Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 34

Thread: [Deck] Food Chain

  1. #1
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    [Deck] Food Chain

    Hello everybody!
    What has been developed the past months has entered the contest.
    @Peter_Rotten: While reading the rules, thanks a lot for mentioning the orinigal thread of this deck :D

    NB! All text beyond this point has been written in Mac Office 2004. I don't know if font types and font sizes are compitable with the Site Code. Revising may be needed.

    Anyway, one piece of primer coming up:


    Food Chain – The Phoenix of Legacy

    Table of Contents:
    1: Introduction/History
    2: The decklist
    3: Card Choices
    4: Playing the deck
    5: Matchup Analysis
    6: Why this deck?
    7: Important notes
    8: Credits

    Introduction:
    As I earlier posted an outcast to the final list in the new & developmental decks forum, I was surprised how many people who were interested in the deck development. Some people were flaming it, other people picked it up. Credits will be in the last section. Anyway, the outcast I posted seemed good, but it was inferior to what it finally became. This decklist might not be complete, but it has shown some pretty good results. I started brewing a raw deck idea when I first saw Mulldrifter. It had to be meant for constructed. Faerie Stompy adopted it (well, some builds did), but I saw it as a combo potential. That said, the deck’s not Food Chain Elves, Food Chain Stompy, Food Chain Control or whatever. It’s COMBO! People have realized that various kills are possible, but I submit this one with Maga, Traitor To Mortals kill. It’s consistent, fast and easy to build around. Here’s what is my build right now:

    The Decklist:

    4 Food Chain

    4 Force of Will

    4 Enlightened Tutor

    4 Mulldrifter
    4 Court Hussar
    4 Raven Familiar
    4 Imperial Recruiter
    1 Fierce Empath
    2 Nantuko Cultivator
    3 Myojin of Seeing Winds

    1 Maga, Traitor To Mortals
    1 Storm Entity
    4 Vine Dryad


    4 City of Brass
    4 Gemstone Mine
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Tendo Ice Bridge

    Sideboard:
    4 Trinisphere
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Meddling Mage
    3
    This is what I mean is the most consistent. Like TES, this version kills in two ways. Unfortunately, the deck cannot kill turn 1 or turn 2, earliest turn 3 which of course makes it inferior to TES in THAT way. However, its abiity of packing FoW, being immune to spell snare, counterbalance, gaddock teeg, glowrider, thorn of amethyst, trinisphere, chalice at 0 1 & 2, and the like. Because the deck is able of playing high cc spells, almost no hate in legacy regarding mana costs (and there are many of them) can harm the deck. The only real threats of this are as well as all other decks, Force of Will. This decks also uses it, which can lead into a counter war. It’s your choice whether to run Mesmeric Fiends or FoW. You can stack Fiend triggers so that the card will stay removed from the game. FoW is just nice to help food chain resolve, Mesmeric Fiend is better midcombo. The deck which is simply called ”Food Chain” is based on Food Chain only. Being a SCS deck (Singe Card Strategy) is a weakness on some points, but makes it pretty consistent once it has resolved Food Chain. In one of the 100 goldfishes i made with the deck, I experienced four fizzles after getting food chain into play. A f That said, it has no problems of going off. The diggers in the deck are a high number of 23 because we need to ramp up mana to play a lethal Maga, Traitor To Mortals or playing 19 spells so Storm Entity becomes a hasted 1-turn clock. The opponent may chump block, but even four goyfs cannot deal with it (unless your opponent are extremely lucky). This might be two risky kill conditions, but you have to mind that you actually have two, and lifegain cannot help your opponent as Maga often will cause a life loss of around 30, depending on when you find it. Counterspells might be a problem at turn 3 (which is the earliest you can go off with this build, in rare cases, turn 2), but since you have 4 FoW, a lot of bait, and 2 kills, you can often be pretty secure when going for the win. Therapies can’t be played on your turn by your opponent, along with most discard, so you should be safe here.


    Card Choices:

    Food Chain: Center card of the deck. The meaning of the deck is abusing its ability of adding mana and converting creature spells into cantrips and acceleration to finish the chain with a whooping creature.

    Trinisphere: A pretty random all around hoser, which can be very useful against many decks, and stompy decks often get surprised to se their own chalices have no effect at all.

    Force of Will: Packing a lot of blue cards makes an auto include of thi sone. It’s still the best card in Legacy. Period.

    Enlightened Tutor: Food Chain 5-8. Postbard, it can also net you a 3sphere or a CoTV.

    Mulldrifter: The best drawer as it adds cards and mana. Not much to say, this dude’s fantastic.

    Court Hussar: Digger. Serves as a ”free” Ponder. If Food Chain not’s in play, it can still be played to hold the line a turn which can be important to do against stiflenought. Prevention of three damage makes their clock a turn slower.

    Raven Familiar: Although it cannot slow stiflenought, it blocks serra avengers after made its digging. Ponder 5-8.

    Imperial Recruiter: Although it has been discussed because of its price tag, it has shown its importance in the deck. It finds about anything.

    Fierce Empath: Finds only Myojin in the current version, it’s a subject for discussion. If you are playing Mournwhelk, this becomes much better.

    Nantuko Cultivator: The most important draw spell midcombo. Serves as a Tolarian Winds and adds a FAT body behind. It’s insane when you’re stuck with 10 lands in hand. This has won me many games when I was on the brink of fizzling.

    Myojin of Seeing Winds: The star of the deck draws a hell lot of cards and therefore generating a lot of cardadvantage. It’s not hard to reach that mana in the deck.

    Maga, Traitor To Mortals: The human fireball with damage that cannot be prevented by i.e. Angel’s Grace. This could be switched for some mana fixing and Tendrils of Agony.
    Storm Entity: Alternative killer. There’s nothing like a man grapeshot that also serves as a brutal fast clock.

    Vine Dryad: A bit shaky because we are only running 11 green cards, but it serves as an extra possibility of going off a turn earlier than the opponent may expect.

    5c mana base: With so many different colors in the deck ( 5 in fact), it’s important to play ALL of them. Not many other decks in legacy runs 5 colors, and that also serves as a rather cheap mana base instead of just purchasing fetches. Fetches might be better with Skyshroud Cutter instead of Vine Dryad, but Oros, the Avenger and I have already teste dit, and Dryad is just plain better than just giving te opponent 5 life. You will gain card advantage anyway later on so pitching a card.

    Playing the deck:
    Imagine Solitaire (the real solitaire). That’s how Food Chain should be played. It takes a couple of minutes to go off, and your opponent might think that youare just playing into nowhere. My opponent didn’t had time to play with me when I tested the deck. However, this is how it should be done:
    1. Find Food Chain. You have 4 off them, 4 tutors, 12 diggers (mulldrifter, court hussar, raven familiar)
    2. Protect Food Chain in one turn. This is required to do in my build. The Vine Dryad accel can be done, but it is rare when going off to have food chain, vine dryad AND another Vine Dryad or Food Chain in hand.
    3. Play a creature, eat it, play another creature, eat it, etc.
    4. Find Maga, Traitor To Mortals, a Force of Will, and A Storm Entity to ensure your win.

    The thing about protecting food chain might be an issue because thresh boards Krosan Grip, and a lot of other decks uses artifact/enchantment removal in SB. An option could be the use of 4 Vine Dryad. You could then combo off the same turn as you played Food Chain, but that lowers consistensy midcombo by a great number. If you are playing a combo deck that can earliest go off at turn 3, you HAVE to kill that turn. If you don’t it’s GG most of the time. Luckily, this deck rapes every kind of aggro decks most of the time. Aggro without discard or artifact/enchantment removal, counters and simply disruption will not stand a chance. Plain aggro like goyf sligh is a joke. Dragon Stompy can’t hurt the deck either unless they set the chalice to 3. And they rarely do. 6 mana is hard for them to achieve before I manage to get the first creature into play.

    Going off: Rather irritating, but a required way is needed to go off in the proper way. When food chain has resolved and it is your turn, you can go off in a lot of ways. The best is to start with the star of the deck, Mulldrifter. Pay 2U to evoke him, the trigger is put onto the stack. In response, remove him for UUUUUU as there are far more blue creatures in the deck than other colors. Now, play a court hussar or raven familiar from among the cards in your hand or the cards you’ve just drawn. Play a hussar, stack the trigger, the trigger from the ”you’ve not paid W so sac thi sone” trigger will also stack. The order is irrelevant. Eat him in response. Add RRRR to your mana pool if you have imperial recruiter in hand. Else, add whatever’s needed to play the next one. Do this in chains so you at last have enough mana to not worry about the color. When you’ve saved up 25 mana (if you have storm entity in hand, else 23), tutor with recruiter for Maga. If you have FoW and FoW-food in hand, you are safe. Play maga, X=20 and kill the opponent. Many opponents will damage themselves through their manabase, so X can be even lower the later you go off. The sad things about these incredibly awesome, yet slow chains, is that they are easily disruptable. Therefore, it is always good to have Maga in hand all the time. If you can, tutor for it ASAP. Maybe, it isn’t lethal yet, but i twill become 12/12 or something like that to stomp your opponents with. It’s hard to deal with. Therefore, Storm Entity is included. This can be switched with Iname as One, because Iname can accelerate mana into ridicolous amounts, but it is very rare that so much mana are needed. Iname brings in Moyjin, and when you eat the both, you get a boost of 24 mana, just enough for a lethal maga. The sad thing about is, if you do NOT have maga in hand at that time, the danger of digging into it and thus not finding it is dying. If you fizzle (which happens VERY rarely when you begin to ”chain”), you die. This deck cannot recover at all when it has fizzled at the first attempt. However, fizzles will mostly end your chain with an incredibly large Storm Entity, and that is the reason I’m playing it. Opponent’s counterspells also count as storm counters, you know. So why play this deck at all? It’s pretty slow compared to other combo decks, it can easily be disrupted by counters – and that’s the point. When you’re going off, no other thing than counterspells can disrupt you. And counterbalance doesn’t work at this deck. Take a look at the curve. Pretty high, eh? Counterbalance in thresh which has the top curve at 2 doesn’t stand a chance. Needles doesn’t do a thing because the food chain’s ability is a mana ability, CotV at 0,1 or 2 can’t hurt the deck, and 3sphere is nimbly dodged. STP can just be responded to, and a killing krosan grip doesn’t affect mana abilities, so food chain can make a last response to get the final key card. Decks with pyrostatic pillar will not affect you. If the opponent stops food chain too late, it’s over. This is the beauty of the deck. Massive acceleration, wierd curve and a MANA ability as the centerpiece of the deck makes this deck shine. If you play Food Chain Elves, you got yourself a problem at getting a large enough swarm into play. This is raw combo, not aggro-combo which seems to fail in legacy. How many aggro-combo decks exist? Not a single one as far as I know. Decicated aggro like Food Chain Goblins can’t exist in Legacy without evil tutors. And those tutors in creature form doesn’t really exist. This is why the deck plays that many tutors/diggers/drawers, just to fire a human fireball against the opponent’s head. WTF they will think the most of the time when a XBBB wierdo from Kamigawa block hits their face followed up by a futureshifted creature stormer. Can there be any other kills? Sure, some creatures that produce ”real” mana can be used. This takes either a coal stoker and a grapeshot, or composite golem, ETW. This is just not good enough. Keep in mind that every creature in the deck provides card quality/advantage. None of the ”real” mana producers does this. Composite Golem into priest of gix, then tendrils of agony would be too wierd and clumsy. And too inconsitent. While the maga kill seems odd, it’s the best you can offer unless a storm spell in creature form except than Storm Entity exist. This deck is far from developed as the kill condition can be found in future sets. I wait and wait for a proper kill. But until then, the kill’s doable.

    Matchups:

    Goblins: Even, depending on splash. G s
    Sadly, thoughtseize has been printed, which allows goblins to knock your only creature card off your hand. The lucky thing about this, Gobs can’t draw nongoblin cards, so they got to mull all the way to grip, naturalize and/or thoughtseize. This is a major problem for them. However, you got absolutely no answers to a lackey except for a FoW. But you’ll kill them before they kill you, and after game 1, chalice or 3sphere halt them a LOT. Because you can protect yourself against them, this one is even.

    Thresh with CounterTop: Slightly unfavorable – postboard, around even
    CounterTop engine does nothing to your combo, and Daze does never get an opportunity to get played (you’ll float a LOT of mana between every spell) In any way, thresh is hard with brainstorm into FoW to blast your Maga away.

    Landstill – even, depending alot on build. Enchantment-removal builds make the matchup slightly unfavorable.
    If the build got a lot of enchantment removal, you’re screwed, and GG if crucible/wasteland becomes online. If they don’t have FoW, it’s over then.

    Belcher – Even! Postboard, favorable
    I’d never believe I was able to beat combo that was a lot faster than me, but since this is a goldfishing war, and you got FoW, 3sphere AND CotV, there’s nothing but a turn 1 belcher for 53 damage that can kill you. You’ll often combo out before ETW steamrolls you. On the other hand, there is a great chance that they manage to do.

    Dragon stompy (or chalice aggro) – Even, postboard, no change.

    this is just a midrange deck for you, which you manage to beat easily. Magus of the Moon is GG, though if you haven’t resolved Food Chain yet. On the other hand, sphere and CotV is card disadvantage batman against your opponent’s faces. You win if you manage to combo out before magus hits the board. Because the deck’s engine card is green, you can’t flash it into play, and the deck contains NO basic lands, you are dead to say the least. Slogger, the swords and Jitte does nothing to you.

    Eva Green – Unfavorable, postboard extremely unfavorable.
    This is just a slaughter. Discard and a VERY fast clock makes that deck unbeatable. I beat it one game out of twenty. Yes, the deck has bad matchups, and as it seems right now, decks with discard and artifact-enchantment removal postboard are a pain in your ass.

    Why bother?

    An important note is that this deck, like stompy and aluren dodges chalice, Cbalance, 3sphere and other CMC-hate cards. And becuase legacy is a fast format, and noone could ever dream of participating in a contest with a deck with a curve like this deck, nobody’s expecting the deck, boarding the wrong cards in/out, and playing their hate in a strange way. The only way Cbalance could hurt you putting top on lib in response to an E-tutor. This is the only card in the deck with -3 cc.

    To sum up, this is chalice-combo. In other words, combo that doesn’t get hurt by mana-hate thrown at it. All hate is dodged except for Magus of the moon, which is GG in many other decks, whatsoever.

    This has a hell lot of potential, and it’s able to build tons of builds from Food Chain, aggro, control and combo. Food Chain has the potential to become an archetype in Legacy, and this competition entry is the kick that will (maybe) start some serious development to competitive level, although I mean that this deck with some little luck can top8 in a +33 man tournament. I don’t know if it can become a DTW, though. Time will show.


    Important notes:

    This is NOT storm combo. Well, Storm Entity is sort of, but it doesn’t really count.

    Under any circumstances, any creatures that don’t provide CA or serves as accel or kill condition. A card like Akroma or tombstalker will not do in this deck. The kill needs to be done in the same turn it’s threwn into play.

    This is a creature combo with no tournament staples at all (FoW doesn’t serve as a combo enabler). This is true innovation, gentlemen!

    You can argue as much as you want, this is NOT Aluren with a worse engine. Aluren is a CONTROL-COMBO deck which manages to go off late game. This is NOT the purpose of this deck. Compare this deck to any raw combo deck around. Spring Tide is as fast as this deck. Solidarity is too, but the fact that it can go off at instant speed makes solidarity shine. The complete dodge of mana-curve hate, it’s ability to run FoW, it’s amazing consistency and it’s ability to kill with ANY creature ever printed, with no restrictions of mana cost and it’s relatively cheap cost makes THIS shine, to give some examples.

    Credits:
    When I first submitted this deck, it was awful, but the concept interested a hell lot of people. But keep in mind that everyone that posted constructive critique in the original thread (fuck, how to link to that thread, would a mod please do this were I’ve written this dumb reminder text?) Anyway, it’s called [Deck] Food Chain – Evoke Abuse. These two people has helped a lot, and even though I’ve never talked to them IRL, or at any other messaging site than here, I’ve felt that I finally talked to somebody who actually liked the deck concept. On a lot other sites, the deck was flamed as hell – anyway, I managed to win a smaller deck contest with a suboptimal build of Food Chain on a Danish site. I’m making a 2nd attempt at another competion, the very CaNG! These two people deserves as much credit as myself (if I really deserve anything):

    Oros, the Avenger – plays the exact same build, we developed it togehter
    Maverick76f – said to me that the deck should be submitted. That really encouraged me. Also, he got some VERY interesting builds that I should take a closer look at.

    Two awesome people, these guys should be looked at as co-developers. About the decklist, Oros knows as much as me about it.

    Ask about anything if I have not stated it clearly enough in the primer.

    -Willoe
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  2. #2
    Legacy Inept

    Join Date

    Oct 2005
    Location

    France
    Posts

    1,956

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    I've been waiting for this submission. Just a quick remark about daze: you can't pay the additionnal mana with your mana provided with food chain.

    I'm not fond of this version which packs very few protection. I prefer lists with no tutor, a lot of drawing creatures that will eventually find the bloody enchantement, 8 or 12 disruption cards (Pact of Negation, Cabal Therapy, Chalice of the Void, ... in addition to FoW). If we play cabal therapy, then academy rector is also possible.

  3. #3
    Look, it's a picture of Daze!
    georgjorge's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2007
    Location

    Vienna, Austria
    Posts

    560

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    As for your build...I think it might have real problems against Aggro-Control. You don't have enough disruption to force through an early Chain against counters (and discard is not your friend either), so you'll probably need to dig for another chain or more disruption with Ravens and Drifters. Since all of those cost three mana (so you can only play one each turn), this plan might be too slow to survive.

    When fiddling around with the deck, I found that mana Elves and Birds are probably better than 2-mana-lands in this deck, for the reason that they can actually kick-start the Chain on their own, making the deck go off one full turn faster. Of course, I also run Wall of Blossoms which you don't, so you probably still won't get the three mana required to play any of your digging creatures that turn...so I don't know how useful that is.

    I also agree with Maveric that Cabal Therapy is probably the best disruption for this deck. Contrary to Force, it can absolutely wreck an opponent if the game goes longer than three or four turns. Also, no Xantid Swarms in the sideboard ? These are great ! Also provide some mana for Chain after they've attacked, and shut off everything blue. They might be overkill in combination with Therapies, but I think you should at least be running one of the two.

    Enlightened Tutor looks solid. However, IF you would run Therapies (which I recommend), it might be worth running Intuition in this slot since you run eight two-mana-lands, making it castable second turn WITHOUT the card disadvantage, and of course just winning the game against Control with Therapies. But if you keep the Tutor, maybe running one Etched Oracle would be fine, since it gives you something to tutor for if you already have a Chain, and - while going off - draws you three cards for one mana.

    How have the Dryads been working out for you ? I agree that there needs to be SOMETHING more than Mulldrifter to provide mana for Maga, but you don't seem to have that many green cards in the deck...in fact, only Vine Dryad and Food Chain itself (you actually want to cast Cultivator when going off) ! Do you really always draw enough copies of Food Chain to cast Dryad when going off ?
    georgjorge
    Geistreich sind schon die anderen.

  4. #4

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    I think both Cloud of Faeries (with Ancient Tomb) and Skyshroud Cutter would be better than Vine Dryad if you feel that you need that free creature. And why don't you run fetches? They are so great in this deck, which really likes the deck thinning. That could also allow you a couple of basics if you have problems with Blood Moon effects.

    This is my build (which actually was developed before I came across your thread in this forum :-))

    //Creatures
    1 Court Hussar
    1 Aethersnipe
    2 Fierce Empath
    4 Wall of Blossoms
    4 Mulldrifter
    4 Cloud of Faeries
    2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
    4 Raven Familiar

    //Enchantments
    4 Food Chain

    //Sorceries
    3 Living Wish
    4 Ponder

    //Instants
    4 Force of Will
    4 Brainstorm

    //Land
    4 Tropical Island
    3 Forest
    4 Island
    4 Polluted Delta
    4 Windswept Heath

    //SB
    1 Court Hussar
    1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
    1 Aethersnipe
    1 Flooded Strand
    1 Myojin of Seeing Winds
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Daze
    2 Echoing Truth

    It would look different if I could afford Imperial Recruiter though. I really feel that Living Wish is working out well in this deck, even though I miss the extra SB slots. You don't need two win cons main deck and they can be cast on turn two if you know that you will have to bounce something before going off or need the extra mana from Aethersnipe. They do, however, require Cloud of Faeries, but I feel that they are great anyways since they can start the chain and they prevent Brainstorm and Ponder from being dead card while going off.
    I agree with Maveric78f and georgjorge that Cabal Therapy is probably the way to go.

  5. #5
    Now is interested in decks with 250+ cards.
    Oros, the Avenger's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    43

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Ah, finally.
    As I promised, I did some testings with Slithermuse. But I think the testing I did right now isnt enough to judge about the muse.

    Quote Originally Posted by rasmus_agren@hotmail.com View Post
    Skyshroud Cutter would be better than Vine Dryad if you feel that you need that free creature.
    We tried out Skyshroud Cutter in some earlier builds, but because of the new 5c-manabase and the 5 free life for the opp., we decided to cut the Cutter for the Dryad. I think that the 5c-manabase is more important than the Cutter.

  6. #6

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Ok, if you really need that kind of mana base, I guess you might have a point. I don't think either is necessary though. As someone else said, you run very few green card to actually pitch to it. My experience is that the life gain is no problem what so ever. You can do about 50 damage if you feel the need (ok, that might be due to the fact that I'm running Living Wish). What about Cloud of Faeries? They fill pretty much the same role, while being able to net you mana with Ancient Tomb and get you the mana you need.

  7. #7
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    the great deal about running absolutely NO 1cc cards except for tutors makes this deck really worth playing. CBalance can wreck all combo, except for this deck. Swarms are pretty good, I just don't really like them. Birds and Elves are all essential bad for the deck. Lands are uncounterable, and if we get a bird destroyed, we lose a lot of tempo, and the risk of getting it countered is fatal. Then I would rather play dryad arbor, even though it's a lot worse.

    About Vine Dryad: Vine Dryad is often used latecombo: the other Food Chain cards can be pitched to them, which generates massive mana amounts.And yes, the deck can easily deck itself. That basically makes every kill viable. You can easily compare this ProspBloom. Drawing more cards only to translate them into a fireball. But this is a LOT faster.

    Fetchlands: Thinning the deck can be done by using Cultivators as well, which adds Cultivator as a beef to boot. I once won with 2 10/10 cultivators. This is not the main plan, though. Cultivator can allow you to wait a turn before going off. It almost stops goyf every time. Running a 5c mana base without fetches and duals can be done. 16 Fetches and 4 duals are also possibilities, of course. Or whatever's needed. For this deck, it seems that an optimal mana base doesn't exist. Every kind have issues.

    Mana-accel creatures: Seriously, no way dude. Mulldrifter is as good at it gets, and killing with Cloud into L-Wish into Maga just makes it even more inconsistent.

    Daze: Fuck, I heard something else from another guy. I'll fix it.

    EDIT: protecting Maga is never a problem ^^ like I said, drawing the entire deck or in any way, a great portion of it, you should get 4 FoWs in hand and still have creatures enough to pitch to them. Getting 25 mana and Maga AND Storm Entity and some FoWs in hand to backup Maga (because maga is the main plan) is almost always a sure way of killing the opponent.
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  8. #8
    Look, it's a picture of Daze!
    georgjorge's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2007
    Location

    Vienna, Austria
    Posts

    560

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Quote Originally Posted by willoe View Post
    the great deal about running absolutely NO 1cc cards except for tutors makes this deck really worth playing. CBalance can wreck all combo, except for this deck. Swarms are pretty good, I just don't really like them. Birds and Elves are all essential bad for the deck. Lands are uncounterable, and if we get a bird destroyed, we lose a lot of tempo, and the risk of getting it countered is fatal. Then I would rather play dryad arbor, even though it's a lot worse.
    Are you really worried about getting Birds and Elves COUNTERED ? I mean, even if this costs you tempo, it would actually be worth it since they then wouldn't have that counter for Food Chain (which would set you back a lot more in tempo). I, for one, wouldn't even think about countering a Bird or Elf knowing that my opponent's deck relies on one specific card to win which I need to prevent coming into play.

    But as to the Vine Dryads, I think there are other options. Why not play one of the Evoke creatures that net you four mana each as well, but without needing a green card (Ingot Chewer and Walker of the Grove, the latter even leaving behind a permanent for Myojin) ? But I also think Cloud of Faeries is the best alternative - it usually gives one less mana (untapping three mana), but is great for playing Chain and going off right away by saccing the Cloud you played the same turn, speeding up the deck.

    For the sideboard, I would strongly suggest Engineered Explosives, which can be Tutored for to destroy any troubling permanents (which you need - Gaddock Teeg absolutely should destroy this deck, as well as Meddling Mage). I also think you might need something to combat Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon, but this might be hard since you don't run fetches...the only thing I can find would be Plague Boiler, which you could play instead of Explosives...it's slower, but destroys EVERYTHING. And dodges Counterbalance.

    EDIT: Oops, killing Gaddock with Explosives is hard. Probably better run Keg or Boiler.
    georgjorge
    Geistreich sind schon die anderen.

  9. #9
    Legacy Inept

    Join Date

    Oct 2005
    Location

    France
    Posts

    1,956

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Can you explain how teeg destroys the deck?

  10. #10
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Like Mav answered, how does Gaddock Teeg affect the deck? Re-read him please.

    Maybe I didn't point out that I was afraid that our mana creatures were countered by CBalance. Sensei on top of library and counterbalance shuts down our tempo, I thought you understood me.

    Like TES, the deck runs two kill conditions. Even though meddling mage names Maga, you still got a VERY potent kill with Storm Entity. The meddling mage has a dilemma: Block Entity with Mage, avoiding lethal damage and allowing me to cast Maga on the exact same turn; or let me damage him and eventually, making him losing the game. Meddling Mage is often casted ASAP, which leaves them with no mana open for a STP. You simply play through your entire deck, reach storm count 20, paying the rest of the floated mana for a hell lot of creatures, swing with Entity. Pass the turn, attack next turn for lethal damage or if Mage blocks avoiding GG, remove creatures to a lethal Maga. This plan is pretty good. Meddling Mage chanting a card in the deck when food chain already has hit the board doesn't matter at all.

    Considering Xantid Swarm. It will probably be really good, I just realized that it accelerated mana the turn food chain hits the board, denies counterspells and being a creature is pretty good. Midcombo, it just sucks awful, and that's bad.
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  11. #11
    Member
    Barook's Avatar
    Join Date

    Mar 2007
    Location

    Germany, Germering, Munich
    Posts

    7,489

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Without reading the entire thread, just asking:

    If Meddling Mage was be a problem, why wouldn't you run Ghitu Slinger or Fire Imp as a Recruit target? 2 Damage is still enough to kill alot of utility creatures.

  12. #12
    Look, it's a picture of Daze!
    georgjorge's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2007
    Location

    Vienna, Austria
    Posts

    560

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Quote Originally Posted by willoe View Post
    Like Mav answered, how does Gaddock Teeg affect the deck? Re-read him please.
    Oops...noncreature ! How strange...

    As for Meddling Mage - why do you assume it won't just name Food Chain ?
    georgjorge
    Geistreich sind schon die anderen.

  13. #13
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Actually, Ghitu Fire Slinger might be pretty good. I'll test it as a one of.

    Meddling Mage @ Food Chain: Yeah, that's the problem. Mage on anything else isn't. If you are on the play, you have great chances of playing it before they meddle.
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  14. #14
    Undefined Fantastic Object

    Join Date

    Oct 2006
    Location

    Waterloo, Canada
    Posts

    810

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Not meant to dismissing the deck, but what is the advantage of playing this deck over other creature based combo, like Aluren?

    with excepting of Gaddok Teeg, and 3shpere, I don't think there is any other advantage, while Aluren packs more compact combo.
    She said, "You're broken."
    "So is your face." replied the Tarmogoyf.

  15. #15
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    This is not control-combo like Aluren. It's goal is to win as fast as possible, not controlling the board then comboing off.
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  16. #16
    Legacy Inept

    Join Date

    Oct 2005
    Location

    France
    Posts

    1,956

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    It's certainly not better than Aluren, to be honest. But it has some advantages. I quote myself from the original thread:
    Well, for the moment it's not better than aluren, far from it but it has a lot of advantages compared to it :
    - the key-spell costs 1 G less => 1 turn before and enables the 2mana producing lands
    - it's trinisphere/sphere/thorns resilient
    - it's not needlable (and a lot of random players forget it)
    - it's not chaliceable/counterbalanceable
    - it wins the turn when you combo (not really relevant, I admit)

  17. #17
    Member
    Willoe's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Denmark
    Posts

    507

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    True, it's not better than Aluren, but Aluren's also freakin' good, it's pretty hard to come up with something that's even better :) This is a relatively new concept, and it has a lot of potential.
    "You're English is terrible and inconsistent."

    -DownSyndromeKarl

  18. #18
    Now is interested in decks with 250+ cards.
    Oros, the Avenger's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2007
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    43

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Its not that worser than Aluren. Of course its not equal, but like Maveric said, it has some advantages. I think with new tutor-creatures we maybe get up to Aluren. Hopefully they print some ASAP.

  19. #19

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Is there any chance to make the deck more resilient against discard? I think currently any kind of selective discard (that many decks have) can be a real pain. Duress, Thoughtseize, or Cabal Therapy can really ruin your day.

    I am no magic guru/expert, but I think the deck looks damn fun - if you are ever able to find/resolve Food Chains, that's it.

  20. #20
    Legacy Inept

    Join Date

    Oct 2005
    Location

    France
    Posts

    1,956

    Re: [CaNG] Food Chain

    Enlightened Tutor and brainstorm are certainly the best answers to discard.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)