does the printing of Torrent Elemental do anything for this deck? It gives it another source of mana, and fits in the colors. I haven't played this deck, but it's one of those lists that's really intrigued me as being a lot of fun. I can see playing leyline of anticipation, or prophet of kruphix, and running out the combo on the opponents end step, having torrent elemental and misthollow griffin's in play, and then combo 1 for infinite mana on genesis hydra for a craterhoof and that's lethal.
can be weak to aggro and control matchups. I think it's just as fast as other combo decks, I can go off on t3 or t4 depending on my draw and how risky I'm playing it. Best case scenario I think you can go win on t3. It's pretty good against some midrange stuff in the format like jeskai stoneblade, abrupt decay tends to be a solid option against whatever they can throw out. It's weak against abrupt decay, because it blows up food chain, which isn't good, so misdirection is a good call, but a meta call I think. This is the list that I'm toying with and it seems to be pretty solid so far:
I'm thinking about cutting genesis hydra and emrakul and going up to 4 altar of the brood, or maybe staying at 3, and either way adding a more solid countermagic suite. One thing that I noticed in my basic play testing was that I felt really scared if I didn't have force, and tapping out for food chain on t3 without much backup is a bit scary. I think adding in dazes or counterspells is where I wanna be.
My additions are Altar of the brood, I found that it's pretty clutch as I don't have to attack or do anything to win, just remove and cast it forever. The addition of Leyline of Anticipation allows the deck to go off at instant speed, it's castable if it isn't in my opening hand, and allows me to play mostly on the opponents turn which is pretty nice. Adding in thoughtseize has been really solid addition. It's a proactive counterspell that's really made for easier plays, and I'm not scared to drop food chain as often.
wow, you're right huh... crazy that I didn't notice that part... ughhh that's obnoxious considering how much time I spend telling people that the mana only can be spent on creatures... Ah well. Looks like moving to plan b.
The Altar of the Brood is pretty cute. Is there any room for Trinket Mage? It turns into 4 mana with Food Chain and gets you your win con (See Fierce Empath). I'm not sure if there are any other 0-1 mana artifacts worth looking at to warrant the addition(one of Seat of Synod?). I've just put this deck together so I'm fairly new, but very enthusiastic about it.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you always do what you always did, then you'll always get what you always got.
I thought it was pretty cute and janky at first, and didn't think it would be that effective, and it's been so-so in basic testing. I usually end games attacking with misthollow griffins rather than running off altar of the brood. The only issue with altar is opposing eldrazi, which won't get it done against sneak and show, but I think against just about every other deck it's a fine strategy to run against. But I'm thinking about going back to running at least 1 emrakul in case I run into sneak and show. Trinket mage would be interesting. I'm testing out shardless agent as a card advantage, wait for it..., agent, and testing hasn't been conclusive so far. The issue with shardless is it doesn't end up hitting some of the cards I want in play, so it's not really a 1 shot slam, I really have to sculpt my library with a brainstorm so I don't ship a food chain by accident.
My list is based off of Jonathan Job's GP New Jersey list (the maindeck is almost identical and I made some tweaks to the sideboard).
The only thing I didn't like in the main was the Emrakul he played. I feel it's overkill since once you go off with Tyrant, if you really want, after you bounce their board, you can recur Vendilion Clique to set their hand to all lands, then recur Baleful Strix until you have as many Forces as you want. Sure, they get 1 turn to kill you with no board and 1 land drop, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. I think I've died once due to not having Emrakul when I was at < 3 and my opponent had a TNN out, but I think the benefit of not drawing a dead card outweighs that corner case.
So, I had been testing other cards in what I consider that "flex" spot - a second Misdirection, Spell Pierce, Ponder, etc. The second Misdirection was actually alright - it's a great card vs the BG Abrupt Decay decks as well as more protection to get your Food Chain down, but I was finding that the combo matchup can be tough (especially fast combo like Reanimator or Storm). Miracles can be tricky as well and I was thinking about how I have always been a fan of Envelop in the sideboard and started looking at Dimir Charm again as a card for that slot.
Dimir Charm hasn't been amazing, but the flexibility of it has made it pretty solid for me so far. Being able to kill most small creatures in Legacy (with the notable exception of flipped Delvers, which is admittedly a very important one) in addition to the Envelop option was what sold me on it. Plus, if you like playing Misthollow Griffin, you have to inherently love weird/terrible cards
Sorry for the long-winded response but I wanted to give some insight into my thought process of how I arrived at it!
My list is based off of Jonathan Job's GP New Jersey list (the maindeck is almost identical and I made some tweaks to the sideboard).
The only thing I didn't like in the main was the Emrakul he played. I feel it's overkill since once you go off with Tyrant, if you really want, after you bounce their board, you can recur Vendilion Clique to set their hand to all lands, then recur Baleful Strix until you have as many Forces as you want. Sure, they get 1 turn to kill you with no board and 1 land drop, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. I think I've died once due to not having Emrakul when I was at < 3 and my opponent had a TNN out, but I think the benefit of not drawing a dead card outweighs that corner case.
So, I had been testing other cards in what I consider that "flex" spot - a second Misdirection, Spell Pierce, Ponder, etc. The second Misdirection was actually alright - it's a great card vs the BG Abrupt Decay decks as well as more protection to get your Food Chain down, but I was finding that the combo matchup can be tough (especially fast combo like Reanimator or Storm). Miracles can be tricky as well and I was thinking about how I have always been a fan of Envelop in the sideboard and started looking at Dimir Charm again as a card for that slot.
Dimir Charm hasn't been amazing, but the flexibility of it has made it pretty solid for me so far. Being able to kill most small creatures in Legacy (with the notable exception of flipped Delvers, which is admittedly a very important one) in addition to the Envelop option was what sold me on it. Plus, if you like playing Misthollow Griffin, you have to inherently love weird/terrible cards
Sorry for the long-winded response but I wanted to give some insight into my thought process of how I arrived at it!
Ah, so you used Dimir Charm mainly as removal - that acts as a filter in the case the opponent does not have a suitable creature.
Did you consider using Maga, Traitor to Mortals as an immediate win the turn you combo off as suggested in the first post in this thread?
Thanks for the link to the article! I'll have to give it a read this afternoon.
I actually used Dimir Charm for the removal + Envelop. I never used the third mode (I've tried it in Reanimator and it's actually pretty sweet when you get the setup of dude + reanimation spell in your top 3) since it doesn't actually replace itself for us.
The Envelop effect is what I really wanted to counter Show & Tell / Infernal Tutor / Burning Wish / Terminus / Entreat the Angels, etc. The removal side was just an added benefit for more flexibility since I was maindecking it.
So with Genesis Hydra, you can't actually use Maga (or at least the way you want to) since the trigger just puts the permanent into play, not casting it.
I was speaking with Joe Lossett about the deck over the weekend and a really interesting card he suggested that I'm going to try out once I get mine in is Vela, the Night-Clad for an instant kill.
Pros and Cons as I see Vela vs Tidespout is:
Vela
Pros: Kills the turn you go off, actually castable without Food Chain.
Cons: Stopped by Rule of Law / Ethersworn Canonist type effects. (If anyone can think of anything else, I'd love to hear it)
Tidespout
Pros: Gets around any sort of weird permanent based hate (eventually). You can protect it from StP / removal if you have an instant in your hand when you go off.
Cons: Pretty much never going to cast it without Food Chain.
Thanks for the link to the article! I'll have to give it a read this afternoon.
I actually used Dimir Charm for the removal + Envelop. I never used the third mode (I've tried it in Reanimator and it's actually pretty sweet when you get the setup of dude + reanimation spell in your top 3) since it doesn't actually replace itself for us.
The Envelop effect is what I really wanted to counter Show & Tell / Infernal Tutor / Burning Wish / Terminus / Entreat the Angels, etc. The removal side was just an added benefit for more flexibility since I was maindecking it.
So with Genesis Hydra, you can't actually use Maga (or at least the way you want to) since the trigger just puts the permanent into play, not casting it.
I was speaking with Joe Lossett about the deck over the weekend and a really interesting card he suggested that I'm going to try out once I get mine in is Vela, the Night-Clad for an instant kill.
Pros and Cons as I see Vela vs Tidespout is:
Vela
Pros: Kills the turn you go off, actually castable without Food Chain.
Cons: Stopped by Rule of Law / Ethersworn Canonist type effects. (If anyone can think of anything else, I'd love to hear it)
Tidespout
Pros: Gets around any sort of weird permanent based hate (eventually). You can protect it from StP / removal if you have an instant in your hand when you go off.
Cons: Pretty much never going to cast it without Food Chain.
Ah, I see. Sorry, I didn't actually know off-hand what Envelop did.
Did you win any games without the combo?
If possible could you give a rundown of what decks you played and what you did well against and what was a challenge?
Here's what I faced during the tournament and my opinions on the matchups:
R1: Esper Stoneblade (Win) - Favorable. TNN can be problematic of course but we can race it with our combo and our sideboard cards can deal with him.
R2: Shardless BUG (Win) - Favorable. We're basically the same deck except we have 4 for 1's and a combo kill.
R3: RUG Delver (Loss) - Unfavorable. Usual RUG stuff. REB is particularly effective against us since it can counter Manipulate Fate, Baleful Strix, Misthollow Griffin.
R4: Burn (Win) - Unfavorable. You'll usually get wrecked by PoP in G1 and we just don't have the disruption to keep up to take G1 unless we just happen to oops combo them out. G2 and G3 are still tough as well.
R5: BUG Delver (Win) - 50/50. If we get into the long game, we can usually grind them out. However, they can always tempo us out, especially with Tarmogoyf having potentially artifacts and enchantments in the yard.
R6: UG Cloudpost (Win) - Favorable. They have almost no relevant disruption G1. Postboard, they might have some FoW or Revokers, but nothing we can't power through.
R7: UWr Stoneblade (Win) - Favorable. I generally view Stoneblade decks as pretty favorable since we usually have a good time dealing with SFM / equipment, being a BG deck.
R8: ID.
T8: UWR Delver (Win) - Probably 50/50? Maybe slightly favorable towards us? UWR Delver is the slowest and least disruptive of the Delver decks, so we have the most time to set up and get going.
T4: Opponent conceded. We split T4, my opponent had a long drive home, and didn't care about the plaque (I wanted it!). This one would've been rough since he was on AnT.
T2: UWr Miracles (Win) - 50/50 to slightly favorable. This matchup can be tricky (playing vs Miracles almost always is, imo). Counterbalance is actually good vs us if we aren't set up yet and Terminus of course is great. Postboard REBs can be a problem. On the plus side, we have Abrupt Decays and Food Chain + Griffins are very tough for them to deal with as well as going full combo isn't usually stopped by Counterbalance.
My friend will be putting my tournament report up on his website, so I'll let you guys know when it's up.
The majority of my games were won without going full combo - just minicomboing with Manipulate Fate + Food Chain is more than enough for any non-combo deck to handle.
Thanks for the info and report. Can't wait to see the tournament report. Be sure to link it when it goes up.
Could you tell us what cards you liked and didn't like in the deck?
What you would change in retrospect?
Do you think blue blasts in the side would be good against burn/red blasts?
I think Grafdigger's Cage is the only card in my sideboard I didn't use but I think it's still necessary to have. Likewise, Venser isn't particularly awesome anywhere, but I think he's a good catchall that has synergy with Food Chain.
I'd like to find something other than Jitte for the Burn matchup (possibly Zuran Orb?) without being too narrow.
Blue blasts would be good against Burn but I generally dislike just 1 for 1ing against Burn with sideboard cards since I think we have better haymaker options if we're going to board specifically against them. I did like BEB more during the Treasure Cruise meta when we have more red spells and permanents to contend with, but I'm not sure how useful it would be nowadays.
I think Grafdigger's Cage is the only card in my sideboard I didn't use but I think it's still necessary to have. Likewise, Venser isn't particularly awesome anywhere, but I think he's a good catchall that has synergy with Food Chain.
I'd like to find something other than Jitte for the Burn matchup (possibly Zuran Orb?) without being too narrow.
Blue blasts would be good against Burn but I generally dislike just 1 for 1ing against Burn with sideboard cards since I think we have better haymaker options if we're going to board specifically against them. I did like BEB more during the Treasure Cruise meta when we have more red spells and permanents to contend with, but I'm not sure how useful it would be nowadays.
Awesome write-up! I really enjoyed reading it and it definitely makes me want to play the deck. I really like combo decks with solid plan B's and are not really "all-in" on the combo.
Just from reading it sounds like the all-star of the deck was Misdirection as it had so many cases where it was useful or even won the game. Maybe add another one and move Dimir Charm to the sideboard for Show and Tell decks?
I really like the synergy between FoW/Misdirection and Misthollow Griffin
Do you think you will play the deck again at a major event?
I actually played the 2nd Misdirection in the Dimir Charm / Emrakul slot for the longest time but ended up cutting it simply because it wasn't doing enough in the combo matchups. It really shines the most against the BG / Abrupt Decay decks, imo and definitely leads to the biggest blowouts especially when you get to pitch a Griffin to it.
There's also an argument for moving the 4th Abrupt Decay into the main in that spot and I think that'd be fine too especially since it'd free up a sideboard slot.
Pitching a Griffin to FoW / Misdirection does feel like cheating
I wouldn't rule out playing the deck again at a major event (in fact, there's another SCG Open in Dallas, TX in March that I'll probably go to for the Legacy 5k). I tend to be a Magical Hipster at heart though and I always hate it when people sit down from across from me and know what I'm playing. I actually used that against some opponents during the 5K as I had some success on the SCG circuit with BUG Delver last year. I'd lead off with something like Underground Sea into Deathrite Shaman, my opponent goes "aha, BUG Delver still" then would be totally caught off guard when I Manipulate Fate...
Thanks for the link to the article! I'll have to give it a read this afternoon.
I actually used Dimir Charm for the removal + Envelop. I never used the third mode (I've tried it in Reanimator and it's actually pretty sweet when you get the setup of dude + reanimation spell in your top 3) since it doesn't actually replace itself for us.
The Envelop effect is what I really wanted to counter Show & Tell / Infernal Tutor / Burning Wish / Terminus / Entreat the Angels, etc. The removal side was just an added benefit for more flexibility since I was maindecking it.
So with Genesis Hydra, you can't actually use Maga (or at least the way you want to) since the trigger just puts the permanent into play, not casting it.
I was speaking with Joe Lossett about the deck over the weekend and a really interesting card he suggested that I'm going to try out once I get mine in is Vela, the Night-Clad for an instant kill.
Pros and Cons as I see Vela vs Tidespout is:
Vela
Pros: Kills the turn you go off, actually castable without Food Chain.
Cons: Stopped by Rule of Law / Ethersworn Canonist type effects. (If anyone can think of anything else, I'd love to hear it)
Tidespout
Pros: Gets around any sort of weird permanent based hate (eventually). You can protect it from StP / removal if you have an instant in your hand when you go off.
Cons: Pretty much never going to cast it without Food Chain.
Another pro for Tidespout Tyrant over Vela is that, if you cast a spell after you cheat in Tidespout off an opposing Show and Tell, you can bounce their cheated-in permanent. Yes, Tidespout can bounce Emrakul. (They'll Draw 7-14 with Griselbrand, but I bet those guys don't have Stifle effects or protection from colours in their 75.)
Also, if you cheat in Tidespout off their Turn 1-2 SnT, they miiiiight think you're on Reanimator.
Did you generally just go for a turn 2 food chain if possible even without back up to just see if they have answers? Or do you tend to sit to wait till you have counter back up or a clique to make sure it resolves?
Also do you ever cast a genesis hydra for 3-4 to fish for a food chain? Or do you only cast them to combo out?
Not unless you have to (say you are vs combo / burn and need to get the combo going as fast as possible).
With this particular build of Food Chain, I consider it a Midrange / Control deck first that just happens to have a combo kill. Most of the time, I'm perfectly happy just playing my value creatures and controlling the board until I've exhausted my opponent or I'm forced to attempt to go off.
I don't often cast Hydra without Food Chain. I'll typically only cast it as a last resort since the longer you hold onto it, the more valuable it becomes (because you'll have more mana later game or you'll hit a Food Chain or Dig Through Time to look for one). That being said, I have cast them just as a value 3/3 or 4/4. That line of play is more common when you're playing against Miracles because games tend to go long (so you have lots of time to build mana) and you may not resolve Food Chain. A big Hydra is particularly good against Miracles because they can't counter the triggered ability and the Hydra itself is hard to Counterbalance when you cast it for a decent number.
3 manipulate fate
2 genesis hydra
3 altar of the brood
4 brainstorm
4 food chain
4 force of will
4 misthollow griffin
4 torrent elemental
4 deathrite shaman
2 abrupt decay
2 noble hierarch
1 misdirection
4 verdant catacombs
4 misty rainforest
2 polluted delta
3 underground sea
3 tropical island
1 bayou
1 swamp
1 forest
1 island
I'm thinking about cutting genesis hydra and emrakul and going up to 4 altar of the brood, or maybe staying at 3, and either way adding a more solid countermagic suite. One thing that I noticed in my basic play testing was that I felt really scared if I didn't have force, and tapping out for food chain on t3 without much backup is a bit scary. I think adding in dazes or counterspells is where I wanna be.
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
3x Thoughtseize
1x Misdirection
Creatures
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Misthollow Griffin
4x Torrent Elemental
3x Leyline of Anticipation
3x Manipulate Fate
3x Altar of the Brood
4x Food Chain
Lands
1x Bayou
1x Forest
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
3x Tropical Island
3x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs
My additions are Altar of the brood, I found that it's pretty clutch as I don't have to attack or do anything to win, just remove and cast it forever. The addition of Leyline of Anticipation allows the deck to go off at instant speed, it's castable if it isn't in my opening hand, and allows me to play mostly on the opponents turn which is pretty nice. Adding in thoughtseize has been really solid addition. It's a proactive counterspell that's really made for easier plays, and I'm not scared to drop food chain as often.
I normally post more on the Source but feel free to hit me up if you guys have any questions.
I'm still fairly new to the deck so I by no means consider myself a master, but I'm always open to questions and generating discussion about the deck.
Congratulations! Always good to see more decks take first place.
Can you explain what your thinking was on including Dimir Charm?
The only thing I didn't like in the main was the Emrakul he played. I feel it's overkill since once you go off with Tyrant, if you really want, after you bounce their board, you can recur Vendilion Clique to set their hand to all lands, then recur Baleful Strix until you have as many Forces as you want. Sure, they get 1 turn to kill you with no board and 1 land drop, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. I think I've died once due to not having Emrakul when I was at < 3 and my opponent had a TNN out, but I think the benefit of not drawing a dead card outweighs that corner case.
So, I had been testing other cards in what I consider that "flex" spot - a second Misdirection, Spell Pierce, Ponder, etc. The second Misdirection was actually alright - it's a great card vs the BG Abrupt Decay decks as well as more protection to get your Food Chain down, but I was finding that the combo matchup can be tough (especially fast combo like Reanimator or Storm). Miracles can be tricky as well and I was thinking about how I have always been a fan of Envelop in the sideboard and started looking at Dimir Charm again as a card for that slot.
Dimir Charm hasn't been amazing, but the flexibility of it has made it pretty solid for me so far. Being able to kill most small creatures in Legacy (with the notable exception of flipped Delvers, which is admittedly a very important one) in addition to the Envelop option was what sold me on it. Plus, if you like playing Misthollow Griffin, you have to inherently love weird/terrible cards
Sorry for the long-winded response but I wanted to give some insight into my thought process of how I arrived at it!
Ah, so you used Dimir Charm mainly as removal - that acts as a filter in the case the opponent does not have a suitable creature.
Did you consider using Maga, Traitor to Mortals as an immediate win the turn you combo off as suggested in the first post in this thread?
Looks like there was an article about your deck on TCG: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12368
A victory for Johnnies everywhere.
I actually used Dimir Charm for the removal + Envelop. I never used the third mode (I've tried it in Reanimator and it's actually pretty sweet when you get the setup of dude + reanimation spell in your top 3) since it doesn't actually replace itself for us.
The Envelop effect is what I really wanted to counter Show & Tell / Infernal Tutor / Burning Wish / Terminus / Entreat the Angels, etc. The removal side was just an added benefit for more flexibility since I was maindecking it.
So with Genesis Hydra, you can't actually use Maga (or at least the way you want to) since the trigger just puts the permanent into play, not casting it.
I was speaking with Joe Lossett about the deck over the weekend and a really interesting card he suggested that I'm going to try out once I get mine in is Vela, the Night-Clad for an instant kill.
Pros and Cons as I see Vela vs Tidespout is:
Vela
Pros: Kills the turn you go off, actually castable without Food Chain.
Cons: Stopped by Rule of Law / Ethersworn Canonist type effects. (If anyone can think of anything else, I'd love to hear it)
Tidespout
Pros: Gets around any sort of weird permanent based hate (eventually). You can protect it from StP / removal if you have an instant in your hand when you go off.
Cons: Pretty much never going to cast it without Food Chain.
Ah, I see. Sorry, I didn't actually know off-hand what Envelop did.
Did you win any games without the combo?
If possible could you give a rundown of what decks you played and what you did well against and what was a challenge?
R1: Esper Stoneblade (Win) - Favorable. TNN can be problematic of course but we can race it with our combo and our sideboard cards can deal with him.
R2: Shardless BUG (Win) - Favorable. We're basically the same deck except we have 4 for 1's and a combo kill.
R3: RUG Delver (Loss) - Unfavorable. Usual RUG stuff. REB is particularly effective against us since it can counter Manipulate Fate, Baleful Strix, Misthollow Griffin.
R4: Burn (Win) - Unfavorable. You'll usually get wrecked by PoP in G1 and we just don't have the disruption to keep up to take G1 unless we just happen to oops combo them out. G2 and G3 are still tough as well.
R5: BUG Delver (Win) - 50/50. If we get into the long game, we can usually grind them out. However, they can always tempo us out, especially with Tarmogoyf having potentially artifacts and enchantments in the yard.
R6: UG Cloudpost (Win) - Favorable. They have almost no relevant disruption G1. Postboard, they might have some FoW or Revokers, but nothing we can't power through.
R7: UWr Stoneblade (Win) - Favorable. I generally view Stoneblade decks as pretty favorable since we usually have a good time dealing with SFM / equipment, being a BG deck.
R8: ID.
T8: UWR Delver (Win) - Probably 50/50? Maybe slightly favorable towards us? UWR Delver is the slowest and least disruptive of the Delver decks, so we have the most time to set up and get going.
T4: Opponent conceded. We split T4, my opponent had a long drive home, and didn't care about the plaque (I wanted it!). This one would've been rough since he was on AnT.
T2: UWr Miracles (Win) - 50/50 to slightly favorable. This matchup can be tricky (playing vs Miracles almost always is, imo). Counterbalance is actually good vs us if we aren't set up yet and Terminus of course is great. Postboard REBs can be a problem. On the plus side, we have Abrupt Decays and Food Chain + Griffins are very tough for them to deal with as well as going full combo isn't usually stopped by Counterbalance.
My friend will be putting my tournament report up on his website, so I'll let you guys know when it's up.
The majority of my games were won without going full combo - just minicomboing with Manipulate Fate + Food Chain is more than enough for any non-combo deck to handle.
Could you tell us what cards you liked and didn't like in the deck?
What you would change in retrospect?
Do you think blue blasts in the side would be good against burn/red blasts?
http://mtgbazaar-teamz.blogspot.com/2015/02/scg-houston-february-15-2015-legacy.html
I think Grafdigger's Cage is the only card in my sideboard I didn't use but I think it's still necessary to have. Likewise, Venser isn't particularly awesome anywhere, but I think he's a good catchall that has synergy with Food Chain.
I'd like to find something other than Jitte for the Burn matchup (possibly Zuran Orb?) without being too narrow.
Blue blasts would be good against Burn but I generally dislike just 1 for 1ing against Burn with sideboard cards since I think we have better haymaker options if we're going to board specifically against them. I did like BEB more during the Treasure Cruise meta when we have more red spells and permanents to contend with, but I'm not sure how useful it would be nowadays.
Awesome write-up! I really enjoyed reading it and it definitely makes me want to play the deck. I really like combo decks with solid plan B's and are not really "all-in" on the combo.
Just from reading it sounds like the all-star of the deck was Misdirection as it had so many cases where it was useful or even won the game. Maybe add another one and move Dimir Charm to the sideboard for Show and Tell decks?
I really like the synergy between FoW/Misdirection and Misthollow Griffin
Do you think you will play the deck again at a major event?
There's also an argument for moving the 4th Abrupt Decay into the main in that spot and I think that'd be fine too especially since it'd free up a sideboard slot.
Pitching a Griffin to FoW / Misdirection does feel like cheating
I wouldn't rule out playing the deck again at a major event (in fact, there's another SCG Open in Dallas, TX in March that I'll probably go to for the Legacy 5k). I tend to be a Magical Hipster at heart though and I always hate it when people sit down from across from me and know what I'm playing. I actually used that against some opponents during the 5K as I had some success on the SCG circuit with BUG Delver last year. I'd lead off with something like Underground Sea into Deathrite Shaman, my opponent goes "aha, BUG Delver still" then would be totally caught off guard when I Manipulate Fate...
Another pro for Tidespout Tyrant over Vela is that, if you cast a spell after you cheat in Tidespout off an opposing Show and Tell, you can bounce their cheated-in permanent. Yes, Tidespout can bounce Emrakul. (They'll Draw 7-14 with Griselbrand, but I bet those guys don't have Stifle effects or protection from colours in their 75.)
Also, if you cheat in Tidespout off their Turn 1-2 SnT, they miiiiight think you're on Reanimator.
Another one that was brought up in a different thread was if your opponent has Platinum Angel / Emperion out as well.
Also do you ever cast a genesis hydra for 3-4 to fish for a food chain? Or do you only cast them to combo out?
With this particular build of Food Chain, I consider it a Midrange / Control deck first that just happens to have a combo kill. Most of the time, I'm perfectly happy just playing my value creatures and controlling the board until I've exhausted my opponent or I'm forced to attempt to go off.
I don't often cast Hydra without Food Chain. I'll typically only cast it as a last resort since the longer you hold onto it, the more valuable it becomes (because you'll have more mana later game or you'll hit a Food Chain or Dig Through Time to look for one). That being said, I have cast them just as a value 3/3 or 4/4. That line of play is more common when you're playing against Miracles because games tend to go long (so you have lots of time to build mana) and you may not resolve Food Chain. A big Hydra is particularly good against Miracles because they can't counter the triggered ability and the Hydra itself is hard to Counterbalance when you cast it for a decent number.
Also do you feel that carpet of flowers would be a good sideboard card?