Throes of Chaos
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.)
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Forgotten Realms Commander
- Price
- $0.21
- EDHREC rank
- #5492
Throes of Chaos lets you cascade every turn for just one mana by discarding a land — repeatable card advantage stapled to a cheap enchantment. In most decks that's win-more filler, but pair it with Averna, the Chaos Bloom and every cascade trigger starts putting lands into play, turning the discard cost into acceleration.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Averna, the Chaos Bloom
Averna, the Chaos Bloom turns every cascade trigger into a free land drop, so Throes of Chaos's once-per-turn cascade becomes a mana engine that also refuels your hand — it's the reason the card shows up in over 76% of Averna lists.
Laelia, the Blade Reforged
Laelia, the Blade Reforged grows whenever you exile cards from the top of your library, and Throes of Chaos's cascade adds both the exile and the spell cast that fuels her — nearly 58% of Laelia decks run it as a cheap, repeatable threat-plus-pump loop.
Prosper, Tome-Bound
Throes of Chaos gives Prosper, Tome-Bound a free cast off the top each turn, which means a free Treasure from Prosper's trigger — it's a mana-neutral engine that turns a bulk enchantment into recurring value.
Rootha, Mastering the Moment
Rootha, Mastering the Moment can copy Throes of Chaos's cascade trigger for extra hits off the top, making the one-mana activation punch well above its weight in instants-and-sorceries shells.
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 |
Throes of Chaos is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its real home is Commander — the long game gives the enchantment time to cascade multiple times, and the land-discard cost barely registers over 40-turn games. In Modern and Legacy, the one-mana-per-turn activation is too slow and the card hits too low on the cascade curve to compete with dedicated cascade payoffs. Oathbreaker's faster clocks make it niche, best reserved for dedicated cascade or Averna-style signature spells. Treat it as a Commander-specific card that happens to be technically legal elsewhere.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.21 bulk tier
At $0.21, Throes of Chaos is deep bulk — you'll find it in a commons box before you need to order it. That price is stable; the card has a narrow but loyal home in cascade-specific Commander lists and isn't the kind of card that spikes.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Averna, the Chaos Bloom
- Laelia, the Blade Reforged
- Prosper, Tome-Bound
- Rootha, Mastering the Moment
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.