December 1, 2003Well I'm sitting here at work occasio...

[Argopile]

Matt: you have a very good point about the Frantic Search.  I'm a bit ashamed with my (lack of) logic.  Early mana is going to preferably be fast mana so Frantic hurts more than helps early game, and where it would be good late game the Careful Studys' are gold.

But I have to disagree that Intuitions do indeed deserve 2 slots.  They don't slow down an aggro build nor are they overcosted for what they do.  Intuition draws you 3 cards for 3 mana at instant speed.  An early Intuition absolutely sets you up with what you need to have in you graveyard.  It can grab any 3 of: 1 Riftstone Portal, 1 Squee, 4 Roar of the Wurm, 2 Anger, 1 Wonder, or 3 Deep Analysis.  It's not a threat now card as much of a consistancy/set-up card which this deck needs.  I say need because it doesn't have the explosiveness it did before, nor will it get that explosiveness back, since the loss of 3 of the LEDs'.
And a single Squee never hurts when topping it can easily be avoided.   Besides Mongrel is going to be the focus of this deck MUCH more than before and Squee helps there as well.

I dropped the Frantic Search, a Volcanic Island, an Anger, and all 4 Fiery tempers and added a Windswept (good idea!  ), another Careful Study, another Roar, and another Deep, as well as a Riftstone Portal (Blood Moons are looking to become popular again and it makes your Bazaars and Sack-lands tap for mana).  I am testing that out right now and will probably dink around with it some more.

I'm not proposing to have a better build but rather a more consitant build.  After all, Matt's version works pretty good to.  I tested with it to try to see what he saw with it.  I found that I still prefer a little bit more stability and Squee and Intuition give it that little extra bit o' balance.   But thats just me.

Here is the Adjusted Version.
*Maaanaaa!*
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
4 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Forest
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
*Draw Me!*
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Careful Study
2 Intuition
3 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Wheel of Fortune
*The Pain*
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Roar of the Wurm
*Wacky Stuff*
2 Anger
1 Wonder
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Time Walk

Let me know how your testing goes people!

[BreathWeapon]

@Matt, ESG is the only conceivable card that could keep Madness alive in 1.5 ... and even then

After some consideration, I think its time we cut Red and return to the U/G Aggro Control Madness decks from 1.X and T2. In the absence of 3 LED, there really is no reason to remain a pure Aggro deck. The previous lack of synergy Force of Will and Circular Logic had with 4 LED Madness is no longer relevant.

I think its obvious that Madness simply isn't going to be the pure Aggro power house we all knew and loved, and we need to except that and move on. So, my recomendation is to retro the 1.X and T2 Madness lists with T1 Goodness and hope for the best.

Rough List,

Creatures (15)
4xArrogant Wyrm
4xWild Mongrel
4xBasking Rootwalla
3xRoar of the Wyrm

Control (8)
4xForce of Will
4xCircular Logic

Search (13)
4xBazaar of Baghdad
3xDeep Analysis
4xCareful Study
1xTimewalk
1xAncestral Recall

Mana (24)
7xSoLoMoxen
1xLED
4xESG
5xFetch Lands
4xTropical Island
1xForest
2xIsland

[Diaonic]

I Have kinda put this on the back burner for now, because there is still atleast 3 more power tourneys in NE until the restrictions go live. So we have been testing for that. I do have some testing results done vs dragon.

Anyway I would love to hear other peoples ideas.

I did read the post " A new spin on madness" in the vintage forum.
And I personally have no experiance with a controlish version of the deck, outside of my extensive type 2 days. And maybe this version deserves some testing of its own.

[Matt The Great]

I won a mini last night with this:

//January Madness

//Land
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
4 Tropical Island
4 Taiga
2 Volcanic Island
1 Forest

//Artifact Mana
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl

//Card Drawing
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Careful Study
2 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Time Walk

//Threats
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Anger
2 Fiery Temper


SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 4 Artifact Mutation
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void

Anyone telling you this deck is dead is a liar or a fool. This deck is somewhere between 90 and 105% of the deck November Madness was. Yes, I said it might even be better than before - the off color moxen help quite a bit. I still haven't needed or used the draw7s, though, and Careful Study is still the perfect draw engine it always was. For a comparison, ask Smmemen what he thinks of Thirst for Knowledge in his Mindslaver deck.

Careful Study: Check!
Off-Color Moxen: Check!
Draw7s: Inconclusive.
Manabase: Perfect.
Madness: Steamroller.\n\n

[Diaonic]

Very nice show Matt, trust me I can attest to the fact that this deck will not die come January.

The version of the deck i was testing against dragon was the following.

//January Madness

//Land
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Riftstone Portal
3 Tropical Island
3 Taiga
3 Volcanic Island


//Artifact Mana
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal ( was testing this slot with diamond,crypt, petal still not sure on which one.)

//Card Drawing
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Careful Study
2 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Time Walk

//Threats
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Roar of the Wurm
2 Anger
2 Wonder
4 Fiery Temper


SB: 4 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Artifact Mutation
SB: 3 Gae's Blessing
SB: 3 Pyrostatic Pillar
SB: 2 Krosan Reclamation

I'm not going to try to post the results because I don't have them here at work but when I go home I will. I still believe very strongly that wonder deserves two slots. Someone prove me wrong because i would love to find room for atleast 1 more anger.  

The raw draw power that this deck gets with 4 Studies, 4 Bazaar's, the draw sevens, Ancestral and deep analisys is ridiclous.

[Rico Suave]

Matt's build is exceptionally hot.  My only gripe would be the draw 7's, which I would replace with Deep Analysis.

[iLL_Dawg]

@diaconic:  that is almost exactly the deck that I will be testing, except for a couple of minor changes:

MD:
-1 Volc
-1 Temper

+1 Strip
+1 Anger

since you run both of the portals, your manabase can support the strip, and it is defiantely a house in the mirror / d4gr0n matchup.

SB:
-1 blessing
-2 reclamation

+3 Ray of Revelation / Blood moon &c.

you should really only need the 2 blessings, and even if you run them a good dragon player will steal every creature in your deck and beat you to death with them.  Ray of revelation is a duress-proof answer to dragon, and is useful in other matchups as well (kills survivals, B2B, etc).  Blood moon is really strong in the current meta, and you should be able to support it with the portals.

Hope this helps

-=ADAM=-

[Diaonic]

@ Adam

Quote MD:
-1 Volc
-1 Temper

+1 Strip
+1 Anger

My only gripe with strip mine is, it seems very random. Only running 1 strip source in the deck. Is this to slow down dragon if you draw it?

I'm just curious as to where this fits in.

I do like the sideboard changes.


-Corey