For reasons unbeknownst to anyone on Team GWS, the copious discussion of the new Legacy format has managed to completely dodge the best deck. Survival of the Fittest has been fingered as the best card. Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots have been indicated as powerful, easy mana accelerators. Brainstorm and Force of Will hold the format together. So why has a deck that runs a full complement of each of these been largely ignored?

Full English Breakfast is not only the best combo deck in the format but holds its own as the best overall deck. Not only does it combo-out more quickly than all of the "stable" combo decks of the format, it also has the versatility and resilience of control-based Survival of the Fittest decks. It hosts favorable matchups against three of the most popular decks in the format. As an important note, it's also a blast to play.

To begin, here's the list:

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Volrath's Shapeshifter
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Flowstone Hellion
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Palinchron
1 Morphling
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Genesis
1 Anger
1 Duplicant
1 Kuro, Pitlord
1 Hypnox/Sundering Titan
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Viridian Zealot
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
3 Quirion Ranger

4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Bayou

The basic idea of the deck is simple: get Survival of the Fittest in play as early as possible and abuse its synergy with Volrath's Shapeshifter. Aside from the Shapeshifter being a huge guy like Kuro, Pitlord, Phyrexian Dreadnought, or Sundering Titan when they are on top, he usually has haste due to Anger and recurring friends due to Genesis. The combo is a little bit more complex. Most obviously, Phage the Untouchable being discarded with damage on the stack equals death to the opponent. Alternatively, by putting Flowstone Hellion's ability on the stack and responding with Phyrexian Dreadnought in the yard makes a really big man with haste and trample. Generally it isn't quite as simple to do this as it seems.

Let's look at exactly what Volrath's Shapeshifter can do:

• Come into play and trigger an effect
• Serve as a removal or control element
• Beatdown as a big guy, even without Survival of the Fittest
• Win the game the turn he's cast with Survival of the Fittest

It is vastly important that each Shapeshifter not only becomes a guy that does something but is maximized by using the come into play effect. In addition, he's not completely dead without Survival. Drawing into a large man or even Phage if you're a lucksack can end the game quickly.

Volrath's Shapeshifter/Survival of the Fittest
Yep, these make the deck.

Brainstorm/Force of Will
Cheap card drawing in a deck with a huge amount of shuffling effects rocks. Force of Will is a good card according to Mr. Internet.

Daze
Daze is included over Duress or other disruption because of its synergy with the overall low land count in the deck. Missing a land drop in this deck is far less important and using a critical resource during the mainphase.

Enlightened Tutor
Not only does this card fetch Survival of the Fittest, it can also be used to tutor up a creature (Phyrexian Dreadnought) if Survival is in play with no guys in hand. Only two are necessarily because of the relative uselessness after both Survival and guy are acquired.

Phyrexian Dreadnought
He's a huge guy...sorry, a huge guy with trample. Most commonly it is combined with the words "before damage."

Flowstone Hellion
Haste. Pump. Castability. Most everyone seems to think the old combo should be phased out altogether. Built in haste as well as a way to trample over for lose-the-game damage means it makes the cut. Why him over Akroma? The castability alone makes up the reason to run him over the giant angel thing. An uncountable number of times this guy has gone on beats for a three-turn clock.

Phage the Untouchable
It says "that player loses the game." Holy lousy.

Palinchron
The pure goldfish is possible with this card alone. With it in the graveyard, Shapeshifter untaps all land and provides for the needed mana to win that turn. Typically the goldfish hand looks like this:

Turn 1: Tropical Island, Birds of Paradise

Turn 2: Land, Wall of Roots, Survival of the Fittest, Discard guy at end of their turn to get Palinchron

Turn 3: Discard Palinchron for Shapeshifter, Cast Shapeshifter, Discard guy to get Flowstone Hellion, Discard Hellion for Phage, GG.

Morphling
Anyone who seems to think that this deck loses to a removal spell is playing against a subpar version. Morphling provides untargetablity, flying, and cool untap effects all for one mana a piece. Combined with Arcanis, ridiculous card drawing ensues.

Squee, Goblin Nabob/Genesis
Two guys are needed for the combo. These help with that as well as being insane with Survival.

Anger
After trying the deck without the Taiga and Anger and with it, the version with had a better late game. Only because of the three Quirion Rangers can this deck get away with another non-basic land.

Duplicant/Kuro, Pitlord
Both of these provide creature removal, though only Kuro can do it without mana. Duplicant can take care of the ever-annoying Meddling Mage.

Hypnox/Sundering Titan
If there was more room in here, both would make the cut. Hypnox is better against other combo. Titan is a complete house in the Survival of the Fittest mirror.

Arcanis the Omnipotent
Of the guys that can be cast down the hard way, this is the favorite. The only thing that makes him ridiculous is his synergy with Morphling. With the Morphling untap ability on the stack a few times, discard Arcanis to Survival. Then tap Arcanis, allow a untap to resolve, repeat. In a control-free environment, he might change into the Hypno/Titan that was missing from above. Overall he's not a poor choice, though.

Viridian Zealot
The ability to kill artifact or enchantment without summoning sickness makes this guy better than Elvish Lyrist or Scavenger Folk.

Birds of Paradise/Wall of Roots/Quirion Ranger
The mana base absolutely demands a huge amount of creature acceleration. Quirion Ranger not only untaps Birds of Paradise but it protects against Wasteland. Wall of Roots gets two Survival of the Fittest discards a turn.

Duals/ Huge amount of Fetchlands
A small amount of lands in the deck assures the necessary "Man Topdeck" as well as a more effective Quirion Ranger.

Sideboard Options
Usually Chalice of the Void comes in against fast combo like Salvagers and Belcher. Swords to Plowshares and Submerge shore up the creature matches. If control and fast combo are prevelant, Duress is an amazing option. If they are not, switch the Bayou to a Forest in the maindeck. One-of, tutorable guys like Gaea's Herald versus control, Furnace Dragon against Stax, and Ancestor's Chosen for Mono-Red round out the sideboard.

Sample sideboard:
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Submerge
3 Duress
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Furnace Dragon
1 Ancestor's Chosen
1 Gaea's Herald

Matchup Analysis
Angry Tradewind Survival - Highly Favorable
With Sundering Titan maindeck, this match lies somewhere between a walk in the park and a Swedish massage. Kuro, Pitlord and Sundering Titan ruin their mana base on in one turn. This deck goldfishes much more quickly than they can lock down the game. They don't have a good way to mess with FEB's manabase and play less overall disruption.

Solidarity - Favorable
In the combo verses combo matchups, the deck that plays more powerful effects more quickly wins. Most of the time that deck is FEB. The clock they are put on forces them to play out more quickly than Solidarity likes to.

Belcher - Favorable
First game against Belcher can be somewhat rough. Second game brings the disruption count up to Chalice of the Void, Force of Will, and Daze. The match is pretty good at that.

Welder Survival - Even
FEB goes off about as quickly as Welder Survival gets a Titan in play. This match is severely hand dependant. Their biggest strength is in the manabase disruption. FEB can't work without quite a bit of mana. Whoever can get Survival going the fastest wins.

White Weenie - Unfavorable
Massive amounts of removal as well as ways to kill Survival are bad news. Most of the time, they won't have enough removal to take care of all of the mana creatures. The enchant removal really hurts. That said, FEB can win pretty readily without Survival. Casting down the large men can be too much for them.

Landstill - Unfavorable
Counters, lots of draw, and cards like Nevinyrral's Disk spell bad news for FEB. Add to that the fact that their deck runs Wasteland. This matchup sucks.

This list has brought me relative success and should bring the same to anyone else given that it is played and metagamed properly. It's quite possibly the most enjoyable deck to play ever. I enjoy playing this thing more than I enjoy Wildberry Yo-J...and that's saying a lot seeing as it's my favorite yogurt beverage*.

Mat "Still Sexier than Dan Carp" Endress [That's like saying "Sexier than Jay Leno" or "Sexier than Paul Giamatti." - Knut, who met the Carps and their scruffy facial hair this weekend]
Team GWS

*Side note: Drinking vast quantities of Yo-J will not, in fact, increase the thickness of one's urine. It will, however, induce illness and possible vomiting as well as addiction to the awful drink. Trust me.