Source transparency: This Digest item is based primarily on reporting from MTG Rocks. TMF summarizes and interprets the news; original reporting remains credited and linked.
Khan, Vengeful Heart gives Food Chain a new partner in the Star Trek previews. The four-mana creature can be cast from exile, while Food Chain can exile a creature you control to produce mana equal to its mana value plus one. Repeating the two actions produces an arbitrarily large pool of mana restricted to casting creature spells.
Khan costs two generic and two black mana. Exiling him to Food Chain makes five mana of one color; choosing black allows him to be recast for four, leaving one mana behind. Repeat while both cards remain available. This is not a graveyard loop: Khan is exiled and cast again, so ordinary reanimation is unnecessary.
The restriction on Food Chain's mana is central. It cannot simply be spent on a noncreature win condition or an activated ability. A creature such as Walking Ballista can convert the mana through its casting cost; other finishers need to be legal in the deck's color identity and actually payable with the available resources.
Khan's enters ability supplies a possible second engine, but it requires another creature or artifact to sacrifice in exchange for two cards. The mana loop alone does not draw anything. A Commander deck using Khan in the 99 can, for example, repeatedly sacrifice and recast a creature commander once sufficient creature-casting mana has been generated. Crucially, Khan must also be exiled and recast each iteration to trigger the sacrifice ability again. Leaving Khan on the battlefield and merely recasting the commander does not repeat his enters trigger.
This version needs the commander, both engine pieces and time to execute the casts. Commander tax still increases, although an already unbounded pool can pay it. If Khan himself is the commander, that does not supply a second creature to sacrifice; another repeatable resource is required.
The cards are previews, not evidence of an established tournament deck. Removal of Food Chain, countering a recast Khan or disrupting the separate payoff can stop the plan. Its significance is a newly revealed, precisely defined engine—not proof that an existing competitive strategy has already been replaced.
Khan costs two generic and two black mana. Exiling him to Food Chain makes five mana of one color; choosing black allows him to be recast for four, leaving one mana behind. Repeat while both cards remain available. This is not a graveyard loop: Khan is exiled and cast again, so ordinary reanimation is unnecessary.
The restriction on Food Chain's mana is central. It cannot simply be spent on a noncreature win condition or an activated ability. A creature such as Walking Ballista can convert the mana through its casting cost; other finishers need to be legal in the deck's color identity and actually payable with the available resources.
Khan's enters ability supplies a possible second engine, but it requires another creature or artifact to sacrifice in exchange for two cards. The mana loop alone does not draw anything. A Commander deck using Khan in the 99 can, for example, repeatedly sacrifice and recast a creature commander once sufficient creature-casting mana has been generated. Crucially, Khan must also be exiled and recast each iteration to trigger the sacrifice ability again. Leaving Khan on the battlefield and merely recasting the commander does not repeat his enters trigger.
This version needs the commander, both engine pieces and time to execute the casts. Commander tax still increases, although an already unbounded pool can pay it. If Khan himself is the commander, that does not supply a second creature to sacrifice; another repeatable resource is required.
The cards are previews, not evidence of an established tournament deck. Removal of Food Chain, countering a recast Khan or disrupting the separate payoff can stop the plan. Its significance is a newly revealed, precisely defined engine—not proof that an existing competitive strategy has already been replaced.
Original source: New MTG Star Trek Legend Goes Infinite With Food Chain ↗MTG Rocks