[Deck] Food Chain Combo

[nevilshute]

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-Dûl’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.

[nevilshute]

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

[kingtk3]

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!!!

[Umbranex]

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!

[nevilshute]

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

[Umbranex]

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!

[kingtk3]

I would like to congratulate with Jonathan too.

I also think that we can finally transcend to the established forum: please admins!

Sent from my mobile, forgive me for grammar errors.

[DragoFireheart]

More creature bouncing is pure genius. Watch the prices of Griffins and Food Chains go up.

[Holden1669]

After I saw the Aluren list with Shardless Agent at SCG Seattle I put together a Shardless list for Food Chain but didn't play any matches with it. I didn't like how it seemed parallel and not really more powerful than my two win conditions of Food Chain or Natural Order. But now that I've seen Job's list and played a few matches with it I really like the choices that he made. And they are all internally consistent as well.

Playing only the Food Chain combo and not including Natural Order/Show and Tell, including Shardless Agent, excluding Empath, and playing two Tidespouts instead of more Emrakuls gives him a more coherent deck that is better at playing the Plan B win with flying 3/3s approach. It isn't as dependent on either resolving OR protecting a Food Chain. This is especially relevant in a world where BUG Delver (with discard, counter magic, and Abrupt Decay) is one of the most popular decks.

1. With Shardless you are more likely to have multiple creatures (and especially 3 cmc or higher creatures to immediately allow casting Griffin) in play when you resolve Food Chain. Shardless is also good as a value creature that opponents don't really feel the need to kill, leaving it on the board for chaining.

2. Without Natural Order you are less likely to draw cards that don't help your main win conditions. And it makes it easier for you to play Clique and Venser, which are strong.

3. If you do resolve a Food Chain and they have the Abrupt Decay (or similar), if your plan is to play infinite Griffins, Empath and then Emrakul then you don't get to do that. If you have a Shardless or two, a mana dork, a Clique, whatever, then you have a decent chance of being able to respond to the Abrupt Decay by removing a few guys and getting a Tidespout. You can semi-reasonably cast Tidespout even without Food Chain or pitch it to FoW.

4. If you have a Tidespout in play and are recurring Griffins then you bounce their entire board and can draw your deck with one of the Wall of Blossoms if you still need to for some reason. You really don't need Emrakul here most of the time.

5. This tournament shows how strong Griffin is just by itself. As one of the commentators pointed out a 4cc flyer who keeps coming back is a very difficult problem to solve in Legacy. Also it pitches to FoW/Misdirection for value.

6. Basically, Empath is a bad card unless you were just about to combo. It almost always just went to get the same creature but it really doesn't do enough. Venser and Clique let you play Magic and are strong cards, while Empath is not. Also the fact that they have Flash is very relevant. And Venser is another way to protect from Abrupt Decay (if only temporarily, but that may be all you need).

So yeah, I tend to get too caught up in how a deck is being built and I keep cards because they seem crucial. Empath, in particular, was a sacred cow for me and I had mostly stopped playing the deck because Empath and Natural Order made it clunky. It's pretty awesome, I think, that Job had this result to shake up our thinking.

[HammafistRoob]

It's kinda cute to exile Griffins with Deathrite and be able to recast them. Is there a way to squeeze more Shamans in there?

[nevilshute]

It's kinda cute to exile Griffins with Deathrite and be able to recast them. Is there a way to squeeze more Shamans in there?

I've played lists with 4 shamans to reasonable success. My current list runs a 3/2 split of Deathrite Shaman and Noble Hierarch.

[nevilshute]

After I saw the Aluren list with Shardless Agent at SCG Seattle I put together a Shardless list for Food Chain but didn't play any matches with it. I didn't like how it seemed parallel and not really more powerful than my two win conditions of Food Chain or Natural Order. But now that I've seen Job's list and played a few matches with it I really like the choices that he made. And they are all internally consistent as well.

Playing only the Food Chain combo and not including Natural Order/Show and Tell, including Shardless Agent, excluding Empath, and playing two Tidespouts instead of more Emrakuls gives him a more coherent deck that is better at playing the Plan B win with flying 3/3s approach. It isn't as dependent on either resolving OR protecting a Food Chain. This is especially relevant in a world where BUG Delver (with discard, counter magic, and Abrupt Decay) is one of the most popular decks.

1. With Shardless you are more likely to have multiple creatures (and especially 3 cmc or higher creatures to immediately allow casting Griffin) in play when you resolve Food Chain. Shardless is also good as a value creature that opponents don't really feel the need to kill, leaving it on the board for chaining.

2. Without Natural Order you are less likely to draw cards that don't help your main win conditions. And it makes it easier for you to play Clique and Venser, which are strong.

3. If you do resolve a Food Chain and they have the Abrupt Decay (or similar), if your plan is to play infinite Griffins, Empath and then Emrakul then you don't get to do that. If you have a Shardless or two, a mana dork, a Clique, whatever, then you have a decent chance of being able to respond to the Abrupt Decay by removing a few guys and getting a Tidespout. You can semi-reasonably cast Tidespout even without Food Chain or pitch it to FoW.

4. If you have a Tidespout in play and are recurring Griffins then you bounce their entire board and can draw your deck with one of the Wall of Blossoms if you still need to for some reason. You really don't need Emrakul here most of the time.

5. This tournament shows how strong Griffin is just by itself. As one of the commentators pointed out a 4cc flyer who keeps coming back is a very difficult problem to solve in Legacy. Also it pitches to FoW/Misdirection for value.

6. Basically, Empath is a bad card unless you were just about to combo. It almost always just went to get the same creature but it really doesn't do enough. Venser and Clique let you play Magic and are strong cards, while Empath is not. Also the fact that they have Flash is very relevant. And Venser is another way to protect from Abrupt Decay (if only temporarily, but that may be all you need).

So yeah, I tend to get too caught up in how a deck is being built and I keep cards because they seem crucial. Empath, in particular, was a sacred cow for me and I had mostly stopped playing the deck because Empath and Natural Order made it clunky. It's pretty awesome, I think, that Job had this result to shake up our thinking.

I think the main difference is, how combo-oriented you want your deck to be as opposed to playing the more grindy creature beats plan. Clearly, Fierce Empath as a 1/1 for is very weak. What he does do, is win the game for you once you go infinite. I don't personally like a build that is likely to leave you without a way to win from going infinite due to too few win cons. Think it depends a lot on playstyle and temperament.

[JPoJohnson]

More creature bouncing is pure genius. Watch the prices of Griffins and Food Chains go up.

Maybe if this was a modern deck those cards would skyrocket overnight...

[Megadeus]

Maybe if this was a modern deck those cards would skyrocket overnight...

Well Food Chains are 15 bucks now

edit: more like 12

[Poron]

these lists do want 4x Natural Order to be competitive

[kingtk3]

And Now we are established! Good job everyone, no pun intended :-)

Sent from my mobile, forgive me for grammar errors.

[bakofried]

I just want to say - trying to plan a sideboard which may need to tackle this deck is really, really, really annoying. Congratulations. Arseholes.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[Megadeus]

I just want to say - trying to plan a sideboard which may need to tackle this deck is really, really, really annoying. Congratulations. Arseholes.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

My plan A is generally to stop food chain. Whether it be by discarding it, or having revoker to stop it, that is a plan. Generally a mid range deck will have a better beatdown plan since SoFaI is real good vs this deck. I think discard is pretty alright vs this deck. Nothing amazing, but Food Chain is attempting to assemble a 3 card combo so taking a piece or two can slow them down.

[Tee]

My current list (61 Cards)

2 DRS
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Baleful Strix
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Edric, Spymaster Trest
4 Shardless agent
4 Food chain
4 Misthollow Griffin
4 Force of will
1 Misdirection
4 Brainstorm
3 Manipulate Fate
2 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Emrakul

4 Tropical Rainforest
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Karakas
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant catacombs
2 Polluted Delta

SB
2 Dread of Night
2 Null Rod
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Flusterstorm
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Grafdigger's Cage

During my Playtest with Edric and baleful strix, I find that it really slowed Opponent down long enough for me to my combo pieces. Opponent often hesitate to use Delver to attack with Edric and strix in play. At the very least Edric and Strix lures a bolt which will otherwise land on your head. Edric makes your Ordinary Shardless agent and deathrite looks deadly and lands you cards with your flyers if opponent doesnt have much flying blockers. Any feedback on my list? Weakness that I encountered so far is an opening hand with no mana dorks and cantrips; an resolved grim lavamancer, Mirran crusader equipped with a Swords of Fire and Ice. I am struggling to cut that one card to 60.

2 hilarious tourney that I have encountered with this deck was that opponent nearly scooped when i landed a turn 1 Dread of Night and a turn 2 null rod against this deck's nemesis DnT; rendered his Thalia, Mother and Vial useless. Against a grindy Mudpost deck, I was on the verge of losing with a Platinum Angel (saving him for 5+ turns as his life was negative due to my griffin beatdown and his ancient tombs), a wurmcoil engine and a darksteel colossus beat down. Things doesnt help when a Revoker joined in the ranks rendering my food chain useless. After sending my armies of griffins,strix,cliques,agents in an desperate attempt to stop darksteel. At 2 life and 9 infect counters, a top deckked Tidespout came to the resuce, much to the dismay of my opponent. I suppose this was the only time I missed Venser

This deck is really a blast to play, in casual games I tried the 4 colour cascade package (+4 Bloodbriad elves, +2 Diabolic Intent,-2 Edric, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1Misdirection,-2 Clique). You would have imagine the look on opponent's face when bloodbraid elves cascade to shardless Agent into Baleful Strix and drew a brainstorm; and within the brainstorm you have the diabolic intent for the combo win.

[Obould]

Hi,

Played in a 22 player local tourney yesterday and made myself to the tops again. We played 5 rounds of swiss (3-2, 7th place) and top8 (got myself to top4). My list was almost the same than in the first page of this thread with the following differences: MD -1 verdant catacombs, +1 ancient tomb and side -1 spell pierce, -1 wipe away, +1 ruric, +1 terastodon.

R1 vs. Show and tell with hivemind 2-1 (game 1 won with a natural order-progenitus after he show and tells to emrakul and I shower aethersnipe. I beated with it him to 10 life and then managed to get progenitus online. He got emrakul, but progenitus killed him. G2 he show and telled hivemind and I put emrakul. He pacted. G3 Food chain to emrakul. At some point I had managuys, food chain and a griffin online and couple of lands. Then he show and telled to emrakul and I put nothing. Next turn I natural order to fierce getting emrakul to hand and comboed with griffin netting me extra turn ftw.)

R2 vs. Mono-B Pox 2-1 (G1 turn 3 progenitus with backup dudes on board, The breaking point was when misdirected his sinkhole to his own swamp. G2 drew only managuys and lands and no combo. G3 turn 2 show and tell to emrakul with a managuy on the table.)

R3 vs. ANT 0-2 (G1 had a decent hand, but he duresses in a first couple of turns and got my fows away. In turn 3 he comboed. G2 I mulliganed but drew no counters or fast combo, on his turn 1 he probed and comboed.)

R4 vs. UWR Delver 0-2 (G1 he put a turn 1 delver which flipped while countering my food chain attempts. G2 I flooded hard and delver hitted face.)

R5 vs. UR Delver 2-1 (G1 he counters my food chain attempts and burned my managyus while delver and guide hitted face. G2 turn 2 show and tell to emrakul ftw with a backup counter. G3 he had only a mountain in play and a lavamancer. Burned me hard still trying to get fast kill, but I show and telled turn 3 -countered- and turn 4 which I managed to get through putting empyrial archangel to the board. I was at 10 life and had emrakul in hand, but he could have killed me next turn without angel. Angel was enough this time.)

TOP8
R1 vs. the same ANT 2-0 (G1 he probed me 3 times with phyrexian mana and I hitted him with noble + shaman and got him to around 10-12 life. Then he adnauseamed but it was really bad and he got only few cards and stopped at 2 life, gg. G2 I got turn 2 ruric with natural order.)

R2 vs. BG Loam pox 1-2 (G1 he destroyed my lands and I didn't drew any in many turns. While I drew few lands I was at 2 life and could have food chained to fierce-'snipe-griselbrand, but he had cursed scroll online. G2 I got turn 2 show and tell to omniscience to emrakul. G3 was though, He destroyed my early hand and got bridge on board while factories hitted face. At a point I had 2 lands + 2 fetches in play and natural order + 2 other irrelevant cards in hand. Then he drew hymn and hymned the irrelevant cards away and I was happy because next turn I would have got terastodon, BUT he got also ravens crime taking natural order away :( )

All in all a great tourney and the deck is really fun to play and hard to side against. My version includes many combos so it is quite hard to hate all of them. Also there is a plan C beatdown with griffins with nobles + couple of shamans.