What's in Your Toolbox? Cyclonic Rift in cEDH

Cyclonic Rift

| Illustrated by Chris Rahn

The collective groan from a Commander table following the words, "I am gonna cast an overloaded Cyclonic Rift

But What About the Big Leagues?

So for all the buzz it causes in casual pods, how does it stack up in cEDH? Naturally, during my early days of exploring the cEDH format, I held a large amount of skepticism towards cards and play patterns that appeared to be justified by their performance in lower-power pods. Cyclonic Rift

Rhystic

Abandoning Hammers for Swiss Army Knives

When discussing cards that are "hammers", or cards powerful in very specific situations but fairly inflexible otherwise, it is important to discuss the genesis of cEDH. As part of carving out of cEDH as an unique identifier for a deck, there was a sort of revolution around deckbuilding philosophy that led to deckbuilders moving away from cards played for narrow circumstances, or with the sole role of winning the game, and reaching for cards that were "swiss army knives" and are serviceable in wide variety of situations. This a phenomenon we have seen in formats like Modern; be it the presence of Grapeshot

The singleton and high card count requirements of Commander decks caused deckbuilders to become overzealous on these principles, and cards that existed for narrow situations outside of dedicated "toolbox" decks were referred to as "dead cards". The push to minimize these "dead cards" is easy to get swept up in, and following the idea can often lead you to passing on Cyclonic Rift

This philosophy is a good general heuristic, and being narrow is the core argument I made against the card Stifle earlier this year. However, the heuristic breaks down when you start to consider the composition of more linear decks. Consider a deck like Birgi, God of Storytelling

Now consider instead a deck like Tymna the Weaver

So clearly Cyclonic Rift

The Right Tool For the Job

As creature decks continue to dominate the most visible cEDH tournaments, discussion around the need to "play more removal" is often brought up, but rarely do two people expressing that sentiment agree on the right cards to reach for. Among the list of commonly quoted cards are Dress Down

By the same token, Toxic Deluge

So what about decks that seek to interact a little less in favor of speed? Consider a deck like Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept "Turbo Ad Nauseam". This deck looks to trim back a bit on the density of interaction due to the disinterest in playing longer games garnered from choosing the additional mana generation opportunities offered by having a 0-mana commander instead of commanders that accumulate card advantage in some way.

I thought for a long time that this deck specifically is the kind of deck that should be disinterested in Cyclonic Rift due to its increased interest in additional mana, payoff for that mana, and interaction that can also be used to defend a win attempt. However, as time progressed, I saw many specific scenarios in which boards would get clogged up with prison elements, and the targeted removal combined with Dress Down wasn't enough to answer all the problems. Simply having access to a Cyclonic Rift somewhere in the 98 would make a huge difference on the texture of the game and allow for the opportunity to punch in a win after an end step Overloaded Cyclonic Rift.

All of this says nothing of the synergies that Cyclonic Rift can have alongside Wheel of Fortune effects late in the game to permanently answer opponents' game objects. All told, despite initially viewing Cyclonic Rift as narrow, given how much of cEDH revolves around spells on the stack over permanents on the battlefield, recent shifts and misevaluation of the true flexibility of rift lead to a difficulty reconciling how powerful it was in formats too powerful for Chromatic Lantern.

The Warning Label

The final note worth mentioning about Cyclonic Rift is that there is extreme danger to having to use it prematurely. A perfect example can be found in this Playing With Power video in which a Cyclonic Rift is fired off, by necessity, before the caster is the next player to take a turn. This provides an opportunity for the player before the Rift caster to win the game unimpeded by the host of problems plaguing the board state beforehand. Cards like Defense Grid also boast similar opportunities to asymmetrically help opponents win the game over yourself, and are important to keep in mind the risks associated with casting a card as impactful as Cyclonic Rift before you can be the first to capitalize on the new game state.

Ultimately, Cyclonic Rift is seeing more play as the chants to "play more removal" recruit more voices. The stats side of cedh.guide has Cyclonic Rift as the 43rd most played card in cEDH at the moment, and I expect that stock to continue to rise in the coming months. Popularity obviously does not correlate with power (after all, Sylvan Library is 59th on the list), but trends over time tell a story, and the story here certainly communicates that people are tired of the bogged down cEDH boards. This is supposed to be a turn 2 format, after all!

I frequently call out cards I think are good, cards I think are medium or situational, and particularly cards I think downright suck. However, the cards that hold my attention the most in any format are ones that defy my attempts to accurately analyze them. Often nailing down the analysis also comes with valuable deckbuilding insight I carry forward into future evaluations. In the case of Cyclonic Rift, a valuable lesson about having a few more hammers in lieu of a few of the weaker swiss army knives was conveyed, and it is a lesson easily applied to one of my favorite cEDH decks filled with tutors: Najeela. If you already have Cyclonic Rift in your deck, then I commend you; if not, I hope I have convinced you to give it another look. If I convinced you of nothing else, at the very least, please play more removal.