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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Sebastian's R/B madness deck
May 10, 2007

Hello BMoor, I kindly ask you to fix my red and black ,"madness", deck. I made this deck one day out of nowhere, and I really like the idea of the deck. The purpose of the deck is to get some early black creatures out which have different abilities to discard cards with madness which I then use. Some combos which I like in the deck are the Phantasmagorian retrieval combo in which I discard Phantasmagorian by Trespasser il-vec or something like that, then later return it to my hand by its discard three cards effect, and just using madness because it is economical because it saves so much mana. Here is the actual list.

 

    Creatures
(M= madness (cost of effect))

4-Mindlash Sliver (B)  

4-Trespasser il-vec (2B)                                                   

2-Mirri the Cursed (2BB)

4-Nightshade Assassin (2BB)   M(1B)

4-Gorgon Recluse (3BB)   M(BB)

2-Phantasmagorian (5BB)

4-Reckless Worm (3RR) M(2B)

   Spells

2-Treacherous Urge (4B)

2-Dark Withering (4BB)  M(B)

4-Lighting Axe (R)

2-Disintegrate (X R)

2-Fiery Temper(1RR)  M(R)

  Lands

Swamps-16

Mountains-8

 

  I don't want any major changes to the theme of the deck, yet I am open to any suggestions you have to me. Oh, and leave in the following cards in : Trespasser il-vec, Mirri the Cursed, and Reckless Worm.

                                                                                          Thank you greatly,

                                                                                          sebastian

P.S. Also, please try to keep it on the less expensive side.  Thanks!
 

Not a problem, Sebastian.  A lot of people who write into me are on tight budgets, as am I.  I'm always looking for good, cheap cards, so it's only natural that's what I know how to use most.

As a player who first got into Magic heavily around the time Madness was invented, I know the importance of coupling your Madness cards with your enablers.  Granted, I was a Threshold player, but Threshold works liek Madness in that respect: you need good amounts of both cards with Madness/Threshold, and cards that let you discard cards.

So, let's start with your balance.  You've got 16 Madness cards versus 14 cards that let you discard cards.  The balance is good, but I question greatly your choice of enablers.  Mindlash Sliver is a C+ at best, and every time I see someone play Phantasmagorian in a deck like this and wonder why they're not performing like they should, a little piece of me dies inside.  Lightning Axe, on the other hand, is quite good, and Tresspasser il-Vec is on your "keeper" list, so that's fine.  We'll just look for replacements to the Sliver and 'Gorian.

First, I looked for every card in Standard that lets you discard a card.  In black, there's Deepcavern Imp, Delirium Skeins, Gibbering Descent, Macabre Waltz, Mindlash Sliver, Nihilistic Glee, Oblivion Crown, Ridged Kusite, Skirk Ridge Exhumer, Stronghold Rats, Undertaker, and Urborg Syphon-Mage.  And in red, there's Conflagrate, Firefright Mage, Flowstone Channeler, Gathan Raiders, Pyromancer's Swath, and Sparkspitter.  There's also the artifacts Mindless Automaton, Skullmead Cauldron, and Sliversmith.  And these aren't even comprehensive lists, mind you.  So where to begin? 

Well, to really be a good Madness outlet, the card has to satisfy certain other criteria.  It has to allow you to discard more than one card: Mindlash Sliver's downfall.  It can't cost any more than one mana to discard the card, since you'll be spending  that mana on casting the discarded spell.  The card has to be a good card obviously, good enough that you'd play it and discard a card to it even if you didn't have a Madness card to cheat out.  And it should let you discard the card at instant speed, so Madness creatures can jump out and block or pull a King Cheetah on your opponent.

That leaves us with Skirk Ridge Exhumer, Sparkspitter, Mindless Automaton, and Sliversmith.  In a two-color deck, there's something to be said for colorless spells, but 3/1 tokens aren't bad either.  I'm also leaning towards Skirk Ridge Exhumer.  Your choice, of course.

Now then, for your madness cards.  They all look fine, at least compared to your other options.  And since almost a third of your deck has Madness, you shouldn't have any problems drawing one.

What about everything else?  No real problems, except I'm a bit worried about the 4B you have to pay for Treacherous Urge.  You can manage it with all the mana you're saving on Madness costs, but what of your opponent has no creatures in hand by then?  I would suggest using Psychotic Episode instead, because then you're at least guaranteed to get a card.  It does more or less the same thing, without the possibility of dealing damage to them, and it has Madness.  But the Urge is a pretty sweet card, so I'd wait to remove it until you've had it sit in your hand uncastable or revealed a creatureless hand one too many times.

Now for your lands.  Sixteen Swamps and eight Mountains seems lopsided.  I guess you'd know your own deck's mana concerns better than I, but a few Rakdos Carnarium couldn't hurt.  I was going to suggest Graven Cairns as well, but on shuffleandcut.com it's going for $7.41!  You don't need it that badly.

I hope my suggestions work out for you, and that you're able to decide for yourself when giving up a piece of your sanity is worth the payoff.

Until next time!

~BMoor