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Maelstrom Chaos EDH - The Butterfly Wings

Commander / EDH Chaos Jank Multiplayer RUG (Temur)

BubTheLab


Chaos Theory - The study of apparently random or unpredictable behaviour in systems governed by deterministic laws

Welcome to the Chaos! The point of this deck? Who knows! Everything you ever did will change how this deck plays each time

A lot of random cascading into hopefully either further cascades or an artifact that will most likely have you googling the rules

While you may not be winning at the table, you will be winning inside! Well done you little agent of Chaos

There is a lot of chaos about the deck, individual cards that aren't quite board wipes or could leave players essentially playing their opponents decks.

Here's a few of my personal favourites:

  • Timesifter: A mysterious card people will have never heard of... Until you've played it. It will cause anguish and happiness! Most important chaos.
  • Warp World: A card that takes about 5 minutes to resolve. This can flip an entire game for players (and leave you hopefully with more chaos components).
  • Eye of the Storm: A sort of tempting offer for players to join in with the madness. Really jank but at the same time, really fun.
  • Knowledge Pool: Like the above, a tempting offer. Most of what you can offer will be more chaos! (Great to cascade into).
  • Grip of Chaos: The card so chaotic, it's in the name. Wait until someone tries to remove it (Keyword, tries).
There are two types of Cascade in the deck: Utility and Chaos.

Utility cascades are low enough cost for your opening hand which will hit cards like main ramps, mana rocks and hopefully not the counterspell:

  • Throes of Chaos: While it has Chaos in the name, the repeatability of this card hitting 3 or less drops is great for weaselling out utility.
  • Shardless Agent: Great early game, will hopefully hit one of the mana rocks to ramp into chaos.

Chaos cascades are everything else, big cascade targets that will hopefully pull more cascades from the deck or a random chaos components:

  • Maelstrom Wanderer: Cascade on a very big stick. Most chaos components are 6-7 mana so this gives you a few attempts at getting them.
  • Apex Devastator: I am in awe at the size of this lad. If you can get this off, be ready to spin the wheel!
  • Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty: Her own cascade effect is meh. But the second ability is what you are there for! Best to save until you can play both her and a 6 drop.
  • Rashmi, Eternities Crafter: Not truely cascade, but like the above, the deck CMC is so high that random hitting something else massive is very chaotic.
While random chaos is always fun, it does sometimes need a gentle nudge in the right direction to ensure maximum value... of chaos!

Some helpful cards worth mentioning:

  • Sensei's Divining Top: A useful card that is a great way to quickly check before cascading.
  • Soothsaying: While not as free use as top, whenever you have leftover mana or spare mana before cascading, nice to check and set.
  • Averna, the Chaos Bloom: A nice target to play before an early cascade or to cascade into first via a multi-hit. Played correctly, she will find 2-3 lands.
  • Nyxbloom Ancient: The value isn't hard to miss here. Cascading into with 3 lands open is a great way to get another chaos component down.
  • Release to the Wind: Remember cascade isn't an ETB, this is essentially a flicker for cascaders
You aren't a strong minion based deck, most early game combos and board flooders will be a heavy weakness, especially if you have made enemies of chaos. The deck has some protection elements to keep you in the game to late and prevent any early damage coming through.

A few notable mentions of protection:

  • Evacuation and Cyclonic Rift: Both obvious staples, but remember you don't have any spell recursion, use wisely
  • Fog Bank and Guard Gomazoa: Both amazing early cards to prevent any early game hastes hitting you! There is chaos coming in the fog...
  • Statecraft: You won't be in combat often anyway. Depending on if you are in a creature heavy game or combo heavy game, you may want to ignore this
  • Mana Breach and Planar Chaos: A weird protection enchantments... More to slow any tempo at the start of the game. The both hurt as well but the likelyhood of them sticking around is limited
The boring bit, boo, surely winning is just having a lot of maddening fun! But just in case you do want it to end, there are a couple combos.

Be aware, this is not a combo deck! You will hit pieces with cascade and other bits so the reliability of this is... none existant.

The deck has been made to the finest quality with premium lands galore!

But creating chaos for a living doesn't pay too well, so if you need to cut some cards, replace these:

  • Lands: Too much effort to line it all out. Most can be swapped for basic or gates except for fetch lands which are better with Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse
  • Consecrated Sphinx: It's a good draw engine card to pull however, it's price isn't worth it in the deck. My main swap would be Mystic Remora
  • Nyxbloom Ancient: A nice card to happen to come across though isn't game changing. A nice swap for another chaotic piece would be Mana Flare. Great for early game too!
  • Mana Vault: A great way to ramp early on. Can be replaced though with another mana rock for under 3 so it is hit by cascaders. Worn Powerstone for example, not as effective but still decent and ramping.
  • Force of Will and Mana Drain: Counters are always crucial however the limited number in the deck is to prevent them from being hit via the cascade. Decent replacements are Mystic Confluence as it is okay to cascade into and Arcane Denial as a cheap and valued counter.
  • Sensei's Divining Top: It is a fantastic card in the deck but is a little pricey. If you aren't a modern player, consider replacing with Crystal Ball. Not as effective but does the job.

A full budget decklist can be found Maelstrom Chaos EDH - The Butterfly Wings (Budget)

For any more cards that are pricey! Either sell a kidney or drop a comment and can offer some ideas.

Is it a hard deck to pilot? Yes and no. No as you mostly have no control on what is coming but yes to balance surviving into pure utter madness. If you found yourself swamped early on by others, aim for protection in the mulligan over big cards, they will come naturally to you later rather than ramping to it from hand.

Now get out there and cause some arguments. Hail to the C H A O S

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98% Casual

Competitive

Revision 2 See all

(2 years ago)

-1 Blasphemous Act main
-1 Cyclonic Rift main
+1 Devastation Tide main
+1 Obliterate main
Date added 2 years
Last updated 2 years
Exclude colors WB
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

58 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.67
Tokens Elemental 5/5 RG
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