First of all, please note that this is my first post on The Mana Drain, and thus it should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m not especially new to type one, and I’m by no means an expert. However, I know the basics so I thought I’d give my 2 cents on the deck I’m running. I posted this in the budget forum because I’m, well, on a budget and would like to discuss budget versions of Food Chain Goblins.
There hasn’t been an active thread on FCG in a while, and I’ve got a few ideas I’d like to bring out. I’ve been playing this deck for a little over a month now, though I have played red aggro for as long as I’ve played competitive magic. I have played FCG at Dreamer’s (Minnesota) multiple times and in 4 tournaments at Gen Con. I placed 14th (6-2) in Type 1 Champs with a build of FCG using the ideas described below, and went 6-0 in the side event later in the evening. Up until Gen Con I would have had nothing interesting more to say about current Food Chain builds, but after playing it enough, I came to the conclusion that the combo was simply not needed. Food Chain itself never won me a game I could not have already won. Every time it came up, I could have simply resolved recruiter, stacked a ringleader, a warchief or two, all of my piledrivers, and any incinerators I needed to clear the board with. If I needed, I could stack a matron to shuffle if I suspected counters, or I could have stack a lackey and Siege-Gang Commander; it doesn’t really matter. In any case, I could then the following turn play a ringleader and possibly a warchief (depending on my current mana) and brought myself into a winning position quite easily. If I could not do this, then Food Chain probably wouldn’t have helped me either.
Ok, I’m probably over stating this. There are situations, probably one’s I’ve been in, where food chain would have won me the game and nothing else would have, so I wouldn’t normally question the place of Food Chain in this deck. Really, the deck is named after this card. However, most FCG players would tell you that the combo is not used 100% of the time. In my experience with the deck, it is usually used at the most 25% of the time while the rest of the time you simply beat on your opponent to the win, often with a Food Chain or two sitting dead in your hand. In addition to this, I found a card that helps the deck out tremendously and is currently doing fine as a replacement. Currently, I run 4 main deck Blood Moon.
It has been said an uncountable number of times before that the only non-goblin card that should be run in FCG is Food Chain, but hear me out. Blood Moon has been a great card for me in FCG. A second or third turn resolved Blood Moon against 4cc, fish, or tog is essentially game over. Some of the time they can find an answer to it, but that usually requires blue mana (usually followed by a wish) which is hard to come by while under a moon. Besides, once they have answered it, you’ve probably had a few turns to build up and should be in a winning situation. It does hurt a bit against workshop based decks because they tend to just switch over to artifact mana and beat you, but the gain against these other decks out-weighs the loss here in my opinion. In short, a resolved Blood Moon is pretty much game against any deck not running Mishra’s Workshop. Blood Moon does all this while making the creature base a bit more flexible and strengthening many match-ups. It also allows you to cut green which strengthens you against the ever-increasing number of crucibles in the metagame. In addition, since this is budget, it allows you to easily, if you aren’t already, run a full set of Ancient Tomb’s with much less fear of red mana problems because as soon as you resolve a moon, all your lands tap for red.
Now someone is going to point out that Food Chain is game against any deck at all. This would be true if Food Chain could win you the game without recruiter. Food Chain does essentially nothing if you don’t draw a recruiter or matron while blood moon relies on nothing to be good except your opponent to play nonbasic lands. I’ve also discovered a great sideboard card that can help that slightly weekend workshop match up: Kill Switch. I’ll post the card text for those of you who need it.
Kill Switch
Artifact
,
: Tap all other artifacts. They don't untap during their controllers' untap steps as long as Kill Switch remains tapped.
Nemesis Rare
I know, I’m amazed as well that a card from Nemesis could be played in any format as well, but read that card. It’s amazing! I’ve actually survived a third turn Sundering Titan with this card and it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure that the switch could also handle tinkered colossi with ease. An active Kill Switch just wins against artifact based decks. There is nothing bad about your opponent never using a non-triskellion artifact again. Also note that if they play a beats creature you can tap it before they get a chance to attack with it.
Thinking more about removing Food Chain, what do other people think of these potential changes? I could also be completely wrong on everything said here, but my experiences say otherwise. What are your thoughts?
