Food Chain + Shield Bearer

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Overview

If you activate Food Chain and exile Shield Bearer (mana value 2), Food Chain’s ability produces 1 + 2 = 3 mana of one chosen color that can be spent only to cast creature spells; Shield Bearer’s banding ability has no effect on Food Chain’s mana production or spending rules because banding only modifies combat damage assignment [702.21] and exiling the creature simply moves it to exile [406.3].

The StackRules & CitationsDetails & Edge Cases

Step 1

Activate Food Chain’s ability: exile a creature you control (here, exile Shield Bearer). The creature card is moved to the exile zone and kept face up by default [406.3].

Step 2

When Food Chain’s ability resolves, it generates X mana where X = 1 + the exiled creature’s mana value; Shield Bearer’s mana value is 2 (from ), so X = 3. That produces three mana of one chosen color that is placed into your mana pool and is restricted to be spent only to cast creature spells (the oracle text on Food Chain defines this restriction).

Step 3

You may activate mana abilities (including the mana produced by Food Chain) before paying costs when you cast a spell, as described in rule [601.2f].

Step 4

When casting a creature spell, you may spend Food Chain’s mana to pay the spell’s mana cost and additional costs (for example, kicker) because the mana may be used on additional costs to cast creature spells [2004-10-04] and paying costs follows rule [601.2g].

Step 5

Because Shield Bearer’s printed ability is banding, it only affects combat damage assignment and band formation/behavior and does not affect the activated ability of Food Chain or the mana produced by it [702.21].

Step 6

If Shield Bearer was in combat when exiled, it is removed from the battlefield (and thus removed from combat and any band it was in) as a result of being moved to exile; band membership is affected when a creature is removed from combat [702.21f] and the creature is no longer on the battlefield to be affected by combat rules [406.3].

Resolution

Exiling Shield Bearer with Food Chain adds three mana of one chosen color to your mana pool that may be spent only to cast creature spells (and may be used to pay additional costs of those creature spells, such as kicker) [2004-10-04] [406.3] [601.2f] [601.2g]. Shield Bearer’s banding does not interact with Food Chain’s ability; banding only affects combat damage assignment and bands, not activated mana abilities or casting restrictions [702.21].