[Deck] Food Chain Combo

[korfits]

Basing on the side of the list I've posted:

Burn - counterbalance, baleful strix (for blocking goblin guide)

Ant/tes - counterbalance, engineered plague (for empty the warrens), grafdigger's cage, maybe krosan grip for lion's eye diamond in case he plays it and gives you priority

Elves - counterbalance, needle, plague, cage, strix (instead of visions because they are faster), decay

You may consider alter this side, but I think leyline is good only against burn, because elves doesn't care a thing about it and storm is equipped to beat it.

What about going:

Burn - leyline and then nothing else really

Storm - leyline. And i can allways living wish for a izzet static caster (then i wont have to take so much out of my MD)

Elves - Golgari cham for the -1/-1 and then again you can wish for the static caster or maybe bord the static casters in.

Against any discard heavy deck i could take in leyline aswell. Discard matchups can really screw with my hand.

[kingtk3]

What about going:

Burn - leyline and then nothing else really

Storm - leyline. And i can allways living wish for a izzet static caster (then i wont have to take so much out of my MD)

Elves - Golgari cham for the -1/-1 and then again you can wish for the static caster or maybe bord the static casters in.

Against any discard heavy deck i could take in leyline aswell. Discard matchups can really screw with my hand.

Against burn leyline is effective forcing them to go beatdown, but remember that sulfuric vortex and flame rift don't target and can kill you.

Against storm leyline alone isn't enough protection: game 2 they are likely to board in xantid swarm and some bounce like chain of vapor. Their response to leyline (or any other permanent hate) is not etw but bounce too. You have to clog the board with at least 2 or 3 permanents to really lock them out.

Against elves golgari charm is strong but not definitive: first of all it doesn't kill all of his creatures.
It clears the board more or less for one turn, they can rebuild fast with glimpse of nature.
The worst thing, however, is that it doesn't stop their win conditions, which are natural order and green sun's zenith.

Anyway golgari charm is very versatile and I can see one or 2 copies in the board.

Leyline, on the other hand, requires a great commitment on the side (4 slots) and it doesn't really address storm or any other deck (burn apart).

If you are having problems against discard I think you have to practice more the deck (no offence intended) because it is full of value and it's hard for a discard deck to keep up.

[korfits]

i couldn't agree more about the committing 4 slots for leyline.
Is counterbalance worth running if you got no top?
And yes i need lots of practice with the deck. i'm still playing tournament practice on MODO. But i would like to start playing tournaments soon.

[kingtk3]

This deck has a mana curve very well distributed, so you can positively blind flip a concrete number of times.
I think, however, that counterbalance is a strong psychological weapon because the opponent cannot know if you have a brainstorm in hand, so he has to consider it for every play he makes.

However I would like to put at least 2 tops in the deck because they are good on their own and help set up cascade.

The hard part is what to take out: I think that a hierarch and the fourth Griffin / the second soul are the most prominent candidate, but I didn't have the time to test so far.

[Seven_six]

I am liking the purphoros win con, and to make it more consistent, using a combination of manip fate, living wish and enlightened tutor. I was thinking something like this:

Creatures (16):
4 noble hierarch
2 birds of paradise
4 shardless agent
3 misthollow
2 vendillion clique
1 purphoros

Instants/Sorceries (17)
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
3 ancestral vision
2 enlightened tutor
2 manipulate fate
2 living wish

Artifact/Enchantments (6)
3 food chain
1 sensei's diving top
1 counterbalance
1 rest in peace

Lands (21):
3 tropical island
2 tundra
1 volcanic island
1 taiga
1 savannah
2 island
2 forest
4 misty rainforest
3 windswept heath
2 flooded strand


SB:
1 misthollow
1 purphoros
2 misdirection
1 ruric thar
2 counterbalance
2 rest in peace
1 helm of obedience
3 meddling Mage
....????

Shardless won't cascade into food chain, but it hits all the "search for" cards and ancestral visions. It is also great fodder for a FoW if needed. One thing I have seen with the lists trying to go with bloodbraid is a lack of blue sources for FoW. We don't always have the awesomeness of pitching a misthollow to FoW unfortunately.

[korfits]

I really like that your trying to get white into the deck. But are you getting more blue cards in there when you remove the bloodbraid elf? aren't you just replacring the elfs with tutors effects? i run 17 blue spells (other then FoW) so 21 blue spells in total. and i have 4 BBE

[Seven_six]

Sorry I meant the bloodbraid versions which are dropping shardless... This list definitely needs work, and could probably replace the living wishes, but I like the split for versatility. E-tutor can grab food chain, purphoros or one of the singletons - wish can grab purphoros or misthollow or another silver bullet creature. And the manipulates grab you up to three misthollows, or allows you to filter card that won't help... I also like the nobles for the exalted triggers.... Someone take this and make it awesome! Haha

[maCHOOga]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person to have started trying living wish. I completely blanked as porphoros as a win condition. I was running with soul of the harvest/cascades and 4 living wishes. I'm currently trying out a complete wish board. My main kill condition is a vela the night clad, via living wish. Unfortunately, a full wish board sacrifices a lot of sideboard slots.

[Seven_six]

Hmmm I like the vela the night clad - then I can revert to a bug list with strix, deathrite, and as a plus she pitches to force.... Interesting...

[korfits]

Why run vela the night clad when you can use purphoros, God of the forge? He is way harder to deal with. Cost less and can even pump your griffins. The only upside I can see to vela the night clad is. that at 6 cmc you can fetch her with fierce empath.

[resmaster]

Has anyone tested that RUG Wish version? I'd like to hear more about it, as I'm still building my deck (just finished to muster all my Elvish Legion and their beloved cradles) and did not decide between BUG and RUG.

It seems to me that Purphoros is a sweet kill for all the mentioned reasons, and the aggro plan is really well suited with Shardless Agent, Bloodbraid Elf and our flying recurring beasts.

Also, the Wish package allows us to have nice options in the board. I'm having the craziest ideas here, like Flametongue Kavu, Mistcutter Hydra, and even a singleton fetchland maybe, in order to fix mana hahahahaha

[Seven_six]

I have done a little bit of play testing with the BANTr version I listed above - a lot of matches vs ANT and sneak and show. Against storm it performed very well due to the counterbalance and rest in peace silver bullets, along side the living wish for ruric thar or more often meddling mage. Maybe more luck than anything but between shardless agent and the enlightened tutors and living wish I usually had a t2 or t3 lock which was often enough to win. Against sneak and show it was more close, but typically if they went show and tell into emrakul they died to my combo. Griselbrand not so much... Next I will be trying against some non combo decks, like death and taxes and jund.

[cheethorne]

I'm pretty new to Legacy and I really like this deck for being so interesting to play. I've been starting to play with a list very similar to Korfits, but I have a question about using Living Wish.

Korfits, in your list, you run both Living Wish and Fierce Empath. Why not just run Living Wish? It can be hit with Shardless Agent and it can grab any win conditions or utility creatures you might need out of your sideboard, what does running Fierce Empath give that a third Living Wish would not?

[resmaster]

I'm pretty new to Legacy and I really like this deck for being so interesting to play. I've been starting to play with a list very similar to Korfits, but I have a question about using Living Wish.

Korfits, in your list, you run both Living Wish and Fierce Empath. Why not just run Living Wish? It can be hit with Shardless Agent and it can grab any win conditions or utility creatures you might need out of your sideboard, what does running Fierce Empath give that a third Living Wish would not?

I have never played this version, but, I get the following:

- Living wish puts a kill condition in your hand;
- Fierce Empath puts a kill condition in your hand AND can be removed to Food Chain in order to cast a Griffin and start the whole thing.

Wish is more versatile, whilst Empath represents a faster kill.

[korfits]

That is True. The empath is Great for that fast combo kill. Living wish is there mainly to get a misthallow or purphoros. If really needed you could get and izzet static caster. And you still want your kill cons in your MD. You can all so do something like aetherize, bounce empath cast it and get a kill con.

[maurobad2k4]

Hey guys what about testing Dig Through Time as 1-of ?

We are not grave dependent, got a lot of mana dorks and can even exile dead Griffins. It seems a good way to find the remaining combo pieces.

Any Thoughts ?

[HSCK]

This is definitely a deck that wants Dig Through Time. I'll have to get some extras for my friend that plays it.

[kingtk3]

I'm actually playing 2 copies of Dig Through Time in my Shardless version, but I didn't have the chance to test lately so I don't have any data reguarding them.
Surely they can help the builds without tutors the most.

[maurobad2k4]

I`ll be testing DTT in the following weeks and then let you guys know. I guess 2-of is reasonable number for testing purposes.

[dog_koko]

Altar of the Brood is the key