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By: Basic Land, Andrew Westin
May 17 2009 1:20am
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Hypercascade, what is it?

It's a new deck based around the Cascade mechanic. It is already known as Hypercascade, Speefalls, Genesis, or Genesis Reborn. Regardless of the name, the premise is basically the same: use your multicolor lands and Simian Spirit Guide to cast one of the three, 3 converted casting cost Cascade spells (a new tongue twister?) in your deck. These spells are Ardent Plea, Violent Outburst, or Demonic Dread, and you're looking to fire them off on turn two or three. Of course, you have no 0, 1, or 2 converted casting cost spells (ie Chrome Mox) in your deck other than Hypergenesis, so you are guaranteed to flip the hypa on the Cascade trigger. Let me say that again: the only spell that costs less than three in this deck is Hypergenesis.

An aside for Cascade: The cards revealed are put back on the bottom of the library in a random order. This means, if you don't have any spells matching the criteria, you won't be able to stack your deck.
Hypergenesis

Building Hypergensis

Let's start with the basics, the combo: 3x Hypergenesis, 4x Violent Outburst, 4x Ardent Plea, 2x Demonic Dread. That's a whopping 10 cards to start the combo.

 

Land: 4x Simian Spirit Guide, 4x Gemstone Mine, 4x City of Brass, (I believe the next season will rotate out 8th edition and with it City of Brass, so this is only temporary). 4x Tendo Ice Bridge, 3x Forbidden Orchard (which also gives our Demonic Dread something to target), 2x Pillar of the Paruns, and 2x Reflecting Pool.

 

Deck Thinners: 4x Serum Powder, 4x Street Wraith. This is the reason why we run 3x Hypergenesis. If you remove one from the game, and get your second copy in your hand, you have to mulligan again, or you can't combo out.

 

Hypergenesis Food (Putting creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and lands in to play): This part of the deck is customizable. Personally, I feel that 4x Magister Sphinx and 4x Bogardan Hellkite are mandatory. There are some good hasty evasion critters like Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Hellkite Overlord, Rorix Bladewing, Thraximundar (he belongs in a 0-1 build of Forbidden Orchard), Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Akroma, Angel of Wrath. There are also a few good Shroud characters in Simic Sky Swallower, Inkwell Leviathan, Progenitus and Empyrial Archangel (which can also be nice in the mirror).

 

Then there are creatures that you may use to destroy things in Woodfall Primus, Sundering Titan and Angel of Despair. There are also a plethora of cards that can keep you safe from board sweepers and Path to Exiles, although if you are running into a Wrath this deck isn't working properly to begin with, for example, Nullstone Gargoyle, Decree of Silence, Twilight Shepherd, and Dauntless Escort. If you wanted to get silly, you could start adding Pandemonium, Wound Reflection (although I would rather have another threat instead) or cards that work as a mini combo like Pestermite. However, I feel that running a mini combo makes the deck less consistent, but I'm sure there will be plenty of casual versions out there. You could also run main deck hate like Electrolyze or use Gifts Ungiven, transmute cards like Perplex, or Idyllic Tutor, if you are worried about finding your combo piece.

 

Here is a sample haste-based decklist:

 

 Another Hypercascade decklist, of the shroud variety: 

 

SideBoard

As you can see above, I have already started fleshing out some sideboard cards. These will all change once we get an Ext season. Electrolyze, Rift Bolt, Ingot Chewer, are all for the pesky creatures and artifacts that prevent you from comboing off, ie: Meddling Mage Chalice of the Void set to 0, and Ethersworn Canonist to name a few. Dovescape and Decree of Silence share the same function, Cloudthresher can hit Faeries, although if you are putting a Cloudthresher into play against Faeries, you will most likely win anyway. Toils of Night and Day, is a Gigadrowse effect that we can use against decks that aim to hit us with Mana Leak, Spellstutter Sprite or Nix. Gemstone Caverns is sided in after we win and are on the draw to keep the game short. Wipe Away, Krosan Grip, Dosan the Falling Leaf, Nullstone Gargoyle, Putrefy, Coalition Relic, Mortify, Maelstrom Pulse, Volcanic Fallout, and Firespout are all available to fill our your 15 card sideboard

Fragility

So, now that we know what makes Hypercascade tick, how can we beat it? As it turns out, rather easily. Much of the hate that is already either maindecked or sideboarded also prevents Hypercascade from functioning properly. Mana Leak, Spellstutter Sprite, Negate, Stifle, Flashfreeze, Ethersworn Canonist (already against storm), Thoughtseize, Duress, Meddling Mage, Trickbind, Magus of the Moon, Countertop, Blood Moon, and another junk rare in Nix. Nix by itself is an amazing way to stop this deck cold. It also will help a blue deck get around Toils of Night and Day. I'm sure there are many others that I am missing, however, the point is very clear. The game will be a resolve (do) or die by turn 4.

Nix

 

Cards that don't work with Hypergenesis

I just wanted to take a moment and mention some cards that don't work with Hypergenesis. Split cards such as Supply/Demand get both halves checked by Cascade. Creatures like Mulldrifter get put into play, but Hypergenesis resolves before CIP triggers are put on the stack. Same is true for Grozoth and other CIP cards, Phage the Untouchable, Wild Pair, Myojin of Seeing Winds and friends, creatures like Madrush Cyclops, which give all of your creatures haste. You might as well run a bigger threat. If you were going to win with these creatures, you would have won anyway, which makes them a win more type of card (or win less consistently). Remember, cards with CCC less than 3 are out, this includes, Pact of Negation, Chrome Mox, Boomerang, etc. I hope you all get creative and come up with some interesting Hypergenesis decks that are not only competative, but fun to play.

 

Thank you for reading about Hypergenesis. I'm sure there was more information on this deck than you cared to know. My goal was to be comprehensive and make sure that nobody is surprised in the casual room. Depending on the metagame, and sideboard cards that are played, this could be a tournament worthy (ext) deck, but a simple 4 pack of Nix, or as I consider it the new Leyline of the Void, will hose this deck. Happy Slingin'!

8 Comments

Well done by Necropotent at Sun, 05/17/2009 - 18:00
Necropotent's picture
5

Nice article. I think cascade is going to have a tremendous influence on extended. Why do you think Nix is the new Leyline of the Void?

I'll field that one by Tromack (not verified) at Sun, 05/17/2009 - 18:21
Tromack's picture

He calls it leyline of the void because it is extremely narrow, but cheaply hoses an entire deck.

I'll field that one by Tromack (not verified) at Sun, 05/17/2009 - 18:21
Tromack's picture

He calls it leyline of the void because it is extremely narrow, but cheaply hoses an entire deck.

I knew I sold my Hypergenesis by bad luck chuck at Sun, 05/17/2009 - 18:11
bad luck chuck's picture
4

I knew I sold my Hypergenesis too early!

Re: Cards that don't work with hypergenesis. by Anonymous (not verified) at Mon, 05/18/2009 - 00:51
Anonymous's picture

I'm unsure of the significance of your statement "Split cards such as Supply/Demand get both halves checked by Cascade.", although since it is the the section "Cards that don't work with hypergenesis" it sounds like you are saying that cascade will not play a split card unless both halves have a cmc less than the cascade spell. This is not the case.

From the Alara Reborn FAQ: * If you remove a split card from the game this way, check if at least one half of that split card has a converted mana cost that's less than the converted mana cost of the spell with cascade. If so, you can play either half of that split card.

I think the point you were making was that split cards work TOO well with cascade in this case in that if either half of the split card has a valid cmc to cascade you must play that spell. Just wanted to point that out.

Also if hypergenesis resolves and then cip triggers are put onto the stack then you are saying that you would still draw 2 cards from mulldrifter, you would still lose the game from hypergenesising (!) Phage into play, etc. but only once all permanents have finished coming into play, correct? If so then it basically works very similarly to living death for example. Just asking to clarify the significance of this and whether you were saying the cip effects don't trigger or are just delayed.

Great article and it remains to be seen what effect the "0" cost suspend spells will have with cascade. Worst case scenario you can always get 3 mana or draw 3 cards.

Clarrifying Some Things by Basic Land at Mon, 05/18/2009 - 08:45
Basic Land's picture

Hi Anon,

Thank you for your comment. You are exactly right, about what I was trying to get at with the section Cards that don't work with Hypergenesis. I merely meant, that this deck has a simple plan, play a Cascade spell, which 100% of the time will play Hypergenesis, play fat creatures, win.
Playing Split cards that will sometimes be played instead of Hypergenesis, don't further the goal of the deck, which is why they don't work here.
The same is true with Comes into play abilities and cards like Phage. The triggers will be put on the stack after Hypergenesis resolves. Thus, if you don't win the game from damage being dealt, Phage will kill you as it wasn't played from your hand, Mulldrifter will draw you cards, which are useless unless you cast a second Hypergenesis. It's all about the goal of the deck, to have a win condition on the board by turn 2-3.
Yes, the CIP effects always trigger when coming into play, Hypergenesis doesn't change this.

You are also correct in that Ancestral Visions works extremely well with Cascade, and is the reason why they won't print a 1 or 2 mana cascade card.

What about Lich Mirror? It by Anonymous (not verified) at Tue, 05/19/2009 - 03:25
Anonymous's picture

What about Lich Mirror? It does gives U a 2nd chance, if it's "(do) or die" on 2nd turn. This deck I tested with my earlier version does kill also on 1st turn. With Lich Mirror (Cheap $0.5 rare) can give smack even more. Volcanic Fallout sideboard helps, as it's can't be countered and also helped by Simian Spirit Guide.

Gani

re: Lich's Mirror, Volcanic Fallout by Basic Land at Tue, 05/19/2009 - 08:39
Basic Land's picture

Lich's Mirror I'm sure is plausible. However, it means that you would have to cut a fatty and play it instead of a creature off a resolved Hypergenesis, or hope you live to be able to hardcast it. I guess the metagame and testing will prove its worth. Volcanic Fallout would be a great sideboard card.