Into the Time Vortex
Sorcery
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.)
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #5584
Into the Time Vortex wipes the board of artifacts and enchantments while cascading into a free spell — you get a sweeper and a card simultaneously. The catch is the chaos: cascade is random, so you're trading precision for raw value, which is a reasonable deal at sorcery speed removal. Averna, the Chaos Bloom turns every cascade trigger into additional land drops, making the randomness feel even more like a bonus.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Averna, the Chaos Bloom
Averna, the Chaos Bloom runs Into the Time Vortex in over 70% of decks because every cascade trigger lets Averna put lands onto the battlefield untapped — the sweeper pays for itself in mana development before the cascaded spell even resolves.
Radha, Heir to Keld
Radha, Heir to Keld wants spells that generate immediate mana advantage, and Into the Time Vortex delivers a free cascaded spell while clearing out opposing artifacts and enchantments that might be slowing Radha's combat plan.
Laelia, the Blade Reforged
Laelia, the Blade Reforged exiles cards to grow, and Into the Time Vortex feeds that exile-based card economy while doubling as an answer to noncreature permanents that would otherwise stall Laelia's pressure.
Ruby, Daring Tracker
Ruby, Daring Tracker builds around playing cards from exile, and Into the Time Vortex slots cleanly into that theme while providing a board-impacting sweeper effect that keeps the path clear for Ruby's attack-oriented gameplan.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the natural home for Into the Time Vortex — the format's slower clock makes a sorcery-speed sweeper acceptable, and four-player games mean there are almost always artifacts or enchantments worth hitting. Legacy and Vintage allow it, but the competition for sorcery-speed slots is brutal and the randomness of cascade is a real liability in formats where precision is everything. Oathbreaker is a reasonable fit for the same reasons as Commander: curve expectations are compressed, but cascade synergies with commanders like Averna, the Chaos Bloom still apply. Outside those eternal and multiplayer formats, Into the Time Vortex is simply not legal.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Into the Time Vortex isn't available in the current dataset, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before buying. Given its strong inclusion rates in Averna, the Chaos Bloom decks and cascade-matters builds, demand is real — don't assume it's bulk without verifying.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Averna, the Chaos Bloom
- Radha, Heir to Keld
- Laelia, the Blade Reforged
- Ruby, Daring Tracker
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.