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Thread: UG Food Chain Stompy

  1. #1
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    UG Food Chain Stompy

    Hi guys,

    today I wanna introduce you a new legacy deck which I think has really potential to become a tier 2 or established deck.

    It´s a really nice mixture between a traditional Food Chain Walking Ballista combo deck and a chalice stompy strategy. Chalice of the Void + Force of Will + Vendilion Clique MD provide a quite good MU vs combo decks G1, the combo potential on T2/T3 is also fast. 3 Trinisphere out of the SB round up the prison elements and dont hurt our own game plan.

    One big advantage of this stompy shell is that it has quite a lot of card advantage in form of Trinket Mage, Coiling Oracle, Manipulate Fate, Thirst for Knowledge and even Jace out of the SB. The card disadvantage of FoW and Chrome Mox get also negated by Misthollow Griffin pitches which is a really nice synergy.

    In both single versions (Food Chain or Stompy) the oponent only has to fear Chalice of the Void or Food Chain. In this version they have to fear both cards and artifact and enchantments are not that easy to handle like say creatures.

    The deck can also work ok without Food Chain or the combo kill. Misthollow Griffin + Vendilion Clique are serious beaters and flying makes them really good. Trinket Mage can also search Chalice or Walking Ballista or Engineered Expolsives out of the SB which gives the deck quite a bit of flexibility. Krosan Grip can also handle all problematic hate cards.

    The deck list is a starting point and currently not much tested, I will work on the deck the next 2 months and then we will see how it goes but I really think that it is quite powerful and playable.

    The deck lacks a bit of removal outside of Walking Ballista but the fact that you can kill your oponent on T2/T3 with the combo kill doenst require you to handle every thread your oponent puts on the battlefield. 4 Trinket Mage and 4 Walking Ballista are also a bit of removal especially vs the smaller creature decks like DnT or Elves. After boarding we get acces to Engineered Explosives which improve that lack of removal bit. Block bounce with Food Chain + Griffin can also stall big dudes like Gurmag Angler or 5/6 Tarmogoyfs.

    15-16 artifacts should be enough to support Thirst for Knowledge I think.

    A example of powerful draws would be:

    T1: Ancient Tomb -> Chalice of the Void
    T2: Tropical Island or Misty Rainforest or Chrome Mox -> Food Chain + FoW backup
    T3: Land or Chrome Mox -> Misthollow Griffin -> Trinket Mage search Walking Ballista or Ballista directly -> Kill

    T1: Any SOL Land + Chrome Mox pitching Coiling Oracle or Food Chain -> Food Chain
    T2: Tropical Island orMisty Rainforest or Island -> Cast Misthollow Griffin -> Trinket Mage or Ballista -> Kill
    There´s also a posibility to play this with FoW backup

    Draws like this are of course the perfect draws like every deck has from time to time but it shows the potential power of the deck.

    The list is not set in stone and will change a little bit I think when I get more experience with it of course. I´m also not sure if it´s correct to not play the 1 off Eternal Scourge or if Jace should be in the MD instead of the 2 Vendilion Cliques...The 4 Tormods Crypt are also debatable and maybe its better to play a split with Relic of Progenitus or something.

    The deck just looks like a hell of fun to play and I´m really looking forward



    18 Creatures
    4 Coiling Oracle
    4 Trinket Mage
    4 Walking Ballista
    4 Misthollow Griffin
    2 Vendilion Clique

    22 Spells
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Force of Will

    4 Food Chain
    4 Chrome Mox

    3 Thirst for Knowledge
    3 Manipulate Fate

    20 Lands
    4 Ancient Tomb
    3 City of Traitors
    4 Tropical Island
    4 Misty Rainforest
    2 Island
    2 Seat of the Synod
    1 Tree of Tales


    Sideboard:

    4 Tormods Crypt
    3 Trinisphere
    2 Krosan Grip
    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    2 Engineered Explosives
    1 Pithing Needle
    1 Sorcerous Spyglass
    Currently playing
    Eldrazi

  2. #2

    UG Food Chain Stompy

    You should talk to Holmen who praises, and have been sucessful with, a mox chrome ( or mox sapphire, as he calls it) version of the deck.

  3. #3
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    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by JackaBo View Post
    You should talk to Holmen who praises, and have been sucessful with, a mox chrome ( or mox sapphire, as he calls it) version of the deck.
    Well his list is very different, still BUG colors, no Chalice, no stompy manabase and so on...
    Currently playing
    Eldrazi

  4. #4

    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    I actually experimented with lists very similar to this a while ago, around the time ballista came out I think. Eventually went back to bug food chain, but now with deathrite gone I might give it another shot using your list as a starting point!

    Some random thoughts:

    Never thought of playing coiling oracle back then (probably because I was running less coloured sources) but it looks really good here, looking forward to trying it!

    Thirst for knowledge is great but I think we need more ways of digging for food chain. I settled on a couple of impulses on top of the thirsts in my old lists but supreme will (or maybe even commune with the gods?) might be better.

    Not sure how many scourges I would want, used to run multiple since they are so easy to power out with sol lands but the fact that it's neither coloured nor an artifact can definitely be awkward.

    Some maindeckable way of exiling griffins/scourges from the graveyard would be really good to have imo. Hooting mandrills seems like the best option to me, maybe even in a small package of 1 mandrills + 1-2 fierce empath + 1 tidespout/emrakul? Not sure how that would work out though since ballista is obviously too good to shave on. That bounce spell with delve (forgot the name) could also be an option if not playing mandrills.

    Have you tried garruk relentless? I remember liking him better than jace in this deck, although that also might have been related to the fact that I was playing less coloured sources.

  5. #5
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    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by xochi View Post
    I actually experimented with lists very similar to this a while ago, around the time ballista came out I think. Eventually went back to bug food chain, but now with deathrite gone I might give it another shot using your list as a starting point!

    Some random thoughts:

    Never thought of playing coiling oracle back then (probably because I was running less coloured sources) but it looks really good here, looking forward to trying it!

    Thirst for knowledge is great but I think we need more ways of digging for food chain. I settled on a couple of impulses on top of the thirsts in my old lists but supreme will (or maybe even commune with the gods?) might be better.

    Not sure how many scourges I would want, used to run multiple since they are so easy to power out with sol lands but the fact that it's neither coloured nor an artifact can definitely be awkward.

    Some maindeckable way of exiling griffins/scourges from the graveyard would be really good to have imo. Hooting mandrills seems like the best option to me, maybe even in a small package of 1 mandrills + 1-2 fierce empath + 1 tidespout/emrakul? Not sure how that would work out though since ballista is obviously too good to shave on. That bounce spell with delve (forgot the name) could also be an option if not playing mandrills.

    Have you tried garruk relentless? I remember liking him better than jace in this deck, although that also might have been related to the fact that I was playing less coloured sources.
    Commune with the gods is defenetley an interesting and potential choice yes but then I have to cut 3 blue sources for FoW and would go down to a blue count of 21 cards which is quite low, 24 is solid. Theres also no synergy in the deck to take advantage of the "put the rest into your GY" effect. We could cut the 2 Vendilion Clique for 2 Hooting Mandrills but this would low the blue count even more down to 19 which is really unconsistent. We would also lose 2 disruptive elements...

    But its still a interesting choice. Just try it out and let me know.

    Coiling Oracle is sadly no Baleful Strix but we have no access to something more powerful right now. The ramping effect can be really helpful and the colors are very useful for Chrome Mox. Otherwise it cantrips, jump blocks a dude and ramps into Trinket Mage or gives us 3 mana for Misthollow Griffin/Walking Ballista with FC in play...

    I havent tested this yet so no I did not try Garruk but Jace is Jace I think and UU should be no problem...
    Currently playing
    Eldrazi

  6. #6

    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    I'm sure sticking to UG rather than BUG is for manabase reasons, but the manabase still looks pretty horrendous.

    Your deck doesn't benefit from having 2+ sol lands out, so can't take advantage of the downsides of drawing only colorless sources or losing a land bc of city. With 7 colorless sol-lands things like Coiling Oracle look difficult to cast.

    Have you considered going towards a more UG eldrazi-style list? Keep the manip fate/trinket mage package/food chain pieces but replace the creature base with powerful proactive cards like TKS/Endless One/Smasher instead of weak hard to cast cards like Coiling Oracle.

    Just my 2 cents.

  7. #7

    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by Manipulato View Post
    Commune with the gods is defenetley an interesting and potential choice yes but then I have to cut 3 blue sources for FoW and would go down to a blue count of 21 cards which is quite low, 24 is solid. Theres also no synergy in the deck to take advantage of the "put the rest into your GY" effect. We could cut the 2 Vendilion Clique for 2 Hooting Mandrills but this would low the blue count even more down to 19 which is really unconsistent. We would also lose 2 disruptive elements...

    But its still a interesting choice. Just try it out and let me know.
    Yeah commune has a little too much going against it I guess. Probably going to try supreme will first. I'd be willing to go down to 20 blue cards as the absolute minimum I think. Chrome mox helps in a way since you can use your force for that if you have no other blue cards in hand. Late game we can also hardcast it more easily than other decks.

    Quote Originally Posted by Manipulato View Post
    Coiling Oracle is sadly no Baleful Strix but we have no access to something more powerful right now. The ramping effect can be really helpful and the colors are very useful for Chrome Mox.
    Based on my previous experiences I expect the dual colours for chrome mox to be very relevant.

    Quote Originally Posted by Manipulato View Post
    I havent tested this yet so no I did not try Garruk but Jace is Jace I think and UU should be no problem...
    Fair enough. This was also during the time of top miracles when a non-blue planeswalker that could spit out a token every turn was extra good. The -1 creature tutor and -3 overrun do still have decent synergy with the rest of our deck though, and in a pinch we can flip him with ballista.

  8. #8

    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by Kaono View Post
    I'm sure sticking to UG rather than BUG is for manabase reasons, but the manabase still looks pretty horrendous.

    Your deck doesn't benefit from having 2+ sol lands out, so can't take advantage of the downsides of drawing only colorless sources or losing a land bc of city. With 7 colorless sol-lands things like Coiling Oracle look difficult to cast.

    Have you considered going towards a more UG eldrazi-style list? Keep the manip fate/trinket mage package/food chain pieces but replace the creature base with powerful proactive cards like TKS/Endless One/Smasher instead of weak hard to cast cards like Coiling Oracle.

    Just my 2 cents.
    Seems reasonable. TKS take the fow, go off. To bad reshaper triggers on dying.


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  9. #9
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    Re: UG Food Chain Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by Kaono View Post
    I'm sure sticking to UG rather than BUG is for manabase reasons, but the manabase still looks pretty horrendous.

    Your deck doesn't benefit from having 2+ sol lands out, so can't take advantage of the downsides of drawing only colorless sources or losing a land bc of city. With 7 colorless sol-lands things like Coiling Oracle look difficult to cast.

    Have you considered going towards a more UG eldrazi-style list? Keep the manip fate/trinket mage package/food chain pieces but replace the creature base with powerful proactive cards like TKS/Endless One/Smasher instead of weak hard to cast cards like Coiling Oracle.

    Just my 2 cents.
    How would such a list with 75 cards look in your opinion?
    Currently playing
    Eldrazi

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