pie chart

Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] [2023]

Commander / EDH Blink Cascade Creature Cheat Haste Primer Ramp RUG (Temur)

Mitrian

Edit Live Edit
Edit
Upvote 0
0
Deckcycle Feature Queue
Feature Queue
Playtest v1
Similar Deck Space Card Recommendations

Land (36)

Planeswalker (1)

Creature (30)

Instant (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Maelstrom Wanderer

Artifact (10)

Enchantment (8)

Sorcery (8)

Sideboard

Creature (6)

Instant (4)

Enchantment (2)

Sorcery (3)

Maybeboard

Creature (39)

Sorcery (11)

Land (4)

Enchantment (6)

Artifact (6)

Planeswalker (3)

The Goal:

As with all Maelstrom Wanderer builds, your goal is to race out the commander and start cascading into CMC 7 bombs before opponents have built their forts and offensive strategies. That's pretty much it.

  • Ramp to 8 as fast as possible to cast Maelstrom Wanderer
  • Out-value opponents with cascades, and smash faces to victory

There are some things to consider how you sequence events, for example if you have Moraug on the board, wait until your second main phase to play lands. Don't forget that the free casts from Etali   will also trigger Nalfeshnee. Things like that, which are easy to pickup once you've played the deck a time or two.

The most difficult choice will be what to search up with Tooth and Nail or Brutalizer Exarch, but even that is pretty easy. We do run DEN + Conscripts so that's usually a win condition to tutor for. If that's not available, Nyxbloom Ancient is a worthy target to setup some huge plays, if you have good cards in hand. But otherwise, just go get the biggest and meanest creature for the current board state.

Another aspect of play that's fun to experiment with, is the ability to surprise players on their turns, with Alchemist's Refuge, Winding Canyons, and Seedborn Muse. Also, we do run a few instants that can interfere with enemy board states so knowing those and what's best to use them on will make you a better pilot as well.

The sideboard has extra turn spells that can be awesome to cascade into, depending on how your group feels about those kinds of cards. It also has Food Chain and Kiki-Jiki, both of which can also be abused easily here for common instant win scenarios. I move those in when I'm playing against more streamlined, competitive decks, but I find them less fun to play with, so prefer to play the less powered version you see on the main board here.

Key Synergies:

Cascade, Cascade, Cascade

Deadeye Navigator Combos

Top Deck Manipulation

  • Sensei's Divining Top or Scroll Rack, both at instant speed in response to cascade triggers.
  • Repeatable Brainstorm effect with Jace, the Mind Sculptor zero ability, and the +2 ability is a scry for when you need to tick up his loyalty.
  • Sylvan Library, in addition to being excellent card draw, can reorder cards at the top of the deck and help ensure we don't draw cards that we'd rather cascade into.
  • Brutalizer Exarch can tutor up a creature to sit on top of the deck.
  • Halimar Depths even has a one-time use to prep the top deck.
  • Noxious Revival, and Worldly Tutor can both put a card on top, from graveyard and library, respectively, although these both currently sit in the sideboard.

Mana Package

Choosing an 8CMC commander means to be competitive we have to ramp up quickly. The land base here is expensive but is built for consistency and works pretty well:

The ramp strategy is pretty aggressive and starts with many common staples, including:

Mana rocks are also critical to the ramp strategy and include:

  • Jeweled Lotus, Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Chromatic Lantern, and Thran Dynamo
  • The Great Henge is also included, but is not effective as early ramp since it's only worth casting after we get our commander out the first time. But the lifegain and especially the card draw makes it worth the inclusion, especially since once Maelstrom Wanderer is in play, it's very cheap to cast. This is a card I'm fine with sitting in my hand for a bit.
  • Tezzeret the Seeker is included for his +1 ability to let us tap rocks multiple times per turn, and hard-casting him generally means you're playing Maelstrom Wanderer on the next turn. (Did not make the final cut, but still a great option!)

Rounding out the ramp strategy is a few unusual buy very effective mana dorks:

  • Wood Elves - the land sticks around after he gets killed off, and he's also very abusable with DEN. He also fetches the duals/shocks as well as basic forests if needed. Very versatile.
  • Somberwald Sage - 3CMC that taps for 3, one of the best for big ramp, unfortunately is often a lightning rod for removal before getting tapped for mana.
  • Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea - Even just having a 3CMC dork that taps for two is great, but her untap ability fires on 15 of our creatures, and it works with cascade, making this a perfect fit for the deck.
  • Selvala, Heart of the Wild - Another perfect fit for the deck, as she leverages all the big stompy creatures we run, and especially Zopandrel, Unnatural Growth, and Body of Research.
  • Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Another 3CMC that taps for two, making him good ramp, but he's also a win condition.
  • Averna, the Chaos Bloom - Does not make the cut mostly because the land hits are inconsistent and won't make a difference until after our first cascade anyway, but the effect is cool for this deck. Just probably not cool enough.

Finally, because we sometimes have to cast Maelstrom Wanderer many times, he gets expensive, so doublers and even triplers are included:

  • Nyxbloom Ancient triples mana production, which gets crazy, and makes hard-casting our bombs that land in hand much more feasible when you can't cascade them out.
  • Zendikar Resurgent is another high value card, as it really boosts your land mana production, but it also draws cards from our creature casts.
  • Mana Reflection - Whereas Zendikar Resurgent just adds another mana per land, this one straight up doubles all mana production, including rocks and dorks, really boosting our mana output.
  • Regal Behemoth - Great card, but somewhat unnecessary with the Nyxbloom Ancient. Did not make my final cut, but always worthy of consideration here.

Cascade: How it Works

  • "A card that costs less" always refers to the CMC of the triggering card, which means you don't get to include commander tax when looking for a card to cast for free. In other words, it is always going to be less than 8 with Maelstrom Wanderer.
  • A spell's mana value is determined only by its mana cost. Ignore any alternative costs, additional costs, cost increases, or cost reductions.
  • If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
  • You can pay additional costs such as Entwine, Buyback, or Kicker costs, but you can't pay alternative costs such as Miracle or Overload. Cascading into Capsize is fine; cascading into Cyclonic Rift is kind of a bummer.
  • Cards from cascade are still cast (without paying the mana cost), and can be countered and interacted with on the stack. However, the Cascade ability itself will still resolve and exiled cards will still return to the bottom of the deck. If someone cast Trickbind targeting a Cascade trigger, then no cards would be exiled, but once you start exiling cards from the top of the deck, it's too late to stop the Cascade ability from resolving.
  • Each instance of Cascade triggers separately on the stack, and both are based on the CMC of Maelstrom Wanderer.
  • Cascade triggers on casting, which means the free spells will resolve before Maelstrom Wanderer enters the battlefield. If you reveal a board wipe, Maelstrom Wanderer will still enter after everything else is resolved. With haste!
  • Similarly, because cascade triggers on the cast, not on ETB, flickering him unfortunately has no effect.
  • Cascade triggers based on the casting of Maelstrom Wanderer, and both triggers exist and resolve independently and before Maelstrom Wanderer fully resolves and enters the battlefield. Which means, if you cascade into a counterspell like Spelljack, you can target Maelstrom Wanderer, removing it from the stack, and then you get to cast him for free, generating two more cascade triggers. If this was done with the first Cascade trigger, note that he will enter the battlefield before the second trigger on the initial casting.

Specific explanations:

  • Spelljack can give you two more free cascades, if you target Maelstrom Wanderer on the stack. The original MW won't enter the battlefield, but you get to cast it again, triggering two more Cascade effects, followed by your spelljacked version. (This doesn't increment commander tax, because he never returns to the Command Zone.)

Suggestions

Updates Add

Image View Timeline
Card Odds v1 Draw hand
Add to folder Copy
Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Date added 6 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

17 - 7 Mythic Rares

55 - 6 Rares

14 - 2 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.62
Tokens Copy Clone, Fractal 0/0 GU, Rhino Warrior 4/4 G
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views