Explorer Deck Guide: Jund Food Sacrifice and the new Bloomburrow additions

If decks could talk, the first thing our deck would say today would definitely be "You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs". Yes, today we're going to have a good look at Food Sacrifice, which despite not being exactly a new deck, came back to life a little (just like its creatures) after receiving key cards from Bloomburrow.

Sacrificing permanents to gain advantages is a very old strategy in Magic, which has seen competitive play more than once in different formats, such as Abzan Aristocrats, based on sacrificing several creatures using Viscera Seer and Cartel Aristocrat, returning them later with Rally the Ancestors, to get even more value and damage caused by Blood Artist.

The tale of Food Sacrifice, on the other hand, is a little more recent, happening alongside the creation of the food token, in the Throne of Eldraine set.

Costing two mana upon activation and rewarding you with three life points, the food token at first glance didn't seem to be more powerful than other existing artifact tokens, such as Clues and Treasures - even so, it surprised everyone with its enormous amount of powerful payoffs involving mechanics. Oko, Thief of Crowns proved so powerful that it was banned from almost all Magic formats, and several other cards that cared about food tokens were relevant in Standard, such as Gilded Goose, Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven.

The interaction between Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven was quickly identified and used by the players, who found the perfect package to combine with other sacrifice mechanics. In short, when you sacrifice the cat using the oven, a food token is generated, which is exactly what the cat asks for to return to the field. In itself, this interaction, in addition to always draining a life point due to our familiar's triggered ability, also creates a kind of immortal blocker, which makes life difficult for decks more focused on combat to push damage.

All the advantages of this combination, along with other synergistic cards in Standard at the time, such as Mayhem Devil and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, created the first Food Sacrifice, which came to overshadow all the other very powerful cards from Eldraine. It proved to be a consistent and powerful option until rotation, which took away the deck’s aces.

With the creation of "slower" formats than Modern and Legacy, such as Pioneer, Historic and Explorer, Food Sacrifice found yet another place where its high synergy could thrive. Several lists with different approaches have emerged throughout the seasons ever since the format’s creation.

In the beginning, we had an attempt to replicate the Standard version, using Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, then other lists appeared with Collected Company, always trying to create more board presence, then came versions without green mana, focused in making more and more value with Mayhem Devil and several other ways of sacrificing permanents that happened to also be powerful cards, such as Fable of The Mirror-Breaker and Bloodtithe Harvester.

Today, as we said in the introduction, some powerful additions from the Bloomburrow set once again brought the deck to light, and it’s time to talk about the updated lists.

Out of the gates, we see again a five-mana card in the middle of the list, strongly resembling our dragon predecessor. But unlike Korvold, Ygra has no evasion and, even though it grows faster, doesn't provide card advantage along with damage - so why is it seeing play today instead of the Jund card?

It’s simple: combo.

Just have Ygra on the board, along with a Cauldron Familiar on the field and another in the graveyard, and the static ability of the elemental cat will allow one cat to be sacrificed for the other (since all creatures are also food), making it possible to drain all of the opponent's points thanks to the triggered abilities of the familiars. Furthermore, Ygra is a creature with high damage potential and with its Ward, it will take away opponent's resources even if they try to remove it

Also very important, Scavenger's Talent is the most versatile card in the deck, serving as a version of Witch's Oven, creating the food token needed to return Cauldron Familiar on multiple turns. That said, the card also works very well in the combo strategy, since at level two it’s possible to mill many cards from your deck to find copies of the familiar and a copy of Ygra, which can be reanimated once you get to level three itself. Thus, the card provides advantage both in a grind long-game plan and in the combo plan.

In short, the new Food Sacrifice lists are very versatile, with the traditional version winning by accumulating small advantages in a "kill you with a spoon" way, but also out of nowhere resolve a key card and win the game regardless of the board state. This strategy ends up being more difficult to play against, given the disadvantage of always needing to maintain an answer to the possible combo, while not allowing the small sacrifice interactions to get too much out of hand.

Ok, now that we know how the deck works, I think it's worth dedicating a few paragraphs to talk about the experience I had playing against different decks from the metagame.

Rakdos Prowess

Our list performed very well against the “talk of town” deck of the moment, aided by having access to efficient removal like Fatal Push. Our eternal loop of blocking cats creates a situation where the opponent desperately needs a spell that gives trample, which in turn generates several opportunities to obtain a two-for-one trade.

Furthermore, Mayhem Devil is an excellent way to control the board and Claim the Firstborn ends up being especially good in this match, since sacrificing a Heartfire Hero can even win you the game right away.

Rakdos Midrange

The format's most consistent Midrange is a close match, but not a bad one. Both lists have similar plays like Fable of The Mirror-Breaker and Bloodtithe Harvester, but Sacrifice's interactions end up being better to grind it out - however, it is advisable to play around Graveyard Trespasser and save answers for specific cards, such as Archfiend of the Dross and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse that if left unchecked will basically run away with the game.

Azorius Control

Here’s where things get a little more complex. UW is a deck with many answers to the advantages that our deck is looking to obtain. If the opponent is given enough time to find them, March of Otherworldly Light, No More Lies and Temporary Lockdown can answer all our threats, and, let's face it, Food Sacrifice is not the fastest deck in the world. Also, the fact that our combo requires a five-mana card to resolve ends up being very weak against two or three mana counters.

Thus, this is a matchup where sideboarding is very important, in order to use hand disruptions and replace cards aimed at decks with creatures, like Claim the Firstborn and Fatal Push.

Izzet Phoenix

Another disencouraging match is against the Phoenix deck, mainly because the entire enemy deck's damage sources have flying, which ignores our familiar blocker. However, since it’s not an explosive deck, it’s possible to interact and delay the opponent until we can either combo out or accumulate advantages, notably by resolving key threats like Ygra in the first game, when the opponent doesn’t have counterspells.

This is a prime example of how having a combo built into your list can make a lot of difference: the imminent possibility of ending the game makes difficult matches, like against Phoenix, a little more manageable.

Even with a well-rounded deck, there are flex slots that can be explored, so here are my thoughts on some options I tested

This one got me really excited ever since spoiler season! With a big body and a cost reduction that can even be exploited with Mayhem Devil on the board, the viper was the first card to deserve my “one-of” testing.

Unfortunately, it looks a lot more promising than it actually is - even though the cost reduction seems synergic, it requires you to have an established token-creation engine, which usually happens when you are already favored to win anyway.

Additionally, her ability appears to be very strong (and sometimes it really is), but it gives the opponent a lot of choices, which will usually result in them being able to circumvent it long enough to find an answer to the board.

On the other hand, Kroxa fulfills a role very similar to Viper, and it ends up being better. Thanks to Scavenger's Talent, reaching escape without losing important pieces is perfectly possible, not to mention that, unlike the Viper, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger can (and should) be cast from the graveyard and its ETB/when-attacking effect removes options from the opponent.

Of course the Titan is less synergistic and more of a "goodstuff" card, but it provides a much better plan for longer games when there’s a lot of removal, and I can't imagine a reason to choose Bloomburrow's card over Theros' giant.

"Well, if the goose was good in Standard, since it ramps to Korvold Fae-Cursed King's, why not use it to ramp to Ygra, Eater of All?"

I’ll admit that this was my thought process at the beginning of testing, but I faced some problems immediately when trying to include it. First of all, the number of slots needed to use a dork is generally four, which in such a tight decklist ends up being really difficult. Also, even though it has synergy with foods, the extra mana source is actually not needed at all. With the exception of the five-mana cat, the rest of the deck is very low cost - setup cards like Witch's Oven and Scavenger's Talent end up being more important in the first turns.

In addition to all this, even though Ygra has the same mana value as Korvold, the cards behave very differently. Korvold, in the overwhelming majority of the time, was the best possible play on five mana: you cast it and thus win, since it provides a lot of damage and cards. Ygra is a combo piece that needs a setup to automatically win, even though her body and damage outcome can be high, sometimes casting a Mayhem Devil with Deadly Dispute will be better than exposing your combo piece.

Thanks to the new options and a Rakdos Prowess infested meta, the revamped Food Sacrifice ends up being a solid option to climb in Explorer Ranked, or even for tabletop Pioneer tournaments, since the list is mostly the same.

Lots of hugs and see you next time!