Cascade (2024)

Cascade is a triggered ability that was introduced in Alara Reborn.^[2][3]

Description[ | ]

When you cast a spell with Cascade, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card whose mana value is less than the cascading spell. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then put all cards exiled this way that weren't cast on the bottom of your library in a random order.

Originally, the minimum cost of a Cascade spell was locked at 3 mana to force deckbuilding concessions, as it was believed that a deck without cheap interaction would not be threatening even if they could consistently cast a particular low-mana card every game. This ended up being a major oversight due to the Time Spiral cycle of 0-cost sorceries, whose effects were powerful enough to be a game plan in themselves. Additionally, the "filler effect" that cascade ability was attached to swung wildly in power: compare two four-mana cascade cards Captured Sunlight and Kathari Remnant with the most infamous Cascade spell Bloodbraid Elf, where gaining 4 life is worth less than a mana, Will-o-the-wisp is perhaps one to two mana, compared to a 3/2 haste, which is evaluated between three and four mana.

Being introduced in the multicolored-only set Alara Reborn, Cascade was printed exclusively on multicolored cards^[4] until Modern Horizons, which featured the monocolored Throes of Chaos. Unstable had one monocolored cascader - also red - in a variant of Garbage Elemental. More monocolored spells with cascade followed in Commander Legends, which also featured the first colorless spells with cascade (Maelstrom Colossus and Ingenuity Engine). Modern Horizons 2 brought the first 2-mana spell that could have cascade in Bloodbraid Marauder.

Two cards in Warhammer 40K give the next spell you cast cascade. This means that the next spell you cast gains cascade as you begin to cast it by putting it on the stack, and the cascade ability will trigger when you finish casting that spell.

History[ | ]

Cascade returned in multiple supplemental sets, e.g. the Chaos Reigns deck of Planechase 2012, in Modern Horizons, Commander Legends, Modern Horizons 2, Double Masters 2022, the Lord of the Rings Holiday Release and in Modern Horizons 3.

Other appearances were in the Streets of New Capenna Commander decks, as well as the Exit from Exile commander deck from Battle for Baldur's Gate, the Dominaria United Commander decks and the The Ruinous Powers commander deck from Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks.^[5].

Rules[ | ]

Rules update[ | ]

In February 2021, Cascade received a rules update to change the interaction with MDFCs and Adventure cards. From that moment on, the spell that is cast off the triggered ability must also have lesser mana value than the cascading spell.^[6]

The rules previously said "You may cast that spell without paying its mana cost.", allowing players to cast a spell with a higher mana value attached to a card with a lesser mana value. The rules change clarifies "You may cast that spell without paying its mana cost if its mana value is less than this spell's mana value.", making this no longer possible.

Rulings[ | ]

• Cascade triggers when the spell that has it is cast, not when it resolves (that is, before the permanent would enter the battlefield).
• Here's the timing for cascade:
  • 1) You cast a spell with cascade.
  • 2) The cascade ability triggers and goes on the stack on top of the original spell.
  • 3) The cascade ability resolves. If you find an applicable card that you'd like to cast, you do so.
  • 4) The spell you cast as a result of the cascade ability resolves.
  • 5) The original spell resolves.
• For the most part, cascade is mandatory. You must exile cards from the top of your library, even if you know that you won't exile anything you want to cast. Whether or not you cast the last card you exile is the only optional part.
• The spell you cast as a result of the cascade ability resolves before the original spell. If you cast a creature spell with cascade and then cast an Aura as the result of the cascade ability, you can't enchant that creature with it because the creature spell hasn't resolved yet.
• Cascade won't trigger if you put a copy of a spell with cascade on the stack (due to Cloven Casting or Twincast, for example). That's because you didn't cast the copy (such as with Isochron Scepter).
• Countering the original spell doesn't counter the cascade ability.
• Since cascade is a triggered ability, anything that interacts with a triggered ability (such as Stifle) will interact with cascade.
• All players can see the cards you exile as the cascade ability resolves.
• If you cast a card this way, you cast it as part of the resolution of the cascade ability. Timing restrictions based on the card's type (such as creature or sorcery) are ignored. Other restrictions are not (such as "Cast [this card] only before attackers are declared").
• A spell cast as part of the resolution of cascade is cast from exile, not from your library. Abilities that prohibit you from casting cards from your library (such as Grafdigger's Cage's second ability) will not stop you from casting a card with the cascade ability.
• If you cast a card "without paying its mana cost," you can't pay any alternative costs, such as evoke or the alternative cost provided by the morph ability. If it has X in its mana cost, X must be 0. However, you can pay optional additional costs, such as conspire, and you must still pay mandatory additional costs.
• A card cast with cascade behaves like any other spell. It can be countered. If you cast another card with cascade this way, the new spell's cascade ability will trigger, and you'll repeat the process for the new spell.
• Casting a card with the cascade ability is optional. If you choose not to, the card is put on the bottom of your library in a random order along with the other cards exiled with cascade.
• If you cast a spell with cascade and there are no nonland cards in your library with a lesser mana value, you'll exile your entire library. Then you'll randomly rearrange those cards and put them back as your library. Although you're essentially shuffling those cards, you're not technically doing so; abilities that trigger whenever you shuffle your library won't trigger.

Examples[ | ]

Cards that grant Cascade[ | ]

Artifacts[ | ]

• Smoldering Stagecoach (to instants and sorceries)
• TARDIS

Enchantments[ | ]

• Bigger on the Inside
• Maelstrom Nexus
• Rain of Riches

Creatures[ | ]

• Abaddon the Despoiler
• Dark Apostle
• Flamekin Herald (to Commanders)
• Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty
• Sloppity Bilepiper
• The First Sliver
• Wild-Magic Sorcerer
• Wildsear, Scouring Maw (to enchantments)
• Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
• Zhulodok, Void Gorger

Trivia[ | ]

• Multiple cards can cascade multiple times.
  • Maelstrom Wanderer and Call Forth the Tempest have "Cascade, cascade."
  • Zhulodok, Void Gorger grants "Cascade, cascade" to colorless spells with mana value 7 or greater.
  • Apex Devastator has "Cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade"
• Treasure Keeper has a variant where it "cascades" when it dies.
• Invasion of Alara has a superpowered version of cascade, finding two cards, casting one and drawing the other.
• Cascade was featured as rules card 2 of 3 in the Alara Reborn set.
• Cascade was considered to be a design failure by Aaron Forsythe because it did not play out as randomly as the design intended.^[7] The biggest culprits of this were the costless Suspend cycle in Time Spiral - Hypergenesis, Living End and Restore Balance all made for decks reliant on using Cascade as casting tutors, and the Hypergenesis deck was strong enough to be banned.
• The Heroes of the Realm card Myntasha, Honored One features Booster Cascade (It’s like cascade but you use your booster pile rather than your library.)
• With discover being a "fixed" cascade mechanic that appeared in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, cascade might occasionally be seen as one-of’s in supplemental sets, but is less likely to show up in future premier sets.^[8]

References[ | ]

External links[ | ]

• A Planeswalker's Primer for Alara Reborn: Cascade (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube.
• Alara Reborn Frequently Asked Questions