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Thread: 1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

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    1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    Introduction

    Okay, first of all let me introduce myself.

    I'm Oliver Blank from Germany, but I'm living in Switzerland for roughly around 10 years now, so it might be appropriate to say I'm from Switzerland now.
    I play Magic for the same amount of time, started with limited and T2 during the Lorwynblock. After I became a judge, I got in contact with legacy at events I helped organizing and it stuck.
    I was realy interested in all those terribly complicated cardinteractions and all the powerful and varying tools at hand in the format. So I started to build my first deck.

    Now let‘s fast forward. Right now Legacy is the only format I really enjoy playing. For all the other formats I sometimes borrow a deck from a friend, if I want to play it,
    but Legacy is the only one I'm invested in. We have a small but healthy group in Bern that is meeting every tuesday, so we get to play legacy on a weekly basis.

    First and foremost I am playing Midrangedecks, although I try to stay open minded and sometimes even pilot combodecks or aggro. Recently I played many different decks in our weeklys,
    varying from Eldrazi-Aggro, 4color Control or Reanimator, but now a different deck has cought my eye. Food Chain. At the moment I'm really looking for a deck that I want to make my new „Main“.
    If you would have asked me a few months ago I would have said Infect is the deck I would play in competetive events, but with the printing of Fatal Push and the increase in BUG-decks due to Leovold,
    I just don't feel comfortable playing it anymore. So if you can't beat them... join them I guess

    The first „contact“ I had with Food chain as a deck, dates some years back.
    A friend of mine has played it during our events and the concept of a midrange value deck with a combo finish just seems pretty interesting to me,
    but (and thats a big BUT) the win with Fierce Empath into Emrakul, the aeons torn just never seemed good enough. The big and clunky pieces just get stranded in your hand without any use.
    Today we have something else, something that wins right on the spot, but isn't useless if you don't draw the namesake card of your deck. I'm talking about Walking Ballista.
    As most of you will know the MKM-Milano event was won by exactly this deck. Food Chain. And this was the second time I saw this deck and this time I just really wanted to play it.
    Ballista is a pretty elegant way to fix the „useless combopiece“-part I adressed earlier, cause it isn't... you can play it for 2 or 4 if you realy have the need for a creature.
    It can handle some annoying creatures from your opponent as well or even kill a planeswalker and you can grow it in size during later turns to increase your clock. It just feels right.

    The Decklist

    The backbone of my list is the one Marius Hausmann won with, I just felt like I wanted a 3rd Leovold, Emissary of Trest in the main.
    The Sideboard is just my approach to a sideboard for the deck. I don't think that, at the next tournament, I would play the same Sideboard, to be honest, but this is what I thought might come in handy for this one.
    I think I will add a 2nd Misdirection, just because I didn't get to see the one I played nearly as often as I would have liked to to.

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

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

    //Spells
    4 Abrupt Decay
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    3 Ponder
    3 Manipulate Fate
    4 Food Chain

    //Sideboard
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Mindbreak Trap
    1 Misdirection
    1 Diabolic Edict
    2 Golgari Charm
    1 Vendilion Clique
    1 Grafdiggers Cage
    1 Pithing Needle


    The Tournament

    The 1k events in Lucern are always worth the trip. The pricepayout is great and the atmosphere is as well. I think that the two people running the shop have done an incredible job nurturing the legacycommunity
    and drawing attention from legacyplayers in the german part of switzerland. I guess the drive from the french part of switzerland might be a little to much and hope that this is the sole reason not as many people
    are coming to the events from this part of the country, although I would recommend them to just do it ;)

    The day started at 9 am. I met some other players at the train station in Bern. Normaly I take the train, because it's the best public transport in switzerland, always on time.
    Me not having a drivers license is another reason I should mention... This day a friend of mine was coming as well, he wanted to go by car, so we joined him.
    Alltogether there were 5 people and (spoiler alert) 3 of them ended up in the Top8, 2 even splitting in the finals.

    When we arrived, we briefly talked to all the other players we know and then sat down to check our decks again, this was when I noticed that I didn't have my decklist with me. So I had to get a sheet of paper and hastly wrote it again.
    NEVER DO THAT... I recommend to everyone to have a decklist at hand the day before the tournament. Normaly I even have a sidbeoardguide written down.
    As a judge I would say most of the problems with decklist occur because something has been changed last minute or a player just didn't muster the time to write the decklist properly. This time everything went fine though.

    There were 42 players so the tournament was set to last 6 Rounds + Top8.

    Swiss Rounds

    1st Round Vs TNN-Sultai

    The first game ended rather quickly. After I resolved a Manipulate Fate, I was able to outrace my opponent by adding a food chain to the board.

    During the second game I was able to kill 2 of his Noble Hierarchs with a Walking ballista, slowing down his True-Name Nemesis clock by a lot.
    It was also in this game that I made a rather big mistake. My opponent had 2 cards in hand and a True-Name Nemesis on board. I had a Misthollow Griffin on board,
    but was on a lower lifetotal. My Hand was Food chain, Walking Ballista, Diabolic Edict. The mistake I made was casting the Food chain first, leaving the edict in hand for the turn after.
    Planing to kill his creature, in case he counters the chain or the ballista. He was able to counter the Chain with a Force of will pitching his second card.
    If now he would have drawn any creature the game would have been over. I would have not been able to handle his Nemesis with the edict.
    Luckily he didn't draw a creature, the edict resolved and I was able to kill him 2 turns later.
    If I would have cast the edict first, he would have countered that with the force. Now he would have had to draw a counter rather than a counter OR a creature.

    1 – 0

    2nd Round Vs Shardless BUG

    There was not much that happened here to be honest. I outvalued him in the first game with a Manipulate Fate.
    The second game he got stuck on 2 lands and I had two Deathrite Shamans and a Misthollow Griffin chipping away on his lifetotal.
    It was rather interesting though because he resolved 2 Hymn to tourach one discarding a Food Chain, which he removed with Surgical Extraction and the second discarding the griffin,
    which I then exiled with my Shaman to cast it again.

    2 – 0

    3rd Round Vs Death'n Taxes

    This was also the first match that I was sitting on camera so if you want to see the match for yourself you can see it at https://youtu.be/Bg2f6Dvn8O0

    The first game the deck did what it was supposed to do, if you don't immediatly draw the combo, outgrinding the opponent with value.
    In the second game I did my mistake of the tournament. I board out the Forces because D'nT is playing Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial so they're not that useful anyway
    and Swords to Plowshares is not an efficient way to remove my creatures, so countering them is not necessary most of the times. He was on the play, plays land + Aether Vial. „Ok“ I play a land and pass.
    He plays Land + Pithing Needle. I was wondering what he might name instead of looking at my board. „OK“ „Misty Rainforest“... uhm... fuck...
    I forgot that I played a fetch and to make things worse the land I had left in my hand was a second misty... yeah lost that one.
    The third match went grindy again, I had an early combo in hand but due to him having an Ethersworn Canonist I wasn't able to establish it. And after I handled the cannonist he taxed my green mana.
    When the second Canonist came in, I saw the writings on the wall. I wasn't able to turn the tables.

    2 – 1

    4th Round Vs UW-Stoneblade

    At some point during the tournament I saw my opponent swinging around a „Back to Basics“. So at first I was under the impression that he was playing Miracles,
    the first game tought me that he wasn't. 3 Meddling Mages and a True-Name Nemesis didn't need a lot of time to make my lifepoints drop to zero.

    I don't remember a lot about the second game. The only thing that stuck in my head was that at some point I was able to kill 2 Meddling Mages a True-Name Nemesis and a Stoneforge Mystic with a pair of Golgari Charms.

    The third game was rather disappointing again... he played 4 Brainstorm and 2 Ponder but wasn't able to find anything that stuck.

    3 – 1

    5th Round Vs Dredge

    I got paired down and I asked my opponent if he wanted to concede because I have higher chances for Top8 anyway. I know that begging for a concede isn't great,
    but I was aware of what he was playing and just didn't want to play the match xD. He declined.

    First game he did what dredge does and killed me pretty fast.
    The second game on the other hand, he just lost to his deck... I was able to establish two Deathrite Shamans early in the game, but he just played through them with his cards,
    sadly the sequence of the cards in his library was just abysmal... I was able to hinder him from attacking and did gain life every turn, but I wasn't able to kill him either. We played till his library ran out of cards.

    Then he conceded... He told me that if he would have won 2:0 he wouldn't have but this way he was okay with it. I don't think this makes any difference for the first tiebreakers 2:0 or 2:1 doesn't matter, but still I'm grateful.

    4 – 1

    6th Round Vs Shardless BUG

    I hoped to be able to draw into the Top8 but was paired against a player with 10 Points... another round to play. This was the second time I was on stream https://youtu.be/DjtuyV5IXhg

    In the game one I was pretty lucky to end up being able to combo after my opponent has thoughtseized me twice.

    The second game ended with me comboing as well, but this time he made a terrible mistake. He had clear dominance established on the board and sooner or later I would have been dead,
    he then tried to shorten the clock by attacking with his Creeping tar pit leaving up a Land + Deathrite to cast an Abrupt decay or drain me for 2 life.
    I then Casted an Abrupt decay of my own killing the Deathrite Shaman. He responded with Decay and with him tapped out and me on the ropes I had to go for combo that turn...
    If he would not have attacked with the tarpit there was no chance of me winning this game. He would have been able to decay my Food chain in response to me trying to combo of.

    5 – 1 Second Seat after Swiss.

    TOP 8

    Quarterfinals Vs RUG Delver

    Actually I can sum this up in a single sentence, he won the games where he had a fast opening, he did not win the other ones.
    To be honest I think he overboarded this matchup with controlcards, which then made his deck much slower. I lost game 1 but was able to win games 2 & 3.

    Semifinals Vs Czech Pile(4color Control)

    The last match I was on camera. https://youtu.be/E6o6KnTTccc

    I dont think this is a perticular good matchup for Food Chain, I would rather say it's good for the Czech Pile. They have Discard, a lot of counters, a massive army of cardadvantage creatures and Jace, the Mindsculptor.
    All things which are rather difficult to handle. Having an early combo would be best in this matchup. It didn't happen.

    The first game I got outgrinded pretty hard and Jace, 2 Baleful Strixes and a Snapcaster Mage ended it rather quickly. Nothing I could have done there, I guess.

    The second game was not one for me to win, but for my opponent to loose. If my opponent played all his cards correctly I wouldn't have been able to win this one either. But sadly (or luckily) he didn't.
    He played a Pithing needle on Food chain, which doesn't work since Food chains activated ability is a mana ability. Later in the game he used his Jace poorly, atleast from my point of view.
    He should have brainstormed a lot more often then he did. Which became clear at the end of the game, when he had no means of disrupting my combo. Okay this is only half true, he had a Kolaghan's Command and here he made mistake number 3.
    I played Manipulate fate with only 1 other card left in hand, he then should have used the Command to discard this card. But he didn't. The card in my hand was a Walking Ballista and I won the game via combo.

    Third game I just outgrinded him, this time he wasn't able to establish anything on the board and I was able to resolve spell after spell.

    Finals Vs Miracles

    We know each other from the tournaments in Bern. He was one of the players who were in the same car in the morning, so I offered a split and he accepted it. Although I think Food Chain is favored, beeing favored doesn't win you the matches, so I was pretty happy with splitting prices for 1st and 2nd place.

    Afterthoughts

    There were indeed some things I should have done better, and a lot of situations where I got lucky. But to be honest, that‘s magic. Like I said, when briefly talking about the sideboard, I don't think that I would play these 15 in the board again and I will definitly add a second copy of misdirection, but right now I'm not so sure about what to cut.

    The tournament was a blast and although it was a long day, I was really happy when I was on my way back home from it, with a little more experience and some extra cash from the prices. ;)
    Last edited by Lightless; 04-17-2017 at 12:10 PM.

  2. #2

    1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    Congrats from another food chain player!

  3. #3
    Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
    Hrothgar's Avatar
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    Re: 1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    Congrats mate!
    Now I see your video on YouTube!


    EDIT: a bad mistake in the g1 vs 4c Czech. Why remove Ponder and no Abrupt Decay with Deathrite when you have all 2 Shaman without sickness He can flashback with Snapcaster (and he do this on your Food Chain at 15 mins)

  4. #4
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    hofzge's Avatar
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    Re: 1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    Congrats and thanks for the detailed report!
    Chalice on 1

  5. #5

    Re: 1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    Thanks for the detailed report!

    What about the 3rd Leovold? Most lists only play 2, do you plan to keep the extra copy?

  6. #6
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    Re: 1k in Lucerne with Food Chain

    I think so. The Top ban might increase the number of Stormdecks and I think that other BUG decks (midrange or control) might be picked up by some of the players now looking for a new deck and leo is a beast in these matches. And even though it's a stupid argument... You can still pitch him for force or misdirection ;)

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