Since Reality Fracture became tournament-legal, we’ve seen more and more unique brews emerge. Even in Eternal formats with vast card pools, these new designs are making their presence felt.
In fact, today, a Legacy shell built around two enchantment-focused infinite combos 5-0d a Magic Online League out of nowhere. This deck can win quickly and rebuild easily, making it quite intriguing.
Double the Combos, Double the Fun
This archetype piloted by Magic Online user Tsubaki556 is designed to maximize some of MTG’s most broken enchantments. The primary combo piece, Food Chain, can generate infinite mana alongside Squee, the Immortal. By sacrificing Squee to Food Chain and casting it to exile, you can create a loop, generating an extra mana each time. You can use that mana to cast Acererak, the Archlich and Venture into the Lost Mine of Phandelver infinitely, draining your opponent of all their life.
Interestingly, Acererak also combos with Aluren, another enchantment this deck utilizes nicely. While Aluren only appears as a one-of, it’s easy to tutor it or Food Chain it with Reality Fracture’s Pia, Aether Ascetic
Pia, Aether AsceticWhen Pia enters, you may discard a card. If you do, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle., adding a ton of consistency.
To reliably grab Pia when needed, this deck abuses Green Sun’s Zenith, Malevolent Rumble, and Once Upon a Time to smooth your draws. You also have access to a full playset of Formidable Speaker, which can grab any of your combo creatures as well as Pia.
As consistent as this deck is, though, relying on three-mana creatures and four-mana enchantments to combo off can be a bit slow. Fortunately, Delighted Halfling
Delighted Halfling{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary spell, and that spell can't be countered. and Ancient Tomb speed things up significantly, as does tutoring for Dryad Arbor with Zenith when applicable. You can also slow the opponent down with Punishing Fire, which, with Grove of the Burnwillows, threatens to kill every small creature they play.
Resilience and Utility
Despite the deck’s reliance on clunky cards, this archetype is more resilient than you might expect. Allosaurus Shepherd
Allosaurus ShepherdThis spell can't be countered.
Green spells you control can't be countered.
{4}{G}{G}: Until end of turn, each Elf creature you control has base power and toughness 5/5 and becomes a Dinosaur in addition to its other creature types. gives you a much better chance of fighting through Daze and Force of Will
Force of WillYou may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell., which run rampant in Legacy. It’s also not impossible to win “fairly,” as tools like Aeve, Progenitor Ooze can overwhelm control decks on their own.
This plan gets even easier after sideboarding, since you can access elite, matchup-specific tutor targets. Arasta of the Endless Web, for example, is a complete nuisance for decks like Izzet Delver. At the same time, slower blue control decks can struggle to deal with a resolved Choke or the mana advantage Carpet of Flowers provides. All of this is made possible by Pia, Aether Ascetic: the ultimate toolbox.
Unfortunately, as fun as this deck is, its lack of pure speed and spell-based interaction leaves it very vulnerable to faster combo strategies. Decks like Reanimator not only threaten to goldfish faster than you, but also have plenty of discard spells to slow you down.
Ultimately, this glaring weakness makes me wary that this Food Chain combo variant will ever become a top-tier strategy. Nonetheless, it can be a decent metacall in a combo-light field, especially if other players aren’t prepared for it. So keep this deck on your radar, as it could make a splash again in the future.
Stick with us here at dev.mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!
