Commander Overview
Maelstrom Wanderer is a very controversial commander, not controversial in a bad way, but more in the way that they are way too strong. Maelstrom Wanderer has been a boogeyman of the format for a pretty long time. In contrast, there status within the format has gone down quite a bit as power creep and stronger things emerge within EDH, they are still a formidable commander that can be quite tough for our opponents to deal with. Double cascade combined with a good body makes them tough to deal with and being in Temur allows us to ramp them out considerably earlier than they should be. We don’t need them for the deck to function, but they help a ton and are a great asset. Cascade is the true name of the game in our deck and the only real thing we do: free cast early and get some huge advantage over our opponents.
Creature 32
Instant 8
Sorcery 12
Artifact 4
Enchantment 8
Land 35
EDH BRACKET
Beyond the strength of an average precon deck.
- Late Game 2-Card Infinite Combos
- No Mass Land Denial
- Up to 3 Game Changers
- No Chaining Extra Turns
How to Play the Deck
Playing the deck is quite straightforward, but because of the nature of cascade, you really won’t have two games that are the same. The core game plan of ramping into Wanderer and our other cascade cards is always there, but how you get there will always be a little different. Based on the overall complexity of the deck, I would not recommend it for new players and think it’s perfectly suited for an intermediate to advanced player. There are a lot of moving parts within this deck and a lot to do/keep track of.
Synergy’s in the deck
Our whole deck is synergized around cascading. We have a ton of great ways to support our overall cascade game plan, like Bigger on the Inside, which not only gives us extra mana but can allow us to cascade from non-cascade spells, super strong for only five mana, and being able to triple cascade with Maelstrom feels truly insane. The same is true for Shadow in the Warp, which can be a great way for us to get to Maelstrom Wanderer a lot quicker.
Phases of the Game
The only thing we do in the early game is ramp as much as we can with the ultimate goal of getting out Maelstrom Wanderer as quickly as we can. Beyond ramp spells like Farseek and Nature's Lore, we do have some awesome creature ramp like Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Somberwald Sage. Getting to Maelstrom early is quite easy for our deck to do. While Maelstrom is our primary target, we can absolutely cast any of our other cascade creatures, too, free stuff, and big value is all we are really looking for.
Mid-Game: The mid-game is more of the same, as we pretty much follow the same core game plan of trying to attack as much as we can and putting a lot of pressure on our opponents. Pressuring our opponents at every stage of the game is critical to our overall game plan. Devastating opponents’ boards with cards like Balefire Dragon can allow us to attack freely and do a lot of damage.
Late-Game: The late-game is good for us as well. Just like the other two stages, we do the same thing, but have a lot better attackers/blockers. Huge creature decks or other stompy decks can be troublesome for us at this stage of the game, since by this point, they often catch up to what we are doing. Just attack as much as you can, and hopefully by the time we get to the late-game, our opponents are already pretty low.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
We are amazing at ramping! It is one of the biggest parts of our deck, and it helps us get our cascade creatures and Maelstrom Wanderer out early so we can be pretty explosive out of the gate. Cards like Delighted Halfling, Bloom Tender, and Somberwald Sage allow us to get ahead quickly and dominate the board way before our opponents can. We also have a lot of spell-based ramp like Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, and Skyshroud Claim. I also love Nature's Lore and Farseek. Being able to grab shocks and triomes with these can be a strong way to establish all our colors. Ramp is one of the strongest aspects of our deck, and we are good at it.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
This is a pretty weak aspect of our deck, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have card advantage. Cascade provides a ton of card advantage for the deck and gives us the best of the best on our board, albeit randomly. We have almost no traditional card draw in the deck, but that’s perfectly ok with us; we aren’t a deck that needs to draw a ton of cards or cares if we have our hands full.
Removal
This is another weak aspect of our deck: we do have Beast Within as a way to deal with the worst of the worst our opponents have to offer, but we aren’t a deck that cares that much about what our opponents are doing.
We are a very much a glass cannon deck that is either going to feast or starve. We do have Counterspell as well, but mostly use that in a protection role.
Protection
This isn’t the greatest portion of our deck. Still, we do have some good options like Cyclonic Rift and Counterspell, which we can use to stop our opponents. Cyclonic Rift is just a great card. Still, it works great in this deck since we can clear an opponent’s board to stop them from killing us, but being able to use it offensively and remove their boards so we can attack and win is a great option as well.
Utility / Support
Let’s highlight some of my favorite cards in the deck! Release to the Wind is such a cool card. While we can use it as a removal spell, I love using it as a way to free cast Maelstrom Wanderer and get an additional double cascade, which is pretty awesome. Speaking of multiple cascade triggers, we also have Apex Devastator, which is such a fun card and a very formidable attacker. Being able to cascade into things like Capture of Jingzhou and Temporal Manipulation is super fun, at least for us, and giving us extra turns can turn the game in our favor quite quickly. Koma, World-Eater is an awesome attacker for the deck and is a pain to remove and perfect for the late-game.
Mana Base
We have a good manabase full of fast mana and ways to get all of our colors established, but overall not a lot of interesting non-basics here. We are pretty much fully committed to pure efficiency.
Win Conditions
Combat is our primary win condition and pretty much the only way we close out games. This is made a lot easier by a ton of ramp and Maelstrom Wanderer, making all of our creatures haste-y.
Strengths of the Deck
We are extremely explosive and can take over a game quickly.
We have a ton of amazing attackers that can overwhelm most decks.
Weaknesses of the Deck
We are basically a glass-cannon deck; if we are fully stopped a couple of times, we can struggle quite a bit.
Control decks have a great matchup against us if we aren’t very quick and can beat them down quickly. We do not want to go to the late-game with a control deck.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Savra, Queen of the Golgari. Matchup Record: 3-0
I had no trouble with this matchup and in all of my games just ran them over, we are just a lot quicker than them, if the game does end up going long we do need to mindful of Grave Pact effects as they can hurt us quite a bit but overall this is a great matchup for our deck.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, Quandrix, the Proof and Nexus of Fate.
Game 2: Vs Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Matchup Record: 3-1
This matchup is a race, and whoever is faster typically wins. We need to hit them early before they can commit. Voja, luckily, in the early game, our opponents really won’t block with their elves, allowing us to get some free, easy hits in. If they can stick with Voja, it can get scary quite quickly, so we need to be in a good position by the time that happens.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Panoptic Mirror, Koma, World-Eater and Somberwald Sage.
Game 3: Vs Urza, Lord High Artificer. Matchup Record: 1-3
I struggled a lot with this matchup, an artifact deck that is extremely efficient and has a ton of control elements within the deck is a true nightmare for us. Unless the Urza player stumbles and everyone else on the table jumps on them and beats them up, this is an extremely tough matchup and a deck that will certainly interrupt our glass cannon.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, Pathbreaker Ibex and Natural Reclamation.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed. This deck was a reader request. If you ever want to see our take on a list, please use the deck request at the top of the page. Maelstrom Wanderer is a commander I haven’t played with since my early days of commander around 2014, and going back to them was a lot of fun, and playing them as a glass-cannon deck is really fun and really risky, which is perfect for any player who likes to live on the edge. It’s amazing that a card that was so popular in early Commander is still a fun and viable option today.
