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Maelstrom Wanderer

Legendary Creature — Elemental

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.)

CMC
8
Mana cost
{5}{G}{U}{R}
Color identity
GRU
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander Masters
Price
$3.56
EDHREC rank
#1641
Buy on TCGplayer
Maelstrom Wanderer card art
Maelstrom Wanderer hits the table and immediately cascades twice, turning eight mana into three spells and a 7/5 that gives your whole board haste — the impact is front-loaded and often game-ending. The cost is the cost: eight mana is a real ask, but decks that reach it reliably treat this card the way others treat Hullbreaker Horror, as a one-card swing that demands an immediate answer or concession, and Ashling, the Limitless shells have made it a near-auto-include at 93% representation.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ashling, the Limitless

Ashling, the Limitless

92.9% of decks · synergy 0.86

Ashling, the Limitless is an energy and counters engine that scales into massive mana, and Maelstrom Wanderer is the payoff: cascade twice into additional threats, then swing with haste the same turn — it's a perfect top-end closer for a deck that was already planning to generate absurd resources.

02
Averna, the Chaos Bloom

Averna, the Chaos Bloom

94.3% of decks · synergy 0.84

Averna, the Chaos Bloom puts lands into play off every cascade trigger, meaning Maelstrom Wanderer's two cascades aren't just free spells — they're also free land drops that accelerate every future turn.

03
Eshki, Temur's Roar

Eshki, Temur's Roar

52.4% of decks · synergy 0.42

Eshki, Temur's Roar cares about high-power creatures and big spells, and Maelstrom Wanderer delivers on both axes at once, arriving with haste and immediately generating two more cascades to chain into the deck's threats.

04
Omnath, Locus of the Roil

Omnath, Locus of the Roil

38.7% of decks · synergy 0.29

Omnath, Locus of the Roil is a Temur value engine that rewards stacking the board with Elementals and hitting land drops, and Maelstrom Wanderer slots in as an eight-mana cascade payoff that can flip into the deck's key threats while giving the whole table haste.

05
Animar, Soul of Elements

Animar, Soul of Elements

33.3% of decks · synergy 0.23

Animar, Soul of Elements reduces the cost of every creature spell, and with enough counters, Maelstrom Wanderer becomes castable for dramatically less than eight mana — at that point, two cascades off a discounted bomb is simply unfair.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Maelstrom Wanderer lives — the singleton format's slower curve and multiplayer card advantage make eight mana achievable, and the haste clause plus two cascades creates the kind of explosive single-turn swing that defines high-power Commander tables. In Legacy and Vintage, it's technically legal but never played: eight mana is three full turns past the point where those formats have already decided the game. Oathbreaker is worth a mention as a secondary home, particularly in Temur spellslinger builds that can ramp into it, though the smaller deck size makes cascade hits less consistent. Everywhere else — Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Pauper — Maelstrom Wanderer is simply not legal.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

3,720 decks
Horde of NotionsJegantha, the WellspringAshling's CommandMaelstrom Wanderer

Horde of NotionsJegantha, the WellspringAshling's CommandMaelstrom Wanderer

Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite Treasure tokens; Infinite card draw for any number of players; Infinite cascade with mana value equal to the next spell you cast; Infinite colored mana; Infinite draw triggers for any number of players; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite storm count; Infinite token copies of Elementals you control with haste; Infinite creature tokens with haste

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$3.56 cheap tier

At $3.56, Maelstrom Wanderer sits firmly in the cheap tier despite being a chase card in nearly every Temur Commander deck that can run it. That price is a product of multiple reprints keeping supply high, and the demand isn't going anywhere — 93% inclusion in Ashling, the Limitless alone is enough pressure to keep it from dropping further.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.