The Battlefield

Food Chain

$42.69

Maralen, Fae Ascendant

$0.35

AI DraftJul 22, 2026

Food Chain + Maralen, Fae Ascendant

AI draft — not yet human-reviewed. Check citations and flag anything that looks wrong. How pages are reviewed.

Overview

Food Chain's activated ability exiles a creature you control to produce mana that may be spent only to cast creature spells, while Maralen, Fae Ascendant both exiles opponent library cards (its exile ability) and gives you a one-per-turn permission to cast cards exiled by that exile ability without paying their mana costs; those two abilities are linked as they are printed on the same card . Food Chain mana can be used to pay the mana cost (including additional costs) of creature spells you cast from exile, but Maralen's "cast without paying its mana cost" option does not require any mana; however that option is gated by the requirement that the spell's mana value be less than or equal to the number of Elves and Faeries you control at the time you cast it, so exiling your own Elves/Faeries to Food Chain can prevent using Maralen's free-cast .

Step 1

Have Food Chain and Maralen on the battlefield and have Maralen’s exile trigger have exiled some opponent library cards this turn (those cards are "exiled with Maralen") .

Step 2

Decide whether you want to use Maralen’s once-per-turn permission to cast one of those exiled cards without paying its mana cost. To do that, at the time you cast it you must meet the MV ≤ number of Elves and Faeries you control condition; note that casting is performed according to the steps in .

Step 3

If you want to pay a creature’s mana cost instead of using Maralen’s free permission, you can activate Food Chain’s ability: exile a creature you control to add X mana (X = 1 + that creature’s mana value). That is a mana ability you may activate before paying costs as part of casting a spell .

Step 4

Use the mana from Food Chain to pay the mana cost (and any additional costs) of a creature spell that was exiled with Maralen; Food Chain’s mana is usable to pay additional costs as noted in .

Step 5

When the creature spell is cast (either by paying costs with Food Chain mana or via Maralen’s free-cast permission), it goes on the stack and can resolve; if it is an Elf or Faerie entering the battlefield with Maralen already on the battlefield, it will trigger Maralen’s exile ability to exile two more cards from a target opponent’s library .

Step 6

Repeat the sequence (exile creatures to Food Chain for mana, cast creatures from the Maralen-exiled pile, get more cards exiled via Maralen triggers) to advance toward your win conditions (for example, casting creatures with impactful ETB effects, attacking, or assembling additional synergy with other cards).

Resolution

You can use Food Chain to generate mana to pay for creature spells that were exiled with Maralen, because Food Chain’s mana is usable to cast creature spells (including paying additional costs) . Maralen’s once-per-turn permission to cast an exiled card without paying its mana cost is a separate permission and requires no mana, but you must meet the MV ≤ number of Elves and Faeries you control condition at the time you cast it; exiling your own Elves/Faeries to Food Chain can reduce that count and make the free-cast illegal . If Maralen and other Elves/Faeries entered simultaneously, Maralen’s exile trigger will trigger for each, potentially exiling multiple piles of cards you can cast from this turn’s Maralen exiles .

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