Food Chain Combo

[grokh]

Could work! Black shouldn't be a problem because Griffins gives us infinite every color forever. Plus, BUG plays black. :)

And Vela the Night-Clad is better than Maga, traitor to mortals in the infinite life loss alternate kill because it has a CCM and it's fetchable by Fierce empath

And you don't always need infinite mana for Vela the Night-Clad, you can deal some point of damages to your opponent during the combo.

[metamet]

Vela and Extractor Demon seem like interesting alternative wincons, both through unconventional means. We should keep those in our back pocket for once the meta shifts toward making Emmy not simply win. :)

I won't be getting much Legacy in for a little while, likely once a month for the time being. Reason is that my girlfriend and I have been doing Muay Thai throughout the week and the class goes until 7:30 on Thursdays. Legacy starts at 7... but I still might show up and play three rounds, forfeiting the first to whoever got the bye. Who knows!

Good news is that I haven't seen much from Gatecrash that'll impact Legacy, so I don't think I'll have to prep for a big meta shift in the meantime... we'll probably go from Tues-Thurs to Mon-Wed in a few months, which will then open up my Legacy night again. :)

In the meantime, this is still my favorite pet deck and I want to keep tweaking it as much as possible, even though I won't be able to get in weekly tournaments.

[grokh]

Hi,

I just learned there was another version of Food chain decks : Food chain Elves, mono

I found this decklist : http://deckbox.org/sets/207149

What do you think of it ?

[nevilshute]

Hi,

I just learned there was another version of Food chain decks : Food chain Elves, mono

I found this decklist : http://deckbox.org/sets/207149

What do you think of it ?

Hiya Grokh. I knew there had been an elf/food chain deck in the past but have never read anything about it or seen deck lists. Was cool to see the list. Don't know how good it is compared to other types of elf combo decks. It's also very much a different thing than "our" food chain deck. I mean completely different.

Would be fun to try one day I guess :)

[Opaco]

Hiya Grokh. I knew there had been an elf/food chain deck in the past but have never read anything about it or seen deck lists. Was cool to see the list. Don't know how good it is compared to other types of elf combo decks. It's also very much a different thing than "our" food chain deck. I mean completely different.

Would be fun to try one day I guess :)

If you are ineterested there was an old thread for Food Chain elves, called Army of Ancients. It played as completly a different deck, its main advantage was its ability to recover failed combo attemps and plow through the deck when it didn't have food chain as half of the deck has etb card advantage attached: Elvish Visionary, Multani's Acolyte, Sylvan Messenger, Llanowar Empath, Fierce Empath-> Brass Herald; and if the combo plan wasn'y feasible you can throw some elf lords from the sideboard and become a tribal aggro deck. However, UGx Food Chain and Elfball had superseeded it in terms of being a combo deck while the aggro plan usually didn't compensate for this.

[grokh]

Hi all,

I had a new idea for the UG builds recently !

Why not running some Lorescale coatl for benefit of all draws the deck can generate ? It provides us a body for blocking/attacking, maybe an aggro-theme

Nope ?

[grokh]

Hi,

I'm actually testing Gyre sage in the deck, with 4 Wall of blossoms and 2 Carven caryatid for helping the Evolve.

It seems really nice cos it plays the same role as Wall of roots in some lists but it allows us an aggro plan cos he often becomes 4/5 body

Thoughts ?

[nokto]

Hi,

I'm actually testing Gyre sage in the deck, with 4 Wall of blossoms and 2 Carven caryatid for helping the Evolve.

It seems really nice cos it plays the same role as Wall of roots in some lists but it allows us an aggro plan cos he often becomes 4/5 body

Thoughts ?

The big problem I usually find when playing against competitive decks is that I need consistent acceleration on turn one. I would personally never play a situational 2 drop acceleration.

I have been toying with a standard UG list with 4 Summoner's Trap (2 MD/2 SB) in order to make one sided show and tells. My list looks like the following

3 Birds of paradise
3 Deathrite Shaman

4 Wall of blossom
1 Elvish Visionary

3 Mulldrifter
3 Raven's Familiar
2 Fierce Empath

2 Summoner's Trap
4 Food Chain
3 Misthollow Griffin
2 Emrakul
1 Soul of the Harvest

4 Force of will
2 Missdirection

4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder

3 Mistyrainy Forest
3 Wooded Foothills
1 UR Fetchland
3 Forest
2 Island
4 Tropical Island
1 Taiga

sb

3 pyroclasm
1 AEthersnipe
3 Surgical extraction
2 Summoner's Trap
3 Nature's Claim
2 Carpet of flowers

I've won a couple of local events (15-25 people) with a similar list. 17 lands look enough for me. Thoughts?

[grokh]

The big problem I usually find when playing against competitive decks is that I need consistent acceleration on turn one. I would personally never play a situational 2 drop acceleration.

I have been toying with a standard UG list with 4 Summoner's Trap (2 MD/2 SB) in order to make one sided show and tells. My list looks like the following

3 Birds of paradise
3 Deathrite Shaman

4 Wall of blossom
2 Elvish Visionary

3 Mulldrifter
3 Raven's Familiar
2 Fierce Empath

2 Summoner's Trap
4 Food Chain
3 Sphinx
2 Emrakul

4 Force of will
2 Missdirection

4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder

3 Mistyrainy Forest
3 Wooded Foothills
1 UR Fetchland
3 Forest
2 Island
4 Tropical Island
1 Taiga

sb

3 pyroclasm
1 AEthersnipe
3 Surgical extraction
2 Summoner's Trap
3 Nature's Claim
2 Carpet of flowers

I've won a couple of local events (15-25 people) with a similar list. 17 lands look enough for me. Thoughts?

Why do you call Gyre sage a situational 2 drop acceleration ? If you build around it, it won't be situational, with 4 Wall of blossoms and 2 Carven caryatid, i often have a 3/4-4/5 Gyre sage. I have to point out that i'm playing with 3 Birds of paradise + 3 Gyre sage for the moment !

Gyre sage is just a better Wall of roots cos he'll often be able to produce without disadvantage. He'll become a body too, for blocking/attacking ! He seems very useful to me cos i'm running a Natural order plan B and he helps a lot having or making more mana under Food chain for casting the Misthollow griffin.

For your list, why don't you run more Misdirection ? With Abrupt decay in the format, it seems needed ...

Summoning trap is another technique, got to test, seems nice too, but in general, your opponent want to counter the Food chain, in my case.

What's the Sphinx, you play, you've not given the entire name ? Sphinx of Lost Truths ? Consecrated sphinx ? Another one ?

I just saw another beast for the deck, maybe today : Bringer of the Blue Dawn, dunno maybe ... ?

[nokto]

Why do you call Gyre sage a situational 2 drop acceleration ? If you build around it, it won't be situational, with 4 Wall of blossoms and 2 Carven caryatid, i often have a 3/4-4/5 Gyre sage. I have to point out that i'm playing with 3 Birds of paradise + 3 Gyre sage for the moment !

Gyre sage is just a better Wall of roots cos he'll often be able to produce without disadvantage. He'll become a body too, for blocking/attacking ! He seems very useful to me cos i'm running a Natural order plan B and he helps a lot having or making more mana under Food chain for casting the Misthollow griffin.

For your list, why don't you run more Misdirection ? With Abrupt decay in the format, it seems needed ...

Summoning trap is another technique, got to test, seems nice too, but in general, your opponent want to counter the Food chain, in my case.

What's the Sphinx, you play, you've not given the entire name ? Sphinx of Lost Truths ? Consecrated sphinx ? Another one ?

I just saw another beast for the deck, maybe today : Bringer of the Blue Dawn, dunno maybe ... ?

Well, it's also true that I would need to see your list in order to correctly judge Gyre Sage, but imho every creature in the deck should be good enough, or at least do something, on it's own. Gyre Sage gives 0 mana when you cast it: you already need to cast another creature and make it through counter walls to start making it useful. Is your meta too much counterspell-heavy? Maybe, as you say, Natural Order is a good reason to run it. In my case, I really feel the need of landing a T1 acceleration, and 4 Birds of Paradise weren't enough for me.

My bad, I wanted to write Griffin and my fingers typed Sphinx instead. It's already corrected in the original post, and of course I was talking about Misthollow Griffin.

Misdirection: As you mentioned, Abrupt Decay is the main reason to run this card. It's also useful against other counterspells and stuff like Hymn to Tourach. There's no real reason to have the 4 FoW 2 Misdirection configuration besides of being the standard one. It works well for me.

Summoning trap: It's actually quite easy to cast it also, so it's not a dead card if they counter Food Chain. Also, you could find yourself in a situation of T1 birds, T2 Food Chain, T3 start comboing and they try to counter your key creature. It has happened to me a couple of times. This is the most recent addition and I still have to test it seriously.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that I run 1 Soul of the Harvest. It boosts the combo unexpectedly and it's almost a gg-creature.

[grokh]

Here's the list i'm currently running :
//Lands
2 Forest
2 Island
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Verdant Catacombs

//Combo
4 Food Chain
4 Misthollow Griffin
2 Natural Order
1 Manipulate Fate

//Mana acceleration
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Gyre Sage

//Cantrip creatures
4 Wall of Blossoms
2 Mulldrifter
2 Carven Caryatid
2 Fierce Empath
1 Griselbrand
1 AEthersnipe

//Kills
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Progenitus
1 Vela the Night-Clad

//Protection
2 Force of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Brainstorm

SB: 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
SB: 4 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 City of Solitude
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Force of Will

I have 4 Misdirection + 2 Force of will because of Abrupt decay but maybe should i split 4 FoW + 2 Misdi ... ?

I have 4 Misthollow griffin + 1 Manipulate fate, dunno if i can cut the Manipulate fate ?

Kills : Plan A : Emrakul OR Vela : infinite damages with Griffin or Plan B : Natural order + Progenitus

Gyre sage is useful for :
1) providing extra mana on Food chain : exile Gyre sage + take mana in response, can allow to go fast for a Griffin
2) providing for casting Natural order
3) can be a body, because Evolve, he's often 3/4 or 4/5 to block if needed

[metamet]

Not a fan of Gyre Sage. You'll need to cast a creature after it resolves in order for it to be good enough... which seems a bit too conditional.

Took my recent BUG list to a big Legacy event this Saturday. I suppose it was 20-30 people. I top 8'd, then lost to High Tide. *sigh*

Deck still runs well. Don't think I have any updates on it aside from new foils, however. :)

[nevilshute]

Not a fan of Gyre Sage. You'll need to cast a creature after it resolves in order for it to be good enough... which seems a bit too conditional.

Took my recent BUG list to a big Legacy event this Saturday. I suppose it was 20-30 people. I top 8'd, then lost to High Tide. *sigh*

Deck still runs well. Don't think I have any updates on it aside from new foils, however. :)

Hey meta. What are you foiling? I currently have plans to get 4 foil Food Chains, but they are a little ways away. Got Japanese foil Griffins though :)

I also don't see Gyre Sage, or any other Gatecrash cards, adding to our current BUG shell.

[grokh]

Hey meta. What are you foiling? I currently have plans to get 4 foil Food Chains, but they are a little ways away. Got Japanese foil Griffins though :)

I also don't see Gyre Sage, or any other Gatecrash cards, adding to our current BUG shell.

In your shell there is no interest. I think Gyre sage is interesting in my shell with Natural order, cos he'll provide or

I don't think it's so "conditionnal" as you say, Food chain decks are often composed with at least 70-80% creatures cards so trigger Evolve should be really easy. We are a creature-based deck, it'd be really unlucky that not touch a creature for making him evolve

[grokh]

I dunno if the idea seems good or not but i just saw Cadaverous bloom.

It could be interesting in your BUG shells, as another way to exile Misthollow griffin, it would allow to throw out your lands in hand for some mana.

Nope ?

[Wincheee]

Hey guys! last saturday i play with my team a Legacy Open here,in Buenos Aires,Argentina,i play Nic fit Scapewish,and one friend played my for-the-lulz- Food chain,well...both of us made top 8! xD i dont remember the entire decklist,but i promise to u i go to post it in a couple of days.

By the way,sorry for my English,i know im sooo bad with this language xD

[Wincheee]

Here is the top 8,i played Nic fit,and my friend Food chain, decklist here:

http://www.mtgmulligan.net/2013/02/t...-legacy-y.html

[metamet]

Looks like a fun All-In-With-Creatures Food Chain list. :) Congrats to your friend!

I've always been interested in a little Enlightened Tutor, but I haven't been able to fully justify the white splash for it -- especially when I've been liking the black splash so much. Plus I like to play Force of Will, which makes it hard to go deep on creatures main. But I like it.

@nevilshute

I'm mostly foiling the combo pieces, as they're the least expensive... hah. I have Fierce Empath, Manipulate Fate, Misthollow Griffin, Wall of Blossoms and Aethersnipe in foil. I have one Food Chain, needing the other three, and I'm also in need of a foil Griselbrand. How bout yourself?

[nevilshute]

Well, as I said I've gotten some Japanese foil Griffins. Got those right when I started playing the deck. Have since then only really gotten around to getting the Manipulate Fates foiled as well as my single Aethersnipe. Am currently in the process of acquiring the Food Chains but not wanting to pay through the nose I'm preparing for a long wait for those. Will probably be looking at getting stuff like the Empaths and Blossoms along the way. Griselbrand and Emrakul... well I'm currently too cheap hehe.

On another note metamet: have you ever considered Intuition as a tutor for Food Chain? I recently got my hands on 2 Intuitions for another deck and just started thinking "maybe for Food Chain". I'm leaning towards no, as I think the deck is currently quite well poised as it is and I rarely feel like I can't find the Chains through cantrips. If we didn't have Manipulate Fate which is just a FAR superior tutor for Griffins, then maybe... anyway. Do you have any experience playing Intuitions in this deck? :)

[nokto]

Well, as I said I've gotten some Japanese foil Griffins. Got those right when I started playing the deck. Have since then only really gotten around to getting the Manipulate Fates foiled as well as my single Aethersnipe. Am currently in the process of acquiring the Food Chains but not wanting to pay through the nose I'm preparing for a long wait for those. Will probably be looking at getting stuff like the Empaths and Blossoms along the way. Griselbrand and Emrakul... well I'm currently too cheap hehe.

On another note metamet: have you ever considered Intuition as a tutor for Food Chain? I recently got my hands on 2 Intuitions for another deck and just started thinking "maybe for Food Chain". I'm leaning towards no, as I think the deck is currently quite well poised as it is and I rarely feel like I can't find the Chains through cantrips. If we didn't have Manipulate Fate which is just a FAR superior tutor for Griffins, then maybe... anyway. Do you have any experience playing Intuitions in this deck? :)

I already considered that too. My first impression is that, either you do it when you have 6 mana available in you main phase or a Surgical Extraction effect will ruin your day badly. It's not that bad if you consider it for tutoring Misthollow Griffins...