Considering how the concept of a cascade deck is old news, I'm assuming I don't have to go into too much detail behind the concepts of abusing the keyword. The old deck's build essentially cascaded down into one of three different cards; Blightning and Esper Charm for discard, and Rhox War Monks for beats and making up for the deck's slow start. Considering the recent release of RoE, at the time I decided to skirt around the Ruinblaster problem by having it run Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, and Rupture Spire as the only nonbasic lands. Considering my budget nature, open slots in the deck were filled in by "majoring" in a color. For him, unsurprisingly, we went with black. Also gave a rough justification to run a one-of Hellcarver Demon for the sake of shenanigans. Surprisingly enough, his first night using the deck, he took ninth, barely edged out of top eight by a tiebreaker.
This time around I wanted to try things out a tad differently. Firsthand experience taught me that the disruption brought on by excessive amounts of Blightning/Esper Charm (aka Facsimile Blightning) made games tough on opponents (My poor Warp Deck lost to him that first night. Rawr). I decided to drop the War Monks to run as much of a guaranteed-discard as possible. Being unhealthily attached to Elixir of Immortality, I tossed one in. Justification being that it provided life gain, but more importantly put all those discard spells back into the deck, ready to cascaded into at another moment's notice. And it helped my conscience a tad, considering how brutal making my opponent discard nearly every turn once my mana's out. Speaking of mana, running the Elixir, plus a lack of both Ruinblaster and Cruel Control sightings made me want to try out the less "stable" mana base of Shard tap lands. Main justification being that shuffling fetchlands back into my deck would just be upping the dead card count late game. Trust me on this one, playtesting in the past (with a one-of Quest for Ancient Secrets) taught me fetchlands just get in the way hard late game. As for my left-over open slots after tossing everything in, well, I won't keep you waiting too long. Take a look!
Cascade Redux
---Land (24)---
x1 Akoum Refuge
x2 Arcane Sanctum
x4 Crumbling Necropolis
x1 Island
x2 Jungle Shrine
x1 Jwar Isle Refuge
x1 Kazandu Refuge
x1 Mountain
x1 Plains
x4 Rupture Spire
x4 Savage Lands
x1 Sejiri Refuge
x1 Swamp
---Creatures (17)---
x1 Baneslayer Angel
x4 Bloodbraid Elf
x1 Enigma Sphinx
x4 Enlisted Wurm
x4 Esper Charm
x1 Maelstrom Archangel
x2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
---Spells (17)---
x4 Bituminous Blast
x4 Blightning
x4 Captured Sunlight
x4 Deny Reality
x1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
---Artifacts (2)---
x1 Elixir of Immortality
x1 Obelisk of Alara
---Sideboard (15)---
x4 Kor Firewalker
x3 Naturalize
x4 Rhox War Monk
x4 Summoning Trap
Breakdown:
- Mana base: Just wanted to note here, that since I didn't have all the tap lands I wanted, I substituted Refuges. Also note that I went for variety in those four replacements rather than doing the proper thing and going with 2 Jwar Isle and 2 Sejiri Refuges. Me being nit-picky in post. The five basic lands are just for fun as well, unless people still use Path to Exile these days...
- Bituminous Blast, Bloodbraid Elf, Captured Sunlight, Deny Reality, Enigma Sphinx, and Enlisted Wurm are my cascade fuel. Reasonable bodies and decent shenanigans that cascade are what got them in the deck, predictably enough.
- Blightning and Esper Charm are what the fuel burns into.
- Elixir of Immortality restocks the deck, with the handy bonus of cheap life.
- Baneslayer Angel is good, like Mike Flores said way back in Lorwyn / Shards Standard. Not the best with the current mana base, in my opinion, but as a one-of, clearly just me jumping at the first opportunity to use her since opening her.
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor works way, way too well in the deck. Usually I just brainstorm, and set up cascades "manually" for brutal results. I like him way too much in this deck.
- Maelstrom Archangel is a decent body at a cost that I'd rather cascade into. Still, fun when she gets out.
- Obelisk of Alara is a one-of I can see dominating once it gets out. But that's the problem; it has to get out first.
- Sphinx of Lost Truths is actually my least favorite critter in the deck. Body's decent, and the discard is negligible with the Elixir. Something to use until I find something better I guess.
Sideboard:
- Kor Firewalkers need an explanation? Not really, but I could use more white mana in the deck for hard casting them <.< - Naturalize is a last minute replacement for Elixir's I don't have. - Rhox War Monk may not have stayed in the deck, but he's still in option in my mind against Red Deck Wins and whatnot. - Summoning Trap, but pretty much every blue deck in my meta runs mana leak. No cascade, but a creature is a creature nonetheless.
FNM Play
vs. Jund (2-1) [Sideboard choices: -4 Esper Charm, -1 Obelisk of Alara, -2 Sphinxes, -1 Maelstrom Archangel; +4 Kor Firewalker, +4 Rhox War Monk]
Can't recall too much about the first game, aside from baneslayer appearing pretty much right before a concession on his side. I do remember commentary from a neighboring player, along the lines of, "What else can you expect he triple blightnings?" That gave me high hopes, considering the intentional discard build seemed more based of luck than it was. Anyway, second game was what I like to refer to as a "balls draw." Combined with the slow start that Cascade is known for, and it was quickly game. Third round took some time to say the least. Hands cleared fairly quickly, and with the excessive life gain from firewalkers and pancake tossers, my high point was 43 life, riding down to 27 before the combined efforts of my creatures and quite a few blightnings took their toll.
vs. B/R Aggro (0-2) [Sideboard choices: -4 Esper Charm, -1 Obelisk of Alara, -2 Sphinxes, -1 Maelstrom Archangel; +4 Kor Firewalker, +4 Pancake Tossers]
This one, quite frankly, sucked. He essentially played, "the best creatures he had in black, which ended up being mostly vampires," with a splash of red for burn. First game took some time, myself gaining life while waiting for decent mana as he chewed on me with a Vampire Nighthawk and a Child of Night. The turn before I could slaughter his critters, he pulled out a Whispersilk Cloak onto his Child, and that chick ended up being more problematic than I can appropriately express. Second game was worse. Much worse. His sideboard shows, I didn't see any of mine. All I can say here is double Ruinblasters hurts hard.
vs. Turboland (1-2) [Sideboard Choices: None]
A fun little deck. There's not too much to say about this round. First game saw an Avenger of Zendikar and a full crew (seven) of plant tokens staring at an Enlisted Wurm while my discard shenanigans do their work. I mention feeling bad about pulling off a Bituminous Blast into Blightning at the end of his draw step and relent on his next turn, in spite of having another Bit. Blast in hand. One of those moves where you know you've made a mistake as soon as you let it happen, as those plants somehow turned lethal on that very turn. Game two was faster, mainly thanks to Baneslayer Angel coming out. She pretty much single-handedly did the job (I hope Serra Angel doesn't find out I'm seeing her; that'd break her heart). Third game, quite frankly, sucked. Seeing an Avenger, Primeval Titan, Time Warp, Avenger, and a metric fuckton of beefy plants tends to end anyone's existence pretty hard. Made me miss the excessive mass removal shenanigans I ran last week x.x
vs. B/U Mill (2-0) [Sideboard Choices: -4 Bituminous Blast; +4 Summoning Trap]
A rather quick round. First game saw him without blue land in enough turns for me to somehow cast Jace, the Wallet Raper. Remembering my earlier defeat from letting up on someone, I pressed the advantage against my friend, fatesealing his deck to almost eliminate any chance of him seeing an island. Once he'd realized I'd give him blue cards but no blue land, which happened pretty quickly, he conceded with 17 life left. Second game I sided the Summoning Traps on a hunch, and it paid off. Turn 4 Bloodbraid saw a mana leak. I yelled out the heavily expected phrase, revealed my Trap, and took a gander at the top seven cards of my library. Naturally, luck dictated that my only creature seen was another Bloodbraid Elf. Poetic Justice? Mayhaps. I took what creature I could get and got to whacking. Quite honestly, that girl was intent on avenging her countered comrade, for she pretty much went the distance alone. We finished with enough time for us to get two games of RDW vs. Warp in, so good times!
Overall took 14th place. Not too bad, considering. Should I play the deck again, I want to replace the two Sphinxes with two Haunting Echoes. Don't ask me why, but it's a fun feeling thinking about that change.
Whee, need a better camera. Anyways, Have fun all!
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