Maelstrom Wanderer is LEGEND-waitforit-DARY
Super casual Maelstrom Wanderer legendary tribal list featuring a boat-load of the most powerful legenardies the Temur colors have to offer. Turns out, if you slam legendary creature after legendary creature, it's pretty overwhelming. Combine that with MW casting 2 free spells along with cost reducers like Animar, Soul of Elements and Cloud Key we have an opportunity to flood the board with legendary creatures.
And then give them all haste.....or trample via Surrak Dragonclaw or what is essentially hexproof with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner or evasion via Sun Quan, Lord of Wu we have a lot of ways to deal with a variety of problems. Most of which are creature based.
Anything that's legendary aside from Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Venser, Shaper Savant, Kruphix, God of Horizons, and Sun Quan, Lord of Wu are interchangeable with your favorite Legendaries. I would highly recommend leaving these 5 though. These 5 are solid in any Maelstrom list, especially this one.
*Gameplan*
Ramp into Maelstrom and cast her/him/it, whatever, as many times as possible. Usually does not need too many times to overwhelm the board and win.
Admittedly - pretty light on the repeated casting capabilities of the deck. This deck could easily run an actual infinite mana combo. All we have is a way to infinitely cast creatures ( Food Chain & Squee, the Immortal ) - which a large portion of the deck is. Kiki combo could easily slot in here as well.
Kept it mostly casual for the "no infinite combos crowd."
-Specific card choices in no particular order-
The Creatures
Animar, Soul of Elements - this card is so dumb with Wanderer. Any tutoring effects should probably find this card first and foremost unless the situation calls for something specifically. This card gets out of hand so so fast with MW's cascading. Before you know it, you're casting MW for R/G/B after casting it 4 times or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for free. Protection from white and black is nice too.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking - playing 3 lands a turn is good for the Wanderer.
Arcanis the Omnipotent - draw cards. Hard to kill with open mana.
Dragonlord Atarka - giant, angry, flying, trampley dragon. Clear out a few annoying blockers.
Etali, Primal Storm - I like casting other people's cards.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - every artifact and legendary creature in the deck lets you draw a card. Which means roughly 41 of our 100 cards....draw us additional cards when we cast them with her on the field.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - such a meeeeeean card. Late game play, unless there's an Animar on the field with 8 counters on it. Not able to cascade into which is on purpose. Really good Tooth and Nail target with something like Kira.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - Counters the first thing that targets one of our creatures. Occasionally not great with our cards, but otherwise a solid include.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - big, scary, annihilating Eldrazi that draws card and can shuffle our graveyard into our library. It is mostly there for the shuffle effect, but occasionally it's a really great thing to have in hand before playing Selvala's Stampede so if an opponent chooses free, you slam it on turn 4 or 5 or whatever. Good stuff.
Kruphix, God of Horizons - stores mana. So important. Really great in the early game. Also really great in the late game. Hard to get rid of. 10/10 would recommend. I purposely did not include the other broken piece of Kruphix which is Seedborn Muse to untap and store mana - to stay on theme with Legendary creatures only, but if you wanted to, you easily could drop a non-game ending legendary for Seedborn. Which, honestly, probably should be legendary.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn - additional land drops is very good with Wanderer. We'll take whatever we can get. Annnnnnd returning a land to hand to give one of our creatures trample if we have a card like Tatyova, Benthic Druid on the field and can make multiple land drops. Good stuff.
Myojin of Life's Web - another of our +8 mana cards. Again, for the hand cast value. After drawing a bunch because of Tatyova, Arcanis, Jhoira, etc, and our hand is stuffed with good stuff - we cast Myojin, remove the counter, and put everything on the field at once.
Nezahal, Primal Tide - noncreature spells = card draw. Also, very hard to get rid of with a full hand.
Nylea, God of the Hunt - God 2 of 4 in the deck. Gives everyone trample.
Omnath, Locus of Rage - great with all the ramp and multiple land drops in the deck. Bonus protection for destruction or damage based wraths.
Purphoros, God of the Forge - if creature beats get locked out, this is our back-up plan. Partners very nicely with The Locust God and one of our draw engines. Very hard to get rid of.
Reki, the History of Kamigawa - draws cards when we cast legendaries to cast more legendaries to draw more cards. A back-up Jhoira...ish.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed we can function with just our creatures. Most others can't. Probably could take out, but it's fun. I can see the argument of not having this in the deck.
Sakashima the Impostor - super interesting include given it can copy any of our legendaries, or any legendary on the field. And if we have the mana, do it every turn. Also - to note - Wanderer's cascade triggers on Cast not ETB. Copying Wanderer does nothing.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - sooooooo good with Wanderer. Adds mana based on power. Allows us to keep playing big legendaries. No real way to abuse it in this deck, outside of Minamo. Either way, very solid include. An extra 6/7/8/10 mana is always going to be useful.
Squee, the Immortal - gives us infinite creature mana with Food Chain.
Surrak Dragonclaw - gives all creatures trample and the 'can't be countered thing' is occasionally relevant. Just as an FYI - Surrak and Animar are both kill-on-sight targets to others. Which is interesting, because, at least Surrak, I don't particularly see as very threatening. Lead with Surrak and play whatever else important you're planning on playing.
Tatyova, Benthic Druid - ohhhhhhhh this card is sooooo strong. Great with our ramp and multiple land drops. Tatyova is insane.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - casting MW at instant speed? Yes please. We also don't have any of the Teferi lock-pieces, but you could pretty easily slot one or two in.
The Locust God - so, so dumb with all of our card draw. Actually a finisher in the deck.
Tishana, Voice of Thunder - combine this with Nylea / MW / The Locust God? Scary.
Urabrask the Hidden - back-up haste enabler and slows down the opponents.
Venser, Shaper Savant - wonderful card. Great on its own or as a counterspell, get rid of a stack piece or a pesky blocker. All-in-all, great include. Staple for the list. Bounce one of our own permanents for re-cast value.
Xenagos, God of Revels - double Kozilek's power after giving it trample or evasion with Sun Quan? Always. Bit of a nonbo with Kira. Probably one of the least impactful Legendaries on the list.
The Instants
Beast Within - Gets rid of basically anything. Or, in a pinch, kill our own Wanderer to recast.
Turnabout - Great with Wanderer. Used more efficiently in my other builds of the Wanderer, but still very useful in getting the Wanderer out a turn early or keeping a chain going late game.
card:Wordly Tutor - Find whatever legendary is most useful in any situation. Setting up a cascade is really nice too.
The Enchantments
Food Chain - Combos with Squee to produce infinite creature mana to infinitely cast our Wanderer and cast our entire deck finding any of our win cons.
Soothsaying - Really great tech with the Wanderer. Top deck manipulation is super important and having an ability to shuffle our library is also relevant. On turns where we aren't doing anything other than ramping or something, it's a great way to smooth out draws and set up good cascades.
Temur Ascendancy - 19 of our creatures trigger Ascendancy. And it's a backup backup haste enabler.
The Sorceries
Notable inclusions:
Blasphemous Act - a non-cascade-able way to clear the board. Occasionally relevant.
Karn's Temporal Sundering - because all of our creatures are legendary, if we cascade into this, it almost always hits.
Rude Awakening - helps get Wanderer out a turn early. Same reasoning as Turnabout.
cards:Seasons Past - This card is an all-star as long as it's not your very first hit. Repeatably getting stuff back from your graveyard is great.
cards:Selvala's Stampede - Better if you have at least 2 creatures in hand. This card is dumb. It's like 3 free cascades.
Time of Need - all of our creatures are legendary and this is a cheap tutor.
Tooth and Nail - Can be entwined off a cascade THIS IS IMPORTANT. After the first time you cast Wanderer, try to leave 2 mana open, just in case. Finds any two of our relevant creatures for any given situation.
The Artifacts
Notable inclusions:
cards:Akroma's Memorial - legendary artifact is on theme and look at all those keywords.
cards:Bident of Thassa - Legendary and card draw.
Cloud Key - Bugged on modo but, cheaper creatures is real good.
Crystal Shard - bounce bounce bounce the Wanderer. Or anything else with an awesome ETB. But it's almost always correct to get the Wanderer.
Heroes' Podium - all of our creatures are legendary, this artifact is legendary, and it buffs like crazy.
Panharmonicon - a Saffron Olive favorite - we have a bunch of creatures with ETB effects. So this helps it all spiral.
Sensei's Divining Top - Smooths out draws. Helps set up bomb cascades.
The Lands
Notable inclusions:
cardLCommand Beacon - Sacrifice Wanderer to recast as a one time shot.
Homeward Path - Alright - this one is worth talking about. This card is a catch as a way to defend against the one viable way to deal with the Wanderer - steal it. Wanderer is never going to end up in your graveyard or in your deck and we care about 0 percent if it gets killed / exiled as long as we have a way to recast it. Stealing it or locking it down is about the only way to actually deal with Wanderer. And theft decks are common. Crop Rotation is probably worth including for this very reason. If you're in a meta where Gilded Drake is a thing - run these two cards: always.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge - this is mostly in for a cheap way to un-tap Selvala to reuse her mana producing ability. But, can also be used to untap a creature that's attacked to use as a blocker, or Arcanis to draw more cards.
High Market - a land-based way to sac our Wanderer for a recast.
Made it all this way? DUDE and/or DUDETTE - if you play Wanderer - put your list in the comments. I want to see it.
Also, you're great <3
LONG LIVE THE WANDERER.
