Primal Chain Cascade Combo - A Competitive Primer
Commander / EDH Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Ramp RUG (Temur)
Creature (39)
- 1x Acidic Slime
- 1x Balefire Dragon
- 1x Birds of Paradise
- 1x Bounding Krasis
- 1x Coiling Oracle
- 1x Consecrated Sphinx
- 1x Deceiver Exarch
- 1x Dragonlord Atarka
- 1x Eternal Witness
- 1x Fierce Empath
- 1x Fyndhorn Elves
- 1x Gilded Drake
- 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
- 1x Great Oak Guardian
- 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
- 1x Inferno Titan
- 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1x Llanowar Elves
- 1x Lotus Cobra
- 1x Misthollow Griffin
- 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
- 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
- 1x Pestermite
- 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
- 1x Prime Speaker Vannifar
- 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
- 1x Rattleclaw Mystic
- 1x Reclamation Sage
- 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
- 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
- 1x Somberwald Sage
- 1x Squee, the Immortal
- 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
- 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
- 1x Wood Elves
- 1x Woodland Bellower
- 1x Xenagos, God of Revels
- 1x Zealous Conscripts
Land (35)
- 1x Ancient Tomb
- 1x Arid Mesa
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Breeding Pool
- 1x Cascade Bluffs
- 1x Cinder Glade
- 1x Command Beacon
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
- 1x Flooded Grove
- 1x Flooded Strand
- 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
- 1x Hinterland Harbor
- 1x Misty Rainforest
- 1x Polluted Delta
- 1x Reflecting Pool
- 1x Reliquary Tower
- 1x Rootbound Crag
- 1x Scalding Tarn
- 1x Shivan Reef
- 3x Snow-Covered Forest
- 3x Snow-Covered Island
- 1x Snow-Covered Mountain
- 1x Spire Garden
- 1x Steam Vents
- 1x Stomping Ground
- 1x Sulfur Falls
- 1x Verdant Catacombs
- 1x Windswept Heath
- 1x Wooded Foothills
- 1x Yavimaya Coast
Sorcery (1)
Commander (1)
Artifact (13)
- 1x Birthing Pod
- 1x Chromatic Lantern
- 1x Coalition Relic
- 1x Crystal Shard
- 1x Gilded Lotus
- 1x Gruul Signet
- 1x Mana Crypt
- 1x Mana Vault
- 1x Scroll Rack
- 1x Simic Signet
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x Thought Vessel
- 1x Thran Dynamo
Enchantment (6)
- 1x Food Chain
- 1x Greater Good
- 1x Rhystic Study
- 1x Splinter Twin
- 1x Survival of the Fittest
- 1x Sylvan Library
Planeswalker (5)
Maybeboard
Creature (11)
Land (3)
Artifact (2)
Enchantment (2)
Welcome to my Maelstrom Wanderer EDH deck. My name is greeblesand this is my competitive combo-focused build of the best (IMO) general in the format. This deck includes a Food Chain + Misthollow Griffin combo. Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal can be added for efficiency. Additionally, there are no instants or sorcery cards in this deck. As such, a resolved Laboratory Maniac + Primal Surge is a game-winning play in combination with a draw effect at instant speed. This deck also features various Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Splinter Twin combos in a Birthing Pod + Prime Speaker Vannifar style of creature toolbox deck.
The deck is a enter-the-battlefield, toolbox-style deck with a heavy combo feel. Essentially, this deck is a RUG Greatest Hits deck with some game winning combos jammed in with additional synergies, card draw, ramp to fight back against your opponents. The goal is to win by comboing out with massive swarms of creatures with Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite and making infinite mana with the Food Chain + Misthollow Griffin or Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal combo.
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you love playing creatures
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you love game ending combos
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you love using tutors and shuffling your deck
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you love a toolbox deck filled with creatures that enter the battlefield and do something
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you are named Spike or Johnny
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you dislike playing toolbox creatures
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you dislike tapping out on your turn
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you dislike insane, game-ending combos
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you dislike "good stuff" decks
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you think Cascade is a stupid game mechanic
Food Chain + Maelstrom Wanderer - Untapping with a Wanderer and a Food Chain allows for some very powerful turns. Sacrificing Wanderer nets you 9 mana of any one colour. Fill in the remaining colour requirements from lands or by exiling other useless mana ramp creatures on the board to Food Chain in order to repeatedly Cascade, Cascade and exile Wanderer to Food Chain for mana. Wash, Rinse, Repeat and Cascade, Cascade for value until you stumble into an infinite combo of sorts or find a creature tutor in the form of Birthing Pod , Prime Speaker Vannifar , or Survival of the Fittest in order to find the other piece of your creature combo puzzle.
Food Chain + Misthollow Griffin - With Food Chain and Misthollow Griffin or Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal , you can create as much coloured mana as you'd like, although you can only cast creature spells with it. Repeatedly exile Griffin to create infinite blue, then infinite green, then infinite red. Cast Maelstrom Wanderer and exile it to Food Chain and use the infinite coloured creature spell mana to recast Wanderer until you Cascade, Cascade into a way to win.
Eternal Scourge + Food Chain - Basically, this is the same combo as Food Griffin.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite / Deceiver Exarch + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Great Oak Guardian + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Bounding Krasis + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts / Pestermite + Splinter Twin / Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin / Great Oak Guardian + Splinter Twin / Bounding Krasis + Splinter Twin / Splinter Twin + Zealous Conscripts - If you don't know how any of these combos go, let me explain. Kiki-Jiki copies the any of the above creatures and they all feature some kind of way, upon entering the battlefield, to untap Kiki. Once untapped, Kiki targets the same creature that untapped him. Do this an infinite amount of times, and then attack with all the copies. This can be achieved in the same turn with Twin except Wanderer also has to be down on the table so that all the copies, and the original creature being enchanted, have haste.
Woodland Bellower package: Bellower can grab a number of different creatures to ramp with something like Somberwald Sage , or return a card to your hand with Eternal Witness , or tutor a creature with Fierce Empath , or destroy a problem artifact or enchantment with Reclamation Sage ! The number of lines of play with this creature offer a very flexible and fun way of interacting with opponents.
1x Acidic Slime - An EDH staple. Decent blocker with Creeping Mold attached.
1x Balefire Dragon - Because we are running such a high number of creatures, we don't have access to spells like Cyclonic Rift if we want to go in on our Primal Surge plan. In combination with Wanderer, this can come down with haste and often decimate an opponent's creatures.
1x Birds of Paradise - BOP and Sol Ring used to be my only turn one plays, but I have recently seen the need in my group to become faster. Our 1 CMC dorks set us up for a very strong early game.
1x Bounding Krasis - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Coiling Oracle - Poo Snake, he ramps or draws a card for us. Sweet.
1x Consecrated Sphinx - Pretty sure every blue player in EDH plays this card, and for good reason. It's the scum of the goddamn earth and probably should be banned. Anyways, your main goal is to empty your hand by playing value creatures or ramp spells, so when you run out it's always a good idea to slam this guy a.s.a.p. in order to recover some cards. Also discourages opponents from playing card draw since you will draw more cards than them.
1x Deceiver Exarch - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Dragonlord Atarka - Another creature that acts as removal on a stick. Just in here to kill stuff and act as a fatty that can come in under a Cascade.
1x Eternal Witness - Regrowth on a stick. I won't lie, most of the time in the early game this card is rebuying a fetchland. However, sometimes it does grab you a combo piece that someone else killed earlier in the game.
1x Fierce Empath - I think the reason this is in the deck is because I think Worldly Tutor is too slow and we want to do our best to supply ourselves with the best way to get Consecrated Sphinx always. It's a fairly flexible card and can also be found off of Woodland Bellower . If you've done your job ramping, you can use this to get a creature like Prime Speaker Zegana in order to grab some more cards. If you need to remove a problem non-creature permanent, this grabs Woodfall Primus and Brutalizer Exarch if you want to play those cards. If you need to Regrowth something, this card gets Greenwarden of Murasa . Although some of those cards I mentioned aren't in my deck, they could be subbed in depending on the matchups! So, in general, if you have mana, this card has a way of getting you another creature that can answer a specific situation in the middle of your game.
1x Fyndhorn Elves - Mana dork.
1x Gilded Drake - Taking over the "removal" spot from Duplicant , the Drake has tremendous synergy with Crystal Shard as we can bounce and replay the Drake while maintaining the permanent theft of our opponent's troublesome creatures, which seems to me a better option than a mana artifact.
1x Glen Elendra Archmage - Negate on a stick. Excellent card and difficult for opponents to interact with profitably. It should be noted that this combos with Birthing Pod provided you still have Zealous Conscripts and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker in your deck and that there is no -1/-1 counter on the Archmage.
1x Great Oak Guardian - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Greenwarden of Murasa - Eternal Witness #2.
1x Inferno Titan - Kill stuff!
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Llanowar Elves - More dorks.
1x Lotus Cobra - Combos with the many Fetchlands in our deck.
1x Misthollow Griffin - Lives only to be paired with Food Chain and is otherwise fairly useless. See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Oracle of Mul Daya - Pretty sure if Exploration and Future Sight had a baby, this would be it. Has synergy with Lotus Cobra if you want to play that card, Sensei's Divining Top , Sylvan Library , and fetchlands.
1x Pathbreaker Ibex - Is this goat the G.O.A.T. of pump creatures? I don't know. But I like the idea of giving everything +7/+7 with Wanderer on the field.
1x Pestermite - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Phyrexian Metamorph - Because I want to live in a world where I can play two Birthing Pod s in the same EDH deck. It's also just a very flexible Clone and a slightly worse Clever Impersonator .
1x Prime Speaker Vannifar - Vannifar has replaced Zegana on Ravnica and in this desk as she is Birthing Pod #2 and a great card in our toolbox deck.
1x Prime Speaker Zegana - There might not be enough room for two Prime Speakers in the Simic Guild, but there's room for two here, especially when one offers such a tremendous upside, like refilling our hand with new cards!
1x Rattleclaw Mystic - Another ramp creature representing the Temur Clan!
1x Reclamation Sage - A cheap, effective Naturalize .
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder - Steve. Rampant Growth since we can't run non-creature spells.
1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - This is a great ramp creature that makes a ton of mana with Wanderer out on the battlefield. Also has the potential to net you some cards here and there when Wanderer lands on the field.
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Somberwald Sage Jr. ramps us relatively quickly to Wanderer and also has an alternative win condition in the form of its Formidable activated ability.
1x Somberwald Sage - Maybe the best ramp card in the deck. A turn three Sage gives you astounding turn four plays.
1x Squee, the Immortal - Lives only to be paired with Food Chain and is otherwise fairly useless. See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - This card is just tremendously unfun for our opponents and allows us to attempt a Food Chain combo without disruption on our turn. It's also great with a deck full of creatures.
1x Venser, Shaper Savant - A more flexible Mystic Snake , this can return Wanderer to our hand on a Cascade or get rid of a pesky permanent for a little bit.
1x Wood Elves - Our version of Nature's Lore
1x Woodland Bellower - In this toolbox combo deck, we have many toolbox creatures. This one is especially useful as it has 10 potential targets in the deck, Eternal Witness for recursion, Fierce Empath for combo creature tutoring, Reclamation Sage for disruption, Shaman of Forgotten Ways + Somberwald Sage for ramp, and all the other 1 CMC green dorks if for some reason they are useful. Note to self: find room for Skullclamp for these 1 CMC green dorks...
1x Xenagos, God of Revels - Puts intense pressure on our opponents to do something about our Wanderer so we can recast him again.
1x Zealous Conscripts - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
Each EDH mana base is unique and can be built pretty much however the player wants. This deck runs every fetchland, shockland, filterland, and checkland. The main goal is optimal color fixing. ABU duals are...increasingly becoming impossible to obtain, but if it were within my means to obtain those cards, I would.
1x Ancient Tomb - Over Temple of the False God because I always want the 2 colorless mana, unconditionally.
1x Arid Mesa
1x Cinder Glade
1x Command Beacon - I really think this card will become a staple in EDH decks that rely heavily on casting and recasting their general.
1x Reliquary Tower - I plan on drawing a lot of cards, so this tower is especially useful.
1x Shivan Reef
1x Spire Garden
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Food Chain - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Greater Good - Excellent card draw with our commander.
1x Rhystic Study - Just a great, annoying card for our opponents to deal with. It's either a Sphere of Resistance or a card draw, and you're happy with whatever.
1x Splinter Twin - See: COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.
1x Survival of the Fittest - Essential green tutor card. Finds the creature combos you're looking for.
1x Sylvan Library - Organizing the top 3 cards of our deck before we cast Wanderer is, as it turns out, pretty important in a combo deck. This card is also just very efficient at what it does and rewards you simply for having it in play.
1x Birthing Pod - Banned in Modern for a good reason. Works wonders in a creature combo deck and ensures we always have the best creatures against our opponents on the board at any given time.
1x Chromatic Lantern - Fix all your mana!
1x Coalition Relic - Friends with Seedborn Muse !
1x Crystal Shard - Gotta buyback Maelstrom Wanderer some how!
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Gruul Signet - Fast colorless ramp. EDH staples for curving out powerful mid-range spells. Should be noted that the signets pair extremely well with a trio of broken fast mana cards - I'm talkin' Mana Crypt , Mana Vault , and Sol Ring - to have explosive starts most opponents can't handle.
1x
Mana Crypt
- Wanderer costs 8 mana and dies frequently, so we need to be able to recast him multiple times in a game. Crypt is extremely broken fast mana and helps facilitate our need to recast our commander many times in a game. Also, you can use
Tezzeret the Seeker
's -X ability for 0 to find this card.
1x Mana Vault - Same reasons as above.
1x Scroll Rack - Rack up your hand to ensure the best Cascades possible!
1x Simic Signet
1x Sol Ring
1x Thran Dynamo
1x
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- A permanent that can
Brainstorm
can help us set up our Wanderer cascades!
1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries - Can combo with Primal Surge in this all permanent deck to win the game and, because Jace is not a creature, you can cast Surge with a Humility on the battlefield no problem.
1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage - He can untap key artifacts to help us ramp into Wanderer, but also can help us draw cards.
1x
Tezzeret the Seeker
- Primarily in here because Tezz represents access to
Birthing Pod
and a slew of important artifact ramp cards.
1x
Ugin, the Ineffable
- Another new addition from War of the Spark, Ugin is in here over
Karn Liberated
for a few reasons. Firstly, Ugin's static ability can help us ramp out artifacts in our deck, of which there are 19. Secondly, it's minus ability is generally as good as Karn's in that it gets rid of problem non-land permanents. Finally, in multiplayer, I think Ugin has a better symbol:loyalty-plus ability in that he can create creatures and, when they leave the battlefield, they essentially draw us a card, which is generally better than exiling a random card from an opponent's hand. This Ugin is also in here over
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
because that card can't be cast under a Maelstrom Wanderer cascade trigger and it's symbol:loyalty-minus ability can really hurt our board position.
1x Primal Surge - So, this is a game winning card with Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries . With a deck featuring all permanents, you can dump your deck onto the battlefield. Laboratory Maniac + Primal Surge or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Primal Surge and an instant speed draw activation from Greater Good is game winning. Then, at instant speed, sacrifice a creature to Greater Good with Laboratory Maniac on the battlefield. Greater Good + Laboratory Maniac can win us the game. What if Lab Man is in our hand? Hopefully Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is on the field and we can flash in a Lab Man with all the extra mana that also got dumped in when we flipped over our deck to Primal Surge. What if Lab Man is in the graveyard? Hopefully Greenwarden of Murasa or Eternal Witness got flipped over in the Primal Surge. They can return him to your hand. What if none of those options are available? Consider running Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as a redundant Laboratory Maniac. Even still, with all those permanents now on the battlefield, there should be a way to win somewhere on the table. Since all permanents enter at the same time, any of our Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Splinter Twin combos are also online.
Thanks for reading this primer. I've been playing Maelstrom Wanderer for years now and really have attached myself to this deck. My build for this commander is always changing, however I can sometimes be slow to update it. Please leave a comment down below with your own suggestions, comments, or questions regarding inclusions or exclusions for this deck. I am currently playing this deck weekly. Thank you for your attention, bye!
ON DECK...
1x Progenitor Mimic - Not sure if I need something this slow, but I am aware it is very powerful.
1x Geode Golem - I am in love with the idea of casting Wanderer for free. Might test.
1x Joraga Treespeaker / Elvish Mystic - Do I need another 1 drop elf?
1x Yavimaya Dryad - Might consider this over something like Chromatic Lantern
1x Phyrexian Ingester - Comes in if I need to remove more creatures.
1x Mercurial Chemister - Value creature that can draw a lot of cards with Seedborn Muse
1x Mulldrifter - A glue card. Not sure how much card draw is in here.
1x Trygon Predator - Could replace Reclamation Sage for a repeatable Naturalize effect.
1x Treasure Nabber - A pest that could annoy artifact centered decks.
1x Hedron Archive - Could replace Worn Powerstone because I really like the draw two cards option late game.
1x Mind Stone - Could replace Thought Vessel for some additional cycling.
1x Seal of Primordium - Immediately needs to come in if we're facing Humility . Because otherwise we cannot win.