If you've followed my writing for very long, you'll know that I have no issue with lower powered decks that include cards that can really pack a punch. A goofy, janky deck like last week's Obuna Grandsquall with a Primal Surge wincon may not hit it very often, but that can make those rare games where you hit it all the more sweet.

Today's column is a deck that packs a very powerful combo, but it's one which requires a bunch of additional pieces to truly live its best life. The commander I'm building around this week is an odd duck... or more accurately, an odd goose.

This 2/2 Bird Hydra is in Simic colors and has an X in her casting cost. I can play her for two mana as a 2/2, but if I pay extra she will enter the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters. If that X value is greater than zero I'll also get to make Food tokens. Her enter the battlefield trigger creates half X Food tokens, rounded up. When she attacks, I may sacrifice a Food and draw a card. That's hardly a game-breaking amount of card draw, but it's something.

When I see a card with X in its casting cost, I tend to think about how to best make big mana - and there's no bigger mana than infinite mana. Having a huge commander with flying is great, but it's a little more interesting to figure out a way to try to win the game with a huge number of Food tokens. I'll still swing with an enormous Bird Hydra if I get the chance, but this deck's best games will be when I get to play with my food.

Food Chain Goose Mother

There are plenty of combos that can work in Simic colors to make a huge amount of mana. I decided to go with Food Chain but there's no reason you couldn't include another combo or even multiple combos that generate infinite mana.

I was drawn to Food Chain combo because it's not a perfect fit for The Goose Mother. You can generate infinite mana but you can only use that mana to cast creature spells. I can cast an arbitrarily large The Goose Mother and make a huge number of Food Tokens.

While I want to play with my food tokens, I don't want to play with my food. By that I mean that I'll be swinging my commander and if my tablemates don't have flying blockers and they don't have removal, I might be able to kill the table just through combat damage. I'm not going to hold back a lethal threat just to mess around with my other wincon.

That other wincon is why I'm excited about this deck. It's goofy. It's weird. It's a way to kill the table through combat that requires jumping through quite a few hoops.

Playing with my Food (tokens)

My alternate wincon is all about playing with my food. I'll never have the mana to crack them all and turn them into crazy amounts of lifegain. Those tokens require two mana and my Food Chain mana is only usable to cast creatures.

What I aim to do is turn them all into creatures!

Rise and Shine is a sorcery that can make target noncreature artifact into a 0/0 artifact creature with four +1/+1 counters on it. If I overload it for six mana, I'll be able to do this to all of my noncreature artifacts. Cyberdrive Awakener is a six-mana Construct who gives my artifact creatures flying and will turn my noncreature artifacts into 4/4 artifact creatures until end of turn.

Masterful Replication will let me pick an artifact I control and each other artifact I control becomes a copy of that artifact until end of turn. If I pick an artifact creature, I'll have an army to swing with. If I pick a creature that gives other artifact creatures I control +1/+1, like Master of Etherium, they'll all be huge.

I also decided to run March of the Machines in this deck. It will turn each noncreature artifact into an artifact creature with power and toughness equal to its converted mana cost. That could serve as a neat way to prevent my tablemates from using Treasures and Clues, but it would also kill off all of my Food tokens. To deal with that issue, I'm running a bunch of anthem effects. Gaea's Anthem, The Immortal Sun, Unctus, Grand Metatect, Chief of the Foundry and the aforementioned Master of Etherium can all keep my animated Food creatures alive long enough to swing out and kill the table.

Night of the Sweets' Revenge is an enchantment that will create a Food token when it enters the battlefield, and will let me tap my Food for mana. Jaheira, Friend of the Forest is also in the deck, as is Urza, Lord High Artificer, both of which will let me turn those Food tokens into mana rocks. Where Night of the Sweets' Revenge really shines is with its final ability. For seven mana, two of which must be green, I can sacrifice it and give my creatures +X/+X where X is the number of Foods I control. I have to do that at sorcery speed, but it's a heck of a way to pump up my team for an alpha strike even if I haven't cooked up my own little Food army.

Mechanized Production is an enchantment that will let me win the game if I control eight or more artifacts with the same name as one another. That wincon is on a "beginning of upkeep" trigger, but it's still worth running as another way to try to close out the game. I prefer wincons that involve going to combat, but there's room in this list for a noncombat wincon.

The biggest sleeper in this deck may wind up being Esix, Fractal Bloom. If I can cast a big The Goose Mother and make a charcuterie board full of Food Tokens, Esix will let me have those tokens enter the battlefield as copies of another creature. This ability does not target, so it would get around shroud, hexproof and ward. Given all of the spicy creatures people love to play in Commander, even a modestly large The Goose Mother could give me some pretty incredible results.

Artifacts Matter

This ended up being a very artifact-heavy deck. I'm in Simic, but decided to run a bunch of mana rocks, Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart, Skittering Surveyor, and Pilgrim's Eye anyways. I've got a much heavier artifact focus than your average Simic deck, so I had to play a few cards that would play into that strategy.

Nettlecyst gives +1/+1 to the equipped creature for each artifact and enchantment you control. This will let you turn a small threat into a big threat, or possibly a lethal threat if really gone crazy making artifact tokens. Clan Crafter is a background enchantment that gives your commander the ability to let you sacrifice an artifact for 2 mana to put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card. This is a great way to turn those Food tokens into card draw. Shimmer Dragon will also give me card draw by letting me tap two artifacts to draw a card.

All of this could lead to a Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries wincon, but I didn't want to run those game enders in this deck. I've got a few other ways to try to make the most of my Food tokens.

Academy Manufactor will be an all-star in any list that makes Food or Clue tokens. If you make a Food, Clue or a Treasure, instead you make one of each. Trail of Crumbs is an enchantment that makes a Food token when it enters the battlefield. It lets you check the top 2 cards of your library when you sacrifice a food and put a permanent from among them into your hand. Kuldotha Forgemaster is a creature that taps to let you sacrifice three artifacts to tutor up an artifact. Whether that artifact is Academy Manufactor, Nettlecyst or something else entirely, you probably won't miss three Food tokens.

Silly Goose

If you're not inclined to want to run Food Chain in anything but your sweatiest high power deck, you could drop it and the two cast-from-exile creatures out and run something else. A few mana dorks might make the cut, and if you want to push that artifact theme you could always run Silver Myr, Copper Myr and Alloy Myr. You'll be playing a fairer game, and not every meta is right for cards like Food Chain.

If you wanted to push this deck's power level up, I don't think there's too much more you can do. Fast mana and more infinite mana combos might help, along with all those free counterspells you find in high power metas, but you'll still find yourself on par with other high powered decks. The Goose Mother isn't a natural Food Chain commander, as it doesn't represent a singular wincon in the command zone like Prossh, Skyraider of Kher or Ukkima, Stalking Shadow.

Silly Goose Commander | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Goose Mother

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Academy Manufactor
• 1 Ancient Bronze Dragon
• 1 Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Chief of the Foundry
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Cyberdrive Awakener
• 1 Esix, Fractal Bloom
• 1 Eternal Scourge
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Jaheira, Friend of the Forest
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 1 Misthollow Griffin
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Old Gnawbone
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Quandrix Cultivator
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Shimmer Dragon
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Unctus, Grand Metatect
• 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer

• Instants (10)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Masterful Replication
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Swan Song

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rise and Shine
• 1 Thoughtcast

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Clan Crafter
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Food Chain
• 1 Gaea's Anthem
• 1 March of the Machines
• 1 Mechanized Production
• 1 Night of the Sweets' Revenge
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Trail of Crumbs

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Forsaken Monument
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Ring of Three Wishes
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Tamiyo's Journal
• 1 The Immortal Sun

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Oko, Thief of Crowns
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

• Lands (37)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Vineglimmer Snarl
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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I haven't done a ton of deckbuilding around Food tokens, so there may well be synergies and cards I've overlooked in putting this list together. I think it's pretty solid, with obvious weaknesses to creature-heavy aggro decks. If you decide to build this you'll want to adapt it to your meta. You might need more counterspells. You might need more removal. Every meta is different and you should have a feel for what you need to be able to keep up with your tablemates.

Early Results

I got a chance to play this list in my weekly online Tabletop Simulator group and can report on how the deck played. One game is a small sample size, but I definitely had some takeaways.

I was up against a Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa / Jeska, Thrice Reborn deck, a Verrak, Warped Sengir deck and a third deck that put out a bunch of wolves but got stuck on four lands. For the life of me I can't recall their commander, but they got out ahead of all of us and had a wide board of relatively small creatures. The Verrak deck was built to pay life and squeeze value out of landfall triggers by abusing fetch lands. The partners deck had killed me before, and I knew it had the capacity to knock people out with that Jeska triple damage loyalty ability.

I had a slow start, playing The Goose Mother for three mana so I could have a 3/3 and get a Food token. I lucked into an early Academy Manufactor, but somehow that didn't draw removal until the very end. I didn't have more than two creatures for most of the game and was lucky the table wasn't on aggro decks.

I played out an Oko, Thief of Crowns, turned Verrak into an Elk, but a few turns later saw my planeswalker killed. I was able to make a Food, a Clue and a Treasure thanks to Oko's first ability and my Academy Manufactor. I had also played out an early Clan Crafter and Night of the Sweets' Revenge and spent a few turns tapping my Food for mana and sacrificing Clues to put counters on The Goose Mother. That also drew me cards, which is always nice.

The key point in the game was probably when I decided to play The Immortal Sun. I asked beforehand if anyone was heavily on planeswalkers, not really wanting to shut anyone out of their deck. I had completely forgotten that the Sidar Kondo / Jeska player was looking to murder us with that triple damage ability. The Immortal Sun keeps players from activating planeswalkers' loyalty abilities, so that kept Jeska off the field. It also might have saved us, as I believe he was going to play her on the next turn and hit someone for a boatload of damage. In retrospect I felt a little bad, but only a little. I've been hit by that truck before and it didn't feel great.

My plan of making a ton of Food into creatures and swinging with them didn't seem like it was going to play out, but I was drawing extra cards and I got my Gaea's Anthem out so my creatures now had a +2/+2 boost. If I drew into what I needed, I'd have a chance at shooting for that wincon. My deck wasn't giving me enough creatures to feel good about swinging with The Goose Mother and not having it available as a blocker.

When I pulled into Misthollow Griffin I was hopeful, but decided to keep it in hand unless I desperately needed a blocker. I still had my commander and my Academy Manufactor on the field. When I then pulled into Ring of Three Wishes I realized I had a chance to go for it. I played it out and left mana up for the Beast Within and Heroic Intervention in my hand, and on the end step of the player to my right I tutored for Food Chain.

It's worth noting that the player to my right had been leaving mana open nearly every turn, using an artifact - Fifty Feet of Rope - on the end step before their turn. Opponents having open mana is always spooky, especially when you're trying to nail down a combo or a big, explosive play that might win the game. On his turn he finally tapped out to play some spells so I felt a little better about going for it.

On my turn I played out Food Chain and then Misthollow Griffin, though with Griffin on the stack I had a back and forth with the Verrak player. He had a Font of Agonies that I had overlooked and he used it to kill my board before I was able to remove Font with my Beast Within. It wouldn't have stopped the combo, as I could exile Griffin with a Font of Agonies activation on the stack. Once that was out of the way, I used Misthollow Griffin to make infinite mana.

I played The Goose Mother for X = 2000, making 1000 Food tokens and then it got awkward. Food Chain mana is only usable for casting creature spells, so I'd have to jump through some hoops to get the win.

It was clear folks weren't thrilled, but that's par for the course in EDH. I'm not thrilled when someone else pulls into a wincon, so I couldn't blame any of them. It was definitely deep enough into the game that it didn't seem like an early combo pubstomp.

Being the first time I had played this particular list and this particular combo, and being online rather than in paper, it wasn't obvious to me what would be the most graceful way to play it out. I showed that I could use Night of the Sweets' Revenge to use Food tokens to make mana, and I could use Clan Crafter to turn that mana into card draw. I could draw my deck, overload a Cyclonic Rift, protect my board with counterspells, and then turn my Food tokens into creatures on my next turn with any of a number of spells for the win.

The table conceded the win, but it didn't feel as exciting as I had hoped it might. In part I blame Tabletop Simulator, as it's no replacement for the feeling of drawing all of those cards. In part I blame the fact that it was the first time I was playing the deck. The fact that the table had no answers and I had caught someone tapped out led to a deflated feeling. I did the thing, and yet I still felt a little bad.

I'm not convinced this game is evidence that certain cards don't belong in more casual games, but our Thursday night games are never perfectly power-balanced. Often I'm the one in the shallow end of the pool and I get overwhelmed by an avalanche of value from the other guys, all of which are experienced and capable players. This time I was the one with a surprise they weren't ready for. It happens, and in a number of ways I got pretty lucky in how the game played out.

Final Thoughts

I do think Food Chain Goose Mother is a fun mid-to-high-powered deck that can probably be tuned up a bit with faster mana and more interaction and tutors, but it's possible I was coming in too hot for the table. It happens, but it's just as likely that if I hadn't played The Immortal Sun when I did, we all would have been murdered right quick by some tripled combat damage thanks to Jeska, Thrice Reborn. Maybe something else would have happened that would have given us a different and equally unexpected ending.

On some level it's a pity that my Thursday night group hadn't had the chance to see last week's Obuna Grandsquall deck that I just wasn't having any luck with. The thing about variance in EDH is that you can have a deck feel amazing in one game and utterly worthless in another, just through the luck of what you draw into, who you're up against, and how their decks also happen to play in that particular game. Variance is real. My luck with Goose Mother that night was good. My luck with Obuna was not that great. Those games could just as easily have played out the other way around.

I'll admit that it was nice to be able to report on a deck doing well, especially when my turnaround on the build and the column was less than a day. As I wrote this wrapup, the previous morning I had no idea what I was going to write for this column. I checked our CSI Commander writers' spreadsheet, picked The Goose Mother, brewed up the list, punched it into TappedOut.net (yes, I still use it), started the column, played my Thursday night game, and was able to wrap up the column all within a 24-hour span.

If you enjoy playing oddball commanders that have a whimsical flavor but can pack a punch, The Goose Mother is definitely worth a look. Whether you lean towards combo, play a fair mid-powered game, or build a deck with as many geese as you can find just for the LOLs, there is definitely fun to be had with this silly goose.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!