It may be hard to believe now, but there was a time when the tables ofMagic: The Gatheringlay bare, with nary a scrap of sustenance in sight. This all changed with Throne of Eldraine, which introduced Food tokens: an extremely flavorful addition, both literally and figuratively.
Since then, Food tokens have reared their tasty heads in many other expansions and products, resulting in a suite (sweet?) of synergistic options for any deck dedicated to their creation. These are the very best cards in that category: the show-stopping centrepieces that look just as good on the dinner table as they do on your playmat.
10Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar And The Underworld Cookbook
Stoke The Culinary Coals
It may seem like cheating to include two cards in a single entry, but that’s honestly on-theme for Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, a card with such an unusual casting condition that playing it at all feels like cheating in a sense. In addition, the two blend so perfectly that it’s unlikely you’d ever run one without the other.
Once you cast Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, you can tutor up her trusty Underworld Cookbook, an all-in-one Food creation engine and discard outlet. This helps to set up Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar’ssurprisingly potent removal effect, which one can only imagine involves force-feeding opposing creatures to death, and can even bring her back later on if need be.
9Gilded Goose
Your Goose Is Cooked
Birds of Paradise is a multi-format staple for good reason, and Gilded Goose is a worthy sidegrade that introduces a multitude of play possibilities. While it can onlyserve as a mana dorkfor a single turn initially, there are so many cards that produce Food tokens that it can reliably supply you with ramp and fixing for much of the game.
This alone would likely make Gilded Goose worth playing, but it has one final trick up its wing: the ability to produce Food itself, at an extremely reasonable rate. This gives the card value long after most mana dorks have given up the Goose, and makes it an auto-include in most Food-centric lists.
8Cauldron Familiar
Flan’s Best Friend
One of the most infamous Food support cards ever printed, this cunning Cat should be Familiar to anyone who’s played Magic at all since 2020. The lack of any limits on its reanimation effect, combined with a simple drain-life-on-entering trigger, results in a card thatenables more combosthan a premium fightstick.
Most players cottoned on to the synergy Cauldron Familiar has with Witch’s Oven early on, and the two went on to define their very own deck type, the notorious, and aptly-named, Cat-Oven. Beyond that, though, the card plays so well with so many different Food generators that it’s almost harder not to combo off with it once it’s in your deck.
7Restless Cottage
Creature lands have always been strong performers across a range of formats, Standard and Commander in particular, and Wilds of Eldraine’s Restless Cottage is no exception. In exchange for entering tapped, you get a green/black land that can transform into a beefy 4/4 creature, with not-insignificant upsides, when needed.
Each time the Cottage attacks you not only get to exile something from a graveyard, letting youcombat Reanimator decksand the like, but you also get to create a Food token. This is a nice bit of incidental value, and one that elevates Restless Cottage from a solid tech card to a staple inclusion in the majority of Food decks.
6Tough Cookie
Crumble Before This Fighting Food
One of the best ways to keep track of power creep in Magic is to check what kinds of creatures you can get for two mana in a recent set. Back in Alpha it would pay for a vanilla 2/2 Bear with no abilities, but in Wilds of Eldraine it gets you a 2/2 Food Golem with a veritable smorgasbord of upside.
Not only is Tough Cookie a Food itself, giving it synergy with everything else on this list and beyond, but it also gives you another food on entry, and can turn your Food, or any noncreature artifacts, into 4/4’s for a reasonable cost.
5Oko, Thief Of Crowns
The Prodigal Son Of The Food Archetype
Oko needs no introduction. In terms of multi-format impact, he may just be the most broken modern Magic card ever printed, creating a very reasonable case for expanding the Power Nine to a Power Ten. Even today, after four years worth of dust settling, he remains banned in five different constructed formats.
This is largely down to his ridiculous +1 ability, which can nullify any threat while also bolstering Oko’s loyalty, but his +2, which makes a Food token, is no slouch either. It creates a six loyalty planeswalker for just three mana, and gives you a valuable resource in the progress, making him a Food deck staple in the three formats he’s still legal in.
4Feasting Troll King
Why Pay Mana When You Can Pay Food?
Any time a Magic card gives you the option of substituting a different resource, be it life, creatures, or cards in graveyards, for mana, that card is worth a second look. Feasting Troll King does just that, letting you cast a monstrous 7/6 vigilant trampler for free if you have three Foods to sacrifice, and the King himself is in your graveyard.
Those conditions are surprisingly easy to achieve, meaning you may get this creature out very early on in many circumstances. Even if your opponent can remove it, unless they can exile it too it’ll just keep coming back every time you reach three Foods, making their eventual defeat all but inevitable.
3Samwise Gamgee
But What About Infinite Breakfasts?
The Hobbits of The Lord of the Rings are well-known for their voracious appetites, but Samwise Gamgee takes the concept to a whole new level. Combined with Cauldron Familiar andany kind of sacrifice outlet, Samwise can create infinite Food tokens, and infinite damage, incredibly easily.
This is largely due to his first ability, which gives you a Food whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control. This raw combo potential alone is enough to warrant Sam’s place on this list, but he also plays perfectly well as a fair card too, thanks to his grindy second ability.
2Night Of The Sweets’ Revenge
A Dish Best Served Cold
A card that really rewards you for going all-in on the Food archetype, Night of the Sweets’ Revenge is a Food token, ramp engine, and win condition for the deck all in one. Turning all of your Foods into Llanowar Elves is excellent, giving the tokens themselves some much-needed utility, but the second ability is where things get really interesting.
For seven mana, you can unleash a kind of mega-Overrun effect that scales up based on the Foods you have in play. The Foods themselves can largely pay for this cost thanks to the mana production ability, at which point all you’ll need is some evasive creatures to finish off the majority of games.
1Brenard, Ginger Sculptor
The Great Multiverse Bake Off
One of the hand-crafted, archetype-specific commanders that have become incredibly common in recent years, Brenard is the best Food deck commander in the game and it’s not particularly close. Not only does he give a huge boost to your Food creatures, the Gingerbrutes and Tough Cookies of the world, but he also creates them each time one of your creatures dies.
Creating 1/1 Food Golems would be good enough, but the fact that those tokens also inherit the abilities of the deceased pushes this so far over the top that it reaches the stratosphere. Brenard is so powerful, in fact, that he single-handedly gives Food decks legs, albeit stubby gingerbread legs, in the Commander format.
