First off, is this the bitch-ass Elesh Norn player again? Cause it sounds like it.
Second, if you had to give them a
Food Chain list, why did it have to be a good one? I could have made you a list that looked deceptively good, but is actually trash.
Food Chain Sliver is a top-tier competitive deck, so it's going to be hard to beat if you're not also using a top-tier deck.
Third, let me get the apology out to Soren841. I'm about to tell everyone how to beat your deck.
Let's do this. Here's the decklist for everyone's reference. Throughout this posts some card names will be in
red font. These are cards that sometimes show up in other
Food Chain decks, but are notably absent from Soren841's list.
https://deckstats.net/decks/86132/1303784-sliver-hulk/Deck Overview
First
Sliver Food Chain is different from most
Sliver decks. Notably: no slivers. It's a proactive combo deck, which means it focuses on speed; it goes for it's combo quickly and only interacts with other decks if they
threaten the combo.
The First Sliver decks I've seen have a consistent turn 3 win, with backup wins on turn 4 (I'll get to that in a second).
Primary Combo: Somehow, the deck gets
Food Chain on the battlefield, and has either
Eternal Scourge,
Misthollow Griffin, or
Squee, the Immortal in
exile (I'm going to call them "
Food Chain creatures" from now on). Because the deck is in 5 colors it has access to literally every commander-legal tutor. Three of note are
Tainted Pact,
Demonic Consultation, and
Plunge into Darkness. Because these cards
exile a large chunk of the deck in search of one card, it is also very likely that one of the
Food Chain creatures will get exiled. They also periodically cause the deck to commit seppuku as all the win-cons get exiled, which is also fun to watch.
Extract,
Foresight, and
Manipulate Fate are also used to get the
Food Chain creatures. Also, mana dorks can be exiled with
Food Chain to cast the
Food Chain creature, so the combo can start with as little as 3 mana.
After this has been assembled, the deck generates infinite mana that can only be cast on creatures.
The First Sliver gets cast, cascades, and is "sacrificed" to
Food Chain so she can be cast again. Whatever is left of the deck gets cast. In the case of this deck,
Goblin Bombardment is the outlet and
Riftsweeper can get it back if it was exiled. Some lists will have other outlets, but it doesn't make much of a difference.
Secondary combo: Flash +
Protean Hulk.
Protean Hulk Fetches
Viscera Seer and
Body Double, which enters as a copy of
Protean Hulk. It gets sacrificed, and searches out
Vesperlark and
Zulaport Cutthroat. With the
Vesperlark ETB on the stack, it gets sacrificed. The ETB resolves, and returns
Body Double to the battlefield as a copy of
Vesperlark. With the ETB on the stack, it gets sacrificed, and then the ETB ability brings back
Body Double. Infinite loop with
Zulaport Cutthroat killing everyone.
This combo can come out really early. Like... turn 1 or 2 early. Both
Flash and
Protean Hulk are really easy to search up (
Mystical Tutor,
Summoner's Pact, and others) and this combo only takes 2 mana to start. This combo can also be assembled manually through the
Food Chain combo, but that's less likely.
Flash Hulk is a really hard combo to beat. So much that
I had to start a thread asking how to beat it.
You really had to give them this list didn't you?
Fortunately, this variant is easier to interrupt than some of the other combos, but I'll get to that later.
Other combos: Tainted Jace is another combo that shows up in some lists. With
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries on the battlefield, either
Demonic Consultation or
Tainted Pact gets cast, exiling the entire deck. Jace's +1 gets activated and they win. Because this combo only requires 1 dead card and Jace is harder to remove than
Laboratory Maniac, it shows up in some First
Sliver lists. Fortunately, it's a mana-intensive combo, so it shows up slightly later than the other combos.
Protection and ResilienceFood Chain decks are naturally resistant to most stax effects. There are no activated abilities of creatures or artifacts, and the combo takes very little mana to start. To top it off, there is an incredible protection package.
Autumn's Veil,
Veil of Summer, and
Silence defend against counterspells.
Abrupt Decay,
Nature's Claim, and
Chain of Vapor can get rid of stax effects that do happen to
threaten the deck. Finally, the low-cost counterspells can protect against all of these (it's no coincidence that the most expensive
counterspell is 1 mana). To top it off, the deck's amazing tutor package can get any of these.
Stopping the CombosYou might get a lucky break, and they won't perfectly copy the list. If they do (more specifically, if they copy the fetch-lands) throw in
Root Maze. It sucks that it's a symmetrical effect, but it hardcore hurts fetch-lands.
Back to Basics and
Blood Moon also seriously hurt a deck without any basics. The deck is very (almost entirely) dependent on it's tutor package, so shut it down. I recommend
Aven Mindcensor and
Ashiok, Dream Render, but not
Stranglehold or
Mindlock Orb. This is a fast combo, so you need to be able to reliably play your stax sooner than the combo, something you can't do with 4 mana stax.
To deal with the
Food Chain, you can use
Extract, just remember that they're not dead in the water (thanks to
Rift Sweeper and the backup combo). Removing the
Food Chain is an option, but the strong protection package means that you'll probably need a back-up
counterspell or removal spell. Or
Krosan Grip. Just remember to use your removal as the
Food Chain creature is on the stack. This way, they've invested in their plan. As Judaspriester suggested, you can use stax effects that limit the number of noncreature spells that can be cast in a turn.
Deafening Silence is a really good option, and anything that makes creatures cost more mana (
Sphere of Resistance) stops the
Food Chain combo. You can also use
Phyrexian Revoker on the
Food Chain (
Pithing Needle won't work; it doesn't stop mana abilities).
For the
Flash Hulk combo there is a lot of instant-speed interaction that can work.
Stifleing the
Protean Hulk trigger is simple, but I prefer
Trickbind. Any good grave-hate also works to stop this combo, so I'm sure you can find some good options (HINT: not
Bojuka Bog). Creature removal works too. Use it on the
Viscera Seer or
Zulaport Cutthroat after the first time
Vesperlark gets sacrificed. The most dangerous thing about this combo is that it comes out early, so it's fairly easy to protect with a
Pact of Negation or even
Dispel.
Building your deckThis isn't the first time I've seen someone try to build a deck that specifically counters a competitive deck and isn't a cEDH deck itself.
I've yet to see a deck succeed at this.
What's important about proactive decks is they are rarely out of the game for long. If you place a stax piece, they will eventually find a way to remove it or bypass it (usually sooner than expected). If you stop a combo, they will go for a backup, or recur the defeated combo. The trick to beating a proactive combo deck: you have to win after you prevent/stop their combo. And soon after (1 or 2 turns max). This is something a non-cEDH deck can struggle with. So this is where I can't really help you. I can't think of a way of making a deck where every single card stops the deck. You'll still need mana ramp, card draw, tutors, and a win-condition.
But I can help you make a disruptive deck that is a good match-up against a
Food Chain deck.
In the past I used
Edric, Spymaster of Trest. It's a counterspell-heavy deck with card draw to match, so it's good at stopping most combo decks. If you don't want that, you're probably going to want a deck in white so you have access to most of the stax pieces you'll need. As far as I can tell, none of the stax pieces on their own stop both combos (
Aven Mindcensor comes close). Green is good for mana ramp and to search for
Aven Mindcensor. You'll need the ramp if you're going to keep up with
The First Sliver. One deck in particular comes to mind.
Tana, the Bloodsower + Tymna the Weaver (Blood Pod)This deck uses stax effects, and is geared towards stopping cEDH decks. It's able to quickly secure a win after the stax has been laid down. The downside is the deck can be expensive (4 colors, and you can't skimp on the stax pieces), and it also doesn't use it's commanders as much as other decks too. Here's the popular list if you're interested:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/meta-pod/Closing remarksIf there was something that was unclear, let me know. If you think you found a deck that might also be a good match against
Food Chain Sliver, let me know, and I can give some suggestions. This is going to be tough, so make sure everyone in your group is ready to deal with this.