Has anyone tried Stormbind in Madness?

[rockdoc]

Flipping thru my binder i recently came across a card from Iceage called Stormbind.  It perked my curiosity and i decided it was worth atleast trying out in a madness deck.  My build is the RUG Aggro Madness.  I run four Squees, 3-4 Firestorms,  and no Fiery Tempers or Violent Erruptions. After a few games i decided the right number of copies would be two.  This is because i seldom ever wanted or needed to play the card with 3 or 4 or 5 mana on the table.  It was something i wanted to lay mid game after my Rootwallas, Worms and Mongrels were played out of my hand and I needed to knock my opponent down from 10 or less life. Even with just two copies, with the card drawing of Madness i would usually get it in my hand by the time i would want to be playing it.

IMO the positives: a re-occurring source of damage; even with no cards at the start of your turn and a Squee in the graveyard you can chuck 4 points of damage at your opponent - with multiple Squees in the graveyard its deadly; its an enchanment, so its more likely to stay on the table once it gets there; the damage is more difficult to counter than other direct damage spells

IMO the negatives: not really a card you want in your opening hand, and certainly you don't want multiple copies in your opening hand; costs you 5 mana to do the first 2 damage; Slow, in that unless you have a lot of mana availabe you will likely need to wait till the next turn if there is a fat creature you need to destroy with it.

I was wondering if any of you had tried it out and what you thought of it?

[Hyperion]

A general rule of thumb I'd go by when considering discard outlets is: does it help you get Arrogant Wurms into play on turn 3? If it doesn't, it may be too slow.

I don't know what you're running for discard outlets but even with just Mongrels, Bazaars and Firestorms I would run either or both of the madness burn spells (Fiery Temper or Violent Eruption) before Stormbind.

[rockdoc]

For discard outlets im running Careful Study, Mongrels, Bazzars and Firestorms.  The Stormbind isn't meant to be used as a primary discard outlet, it's not really viable when your hand is full, since the card discarded is random.  It's really just a means of having a continous way to inflict damage to worrysome creatures like Welders or to do the final necessary damage on your opponent.

The Violent Erruption i don't care for much for its high (and double red) madness cost.  I've found that early in the game i often have to pitch it without being able to pay for its cost.

The Fiery Tempers i like and will go back to using if I decide i don't like Stormbind.

The rest of the deck has 19 (i think) pitchable cards, so there is enough cards to discard so you don't often have to discard a Stormbind when you could have instead discarded a Fiery Temper and done 3 damage.

[Jacob Orlove]

This kind of question belongs in newbie.

[Matt]

This kind of thing runs very contrary to the power of madness spells - the entire point is to play things on the cheap. Adding or (Survival) to that works at cross-purposes, and so discard outlets that cost mana to use end up being extremely poor madness-enablers.

Now, flashback or incarnations work fine with such cards. But not madness.