Card Spotlight
Food Chain
A 3-mana green enchantment: exile a creature you control to add mana equal to its mana value plus one, usable only on creature spells. With a creature you can recast from exile, each loop nets one mana.
Commander Spotlight
Food Chain ↗
A 3-mana green enchantment: exile a creature you control to add mana equal to its mana value plus one, usable only on creature spells. With a creature you can recast from exile, each loop nets one mana.
See Food Chain's full stats and printings →
Strategies it goes well with
- The exile and recast loop. Food Chain plus Eternal Scourge, Misthollow Griffin or Squee, the Immortal makes unlimited mana for creature spells, one mana per pass.
- Unlimited creature casts. Each pass casts the creature again, so anything that triggers on casting a creature spell or on a creature entering triggers every time.
- Ramp into a big creature. Outside the combo, exiling a creature you no longer need gives you its mana value plus one toward a bigger creature spell that turn.
How it does in Commander
As the commander
Food Chain is an enchantment, so it can never be a commander. It shows up in the 99 of green creature decks built to use its mana.
In the 99
It belongs in green decks with a creature outlet and at least one of the recastable partners. Without those it is a narrow ramp card that eats your own board.
Formats it's strong in
- cEDH. Food Chain costs three mana and Eternal Scourge three more, so two cards and six mana give a deck unlimited creature mana. That is the speed those tables plan around.
- Creature combo decks with a big outlet. A commander or creature that scales with the mana spent on it turns the loop into a kill.
Formats it's weak in
- Decks without a creature outlet. The mana can't pay for abilities or noncreature spells, so with nothing to cast it does not win.
- Bracket 1 to 3 tables. Food Chain isn't on the current Game Changers list, but with Eternal Scourge or Misthollow Griffin it is a two-card infinite, which those brackets exclude or limit to the late game.
Synergistic cards
Eternal Scourge ↗
Colorless, mana value 3, castable from exile. Food Chain gives four mana, recasting it costs {3}, and one mana is left each pass.
Misthollow Griffin ↗
Mana value 4 and castable from exile. Choose blue for five mana, pay {2}{U}{U}, and keep one.
Squee, the Immortal ↗
Castable from the graveyard or exile. Choose red for four mana, pay {1}{R}{R}, and keep one.
Walking Ballista ↗
An outlet the restricted mana can pay for. Cast it with X as large as your mana allows and remove counters to deal damage.
Is it worth the price?
Food Chain is one of the more expensive green enchantments. Reprints in Double Masters 2022, Secret Lair and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Eternal have added supply, but it is still a card to buy for a deck built around it. Eternal Scourge and Misthollow Griffin are inexpensive.
Frequently asked questions
How does the Food Chain combo work?
Exile Eternal Scourge, mana value 3, to Food Chain for four mana of one color. Eternal Scourge can be cast from exile, so recast it for {3} and you have one mana left over. Repeat, and each pass adds one more mana. The mana can only be spent on creature spells, so the combo makes unlimited mana for creatures and nothing else.
What creatures go infinite with Food Chain?
Any creature you can cast from exile for no more than its mana value. Eternal Scourge ({3}, four mana back) and Misthollow Griffin ({2}{U}{U}, five mana back) are the standard ones, and Squee, the Immortal ({1}{R}{R}, four mana back) can be cast from exile too. Each nets one mana per pass, and you can pick a new color each time you activate Food Chain.
How do you win with Food Chain's mana?
You need a creature spell to spend it on. Walking Ballista is the simplest: cast it with a very large X, and remove counters to deal 1 damage per counter. Many Food Chain decks use their commander as the outlet instead. The mana can't pay for activated abilities, so a mana sink like Thrasios does nothing with it.