Manroe]

So thinking about the RG Squee/Living Wish version. I don't think the deck wants too many wish board targets. My thought process was:

1 Sage
1 Emrakul
1 Eternal Witness
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Purphoros

I've already hit a couple weird corner cases where I could not deal with an Engineered Plague/Elesh Norn effect so Scourge gives us some Coverage there. I was thinking also about a Walking Ballista here but Purphoros gives us a very similar type of win con that doesn't just die to Null Rod as Walking Ballista does.

Now, what about the rest? In other Food Chain builds I've played I really enjoyed Leyline of Vitality. In this variant of the deck, it is even castable. Is it worth main or side consideration?

I believe Vexing Shusher has merit.

Ensnaring Bridge can buy a lot of time, plus we don't win via attacks anyway. This could really even be main IMO but we're running out of space.

Graveyard Hate is also a necessity. I'm leaning Faerie Macabre here but is Leyline a better answer?

What about Artifact/Enchantment Hate?

My thoughts for SB:


1 Sage
1 Emrakul
1 Eternal Witness
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Purphoros
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Ancient Grudge/Krosan Grip
2 Vexing Shusher

What do you all think? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.




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[WarpWorld]

So thinking about the RG Squee/Living Wish version. I don't think the deck wants too many wish board targets. My thought process was:

1 Sage
1 Emrakul
1 Eternal Witness
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Purphoros

I've already hit a couple weird corner cases where I could not deal with an Engineered Plague/Elesh Norn effect so Scourge gives us some Coverage there. I was thinking also about a Walking Ballista here but Purphoros gives us a very similar type of win con that doesn't just die to Null Rod as Walking Ballista does.

Now, what about the rest? In other Food Chain builds I've played I really enjoyed Leyline of Vitality. In this variant of the deck, it is even castable. Is it worth main or side consideration?

I believe Vexing Shusher has merit.

Ensnaring Bridge can buy a lot of time, plus we don't win via attacks anyway. This could really even be main IMO but we're running out of space.

Graveyard Hate is also a necessity. I'm leaning Faerie Macabre here but is Leyline a better answer?

What about Artifact/Enchantment Hate?

My thoughts for SB:


1 Sage
1 Emrakul
1 Eternal Witness
1 Eternal Scourge
1 Purphoros
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Ancient Grudge/Krosan Grip
2 Vexing Shusher

What do you all think? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.




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Straight R/G or going RUG colors?

[Manroe]

Straight R/G or going RUG colors?

I've been playing straight R/G. Only a few times though. The list is a few pages back. I borrowed it from someone else.

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[Jakobian1010]

I've been playing straight R/G. Only a few times though. The list is a few pages back. I borrowed it from someone else.

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Was it the list I posted? FYI I cut it down to 1 squee since then. Also, I hadn't even considered living wish, but it seems really strong.

[Jesture]

Shoutout to Cosmo Kwok for top 8'ing the SCG team open this past weekend with this list http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/120658

If you're here, or if anyone here knows him, I'm curious to hear about some of the more unorthodox choices. Notably, 2 Shardless Agents and 2 Noble Hierarchs seems strange, as does Emrakul/Tidespout finishers with no way to tutor for them.

[JackaBo]

Shoutout to Cosmo Kwok for top 8'ing the SCG team open this past weekend with this list http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/120658

If you're here, or if anyone here knows him, I'm curious to hear about some of the more unorthodox choices. Notably, 2 Shardless Agents and 2 Noble Hierarchs seems strange, as does Emrakul/Tidespout finishers with no way to tutor for them.

Nice to see food chain on stream. A bit sceptical on the list though. But then again, I'm sceptical on food chains place in the meta as a whole.

[WarpWorld]

Nice to see food chain on stream. A bit sceptical on the list though. But then again, I'm sceptical on food chains place in the meta as a whole.

How do you mean? It isn't tier 1 but I would say it's close maybe 1.25. I would say it's a soild deck choice in the meta right now.

[zerozero]

I played Cosmo a few weeks ago at my local store, and was surprised at those creatures. He just said he can find them when he needs them. I don't know what the shardless agents are for, since they only trigger on a few things in the deck. Maybe to try and hit a brainstorm to find a finisher, or a manipulate fate in the mid-game?

[ChristoferV]

Goblin Food Chain

Hello everybody!
I’m not sure where to post this so I’m going to try it in the Food Chain thread and the newly created Squee Chain thread.

This weekend I played a league final in Stockholm where the 16 highest placing players during a season played off to crown a champion. I tend to play decks like Aluren, Lands or Grixis Control/Czech Pile but decided to celebrate the printing of Squee, the Immortal with a spicy Goblin Food Chain list. Who needs Goblin Recruiter anyways?

The deck:

Main deck:
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Skirk Prospector
1 Goblin Sledder
3 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Goblin Chieftain
2 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Squee, the Immortal
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Lightning Crafter
1 Goblin Settler
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Food Chain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Taiga
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Mountain
1 Pendelhaven
3 Wasteland

Sideboard:
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Krosan Grip
1 Vexing Shusher
3 Thorn of Amethyst

I decided to play this deck without proper testing and made some flaws in my deckbuilding. Adjustments that I’d make now is to cut the Blood Moons in the Sideboard to include removal such as Pyrokinesis. I’d also cut a Goblin Warchief for a Sylvan Library in the main as Sylvan Library is just an amazing card and can do multiple things for a deck like this.

This deck has a lot of infinites besides Food Chain and Squee, the Immortal. With that combination of cards in play you can use Goblin Sledder to pump your team by an infinite amount, use Goblin Sharpshooter and a sac outlet like Goblin Sledder or Skirk Prospector to shoot as many times as you wish or do the good old Lightning Crafter + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker infinite.

The appeal for me to play this deck was that it has a lot of different gears. You can play it as a slightly nerfed Vials Goblin deck that is slower, less synergistic and less consistent but have the option of doing heavy combos to finish games that might be hard to close otherwise. Having a combo in a deck like this gives you a better chance against faster combo decks also as you have a chance to combo out before they do.

So the pairings for the first round of the tournament comes up so I walk to the table to face of versus my first opponent!

Round 1.
Czech Pile.
G1: I keep a pretty slow hand which punish me very hard! My opponent plays a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman, followed up by a turn 2 Hymn to tourach (hitting my best cards) and then pondering to hit a turn 3 Hymn as well. I get stranded with only lands in my hand and he lands a turn 4 Jace. After two turns of him fatesealing and adding more pressure I scoop.

Sideboard: I brind in my relic of progenitus, 2 Choke and 2 Blood Moons for this matchup as I think that all of those cards are quite excellent.

G2: This hand is better for sure. I have a turn one Lackey, a Choke and several pretty reasonable cards. He bolts my Lackey turn one with Badlands, plays a swamp turn two and when I get to my third turn to jam Choke he lets it resolve, plays a wasteland and plays a Liliana, the Last hope. I start playing ringleaders and other hasty goblins but find myself in an ocean of removal and eventually a Jace. I die to a lethal swing by 14 zombie tokens after a long fight. Had all the pieces in my hand to kill him if I would’ve topdecked a Food chain but none was found!

0-1

Round2.
Lands.
G1: I’ve actually never seen this person pilot this deck so I was excited to see how the match would go. He starts by playing Mox Diamond, Grove and a Molten Vortex turn one. I realize that my early goblins will die pretty fast if I try to play them so I play land go. He start to pressure my life total pretty hard and by t3 I’m at 13 life with no spells cast. I take my turn, fetch and play my Food Chain. He continues to shoot me with the Vortex but makes a smart decision to keep mana up to see if he needs to shoot any creatures. I take my turn 4, play Squee, the Immortal, along with 4 other goblins. Goblin Sledder, Warchief, Matron for Chieftain and Chieftain. I loop Squee together with Sledder and infinite mana to make my team +1000/+1000 which kills him.

Sideboard: I bring in my 2 Surgical Extraction, 2 Blood Moon and 1 Relic of Progenitus.

G2: He has a very explosive start and goes: Mox Diamond, discard a fetch, Mox Diamond, discard a Maze of Ith, Thespian Stage and Gamble. His Gamble finds a Life from the Loam which is discarded. He passes the turn and I snap off my Surgical Extraction. He reveals his hand to show a lonely Krosan Grip. I search through his deck to see that he has no more graveyard synergies left in his deck.
I play a turn 1 Skirk Prospector and pass the turn. He draws a card, plays Grove of the Burnwillows and passes. I untap, draw my card, plays a land and use Prospector for mana to play a Blood Moon. (I did this to bait his Krosan grip to resolve a Food Chain and win within 1-2 turns.) He does not fall for the bait but seem to be search for a Dark Depths instead to get a ”free” Marit Lage by playing Grip on my Blood Moon with it in play. What ends up happening instead is me jamming Goblins and killing him over a couple of turns. He drew his Vortex but due to the Loams being exiled it was too little and too late.

1-1

Round 3:
UW Blade.
G1: He seems to be quite shocked to see me on a Goblin deck and our game one is a quite bad match actually. I do not play a single ”strong” goblin card and he doesn’t find good ways to stabilze so a few small Goblins made it all the way.

Sideboard: I’m scared of certain artifacts in his deck so I look at my Krosan Grips, Tin Street Hooligans and Chokes.

G2: This match is more to my opponents favor. I draw all lands besides 4 in my deck and my opponent gets to chain cantrips, use Jace a lot and presents a lot of different threats that I could simply not deal with.

G3: For the first two matches my opponent did not see Food Chain at all, which resultet in this game being very funny. The first three turns consists of us playing cantrips/threats, pretty standard Blade vs any fair deck really. Turn 4 he plays his Jitte, equips it to his Stoneforge Mystic and attack. I say ”no blocks”, he puts 2 counters on his Jitte and looks quite pleased. I untap and jam Food Chain which results in a lot of Goblins entering the battlefield (starting with Tin Street Hooligan to remove his Jitte). After a bit of Ringleading and Tutoring I put together Kiki-Jiki + Lightning Crafter combo, present an infinite damage loop which he scoops to.

2-1

Round 4:
Elves!
This is one of the opponents that I did not want to play against. I realized as we sat down that I have no cards in my sideboard against him and that his primary game plan is faster than mine.
G1: He does what Elves does best and kills me very hard on turn 3. I present some goblins but I really had no chance to win this game with his draw.

Sideboard: Not a single card!

G2: I can’t remember how this match started but after 4 turns I have managed to Gempalm some important creatures away and manage to get in a hasty Goblin Sharpshooter, which wins me the game.

G3: We both have pretty good hands but my opponent is missing a way to actually kill me (Natural Order, GSZ or just Behemoth). The first two turns consists of him drawing a lot of cards and building a board, I’m doing the same thing. Turn three he does a small glimpse that doesn’t find too much action. I play a Warchief, sitting with my Sharpshooter in hand, hoping to get one more turn. My opponent does the same thing again. A bigger glimpse turn. No action found. I get to untap, play Sharpshooter and shoot down 7 creatures. On his turn he doesn’t play any more creatures and just pass the turn back. I resolve a Food Chain and Chain together a win.

3-1.

Round 5:
I’m paired up against a friend and we decide to ID into top8.


Quarterfinals:
Elves!
I’m thinking ”oh no not again” as we start game 1.
G1: I keep a pretty slow hand that has the potential to combo turn 4. My opponent combos on turn 3 however, hitting me for 20+ damage, which is way too much for my Matron and two Goblin tokens to deal with.

G2: Feeling the match slip away from me I draw my seven and see a lot of things that I like. Prospector, Food Chain and other goodies. Our match is a quite grindy one, it gets so grindy that I actually get to cast Lightning Crafter. He plays a Craterhoof from his hand and hits me for 10 (it required him to tap his team to cast it so no other creature was able to attack). With the ”Trample” part of Craterhoof gone I feel like I’m in great shape. I play land number 5 and hardcast Kiki-Jiki. I do not have the infinite combo but I have a mini machinegun. He hits with Craterhoof the turn after which I block with Ringleader and finish off with Lightning Crafter. I make a copy of Lightning Crafter, champion Kiki-Jiki and shoot down a Deathrite Shaman. EoT I get my Kiki-Jiki back and my opponent realizes that this match is over.

G3: I get destroyed turn 3. My opponent drew a near perfect Elves hand and he maneuvered it very well! My opponent also always held decay mana up so I realized that I was in pretty deep trouble! He wins with a big swing and knocks me out of the tournament.

This deck was a lot of fun but it needs fixing. I’m currently looking at removing Vexing Shusher from the sideboard along with a Krosan Grip to add Pyrokinesis. I’m also looking at the possibility to shave a Goblin Warchief to add a Sylvan Library to the mix. It seems like a good pick up for this type of deck. Finding the right pieces is important and I think that it would’ve helped me during the tournament!

[Kaono]

Nice to see food chain on stream. A bit sceptical on the list though. But then again, I'm sceptical on food chains place in the meta as a whole.

We're favored against probably the 2 top decks in the format (Grixis Delver & Lands) and have solid matchups across the board aside from fast combo. I think this is the best meta since Miracles for FC to thrive in.

[cosmosis]

Shoutout to Cosmo Kwok for top 8'ing the SCG team open this past weekend with this list http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/120658

If you're here, or if anyone here knows him, I'm curious to hear about some of the more unorthodox choices. Notably, 2 Shardless Agents and 2 Noble Hierarchs seems strange, as does Emrakul/Tidespout finishers with no way to tutor for them.

Thanks for the shoutout! Cosmo Here. I lurk on TheSource once in a while, but never made an account until now. My standard player on the team forwarded me this post.

I'm busy over these next 2 days but hope to maybe type up a tournament report and explain some of my deck choices. The scg decklist should be fixed now. It is Engineered Plague in the sideboard (they initially had EE).

Spoiler: Let's stop calling this deck Food Chain Combo and call it Food Chain Value =)

[Corazu]

Thanks for the shoutout! Cosmo Here. I lurk on TheSource once in a while, but never made an account until now. My standard player on the team forwarded me this post.

I'm busy over these next 2 days but hope to maybe type up a tournament report and explain some of my deck choices. The scg decklist should be fixed now. It is Engineered Plague in the sideboard (they initially had EE).

Spoiler: Let's stop calling this deck Food Chain Combo and call it Food Chain Value =)

I figured as much that you're playing a grindy BUG value deck with the combo in the back pocket. I wonder though if the Ballista/Trinket Mage package doesn't play to that game plan a bit more though, give you toolbox answers to things. Could you not still find room for the 1 of Tyrant and Emrakul?

Looking forward to the writeup, I've just finished grabbing most of the core of the deck myself and am going to be sleeving it up soon, but I'm currently looking at a Ballista version.

[u-579]

I keep seeing that we are supposed to be good against delver, but I'm not sure how that match is supposed to be played. My local meta has been trending hard towards it so much so that the last local tournament, while smaller than normal, had between 33% and 50% delver. Despite how common it is, I have somehow only gotten matched up against it a few times and don't have anyone test against so I feel really unprepared for what looks like is going to be a such a large part of my meta going forward.

I have been playing a fairly standard 4 balista no trinket mage list.

[Kaono]

Don't over sideboard. I take out 1 Food Chain and 3 Ponder and bring in creature removal.

Always play around Daze unless you absolutely have no other choice or you're trying to bait one to do something else. Prioritize fetching your basics.

You'll still lose to their god draws occasionally but they eventually get overwhelmed by our 2-for-1s. They have no real way to gain card advantage. Strix and Manipulate Fate are nightmares for them. I'm to the point in confidence in the matchup that the good delver players call the MU "near unwinnable" and the bad/new delver players just get salty.

[u-579]

I had been brining in 2 Golgari charms and a Toxic deluge for sure. what I had been taking out was I think 1 food chain, 1 manipulate fate, and 1 force. Some of the times I might have boarded more with things like my 2 edicts because I haven't ever really felt like I knew what I should be doing. I guess one downside to playing a more obscure deck is the lack of resources available.

I also have been running 2 MD thoughsieze, against delver should those stay or go?


Also, what are the thoughts on Liliana the last hope either in the SB or MB?

For reference the sideboard that I have been running for a while is:
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm
2 Golgari Charm
1 Hydroblast
1 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge

[cosmosis]

Final Draft of SCG Baltimore 2018 Team Constructed Open Top 8 Tournament Report (Decklist):

***OPENING THOUGHTS/INTRO:
~Hi all, just wanted to do a little intro as this is one of my first posts on The Source.
~I first picked up the deck (without having played any games prior at all, only saw videos) and fell in love with it as it was exactly my play style and I had immediate success with it despite my suboptimal list and suboptimal play. My only legacy experience prior to my first tournament was a local 4-round event piloting Burn. I wanted to build Shardless BUG in 2014 but could not afford the JTMS/Lilly/Goyf on top of the manabase, so I decided to put food chain together when I saw a list. I took it to my first major legacy tournament for SCG Columbus Invitational 2014 (needed a legacy deck, I was mainly playing standard with Jund Monsters then). Ultimately, I finished 13th overall, going 6-2 in both formats. I sure made a ton of misplays in legacy, but my opponents made more as they had no idea about the deck. Unfortunately, SCG didn't publish t16 decklists then, but here it is for reference: link (Yes, I had actual shocklands due to finance.)
~Since that summer of 2014, I have pretty much exclusively played Food Chain at large tournaments, only dabbled in other jank at local weekly events. Had a decent amount of min cash finishes or GP day 2's but was also developing as a legacy player; I also just loved playing random jank cards
~I've always been on shardless builds and only switched to baleful strix when Colorless Eldrazi became prominent, then switched to ballista when it was first released (here's proof), only recently switching back to shardless because I missed the sheer CA value of it because it casts a card for free too!
~For this tournament, I expected a lot of grixis delver, monored, and some sneak & show. Versus S&S, ballista is inferior to the emrakul/tidespout win con. Ballista is better vs monored but isn't something I'm excited about anyway. Vs Grixis delver, I end up boarding out all of emrakul/tidespout and 2 of 4 ballistas anyway. So I decided to stick with shardless and emrakul package. Now I'm happy to just grind BUG midrange food chain all day and never play a full combo win con, because most legacy decks can't beat that, but the combo is good for decks that go over the top of us (MUD) or decks that can't easily interact with us (Eldrazi, Dredge) or just win for us (Show & Tell with Emrakul). Also, because I expected a lot of delver and monored (and because my judge noble foils just came in the mail that Friday before), I decided to play 2x noble hierarch. Versus Delver, I'm not upset if they bolt or daze it & if they don't I'm so far ahead on mana that it's like having a mb carpet of flowers that doesn't suck vs non-blue decks, not to mention the exalted triggers can win races. Versus monored, the extra manadork helps to beat fast blood moons before I can fetch all basics.
~I was on a 3-3 strix-shardless split prior, and moved to 4 strix-2 shardless because I expected more delver and strix is better there, whereas shardless is better vs czech and general grinding (because the card you draw off it is also cast - for only 1 extra mana!)
~Our whole team decided to play a nimble obstructionist in the 75 because of its versatility, so who was I to say no? (it replaced the 3rd sb thoughtseize I originally had). Nimble in legacy is great versus storm, they can't take it except with exactly therapy and it can work through a xantid swarm (that's primarily what I use it for). It can also stifle wastelands/ghost quarters, buy you a turn vs marit lage either by stifling hexmage permanently or thespian stage for 1 turn or flash blocker. It is an ambush flier that is easier to cast off basics than clique.
~Tombstalker better than Gurmag: the flying for extra B mana is so worth it (I have often found gurmag to just be ineffective versus chump blockers)
~Hostage Taker maindeck is sweet in my flex slot, handles a lot of trouble artifacts/creatures. And it's a 3 for 1 when it works! Also helps versus show and tell.
~No test cards in the 75: I had registered and played all of the cards in the 75 in a prior major tournament. All card choices were okay'd by my teammates (actually they just deferred to my judgment overall, but they gave the final 75 their blessing).
~SB Explanations:
1 Grafdigger's Cage - 3rd total piece of SB graveyard hate that also doubles duty versus elves and past in flames
2 Pithing Needle - first is pretty standard, the 2nd copy is to hedge versus sneak attack and JTMS (2 cards that are tough for us to beat). also for expected uptick in turbo depths (bad MU)
1 Nimble Obstructionist - explained above
1 Engineered Plague - mostly for true name nemesis as that card is one of our nemeses, also good versus a lot of other MUs; I like it over golgari charm because it's permanent
2 Flusterstorm, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Liliana the Last Hope, 2 Collective Brutality, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Toxic Deluge - pretty standard stuff at this point I would assume
~The following tournament report is all from memory, so there are likely to be inaccuracies. After starting 2-2, top 8'ing and tournament reports were the last thing on my mind.

***Round 1 - Lands (Favored 70/30)
This round, unfortunately, was against a friend of mine, so we both knew what each other was on (so much for the surprise factor). He knew what to do and made a fast 20/20. I got up to 21 from DRS and was able to take a hit to go to 1 life. Too bad I needed to fetch to shuffle and thus had to use DRS to gain 2 life and that took a turn off my clock. It was a close game but he found punishing fire quickly to race my flock. I'm down 0-1.

Game 2, I kept a questionable hand with no fliers but had FoW + blue card and DRS. Turn 2 Leovold is no match for turn 2 marit lage.

SB In: 2x Surgical, 2x Pithing Needle, 1x Nimble Obstructionist
SB Out: 2x Shardless, 1x Murderous Cut, 2x Noble
Lost match 0-2, Modern lost, Standard DNF: Personal 0-1, Team 0-1

***Round 2 - Monored Prison (Favored 65/35?)
I lead with fetchland and pass. He goes ancient tomb + spirit guide into blood moon, which I force to enable the rest of my fetches in hand to get basics. I cast spells with basics. Chandra isn't enough, fortunately.Game 2, I kept force of will + blue card and lands to get basics. Plays out similar to game 1.

SB In: 1x Nimble Obstructionist, 1x Needle (Chandra can be hard to beat)
SB Out: 1x Vendilion Clique (harder to cast than Nimble), 1x Leovold
Won match 2-0, Modern DNF, Standard won: Personal 1-1, Team 1-1

***Round 3 - BUG Leovold Control (Favored 65/35 depending on build)
Game 1 I fetch basics as I usually do. He has wasteland and underground sea and never sees another colored source until it is too late.

Going into game 2, I board hedging for both delver and BUG Control as I am unsure what he is on. He is again mana screwed after I kill all his deathrite shamans. He eventually lands sideboard bitterblossom, to which I add insult to injury by playing engineered plague on faeries.

SB In: 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Toxic, 1 Plague, 2 Brutality
SB Out: 4 Force of Will, 1 Tidespout, 1 Emrakul
Won match 2-0, Modern lost, Standard won: Personal 2-1, Team 2-1

***Round 4 - Dark Maverick (Dog 45/55?)
Game 1 I assemble House Gryffindor with Food Chain and beat for 9 vigilance, which is enough to beat his main deck cards.

Game 2, he is able to get SoFi and I am unable to keep a board presence. He has GSZ to get pridemage to kill my food chain and I don't get a board presence against SoFi and friends.

Game 3, my DRS gets plowed. I have a ton of removal but Thalia slows it down and he overwhelms me with threats that I have to keep tapping out to remove. He eventually slams a Choke post combat and I am dead.

SB In: 1 Liliana, 1 Toxic, 2 Needle, 2 Brutality
SB Out: 4 Force of Will, 1 Tidespout, 1 Emrakul
Lost match 1-2, Modern won, Standard lost: Personal 2-2, Team 2-2

***Round 5 - Infect (Dog 30/70)
Game 1 I get lucky that he doesn't have a fast hand. I kill/trade everything and eventually win with deathrite activations.

Game 2 we trade resources to top decking. I can't find a flier for his inkmoth that he is able to to grow with a become immense off the top.

Game 3 I kill all the things, so I won.

SB In: All SB cards except cage and 2 surgical
SB Out: 4 Food Chain, 1 Fate, 2 Shardless, 1 Emrakul, 1 Tidespout, 2 Noble, 1 Scourge
Won match 2-1, Modern DNF, Standard won: Personal 3-2, Team 3-2

***Round 6 - Sneak & Show (Dog 30/70) versus Peach Garden Oath
I'm on the draw in game one and decide to brainstorm end of opponent's 2nd turn because I have a curve out hand. It gets spell pierced. Because he didn't play any threats on t1 or t2 and didn't mulligan, I assume he is on S&S and not grixis delver, so I proceed to put as many creatures on the board. I get close to killing on the crackback when he casts show and tell to show omniscience. However, he has both Emrakul and Griselbrand, so I die.

Game 2 I am able to thoughtseize and clique him out of threats to win the game. I also surgical'd sneak attack and saw only show and tell. Once I draw Emrakul, I knew the only way to lose was S&T omniscience with emrakul.

Game 3 oponent has leyline to start but luckily I don't have discard/clique. I keep 2 force, 2 blue cards and am able to use that to win when I play out a clock. EOT flash in nimble to apply pressure after leaving mana up was key.

SB In: 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Brutality, 2 Surgical, 2 Needle, 2 Fluster, 1 Nimble
SB Out: 2 Food Chain, 2 Shardless, 2 Noble, 3 Decay, 1 Cut, 1 Scourge
Won match 2-1, Modern lost, Standard won: Personal 4-2, Team 4-2

SIDENOTE: The Peach Garden Oath is probably one of the best teams ever (or at least the best US team). I must say that these guys were the epitome of what a pro player should be like. They were happy to sign my tokens before the match and were overall amiable folks. During the match, they were clear with their communication. It was clear they were there to win at magic, not win at angle shooting. When we won, they took defeat with grace; no salt at all, they've played long enough to know that you can't win them all and that they'll be back in the winner's circle soon enough. Much respect.

***Round 7 - Monored Prison (Favored 65/35?)
Game 1 I'm on the draw without Fow but have fetches and deathrite. He opens with t1 Blood moon. I die.

Games 2 and 3 play out similar to prior match. Fetch basics, cast spells, win. Abrupt decay is great versus ensnaring bridge. SB plan also same as prior.

Won match 2-1, Modern won, Standard DNF: Personal 5-2, Team 5-2

***Round 8 - Sneak & Show (Dog 30/70)
Game 1 my opponent mulls to 6 on the draw and casts t1 show and tell off ancient tomb + petal with force backup on my force. He has 2 cards left, I have to decide to show Leovold versus Clique. Clique is better if he has exactly omniscience + emrakul, otherwise Leovold is better in all other cases. I decide on Leovold, turns out he had omniscience into sneak attack. His next 3 draw steps were fluster and 2 lands, so I win with beats.

Game 2 he is able to resolve a sneak attack and gets sneaky with griselbrand. He draws a bunch of cards and is then at 10 life. Surely I am dead? He discusses with teammate about drawing another 7, which his teammate assures he can do safely as he telegraphs that there are 2 force of wills that he can use, though he can only use 1 as I also have a strix in play. Turns out he didn't draw a fatty offf the initial 14 cards, so he does draw 7 more to go to 3 life. I go to draw step and if I draw needle I think I can win, because he has to force it. Then I attack for 1 and can finish with a brutality to drain. I don't draw needle and have to cast brutality, which gets force'd going to 1 life. He untaps and Emrakul ends me.

Game 3 I don't quite remember. My notes saw I forced and surgical'd in my life totals but I don't remember what. My ragtag team of beats gets there. SB plan is same as prior match.

Won match 2-1, Modern DNF, Standard won: Personal 6-2, Team 6-2

***Round 9 - ID (Even 50/50), turns out later that it was a miracles matchup
We do the math and know that based on the tournament size and day 2 requirements that day 2 will be a small tournament and the "loss" from intentionally drawing into day 2 doesn't change the total number of wins needed to prize or top 8. We offer ID to opponents, briefly talk about the math and they agree (ultimately, they went 4-2 on day 2 and finished 9th, whereas we went 5-1 and finished 6th).

ID, Personal 6-2-1, Team 6-2-1

***Round 10 - Miracles (Favored 60/40, but fluctuates based on number of JTMS)
Game 1 goes grindy and my unanswered food chain keeps my threats resilient. As the game goes long with the flock, my opponent concedes in order to save time. The murderous cut and tombstalker do amazing job delving back my countered griffins/scourge.

Game 2 I have to dance with counterbalance, which does work for my opponent. I weather 2 JTMS only to see a 3rd! The first and 2nd are hard enough to beat. He brainstorms with jace and then casts council's judgement. I have all 3 griffins and scourge and have to decide which to exile in response, as I suspected a terminus was just set up. He has snapcaster to block for JTMS at 3 loyalty. I made mistake of exiling scourge + griffin to leave 2 griffins in play when it should have been all exiled but 1 griffin. Because I have 1 less griffin post-terminus, I die to angels.

Game 3 we start with only 10 minutes left, so I grab emrakul back from the SB and take out the shardless to have more ways to combo win. I mull to 6 (keeping food chain, griffin) and he mulls to 5. I keep tidespout on top and play fetchland mentally telling myself to not crack it until I draw tidespout. My first brainstorm also shows me emrakul which I keep and shuffle away tidespout, as it is more insulated versus swords/counters. I eventually cast emrakul on turn 0 and win.

SB In: 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Needle, 2 Fluster, 1 Nimble, 1 Liliana
SB Out: 2 Force of Will, 2 Strix, 2 Noble, 1 Shardless, 1 Emrakul
Won match 2-1, Modern won, Standard lost: Personal 7-2-1, Team 7-2-1

***Round 11 - Lands (Favored 70/30)
Game 1 and 2 I don't remember too much other than using food chain to cheat mana and generally sidestepping what Lands is trying to do to control us. No fast marit lage in either game, so I win pretty easily. SB same as prior.

Won match 2-0, Modern won, Standard DNF: Personal 8-2-1, Team 8-2-1

***Round 12 - Eldrazi (Favored 70/30)
Game 1 I misequence my play and got punished. Had 2 food chains and 1 manipulate fate and 1 hierarch. I cast food chain first thinking it would be more mana efficient. However, manipulate fate + hierarch is same efficiency or better. He has thought knot and takes manipulate fate. I die to smasher because I don't have multiple 3/3s.

Game 2 I am about to lock the game up with 9 vigilance flying power and win to move onto game 3, but my teammates both lose so I don't get to redeem my game 1 blunder.

SB In: 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Needle, 1 Plague
SB Out: 4 Force of Will (iirc)
DNF match, Modern lost, Standard lost: Personal 8-2-2, Team 8-3-1

***Round 13 - Maverick (Dog 45/55?) - Special note here that my opponent was A+ memes/dad jokes with me, thanks for the superb fun games!
Game 1 I just go turn 2 shardless into more fair BUG cards. My opponent makes a grave error putting his jitte on birds to block my griffins but never had counters on it. Deathrite and BUG cards ends the game.

Game 2 I have answers for his threats. Baleful strix holds down the fort. I don't get choked out and win. SB probably similar to prior.

Won match 2-0, Modern won, Standard DNF: Personal 9-2-2, Team 9-3-1

***Round 14 - Grixis Delver (Favored 60/40)
I was wondering when I'd finally see this matchup. Game 1 he had a slowish hand. I was able to play around daze and cast manipulate on t2 via mana dork. It resolves, and his pressure was too low, so I win easily.

Game 2 I keep a questionable hand of 1 land, brainstorm, DRS, and manipulate fate with other cards. My t1 DRS gets killed. Then I get braintorm locked. I die a slower than expected death to his slower hand, but I never get to even try to cast manipulate fate to call it a comeback.

Game 3 on the play my mana dorks give me an unsurmountable mana advantage. I cast all my spells without care and easily win this one.

SB In: 2 Brutality, Plague, Toxic, Liliana, 2 Fluster
SB Out: Emrakul, Tidespout, 4 Force of Will, Hostage Taker/Shardless On Draw/Play
Won match 2-1, Modern won, Standard lost: Personal 10-2-2, Team 10-3-1

At this point, we are locked to prize and am likely playing for top 8, I start to think that maybe I should have thought about taking better notes for a tournament report, but alas next round starts very quickly and I don't get a chance to take notes.

***Round 15 - Grixis Delver (Favored 60/40) - Off Camera Feature Match
It's time to break a curse, as I've never won a feature match, whether on camera or not. Game 1 is close. I play around daze and eventually sculpt a combo kill against his board of young pyro with tokens, TNN, and DRS when I go down to 3 life (1 life effectively because he has active DRS).

Game 2 is again very tight. I stabilize with food chain + manipulate fate for 9 flying vigilance power. I attack and put him down to 3 when I'm also at 3. He has no attackers that can get through and an active DRS. I know his hand is junk from a prior clique/escalated brutality. Leovold is also out, so he cannot cantrip into his only out - bolt. It wasn't bolt, so we are onto the top 8! At this point, I was too busy celebrating to be disciplined enough to take more notes for a tournament report. SB is same as last round.

Won match 2-0, Modern won, Standard DNF: Personal 11-2-2, Team 11-3-1 (6th Seed)

***Top 8 Quarterfinals - BUG Delver (Favored 65/35) - End of Game 2 on Camera
So our team is on camera but it is the modern match featured. We are low seed, so brutally our entire team is on the draw. All 3 of us then mulligan to 6. Game 1 is very close. I resolve manipulate fate and hardcast each 3/3 turn after turn to stabilize. It's too bad that before the game we had each other's decklists and my opponent said my deck was spicy, to which I responded he had 2 tombstalkers to my one. He has both stalkers out to my scourge + 2 griffins with me at 5 life. Thins look grim, until I topdeck my own stalker to force some draw go top decking over the next 3 or 4 turns. He is still at a healthy 14 and I am unable to make any attacks. There is a point where I draw noble hierarch that I can attack with stalker for 6. If he blocks, we trade stalkers. If he doesn't, he goes to 8 and I'm left to double chump his stalkers and hope he doesnt have removal for my scourge when I crack back for exactsies. I choose not to do so and continue draw go until I get strix to block better. I do so, and he takes the hit to go down to 6 after he fetched and forced. Next attack he trades stalkers. Then he plays DRS and I lose race to DRS. Would have won game if I saw a single food chain.

Game 2 is again a very grindy game. I resolve manipulate fate but his goyf clock plus double flipped delver on t3 is a lot before I can stabilize. I may have misplayed my not chumping goyf or casting griffin first to try to stabilize board, hard to tell what the right line is as his delver pressure was insane. Modern finishes match and of course camera comes to our match as I am getting demolished. Video (about 7:40:00 start) starts with his thoughtseize taking my needle to make goyf lethal. The turn I decide to decay, I probably should have cast griffin and not attacked and hoped that he had no removal because that was one of the lines to stabilize. He has a counterspell for my last blocker (misplay on camera by casting clique instead of griffin because it dies to abrupt decay, but didn't matter as it was countered). I die. Would have won game if I saw a single food chain.

Lost match 0-2, Modern won, Standard lost: Personal 11-3-2, Team 11-4-1 (Final standing: 7th)

***FINAL/EXTRA THOUGHTS:
~Overall, I am happy that my first SCG Top 8 would've also been a individual top 8 with my personal record, so I didn't have to feel 'carried.' Also, it is always cool to see that every one of my legacy opponents were excellent sports and made for enjoyable magic (most of our team opponents were too!). Overall, I am happy with the build. May end up cutting shardless for ponders or sylvan library to help find the food chains in the matchups where it is important (most). Still unsure of win cons as each has their pros/cons, may end up going back to 3 ballista and 1 emrakul or something like that. I was very happy with the noble hierarchs for their mana ramp on 19 lands and exalted triggers, just wished they were BUG instead of Bant.
~The shardless agents overall had plenty of juicy flips to hit (even when it's "just" a noble hierarch), but they may just be antiquated to the power of Leovold in that slot, as well as just lack of deck space because right now I love hostage taker so much more.
~We were a team of 2 legacy and 1 modern player, so I was able to win the legacy draw and props to our standard player for just jamming an unknown format and getting just enough wins to get the team there!
~Best Hostage Take This Tournament: Took a Titania Protector of Argoth in game 1 vs Maverick (won the game but lost the match)
~Best Nimble Obstruction This Tournament: No stifles really (no matchups conducive to that), just good old fashioned flash beats for a good amount of wins

Please let me know if this format is too wordy or whatnot. I am open to whatever feedback! Thanks for reading!

[JackaBo]

Cosmo: Great report!

[cosmosis]

Cosmo: Great report!

Thanks, I made some more edits and added some opening/final thoughts. I will consider this a final draft at this point, hope it was a reasonable read and formatted okay!

[matteo.defantmef]

Dalibor is currently 11th with 33 points @ GP Birmingham. I saw a trinket mage in the 75s. We will hopefully see.


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[meffeo]

Dalibor is currently 11th with 33 points @ GP Birmingham. I saw a trinket mage in the 75s. We will hopefully see.