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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Talon's R/G Madness
February 25, 2008

Bemore,

  Hey, usually about every six months or so out local gaming store as a "championship" tourney for the top people from FNM. Now, After I got my invitation this year (ya,they do it up as a really formal event) I realized I had a problem. Most of the people have seen the four or so decks I use. So, I decided I needed to build something new. I researched a bunch of different deck ideas but I came up with a deck idea that I have always wanted to play and never got around to it. A red/green madness deck or a red/green aggro deck. Here is what I came up with for my madness deck. I do kind of have a budget but I am will to stretch it as much as I can.

Creatures:

4x Wild Mongrel
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Druid Lyrist
2x ???

Spells:

4x Reckless Charge
4x Lightning Axe
4x Fiery Temper
4x Rites of Spring
4x Roar of the Wurm

Land:

4x Shivan Oasis
4x Kapulsan Forest
7x Forest
7x Mountain

I do not have an idea for the green/red aggro deck except a random card list. I would like to see Kird Apes, Blastoderms, Citadel of Pain, Chimeric Idol, Elves, anything that is quick and some wicked burn..I do not want to put a big thing on the bigger guys but I want a few for end game just in case.

Thank you very much. I hope to hear from you soon. My tourney is in two weeks.

Respectfully,

Talon
 

This one reminds me of my very first deck-- the Trounce-O-Matic preconstructed.  It was green and blue, and revolved around Odyssey Block's three graveyard-centric abilities: Threshold, Flashback, and Madness.  The deck had a lot of synergy, and carried me through for quite a while.  Let's see if I remember enough about it to carry Talon here through.
 
First of all, Druid Lyrist can go.  My old deck liked it, but it relied more on Threshold than Madness.  We both like to discard cards, but I also just liked having them in my graveyard while you only care about discarding specific cards.  Also, if your opponent doesn't have any enchantments, it's a completely useless 1/1.  Out it goes.
 
So what in its place?  What to fill those ??? slots with?  Well, you have a few advantages over me.  I was playing green/blue, enemy colors that didn't get a lot of support in Invasion block.  You're playing green/red, ally colors (and very synergistic) in a post-Ravnica world.  You look like you're going for midrange beatdown, so let's look to the Gruul for whatever goodies they can supply us with.
 
Burning-Tree Shaman jumps out at me first.  Not only is he a 3/4 for only three mana, but he can punish your opponents for activated abilities.  He made a strong presence when he was Standard-legal, so could he give your deck the same punch?  Maybe.  But then each card you discard to Wild Mongrel will cost you 1 life.  But that's also getting you one more point of damage and likely a spell for cheap, so it could easily be worth it.
 
If you'd rather not hit yourself so hard, or your opponents aren't playing activated abilities, try the Shaman's big brother, Rumbling Slum.  Four mana for a 5/5.  Yes, he still hits you for one a turn, but at least you know he'll hit your opponents just as hard.  And then he'll hit them for 5 more, which makes it totally worth it.
 
Those cards are both just generally good, by merit of the fact that being multicolor lets a creature be more powerful for cheaper.  But maybe you want a little more synergy in your deck.  You currently have sixteen madness outlets in your deck, with eight cards with Madness and eight more with Flashback. Since several of your discard outlets encourage multiple discards, you might not need that many.  I'd say Rites of Spring is currently your weakest discard outlet, and Reckless Charge is your weakest card that wants to be discarded.  In place of Rites of Spring, try Far Wanderings, a land search card that doesn't make you discard the spells you needed the lands to play, but instead gets you more lands if you have Threshold.  So I guess it's more of a replacement for Reckless Charge, really.  Then you'll need another discard outlet I suppose.  Or will you?  Wild Mongrel always solved all my discarding needs.  That and Careful Study, but you don't play blue.  If you're willing to try random discard, try Sonic Seizure or Goblin Lore.  But you already have a good deal of burn, and Goblin Lore is pretty meh.  I'd say what you want is Narcissism.  Creature pumps on a stick will be very useful for you and blocking will be much harder for your opponent when every card in your hand can be a Might of Old Krosa in disguise.
 
Finally, if this is a big tournament, you probably want a sideboard.  What can I recommend?  Ancient Grudge or Naturalize if you expect artifacts, Savage Twister if you expect fast creature rushes, Quagnoth if you expect discard or counterspells, and Primal Command... is just plain versatile and generally good.  Without a sense of the field you'll be playing, I can't really build a sideboard, but I do recommend you have one.
 
Good luck in that tournament, driving your opponents mad!
 
~BMoor


  


 

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