Maelstrom Wanderer

$0.31

Maelstrom Wanderer costs eight mana and has cascade twice, so each cast gets two free spells that cost less than eight. It also gives your creatures haste, so anything that comes off the cascades can attack at once. The deck ramps hard to reach eight mana early, then fills the rest of the list with high-impact spells and big creatures that make every cascade strong. When opponents remove Wanderer, it costs more but recasting it still flips two more cards.

In the recorded games, fast mana like Grim Monolith and Ancient Tomb sometimes put Wanderer on the table well ahead of schedule. Cascades into Time Warp, Genesis Ultimatum, Consecrated Sphinx, Kodama of the East Tree and Terror of the Peaks produced large swings. Some lists also played Tooth and Nail and Craterhoof Behemoth to finish. Fiery Emancipation once turned a single hasty attack into a win. The weak spots were clear. Bad opening hands left it with nothing to do, early aggro pressure hurt before the ramp paid off, and bounce effects such as Submerge undid an expensive turn. An infect deck also won right past its big board.