Hi guys!
I've been pondering on this deck for a while! The idea of this deck is to abuse Food Chain to combo out by turn 1(?), 2 or 3. However, I haven't gotten the chance to test this deck out yet... I plan to do it as soon as I'm less busy with school.
Any comments, suggestions or testings will be greatly appreciated!!!:D
Food Chain may seem a casual-deck-only (or totally worthless) card at first sight. But I do think there's potential with it. It's seen some play in "food chain goblin" in Legacy as well, tho extremely rare. I was inspired after seeing a deck posted on here. Kudos to the originality of this Japanese for coming up with this extremely fun deck. He did end up in 1st place, but little is known about the facts of the tourney, such as the number of participants. I took the deck and tweaked a little bit.
It's been a long long time since the last update. Here's the lasted deck list I took to a local tourney on 14 Nov.
Apparently, it failed miserably, losing all 4 games... The combo went off 3 times in total.
Game One: VS Thopter Combo with Counterbalance, 0:2
1. He's combo is really slow, but I only had like 2 lands at turn 6 or 7... He had The, Abyss which caused me a great deal of trouble when I could only cast one critter each turn with my 2 lands. Died before I could set up the combo.
2. He boarded in Back to Basic, countering my FC by Enlightened Tutor... He dropped Back to Basic and I had no answer (I couldn't find Krosan Grip the night before). I had few critters in play and I was saving up lands for FC but my only FoW in hand couldn't win me the counter war...
Game Two: VS U/G Survival, 1:2
1. Mana screw, his wasteland hurts so bad, 4 Vengevine on turn 4, GG
2. Stifled my Misty Rainforest, my FoW met his FoW, I was able to rebuild, I was at 9 life and will die next turn, topdecked FC and comboed out!
3. Mana Screw
Game Three: VS Merfolk, 1:2
1. Got crushed real fast
2. Turn 4 Emrakul
3. Mana screw
Game Four: VS Zoo, 1:2
1. Mana screw yet again
2. Emrakul on turn 3
3. He boarded in Ethersworn Canoist which completely stopped me, I was so close to dropping FC, then next turn using FC and my lands to hard cast Emrakul...
Thoughts:
1. The 16 land ratio is the biggest problem. I lost games mostly due to mana screw! I had to mulligan quite often and still had a horrible opening hand, like 1 Ancient Tomb
2. I'm pretty pleased by the stability of the combo itself. Of all the 3 times the combo went off, 2 times on turn 3, 1 time on turn 4 and won me the match without fizzle
1. Increase the land count from 16 to 18 or 20 (or maybe even more to go with 4x Nantuko Cultivator?) I always thought more lands means greater possibility to fizzle, but mana screw should be a bigger problem
3. Friends suggested adding an alternative winning condition, [card]Show and Tell[/cards] with 4x Emrakul
4. Using [card]Living Wish[/wish] to create a wish board? It seems to be more stable and can find answers to different situations, but will slow down the combo
5. How to balance the tradeoff between speed and stability?
Please leave your comments and suggestions to help improve this deck!
Click the Spoiler to open version 1.1 of the deck and its history
1. I completely removed the FoW and Pact of Negation because they just make the combo fizzles too easily despite the protection
2. Substituted Lightning Serpent with Deathforge Shaman. However, considering adding it back or adding a Storm Entity so there will be 4x finishers
3. 4x Glimpse of Nature tremendously improves the consistency of the combo. The weakest link of the combo is drawing something which doesn't draw you a card and the combo will come to a halt. Glimpse makes sure the draw will continue (unless there's like 10x lands on top of your library...)
4. Added 3x Summoner's Pact. Isn't really useful in the deck... After testing, there's not much scenario which it helped, probably the Glimpse provides enough drawing power. Still pondering about it, I'm inclined to substitute it with Living Wish and a wish board. But 1G may be tough during FC coz most likely the Elvish Spirit Guide will be pitched for a Glimpse while all your mana is paid to cast the FC
5. Seems 16 lands are doing pretty well, thinking of even cutting the only Island and add some other land. Once the combo started, the least thing you want is to draw into a land. I'm not sure if the land count could be further reduced... Or maybe adding 4x Mox Diamond so that the extra lands in your hand can be used to generate non-creature-only mana which may enable Living Wish during FC, or even 1st turn FC (just a rough idea)
Problems:
1. Inconsistency... only 4x of the essential combo piece
2. FC prone to counterspell, krosan grip, and hand disruption
3. You always need to keep the drawing going during FC, otherwise FC is dead
4. I think inconsistency is the biggest weakness of this deck
Possible Additions:
Vine Dryad - yields 5 for free (draw back: costs 1 green card from hand), allows possible 1st turn start of FC combo
Skyshroud Cutter - yields 5 for free, better than Vine Dryad imo
Glimpse of Nature - more insane card draws, may improves consistency of the combo itself
Living Wish - enables a wish board with possible evoke creatures and solutions, draw back: costs 2, which may not be available during FC combo
Chalice of the Void - @ 0 or 1, most of the deck won't be affected, however, @ 2 will almost kill the draw engine of this deck...
Thoughts:
1. I incline to take out the 4x FoW and 2x Pact of Negation and put them in sideboard, and add cards like Glimpse of Nature and Living Wish, etc... That way the combo may become more consistent. If opponent plays counter magic or heavy hand disruption, which are both commonplace for Legacy, FoW and PoN may get sided in for protection.
2. Krosan Grip is the absolute hate for this deck, and is so popular in a lot of the sideboards in Legacy. The hope is to combo out before the opponent gets 3 mana...
3. Back to point 1, how to balance creatures vs. protections vs. lands... With Fow basically everywhere, how to make sure FC resolves... And once FC is resolved, drawing lands will be a pretty dead draw, you wanna keep drawing into creatures, and more creatures. What should the land ratio be? I tend to think the land count could go down even more.
4. I wanna play each of the Myojin (well maybe not green Myojin tho), they just have so much style, LOL
These are my basic thoughts about the deck...
Please comment and critique and improve the deck.
I will definitely go test it out (provided I could find some Legacy player in my school........)
..I'm very confused. How does the deck actually work? I must be missing something big here. The way I see it, it costs 10 to play Myojin, then when you RFG you get 10 + 1. How does this help? I see how the Mulldrifters can net some mana, but the Deranged Hermits? How does that produce extra mana (I see that it gives tokens)?
..I'm very confused. How does the deck actually work? I must be missing something big here. The way I see it, it costs 10 to play Myojin, then when you RFG you get 10 + 1. How does this help? I see how the Mulldrifters can net some mana, but the Deranged Hermits? How does that produce extra mana (I see that it gives tokens)?
sorry my bad
deranged hermit nets 10 instead of 14...(somehow i thought the tokens are 1cmc for some reason...)
hermit itself nets 6 and 4 tokens each nets 1
the main goal is to net at least 23 for maga
or 19 for lightning serpent
Would perhaps Karmic Guide and Kiki-Jiki replace Lightning serpent as Secondary wincon? While It ups the cards you need for the second condition, it can alsu be used to keep the combo going while serpent is a dud to feed to the chain.
Could someone double check this for me? Evoking a Mulldrifter does not allow you to sacrifice him with Food Chain because he is already sacrificed as part of the Evoke ability resolution?
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No, it's a trigger, you pay it for it's evoke cost as if it were a normal spell, then when, not as, it ETB, the trigger for draw and sacrifice go on the stack, just respond to the sac with food chain and your fine
I guess the wording just got me questioning it. If you do, it's sacrificed when it enters the battlefield as apposed to the more common, When it comes into play sacrifice it. Or something alone those lines.
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Would perhaps Karmic Guide and Kiki-Jiki replace Lightning serpent as Secondary wincon? While It ups the cards you need for the second condition, it can alsu be used to keep the combo going while serpent is a dud to feed to the chain.
Karmic Guide doesn't combo with FC.
Read: FC removes the creature from game, not sending it to graveyard.
I don't get the use of Kiki-Jiki in this deck. What target should it make a copy out of?
I think in most cases, you won't have more than 1 creature in play, coz they will be fed to FC one by one. However, Kiki-Jiki's token does copy the mana cost of the creature card. So it actually yields mana to FC. I could imagine the best scenario in copying a Deranged Hermit or Mulldrifter in play. It needs 5 R and 5 G to start for Deranged Hermit's case. But they could yield a total of 10 +10+6 of mana... But that wouldn't be very stable in the combo as a whole I think.
I guess the wording just got me questioning it. If you do, it's sacrificed when it enters the battlefield as apposed to the more common, When it comes into play sacrifice it. Or something alone those lines.
As LTTDU mentioned, evoke is a triggered ability. That's why FC could exploit it and nets mana out of it. Ingot Chewer is actually the most efficient evoker in terms of generating most net mana!... Evoke cost is 1, yields 6, that's 5 free mana.
Other evoker would be also beneficial for FC in general, especially when the difference between evoke cost and CMC is large. Cards like
could be good solution cards to situations. That's why I'm thinking if Living Wish and a wish board could be viable in the deck. But seems the room is already crowded...
Yea I totally understand.
No facts about the tournament could be found.
So nothing can be concluded from this deck finishing in 1st place.
About the tournament.. it was held at Big Magic in Osaka. It is a very competitive place and have been a big influence in spreading Legacy in Japan. The deck's pilot has won there numerous legacy events.. usually playing Dredge or Landstill.
About the tournament.. it was held at Big Magic in Osaka. It is a very competitive place and have been a big influence in spreading Legacy in Japan. The deck's pilot has won there numerous legacy events.. usually playing Dredge or Landstill.
Thanks for the info!
Are you in fact a Japanese player?
Or were you in that tournament also?
I was surprised the deck actually beat other good decks.
2nd and 3rd place decks aren't bad at all!
ps. I regret only visited a card store for once during my exchange in Kobe...
You should make a copy out of Karmic Guide, and then in response, sacrifice Kiki-Jiki to a sac outlet (Carrion Feeder, for example) and return Kiki-Jiki. Then repeat this until you have infinite 2/2 flying pro-black Angel tokens.
I think this doesn't fit into the FC combo well. You need 3 creatures in play at once to accomplish this. While FC is running, you will most likely sacrifice a creature for a new one. I think it will further reduce the consistency of the combo.
I feel like I need to weigh in on this, if only to present an alternative/counterpoint to this deck.
What makes this deck better/faster than Food Chain Goblins, or any other tribal (like Elves), that are capable of winning through an aggro strategy that does not rely on Food Chain? Decks that don't have to rely purely on draw power, but actually have tutors for their win-cons, and have strong synergies despite Food Chain?
I'm not saying they are better, but they just seem more resilient/capable.
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Currently Running Legacy: Burn; Various Stompy's; Food Chain Goblins; FC Elves Standard: Junk Super Friends, Elf-Wave Elder Dragon Highlander: Animar, Skithiryx, Bosh, Konda, Wort, Ezuri, Patron of the Moon
Asking people to remove quotes in their signatures is tyranny! If I can't say something just because someone's feelings are hurt then no one would ever be able to say anything! Political correctness is stupid.
Yah, realized that it didn't work like that at school today. Perhaps Pestermite to replace guide? I simply don't like the serpent as a wincon, as you can't feed him, and he's vulnerable to removal unlike maga
Yah, realized that it didn't work like that at school today. Perhaps Pestermite to replace guide? I simply don't like the serpent as a wincon, as you can't feed him, and he's vulnerable to removal unlike maga
I agree with you but at the same time, you could also sacrifice the serpent in response to the removal spell and still get X so its not completely useless but there has to be a more resiliant win-con. Protean Hydra seems like a much better creature, yes its not win the turn it is cast but it will call for non-burn removal (which reduces the number of answers your opponent can have). Darksteel Colossus , Iona, or any of the bringers maybe?
I feel like I need to weigh in on this, if only to present an alternative/counterpoint to this deck.
What makes this deck better/faster than Food Chain Goblins, or any other tribal (like Elves), that are capable of winning through an aggro strategy that does not rely on Food Chain? Decks that don't have to rely purely on draw power, but actually have tutors for their win-cons, and have strong synergies despite Food Chain?
I'm not saying they are better, but they just seem more resilient/capable.
First I would say it's a matter of personal preference. Some people play goblin, some play elf and some play merfolk. They are all aggro but people may prefer one over another.
Second I understand Food Chain Goblin is out there and at least it's more establish and well tuned. But I think that doesn't mean every FC deck has to take that approach. This variant may well be just a fun deck. I like fun deck though.
I agree with you but at the same time, you could also sacrifice the serpent in response to the removal spell and still get X so its not completely useless but there has to be a more resiliant win-con. Protean Hydra seems like a much better creature, yes its not win the turn it is cast but it will call for non-burn removal (which reduces the number of answers your opponent can have). Darksteel Colossus , Iona, or any of the bringers maybe?
Yea one drawback of Lightning Serpent is that it's a one shot only. You invest all the mana for x, if it somehow it didn't finish you opponent off, serpent can only yield 2.
Maga is much better in this sense, say even you fizzle and cast Maga as 10/10, opponent loses 10 life and Maga gets to attack next turn too, unlike Lightning Serpent. However, the lose life effect is subject to Stifle... But even it's stifled, Maga can still swing next turn.
Also today I just discovered Deathforge Shaman could also be another finisher! Since mana from FC can pay for additional cost of creatures such as kicker, so multikick Deathforge Shaman with 10 R will do the job too.
Also Deathforge Shaman is the cheapest finisher in terms of cost
Deathforge Shaman: 4R+10xR=15
Maga: BBB+20=23
Serpent: R+18=19
In fact Deathforge Shaman is a more desirable win con...! Despite being an uncommon! It requires the least amount of mana, which can easily be achieved by just 2x Deranged Hermit! Also, even if it fizzles, it can still yield a decent amount of 6 to FC, unlike Maga yields 4 and lightning yields 2
However, Deathforge Shaman and Maga could be subject to Misdirection (GG! lol) and Stifle or even Ivory Mask. Lightning Serpent wins by attacking, thus it should have its place in the deck interestingly.
I'm testing the build and its consistence. Hopefully will post some results later.
1. I completely removed the FoW and Pact of Negation because they just make the combo fizzles too easily despite the protection
2. Substituted Lightning Serpent with Deathforge Shaman. However, considering adding it back or adding a Storm Entity so there will be 4x finishers
3. 4x Glimpse of Nature tremendously improves the consistency of the combo. The weakest link of the combo is drawing something which doesn't draw you a card and the combo will come to a halt. Glimpse makes sure the draw will continue (unless there's like 10x lands on top of your library...)
4. Added 3x Summoner's Pact. Isn't really useful in the deck... After testing, there's not much scenario which it helped, probably the Glimpse provides enough drawing power. Still pondering about it, I'm inclined to substitute it with Living Wish and a wish board. But 1G may be tough during FC coz most likely the Elvish Spirit Guide will be pitched for a Glimpse while all your mana is paid to cast the FC
5. Seems 16 lands are doing pretty well, thinking of even cutting the only Island and add some other land. Once the combo started, the least thing you want is to draw into a land. I'm not sure if the land count could be further reduced... Or maybe adding 4x Mox Diamond so that the extra lands in your hand can be used to generate non-creature-only mana which may enable Living Wish during FC, or even 1st turn FC (just a rough idea)
I've been pondering on this deck for a while! The idea of this deck is to abuse Food Chain to combo out by turn 1(?), 2 or 3. However, I haven't gotten the chance to test this deck out yet... I plan to do it as soon as I'm less busy with school.
Any comments, suggestions or testings will be greatly appreciated!!!:D
Food Chain may seem a casual-deck-only (or totally worthless) card at first sight. But I do think there's potential with it. It's seen some play in "food chain goblin" in Legacy as well, tho extremely rare. I was inspired after seeing a deck posted on here. Kudos to the originality of this Japanese for coming up with this extremely fun deck. He did end up in 1st place, but little is known about the facts of the tourney, such as the number of participants. I took the deck and tweaked a little bit.
It's been a long long time since the last update. Here's the lasted deck list I took to a local tourney on 14 Nov.
4 Food Chain
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Deathforge Shaman
Creatures (33)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mulldrifter
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Deranged Hermit
3 Raven Familiar
3 Street Wraith
3 Skyshroud Cutter
2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Nantuko Cultivator
4 Glimpse of Nature
Lands (16)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Tropical Island
4 Mistry Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
3 Forest
4 Force of Will
4 Xantid Swarm
2 Pithing Needle
2 Karakas
2 Powder Keg
1 Deathforge Shaman
Removed
Added
Apparently, it failed miserably, losing all 4 games... The combo went off 3 times in total.
Game One: VS Thopter Combo with Counterbalance, 0:2
1. He's combo is really slow, but I only had like 2 lands at turn 6 or 7... He had The, Abyss which caused me a great deal of trouble when I could only cast one critter each turn with my 2 lands. Died before I could set up the combo.
2. He boarded in Back to Basic, countering my FC by Enlightened Tutor... He dropped Back to Basic and I had no answer (I couldn't find Krosan Grip the night before). I had few critters in play and I was saving up lands for FC but my only FoW in hand couldn't win me the counter war...
Game Two: VS U/G Survival, 1:2
1. Mana screw, his wasteland hurts so bad, 4 Vengevine on turn 4, GG
2. Stifled my Misty Rainforest, my FoW met his FoW, I was able to rebuild, I was at 9 life and will die next turn, topdecked FC and comboed out!
3. Mana Screw
Game Three: VS Merfolk, 1:2
1. Got crushed real fast
2. Turn 4 Emrakul
3. Mana screw
Game Four: VS Zoo, 1:2
1. Mana screw yet again
2. Emrakul on turn 3
3. He boarded in Ethersworn Canoist which completely stopped me, I was so close to dropping FC, then next turn using FC and my lands to hard cast Emrakul...
Thoughts:
1. The 16 land ratio is the biggest problem. I lost games mostly due to mana screw! I had to mulligan quite often and still had a horrible opening hand, like 1 Ancient Tomb
2. I'm pretty pleased by the stability of the combo itself. Of all the 3 times the combo went off, 2 times on turn 3, 1 time on turn 4 and won me the match without fizzle
3. Becoz of the low land count, Nantuko Cultivator didn't do anything, Skyshroud Cutter didn't do anything either(I rarely drew them)
4. Street Wraith was never a dead draw, I liked it
How to Improve the Deck, Advice Please!:
1. Increase the land count from 16 to 18 or 20 (or maybe even more to go with 4x Nantuko Cultivator?) I always thought more lands means greater possibility to fizzle, but mana screw should be a bigger problem
2. Adding more mana producers eg. Noble Hierarch? Or experiment with Chrome Mox?
3. Friends suggested adding an alternative winning condition, [card]Show and Tell[/cards] with 4x Emrakul
4. Using [card]Living Wish[/wish] to create a wish board? It seems to be more stable and can find answers to different situations, but will slow down the combo
5. How to balance the tradeoff between speed and stability?
Please leave your comments and suggestions to help improve this deck!
Click the Spoiler to open version 1.1 of the deck and its history
4 Food Chain
2 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1 Deathforge Shaman
Creatures (30)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mulldrifter
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Raven Familiar
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Deranged Hermit
2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Summoner's Pact
Lands (16)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Tropical Island
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Forest
1 Island
Removed
Added
1. I completely removed the FoW and Pact of Negation because they just make the combo fizzles too easily despite the protection
2. Substituted Lightning Serpent with Deathforge Shaman. However, considering adding it back or adding a Storm Entity so there will be 4x finishers
3. 4x Glimpse of Nature tremendously improves the consistency of the combo. The weakest link of the combo is drawing something which doesn't draw you a card and the combo will come to a halt. Glimpse makes sure the draw will continue (unless there's like 10x lands on top of your library...)
4. Added 3x Summoner's Pact. Isn't really useful in the deck... After testing, there's not much scenario which it helped, probably the Glimpse provides enough drawing power. Still pondering about it, I'm inclined to substitute it with Living Wish and a wish board. But 1G may be tough during FC coz most likely the Elvish Spirit Guide will be pitched for a Glimpse while all your mana is paid to cast the FC
5. Seems 16 lands are doing pretty well, thinking of even cutting the only Island and add some other land. Once the combo started, the least thing you want is to draw into a land. I'm not sure if the land count could be further reduced... Or maybe adding 4x Mox Diamond so that the extra lands in your hand can be used to generate non-creature-only mana which may enable Living Wish during FC, or even 1st turn FC (just a rough idea)
6. Cards also in consideration:
Click the Spoiler to open version 1.0 of the deck and some basic knowledge of the combo:
4 Food Chain
2 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1 Lightning Serpent
4 Deranged Hermit
Creatures 25
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mulldrifter
3 Elvish Visionary
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Raven Familiar
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
4 Force of Will
2 Pact of Negation
Lands 18
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Tropical Island
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Forest
3 Island
Choice of Cards:
Problems:
1. Inconsistency... only 4x of the essential combo piece
2. FC prone to counterspell, krosan grip, and hand disruption
3. You always need to keep the drawing going during FC, otherwise FC is dead
4. I think inconsistency is the biggest weakness of this deck
Possible Additions:
Thoughts:
1. I incline to take out the 4x FoW and 2x Pact of Negation and put them in sideboard, and add cards like Glimpse of Nature and Living Wish, etc... That way the combo may become more consistent. If opponent plays counter magic or heavy hand disruption, which are both commonplace for Legacy, FoW and PoN may get sided in for protection.
2. Krosan Grip is the absolute hate for this deck, and is so popular in a lot of the sideboards in Legacy. The hope is to combo out before the opponent gets 3 mana...
3. Back to point 1, how to balance creatures vs. protections vs. lands... With Fow basically everywhere, how to make sure FC resolves... And once FC is resolved, drawing lands will be a pretty dead draw, you wanna keep drawing into creatures, and more creatures. What should the land ratio be? I tend to think the land count could go down even more.
4. I wanna play each of the Myojin (well maybe not green Myojin tho), they just have so much style, LOL
These are my basic thoughts about the deck...
Please comment and critique and improve the deck.
I will definitely go test it out (provided I could find some Legacy player in my school........)
Thanks for looking!
sorry my bad
deranged hermit nets 10 instead of 14...(somehow i thought the tokens are 1cmc for some reason...)
hermit itself nets 6 and 4 tokens each nets 1
the main goal is to net at least 23 for maga
or 19 for lightning serpent
read FC
adds x + 1
so total of 10
+=+=+=+=+Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the Sig!!!+=+=+=+=+
Currently Playing: RGBWAggro LoamWBGR ,BU Reanimator UB, RG 2 Land Belcher GR & UGW Pro Bant WGU
Author of: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=207749 (Proven Competitive: Aggro Loam Thread)
+=+=+=+=+Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the Sig!!!+=+=+=+=+
Currently Playing: RGBWAggro LoamWBGR ,BU Reanimator UB, RG 2 Land Belcher GR & UGW Pro Bant WGU
Author of: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=207749 (Proven Competitive: Aggro Loam Thread)
Yea I totally understand.
No facts about the tournament could be found.
So nothing can be concluded from this deck finishing in 1st place.
Karmic Guide doesn't combo with FC.
Read: FC removes the creature from game, not sending it to graveyard.
I don't get the use of Kiki-Jiki in this deck. What target should it make a copy out of?
I think in most cases, you won't have more than 1 creature in play, coz they will be fed to FC one by one. However, Kiki-Jiki's token does copy the mana cost of the creature card. So it actually yields mana to FC. I could imagine the best scenario in copying a Deranged Hermit or Mulldrifter in play. It needs 5 R and 5 G to start for Deranged Hermit's case. But they could yield a total of 10 +10+6 of mana... But that wouldn't be very stable in the combo as a whole I think.
As LTTDU mentioned, evoke is a triggered ability. That's why FC could exploit it and nets mana out of it. Ingot Chewer is actually the most efficient evoker in terms of generating most net mana!... Evoke cost is 1, yields 6, that's 5 free mana.
Other evoker would be also beneficial for FC in general, especially when the difference between evoke cost and CMC is large. Cards like
could be good solution cards to situations. That's why I'm thinking if Living Wish and a wish board could be viable in the deck. But seems the room is already crowded...
About the tournament.. it was held at Big Magic in Osaka. It is a very competitive place and have been a big influence in spreading Legacy in Japan. The deck's pilot has won there numerous legacy events.. usually playing Dredge or Landstill.
Thanks for the info!
Are you in fact a Japanese player?
Or were you in that tournament also?
I was surprised the deck actually beat other good decks.
2nd and 3rd place decks aren't bad at all!
ps. I regret only visited a card store for once during my exchange in Kobe...
I think this doesn't fit into the FC combo well. You need 3 creatures in play at once to accomplish this. While FC is running, you will most likely sacrifice a creature for a new one. I think it will further reduce the consistency of the combo.
What makes this deck better/faster than Food Chain Goblins, or any other tribal (like Elves), that are capable of winning through an aggro strategy that does not rely on Food Chain? Decks that don't have to rely purely on draw power, but actually have tutors for their win-cons, and have strong synergies despite Food Chain?
I'm not saying they are better, but they just seem more resilient/capable.
Currently Running
Legacy: Burn; Various Stompy's; Food Chain Goblins; FC Elves
Standard: Junk Super Friends, Elf-Wave
Elder Dragon Highlander: Animar, Skithiryx, Bosh, Konda, Wort, Ezuri, Patron of the Moon
I agree with you but at the same time, you could also sacrifice the serpent in response to the removal spell and still get X so its not completely useless but there has to be a more resiliant win-con. Protean Hydra seems like a much better creature, yes its not win the turn it is cast but it will call for non-burn removal (which reduces the number of answers your opponent can have). Darksteel Colossus , Iona, or any of the bringers maybe?
Good point, completely forgot about that.
Anyway, Iona sounds good, but unless something wins/controls the game on entry/ The combat phase of the turn, it isn't worth it really
First I would say it's a matter of personal preference. Some people play goblin, some play elf and some play merfolk. They are all aggro but people may prefer one over another.
Second I understand Food Chain Goblin is out there and at least it's more establish and well tuned. But I think that doesn't mean every FC deck has to take that approach. This variant may well be just a fun deck. I like fun deck though.
Yea one drawback of Lightning Serpent is that it's a one shot only. You invest all the mana for x, if it somehow it didn't finish you opponent off, serpent can only yield 2.
Maga is much better in this sense, say even you fizzle and cast Maga as 10/10, opponent loses 10 life and Maga gets to attack next turn too, unlike Lightning Serpent. However, the lose life effect is subject to Stifle... But even it's stifled, Maga can still swing next turn.
Also today I just discovered Deathforge Shaman could also be another finisher! Since mana from FC can pay for additional cost of creatures such as kicker, so multikick Deathforge Shaman with 10 R will do the job too.
Also Deathforge Shaman is the cheapest finisher in terms of cost
Deathforge Shaman: 4R+10xR=15
Maga: BBB+20=23
Serpent: R+18=19
In fact Deathforge Shaman is a more desirable win con...! Despite being an uncommon! It requires the least amount of mana, which can easily be achieved by just 2x Deranged Hermit! Also, even if it fizzles, it can still yield a decent amount of 6 to FC, unlike Maga yields 4 and lightning yields 2
However, Deathforge Shaman and Maga could be subject to Misdirection (GG! lol) and Stifle or even Ivory Mask. Lightning Serpent wins by attacking, thus it should have its place in the deck interestingly.
I'm testing the build and its consistence. Hopefully will post some results later.
I have been tuning the deck for a while.
Here's the most recent list I've come up to:
4 Food Chain
2 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1 Deathforge Shaman
Creatures (30)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mulldrifter
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Raven Familiar
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Deranged Hermit
2 Myojin of Seeing Winds
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Summoner's Pact
Lands (16)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Tropical Island
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Forest
1 Island
Removed
Added
1. I completely removed the FoW and Pact of Negation because they just make the combo fizzles too easily despite the protection
2. Substituted Lightning Serpent with Deathforge Shaman. However, considering adding it back or adding a Storm Entity so there will be 4x finishers
3. 4x Glimpse of Nature tremendously improves the consistency of the combo. The weakest link of the combo is drawing something which doesn't draw you a card and the combo will come to a halt. Glimpse makes sure the draw will continue (unless there's like 10x lands on top of your library...)
4. Added 3x Summoner's Pact. Isn't really useful in the deck... After testing, there's not much scenario which it helped, probably the Glimpse provides enough drawing power. Still pondering about it, I'm inclined to substitute it with Living Wish and a wish board. But 1G may be tough during FC coz most likely the Elvish Spirit Guide will be pitched for a Glimpse while all your mana is paid to cast the FC
5. Seems 16 lands are doing pretty well, thinking of even cutting the only Island and add some other land. Once the combo started, the least thing you want is to draw into a land. I'm not sure if the land count could be further reduced... Or maybe adding 4x Mox Diamond so that the extra lands in your hand can be used to generate non-creature-only mana which may enable Living Wish during FC, or even 1st turn FC (just a rough idea)
6. Cards also in consideration:
Thanks for looking. Please feel free to comment or make suggestions.
it can grab a divinity dude and if you add one 6 mana evoke guy you can use it as a mana ritual of sorts...
Edit: Weird Harvest.....seams kinda broken....
Thanks Darth Monkey