Food Chain Sliver

Commander / EDH ShaperSavant

SCORE: 793 | 290 COMMENTS | 298042 VIEWS | IN 307 FOLDERS


Riftsweeper out; Trophy in —Sept. 18, 2018

Goodbye, Riftsweeper.

Clunky and only useful in contingency situations; I cut Riftsweeper with pretty extensive testing and have no intention of ever slotting it back in.

Trophy's quite good. Happy to test it in this slot.

Lilbrudder says... #1

I am curious. If you exile Food Chain in the top 6 cards of your library with Demonic Consultation, wouldn't the card proceed to exile your whole library as it searches for Food Chain? How can you do anything but die on your next turn once the spell backfires?

August 15, 2016 11:15 p.m.

ShaperSavant says... #2

Lilbrudder:

Correct; there's no coming back from that.

Such is the cost of consulting with demons.

August 15, 2016 11:34 p.m.

Lilbrudder says... #3

Ah ok lol. I love the deck. I must have misread the primer and/or discussion on reddit. It seemed to me that you guys were saying that if it fizzles you just get FC back with Riftsweeper.

I have one more question. How many lands in your opening hand is acceptable without having to mullighan? I know its largely dependent on other cards in hand, but do you ever keep 1 land hands? I ask because I have been working on a BUG combo deck that uses Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as the outlet for Food Chain and I am scared to go below 32 lands.

August 15, 2016 11:47 p.m.

HarroHunter says... #4

Do you think there is a place for Pull from Eternity in here as a backup plan if you can't get Riftsweeper? I know it's to graveyard and its only one card but I've been thinking about it and can't make up my mind.

August 16, 2016 11:25 a.m.

ShaperSavant says... #5

Lilbrudder:

There's no hard and fast rule, but you usually want to make your second land drop on turn 2. You'd ideally see 2 lands, a land and a cantrip, a land and a dork, or some other way to draw a bunch of cards, like a line into Necropotence.

The most important thing is that you want your hand to have a plan and the means (mana) to get there. The rest is flexible.

HarroHunter:

It's a meta call. If you're facing a bunch of exile, you'd probably want it. Otherwise, pull-from-exile cards are pretty useless, especially if you see them in the early turns.

August 16, 2016 1:48 p.m.

Aless55 says... #6

I really love this deck! Could you make a more "budget version" of it or could you explain some changes you would consider to make your deck less expensive?~ +1 & cheers

August 17, 2016 3:10 p.m.

HarroHunter says... #7

Have you considered Bring to Light? If you pay 3 colors into it it can tutor up and play Food Chain for 5 mana as if you had used Demonic Tutor. It can also tutor up and play CFE creatures or just tutor them to exile if you want. Not sure what I would take out but definitely worth consideration.

August 21, 2016 2:16 p.m.

HarroHunter says... #8

Never mind didn't realize it couldn't do enchantments. Derp

August 21, 2016 3:16 p.m.

hamiam says... #9

Awesome +1

August 21, 2016 11:47 p.m.

clayperce says... #10

ShaperSavant,
Extremely cool; +1!

Argeaux,
Check out this take on Tazri ... fighting fire with fire may be a good way to put some thump on your combo-y EDH group ...

September 6, 2016 11:06 p.m.

Tangerinefox says... #11

With 15 (possible forests counting fetches) do you think Orcish Lumberjack would be worth testing? The downside is w/o a forest is a dead card but a R/G lotus could be useful to get the ball rolling. I doubt he could ever find a spot but he's a pet card of mine.

October 3, 2016 7:13 p.m.

Franzwa says... #12

This deck is awesome! Finally, I have something to do with my foil General Tazri :)

October 26, 2016 1:09 a.m.

Franzwa says... #13

This deck is awesome! Finally, I have something to do with my foil General Tazri :)

October 26, 2016 1:09 a.m.

BobTheStrong says... #14

You may want to consider riftsweeper to protect all the combo pieces from even exile

October 31, 2016 9:14 p.m.

BobTheStrong says... #15

aahhh nvm i missed that earlier post

October 31, 2016 9:15 p.m.

Avscubasteve says... #16

honestly if you take out the abur lands, the timetwister, grim tutor, imperial seal, the moxes/crypt this turns into like a <$200 deck and is still suuuuper good.

December 1, 2016 5:21 p.m.

EpicDermis says... #17

No blue (currently) in my local meta. Was wondering what to substitute in for Carpet of Flowers

January 1, 2017 12:10 a.m.

EpicDermis says... #18

January 1, 2017 12:13 a.m.

Tangerinefox says... #19

Just playtested the list, had a hand with a first turn EoT Tainted Pact. Decided to just go for the food chain, ended up being the third from the bottom card. Even if I could've played it and a CFE creature there was an Elvish Mystic and a land left in my library. This deck is hilariously awesome.

January 9, 2017 2:31 p.m.

ShaperSavant says... #20

Tangerinefox It's usually not correct to go past the third ally; don't forget you can stop whenever you want. Playing a dork or some card selection on turn 1 is also usually better than tutoring for win conditions unless it's clear you have a shot at a turn 2.

The ability to rip through the deck is quite fun, though. ;)

January 9, 2017 3:57 p.m.

jco says... #21

I'm curious: what is this weak to? For the decks in your meta, I'm curious what strategies work well against it?

I'm a huge fan of this list. It's a really gorgeously executed combo deck.

January 23, 2017 10:51 a.m.

ShaperSavant says... #22

jco Thanks!

The best points of attack against this deck are Sphere of Resistance effects (e.g. Grand Arbiter), Rule of Law effects (e.g. Ethersworn Canonist, Arcane Laboratory, Eidolon of Rhetoric), and Abrupt Decay.

The deck is really flexible in what removal you can run. If you're expecting stax, you can board in things like Natural State, Wear//Tear, etc. over anti-interaction cards like Dispel and Flusterstorm. Red Elemental Blast is good in some metas and Misdirection and various Silences are good against Abrupt Decay.

Good meta prediction is always key to tuning your deck effectively.

January 24, 2017 11:31 a.m.

Can you play Day's Undoing instead of Timetwister? It seems like it would be fine if you want a $3 card instead of a $1000 card, or is the "end the turn" clause that damaging?

February 16, 2017 5:53 p.m.

ShaperSavant says... #25

Turn8ScornfulEgotist Play Windfall instead!

Check the budget section of the description for a series of budget builds.

February 17, 2017 5:31 p.m.