[Budget] U/G Madness for Type 1 / 1.5

[Akuma]

I'm posting here to see if I can get any input on this subject. A friend of mine plays U/G Madness and I want to help him improve his deck as much as possible, but I have a hard time doing so because of the budget constraints. I came up with the following list:

4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquamoeba / Merfolk Looter
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Roar of the Wurm
2 Wonder

4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
4 Force of Will*
3 Deep Analysis
2 Intuition

9 Island
7 Forest
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Treetop Village

That's the list. Can anybody suggest things that can improve this deck, keeping in mind that he can't add anything 'expensive'. The only thing I can think of is to add the Sol Ring. I'm also not sure on what's better, Aquamoeba or Looter. My instinct tells me Looter is a bit too slow for Type 1. I have tested the deck on a few occasions, and it performs decently, am I missing anything obvious? You can also provide a list of what you would use.

[zamuli]

I'd add red in there, to get Anger, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption, Wheel of Fortune and other good cards. If you want to hold on the UG build, then a Lion's Eye Diamond would be a cheap and playable fast mana, in that deck with the drawback turned to tempoboost. Also add more card Draw/discard, like Careful Studies or a Franic Search.

also read the Madness primer on TMD site, its full of good info.

For the Aqua/Looter question, I'd say Aquamobea or neither and 4 Careful Study. Also, I tested 2 Oath of Scholars in my old madness deck, and they were very fast.

[MadManiac21]

Coud you possible define what you mean by expensive? From just looking at the list I know that dual helps would help a great anountm as would fetchies. I am also skeptical about the inclusion of circular logic AND force of will maindecked. This has been debated before, and I believe the general opinion is (along with my own) that force doesn't belong as you cannot play the spells you pitch. Circular logic on theother hands has been used in the sideboard repeatedly, BUT your goal is not to say no; you're playing madness, smash face like you should.

Treetop village can also be nuked by wastelands (depends on your meta, if your in NE they're EVERYWHERE) and they make you wait a turn to cast spells. Toss in a lotus petal, an LED, and a sol ring for mana acceleration. Consider Frantic search, oath of scholars, windfall, and/ or other draw spells to but in the place of your counters.

If you get back to us with your meta, we can do a better job helping you mold this to beat what you play.

[Hyperion]

Just last week, Matthieu Durand (Toad) and myself put together a budget Madness deck for a friend of his. She took it to a powered metagame in Paris last Sunday and went 5-2 with it in the Swiss, losing her final two matches to Landstill, and then lost in the unpowered T8 to a Food Chain Goblins deck.

It is largely untested and still has some bugs that need to be worked out, but here is what she ended up playing. I was told they were expecting an aggro-heavy metagame, thus the maindeck Waterfront Bouncer and relegation of Deep Analysis to the SB:

4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquamoeba
4 Arrogant Wurm
2 Anger
2 Wonder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Waterfront Bouncer

4 Careful Study
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Fiery Temper
2 Roar of the Wurm

4 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring

3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Naturalize
2 Deep Analysis
1 Gilded Drake

The main issue that needs to be worked out is the mana base. Mox Diamond may have to go, and the duals/fetches/basics count needs some finetuning. A Mana Crypt may have to go in. I am also not sure yet if the budget build should be running three colors, or cut one color (most likely red) to give it one big advantage over powered Madness with Bazaars - a more stable mana base. I don't think monogreen is viable because you wouldn't have enough discard outlets without Bazaar.

I think that this is a rough idea how a budget Madness deck should look. Nothing comes close to replacing Bazaar, but SotF is probably the next best option, as it gives you a really solid late game that you wouldn't otherwise have.

Now that I've finished working on powered Madness, I may invest some time into working on budget builds because I think Survival Madness could be a strong budget deck, so if I come up with anything I may add it to the Primer Update.

On the build you've presented:

Aquamoeba is definitely better than Merfolk Looter. I am about 99% certain of that. It is also much stronger if you're splashing red so you can clear the way for it.

I agree that FoW should probably get cut. It makes the deck less aggressive and is not fantastic in conjunction with Careful Study and Aquamoeba.

If Survival isn't too expensive, I would probably run it, because otherwise you just risk running out of steam too easily. I've also tried Compulsion but it is <<SotF.

In a straight U/G build, I would give some thought to running Wastes/ Strips as well, or even Null Rods. You aren't as fast as the builds with red so you may need some disruption to avoid getting overwhelmed by control decks.

[Akuma]

Thanks for all of the replies.

I don't know if my friend owns Survivals, but I will look into replacing the Force of Wills with SotF. Adding red would be a good idea but without duals things just don't work very well.

I thought Aquamoeba was better and everyone seems to agree, so at least that's settled. I will look into adding some disruption in the form of Strips and Null Rods.