Wandering through the Maelstrom

1 Maelstrom Wanderer

4 forest
3 island
2 mountain
1 terramorphic expanse
1 evolving wilds
1 command tower
1 reflecting pool
1 Exotic orchard
1 gruul turf
1 izzet boilerworks
1 simic growth chamber
1 stomping ground
1 steam vents
1 breeding pool
1 rootbound crag
1 sulfur falls
1 hinterland harbor
1 temple of abandon
1 temple of epiphany
1 temple of mystery
1 spinerock knoll
1 mosswort bridge
1 halimar depths
1 fungal reaches
1 temple of the false god
1 alchemists refuge
1 kessig wolf run
1 ancient tomb
1 cavern of souls
1 maze of ith
1 frontier biovac

37 lands

1 scourge of the throne
1 body double
1 acidic slime
1 brutalizer exarch
1 hellkite tyrant
1 somberwald sage
1 diluvian primordial
1 molten primordial
1 krosan tusker
1 eternal witness
1 steel hellkite
1 hornet queen
1 clever impersonator
1 phyrexian metamorph
1 sphinx of uthuun
1 inferno titan
1 avenger of zendikar
1 zealous conscripts
1 prophet of kruphix
1 hydra omnivore
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 malignus
1 elvish piper
1 consecrated sphinx
1 etherium-horn sorcerer
1 chancellor of the spires
1 bane of progress
1 balefire dragon
1 vorniclex, voice of hunger
1 jin-gitaxias, core augur
1 Surrak Dragonclaw
1 sphinx ambassador

32 creatures

1 see the unwritten
1 mana vault
1 thran dynamo
1 skyshroud claim
1 explosive vegetation
1 garruk wildspeaker
1 jace the mind sculptor
1 cultivate
1 kodamas reach
1 devastation tide
1 all is dust
1 devastation
1 unexpected results
1 decimate
1 Apocalypse
1 guided passage
1 cryptic command
1 bribery
1 blatant thievery
1 time warp
1 temporal mastery
1 walk the aeons
1 grim monolith
1 tooth and nail
1 knowledge exploitation
1 guilded lotus
1 sol ring
1 jokulhaups
1 time stretch
1 insurrection

30 other spells

Rundown -

Conpared to most generals in the format, the Maelstrom Wanderer is know for being one of the most powerful. The fact that it allows you to cast two spells in your deck for free, while giving all your creatures haste AND coming with a total power of seven (being the "sweet spot" for commander damage) this thing is crazy. This deck is for anyone who is looking for a highly competitive, but also very fun edh deck. There are so many exciting and entertaining cards in here, and the power level of the average card in the deck is extremely high. There aren't really any combos in the deck (mainly because I'm not a fan of combos in EDH) but there are a lot of synergies. It's easy to make the deck a bit more casual, by just removing the MLD (Mass Land destruction) spells and probably time stretch as well (which my play group recently banned). Now I'm going to go into detail about a lot of my picks and why I like them so much!

Lands -

Pretty basic 3 color mana base here, including all of the shocklands, check lands, bounce lands, and scry lands in these colors. You'll notice that the original duels are missing, that is simply because I don't feel it's necessary to invest that much money in them. If you already have them, great. Run them, as they are awesome. Other notables include:
1. mosswort bridge and spinerock knoll - Everyone knows that hideaway lands are great. This is especially true in a deck with so many fat creatures.
2. halimar depths - A great land for setting up your cascades.
3. ancient tomb and temple of the false god - Getting the wanderer out asap is important, and these help to get him out a turn earlier then other lands would allow for.
4. Fungal reaches - Similar function to the above lands. In the first few turns you'll just be setting up for what you hope will be a turn 4 or 5 cascading spree, and this makes it so you don't even need spells to do so.
5. cavern of souls - Because no one wants to have their commander on the bottomnof their deck.
6. kessig wolf run and alchemists refuge - Both are extremely powerful utility lands in EDH. The refuge is especially great when you have prophet of kruphix out, and the wolf run allows your wanderer to kill people via commander damage easily.
7. Maze of Ith - I'm not 100% sold on this one for this deck, but this is a deck that doesn't usually do a whole lot during the first few turns, and it also attracts a decent amount of hate from certain players, so this might just be necessary for stopping certain creatures in their tracks.
8. command tower, frontier biouvac, reflecting pool, exotic orchard, terramorphic expanse, and evolving wilds - Having all of your colors is nice. These are staples for any 3 color EDH deck.

Ramp -

There are two forms of ramp here, and that is land ramp and mana rocks. Like I said before, you want to drop the wanderer by turn 5, turn 6 at the latest. You want a good balance though, because it sucks cascading into these spells...and I think I have a great balance here, only including the most powerful and consistent spells. (Aside from mana crypt, because I don't want to drop over $150 on one...)
1. Artifact Ramp - sol ring, mana vault, Thran dynamo, gilded lotus, grim monolith.
2. Land Ramp - skyshroud claim, explosive vegetation, kodamas reach, cultivate.
3. Other - Garruk wildspeaker, somberwald sage, phyrexian metamorph and clever impersonator

Utility Spells -

The smallest category here, but an important one nevertheless.
1. Jace the mind sculptor - Definitely not an affordable card for most people, but I own one so I run it :p He's even better in here then he is in most decks, because his 0 and his -1 are both fantastic. You can set up your cascades, and you can return the wanderer to your hand! Of all the really expensive cards, this is the best one to invest in for this deck.
2. acidic slime and brutalizer exarch - As you might have noticed, I don't run very much targeted removal is this deck. But when I do, I figure I might as well get a hasty body along with it. Especially since mana cost usually isn't a factor. And the exarch is nice as a tutor (that can set up your 2nd cascade!) and tucking gods that are used as generals.
3. Eternal witness - An EDH staple, and great for taking multiple turns in a row
4. Devastation Tide and Evacuation - These are both great to cascade into. They make for an empty field before landing the wanderer and potentially another fat creature. They are also great for returning the wanderer to your hand so that you can cast it again easily!
5. Unexpected Results - I just love this card, and that's because it's a blast to play with and it is also very efficient. If you play early in the game it will either ramp you, or pull out a powerful spell at a time in the game where there isn't much going on. It is also a solid cascade.
6. Cryptic command - A card that does is all. Good at any point in the game.
7. Krosan Tusker - I'm a big fan of this card in here. If you ever draw it, you will always cycle it, which is a great 3 mana spell. If you cascade into it, you get a nice 6/5 body.
8. phyrexian metamorph, clever impersonator and body double - They are what you need them to be.
9. Decimate - This is EDH removal at it's finest. A personal favorite of mine, easily making the cut that most targeted removal was unable to make.
10. Elvish piper - Let's get those fatties out! Do you have one extra mana after casting the wanderer? As long as you make sure it's a green mana you can instantly throw a fatty out with the hasted piper you cascaded into
11. Guided passage - Seems like a strange choice, I know. But I just love this card. It's loads of fun, and it's a 3 for one. And among other things it gets you a land and two cards you wouldn't want to cascade into out of your deck.

Power Houses -

These spells are the bread and butter of the deck. Most of them are ein conditions on their own, and they all have an extremely high power level. I will go into detail about some of them, but others are pretty self-explanatory :p
1. Dilluvian primordial and Molten primordial - A couple obviously powerful cards here, designed specifically for EDH. If only we had access to the green one...
2. Time warp, Walk the Aeons, Temporal Mastery, and Time Stretch - Extra turns are always nice, especially when the come free and you have fat hasty creatures out Even though time stretch is banned in my playgroup (and should be in general imo), I still have it in my list, just not my deck.
3. See the Unwritten - One of the few new khans gems, this card is perfect in this deck. Odds are you will often get two fatties out off of a single cascade, and if not atleast you get a little discretion in what creature you cascade into.
4. Blatant Thievery - Another obviously powerful EDH card. Take the best permanents your opponents have to offer.
5. Bane of Progress - There are 7 artifacts in this deck total, and zero enchantments. This will often remove many great permanents on the opposing sides of the field, and it brings a potentially large creature to the table with it.
6. Sphinx Ambassador - An amazingly fun card to play with. You get to play mind games with your opponents, you some of the better creatures in their decks, and you get a nice 5/5 flyer out of it? Sign me up please!
7. Sphinx of Uthuun - Why run fact or fiction, when you can get the same effect tacked onto a 5/6 flyer? Lots of value here.
8. Consecrated Sphinx - Sphinx number 3! This is another EDH staple, that draws you a crap ton of cards and gives you nice (hasty) body as well.
9. chancellor of the spires - And the last sphinx of the sphinx family of sphinxes, this one is much like dilluvian primordial, but it can only get one spell for you. However it gives you a slightly bigger body as well.
10. Hellkite Tyrant - So much value in this card. An awesome 6/5 flying trampley body that can easily steal a lot of useful artifacts from your opponents for you to do with as you please. Watch out Sharuum, this is your worst nightmare.
11. Scourge of the throne - Because who doesn't like fat creatures that make it so all of your fat creatures can attack more than once in a turn?
12. Steel Hellkite - Odd how one of the best dragons is colorless...Another fat flying body that can remove just about any pesky permanent you can think of.
13. Balefire dragon - And the last of the dragon family, this guy is nothing to underestimate. Another fat creature that wipes opponents fields with ease.
14. Tooth and Nail - In a deck full of giant creatures, this EDH staple feels better then ever.
15. Inferno Titan - This card may seem a little underwelming when compared to some of the cards in the deck, but I find this card to be VERY powerful in here. Dealing 6 damage divided as you choose the turn this thing drops? That's nothing to scoff at, and neither is the 6/6 body with fire breathing.
16. Avenger of Zendikar - Does anyone really need an explanation for this guy? Lol, strong card is strong.
17. Hornet queen - POOF! Just like that you have an army of blockers (or attackers) that will trade with the mightiest of creatures snd block nearly anything that comes their way.
18. Prophet of Kruphix - This card should probably be under utility, but either section works. One of the best cards they've printed in a long time when it comes to edh. You can drop all of the fatties in your hand before you even get to your next turn.
19. Jokulhaups, Devastation and Apocalypse - I originally didn't want to include any MLD, but it's just too hard to pass these up, and seeing as this is my more competetive EDH deck I might as well abuse these. Nearly completely wiping the boards, before dropping a 7/5 maelstrom wanderer that can kill opponents in 3 swings seems pretty good. You might even have another fatty beside the wanderer while your opponents are likely to have nothing.
20. Hamletback Goliath - If you cascade into him, he will always be ATLEAST a 13/13. Fits the definition of "fatty" pretty well.
21. Etherium Horn Sorcerer - This guy is great. Allows for a THIRD cascade off of the wanderer, and if you have nothing else to do with your mana you can continue to cascade with him. Works very well with the Prophet of Kruphix (which it can cascade into).
22. Zealous Conscripts - Whether you want to steal the best permanent on your opponents side of the field, or just untap one of your own, this is the card for you. Plus it comes with a 3/3 body
23. Knowledge exploitation - Need a time stretch? How about an insurrection? Maybe a Rise of the dark realms? This card is whatever you need it to be.
24. Bribery - Similar to the abover card, whether you need an avacyn, angel of hope or a blightsteel collossus, you'll find it with this baby.
25. Hydra Omnivore - Another favorite of mine that I initially underestimated. This thing will make killing 3 other players quickly seem like a much easier task.
26. Malignus - Here's another great example of a "fatty". A 20/20 with haste is NO joke. This guy does work, and there's nothing else to it.
27. All is Dust - Another way to clear the field and pave the way for the wanderer and friends! The Temur wedge doesn't have access to a whole lot of board wipes, so this one is especially crucial here.
28. Phyrexian Ingester - Similar to bane of progress, this guy does great as a peice of removal that often get's fat after removing something. Plus this is just a cool card. Since when does blue exile creatures and make their own ridiculously large?
29. Insurrection - Another EDH staple, this card is often referred to as "Winsurrection", a name that I believe to be much more fitting then the actual one.
30. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and Vorniclex, Voice of hunger - While these guys have mana costs that prevent them from being cascaded into, they are so powerful that I believe they still deserve spots. They are great for grabbing with tooth and nail, and since this deck already does a good amount of ramping, casting then should never be too difficult.
31. Surrak Dragonclaw - Another awesome card from khans here, this guy does a lot for us. Gives our other fatties trample, and prevents our opponents from countering the wanderer! All on top of being a flashy fatty

Well, that's my deck! There only 4 spells in the deck that you can't cascade into, and I like that a lot. There are so many fun cards in here, and most of them are very powerful as well. If you are looking for an immensely fun deck that is in one of the best 3 color combinations out there, this might be the deck for you. However the deck is highly competitive, so only play with it if you are part of a very competitive play group Also, the list as is really isn't very expensive for an EDH deck Below are my top 5 favorite cards in the deck:

5. Krosan Tusker
4. Decimate
3. Guided passage
2. Sphinx Ambassador
1. Unexpected Results




Load & View in Deck Builder (Beta)

Selective Memory can get rid of all your bad cascades once you've reached a high amount of mana. Jokulhaups (as well as another card that does the same thing but I forget the name) just win the game for you.

Edit: Also, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Cream of the Crop can help set up your cascades more.

Selective Memory can get rid of all your bad cascades once you've reached a high amount of mana. Jokulhaups (as well as another card that does the same thing but I forget the name) just win the game for you.

Edit: Also, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Cream of the Crop can help set up your cascades more.

I'm definitely considering selective memory, but I need to playtest with it some before I can decide if it is really worth pulling 10 or less cards out if the deck. (Because I'm already setting the deck up to have very few bad cascades).

If you read my description, I'm also considering running jokulhaups, but I don't really want to go heavy on the MLD because people won't like playing with me. So apocalypse and devastation will be no-go's.

Cream of the crop doesn't do much unfortunately, seeing as maelstrom will still be on the stack as I'm cascading and I won't get to choose any of my cacades that way really. And momir vig seems okay, but he's not good enough for me to want to see off of cascade ever.

Thanks for the ideas though! Anyone else have any?

Quote from: DimirOverlord1300 on July 21, 2014, 05:05:12 PM

Selective Memory can get rid of all your bad cascades once you've reached a high amount of mana. Jokulhaups (as well as another card that does the same thing but I forget the name) just win the game for you.

Edit: Also, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Cream of the Crop can help set up your cascades more.

I'm definitely considering selective memory, but I need to playtest with it some before I can decide if it is really worth pulling 10 or less cards out if the deck. (Because I'm already setting the deck up to have very few bad cascades).

If you read my description, I'm also considering running jokulhaups, but I don't really want to go heavy on the MLD because people won't like playing with me. So apocalypse and devastation will be no-go's.

Cream of the crop doesn't do much unfortunately, seeing as maelstrom will still be on the stack as I'm cascading and I won't get to choose any of my cacades that way really. And momir vig seems okay, but he's not good enough for me to want to see off of cascade ever.

Thanks for the ideas though! Anyone else have any?

I can understand not wanting the mass land destruction, but momir Vig is really good. He sets up really nice cascades. I like cream of the crop because if you cascade into a creature first then you can set up your next cascade. I like selective memory because it's just fun and it completely eliminates bad cascades

Alright I guess I was wrong about cream of the crop, it would work really well. However, it only works if you cascade into a creature first, and since only half of the cards are creatures and it's a horrible card to cascade into, I don't think I want it. And momir vig, simic visionary is definitely cool, but he only worka really well with GREEN creature cards, making him even more limited then cream of the crop.

Basically with this deck, I'm not trying to go so much for setting up my cascades (hence why you won't see sensei's divining top or soothsaying in the list), but Instead I'm trying to keep the number of "flop" cards to a minimum. If it's not ramp, card draw ir removal, it better be a fatty spell. So yeah, basically just looking for good fatties to cascade into :p

Alright I guess I was wrong about cream of the crop, it would work really well. However, it only works if you cascade into a creature first, and since only half of the cards are creatures and it's a horrible card to cascade into, I don't think I want it. And momir vig, simic visionary is definitely cool, but he only worka really well with GREEN creature cards, making him even more limited then cream of the crop.

Basically with this deck, I'm not trying to go so much for setting up my cascades (hence why you won't see sensei's divining top or soothsaying in the list), but Instead I'm trying to keep the number of "flop" cards to a minimum. If it's not ramp, card draw ir removal, it better be a fatty spell. So yeah, basically just looking for good fatties to cascade into :p

Alright, fair enough.

Fatties: Stalking Vengeance would be good

Fatties: Stalking Vengeance would be good

Now we're talking. Definitely considering this guy as anti-wrath tech. I'm also wondering if I should run palinchron/dead-eye navigator. I mean, they both seem solid on their own and are obviously stupid together

Definitely run them. Deadeye is great on his own to stop removal and other stuff and palinchron is a big guy who makes maelstrom almost free

lol if you really get bored just take out all the nonland cards and add  Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Breaching Hippocamp. you dont do anything for 8 turns then you just win lol. it works great in multiplayer

I'm giggling that you got .poo. as a plural through the filter.

I'm giggling that you got .poo. as a plural through the filter.

Ikr, haha

Alright I made room for the navigator and palinchron! Any other ideas guys???

Should I even run cultivate and kodamas reach? And I'm wondering if the mighty gruul ragebeast deserves a spot

I like the land ramp. Also you need Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith for this because they're really good ramp. The rage beast hasn't done to well in edh in my opinion. The ability isn't optional, and with how your deck has more uncontrolled cascades I wouldn't run it.