I don't mean are they tasty. I mean are they all that powerful?
I missed a lot of years of new cards, design theory, etc. Forgive my ignorance. How well do food tokens hold up in constructed, much play there?
After looking through Gatherer, it seems there aren't any cards that create a food each upkeep? Seems like a natural design.
Prairie Farmer -
Creature - Human Farmer (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, create a Food token. (It's an artifact with ", , Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
Vigilance
1/2
Would that be printable? How is the power level?
Thank you!
Are food tokens any good?
Reprinted
Yes and no. At a baseline, food tokens are bottled Healing Salves - you pay mana to gain some life, which is... not very strong. There are certainly some matchups where some lifegain is nice to have, but as a dedicated strategy it's pretty inefficient.
However, there have also been a bunch of food support cards printed over the years - Wicked Wolf, Bristlebud Farmer, Academy Manufactor, etc. One benefit of food's relatively low power level is that there are a number of cards that can pump them out at an extremely efficient rate, which can enable all sorts of other synergies. There have also been a couple of food-based combos that have been competitive at various times - Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar + The Underworld Cookbook + Ovalchase Daredevil and Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven / Samwise Gamgee are probably the most notable ones. You're probably not going to be activating the food to gain life that often, but still....
Looking at broader formats... there aren't any food-based decks I'm aware of that are currently viable in 60-card formats, but it's still a popular theme in commander.
As for Prairie Farmer in particular... I think it would be okay in terms of power level for constructed formats, but repeatable lifegain / food production can be an issue in limited formats due to their ability to create stalls. Paying 2 mana to gain 3 life is above Oracle of Nectars, which is probably more efficient than is healthy for limited formats. As a result, I'm not sure if it would be printable at uncommon (and it's a bit too simple to be a rare). One alternative would be to turn it into an attack trigger or some other trigger that rewards progressing the game, similar to Savvy Hunter.
However, there have also been a bunch of food support cards printed over the years - Wicked Wolf, Bristlebud Farmer, Academy Manufactor, etc. One benefit of food's relatively low power level is that there are a number of cards that can pump them out at an extremely efficient rate, which can enable all sorts of other synergies. There have also been a couple of food-based combos that have been competitive at various times - Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar + The Underworld Cookbook + Ovalchase Daredevil and Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven / Samwise Gamgee are probably the most notable ones. You're probably not going to be activating the food to gain life that often, but still....
Looking at broader formats... there aren't any food-based decks I'm aware of that are currently viable in 60-card formats, but it's still a popular theme in commander.
As for Prairie Farmer in particular... I think it would be okay in terms of power level for constructed formats, but repeatable lifegain / food production can be an issue in limited formats due to their ability to create stalls. Paying 2 mana to gain 3 life is above Oracle of Nectars, which is probably more efficient than is healthy for limited formats. As a result, I'm not sure if it would be printable at uncommon (and it's a bit too simple to be a rare). One alternative would be to turn it into an attack trigger or some other trigger that rewards progressing the game, similar to Savvy Hunter.
Bad %$#% gamer
In general they seem like a pretty casual if not fundamentally flavorful thing from my perspective. Lifegain isn't as meaningful as it used to be and you're paying mana for a tiny bit of lifegain. It's typically one of the last type of tokens I personally would think to use when designing a card I would intend to be competitively playable.
The point of the Food archetypes is not to gain incremental, irrelevant amounts of life. They're currency to be bartered with - see Giant Opportunity or Insatiable Appetite or the very straightforward Maraleaf Rider. Sometimes there's a Pridemate style 'life gain matters' context too; the life total still isn't the point, though. You could also leverage Food as just 'an artifact you control' which is relevant for metalcraft, or Regal Bunnicorn or what have you, or the artifact animation deck we saw recently that made Nutrient Block so fearsome.
formerly willows
