I see now the difference with Recurring Nightmare, that it could be good for reusing random ETB for 2B whereas Food Chain is not good in most non-combo circumstances. (Still don't necessarily think RN should be banned, but I can see an argument)
Let's use a different comparison. Gifts Ungiven seems like a fun card for most, but perhaps too powerful for competitive players. Is this comparison more apt? Broken if you include it for combo but otherwise an interesting tradeoff?
I haven't really played much paper Magic at all since 2014, which happened to be shortly after Prossh came out. A few "oops, I'm infinite" moments still stand out in my head from another player slotting in just that single card to a precon.
The RC seems very clear about banning cards that seem innocuous but accidentally create a bad time. If you see someone else playing Food Chain in Prossh, you're going to want to give it a try, and then suddenly it seems bad to not run Food Chain. Is this no different from discovering Recurring Nightmare (also banned) combos with Palinchron? The outside use cases seem fringe.
Several top cEDH decks have Food Chain as the main win-condition and build around card. I'm a little tired of playing it, and of seeing it.
However, Commander is not cEDH! So here's my question: Is your average Joe using Food Chain in a fair way? Or is it still being slotted into Prossh precons and causing unenjoyable experiences for an otherwise casual table? I'd love to hear some other personal experiences about this card.
Let's use a different comparison. Gifts Ungiven seems like a fun card for most, but perhaps too powerful for competitive players. Is this comparison more apt? Broken if you include it for combo but otherwise an interesting tradeoff?
cEDH: [G(U/R) Animar] - [(U/B)(G/W) Redless Wheels] - [(G/U)(W/B) Redless Pod] - [(B/G)W Ghave Metapod]
The RC seems very clear about banning cards that seem innocuous but accidentally create a bad time. If you see someone else playing Food Chain in Prossh, you're going to want to give it a try, and then suddenly it seems bad to not run Food Chain. Is this no different from discovering Recurring Nightmare (also banned) combos with Palinchron? The outside use cases seem fringe.
cEDH: [G(U/R) Animar] - [(U/B)(G/W) Redless Wheels] - [(G/U)(W/B) Redless Pod] - [(B/G)W Ghave Metapod]
However, Commander is not cEDH! So here's my question: Is your average Joe using Food Chain in a fair way? Or is it still being slotted into Prossh precons and causing unenjoyable experiences for an otherwise casual table? I'd love to hear some other personal experiences about this card.
cEDH: [G(U/R) Animar] - [(U/B)(G/W) Redless Wheels] - [(G/U)(W/B) Redless Pod] - [(B/G)W Ghave Metapod]