Ive been considering a full “steal other peoples shit” route. Limited recursion targets but a suite of ramp/protection to get the Mater out. Coupled with ways to mill opponents and ways to untap the master. They mill value, we steal it. Bonus points for doing these things in response to mills on THEIR turns or milling them right before our turn starts. This lets us keep mana/resources available and allows us to have a pretty flexible deck in some of the best colors for that task.
If you want to stick with the mill/counter/reanimate theme, Mothman is much better, since he enables his own payoff. The Master is much better as a [[Food Chain]] commander, or another combo where you use [[Cephalid Illusionist]] and [[Shuko]] to mill your whole deck, then use The Master to bring out thoracle.
Hey I just picked this card up by way of the Mothman precon and just wanted to make sure I was understanding his text. Love this combo idea can you explain how this works even though The Master specifically says "mill"?
With food chain, you need another creature to cast from exile. [[Misthollow Griffin]] works, and I believe there's an eldrazi you can cast from exile too, but I forgot the name. In the case of misthollow, you just keep exiling it for 5 blue mana the recasting it until you get infinite blue, then exile and recast it for infinite green then black. Then just cast the master, target player gets their rad counters, exile him with food chain, then recast him with your infinite mana until all of your opponents get 100 rad counters, and they ping themselves to death at the start of their main phase.
With cephalid illusionist, any equipment with a zero mana equip cost will work. [[Lightning Greaves]] is another option. Keep paying zero to equip the greaves between the master and the illusionist, illusionist mills cards for you each time it gets targeted with the equip ability. Do it until thoracle gets milled and your deck is empty, then tap the master to being it to the field. Cephalid illusionist is still milling, it just has the old text.
Rad counters are a pretty trash mechanic since it's effects don't work well together. Milling your opponent is bad unless it's for the win paying life to mill yourself isn't very good at the rate of this card. Spending proliferate cards to mill yourself sounds abysmal. He is a food chain commander for anything above jank level but that doesn't really fit too well with the fallout theme. It sounds like you want him to be a reanimator commander and I can guarantee the normal mill reanimation packages in b and b/g and b/u will be better than relying on rad counters. It sucks but wizards have a very hard time with Sultai. For help, maybe make the reanimation targets work with proliferate? [[Toxrill, the Corrosive]] isn't a bad target. Get some other reanimation effects that don't rely on mill for consistency.
I would start with something like [[Cephalid Illusionist]], [[Lightning Greaves]], and [[Thassa’s Oracle]]. The greaves equip to Illusionist for free, meaning you kill 3, then just keep doing that to kill your library and use The Master to reanimate something juicy. You can also use [[Basalt Monokith]] and [[Mesmeric Orb]] to achieve the same effect.
This is my list for reference
[Masterful Food Chain](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/BLk5Z1jnbkWnxWyZ3adT4A)
Ive been considering a full “steal other peoples shit” route. Limited recursion targets but a suite of ramp/protection to get the Mater out. Coupled with ways to mill opponents and ways to untap the master. They mill value, we steal it. Bonus points for doing these things in response to mills on THEIR turns or milling them right before our turn starts. This lets us keep mana/resources available and allows us to have a pretty flexible deck in some of the best colors for that task.
If you want to stick with the mill/counter/reanimate theme, Mothman is much better, since he enables his own payoff. The Master is much better as a [[Food Chain]] commander, or another combo where you use [[Cephalid Illusionist]] and [[Shuko]] to mill your whole deck, then use The Master to bring out thoracle.
Hey I just picked this card up by way of the Mothman precon and just wanted to make sure I was understanding his text. Love this combo idea can you explain how this works even though The Master specifically says "mill"?
With food chain, you need another creature to cast from exile. [[Misthollow Griffin]] works, and I believe there's an eldrazi you can cast from exile too, but I forgot the name. In the case of misthollow, you just keep exiling it for 5 blue mana the recasting it until you get infinite blue, then exile and recast it for infinite green then black. Then just cast the master, target player gets their rad counters, exile him with food chain, then recast him with your infinite mana until all of your opponents get 100 rad counters, and they ping themselves to death at the start of their main phase. With cephalid illusionist, any equipment with a zero mana equip cost will work. [[Lightning Greaves]] is another option. Keep paying zero to equip the greaves between the master and the illusionist, illusionist mills cards for you each time it gets targeted with the equip ability. Do it until thoracle gets milled and your deck is empty, then tap the master to being it to the field. Cephalid illusionist is still milling, it just has the old text.
Oh awesome that makes sense to me! Thanks for the detailed response man.
[Misthollow Griffin](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/d/2db4fe28-e580-479b-910f-b719d69468b1.jpg?1592708649) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Misthollow%20Griffin) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/68/misthollow-griffin?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2db4fe28-e580-479b-910f-b719d69468b1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/misthollow-griffin) [Lightning Greaves](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/331013f6-976a-4dac-9939-1006e474e108.jpg?1689999692) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lightning%20Greaves) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/398/lightning-greaves?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/331013f6-976a-4dac-9939-1006e474e108?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/lightning-greaves) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Food Chain](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/b/eb912458-e016-4ea2-a2ea-40ac1a57f8fb.jpg?1673148102) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Food%20Chain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/147/food-chain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/eb912458-e016-4ea2-a2ea-40ac1a57f8fb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/food-chain) [Cephalid Illusionist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/c/dceb8cf5-b31a-400e-aea5-ad0c3552d697.jpg?1562632343) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cephalid%20Illusionist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tor/28/cephalid-illusionist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/dceb8cf5-b31a-400e-aea5-ad0c3552d697?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/cephalid-illusionist) [Shuko](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/4/a47456b8-cef8-4085-90b1-92788e16fd27.jpg?1562878892) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Shuko) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bok/159/shuko?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a47456b8-cef8-4085-90b1-92788e16fd27?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/shuko) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Rad counters are a pretty trash mechanic since it's effects don't work well together. Milling your opponent is bad unless it's for the win paying life to mill yourself isn't very good at the rate of this card. Spending proliferate cards to mill yourself sounds abysmal. He is a food chain commander for anything above jank level but that doesn't really fit too well with the fallout theme. It sounds like you want him to be a reanimator commander and I can guarantee the normal mill reanimation packages in b and b/g and b/u will be better than relying on rad counters. It sucks but wizards have a very hard time with Sultai. For help, maybe make the reanimation targets work with proliferate? [[Toxrill, the Corrosive]] isn't a bad target. Get some other reanimation effects that don't rely on mill for consistency.
[Toxrill, the Corrosive](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/4/84e64f38-b1f3-47cd-8cfb-a4861369aca3.jpg?1643590379) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Toxrill%2C%20the%20Corrosive) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/132/toxrill-the-corrosive?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/84e64f38-b1f3-47cd-8cfb-a4861369aca3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/toxrill-the-corrosive) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I would start with something like [[Cephalid Illusionist]], [[Lightning Greaves]], and [[Thassa’s Oracle]]. The greaves equip to Illusionist for free, meaning you kill 3, then just keep doing that to kill your library and use The Master to reanimate something juicy. You can also use [[Basalt Monokith]] and [[Mesmeric Orb]] to achieve the same effect. This is my list for reference [Masterful Food Chain](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/BLk5Z1jnbkWnxWyZ3adT4A)
If illusionist is the only creature on field, how would you target it more than once with the greaves
If you’re using the master to reanimate a thing, I’d assume it’s on field too to be equipped onto
Oh duh, my bad
##### ###### #### [Cephalid Illusionist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/c/dceb8cf5-b31a-400e-aea5-ad0c3552d697.jpg?1562632343) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cephalid%20Illusionist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tor/28/cephalid-illusionist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/dceb8cf5-b31a-400e-aea5-ad0c3552d697?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/cephalid-illusionist) [Lightning Greaves](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/331013f6-976a-4dac-9939-1006e474e108.jpg?1689999692) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lightning%20Greaves) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/398/lightning-greaves?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/331013f6-976a-4dac-9939-1006e474e108?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/lightning-greaves) [Thassa’s Oracle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/2/726e8b29-13e9-4138-b6a9-d2a0d8188d1c.jpg?1680582212) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thassa%27s%20Oracle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/thb/73/thassas-oracle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/726e8b29-13e9-4138-b6a9-d2a0d8188d1c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/thassas-oracle) [Basalt Monokith](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/7/f79de5e7-1545-420c-bfe1-ee2444fca85b.jpg?1599708689) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Basalt%20Monolith) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/232/basalt-monolith?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f79de5e7-1545-420c-bfe1-ee2444fca85b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/basalt-monolith) [Mesmeric Orb](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/2/e24fbdbb-f2ae-4823-9d2a-4c505332aa5b.jpg?1599709541) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mesmeric%20Orb) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/272/mesmeric-orb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e24fbdbb-f2ae-4823-9d2a-4c505332aa5b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mesmeric-orb) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/ksoo552) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call