Maelstrom Wanderer, Ramp, Aggro, and Combo all in one!

[The Dark Guardian]

This is a deck I had built when this card was first spoiled. I was originally running Animar, but hated that she was so reliant on being creature based. Then, this little gem showed up, and after several incarnations, I finally settled on this list:

[deck]
General (1)
Maelstrom Wanderer

Lands (44)
8x Forest
6x Island
4 Mountain
1 Mosswort Bridge
Temple of the False God
Wasteland
Desolate Lighthouse
Alchemist's Refuge
Reliquary Tower
Hinterland Harbor
Cascade BLuffs
Steam Vents
Gruul Turf
Thespian's Stage
Vesuva
Volcanic Island
Exotic Orchard
Simic Growth Chamber
Stomping Grounds
Reflecting Pool
Breeding Pool
Fire-lit Thicket
Yavimaya Coast
Flooded Grove
Misty Rainforest
Taiga
Tropical Island
Karplusan Forest
Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (33)
Scavenging Ooze
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Coiling Oracle
Trygon Predator
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
nWood Elves
Somerwald Sage
Shardless Agent
Eternal Witness
Phyrexian Metamorph
Solemn Simulacrum
Wonder
Bloodbraid Elf
Flametongue Kavu
Oracle Of Mul Daya
Mulldrifter
Ingot Chewer
Beguiler of Wills
Zealous Conscripts
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Seedborn Muse
Acidic Slime
Genesis
Duplicant
Deadeye Navigator
Rampaging Baloths
Consecrated Sphinx
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Chancelor of the Spires
Palinchron
Sylvan Primordial
Avenger of Zendikar
Borborygmos Enraged

Other Spells (22)
Mirri's Guile
Sol Ring
Sensei's Divining Top
Wordly Tutor
Survival of the Fittest
Simic Signet
Gruul Signet
Izzet Signet
Scroll Rack
Regrowth
Sylvan Library
Farseek
Kodama's Reach
Cultivate
Beast Within
Krosan Grip
Skyshroud Claim
Birthing Pod
Mind's Eye
Primal COmmand
Urban Evolution
Tooth and Nail
[/deck]

Any feedback would be nice. This has been my longest running deck, going on almost 10 months. My original version was more of a good stuff deck, but even with ramp spells, the
deck was too slow out the gates. This version runs a much heavier land count, which means less bad cascades when I "blind" cascade, and easier transition to hitting my general, as the battle plan is typically to bum rush Maelstrom Wanderer. Here are a few cards I considered, but never made the cut:

Exploration
While this card has a very strong early game, its usefulness really falls off in the late game, and makes for a rather poor cascade. While the same could be said for azusa, she at least goes super nuts early, can be survivaled or birthing poded away to something more useful, and can chump block if need be.

Counterspells
My original list did run a few, including Cryptic Command, Force of Will, and Spelljack. What ended up happening all too often was that they either never showed up, or made for poor cascades. Cryptic, I kept in a bit longer, since it could be not useless when cascaded, but the card effect was too weak, even as a tapdown/draw a card. This
deck hasn't had the need to get through an army of opponents creatures, while the triple blue makes casting this (sometimes) troublesome.

Sac effect lands/cards (Such as Diamond Valley, High Market, ect)
The biggest problem (with the lands), was that most effects were either out of my colors or colorless. The primary purpose behind using this effect would be to keep recycling Maelstrom Wanderer to cascade on the hour, every hour (and as a side note, dodge "tuck effects"). Non-land cards, such as Greater Good each had their own individual issues, while I realized that usually, the Wanderer, himself, had to be dealt with by the opponent, lest they face down a 3 turn clock (assuming outright damage doesn't get them).

There are many other cards I have considered, but putting them all here would likely be wasted. Any suggestions would be welcome, and have a great day!

[Manasjap]

Nice deck

I really like the idea of Maelstrom Wanderer as a general, but I would hate it to ramp into the dude and then cascading into other ramp spells (even though that might make it easier to re-cast him when he dies). How does this work out for you most of the time?

Some cards that might be cool to check out:
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, this seems like a nice recurring dude you can use to cascade/block etc.
Maybe something like Crystal Shard to make even more use of all the comes into play/cascade goodness.
I think Animar, Soul of Elements would still be a cool card to have in your 100, even when he's not your commander.

[The Dark Guardian]

Nice deck

I really like the idea of Maelstrom Wanderer as a general, but I would hate it to ramp into the dude and then cascading into other ramp spells (even though that might make it easier to re-cast him when he dies). How does this work out for you most of the time?

Some cards that might be cool to check out:
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, this seems like a nice recurring dude you can use to cascade/block etc.
Maybe something like Crystal Shard to make even more use of all the comes into play/cascade goodness.
I think Animar, Soul of Elements
would still be a cool card to have in your 100, even when he's not your commander.

It happens sometimes, but usually, one good spell is all the decks needs to take the advantage. The cards such as Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack, ect really help in the long run as well.

Etherium-Horn was originally in my other list. I ended up cutting him, primarily because he was essentially a 9-drop, i I wanted the mana back to hold him. He was also a tad on the weak side as far as a body was concerned, competing with Rampaging Baloths, Niv-Mizzet, while his effect of cascading had to compete with cards such as Consecrated Sphinx.

Animar, I never actually considered. Her biggest former issue was that I ran a lot of mana aggressive creatures, so even with a ton of counters, I would only get maybe a 3 mana discount (not including the general). She seems solid though, what would you cut to fit her in if you were me?

[Azrael]

I've retooled my own build quite a bit since last I posted.

You really can't afford to be afraid of "over-ramping" in Commander, in my experience, so long as each of your acceleration spells pushes you forward at least two mana-drops. Your worst case scenario should be Maelstrom Wanderer flipping over the equivalent of four lands and putting them into play - that's having an auto-hasted hasted Primeval Titan as your general. If you can't do some serious damage with that match mana gain, coupled with mass-haste, something is seriously wrong.

And from a more fundamental standpoint, ramp is probably among the most undervalued card advantage engines in the Commander format - the more mana you have, the faster you're able to cast your general, fuel up, maintain pressure, overwhelm countermeasures, and kill your opponents. Provided your ramp slots are providing you with multiple mana or multiple acceleration
values, it's pretty hard to go overboard. A heavy commitment to ramp is very critical in Commander, compared to the late-game liability it can often be in more traditional formats - its not just tempo, it's tempo and CA combined. Especially when you can build up towards taking multi-turn effects with a good amount of excess mana left over.

I'd also recommend not being afraid of starting your acceleration on turn one with Exploration, and even knock-offs Sakura Tribe Scout and Skyshroud Ranger. You can gain multiple turns of acceleration with each, which allow you to really outrace the table. You should be able to produce a pretty crushing mana advantage when you acceleration begins stacking.

For instance, if you can accelerate down a one drop, into a two or three drop accel that boosts you at least two mana forward, into multiple three drop or 4-5 drop accels which compound, power out Maelstrom Wanderer on the fourth turn, and just go crazy from there with hasted beatsticks and taking extra turns-
its going to be very tough to stop you, even with the entire table working in concert. If a quarter of your deck is ramp, compounding your ramp spells 2-3 times in the opening several turns should be a pretty standard outcome for you.

Also note that any and all "Sol Ring" analogues such as Fyndhorn Elder, Worn Powerstone, Fabricate into Sol Ring, Lotus Cobra, Rofellos, Joraga Treespeaker, Bloom Tender, Thada Adel (gets Sol Ring) etc. which cost three mana or less and produce multiple mana for you tend to be very, very good. Even if some of the creature-based options are later destroyed, chances are they've done a lot of damage before they bite it. If you were able to cast Maelstrom Wanderer a single time before they go down, you've probably recouped all the damage you just took, at a minimum.

There's probably only a handful of other generals who can properly keep up with a well-built Wanderer Ramp-style deck. It's a great combination of tempo and CA feeding into one another in turn to
make broken things happen much more quickly than is normally possible.

---

Some more specific feedback:

Sensei's Top and Mirri's Guile are pretty unimpressive here, in my opinion. You don't want to cascade into them, and they don't see far enough to be of consistent use.

You're definitely right about countermagic. Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, and Glen Elendra Archmage are the only options I've managed to squeeze in. Its more important to be proactive and aggressive, and have just a sprinkling of ways to stop opponents from combo-ing off with extra turn chains or other bad things.

Single slot acceleration is not your friend - Sakura Tribe Elder, Farseek, Signets, etc. It's not pushing you forward fast enough, and it's pretty negligible late-game. Shoot for multiple acceleration drops from each of your accel slots.

Tooth and Nail/Kiki's very good. I'm not running it in mine, mainly due to cost and concerns about power level. Probably, one or the other of those two spells should
be banned in the format, but the rules committee isn't the greatest. But yeah, good power there.

Love the Somberwald. He's a good man.

Why Seedborn Muse? Because of Niv-Mizzet? Seems loose, now that you've cut your countermagic.

Threat-base and CA bases probably need some cleanup. I'd refer to some of the options I'm running below. Recurring Insight, Future Sight, Arcanis, the Omnipotent, Godo/Argentum Armor, Bribery obv, Orcish Settlers is phenomenal on the cheaper side of things. One of the best cards that hardly anyone knows about. Spitting Image is pretty ok at times, too. In the late-game when you've got more mana than you know what to do with, you can put a lot of damage on the table or even target your own Maelstrom Wanderer for multiple cascades.

*Looks Harder* Hmm. Very little blue card draw in here. That should definitely change. You want to be able to draw extra lands and action, and it's pretty sweet to cascade into off of Maelstrom Wanderer - gives you some extra punch for
the next turn. Makes sure you don't slow down/stall out and can continue chaining multiple spells per turn.

Seems like you should definitely look into taking extra turns if your play-group doesn't hate that sort of thing. Most games I play these days tend to end by someone chaining multiple turns in a row, stuff like Knowledge Exploitation into Time Stretch, or Maelstrom Wanderer, cascade Time Warp, deal you a gajillion damage next turn.

Also, big mana doublers. Sword of Feast and Famine, Doubling Cube, Mana Reflection. There are very few decks that don't want all three of these effects to give you a high enough mana potential to knock out the table before they can join together and balance you out.

[deck]
1 Maelstrom Wanderer

39 Land
4 Forest
4 Island
1 Mountain
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Windswept Heath
1
Polluted Delta
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Grove
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Gruul Turf
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Homeward Path

25 Ramp
1 Exploration
1 Sakura Tribe Scout
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1 Sol Ring
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Bloom Tender
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Palladium Myr
1 Nantuko Elder
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Fyndhorn Elder
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Fabricate
1 Overgrowth
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Doubling Cube
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mana Reflection
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

6 Extra Turns
1 Walk the Aeons
1 Knowledge Exploitation
1 Time Warp
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Time Stretch
1 Temporal Mastery

17 Death
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1
Memnarch
1 Spitting Image
1 Roil Elemental
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Rite of Replication
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Orcish Settlers
1 Argentum Armor
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Sphinx Ambassabor
1 Bribery

12 Draw
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Arcanis, the Omnipotent
1 Magus of the Future
1 Future Sight
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Harmonize
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Recurring Insight
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Concentrate

[/deck]

EDIT:

To answer some of your other questions:

Bribery is rampant in my metagame. I still run Jin-Gitaxias without a second thought. There's pretty good odds I can either outrace them, kill it, kill them, or steal it back. Homeward Path is a really critical slot, and it plays a big role in blanking out that sort of thing.

Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast - You could call it a meta-call, I suppose, but I'd say that the significant majority of the decks that are
truly frightening in the Commander format, run blue. If no one at the table is playing blue, chances are they're going to be screwed when you start chaining turns together.

Exploration/Skyshroud Ranger can occasionally burn, but running significant amounts of card draw at the lower end of things, I'm talking your four-slot draw spells like Fact or Fiction and Harmonize, tends to cover you. Running bouncelands, maybe even the Mirage Karoo-style bounce-lands depending on how build your mana, can also CYA on that front.

[The Dark Guardian]

My apologies for taking so long to respond to this:

I thank you greatly for some of the advice you gave. I haven't bought cards since GTC, so I haven't had the opportunity to pick some of the cards up.

Our group doesn't care too much about being degenerate, as long its not ridiculous (cryptic I know, but while a 2 card combo is fine, building a deck just for the sake of comboing is not). Time Warp(s) are completely fine, if I can chain them.

Let me ask you this: As someone who not only plays them, but strongly encourages me to as well: Do you like my deck idea of 45 lands? I originally uped the count because I ran azusa, that new harmonize/explore., and made for less targets to cascade into (ala, more chances to hit good things. If so, what would you cut to fit in these new suggestions? (I assume, you would start with Top/Guile, and each signet, but then?

[Azrael]

My apologies for taking so long to respond to this:

I thank you greatly for some of the advice you gave. I haven't bought cards since GTC, so I haven't had the opportunity to pick some of the cards up.

Our group doesn't care too much about being degenerate, as long its not ridiculous (cryptic I know, but while a 2 card combo is fine, building a deck just for the sake of comboing is not). Time Warp(s) are completely fine, if I can chain them.

Let me ask you this: As someone who not only plays them, but strongly encourages me to as well: Do you like my deck idea of 45 lands? I originally uped the count because I ran azusa, that new harmonize/explore., and made for less targets to cascade into (ala, more chances to hit good things. If so, what would you cut
to fit in these new suggestions? (I assume, you would start with Top/Guile, and each signet, but then?

I'm not certain how the 45 lands will work. It might be strong, or you might need acceleration more than you need an incremental increase in broken cascading. If you wind up running Exploration/Sakura Tribe Elder/Skyshroud Ranger/Azusa, I think you might be onto something there.

The slots I'd replace from your current build are:

Mirri's Guile
Sensei's Top
Survival of the Fittest
The Signets
Regrowth
Farseek
Beast Within (Better to be the threat with this deck, I think)
Krosan Grip
Mind's Eye
Primal Command
Genesis
Seedborn Muse
Chancellor of the Spires (too inconsistent in the early game)
Ingot Chewer
Mulldrifter
Acidic Slime
Dead-eye Navigator
Wonder
Ingot Chewer
Bloodbraid Elf
Shardless Agent
Solemn Simulacrum
Flametongue Kavu
Eternal Witness
Wood Elves
Coiling Oracle
Sakura Tribe Elder