even though the banning of goblin recruiter in legacy was a bad one for the food chain goblins deck, can food chain still be done? Recently, the evoke mechanic from lorwyn has shown some popularity in standard. Why not abuse the ability to a maximum? Using it with food chain not only nets you the effect, but also gives you mana if you eat it in response to its own sacrifical. And yes, you can pay evoke costs with the mana you get from food chain. I'm just saying this to avoid these questions :P anyway, i built a decklist:
the combo piece:
4 Food Chain
utility:
3 Shriekmaw
4 Mulldrifter
4 Fierce Empath
2 Ęthersnipe
4 wall of blossoms
tutors:
4 drift of phantasms
accel:
4 chrome mox
the kill:
1 grozoth
1 myojin of life's web
1 nullstone gargoyle
1 blazing archon
1 spirit of the night
minor protection/hosing:
4 thorn of amethyst
lands:
2 ancient tomb
4 polluted delta
4 underground sea
4 tropical island
4 bayou
4 wooded foothills
that would be sixty cards. I'll sum up the very wierd card choices:
food chain - a guy on another forum said that this is just a bad version of aluren. Hmm, he's maybe right... however, if this can be developed in a good way, I'm sure it can be nearly as good! The advantage is, that nearly everyone isn't expecting the deck, I would not say it's truly rogue, but still.
shriekmaw: provides as card advantage as well as incredible acceleration if you got the food chain.
mulldrifter - insane with food chain, or just plain good. Draws into the needed cards.
fierce empath - needed to get the grozoth, which fetches the myojin and the rest of the kill that gives me a lethal army on the next turn. Haven't found a good way to give the creatures haste, maybe Flame-Kin Zealot, but that one cannot be fetched either with drift of phantasms or fierce empath.
ęthersnipe: pretty good as a fetching with fierce empath as it serves for seven mana. You also get to bounce a dangerous goyf, so that's just good.
wall of blossoms: blocks nasty critters, and draws. That's awesome.
drift of phantasms: needed to get the fierce empath and the food chain.
chrome mox: dropping food chain a turn earlier is very good play. On the other hand, it's just mana if you need one to get the grozoth into play.
the kill creatures: grozoth produces a mega tutor as well as a 9/9 body. the creature itself is prety pointless as food chain will eat it to play a myojin of life's web. Nullstone Gargoyle protects against a wrath which can be a lose condition, and blazing archon protects me from swarm as well as ichorid combo (I don't expect to win that matchup anyway, it's way too fast).
thorn of amethyst: as nearly every spell is a creature with some nifty ability, this can be good in delaying the opponent by at turn or two, if needed.
mana base: I honestly don't know if it's shaky or not, ancient omb can drop food chain one turn earlier, which can be important.
playing the deck: I haven't done that yet as I do not own all the needed cards. Else, it's about holding the line with some evoking and defenses until you draw the combo.
Going off (disadvantages): fierce empath is fetching a 9cc card, which is grozoth. The fierce empath removes for four mana, and from that point, It is important that I have an evoke creature in my hand. Using three of the four mana on an ęthersnipe isn't enough, so I need at least two other creatures. I've been considering mournwhelk or faultgrinder instead to produce more mana. A bringer creature could also do, as food chain nets me mana of any color.
The why not section:
No protection??? - No, I'm not running enough blue cards to could consistently play a FoW, the only thing I can run is daze, and daze's not that good in turn 3. I'm thinking about venser, shaper savant or mystic snake.
No goyf??? - No, this deck simply don't uses the yard at all, so putting goyfs in MD is stupid due to the reliance on my opponent's yard.
Is this a good deck or does it suck? - Honestly, I don't know. I've been goldfishing a couple of times, and it consistently throws in all the 9cc creatures about turn 2-4. That's pretty good I think. So, any card suggestions or thoughts about the deck? Any feedback is very welcome!
-Peter
Ps. I also have another decklist that's built around storm spells, tell me if I should post it.
This is a REALLY interesting concept. For sheer mana production, it probably doesn't get better than Ingot Chewer.
Mournwelk is perfect for this deck. It is fetchable with Empath and generates card advantage. It turns a hand of Foodchain +Empath into 8 mana right off the bat, that way you need only 1 other creature to keep it going.
You could go off with just foodchain in play and Empath +Drift in hand if you could find a way to convert one blue mana to a green mana. Or you could simply use Mournwelk for 4 mana, make 8 green, cast Empath, sack for 4 blue, search for Grozoth and win. IMO, Mournwelk may just be better than Aethersnipe because it can disrupt your opponent while gaining card advantage. It also creates exactly enough mana to make it all work.
Team Unicorn is too hetero for me.Originally Posted by Krieger
While this is close it's still wrong. Every one knows it's an orgy of unicorns.******s?
TeaM NOVA for life.
This deck seems like it might be viable, like any other combo deck it will be hard to play around counter magic. Mournwhelk should be included and Ingot chewer seems like a house in this deck.
Team Fat Man & Little Boy
Very interesting concept, although the list presented above seems horribly slow for a combo deck. I don't know if that a Grozoth "toolbox" is viable. These win conditions looks kinda slow and risky - Akroma-class win conditions (hard to kill) should be worth consideration (Tombstalker would be also interesting because he can be cast even without the combo, depending on the build).
I want to see better tutor cards like Survival or Living Wish to give the deck more consistency and flexibility.
Random side note not really related to the topic: While it doesn't combo with Food Chain, Fecundity is dead-sexy when combined with Evoke.
In before Zach Tartell.
Food Chain evoke... Not gonna lie, I'm giggling at the thought. Mox, Tomb, Food Chain, go. Land, evoke mulldrifter, sac into evoked Mournwelk, sac into Akroma. I'm getting all hot and bothered just thinking about it.
The idea for Akroma style win conditions is seconded, in addition to upping the Ancient Tomb count to four.
Some other creatures to consider:
Mesmeric Fiend: temporary disruption (can turn into permanent discard when played with Food Chain on the table)
Birds of Paradise: additional acceleration which can be fed to your Food Chain after being used
Primoridal Sage: Not exactly the best creature, but it could help you to keep the combo up because you're still playing the creatures.
Mystic Snake/Venser: potential protection - probably just win-more
Edit: On second thought, Living Wish should be pretty awesome here. Not only that it can provide you with all kinds of utility (evoke)/combo creatures from the board, it can also get you back removed creatures just to cast them again. Imagine something like this:
Evoke Mournwelk, Chain it, cast Wish (with non-Chain mana, of course), get Mournwelk, evoke and chain it again.
Evoke says "You may play this spell for its evoke cost. If you do, it's sacrificed when it comes into play."
So let me get this right, you have a chance to respond to the Evoke sacrifice effect?
Can we get a ruling or something on that?
Quote Scrumdogg @ Amrod's:
"Didn't you know that Mike Glow invented this format?? We are all just renting it."
The EPIC Syndicate - Grindermen
Team Disquailified Poster Duey Cheatem & Howe.
This is correct. The Evoke trigger uses the stack (the "when" is essential here), so you have a chance to respond to it.
Phage the Untouchable + Inner Flame Acolyte might be your best bet if you want to win without passing the turn.
This is a really innovative idea. It can only get stronger as more Evoke cards are printed next set.
While I agree this is a neat interaction, one-card combo decks need to have a fallback plan.
So what exactly is this deck going to be doing if Food Chain is Maged/Extirpated/Duressed Away/Countered/You Don't Draw It?
Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter are pretty decent cards on their own. In fact, most
If that happens your best bet is to beat face with Tombstalker Imo. Mournwelk is uncastable but Skriekmaw is a decent clock combined with Tombstalker.
I love Ancient Tomb since the ccs in this deck are 2U, 2G, 3B for the evokers and Food Chain. I also feel that the tutoring leaves a lot to be desired. The concept though is good and I look forward to playing with it.
Here is the version I like on paper:
4 Mournwelk
4 Mulldrifter
4 Skriekmaw
4 Empath
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Sundering Titan
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Food Chain
4 Drift of Fantasm
3 Thoughtseize
4 Duress
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bayou
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Wooded Foothills
SB:
3 Tombstalker
4 Animate Dead
1 Blazing Archon
4 Yixlid Jailer
3 Reaping the Graves?
Is this deck really better than the other options? I like how each card can be really good on its own.
Team Unicorn is too hetero for me.While this is close it's still wrong. Every one knows it's an orgy of unicorns.******s?
TeaM NOVA for life.
Instead of/in addition to drift/wall of blossoms, raven familiar is sexy too.
22 lands is probably too many, and city of traitors should be included too.
Instead of duress/thoughtseize as disruption, what about chalice ? Chalice@1 and Akroma is not killable anymore. Chalice@2 is also very powerful in the metagame and it only cut you from the walls in which I am really not sure. In its place raven is really better. But I'm not convinced in drift of fantasm neither. What to consider then ?
Sawtooth Loon ? No, Court Hussar is probably the best.
2 Mournwelk
4 Mulldrifter
4 Skriekmaw
4 Empath
4 Raven Familiar (flashback is slow evoke)
4 Court Hussar (somehow the first evoke guy)
1 Darksteel Colossus (?)
1 Sundering Titan
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Crater Hellion (or Bogardan Hellkite or Thunder Dragon
4 Food Chain
4 Trinisphere/Thorn of Amethyst
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
10 multicolored lands, probably 4*City of Brass, 4*Gemstone Mine and 2* tropical island
SB:
1 Tornado elemental
1 Petradon
4 Trinisphere/Thorn of Amethyst
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Random Big Utility Creature
The problem with that list is that every time you don't draw Food Chain, you're playing a really godawful Chalice Aggro deck. There has to be some way to get Food Chains in hand or be awesome without them.
Yes but you have a huge digging power (12 creatures are digging at an average of 3 for 3CC). This needs some testing, but I'm not sure it's so long to get food chain in hand. Moreover you have 8 ways to earn yourself some time to find them (4*chalice+4*thorn/trini). I already love the deck on the paper but I need some testing for the consistency.
It looks strange but combo and trinisphere can be friends.
Edit : omg a creature-based green deck without tarmogoyf!
Last edited by Maveric78f; 11-27-2007 at 07:38 AM.
Does anybody else remember the Elgin-style Food Chain deck back in the day? Every creature was simply designed to find another creature, and you'd net one or two mana with each. Imperial Recruiter, Raven Familiar... I don't actually remember any of the others. It seems the deck thread has fallen to the Wayside (Remember Sideways Stories from Wayside High? Man, so good!) but the purpose of all this rambling is to say that that deck won with Maga. Which was hot.
You should probably look at the most badass creatures printed to play with, if mana isn't too bad. My mind immediately comes to the Myojins. Black or Blue Myojin look like a total beating. I'd most likely rather resolve a Myojin of some kind than actually stick an Akroma or Colossus.
That could be a great idea. The deck needs more combo-finish.
Beating with Akroma sucks.
How can we find that deck's list?
Currently Playing: Nourishing Lich.Deck
Current Record: 1-83-2
Clearly. The kills are so baaaad. I did some testing and it's awful to struggle to combo and then to finish with a weak body, even protected or untergettable. Plus the deck definitely needs Myojin of seeing winds.
If you want a maga kill though, you need a lot of mana producers and I don't get how you can gather 22 manas consistently.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote