Bilbo, Fellow ConspiratorBilbo, Fellow Conspirator | Art by Dmitry Burmak

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Ninja PizzaNinja Pizza is the only card that can make your Foods gain Treasure rules text?)

Peregrin TookPeregrin Took. Academy ManufactorAcademy Manufactor. Tippy-Toe, Terrific PartnerTippy-Toe, Terrific Partner. Well, add one to the list.

Bilbo, Fellow ConspiratorBilbo, Fellow Conspirator makes your Food-makers also make Treasures, and any Tireless ProvisionerTireless Provisioner fan will let you know right off the bat which of those tokens tends to be the right choice. Well, unless you have a Bilbo out, of course, in which case you'll want to have your Provisioner make Foods so that Bilbo can also make Treasures.

If you've been around here for a bit, though, you'll know what this really makes me want to do. We have a commander that can make previously fairly useless yet easy-to-make tokens also make mana. That, my friends, screams Storm.

There are only five green cards with storm: Aeve, Progenitor OozeAeve, Progenitor Ooze, ChatterstormChatterstorm, Hunting PackHunting Pack, Sprouting VinesSprouting Vines, and Weather the StormWeather the Storm. Of those five, there are only three that really seem like they're moving us toward any discernible goal, all of which make (creature) tokens. Throw in somesome tokentoken-doublersdoublers and you have some real spice here, methinks. Even before you start hucking down Doubling SeasonDoubling Seasons, however, you could make a real dent with Food creators that make as many Foods as they cost mana. These would allow you, with Bilbo in play, to cast them and then make enough Foods, and therefore Treasures, to make it seem like you never cast anything at all, mana-wise. Your Food count and your cast triggers will say otherwise, however.

Still, how many cards can there be that make Food equal to the amount of mana you put in?

Top 10 Mono-Green "Mana-Neutral" Food Cards

Criteria: Cards within the mono-green color identity which, with Bilbo, Fellow ConspiratorBilbo, Fellow Conspirator in play, can make Food tokens (and therefore Treasure tokens) equal to or greater than their mana value on the turn they are played without outside assistance, aside from non-mana activation costs. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Curious PairCurious Pair

(3.54k Inclusions, 0.08% of 4.39M Decks)

Okay, so if you were looking for impressive upside, I might not start at Curious PairCurious Pair. They do, however, make a single Food for a single mana when you cast their Adventure half of Treats to Share. Should it probably be two for two mana, given the flavor? Yes, but I digress. This is actually a great Food storm card, and here is why: storm, while almost always seen as a strategy revolving around instants and sorceries, actually doesn't care what kind of spells were cast. In other words? That ChatterstormChatterstorm will make Squirrels for not only the Food you made with Treats to Share, but also the one extra mana you used to cast Curious Pair in addition to your Bilbo Treasure. Two spells for two mana, all on one card. Now that's a Pair.

9. Hollow ScavengerHollow Scavenger

(3.68k Inclusions, 0.08% of 4.39M Decks)

Hollow ScavengerHollow Scavenger doesn't quite live up to the precedent set by Curious PairCurious Pair, but it does do something else we're going to find valuable: give us a sac outlet for our Foods. Sure, it's no Krark-Clan IronworksKrark-Clan Ironworks, but we'll gladly pay one to get rid of a Food when we have the likes of Tarrian's SoulcleaverTarrian's Soulcleaver, Syr Ginger, the Meal EnderSyr Ginger, the Meal Ender, or Summoning StationSummoning Station. Even if all we ever get out of this is a Food and Treasure for a single mana, however? We're still doing exactly what we set out to do.

8. Party DudeParty Dude

(8.73k Inclusions, 0.49% of 1.79M Decks)

A single mana for a single Food for you and everyone else is a different deal, but it's not a deal-breaker. As for the rest of Party DudeParty Dude, it's possible its Level 2 can draw us quite a few cards within the "Treasures everywhere" nature of modern Commander. Level 3 I don't see getting a whole lot of use, but if you've gotten a table united against an archenemy, it could be a decent tool.

7. Giant OpportunityGiant Opportunity

(13.7k Inclusions, 0.31% of 4.39M Decks)

With Bilbo out, Giant OpportunityGiant Opportunity reads: make three Food, make three Treasures. With any kind of artifact triggers, that's going to do a ton.

Three Foods and three Treasures means six Sarinth SteelseekerSarinth Steelseeker triggers, meaning you get to look at up to six cards and put the ones you don't like in the graveyard, the ones you do like on top, and the lands in your hand. Displaced DinosaursDisplaced Dinosaurs will just make all six historic tokens into 7/7 Dinosaurs. That should make an impression on the board state!

6. Killer ServiceKiller Service

(22.1k Inclusions, 0.50% of 4.39M Decks)

In a four-person pod, everything I just said about Giant OpportunityGiant Opportunity applies to Killer ServiceKiller Service as well, only it sticks around and gives you an opportunity to sacrifice your Foods for 4/4 Rhinos. They're no 7/7 Dinosaurs, but having all that on one three-mana card is still pretty killer.

5. The Underworld CookbookThe Underworld Cookbook

(34.7k Inclusions, 0.36% of 9.52M Decks)

My original criteria weeded out The Underworld CookbookThe Underworld Cookbook, as you have to discard a card to have it pay for itself, and I didn't want any additional costs. This list of 10 is all ten cards that can be mana-neutral, however, so I ended up putting The Cookbook on the list. That said, if you can get yourself in a position with the likes of Sarinth SteelseekerSarinth Steelseeker or Academy ManufactorAcademy Manufactor, you can probably make quite a few Foods with The Cookbook. Quite a few Foods means quite a few Treasures, and if you have card draw and mana? Well, you've got everything!

4. Witch's OvenWitch's Oven

(51.8k Inclusions, 0.54% of 9.52M Decks)

Bilbo isn't going to feed your Witch's OvenWitch's Oven for double the Food, and even if he did, he wouldn't be around to turn that into double the Treasure, either. That said, we've already gone over a couple ways to make large tokens, and one of our storm options in Hunting PackHunting Pack makes a lot of 4/4s as well. Even if all we have are 1/1 Squirrels, however, Witch's Oven shouldn't have a hard time putting in work once a turn.

...the real question is, can we pump those once a turn numbers up?

With how much we're going to be revolving around not just artifact tokens, but artifacts at large, throwing in some untappers just seems to make sense. There is some concern that we're going to be a combo machine when it comes to Bilbo and Clock of OmensClock of Omens, but I think that's a case of "see what bracket we end up in" rather than a deal-breaker. Unwinding ClockUnwinding Clock is much less likely to result in infinites, but it will also just be the normal unfair of being Seedborn MuseSeedborn Muse for all our artifacts. Put the two together, and even if we aren't going infinite, we'll be doing more than enough.

3. Gingerbread CabinGingerbread Cabin

(55.7k Inclusions, 1.27% of 4.39M Decks)

Getting to three ForestForests in a mono-green deck shouldn't be difficult, meaning that if it's the mid- or late-game, Gingerbread CabinGingerbread Cabin should be what we haven't seen yet: a mana-positive card. It will both come down as an untapped land and make a Food to make a Treasure, giving us two extra mana for the turn. In other words? This is going to be our favorite land in the deck.

...or is it?

If we succeed with Bilbo, then we should have more mana than we know what to do with. If that's the case, then translating that mana to card draw will be paramount to getting to the storm and trigger cards we need to get to a win, not to mention allow us to keep on casting spells for both. In that world, FountainportFountainport and the brand new Stardew ValleyStardew Valley will both be reasonable avenues to some extra card draw, allowing us to get rid of our Foods for cards. Stardew Valley also just has the option to make mana into more Food, as does The ShireThe Shire, which will be another option if we're just looking to stock up on Treasures for next turn.

2. Many PartingsMany Partings

(78.9k Inclusions, 1.80% of 4.39M Decks)

Whether we're getting lands in our hand to play them down, or just to discard to The Underworld CookbookThe Underworld Cookbook, Many PartingsMany Partings is all upside for us. A single mana for a Food, a Treasure, and a Forest in hand is just a good deal, no matter how you look at it.

1. Gilded GooseGilded Goose

(172k Inclusions, 3.91% of 4.39M Decks)

You know what I'd rather have, though? A Bird that makes a Food and a Treasure when it comes down that then can use our Foods for the rest of the game to make mana. Gilded GooseGilded Goose is and always has been the heart of Food decks, and for good reason. It comes down early and ramps us, then spends the rest of the game either continuing to ramp us if we have enough Food, or making more if we need it. In short? It's a well-named card.

Honorable Mentions

As previously mentioned, our list included all ten cards that can be mana-neutral with Bilbo, Fellow ConspiratorBilbo, Fellow Conspirator. Well, except there was one more that was spoiled during the writing of this article (and probably more since then)...

Bag End BanquetBag End Banquet is expensive at six mana, but will make three Food tokens when it comes down, which will make three Treasures with Bilbo, and then can tap for for those three Foods, making it mana-neutral! Except, in a Food deck, in a late enough game that you have six mana, do you really think this is only going to tap for three?

Tough CookieTough Cookie almost made our list, but if we look at Bilbo closely, he specifically states that if you create a Food token, he'll make a Treasure. In other words? Tough Cookie doesn't qualify, as we are casting the little Food Golem, rather than creating a token of him. With that said? He'll be a "one-mana" 2/2 with Bilbo out that can make our Foods into 4/4s if we get to a point that we're drowning in mana, so we're gonna throw the little guy in anyhow.

Throw him into what, you ask? Let's take a look at the deck list.

If you haven't played a Food deck lately, be aware that it's not the durdly, fun, life-gaining mess of a pile that it used to be. It's actually hard to make a Food deck that doesn't make it into Bracket 3 at least these days, and this is no exception. In all honesty, putting in fast mana is about all this deck needs to go Bracket 4, as well. As it currently sits, however, the deck plays well, with Bilbo generally making your board state go rather nuts by turn three, filling the entire board up with tokens of various sorts on turns four and five, and generally winning on turn six.

The caution I would give you before you picked this pile up? You're going to need to practice with it to not be the player who's taking up everyone's time, and you're going to need to study up on replacement effects to do so. For those not in the know already, multiple replacement effects only ever apply one time, but you choose the order they do so. For most decks, this rarely comes up. That... is not the case with Bilbo. Peregrin TookPeregrin Took and Tippy-Toe, Terrific PartnerTippy-Toe, Terrific Partner are generally fairly straightforward: you'll want them to apply first so that Bilbo can then take the extra Food and make an extra Treasure with it. Academy ManufactorAcademy Manufactor is the brain-wrinkling one, but it generally wants Bilbo applied first so that he can make a single Food into a Treasure, then both of those become a Food, a Clue, and a Treasure each. Once you start combining them all? Generally the right answer is Took and Tippy-Toe, then Bilbo, then Manufactor, but honestly you're making so many tokens at this point that it hardly even matters.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

As I mentioned, Food decks have come a long way since their more original inceptions back in Throne of Eldraine. Them originally being seen as a fairly innocuous token you could add to cards to give them a slight bump created a situation where once stronger effects were printed for them, they became an extremely strong strategy in their own right. That's definitely the case with Bilbo specifically, but he's not the first, and unlikely to be the last.

And finally, what is your favorite Food maker? Does it pay for itself with Bilbo, Fellow ConspiratorBilbo, Fellow Conspirator? Is it mana positive with any of the various Food replacement effects?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table with the stereotypical big horn of Food in the middle.