Cascade is one of the most entertaining mechanics in Magic, and also one of the more recently adjusted ones. It allows you to cast seemingly random spells for free, and that’s a hard thing to resist.
How good is it in Commander though, and should you lean into a deck built around cascade, or just splash it into your favorite decks? Actually, it’s great, and you can do both, let’s just talk about good cards instead.
The best cascade cards in Commander
Maelstrom Wanderer
Maelstrom Wanderer
Creatures you control have haste.
Cascade, cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order. Then do it again.)
is the first of our three top picks. This eight-mana blue, red, and green 7/5 grants all of your creatures haste, which is already pretty decent, but most importantly, it comes with two instances of cascade. This means that it’ll come out alongside potentially two other creatures, and then they’ll all have haste. It’s a one-card board state a lot of the time.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
{1}{U}{R}: Return this creature to its owner's hand.
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
is a six-mana blue and red 3/6 with only one instance of cascade, but it also has an ability that costs three mana that lets you put it back in your hand. While this may seem odd, essentially this means you can get multiple cascade triggers off of it if you can play it for cheap or just have a lot of mana.
Finally, we have
Apex Devastator
Apex Devastator
Cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order. Multiple instances of cascade each trigger separately.)
, which is a ten-mana green 10/10 with four instances of cascade. It’s one of those cards that shows you can, in fact, both go big and go home.
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The best cascade support cards in Commander
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Trample
Whenever Yidris deals combat damage to a player, as you cast spells from your hand this turn, they gain cascade. (When you cast the spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
is our first pick for the support cards, because it’s a blue, black, red, and green 5/4 with trample that reads, “Whenever Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deals combat damage to a player, as you cast spells from your hand this turn, they gain cascade.” In essence, Yidris is the ultimate cascade commander.
Maelstrom Nexus
Maelstrom Nexus
The first spell you cast each turn has cascade. (When you cast your first spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
is an excellent spell that should be in most five-color decks. It’s an enchantment that gives the first spell you cast each turn cascade. If the spell already has cascade, you get an extra trigger on that.
Wild-Magic Sorcerer
Wild-Magic Sorcerer
The first spell you cast from exile each turn has cascade. (When you cast your first spell from exile, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
is another excellent support card because it gives the first spell you cast from exile cascade, which helps more cascade triggers start mounting up really quickly.
Finally, anything that costs such as [
Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls
Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample.
is a must-have in a cascade deck. It just means you get some of the most absurdly strong spells in the game that are normally tricky to cast, but with no downside. Cascade is a powerhouse mechanic in general, but in Commander, it really shines thanks to the plethora of cards on offer. That’s to say nothing of an all-cascade deck either, which is pure chaos in the best kind of way.
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