Daily Deck Tech of Eldraine: Cascading in Standard

WOE is upon us! Every workday while the set is new, Insight takes a quick look at a deck featuring the latest additions from Wilds of Eldraine. Thanks to a bunch of Adventure spells, one particular sorcery in particular, there now exists a cascade-like combo concoction in Standard. Here's how it works.

Even the new, larger three-year Standard does not contain any cascade cards, technically. But the gives a reasonable impression. Unlike an actual cascade spell, this one has to resolve to do its thing. However, unlike cascade, its thing includes the possibility of hitting a, say, two-mana card but casting its seven-mana Adventure side for free. Hyperbole aside, it's more akin to getting off .

The card to find // to cast is . Invasion of Alara does this reliably because all the other nonlands in the deck, save one, list more than four mana in their top right corner. Nevertheless one gets to use many of them before turn five. , , and can work as early as turn two, can come down on turn three. All of these help survive until it's Invasion time. A drawn copy of Bramble Familiar may even expedite it.

invasion of alara awaken the maelstrom

So then the Invasion will hit Fetch Quest, and Fetch Quest will hopefully hit , alternatively , which gives another shot at Desecrator. At that point, a Herd Migration or Fleshgorger may already sit in the graveyard, or the milling may have interred one of the plentiful seven-drops. This means the Desecrator can remove all seven counters from Invasion of Alara right away, which causes a kind of cascade in its own right: from extra draws to destruction, at minimum putting another 4/4 and three +1/+1 counters onto the board, at best adding a fully fledged Fleshgorger from hand as a bonus on top.

Getting a different payoff off Fetch Quest isn't bad either. Imagine Etali into whatever, or finding another Invasion for next turn. Even Virtue of Persistence may win a game going long, especially after milling six other cards. Of note, a lot of the possible permutations will eventually end the Invasion some other way anyway, if later.

With 27 lands, half of them tricycles, plus Migration, paying for Invasion of Alara is comparatively easy. One might even squeeze in the odd mulligan in search of the Siege. The deck's main problems are opponents with hyperaggressive draws, , discard, and/or counterspells, but that's just par for the combo course. At the very least, it serves as the best kind of fun police, namely the type that protects against tedium. After a year of seeing Standard dominated by a string of midrange strategies, this makes a welcome change of scenery.

Invasion Quest by Rex_Iudex, Standard
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