Like every other TCG, Magic: The Gathering is by definition a social game, even if you just play a quick game or two and barely interact with your opponent. As such, it makes perfect sense for MTG to have plenty of food-themed cards, to the point that Wizards of the Coast created an entire mechanic based on food called Food Tokens, which are artifacts that can be tapped and sacrificed, alongside a cost of 2 generic mana, to gain 3 life. Sometimes, Food Tokens are used “properly,” meaning that they are used in decks that actually care about sacrificing them and gaining life, but other times, they can be used for all sorts of combos and strategies.
Food is a prime component of many cards in the game, be it in terms of lore or art design, be it mechanically. Sets like Bloomburrow and Wilds of Eldraine also used it widely on their card lists, creating worlds and gimmicks where food is just as important as it can be in the daily life of human beings. This includes mechanics like gifts in Bloomburrow, and it’s also a massive theme for MTG‘s Lord of the Rings set, often representing characters like Samwise Gamgee, Merry, and Pippin. If you’re looking for the best MTG cards to use on Thanksgiving (and beyond) that are related to food, look no further.
Magic The Gathering: Easy To Build Decks For Beginners
Magic: The Gathering can be pretty intimidating for beginners. Here are some easy-to-build decks to get you started!
The 3 Best Magic: The Gathering Food Decks to Play
- Ygra, Eater of All – cEDH
- Ragost, Deft Gastronaut – Commander
- Samwise Gamgee – Historic Abzan Food Combo
Most Magic: The Gathering combos pertaining to food are tied to Commander decks or competitive Commander decks, with the format being called “competitive Elder Dragon Highlander,” cEDH for short.
Ygra, Eater of All MTG Deck
Ygra, Eater of All is a fun card introduced with MTG‘s Bloomburrow set. It’s a 5-CMC (3 generic, 1 Black, 1 Green) Legendary Creature wth 6 power and toughness, and it has three different abilities:
- Ward – Sacrifice a Food.
- Other creatures are Food artifacts in addition to their other types and can be used as Food Tokens (spend 2 generic, tap them, sacrifice them, and gain 3 life).
- Whenever a Food is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put two +1/+1 counters on Ygra, Eater of All.
This makes Ygra a fantastic commander, as it can buff itself to outstanding values. Furthermore, it makes interaction difficult for opponents because they have to sacrifice a Food to target it, meaning that any creature or actual Food tokens must be used – but this also buffs Ygra before the interaction spell resolves, as the effect goes first on the stack. Finally, its ability to make all other creatures Food is amazing in dedicated Commander decks in MTG, as sometimes it’s easier to have sacrifice outlets or other parts of a combo set up than it is to have creatures and/or Food.
This deck uses cards like Cauldron Familiar, Experimental Confectioner, Peregrin Took, Camellia, the Seedmiser, and even mana dorks like MTG‘s iconic Birds of Paradise and Delighted Halfling to get combos going and play Ygra early. Crop Rotation, Deadly Rollick, Culling the Weak, Diabolic Intent, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod’s Altar, and Phyrexian Tower all play a big role in how the deck takes shape, creating several loops where creatures are sacrificed for benefits like infinite ETBs, death triggers, mana, and so on.
Ragost, Deft Gastronaut MTG Deck
Unlike most Food Token decks in the game, Ragost, Deft Gastronaut is a Commander deck that wants Food Tokens to be used in conjunction with its ability to sacrifice any Food to deal damage to all opponents. Its abilities are:
- Artifacts you control are Foods in addition to their other types (also gaining the Food Token ability).
- Pay 1 generic, tap Ragost, and sacrifice a Food to deal 3 damage to each opponent.
- At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, untap Ragost.
This may seem like a straightforward loop, but there is a reason why Ragost was the most hyped Edge of Eternities commander in MTG before the set even came out. With Basilisk Collar, an artifact equipment, Ragost gains deathtouch and lifelink, meaning that its ability to sacrifice a Food to deal 3 damage to all opponents actually gains you 9 life in the process (assuming all three other Commander players are still at the table).
On top of that, you can use several combos, like MTG‘s Nuka-Cola Vending Machine and Krark-Clan Ironworks to generate infinite mana while proccing Ragost, or Magewrithe’s Stone to manually untap Ragost before the end of the turn to proc its ability again. This is an artifacts-matter type of deck, but it doesn’t shy away from using powerful creatures like Crime Novelist.
Samwise Gamgee MTG Deck
Much like in Commander, Samwise Gamgee decks in Historic care about sacrificing Foods to proc various combos. This card has the following abilities:
- Whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, create a Food Token.
- Sacrifice three Foods to return a target historic card from your graveyard to your hand.
Historic cards are artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas in MTG.
The deck uses two or three main combos:
- Samwise Gamgee + Cauldron Familiar + Woe Strider to generate infinite lifegain and infinite life loss.
- Peregrin Took + Experimental Confectioner to create infinite Food Tokens, creature tokens, and infinite card draw. This can be further enhanced with cards like Prosperous Innkeeper for infinite life gain and Corpse Knight for infinite life loss.
- Rosie Cotton of South Lane + Bartolome del Presidio + Scurry Oak to have a very powerful Scurry Oak to attack and block, creating tokens to put +1/+1 counters on it.
Peregrin Took + Experimental Confectioner is a powerful combo that can be used in Ygra decks, too, and it revolves around playing Experimental Confectioner after Peregrin Took in order to create two Food Tokens. Then, sacrificing a Food will create a 1/1 rat creature token, which will trigger Peregrin Took and generate an additional Food Token, creating a self-sustaining combo. Cards like Delighted Halfling and Gilded Goose are amazing here, as they provide mana ramp to get the combo going. Finally, Collected Company is a great tool to round up the deck, as it’s a 4-CMC instant that allows you to look at the top 6 cards of your deck and put up to two creatures with mana value 3 or less onto the battlefield for free.
The 6 Best Magic: The Gathering Food Combos to Use
Much like Food Tokens and food-themed decks, there are many ways to use food-related cards together in the game. Magic: The Gathering‘s combos can be very fun to theorycraft and fantastic to pull off on unsuspecting players, and if you’re looking for good ones to use for Thanksgiving matches, these are the best ones you can use.
Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal
The name may give it away, but Food Chain is the perfect card to use in food-themed decks. It’s a 3-CMC (2 generic, 1 Green) enchantment that allows you to exile a creature you control to add X mana of any one color, where X is the creature’s mana cost + 1. However, this can only be spent to cast creatures. The thing is that Squee, the Immortal can be cast from your graveyard or from exile, meaning that with just these two cards, you already have an infinite mana combo – all you need is an outlet for it. The price to pay is that your little goblin will be some other creature’s dinner.
This combo can also work with cards like Eternal Scourge and Misthollow Griffin, as they share a similar effect to that of Squee, the Immortal.
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar + Scythe of the Wretched + Gluttonous Troll
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, Asmo for short, is often used in food-themed decks thanks to its ability to tutor The Underworld Cookbook, but in this case, there’s another fitting combo to pull. This has to do with Scythe of the Wretched, an artifact equipment that gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and says that whenever a creature that is dealt damage by the creature equipped with this card is put into a graveyard, you can return it to the battlefield under your control. Gluttonous Troll, on the other hand, is a 4-CMC 3/3 creature that creates one Food Token per opponent you have when it enters, so three in Commander. Finally, Asmo has an ability that allows you to sacrifice two Food Tokens to have a creature deal 6 damage to itself. This means that Gluttonous Troll, equipped with Scythe of the Wretched, returns to the battlefield if it deals 6 damage to itself this way, generating endless Food Tokens, ETB triggers, LTB triggers, and death triggers.
The Fourth Doctor + Displacer Kitten + Sensei’s Divining Top + Gran-Gran
Doctor Who‘s MTG crossover produced a fun card in The Fourth Doctor, which creates Food Tokens once per turn if you play a historic spell from your hand or the top of your library. This works wonders with Sense’s Divining Top, which can be played for free if you have the new Gran-Gran card from the Avatar set on the battlefield and three or more lesson cards in your graveyard. When casting Sensei’s Divining Top this way, Displacer Kitten and The Fourth Doctor trigger. You can put both triggers on the stack, then resolve Displacer Kitten’s first, have it blink The Fourth Doctor, then trigger The Fourth Doctor and generate a Food Token. The fact that The Fourth Doctor returned to the battlefield means its ability can trigger again, so you can use Sensei’s Divining Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library, which starts the infinite combo for infinite card draw, infinite ETBs, infinite LTBs, infinite draw triggers, infinite storm triggers, and infinite Food Tokens.
Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain + Academy Manufactor + Deadeye Navigator
Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain is a 2-CMC creature that allows opponents to investigate (create a Clue Token) or lose 1 life if they don’t, which triggers every time Wernog enters or leaves the field. Then, you investigate once for each opponent who investigated. If Wernog is paired with Deadeye Navigator, it can be blinked for 1 generic and 1 Blue, meaning that its ability procs twice. If you have Academy Manufactor on the field, then you also create a Treasure Token and a Food Token every time you investigate, leading to endless ETBs, endless LTBs, endless Clue, Treasure, and Food Tokens, infinite lifegain, infinite card draw, infinite draw triggers, and infinite mana.
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron + Fire Nation Archers + Phyrexian Altar
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is the same character behind the infamous Izzet Cauldron MTG deck that terrorized Standard for months, but the cards are quite different. Agatha allows you to pay X less for your activated abilities of creatures you control, where X is its power. If Agatha’s power is 4 or more, you can pay 1 generic to activate the ability on the new Fire Nation Archers card, dealing 2 damage to each opponent and creating a 2/2 creature token. With Phyrexian Altar, you can then sacrifice the token to add 1 mana to your pool, which can be spent to trigger Fire Nation Archers again, dealing infinite damage to your opponents.
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron + The Destined White Mage + Triskelion
Now it’s the turn of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, which is not meant to combo with MTG‘s Vivi Ornitier, but rather, with The Destined White Mage, which is also from Final Fantasy. This card has lifelink and the ability to make you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control whenever you gain life. If The Destined White Mage has at least one +1/+1 counter on itself, and with Triskelion exiled by Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, you can activate Triskelion’s ability on The Destined White Mage and remove one +1/+1 counter from itself to deal 1 damage to any target. Since The Destined White Mage has lifelink, you gain 1 life, allowing you to put a +1/+1 counter on the mage again. This enables an infinite damage and infinite lifegain combo. All you have to do is cook up a Triskelion.
The 27 Best Food Cards in Magic: The Gathering For Your Thanksgiving Celebration
1 – Astral Cornucopia
Not exactly the cornucopia you’d have on your table, Astral Cornucopia is an artifact that costs X mana multiplied by three, and it enters with X charge counters. This can be incredibly powerful when paired with MTG‘s Counter Intelligence EoE Commander deck, as it already features cards with proliferate that create more counters on existing permanents, meaning that Astral Cornucopia can be tapped for a huge amount of mana.
2 – Bagel and Schmear
A card from the recent Spider-Man set in MTG, Bagel and Schmear may be more akin to the food you’re familiar with, and that’s because it’s from a set that takes place in New York. It’s also a Food artifact, so now you know what combos to play with it.
3 – Bake into a Pie
Bake into a Pie may very well be a Sweeney Todd card, and while you may not like monsters for dinner, someone in MTG‘s planes may gladly have them for dinner. 4-CMC to destroy a creature and make a Food Token is not exceptional, but it’s not too shabby either.
4 – Banquet Guests
Hopefully, those you will be expecting are Banquet Guests. A creature that enters with twice X +1/+1 counters on itself based on how much mana you spent to cast it, it can be the perfect outlet for your Food Chain + Squee combo, especially if you have Anger in the graveyard to give it haste.
5 – Carrot Cake
You may be picturing a nice, human-grade carrot cake, but the art on this Bloomburrow card suggests something different. Not very powerful per se, but it could make for a nice combo with MTG‘s Hare Apparent with those rabbit tokens.
6 – City Pigeon
Often treated poorly, pigeons are actually smart, loving creatures who humans abandoned after they were no longer needed. Ever loyal, the City Pigeon from Spider-Man is a trusty attacker as a 1-mana 1/1 with flying, and it generates a Food Token when leaving the field. Note that it says “leave the field,” meaning this triggers off of blink effects, return to hand, exile, and more.
7 – Eriette’s Tempting Apple
Eriette’s Tempting Apple is a bit of a jack of all trades, as it allows you to take control of a creature and gives it haste when it enters, and then it behaves either like a regular Food Token or the opposite – dealing 3 damage to one opponent.
8 – Fry
Not the KFC dinner you may be hoping for, Fry is a powerful spell that costs 1 generic and 1 Red, cannot be countered, and deals 5 damage to a blue or white creature. It also works on MTG‘s Planeswalkers, so it’s perfect against the ever-powerful Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar.
9 – Food Fight
Food Fight is not a super strong card in MTG, but at least it’s a flavorful one. It reads: “With no time to gather weapons, the dwarves fought the redcaps with anything within reach,” which apparently includes food.
10 – Gilded Goose
Gilded Goose is just one of the strongest mana dorks in MTG if built around properly. 1 Green for a 0/2 with flying that creates a Food Token when it enters, creates as many Food Tokens as you like for 2 mana, and allows you to add one mana to your pool if you sacrifice a Food is indeed a great deal.
11 – Gingerbread Cabin
Gingerbread Cabin is a rather simple card. It’s a land that taps for Green, and it enters tapped unless you control three or more Forests. If it enters untapped, though, you create a Food Token. While expensive, it’s great alongside the OG dual lands in MTG.
12 – Gingerbrute
A gingerbread man will never be a brute, and Gingerbrute proves the point with its 1-mana 1/1 body. It’s very cute, though.
13 – Gourmand’s Talent
MTG‘s enchantment class cards are very powerful, and Gourmand’s Talent is no joke either. It makes artifacts you control Foods, and then it becomes even more powerful when upgraded to levels 2 and 3.
14 – Gyome, Master Chef
What better food card than a Master Chef? It’s not the popular TV show with the same name, but it’s still a powerful Golgari card to include in your Ygra decks.
15 – Heaped Harvest
Heaped Harvest is a great card, acting as a tutor both when it enters and when you sacrifice it. Watch out for those Wan Shi Tong MTG players at the table, though.
16 – Horn of Plenty
The Horn of Plenty has some dubious food depicted on its art, and it’s equally odd in gameplay, allowing players to pay 1 to draw a card whenever they cast a spell.
17 – Hot Dog Cart
Another card from Spider-Man, Hot Dog Cart is a mana rock that also creates a Food Token. It can be pretty handy in food-themed decks.
18 – Hurska Sweet-Tooth
This lovely bear is here to help you generate Food Tokens left and right, and you can use it in lifegain decks for bigger gains, too.
19 – Late to Dinner
Hopefully, not what happens to you or your guests on Thanksgiving, but Late to Dinner is a nice card that makes you return a creature to the field from the graveyard and also generates a Food Token.
20 – Midnight Snack
Midnight Snack has some niche uses, and it can be particularly good in Abzan decks revolving around Food Tokens and lifegain. This includes the aforementioned Samwise Gamgee deck.
21 – Nuka-Cola Vending Machine
MTG‘s Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is a one-of-a-kind card that only came from the Fallout precons, and it’s worth quite a lot. This is because it’s a powerful enabler for Food combos, creating Treasure tokens to sustain high-mana strategies.
22 – Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit is a saga card, and while it’s not as powerful as the likes of Urza’s Saga, it can elevate your Food-themed decks to the next level.
23 – Rocco, Street Chef
A very popular commander, Rocco, Street Chef is the perfect card to embody the meaning of Thanksgiving, as it allows your fellow players to cast cards from the top of their libraries. You do get some benefits as well, which makes it quite powerful.
24 – Sugar Coat
Sugar Coat is a very fun card that enchants a creature or Food and makes it have the ability of a Food token. Very flavorful, and it’s a Blue spell.
25 – Tireless Provisioner
Tireless Provisioner is likely one of the best combo pieces in Magic: The Gathering, creating a Food Token whenever you play a land. Yep, landfall is that busted.
26 – Tough Cookie
The bigger, more menacing sibling of Gingerbrute, Tough Cookie is a fantastically flavorful card from Wilds of Eldraine with some nice combos and the usual synergy with Food Tokens. Definitely recommended for Food decks.
27 – Witch’s Oven
Last but not least, Witch’s Oven is the perfect capstone for the best food-themed cards in MTG. It can be a combo piece for Food Token decks that also thrive on sacrificing creatures, such as a Commander deck for Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, and it’s even better if you use it on bigger creatures. Green decks will love it.
- Released
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September 27, 2018
- ESRB
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T for Teen // Blood and Gore, Mild Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Wizards of the Coast, Wizards Digital Games Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Wizards of the Coast
