Sideboard


Maybeboard


Disclaimer: Maelstrom Wanderer has proven itself to be more resilient to the inevitable hate a chaos deck provokes. The commander is different, so deck construction must leverage a higher density of big mana spells, instead of a CMC ladder because o Yidris.

"Blow up credit card buildings, reset the debt to zero"

The First Rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions...The Second Rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions....The Third Rule of Project Mayhem is that in Project Mayhem there are no excuses....The Fourth Rule of Project Mayhem is that you cannot lie....The Fifth Rule of Project Mayhem is you have to trust YIDRIS.

It seemed more appropriate to write a Primer on Chaos instead of writing it on a single general, since the focus of the deck isn't general dependent. Instead, the game plan may change from general to general, to abuse its abilities.

I've chosen Yidris after experimenting with Jhoira of the Ghitu and Zo-Zu the Punisher, but Yidris was the only one that provided the means to put out more chaos that your opponents can usually fight off. Jhoira and Zo-Zu would usually put a couple of chaos pieces in play and then get hated right off the table.

This deck should be pretty straightforward to play after you draw your first hand.

Yidris provides us green, which is almost exclusively used in this deck for land ramp. There is enough ramp to consistently play a turn 3 Yidris. On turn 4 you should be able to attack with Yidris (if nothing goes wrong) and have at least 4 mana available to start cascading into degenerate spells.

Our chaos pieces are mostly red and blue. Since most of them require more than one colored mana to be played, you should try to drop your lands accordingly. That's the reason for all the ABUR duals and fetches. They are absolutely not essential to the deck and can (with little to no drawback) be replaced with cheaper alternatives.

I've tried to keep all the chaos dedicated cards in one group. But it should be noted that a lot of the chaos dedicated cards can be used for ramp, interaction and draw.

I've separated between land ramp and other ramp. Since games tend to go long with this deck, using too much artifact ramp (which is usually more efficient) leaves us to exposed to wrath effects and overall artifact destruction. Since land destruction is a bit less common, the deck leverages more land ramp.

I've also kept a couple of signets because cascading into mana sources that can at least produce mana the same turn feels less awful than cascading into a Farseek.

Rampant Growth - Gets us one color, enters tapped.

Nature's Lore - Gets us two colors, one of which is green, enters untapped.

Farseek - Gets us any two colors, enters tapped.

Cultivate - Gets us any two colors, enters tapped and cost three, but guarantees the next land drop.

Explosive Vegetation - Gets us any two colors, enters tapped and cost four. It's great to set up a powerful next turn.

Skyshroud Claim - Gets us any two colors, enter untapped. This is probably the best ramp in the deck, since it can be used on your cascading turn. It will cascade for four, effectively cost 2 mana and get you 2 lands for this and the next turn.

Sol Ring - Sol Ring.

Rakdos Signet - We usually lack red and black mana.

Izzet Signet - We usually lack red and blue mana.

Fertile Ground - This card is kind of good because we run a couple cards that untap our lands and a couple of chaos pieces that redistribute permanents (the enchantment will be controlled by another player but it will stay on our land).

This should be a short section. I've put just the necessary interaction in the deck. When possible, our interaction is done aligned with our main goal (implement chaos).

Boompile - Absolute killer. Can clear the board if you're really behind and it fits our theme perfectly.

Tyrant of Discord - Pretty much the same thing, but it's directed to a single player. Usually the player with more non-land permanents.

Rapid Hybridization - Cheap and reliable interaction. Some stax pieces can get in the way of the fun.

Chain of Vapor - For some reason I cannot build a deck without this card. One mana to disrupt basically anything. Can be used for politics? Sign me in!

Nature's Claim - For some reason I cannot build a deck without this card. One mana to disrupt a lot of stuff.

Mogg Salvage - Zero mana. Cascades into 2 cmc spell. Destroy an artifact.

Ingot Chewer - One mana. Cascades into a 4 cmc spell. Destroys an artifact, also perfect.

Murderous Cut - One mana. Cascades into a 4 cmc spell. Destroys a creature. Guess what?

Rite of Undoing - One mana. Cascades into a 4 cmc spell. Bounces a permanent and gives another possible cascade trigger. See a pattern yet?

Baral's Expertise - Great for getting a lot of stuff out of the way at once. Can easily be used to get stuff back into our hand if we don't have anything else to cast on a big turn. Bonus: two cascade triggers (the free spell cast from the card's ability is cast from our hand).

Blasphemous Act - Clears the board. Cascade into a 8 cmc spell for just 1 mana, perfect.

Soul Conduit - This cards is goddamn terrible, but I love it in this deck. Since the games go a bit long,

Temple Bell - I know, giving cards to other players increases the chance of them drawing removal to our chaos pieces. But wait until you activate this with Shared Fate on the field.

Rites of Flourishing - It goes against the principle of "group slug", but land drops are very important to this deck.

Treasure Cruise - Draws cards, costs almost nothing, cascades for a lot. Money!

Dig Through Time - Draws cards, costs almost nothing, cascades for a lot. Money!

Humble Defector - Pick your favorite player on the table.

Brainstorm - Put big stuff back, cascade into it.

Ancient Excavation - Just a nice wheel.

I'll note here the main interactions and things you have to keep in mind when playing these cards.

Knowledge Pool - See the note about the interaction with Eye of the Storm and/or Possibility Storm. Also note that the card text reads "... that player exiles it. IF the player does, he or she MAY cast...". This means that you can only cast the previously exiled cards if you exile the new card under Knowledge Pool, and you're not obligated to cast another card, meaning you can "pile up" cards under Knowledge Pool.

Timesifter - One of the best chaos pieces of the deck. Makes a complete mess of turn order. This deck's mana curve is around 4 and with less lands than your usual casual decks (greatly reduced by the land ramp), this should ensure that we get more than 25% of the extra turns.

Scrambleverse - "For each NONLAND permanent"... Yeah, people can overlook the "nonland" part, don't forget that. Also, the permanents are untapped, but they do not gain haste. Keep that in mind.

Thieves' Auction - The cards are actually removed from the game and put game, so enter the battlefield triggers apply here. All players must put their own triggers on the stack (starting with the active player) after the resolution of Thieves' Auction. Remember that the cards enter the battlefield tapped.

Warp World - Oh boy! Every single permanent, including lands. Make sure you float all your mana before casting Warp World. This is a great reason to aim at a high permanent count when making this deck.

Wheel of Fate - This obviously could be nested in the "Card Draw" section. But making 4 players draw 7 cards each with "Shared Fate" on the battlefield... Remember that ANY 1 CMC CARD CAST WILL CASCADE INTO WHELL OF FATE. This is one of the reasons for running 1 cmc removal and only one 0 cmc card: "consistency".

Whims of the Fates - I would save this card for games when you have nothing to lose. Not because you will lose a pile of cards, but because you'll be certainly hated out of the table after that. Maybe you can try to use as removal to save the game from an oppressive player, although it's a rare occurrence.

Perplexing Chimera - This acts more like a way of leveling the playing field. You can give this to any player, and they will have pretty much the final word when deciding what happens next. Pay attention when copying the chimera with Phyrexian Metamorph.

Scandalmonger - More of a group slug card, but it's amazing at keeping oppressive players at bay. No cards in hand? Make another player discard his.

Whirlpool Warrior - Read Wheel of Fate. Also great for swapping a hand filled with lands for a hand filled with god knows what.

Confusion in the Ranks - Please, remember that the exchange is result of a trigger, meaning that the owner of the permanent will control its enter the battlefield trigger. Also, you can respond to the trigger if you want to.

Endless Whispers - Someone is being left behind, let them get all of their basic lands out of their deck (Sakura-Tribe Elder).

Eye of the Storm - The cards is removed as a result of a trigger. After the card is removed, the player copies each removed card (including the new one). Then the player MAY play the copies. See the note about interactions between this card and Knowledge Pool.

Grip of Chaos - This godforsaken cards will pretty much "ruin" the whole game unless someone has a wrath effect. Don't be afraid to cast stuff that targets, that's the whole point. Also, keep in mind the Shared Fate does not target (we've had a game with a Wheel of Fate exiled under Eye of the Storm and made that mistake).

Hive Mind - This is somewhat a double-edged blade. It's alright if people are on board with you, but if you draw enough hate, it only takes one removal to disrupt 3 things at once.

Ice Cave - I'm so happy that I found this card. Costs five, but from then on you're pretty much golden to keep your permanents (if you play carefully, which one tries to avoid when playing this deck). It works wonders as a group slug card too.

Mana Breach - The shittiest "nombo" when your general gives your spells cascade. But it makes your opponents want to flip the table.

Mana Maze - You may lock yourself sometimes. You may lock mono-colored decks. You may lock almost everything with Possibility Storm.

Planar Chaos - Group slug at its finest. Cast and take a lean back. Just observe people running into a glass door and trying it again.

Possibility Storm - Probably the only chaos card that we see a lot in nature. There are a couple of decks that use this card because it gives two cast triggers. Keep in mind that this will only trigger when cards are cast from the hand, this excludes: generals, cards from Shared Fate, cascaded into cards, cards cast from the top of the library...

Shared Fate - Another one of the best chaos pieces. It can make a simple game turn into an unpredictable mess. Must remember: does not target and the cards are exiled, not in your hand. It's a bit of a nombo with Yidris, since we the cards will not be cast from our hand. Wheels do not affect the exiled cards either. (Make sure everyone is using different sleeves.)

Telepathy - Just overall irritating. It's useful to make sure that no one is going to try to steal the game by surprise. Control players hate this card.

Psychic Battle - I've experimented with this cards but it's not so much chaotic as it is random. In the end some player will control the targets and that's not what we want playing a chaos themed deck, despite the deck having a high mana curve.

Zur's Weirding - I didn't try this card out yet because I couldn't find one. I believe it should be incredible in frustrating absolutely every player at the table and slowing the game to a proverbial crawl.

Armed - Sometimes you need two cascade triggers.

Faerie Artisans - Get all the ETB triggers.

Lightning Greaves - Yidris is frequently targeted, the Greaves can help a little.

Mirage Mirror - Pesky little card, really hard to get rid of. You can use to copy other chaos pieces as you like (Planar Chaos is a favorite of mine).

Phyrexian Metamorph - Just some versatility.

Villainous Wealth - More of a flex slot. We can get to a lot of mana and this is a nice outlet.

Rude Awakening - Can be used as a finisher, but it's more frequently used to get a cascade trigger while generating more mana.

Peregrine Drake - Cascade for free.

Solemn Simulacrum - Flex slot.

Puppeteer Clique - Flex slot.

Mind's Dilation - Fun card, can be copied with Mirage Mirror.

Dark Ritual - Adds mana and always casdades into Wheel of Fate.

Knowledge Pool + Possibility Storm/Eye of the Storm

You're only able to cast the spells exiled under Knowledge Pool if you exile the first spell because of the Knowledge Pool trigger.

Even if you don't exile the first spell to Possibility Storm or Eye of the Storm, they still trigger and you get to cast the other spells.

If you control the artifact and one of the enchantments, you're able to control the order in which the triggers go on the stack. That means that you can choose to give your opponents the choice to use the Knowledge Pool, but they should always get to use Possibility Storm or Eye of the Storm.

If different players control these permanents, you must resolve the triggers accordingly (active player resolves last).

Every nonland card in this deck is under $10 (TCG), topping at $8 (Phyrexian Metamorph. The only modifications that need to be done in this deck to make it cheaper is to change the manabase:

Instead of running ABUR Duals, you can use Shock Lands.

Instead of running Zendikar Fetch Lands, you can use the Mirage Fetch Lands: Flood Plain, Bad River, Rocky Tar Pit, Mountain Valley and Grasslands. Or even the Shard of Alara Panoramas: Bant Panorama, Esper Panorama, Grixis Panorama, Jund Panorama and Naya Panorama. Maybe even Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds.

The Shock Lands and Mirage Fetches are sufficient to provide us the colors required to run the deck smoothly.

Another possible modification is cutting the signets and adding more land ramp to ensure us our colors.

Sample list: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mayhem-on-a-budget/

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 1 Mythic Rares

52 - 5 Rares

18 - 9 Uncommons

14 - 7 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.18
Tokens Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G
Folders Current, cool decks, Nice decks, cEDH, z. EDH: Chaos, Saved, Chaos, Deck Ref, i like dat, Themes
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