Maelstrom Nexus
Enchantment
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.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BGRUW
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Double Masters
- Price
- $2.36
- EDHREC rank
- #4663
Maelstrom Nexus turns your first spell each turn into two spells — cascade is a free card and free mana stapled to every play you make. Five colors is the real cost, but in any deck already running WUBRG, this enchantment pulls its weight from the moment it resolves.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Maelstrom Nexus is a Commander card through and through — the five-color requirement fits naturally into five-color commanders like Jodah, the Unifier or The Ur-Dragon, where cascading off each spell compounds an already powerful board state. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but essentially invisible: cascade at sorcery speed on a five-mana enchantment is too slow when the format kills on turn one or two. Modern has faster clocks and more efficient cascade payoffs, so Maelstrom Nexus doesn't find a home there either. Commander is the only format where it regularly earns its slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.36 cheap tier
At $2.36, Maelstrom Nexus sits in the budget-staple tier — strong effect, low barrier to entry. Demand is steady enough from five-color Commander builds that the price is unlikely to crater, making it a low-risk include for any WUBRG deck.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.