Gorge Yourself on AYCE Adventure in Magic: The Gathering Arena

April 27, 2022

I love Magic: The Gathering Arena. Physical or digital MTG is the best game ever created and MTG Arena edges out the traditional version of the game with its flexibility, efficiency, speed and accessibility at the very least. Deckbuilding is a snap thanks to filters and search features, which I’ve developed a method for when it comes to optimizing a deck. My latest creation finds inspiration from my sweetie and her career as a journalist in the food industry. Her recent promotion to editor in chief got me thinking about one of my favorite MTG expansions — Throne of Eldraine — and the Food aspects of the set. Then I came across an incredible card from Modern Horizons 2 and now I’m indulging myself with a really fun Food themed deck. Let’s get into it.

MTG Food satisfies my hunger for gimmicks and winning

I call this one All You Can Eat Adventure (AYCE for short) and I’ve got to point towards my BLUTate deck for the confidence to build this one. By and large I avoided playing historic games for a long time because the decks there can be so much more devastating. Access to a card pool many times larger than standard play means whatever gimmick a player plans to exploit gets support to the Nth degree.

Historic decks mostly stick to broad themes and strategies rather than focus on a keyword from a particular expansion because MTG rarely revisits unusual mechanics from the past. Throne of Eldraine’s Adventure mechanic is one such example. Incidentally I’ve always felt like this is a missed opportunity. Would it be so terrible to create cards with callbacks to nonstandard mechanics that also work in their current environment?

When I came across Modern Horizons 2’s Tireless Provisioner frankly I was shocked to see a reference to both Treasure and Food tokens. To be fair I don’t quite understand all the formats, expansions and the like and their relationship to each other but nevertheless here I find an enabler card for two types of deck themes. Awesome.

Discovering Tireless Provisioner shows me yet again how beneficial MTG Arena’s format can be compared to the traditional physical game. I mentioned my MTG Arena deckbuilding method earlier and this card provides a great segue to explain further. Whenever I tinker around with a deck my first step is using the search filter to find all the cards with whatever wording relates to the gimmick I’m building. For AYCE Adventure this was “Food” and from there I look at all my mythic rare cards, then rare, uncommon and finally common. Then it becomes an assessment phase. Cards come in and go out of the list until it looks solid to me. Next I look at all the funky lands I’ve got with possible synergy. Finally it’s time to play.

“It’s gingerbread, like Mother makes. What is there to be afraid of?” — Flavor text from Curious Pair/Treats to Share from the MTG Throne of Eldraine expansion. There’s a lot to be afraid of, children.

Artifact

Gingerbrute (3). What better way to start a feast than this Food Golem with haste. This little fella comes in all sorts of handy for a variety of tricks in this deck in particular because the Food qualifier in its type can trigger several other effects.
Golden Egg (3). Another Food item for all those shenanigans plus it nets you a card when it hits the board.
Witch’s Oven (2). Back when Throne of Eldraine was the new hotness this card facilitated some degenerate decks including as a way to exploit Cauldron Familiar. I suspect there’s some lingering distaste since I’ve seen people concede when I play this on the first turn. Come back! I’m only using it as a last resort for doomed creatures to produce more Food tokens.

Creature

Curious Pair (3). Throne of Eldraine’s Adventure mechanic gave lots of creatures double duty as other spells with the premise the creature is going on the Adventure before entering play. In this case a couple of hapless kids have Treats to Share. Past their Food token they make great chump blockers until you throw them in the oven. Watch out though — they’ve been known to demonstrate an Insatiable Appetite.
Feasting Troll King (2). A heavy hitter who thrives in this deck. This is especially satisfying against a discard or mill deck since there’s almost always more than enough Food to attract this troll noble back from the graveyard turn after turn after turn.
Gilded Goose (2). I don’t expect a whole lot from this 0/2 flier but it nets another Food token, makes a decent blocker and if it survives you’ve got a consistent source of more Food.
Hinterland Chef (3). Before putting this deck together I knew practically nothing about MTG Arena’s Alchemy. I figured a quick search for food related terms through the deck editor could be useful and the first one I tried was “chef.” This popped up and I didn’t even continue looking. In my mind this is the cornerstone of this AYCE Adventure deck. Found in the Alchemy: Innistrad collection this human scout drafts a random card from their spellbook — a curated list of 15 resonant cards tied to specific cards in the game. The drafted creature card becomes a Food artifact and you can sac it for 3 life. Here’s the cards in Hinterland Chef’s spellbook. Believe it or not the first time I played this card a Gilded Goose came up. How’s that for serendipity?
- Almighty Brushwagg
- Frilled Sandwalla
- Moss Viper
- Brushstrider
- Highland Game
- Ironshell Beetle
- Lotus Cobra
- Kazandu Nectarpot
- Gilded Goose
- Nessian Hornbeetle
- Scurrid Colony
- Territorial Boar
- Deathbonnet Sprout
- Spore Crawler
- Moldgraf Millipede
Tireless Provisioner (3). I nearly fell out of my chair when I came across this Elf Scout. (Is there some connection between scouts and food? Hmm…) With a landfall effect creating either Treasure or Food it could not be more perfect. Incidentally I put together a Historic mono green dungeon venture deck with this one too and it is tremendous fun.
Wicked Wolf (2). You ought never to be lacking in Food for this fearsome creature. I don’t recall this one surviving very long in any games I’ve played but if it enters play, takes out an opponent’s creature and costs them a card to get rid of it after the fact I can live with those results.

Enchantment

Trail of Crumbs (4). Originally I included this simply because it references Food. The more games I play with this deck the more this card shows its versatility. In addition to Food tokens there’s several other cards considered Food and when you sac any of them it triggers this effect. It took me a few games to realize I ought to phase out more of the instant and sorcery cards in lieu of permanents. In late games with a lot of Food tokens and decent mana you can really make the most of this in multiple. Feasting Troll King + Witch’s Oven + Trail of Crumbs is obvious but there’s a lot of synergy going on through this card.

Instant

Insatiable Appetite (4). A Food related pump was automatically included at the maximum copies. If I had to pick a favorite card from this decklist here’s a top contender. If nothing else it’s amusing to so dramatically swing things in your favor with a Food token.
Fell the Pheasant (2). Another Food token creator with just the right amount of punch to take common beefy threats out of the air. A similar card without the flying qualifier would be amazing.

Sorcery

Giant Opportunity (3). When your Food supplies are well stocked the deliciousness attracts a big ol’ giant to your board. When Food is low this creates more. I love a card with multiple uses and both this card’s effects are incredibly useful in this deck.

Lands

Gingerbread Cabin (4). It creates a Food token when it enters play and otherwise produces green mana. ‘Nuff said.
Forest (20). Makes green mana. I got some neat 3D versions a while ago from somewhere.

Would you play this AYCE Adventure deck? Do you enjoy creating thematic decks? What are your favorite decks to play at MTG Arena?

*Featured image — Hinterland Chef from Alchemy: Innistrad makes a meal from a random selection of 15 creature cards. [Illustration by Konstantin Porubov]