MTG Salvation

So this guy is a fun alternative to Maelstrom Wanderer and Intet the dreamer and has the wonderful addition of black.

Most obvious things to play with are double strike and extra combat steps. Not having white limits double strike cards but there are plenty in red and artifacts.

Top deck manipulation by cards like sensei's divining top, Scroll rack, sylvan library, brainstorm, etc

Not getting big spells for free like Maelstrom Wanderer and Intet means you can't really just add black to your old deck and think it ready.

How would you set you your curve to optimize hitting cards?

I was literally just about to make a thread for this guy.

Anyways, I don't really have a plan for him yet. These four color generals feel so weird to me I don't even know what to do with them. Already my list is filled up with ways to ensure I'll have the mana I need. Playing all of the signets, talismans, and Farseek and company takes some numbers.

Anyways, swords are a shoe in here, you want to make sure they can't chump block the trample or just block him out right. FaF and FaI are obvious, but I'm also using Sword of Light and Shadow since I'm sure I'll be going the aggro route. Greaves are also a major duh.

Seize the Day is another obvious choice since its the cheapest of all the extra combats. Time Warp and variants also sound really good here as well since they already have a decent cmc allowing you to cascade into something else useful.

Also, in the Yidris vs. Wanderer thing, I think I prefer Yidris because 4 mana is way easier to reach than 8, plus you get a decent amount of value out of Yidris, potentially more so than Wanderer. In the vacuum, Yidris seems better, but guess we'll have to see.

I'm thinking of taking him as more of a value goodstuff deck. Probably just consuming my Riku deck and adding some good black cards. So, lots of ramp and card draw letting that and the cascade draw me into win conditions, likely more of a Voltron win than Fireball win the Riku uses.

I would say we definitely would want a lower CMC than Wanderer. The fact that you need all colored mana to get him out as opposed to 5RGU means he would need to hit those colors faster and better, so the colorless ramp isn't anywhere near as good for him. You could almost use him as Voltron since casting spells pulls up auras and equipment (Casting Runes of the Deus could also pull up Fists of the Demigod, for instance).

Also, since our ramp will focus more on getting colors other than just getting loads of mana, I think Violent and Cruel Ultimatums will be useful cards. They cost 8 for Cascade and provide game changing effects without even adding in Cascade. And of course, there's Delve with Gurmag Angler and Treasure Cruise.

Also, how does Cascade work with Morph? For Sagu Mauler and stuff.

Creatures with Evoke could be solid here too since there are some great options in this color combo. Seems fun to drop Mulldrifter for the evoke cost but getting 5cmc worth of cascade.

Honestly you can do anything you want and Yidris will add value.

I started a theoretical storm list that I've moved in to the cutting stages, in the multiplayer section of this forum.

He seems pretty good with land-untap effects (from rude awakening & turnabout to sword of feast and famine & bear umbra.

I'm a bit sad that he limits the spell from hand, other than saying that the cascaded' spell doesn't cascade, cause it would make casting something from the graveyard (via mizzix's mastery/past in flames), beyond absurd. But I understand that they had to slow down this effect.



One approach that I had considered with him was an etb-bounce combo via aluren and something like cavern harpy/dream stalker, or cloudstone curio and something like peregrine drake/great whale/pali + clones. I'm not really feeling the creature vibe with this guy although, since almost all Maelstrom decks I've seen are just creatures.

He's super good with Suspend cards and 1-Drops. There is a very real reason we don't see 1-2 CMC cards with Cascade. With Lotus Bloom and Ancestral Visions, you can cascade into Black Lotus or Ancestral Recall. Hypergenesis is also really mean. You could go storm (ie Jeleva) with that as a backup plan.

Another option is big-stuff value, giving him double-strike and taking extra turns/combat phases and cheating out cards like the new 11 drop or Emerge creatures to cast a bunch of big things.

Palinchron seems pretty automatic as well. At the very least it reads 3: Cascade (7 CMC) which is nuts.

Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall are both banned.
Hypergenesis is not something you want to play at all in this deck. That just gives your opponents so much value they could possibly win on their next turn plus your commander gets value from casting instead of putting things into play.

I was labouring over what to do with Yidris, considering I already have a Riku of Two Reflections deck that is a lot of fun, and was looking for something he does that neither Maelstrom Wanderer or Riku can.

I am salivating over the possibility of a voltron build with Yidris, especially because of that badass artwork. Cascading a ton of aurad and extra attack steps on him sounds sick. You usually want Wanderer to die so you can keep casting him but Yidris wants to stick. and you can't clone auras and artifacts with Riku.

Now, the problem is having enough money...

You can't do alternative costs like morph

Quote from Overmaster »

I was labouring over what to do with Yidris, considering I already have a Riku of Two Reflections deck that is a lot of fun, and was looking for something he does that neither Maelstrom Wanderer or Riku can.

I am salivating over the possibility of a voltron build with Yidris, especially because of that badass artwork. Cascading a ton of aurad and extra attack steps on him sounds sick. You usually want Wanderer to die so you can keep casting him but Yidris wants to stick. and you can't clone auras and artifacts with Riku.

Now, the problem is having enough money...

The idea I was given was Blood Mist, Homicidal Seclusion, Berserker Onslaught, Ana Sanctuary and similar. They cost more for Yidris to cascade from, and you don't necessarily need Yidris to stick for them to work; casting them means they sit on the table for Yidris to show up and swing with.

I'm almost wondering how a minor Enchantress theme would work with him. You don't really need the card draw since he cascades on hit, and the Land Enchants means he can get the mana he needs easily enough. I just feel like losing White takes away too many of the important Enchantress cards.

Either way, Civic Saber goes in the deck as a 1 mana 1 equip +4/+0.

Quote from Steveita »

You can't do alternative costs like morph

Sweet, thanks

Here's my first draft. Open to suggestions. It's kind of an all star mashup of my Wanderer, Tasigur, and Marchesa decks. Admittedly, I'm probably missing a bunch of obvious cards.

Quote from Slarg232 »

I'm almost wondering how a minor Enchantress theme would work with him. You don't really need the card draw since he cascades on hit, and the Land Enchants means he can get the mana he needs easily enough. I just feel like losing White takes away too many of the important Enchantress cards.

As I was starting to read your post, the Enchantress idea dawned on me, then I saw you suggest it. I think the protection that white not only gives enchantments (Sterling Grove and Greater Auramancy) but also what gives in its protection Auras will make keeping Yidris on the table that much more difficult.

Also, what happens if you cascade but fail to find? Shuffle up your library and the ability fizzles?

So my thoughts on this wonderful new commander are as follows.

Swords- we need to be able to hit our enemies right?

Suspend cards cmc 0- this can turn things like mana dorks and tutors into black lotus and ancestral recall in the late game.

Cards with the cascade mechanic- there's nothing more fun then cascading a card on 5 into a blood braid elf into a violent outburst.

Fuse cards- because you have to hit a card with lower cmc and then cast it for free this allows you to cast both halves of the fuse card for free even if one is a 2 drop and the other is a 5 drop.

Planes walkers-for vallluuuuue! but seriously turning a continual source of advantage into a way to cheat cards into play is just too good.

Tips of the trade-

Hypergenisis was bad in testing I've done a half a dozen test games and each time I hit hypergenisis I was underwhelmed.

Shuffle effects are a must such as but not limited too sensei's divining top brainstorm Jace.

I hope o have been of some help to you guys, I normally do a ton of testing myself but I'm hoping to try and be a part of the community.

P.s. this is a more fun oriented version but alot of this can be incorporated into competitive decks.

One pretty obvious thing here is just how much more absurd the top-of-deck tutors are here


Also, cards like palinchron and drake that untap lands if they resolve are great, they are generally overcosted so you get a wider range of hits and your mana gets refunded. Time spiral feels auto include provided you dont build around the graveyard much

Quote from seriph0 »

Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall are both banned.

No joke. He ment cascading into lotus bloom and ancestral visions is like playing Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall.

Quote from ThanoStar »

Quote from seriph0 »

Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall are both banned.

No joke. He ment cascading into lotus bloom and ancestral visions is like playing Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall.

Eh, I feel like cards that either take time to do anything or are only good when you cascade into them is pretty bad. No reason to really run them.

Quote from seriph0 »

Eh, I feel like cards that either take time to do anything or are only good when you cascade into them is pretty bad. No reason to really run them.

The important distinction here is that you actually don't need to do much for the cards to give incredible value. If you attack with Yidris, any 1-drop can produce either broken mana (Mana Crypt, Chrome, Diamond or Opal) or the two power 9 effects. That's a pretty low investment. If anything, it becomes one of the few generals (Rashmi also comes to mind) that's able to utilize those suspend cards.

Edit: Oops, wrong thread.

Can you use Madness to cascade? Just kind of wondering how good Ancient Excavations is with Yidris.

Cascade goes by the card's CMC, not alternate costs used to pay it, such as madness or evoke. Evoking Mulldrifter for 2U will allow you to cascade for a card with CMC<5.

But does Madness count as casting from hand?

The Mana Source (Wedge) video talking about Yidris, the Maelstrom Wielder said that if he (she) has double strike you will get 2 instances of cascade on your spells until end of turn.
If this is correct should there be an aspect of taking multiple attacks and double strike.

Can I get a rules confirmation on this, could be important.

Yes, Yidris hitting opponents more than once will increase the number of cascades a single spell will give you. As evidenced by Maelstrom Wanderer, cards can have many instances of cascade.

Quote from Slarg232 »

But does Madness count as casting from hand?

Based on how it's worded, the effect doesn't care where the spell was cast from. Whether it's from your hand, exile (as is the case with madness) or library. The wording would be more specific (Examples: Reiver Demon, Melek, Izzet Paragon).

Quote from Taco_Tuesday »

Quote from Slarg232 »

But does Madness count as casting from hand?

Based on how it's worded, the effect doesn't care where the spell was cast from. Whether it's from your hand, exile (as is the case with madness) or library. The wording would be more specific (Examples: Reiver Demon, Melek, Izzet Paragon).

Yidris specifies that only the spells cast from your hand gain cascade

Though you did answer my question