I’m not sure that the announcement of the upcoming Planechase 2012 product was all that exciting in and of itself as a format mechanic but a huge amount of interest has been gained from what was announced in the product and hinted at in addition to the product:
First up: cards exclusive to the Planechase product. The Commander pre-cons (and, I suppose, to a certain extent the recent changes in the core sets) have galvanized the community and led to a huge amount of interest in non-core products. If the 21 new & exclusive, planechase-product-only cards are anywhere near as awesome as the ones that went into the commander product, then Wizards will have scored another home run.
Second up: a cycle of multi-colored legendary creatures. They don’t confirm they will all be enemy wedge, but the mention of a cycle strongly suggests they will be. We know there’s at least one enemy wedge legend because they showed it to us:
While I concede that this could be extremely cool, in only 24h of interweb fapping over Maelstrom Wanderer, the idea-mongers have managed to produce just 3 ideas that everyone keeps coming back to again, and again and again.
And again.
And once more again because we’re now approaching 36 hours since the announcement.
- Fix the top of your deck to a Tooth & Nail.
- Play Maelstrom Wanderer.
- Cascade into the Tooth & Nail, paying 2 for Entwine.
- Get Primeval Titan & Avenger of Zendikar.
- Resolve second Cascade into whatever.
- Resolve Maelstrom Wanderer.
- Everything gets haste. Attack for 7+5+6+4X (where X is the number of lands you controlled when the Avenger triggered), so probably in the region of 50-ish damage.
>yawn!<
- Get Momir Vig, Simic Visionary into play.
- Play Maelstrom Wanderer.
- Stack the Momir Vig triggers so you draw first then tutor for an Avenger of Zendikar to put on top of the library (just hope you didn’t draw either it or PT).
- Resolve the first cascade into Avenger of Zendikar and play it.
- With the new Momir Vig trigger, tutor up Primeval Titan and put it on top of the library.
- Resolve the second cascade into Primeval Titan and play it.
- With the new Momir Vig trigger, tutor up something else and put it on top of the library.
- Resolve Maelstrom Wanderer.
- Everything gets haste. Attack for 7+5+6+4X (where X is the number of lands you controlled when the Avenger triggered), so probably in the region of 50-ish damage. [Yes, I did just copy/Paste that]
>yawn!<
- Fix the top of your deck to a Jokulhaups or Devastation.
- Play Maelstrom Wanderer.
- Cascade into Jokulhaups or Devastation.
- Either set up your second cascade into Primeval Titan or cascade blind.
- Have a fun game!!
>yawn!<
About the only suggestion that I saw that was in any way original was by putting a Selective Memory out there, exiling all those annoying little spells that you really need in your deck but are really not exceptional when you are cascading so you know that whatever you cascade into will be pure gold. That gets the thumbs-up for being ballsey from me even if the original poster was still intending to cascade into Primeval Titan / Avenger of Zendikar.
So, yeah, Maelstrom Wanderer will be huge and swingy and big and epic but only if some effort is made to make his cascades original. Otherwise he, like so many other cards, will merely become another route to Primeval Titan / Avenger of Zendikar.
Another 6 months of this before we even get to touch the card.
>yawn!<
Third up: hints at another commander specific product.
So not only do we get more commanders, more cards, more new cards, we’re also getting additional commander product?
Yeah, I'm hoping to pull off the Avenger/Prime Time play once, 'cause I think once would be cool enough... but after that it'll definitely get old.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have a tangentially-related, but hopefully less yawn-inducing story for ya. I was playing a 5-color deck and managed to stick Maelstrom Nexus. The next turn I top-deck Nicol Bolas P-Walker, cast him, and cascade into Kaervek the Merciless. Not an auto-win, but certainly made life very difficult for my opponent. Definitely the best Cascade I've ever had, and I didn't even set it up.
I don't think the second one works. When you cast the Wanderer, it will trigger Mormir Vig, and MV's ability will resolve with the Wanderer on the stack. Then the Wanderer cascades into Avenger of Zendikar, which triggers Mormir, but I don't think Mormir Vig just pauses the Wanderer's ability's resolution to resolve. Mormir's trigger will go on the stack, where it has to wait for the Wanderer's trigger to finish. You cascade a second time, and then you get to use Mormir's tutor ability.
ReplyDeleteI am under the impression that, as the two cascades are seperate events, there will be a break between them when priority is passed. If that's the case you have to resolve the triggers put on the stack since the firest trigger resolved so you will be able to do this.
ReplyDeleteI could also be totally incorrect too! :)
With a Contagion Engine (proliferate, proliferate), priority doesn't pass between proliferates. I would think that Maelstrom Wanderer would work the same way. I suspect that anything that happens as a result of the first cascade (other than putting the card into play) would happen after the second cascade.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there's a way to abuse the delay in triggers?
Hum, this is good to know. TBH, I'm happy if that's actually the case as it would make it a little more difficult to do very broken things with him, just normal broken things.
ReplyDeleteSeems like #1 & #3 are still viabl though.
@yatesc: Actually, "cascade, cascade" is two separate instances of the same ability. Both trigger when the spell is cast and go on the stack separately, just as if you had cast Bloodbraid Elf with Maelstrom Nexus on the field. You can play spells and activate abilities between the two cascades resolving.
ReplyDelete@smschrag Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMystic Tutor-MW-Selective Memory- Everything except Lab Maniac.
ReplyDelete