Commander blueprint · Secrets of Strixhaven

How to build Quandrix, the Proof

Cascade only ever finds a card that costs less than the spell it came from. So this build keeps its instants and sorceries at three mana and up wherever it can, and puts the cheap half of the deck in creatures, mana and enchantments for those spells to find.

Art by Lucas Graciano

Cascade only finds something cheaper, so the instants and sorceries are the dear half of the deck

The card a cascade turns up has to cost less than the spell that found it, and lands are passed over. So what a spell can find is fixed by two numbers: its own mana value, and what the rest of the deck costs. A one mana instant could only find a card that costs nothing, and no nonland card in this list costs nothing, so Brainstorm and Ponder are not here. Their cascade would turn over the whole library, find nothing and put it all back on the bottom.

At two mana the choice is narrow on purpose. Nature's Lore, Three Visits, Growth Spiral and Into the Roil can each find one of five cards: Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic or Green Sun's Zenith. Four of those are a mana every turn for nothing, and the fifth has a section of its own below. A three mana spell such as Cultivate or Beast Within has 22 cards in the list it could find, fifteen of them permanents, and a four mana spell such as Fact or Fiction or Skyshroud Claim has 37. The dragon itself is a six, so the cascade printed on it can find any of the 51 nonland cards that cost five or less.

X counts on the stack and delve does not lower it, so a cheap cast can still cascade high

Mana value is read while the spell is on the stack, and at that point X is whatever number you chose. Pull from Tomorrow cast for eight mana has X of six and a mana value of eight, so its cascade can find anything in the deck except the four cards that cost eight themselves. Genesis Wave for ten mana is X of seven and a mana value of ten, which reaches Craterhoof Behemoth, and then it can put every permanent costing seven or less among the next seven cards onto the battlefield. Finale of Devastation and Green Sun's Zenith grow the same way, a cascade and a creature from the library in one card.

Paying less does not shrink the number. Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are eights however many cards you exile from your graveyard for delve, so Treasure Cruise with seven gone costs and still cascades as an eight. Commandeer is a seven you can cast by exiling two blue cards from your hand instead of paying for it, which makes it a cascade into anything up to six for no mana, in someone else's turn. Sapphire Medallion, Emerald Medallion and Archmage of Runes take mana off the price and nothing off the mana value. The dragon is green and blue, so both Medallions apply to it: with the pair out it costs four and still cascades as a six. With Archmage of Runes out, a Fact or Fiction costs three and still finds a three.

Paying more does not raise it either, unless the extra is X. Kicker and overload are additional costs that sit outside the mana value, so Into the Roil with its kicker paid is still a two, and it still finds one of the five cheapest cards.

A cascade casts an X spell with X as zero, and that is why Dryad Arbor is here

The card a cascade finds is cast without paying its mana cost, and a spell cast that way has 0 for X. So the four X spells are the best cards in the deck to cast from your hand and among the worst for a cascade to find. Pull from Tomorrow found that way would draw nothing and then make you discard, and Genesis Wave would reveal nothing at all. Casting the card is optional, so you decline, and it goes to the bottom with everything else that was turned over.

Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation still do something at zero, because Dryad Arbor is a green creature card with a mana value of zero. Either one found by a cascade puts it onto the battlefield, which is a land drop and a mana for the turn. Green Sun's Zenith counts as a one in the library, so it is among the five cards a two mana spell can find, and the arbor is what keeps that find from being a blank. Nature's Lore and Three Visits can fetch it too, because it is a Forest.

Some cards come out better from a cascade than from your hand. Mulldrifter has to be cast whole, since evoke is a way of paying and nothing is being paid, so you get the 2/2 flier as well as the two cards. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is sacrificed as it enters unless it escaped, but you still gain 3 life, draw a card and may put a land onto the battlefield first.

Only spells cast from your hand cascade, so the recursion puts cards back in it

The dragon's ability reads from your hand, and three things fall outside it. The card a cascade finds is cast from exile, so it never cascades again, and an instant found that way is one spell, not the start of a chain. Memory Deluge cast with flashback comes from the graveyard, so the second cast is a plain seven mana spell. And Snapcaster Mage, the usual blue way to cast a spell twice, gives it flashback, which is why it is not in this list.

What the deck runs instead sends spells back to your hand, where they cascade again. Eternal Witness returns any card. Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall each return an instant or sorcery. Mystic Sanctuary puts one on top of your library when it enters untapped beside three other Islands, so you draw it. Seasons Past returns any number of cards with different mana values, and in a graveyard an X spell counts only its printed symbols. A late one can bring back Pull from Tomorrow at two, Cultivate at three, Fact or Fiction at four, Mystic Confluence at five, Rishkar's Expertise at six, Boundless Realms at seven and Treasure Cruise at eight, seven cards that each cascade again, and Seasons Past is a six that cascades on its own way in.

Rishkar's Expertise ends in your hand as well. It draws as many cards as the biggest power on your side of the table, six or more with the dragon out, and then you may cast a card costing five or less from your hand for free. That card leaves your hand to be cast, so if it is an instant or sorcery it cascades too.

Nothing in your hand cascades before the dragon lands, so the early turns only ramp

Quandrix hands out cascade only while it is on the battlefield. Its own cascade is different. That one is printed on the card, so it triggers every time you cast the dragon, from the command zone included, and commander tax adds to the cost without adding to the mana value. The third cast costs ten and still finds a card costing five or less.

So the turns before the dragon are for mana. Seventeen cards here ramp, more than most lists run, because each cheap one is either a one or two mana card for a later cascade to find or a land spell that turns into a two for one once the dragon is out. A Cultivate on turn three is only a Cultivate. The same card on turn six fetches its two lands and also casts Lotus Cobra, Sylvan Library or Coiling Oracle for nothing. Within a turn the order follows from this: dragon first, spells after.

The dragon has no protection of its own, so Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves are here for it. Both cost two, which also puts them among the cards a three mana spell can find.

A cascade ignores timing, so an instant in someone's end step can bring a creature with it

The card a cascade finds is cast while the cascade trigger resolves, and a card cast that way ignores the usual timing rules. A creature, a sorcery or an Aura found by an instant comes down at instant speed, in whoever's turn you cast it. Thirteen of the 27 spells here are instants, and they get the most done in the last end step before your own turn. Fact or Fiction cast then has an opponent split five cards into two piles for you, and its cascade can put Tireless Tracker or Oko, Thief of Crowns on the battlefield before your turn starts. Mystic Confluence can be held up as a counterspell for a whole round and spent on drawing if nothing needs stopping, and either way it brings a card costing four or less.

Seedborn Muse untaps everything you control as each opponent's turn begins, which means a full set of lands for an instant on every turn of the round. Alchemist's Refuge works from the other side. For and a tap, you may cast spells that turn as though they had flash, sorceries from your hand included, and they still cascade. Hullbreaker Horror has flash printed on it.

The card type this makes awkward is the counterspell. One found by a cascade on your own turn usually has nothing to aim at but the spell that found it. So the only two cards here that counter anything are ones you choose to cast, Commandeer and Mystic Confluence, and nothing that costs less than six can find either of them.

Archmage of Runes and Hullbreaker Horror count the free spell as well

A card found by cascade is still a spell you cast, so anything that reacts to casting sees two. Archmage of Runes draws a card whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, so a Skyshroud Claim that cascades into Harrow draws two. Hullbreaker Horror returns a spell you don't control or a nonland permanent to its owner's hand whenever you cast any spell at all, so each instant or sorcery from your hand bounces two things. With an opponent's spell on the stack, one of the two can send that spell back to their hand.

The lands pay out the same way. Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait draw a card for every land that enters under your control, and Avenger of Zendikar puts a counter on each of its Plants. Boundless Realms is the card that feeds all three. It is a seven, so it cascades into anything up to six, and then it puts a basic land onto the battlefield tapped for every land you already control. Koma, Cosmos Serpent cannot be countered and makes a 3/3 Serpent in every player's upkeep, so a cascade that finds it is four bodies a round at a four player table.

The finish comes from the same pile. Return of the Wildspeaker is a five whose second mode gives every non-Human creature you control +3/+3, and the Plants, the Serpents, the Beasts from Ezuri's Predation and the dragon itself all count. Finale of Devastation cast with X of ten or more gives your whole board +X/+X and haste on top of the creature it fetches, and at that size its cascade can find anything in the deck.

The core list

Sorted by card type, with the dragon at the top. Each name opens its card when you hover it, in the printing the totals above were priced at.

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The budget rung keeps every cascade spell, and bracket 4 adds the cards that cost nothing

All three lists share the parts that make the dragon work: the X spells that reach the top of the deck, the delve spells, the ramp sorceries, the recursion and the cheap permanents for a cascade to land on. What changes is where the card draw comes from, how the deck finds its finishers, and how much of its interaction is free.

Ten swaps take the cost from $433.85 to $135.42. Rhystic Study, Consecrated Sphinx and Seedborn Muse are the Game Changers, and all three leave, so the budget list sets no floor. Rhystic Study becomes Archmage Emeritus, which draws whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery, the free ones included. Consecrated Sphinx becomes Prime Speaker Zegana, which copies the biggest power you already have as counters and then draws that many plus one, so with the dragon out it is at least seven cards. Seedborn Muse becomes Wilderness Reclamation, which untaps your lands in your own end step, so the mana spent on your turn is back for the next player's, though only once a round. Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation become Stroke of Genius and Harmonize, which means the deck draws into its finishers instead of fetching them, and Dryad Arbor stays as a Forest for Nature's Lore and Three Visits. Craterhoof Behemoth becomes End-Raze Forerunners, another eight, so a big X spell still has a finisher at the top to find. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait becomes Rampaging Baloths, a Beast for every land in place of a card, and Sylvan Library becomes Search for Azcanta. Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City become Thornwood Falls and Lumbering Falls, the only two lands in any of the three lists that always enter tapped.

The bracket 4 rung comes to $990.26, and its ten swaps leave twelve Game Changers in the deck. Several of the adds can be cast for nothing and still cascade at their full mana value. Force of Will is a five you can pay for with 1 life and a blue card, and Fierce Guardianship is a three that is free while you control a commander, so each is a counterspell and a cascade for no mana. Chrome Mox is the only card in this version that costs nothing, which gives the one mana spells something to find: Mystical Tutor and Worldly Tutor cascade into it whenever it is still in the library. Mana Vault and Mystic Remora are two more one mana cards for the two mana spells. The One Ring gives protection only if you cast it, and a cascade does cast it. Natural Order turns any mana elf, Birds of Paradise or Plant token into Craterhoof Behemoth, and Cyclonic Rift overloaded for seven is still a two, so the free card it brings is a one drop. To make room, Commandeer, both two mana rocks, Mulldrifter, Mnemonic Wall, Wood Elves, Explosive Vegetation, Eureka Moment, Kenrith's Transformation and Lightning Greaves come out.

What the rung gives up is the pace of a bracket 3 game. Two free counterspells, two one mana tutors and a rock that costs nothing make a deck that can protect the dragon on the turn it lands and find Craterhoof Behemoth on the turn after. Bring it to a table that has agreed to that.

FAQ

Does Quandrix, the Proof give cascade to spells cast from the graveyard or from exile?

No. Only the instants and sorceries you cast from your hand get cascade. A spell cast with flashback comes from the graveyard, and the card a cascade finds is cast from exile, so neither one cascades again. Putting the spell back in your hand first does work, and that is the job of Eternal Witness, Archaeomancer, Mnemonic Wall and Seasons Past in this list.

Does X count for cascade with Quandrix, the Proof?

Yes. While a spell is on the stack its mana value includes the number you chose for X, so Pull from Tomorrow cast with X of six is an eight and can cascade into any card costing seven or less. It does not work the other way. When a cascade finds an X spell you cast it without paying, so X is zero.

Do delve and cost reducers change what Quandrix, the Proof can cascade into?

No. Delve, an alternative cost or a discount changes what you pay and leaves the mana value alone. Treasure Cruise is an eight whether it costs one blue or eight mana, and Commandeer is a seven even when you cast it by exiling two blue cards from your hand. Kicker and overload add to what you pay without raising the number either.

Does Quandrix, the Proof cascade when you cast it from the command zone?

Yes. Cascade is printed on the dragon itself, so it triggers on every cast wherever the card comes from. Commander tax raises what you pay but not the mana value, so a third cast for ten mana still cascades into a card costing five or less, the same as the first.

What bracket is a Quandrix, the Proof deck?

Bracket 3. Rhystic Study, Consecrated Sphinx and Seedborn Muse are its Game Changers, which is as many as bracket 3 allows, and nothing in it takes extra turns, destroys lands or wins on a two card combo. The budget version replaces all three and claims no floor. The bracket 4 version carries twelve, Force of Will, Chrome Mox and two one mana tutors among them.

How much does a Quandrix, the Proof deck cost?

$433.85 for the list on this page on 24 October 2026, counting every card at the cheapest paper copy on sale that day. Rhystic Study is the dearest single card at $66.76, and Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation add another $60.95 between them. The budget version comes to $135.42. The bracket 4 version is $990.26, and Chrome Mox and Mana Vault are a quarter of that.

Is Quandrix, the Proof in a Secrets of Strixhaven precon?

No. The dragon is a card from the main set. The green and blue Commander deck from the same release is led by Zimone, Infinite Analyst, who makes the first spell with X in its cost each turn cheaper, and its upgrade guide is linked below. That deck casts its X spells for a discount, while this one casts them for the size of the cascade.