Cascade will change everything. It is the next broken mechanic, the kind of keyword that only ever comes around once in a while and people later look back on and remark, “I wonder if printing that was really such a good idea…?” I have only played a handful of Block Constructed games with cascade, and even fewer in Standard, yet I already know this is a format-defining addition and one of the most powerful abilities to fall into our card arsenal in quite a while.
I know there have been discussions around the internet and the proverbial Magic roundtable ever since Bituminous Blast was originally spoiled. Practically everybody acknowledged the ability was good. Many even noted it was great. Those extrapolations did not even begin to fathom the oceanic monster hiding beneath cascade’s murky surface. Cascade is flat-out absurd, and putting it any lesser way is far too light.
Now, this is the kind of mechanic I’m sure went through extreme scrutiny and hours of playtesting. Wizards has made far too many mistakes with free spells in the past to allow another one to slip right under their hard-working nostrils in such a blatant fashion. Their reluctance to make another mistake, yet the fact that they still printed cascade in its current form and on the cards they did, tells me that the mechanic was pushed to its limits on power. In other words, the best cards with cascade were likely once even more powerful and then tuned down until they were just below the threshold of “too good to print.” Just below that barrier is the place where some of the most powerful cards originate, and a solid indicator that cascade is an extremely powerful mechanic.
Not every cascade spell is playable in constructed, but every mechanic has its weak additions. Remember Sprouting Vines? However, a wide majority of them (sorry, Stormcaller’s Boon) are very playable, and they are going to each be used in an extremely powerful fashion. The flagship cascade spells — Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast — are both absolutely stellar, but that’s not to say that the others don’t have respective homes either.
There are essentially two classes of cards with cascade that are playable: those that will be played to skirt the play restriction of a spell, and those that will be played for value. All of the three casting cost spells fall into the first pile. Take a look at this deck, which is already harnessing the power of cascade to create a relentless ripple which is tearing through Extended:
Creatures (22)
- 2 Rorix Bladewing
- 2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
- 4 Bogardan Hellkite
- 4 Simian Spirit Guide
- 4 Hellkite Overlord
- 4 Magister Sphinx
- 2 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Lands (21)
Spells (15)
Sideboard
The game plan is very simple:
1. Cast a cascade spell.
2. Play Hypergenesis for free since it is the only card which costs less than three in your deck.
3. Dump your hand of ridiculous creatures into play.
Theoretically this deck could have difficulty against countermagic, but between the ability to overload them on their end step with Violent Outburst and the ability to go off as early as turn 2 thanks to Simian Spirit Guide, you can even beat a deck like Faeries. Cards like Chalice of the Void, Ethersworn Canonist, and Meddling Mage also pose a problem, but there are sideboard options for them. (Some have even opted to maindeck Ingot Chewer just for that reason.) Regardless, the point is that this is a deck which will severely warp the format. Even if you don’t want to do insane things with Hypergenesis, there is a wealth of other possibilities to be explored in older formats. Restore Balance, Living Death, and Ancestral Vision are all very respectable cards to play for a paltry three mana, and casting the Bust half of Boom/Bust for three mana is very strong.
The theoretical opportunity cost of playing a deck like this is that you lose access to your first two turns as resources for activities other than playing lands and drawing a card. However, the cardpool is set in such a broad fashion that you can bypass this restriction. Evoke, for example, allows you to interact in the first two turns without giving up margin on your cascade spells. The above deck and other decks crafted in the same vein are ones to watch for when the Pro Tour format swings back to Extended again — and for racking up QPs on Magic Online in the meanwhile.
The other, more “conventional” use of cascade is to play the card and receive the ridiculous value of its built in two-for-one. The value of casting a cascade spell is like finding out it’s a throwback .10¢ burger day at your local dining establishment. It’s not merely drawing a card, it’s playing one of your most powerful spells for free. Let’s take a look at Bloodbraid Elf. If you play him in your typical Block Constructed Naya deck, there’s a very good chance you’ll end up with at least an extra three points of free power on the board. You might also “merely” hit a free Oblivion Ring, Path to Exile, or, if you play it, Knight of the Reliquary. Yes, it’s unfortunate when you reveal a card like Banefire (once again, if you opt to play it) but much more often the mechanic is extremely advantageous.
On the other side of the coin, we have Bituminous Blast. Don’t let the “can’t target players” restriction of this card fool you: it’s one crazy removal spell. The cards you’re going to play in a deck alongside Bituminous Blast are almost certainly going to be great to flip off cascade. Whether you’re a midrange deck casting a Blast and doubling up by receiving a free Terminate on top of the removal spell you already have (forbid you reveal one of your Bloodbraid Elves!) or a control deck and you reveal an Esper Charm, Bituminous Blast is almost certainly worth it.
The first control deck to come to mind which could really take advantage of Bituminous Blast is U/R Swans. The deck already plays Crumbling Necropolis, so tweaking the manabase to be able to hit your Black mana isn’t too much of a stretch. Unlike Five-Color Control, which has a lot of reactive cards at its lower mana costs and threats at its higher mana costs (although cascading into a Wall of Reverence, Ajani Vengeant, or the aforementioned Esper Charm is certainly nothing to be ashamed of), Swans has a lot of potent threats the Blast can find: Jace, Seismic Assault, and the aforementioned Swans of Bryn Argoll. Once Swans is online, the potential to Blast the flock of Bird Spirits and draw four cards alongside a cascade trigger is positively tantalizing. While Swans does have quite a bit of countermagic which makes Blast a little worse, I think with proper deckbuilding you can mitigate the chances of hitting countermagic too often. Here’s a decklist to illustrate what I’m thinking about. It’s untested, but I think this deck is heading in an interesting direction.
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Cascade Bluffs
2 Mutavault
3 Underground River
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Plumeveil
3 Swans of Bryn Argoll
4 Pyroclasm
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Cryptic Command
3 Bituminous Blast
2 Tidings
4 Jace Beleren
4 Broken Ambitions
2 Seismic Assault
I had to cut a lot of the countermagic, which is an unfortunate direction considering it was one of its major strengths. I’d have to play the new version of the deck to see how big of an impact it has. It’s also harder to justify the occasionally important one-of Banefire when you have cascade cards, so I cut it. The problem with Blast in this deck is that the card is poor against the ever-prevalent token strategies, but with eight Pyroclasm effects in your deck you have a reasonable chance of mitigating the token threat in the first place, as well as finding a free one off your Blast. You might also want to play Glen Elendra Archmage in that list, because he simultaneously keeps your amount of countermagic steadily high while giving you a fantastic creature to hit off of Bituminous Blast.
Although those are two separate discussions on the two most powerful “for value” cascade cards, there is definitely a deck which contains both the Blast and the Elf. They are both defining cards, and in the same deck I am sure they will lead to a lot of blowouts. In Block Constructed, there will almost certainly be a deck containing the two aforementioned cascade spells alongside Terminate and reasonably-costed creatures, like Sprouting Thrinax and Putrid Leech. The same kind of deck with a wider available card base also has a lot of potential in Standard.
The power level of cascade is unprecedented, and I’m sure there are unintended interactions in both past and future sets to be discovered with it. Cascade is going to be a group of cards which will see play for years, across several different formats. I’d recommend getting used to muttering okay under your breath as if it was some kind of curse word when your opponent casts a cascade spell, because you’re going to see a lot of it. In some ways, it is the new storm — and we all know how that ended up. Take notice and pay heed to the power of cascade: this is one mechanic you won’t want to be out of the loop on come Regionals.
Alara Reborn is a very powerful set, and I wanted to cap this article off with just a few endnotes from my opinions and observations:
– Borderposts are excellent. In Limited they are high picks, and they are very good in Block Constructed. You can swap them one for one with basic lands as long as you have at least fourteen or fifteen basics to return. While there is the potential to be blown out by Vithian Renegades and Qasali Pridemage, Borderposts are too good to not play simply because of those two cards.
– Vengeful Rebirth, while expensive, has been a pretty big blowout in Limited. Don’t let the cost on this one fool you; I saw this card end a ton of games at the prerelease. Returning a removal spell and destroying their creature is fantastic. Furthermore, in this format it’s very common to cycle a six or seven mana cost creature on turn 2. Later on in the game, you can rebuy your threat and kill their creature — or just finish them off, Searing Flesh style.
– Not unlike Invasion and Ravnica block, drafting SCR seems to be all about setting yourself up for the third pack. Not only are most of the cards above the curve, but you want to set up the two-color combinations you can play in the first two packs so you can reap the rewards of the third.
– Soul Manipulation is a card which excites me a lot, and I believe it is going to be very playable in Constructed. Especially with Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw still running around, the card seems like an excellent combination of Remove Soul and Dismiss. Yes, it’s three mana, but the effect is still worth the cost.
Let me know what you think of Alara Reborn and of my opinions in the forums. Alternatively, you can send an e-mail at gavintriesagain at gmail dot com and have it possibly show up in a future mailbag column. I hope everybody had a great prerelease, and I’ll see you in the forums!
Gavin Verhey
Team Unknown Stars
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else