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Cascade, Cascade (Maelstrom Wanderer)

Commander / EDH Lands RUG (Temur) Tap/Untap Turns

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Themes

  1. Sacrifice and recur lands.
  2. Untap permanents that tap for more than one mana.
  3. Bounce and recur Maelstrom Wanderer to cast repeatedly.

Combos

I. Infinite Mana

Palinchron goes infinite by itself with any combination of seven or fewer lands that can produce at least 12 mana. There are two main ways to accomplish this.

The first is lands that naturally tap for more than one mana, for example:

The second is effects that enable lands to tap for more than one mana:

Two-card variants that require less mana:

Honorable mention to long shot Saryth, the Viper's Fang, which can go infinite with Deadeye Navigator, the right combination of lands (Scorched Ruins plus Lotus Vale or Lotus Field), and haste from your commander.

II. Infinite Turns

Infinite turn combos revolve around recurring extra turn spells. Note these won't work with Nexus of Fate or Alrund's Epiphany.

Variants:

And this one's a little more magical Christmasland, but it is certainly possible.

Walk the Aeons + Oracle of Mul Daya + Wayward Swordtooth + Ramunap Excavator + three Island

III. Cryptic Soft Lock

Cryptic Command + Eternal Witness or Cryptic Command + Skullwinder allows you to tap all your opponents' creatures once per turn cycle.

Notes

Rituals: Any time you are able to untap a permanent, if you can untap a permanent that taps for more than one mana, you will usually net mana, turning cards with these effects into rituals.

Recasting Your Commander: Returning your commander to your hand is the easiest way to recast it.

Pir's Whim and Tempt with Discovery

  • If you have less than eight mana, fetch lands that tap for more than one mana.
  • If you Cascade into them, fetch Sanctum of Eternity to start looping your commander.
  • If your commander has been removed multiple times, fetch Command Beacon to get going again.

You can also bounce Maelstrom Wanderer or a utility creature with all-star Temur Sabertooth, Otawara, Soaring City, or Cryptic Command.

In a pinch you can use Beast Within or Chaos Warp to send your commander back to the command zone while netting some value.

Cascade: When you cast Maelstrom Wanderer, the two instances of Cascade will both hit the stack on top of your commander. When the first Cascade resolves, the spell cast will go on the stack and resolve before the other Cascade. Then the second Cascade puts another spell on the stack that will resolve before your commander, which resolves last.

Adventures: When you Cascade into a card with an Adventure (Virtue of Strength, Beanstalk Giant, Bramble Familiar, Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy), you can choose to cast the spell or the Adventure.

Draw Engines: Outcaster Trailblazer, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds allow you to draw your deck when executing loops with Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator. Nylea, Keen-Eyed gets all your creatures out if you have infinite mana. And don't be afraid to discard several cards to Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion given the strong recursion package and two creatures with Escape.

Win Condition

Besides the two Cascades, Maelstrom Wanderer also grants your entire team haste and is itself a formidable 7/5, requiring just three hits to kill with commander damage. As such, the deck's only win condition is combat, although sometimes opponents will just scoop to infinite turns. Sometimes a single extra turn is enough to get the required damage through.

Tempted by the Oriq and Cryptic Command can help clear the path for an alpha strike.

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma and Garruk Wildspeaker provide Overrun type effects.

Archetype of Imagination makes your team unblockable while also enabling you to defend yourself from the crackback with deathtouch creatures.

Finally, Rhonas the Indomitable converts infinite mana into infinite combat damage with trample.

Happy Cascading!

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95% Casual

Competitive