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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Maelstrom Nexus Contest Winner
July 29, 2009

We’re down to only two more choices in the Five Colors, Six Choices contest, and today we’ll resolve one of them. Andrew and George will go head to head in the Maelstrom Nexus division! Which one will cascade into victory?

A side note: you may have noticed that the previous four divisions all featured three contestants. It wasn’t because I narrowed it down to the top three or anything like that, it was because for those four divisions, there were three entries. Well, Maelstrom Nexus only got two entries, so today it’s a head-to-head faceoff instead of a three-way battle royal.

We’ll start with George’s deck.

Here is the list:

The Breakdown: 60 cards, 24 creatures (16 cascading, 8 not), 8 instants (4 cascading, 4 not), 4 Enchantments, and 26 lands.

Creatures:
4 Enigma Sphinx
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Gloryscale Viashino
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Jund Hackblade

Instants:
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Maelstrom Pulse

Enchantments:
4 Maelstrom Nexus

Lands:
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Garden
4 Watery Grave
2 Vivid Crag
2 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Grove
2 Vivid Meadow

(the two main cards of the deck are bolded)

Two cards that I saw in Alara Reborn caught my eye, Maelstrom Nexus and Gloryscale Viashino. I wanted to find a way to (ab)use them.Gloryscale Viashino just needed a way to play multiple creatures quickly and cheaply. Every time you play a multi-color spell, Gloryscale Viashino gets +3/+3! I wanted to find a way to play multiple creatures with a very small amount of mana. Cascade fit the bill nicely. Maelstrom Nexus just sweetens the pot; it allows the cascading spells to cascade more than once. So, I stuffed the deck with the best cascading cards (in my opinion anyways). So, with all the cascading cards in my deck, it is feasible to get a chain of 3-4 cascading cards. Picture this:

Turn 4: Gloryscale Viashino
Turn 5: Maelstrom Nexus
Turn 6: Enlisted Wurm

Enlisted Wurm cascades into bloodbraid elf and boggart ram-gang. Then bloodbraid elf cascades into the Hackblade. Four multicolor spells equals +12/+12 until end of turn making him a 15/15 creature, not to mention the hasty creatures coming along for the ride. This deck runs kinda slow in the early turns but starts really pumping out creatures as early as turn 4. Cascade is amazing to get multiple creatures out relatively cheap. Also, with multiple Maelstrom Nexuses out, a single cascade spell will cascade more at least triple cascade! Gloryscale Viashino can finish a game in a hurry with all the spells flying around with cascade. Also, the other hasty creatures, the ones being cascaded into, also provide a large amount of unexpected damage. Another fun little part of the Nexus is that you can play an instant on your opponents turn and use the Nexus' ability to cascade into another instant or a creature to bash face next turn. Example: Bituminous Blast during their turn into a boggart ram-gang and a jund hackblade. Next turn: attack for 6 plus whatever else you have.

And his opponent, Andrew:

I decided to take the deck down a slightly (extremely) different path.
Instead of just making a boring cascade deck, streamlined to always hit some pre-designated bomby spell, I made my deck to showcase the awesomely fun randomness of the mechanic. The deck is a 100 card highlander build (singletons only) with the exception of the required (and fun) 4 Maelstrom Nexus. I wanted the deck to be fun to play, and to make cascade extremely powerful and fun. With this deck, you are bound to always hit something juicy with your cascade.
I was sure to include some of the most powerful and versatile multicolored cards from magic's glorious history.

Gameplay:

You can start the game off building up a proper mana base using the many dual and 5 color lands that make up the mana base.

Then, transition smoothly into the middle phase (the control phase) in which you play the charms, cascade spells, and other 3-4 drops to gain an incremental advantage over your opponent. Next, if possible, drop a maelstrom nexus to make the game extra fun and get
even more mileage out of your following few turns. Then comes the fun step: drop a large dragon, and proceed to flip over cards from your deck until you hit some free spell goodness.
Last But Not Least: The Deck!!

// Lands
   1 [GP] Godless Shrine
   1 [GP] Stomping Ground
   1 [GP] Steam Vents
   1 [RAV] Sacred Foundry
   1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
   1 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
   1 [RAV] Temple Garden
   1 [DIS] Breeding Pool
   1 [DIS] Blood Crypt
   1 [TE] Reflecting Pool
   1 [ALA] Seaside Citadel
   1 [ALA] Savage Lands
   1 [ALA] Jungle Shrine
   1 [ALA] Crumbling Necropolis
   1 [CNF] Exotic Orchard
   1 [DIS] Pillar of the Paruns
   1 [RAV] Watery Grave
   1 [OV] City of Brass
   1 [LRW] Vivid Grove
   1 [A] Plateau
   1 [A] Bayou
   1 [A] Badlands
   1 [LRW] Vivid Meadow
   1 [LRW] Vivid Marsh
   1 [A] Savannah
   1 [LRW] Vivid Creek
   1 [LRW] Vivid Crag
   1 [WL] Gemstone Mine
   1 [ALA] Arcane Sanctum
   1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
   1 [ON] Windswept Heath
   1 [ON] Polluted Delta
   1 [ON] Flooded Strand
   1 [A] Scrubland
   1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
   1 [A] Underground Sea
   1 [A] Tundra
   1 [A] Tropical Island
   1 [A] Taiga

// Creatures
   1 [ARB] Kathari Remnant
   1 [ALA] Sarkhan Vol
   1 [ALA] Ajani Vengeant
   1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
   1 [RAV] Loxodon Hierarch
   1 [LRW] Doran, the Siege Tower
   1 [ARB] Enigma Sphinx
   1 [ARB] Enlisted Wurm
   1 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
   1 [REW] Psychatog
   1 [OD] Shadowmage Infiltrator
   1 [IN] Dromar, the Banisher
   1 [IN] Crosis, the Purger
   1 [PLC] Oros, the Avenger
   1 [PLC] Intet, the Dreamer
   1 [PLC] Numot, the Devastator
   1 [DRB] Nicol Bolas
   1 [TSP] Scion of the Ur-Dragon
   1 [AP] Spiritmonger
   1 [AP] Cromat
   1 [IN] Captain Sisay
   1 [DRB] Rith, the Awakener
   1 [PLC] Teneb, the Harvester
   1 [IN] Darigaaz, the Igniter
   1 [PLC] Vorosh, the Hunter
   1 [IN] Treva, the Renewer

// Spells
   4 [ARB] Maelstrom Nexus
   1 [RAV] Putrefy
   1 [ARB] Captured Sunlight
   1 [ARB] Demonic Dread
   1 [ARB] Deny Reality
   1 [ARB] Stormcaller's Boon
   1 [ARB] Violent Outburst
   1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
   1 [CNF] Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
   1 [ALA] Brilliant Ultimatum
   1 [ALA] Cruel Ultimatum
   1 [ALA] Titanic Ultimatum
   1 [ALA] Violent Ultimatum
   1 [ARB] Bituminous Blast
   1 [PS] Dromar's Charm
   1 [RAV] Lightning Helix
   1 [ALA] Blightning
   1 [ALA] Bant Charm
   1 [PS] Crosis's Charm
   1 [PS] Darigaaz's Charm
   1 [ARB] Ardent Plea
   1 [ALA] Esper Charm
   1 [ALA] Grixis Charm
   1 [ALA] Jund Charm
   1 [ALA] Naya Charm
   1 [PS] Rith's Charm
   1 [PS] Treva's Charm
   1 [PS] Terminate
   1 [AP] Pernicious Deed
   1 [AP] Vindicate
   1 [BOK] Genju of the Realm
   1 [FUT] Glittering Wish

Now, let’s see how these two stack up against each other.

1: How does each deck win?

George wants to win by making his Gloryscale Viashino as big as possible through doubling up on cascade abilities and unleashing an avalanche of multicolored spells, hopefully overwhelming his opponent with free spells and huge Viashinos the turn after the Nexus hits play.

Andrew’s plan… is to not have a plan. By running pretty much every gamebreaking multicolor spell in the history of Magic, Andrew’s philosophy is that once he starts being able to get a free spell every turn off the Nexus, the sheer power of his cards and the discount he’s getting them at will overpower the opponent and the inconsistency of his deck will stop his opponent from figuring out his plan (because he actively avoided having one) and render any countermeasures ineffective.

2: What is each deck’s flaw?

George has chosen as his win condition a creature with no evasion and no self-preservation ability beyond increasing its toughness. A decent supply of tokens or a well-timed Path to Exile or Doom Blade could render the Viashino irrelevant, leaving him with little more than Ram-Gang aggro with a shakier mana base.

Andrew’s greatest strength is his greatest weakness. With a 100-card deck, so few low-cost spells, and no way to search his deck for anything, he’s going to experience a lot of manascrew, have difficulty casting anything before turn five even when he isn’t manascrewed, and most games he’s unlikely to ever see the Nexus even with four copies.

3: You never draw Maelstrom Nexus. Now what?

George would probably be alright if his opponent’s deck has few sweepers, since he can basically play like an aggro deck. However, Gloryscale Viashino becomes little better than a Woolly Thoctar in this case—worse since Bloodbraid Elf can’t cascade into it.

Andrew would be alright, if only because all his other spells are basically the all-star hit parade of Magic’s history. As long as his deck gives him the lands he needs to cast whatever spells it deems fit to give him, and he doesn’t get landflooded (a deck with 38 lands is more likely to have a string of 8 or 10 lands, even though proportionally that’s a good number for his deck), he can just outmuscle his opponent off of sheer card quality.

This is a really tough decision—Gloryscale George and Random Andy have built decks so different, it just doesn’t feel fair to compare them; they do such different things. But compare them I must, and so I’m going to give the nod to Andrew, for finding a deck that actually wants to play the Planeshift dragons, the Planar Chaos dragons, both versions of Nicol Bolas, and four of the five Ultimatums. Alas, nobody wants to play Clarion Ultimatum. Congratulations, Andrew!

With that tough decision out of the way, it’s my turn to build a deck. My first thought of how to exploit Maelstrom Nexus revolves around the phrase “each turn”. Meaning I get a free cascade on my turn, and then another on your turn. If I play an instant.

From there I resolved to build a deck consisting solely of Maelstrom Nexus and instants. Unfortunately, that leaves you with precious few win conditions, so I saw I’d have to settle for a few noninstant spells as well.

Creatures:

4 Enigma Sphinx

2 Sen Triplets

Spells:

4 Maelstrom Nexus

4 Breath of Malfegor

3 Offering to Asha

4 Memory Plunder

4 Esper Charm

4 Flurry of Wings

4 Terminate

4 Agony Warp

Lands:

3 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Island

4 Plains

4 Mountain

4 Forest

4 Swamp

So, the plan here is to either win with Breath of Malfegor/Enigma Sphinx beats, or whatever you can “borrow” from your opponent via Memory Plunder or Sen Triplets. Terramorphic Expanse is the perfect mana fixer here—you can’t cascade into it when you need a business spell. You just need to remember, all your two-mana spells are removal, so when the Nexus is out, don’t cast a three-mana spell as your first of the turn unless your opponent has a creature for you to kill.

Be sure to tune in on Friday when we finish the contest once and for all with the super-heavyweight division—Progenitus!

~BMoor