Why Food Chain Always Wins in cEDH

[@PubStompMTG]

This video personified how I truly feel about Food Chain. Since we are in a "mid-range hell" currently, I think food chain can thrive. Food chain is my personal favorite combo in the format. Everytime a new commander comes out with a powerful etb, I always think, "Will this be the new best foodchain commander I play?" Regardless of that, my favorite food chain commander currently is Etali, Primal Conqueror. Getting free spells from your opponents is gravy. Thanks for the video and I apologize on the lengthy response!

[@gaiaakatheearth5604]

why would you apologize?

[@notimeleft1]

I have a food chain deck led by Aragorn the unifier for CEDH. I had it led by Omnath locus of creation but Aragorn proved to be better in consistency. Food chain and squee set up for Aragorn mana and once Aragorn is on board, infinite squee casts for basically infinite lightning bolts

[@bradcallahan3546]

Not cEDH viable. Try again.

[@notimeleft1]

@@bradcallahan3546 says who? care to try it for yourself?

[@bradcallahan3546]

@@notimeleft1 Says the *fact* that it's bad. Liking something doesn't make it good or viable. Nobody plays it.. because it's bad. So, try again.

[@Kukyodragonfly]

Nice! I run the ol' reliable Prossh Food Chain with some addons for resilience and it kicks ass :D! Seems interesting with Aragorn for the effects and you get some nice protection to combo off!

[@bradcallahan3546]

@@user-pq8on8bx9g Probably the dumbest "argument" I've ever heard.

[@decentparks3597]

Rocco is my food chain commander because it can also win with Kiki jili lines and Amie’s dockside combos. Also you can main 15 stand pieces including collector ouphe

[@jamespeake2606]

Excellent analysis of an oft overlooked card, good stuff

[@MarvelOfRain]

One more thing about Food Chain. Etali and Atraxa (the current top 2 Food Chain commanders IMO) make the card great even if don't have the creature to go infinite with it. In my last LGS tournament I played Food Chain like this twice. Both of these games I took advantage of a window where everyone was tapped out/had no resources left, both of those games it was relatively easy to use my board to generate tons of mana for several casts of Atraxa and both of those games ended with a win on that turn. Had I played breach, any of the infinite mana Thrasios combos or just tried to assemble a Thoracle win I would have lost, but Food Chain being a flexible wincon allowed me to have just enough to get there. Even in the only game that ended in a draw in this pretty good evening I was just one mana short of going for another non-infinite Food Chain line with my Mnemonic Betrayal. In reality the card is much closer to a Time Sieve then Thassa's Oracle and if your deck can take full advantage of it you can make Food Chain look better then Breach.

[@reesercliff]

don't forget Prossh, you get infinite mana and infinite creature etbs and infinite creatures

[@DankAudioStash24]

Food Chain goblins was awesome in vintage back in the day...

[@TheParadoxEngine]

Indeed it was. Still good now thou.

[@DankAudioStash24]

@@TheParadoxEngine It's a powerful card for sure. Can't speak for cEDH myself as I mostly play cube, but I love your energy! :)

[@LinkEX]

As someone that used a playset of food chain proxies because I was too cheap to just buy them like the rest of the deck, I slightly regret that decision now. Then again, that's true for most the decks I proxied. I hovered over the "buy now" button of a playset of Doubling Season that was like 2.50€ or something back then, lol.

[@TheLimedew]

Do you generally run all three- Misthollow, Squee, and Skirge?

[@brian4334]

As a commander player who is brand new to cEDH, thanks for this video. Helped me understand a card that I couldn't really wrap my head around why it was "so good". I still don't understand exactly what you're getting with that creature mana to use to win the game, but since it's not limited to Green mana, there are tons of options, I suppose.

[@VDK_Daigo]

The simple answer is if your commander is an outlet for Food chain (ie has an etb effect, cast effect, or effect that cares about being outside of hand.) you use that infinite to connect a line to a win

[@davidchapman7350]

Some of the commanders that most commonly see play with Food Chain: Atraxa, Grand Unifier; Korvold, Fae-Cursed King; Etali, Primal Conqueror; Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer. The theme here is that all have ETB effects that get you infinite draw, infinite tutors, or infinite spells.

[@legiocii2678]

For those of you that played Brood War back in the day- "How do you counter a Zerg with Ultralisks? You don't let the Zerg get to Ultralisks."

[@dustin89clanton]

I kinda love this explanation. Good video 👍

[@TheParadoxEngine]

We are glad you enjoyed the video. More to come.

[@arc-sd8sk]

love the shirt

[@TheParadoxEngine]

Thank you.

[@NewSchoolPOKERstrat]

Nothing stops it. Accept; dranith magistrate, rule of law, Thalia, Rhystic study, mystic remora, Boseju, ottawara, almost every played counterspell, faster decks, and grindier decks. But, hey, you get to have an A+B combo (like all the other ones) if you are willing to play w a commander that acts as a foodchain outlet😖 Honestly, I love foodchain. I just think it should only go in decks that don’t need it. That is, it’s fantastic if you have a commander and deck that’s doing powerful things and also happens to be a foodchain outlet. Specifically w black for the forbidden tutors, red for squee, and green.. or, oddly, Atraxa🤷‍♂️ Maybe Rocco? It’s not a good reason to build a deck but it can be a decent A+B if your deck happens to work w it.

[@TheParadoxEngine]

We agree there is alot that stops food chain combo but isnt that the case for every A to B combo that finishes games. Food Chain is very good at what it does and is resilient at doing so. It should definitely see more play in CEDH.

[@VDK_Daigo]

It’s that nothing stops it permanently was the point I was trying to make. As it’s in colors to deal with everything that stops it. It’s not something you can just exile and forget about like an underworld breach or thoracle. You always have to be wary of it

[@TheAngelRaven]

If there's a Thalia, the deck is most likely Winota/Obvious Stacks, so they'll be a target out the gate. If you play FC, you're playing with a Commander that values off it - most likely Korvold, so you ALSO have the card draw to compete with RS/MR. Yes, there are answers to EVERYTHING, but that doesn't mean the problem isn't a consistent power.

[@ammonaustin9081]

Also mystic remora and rhystic study do not stop FC 😂 Only means you get card draw but unless you have open mana, it doesn't matter. A counterspell is only relevant when casted on the FC itself. Countering Squee or the eldrazi guy doesn't matter.

[@solarupdraft]

At 3:20 you refer to a creature or Karn getting back your food chain. Did you mean getting back from graveyard or from exile? Which Karn were you referring to?

[@TheParadoxEngine]

The reference was to Rift Sweeper and other things that can bring food chain back into the game.

[@giovanniganss8284]

i run revoke existence in most decks i play, not sure how its coming back after that. maybe pull from eternity, or something like that.

[@hawkicelol]

dope rant, food chain op

[@williamchu4595]

there is no problem with food chain the ONLY problem is there are too many 2 cards combo that is faster than food chain we are not talking about anti removal or resilience we are talking about the two card combo are NOT THE SAME permanent type and that makes it 5 times to tutor out with food chain being an enchantment and its combo piece is a creature

[@suntzu6122]

Whats that card on the left side of the purp deck box?

[@TheParadoxEngine]

Lotus petal and niv mizzet reborn

[@That1powergamer]

Got the 90's VHS secret lair all foild out guess what I'm building lol. XD

[@TheParadoxEngine]

I love that art for food chain. Have fun with your deck building. If you want we can do a deck tech for the deck your building. Help you with some ideas for the deck.

[@That1powergamer]

@@TheParadoxEngine I'm making food chain slivers with the first sliver from scratch.

[@SmogHouseTradingCo]

@@TheParadoxEngine make that video

[@baconsir1159]

Food Chain is also weak to Sphere of Resistance and Damping Sphere

[@IceFist66]

Prossh. Enough said

[@ZeroG]

Seems to me, Get Lost, Farewell, Over the Edge, and many other enchantment removals can get rid of it. But I don't play CEDH so maybe people just don't run those?

[@undergroundhead5]

I just don't get cEDH. Whats the point of a format where everyone "has" to run the same few dozen cards and all the games look the same? I feel like it just takes all the skill and strategy out of MTG (not to mention style and flavor): its just down to who happens to draw/tutor into their same ol combo every game. I can't think of a more boring and repetitive way to play

[@VDK_Daigo]

Because powerful cards are super fun to play with. you get to see crazy interactions and stacks you don't get to see in other formats, but I get that fun is super subjective so I'm never going to yuck someone else's yum. Also except for this and last year (because we've now reached critical mass of value engines) cedh games were a lot faster so you could do like 8 games as opposed to 3 in a normal edh game so that was my reason mostly when I started. Also, I'm super competitive and a compulsive deck builder playing against people who bigger collections so I needed to get better faster or be able to play at their speed

[@makesquash]

Meta and strategy knowledge is my favorite part of CEDH. Knowing what your opponents are trying to do and what cards they might play is part of the fun. However I think there is loads of variance in what cards are good. No two games play the same.

[@RINNECODA]

Sounds like something a MTG player who exclusively plays commander would say. Commander is the ONLY mtg format not played competitively, that doesn’t have a consistent meta, etc. every single other format does. So idk why casual players get so confused when Magic players treat a format like a Magic format, if I tried to beat you in standard with the best deck in the format would you say “can’t believe you’re not running janky bear tribal I don’t get it Magic is for fun”, yes Magic is fun. We wouldn’t play if it wasn’t

[@Bread_and_Roses]

It's like chess.

[@jthrone7768]

If you think it’s skill-less I invite you to build a proxy deck and give it a shot at your local cEDH group. It’s a different game, but once you know what you’re doing it’s really enjoyable.

[@jonaswilliams9755]

Food Chain sucks, lol.

[@yawgmoth55]

My first sliver deck disagrees

[@bradcallahan3546]

Your opinion sucks.

[@joshrobinson2409]

What are you talking about, there are decks where it just goes infinite just by having your commander out easy example prossh

[@jonaswilliams9755]

@@joshrobinson2409 yes, but Prossh still needs an outlet for Food Chain. My comment is mostly in jest because Food Chain is still a strategy one can play, but the video claims it always wins, which tournament data very strongly disproves.

[@Shoup1155]

whoop whoop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!