Flores Friday – Infinite Brew: The Videos

Following is a first run of videos RE: the Mono-Cascade deck discussed in Infinite Brew.

All the videos utilize one of the following two decklists:

Mono-Cascade 1.0

Michael Flores

Test deck on 01-16-2011

Extended

Creatures (13)

• 4 Enlisted Wurm
• 1 Enigma Sphinx
• 4 Bloodbraid Elf
• 4 Baneslayer Angel

Lands (27)

• 2 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 4 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Island
• 2 Vivid Crag
• 2 Vivid Creek
• 4 Vivid Grove
• 2 Vivid Marsh
• 2 Vivid Meadow
• 4 Exotic Orchard

Spells (20)

• 2 Primal Command
• 4 Blightning
• 4 Esper Charm
• 4 Deny Reality
• 4 Captured Sunlight
• 2 Bituminous Blast

Sideboard

• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 4 Volcanic Fallout
• 2 Bituminous Blast
• 4 Great Sable Stag
• 1 Elixir of Immortality

or:

Mono-Cascade 1.1

Michael Flores

Test deck on 01-16-2011

Extended

Creatures (12)

• 4 Enlisted Wurm
• 4 Bloodbraid Elf
• 4 Baneslayer Angel

Lands (27)

• 2 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 4 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Island
• 2 Vivid Crag
• 2 Vivid Creek
• 4 Vivid Grove
• 2 Vivid Marsh
• 2 Vivid Meadow
• 4 Exotic Orchard

Spells (21)

• 2 Primal Command
• 4 Blightning
• 4 Esper Charm
• 4 Deny Reality
• 4 Captured Sunlight
• 3 Bituminous Blast

Sideboard

• 2 Primal Command
• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 4 Volcanic Fallout
• 1 Bituminous Blast
• 4 Great Sable Stag

I moved from the first to the second largely because Elixir of Immortality and Enigma Sphinx… suck. I think I mised out Elixir of Immortality one
time, and I didn’t even have the mana to use it. Try planning out a turn with a deck that allegedly gives you the greatest planning certainty of
any deck ever, then realizing your cascade lottery chances have just been stop-signed… by an Elixir of Immortality.

Worse yet, you don’t have the mana to activate the damn thing.

Ultimately, Primal Command did a better job at what both of these cards want to do than either of them did in practice. You’ll
especially see Primal Command in all its glory during the long-ish battle between Mono-Cascade and Paul Jordan on 4CC.

And now, the videos:

Faeries

They got us.

Grixis Faeries

We got them back!

U/W

Surprisingly, the got us.

Honestly, this one was very surprising for me. In Standard, U/W and related decks were a primary nutrition source for Mono-Cascade; however it seems
the addition of 3-4 Sun Titans has done a ton for U/W’s terrible matchups. For those of you who haven’t played the deck, Sun Titan is
actually fabulous against Cruel Ultimatum. Kitchen Finks or Wall of Omens for fodder, rebuy Jace Beleren? Don’t mind if I do!

Tempered Steel 1

What the other MJ said.

4CC

After the playtesting, Paul asked why I scooped game two. Funny story. It was my wife’s birthday. She unwisely fell asleep on the couch while
watching some kind of children’s movie cuddling with the, you know, adorable children.

Around “dinner making” time, she found me gaming with Paul!

I had originally challenged Paul to a ten-game set.

At the very least, I had to finish out the first three games.

So for expedition’s sake, I just scooped the second game, so we could get on with it.

Paul later pointed out I conceded at:

●     40+ life

●     Up lots of cards

●     With two Baneslayer Angels in play

In my defense, he had a Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Steel Artifact 2

What the other MJ said, 2.

LOVE

MIKE