Every Time We Touch! - It's A Cascada Song, Get It? Get It? Oh Nevermind!

Spread 'Em was one of the first real stand out decks for me for this season. Not only was it fairly cheap to build, it looked so interesting compared to the standard Jund, Junk and RDW lists running around. Also, on paper anyway, it destroyed those decks. In a time where blue was very weak (Read: JMS had not yet been printed) and decks with shady mana bases reigned supreme, this just looked like the only logical way to play.

Now you may notice the deck looks a little off. Back then, Ajani Vengeant was running about $22 a piece, and that was just not in my budget. In addition, Baneslayer Angel was out of my reach, and so was replaced by Battlegrace Angel, who served a very similar purpose as BSA in this deck. I often wonder if I would have had much more success had I the vengeful kitty cat.

The success I did have was actually pretty great. As expected the deck simply wrecked Jund, and having an amazing game against one of the most popular decks in the format was really great. Even if they managed to sneak something through you could fall back on your wrath effects and keep on truckin'. Eventually the game would end with what was typically a 6/5 Bloodbraid Elf with Lifelink. The sideboard only made things better with Wall of Denial for the Jund match, as well as many other aggro matches. For those who aren't clear, the deck worked to get a Spreading Seas effect every turn starting on turn two. Every one of your cascade spells was guaranteed to hit either a Spreading Seas or a Convincing Mirage. From there, it was just a matter of keeping the board clean with Day of Judgment until you could find a win condition through any of your creatures. Having Ajani Vengeant made games go much quicker, as you were essentially time walking every turn. Without him, the games would drag on, allowing your opponent to find more answers.

Though it was designed specifically to beat the multicolored decks of the time, Spread 'Em actually had a fairly good match against mono-colored decks, too. Vampires, RDW, and to a lesser extent (back then) WW and Mono Green all saw play. Lucky for us, all that was needed was were 2-3 consecutive 'seas and we would have the board advantage necessary to win. It was also against these mono-colored decks that our wrath effects and sideboard really shined. Not many decks at the time could deal with a defensive line of Wall of Denials, Sphinx of Jwar Isles and even Rhox War Monk. Day of Judgment wasn't seeing a lot of play, so our shrouded behemoths were in very little danger. At the time, I really did feel pretty invincible with this deck. I felt that any match I lost was a DAMN good game.

 Cleva' Girl...

So I start losing. Open the Vaults decks start to rise in popularity, also making great use of Spreading Seas. Despite my solid games against most decks, the meta begins to shift, and I start throwing more and more matches to the random (Runeflarw Trap), Jacerator and UWr decks that would pop up more and more often.

Then, the world woke up... As I stated early, the only reason this deck was able to perform the way it did was because blue was such a bad color in standard. There was no Jace, the Mind Sculptor, no Celestial Colonnade and no Everflowing Chalice. Worldwake changed the game for us. Now UW control was a tier 1 deck, and a damn good one at that. Mythic Bant got much better with a certain $400 playset, and even Grixis and Esper control decks started get a lot more attention. All of a sudden, turning their lands in Islands was HELPING them! Things only got worse once the Eldrazi started rising...

 Now we have UWx Control, NLB, UG Turboland, Grixis, Open the Vaults, Time Sieve, Runeflare Trap, RWU Planeswalkers, Polymorph and Esper running around! Spread 'Em no longer has a place in the current meta, and really I'm okay with that. It was designed as a meta call to beat a certain kind of deck, and it did its job quite well. However, now that blue has risen in power, and more decks are adapting via Prophetic Prism and the like, this "combo" deck has simply lost its touch.

That's not to say I haven't enjoyed it greatly. I still keep it around to bust out when I 'm sick and bored of playing Jund, and it only brings back good memories. In fact, I fully intend to explore a form of cascade control in the new extended via 5-Color Blood, which I'm sure to write about in the coming weeks.

I'll leave you today with a few choice matches with this very unique deck!

White Weenie

Conscription Bant

Summoning Trap - Game 1

Summoning Trap - Game 2

In Loving memory...

Finally, I hope you all have noticed my new avatar. That's a photo of me and my dad's cat. First off, my dad hates cats, he always has. All of my stoicism, irritability, sarcasm, anger, narcissism and everything that makes me an awesome guy I got from him. For whatever reason though, he loved the holy hell out of this kitten. Her name was Stinkeye (aka Headcat) and she was something else. Sadly, feline leukemia took her recently, so Stinkeye, this one's for you!

Stinkeye: 2009 - 2010

See you all next week with another retrospective!

-Jeff Torres