Madness, hold the red, paint it black

[rockdoc]

I've read the posted madness primers and they're excellent.  However, i'm always looking for a different way to wax the carrot so to speak.  My ideas was this, why let the restriction of LED slow down the aggresiveness of the deck when Dark Ritual can step in and do nearly the same thing.  I tested it with success against mediocore opposition so far - No power Type one decks - not many around where i play.  Anyhow, i was hoping to get some feedback from you Type I Guru's...  

4 - Dark Ritual
4 - Hidden Horror
3 - Last Rites

4 - Baskin Rootwala
4 - Roar of the Worm
4 - Wild Mongrel
2 - Gigapede

4 - Deep Analysis
4 - Careful Study
4 - Wonder

4 - Underground Sea
4 - Bayou
4 - Tropical Island
4 - Polluted Delta
2 - Bazaar of Baghdad
1 - LED
1 - Lotus
1 - Mox Jet
1 - Mox Emerald
1 - Mox Sapphire

The Dark Rituals allow 2nd turn worms more often.  They also allow a turn 1, Hidden Horror (a black aroggant worm really), most often pitching a creature your more than happy to pitch.  The Last Rites is devastating if it can be played turn one or two, by discarding 2-4 madness cards. - Otherwise its sucks to topdeck.  Gigapede is in for its ability to be pitched to the Horror, get cards in your graveyard, and return when your out of worms and need another creature to finish the game off.  The deck certainly misses Anger, - no hasted worms, But maybe it makes up for it by getting the 6/6'ers out a little faster (on average).

[Kowal]

I've only got a moment, so this post is kind of rushed and may well look much more severe than intended.

Cutting the red just won't happen because the speed Anger gives you is much more useful than the manaboost.  Likewise, black offers little to nothing of actual useful cards in terms of aggression, and you lose the one cost multi-purpose Fiery Temper as well as mountains (hah) of useful sideboard cards.

[Matt]

I've fooled around with a similar deck, with black replacing blue (not red). It was alright, but definitely seemed to lack the oomp the traditional G/u/r decks have.

Also, Hidden Horror kind of sucks, because there's not really that much you want to discard (Arrogant Wurms can't be played off a turn one Horror, so you're down to just 4 Rootwallas and Gigapedes).

[The Atog Lord]

Essentially, you cut the red for black. What you lose is Anger and Temper, two rather important cards. Temper provides a means of removing opposing Welders and Waterfront Bouncers and Platinum Angels and other annoying creatures.

Together, Anger and Temper do something more than that, however. They allow the deck to do more damage in a turn than an amount equal to the sum of its creatures’ power at the start of the turn. In other words, a control player playing against your version knows during his turn exactly how much damage he will be taking on your next turn. Against a version with red, however, hasted creatures and Tempers may do more damage than the control player is expecting, making math far more difficult. Finally, after playing against the deck countless times, I feel very confident in saying that Anger is one of the fundamental cards driving the deck.

As for what you gain. Dark Ritual, I believe, is not needed. The current Madness build, while less explosive without LED, is certainly more stable. Adding Ritual will not contribute to its stability, and the fact that it produces black mana will further hinder its utility. As for Last Rites and Horror, they may be very good on the first turn, provided that you have the Ritual. However, if you do not, they become very sub par later on in the game, because the deck often has no cards in hand and no lack of discard outlets. Further, I’m not convinced that adding another large creature to the list is what it needs. Green itself certainly has no lack of large undercosted creatures to play, should those be lacking. As for the Rite, I’m not convinced that it is the best disruption card to add to the deck, should one even be needed at all.

Finally, adding Horror means the deck needs double black mana for it. The deck already needs early blue mana for Careful Study, and a good supply of green mana for playing creatures and pumping Rootwallas. In other words, you cut a red splash for a black maindeck color.

[Team-Judgement]

4 cabal theraphy
3 duress
4 fiery temper

4 arrogant wurm
4 wild mongrel
4 basking rootwalla
4 roar of the wurm

3 anger
3 squee(YEAH squee)
1 wheel of fortune

5 moxen
1 sol ring
1 lotus
1 mana crypt
1 LED
4 taiga
4 wooded
1 bloodstrained mire
1 forest
3 badlands
3 bayou
4 bazaar

there is 10 things u can discard to, and in worst case u can play cabal theraphy targeting yourself, and the disruption help alot against many decks

[rockdoc]

I apreciate your comments.  After some thought and playing with deck i also came to the conclusion that hidden horror and Last Rite often sucks.  Also, with out Anger, the deck losses its surprise attack factor.  Anhow, with you feedback, I came up with this one instead for a small tourney i played last night.  

4 - Dark Ritual
4 - Hypnotic Specter
4 - Duress

4 - Careful Study
4 - Deep Analysis
3 - Wonder

4 - Basking Rootwala
4 - Wild Mongrel
4 - Roar of the Worm

2 - Lightning Greaves

4 - Underground Sea
4 - Bayou
4 - Trop Island
4 - Polluted Delta
2 - Bazaar of Baghdad
1 - LED
1 - Lotus
1 - Jet
1 - Emerald
1 - Sapphire

Again, the level of the decks wasn't that hot.  None of the big name powered up stars. My deck performed well... I think most would agree that Hypno's are always a sweet play on the first turn. The Duress's ended up as an often preferred first turn play rather than Careful Study - especially in games after sideboarding. A couple times it grabed cards my oppenents had sideboarded which would have disrupted my graveyard loving deck, or pernicious deeds which turn a 'i've got two worms, i'm smacking you for 12 next turn, heh heh', to 'gee, what am i going to do now.' .  In addition, apart from having to pay 2 to play it, i think lightning greaves works better than Anger.  A few times my worms only survived on the table as they could not be targetted by my opponent - this led to won games which otherwise would have been losses.  I did not feel that i missed Fiery Temper that much.  Likely though it was because i did not have to deal with any of the the nasty creatures mentioned in the above posts.  Overall, the little bit of disruption, soon followed by 6/6 flying and/or hasted, untargetable worms was effective.

[nova1]

A year ago their was a deck running around Virginia called Army of Darkness  that was very similar to this deck.  It was red/black deck.    The deck ran the black creatures which return from the dead: Nether Sprits and Kovarkion Horrors.  Its main discard was Zombie Infestation.  

Here is a sample deck list (memory is kinda of foggy; this was also pre-midrion; and this is not optimized):

// creatures (20)
4x Zombie Infestation
4x Nether Spirts
4x Squee
4x Kovarkin Horror
4x Anger

// control (8)
4x Duress
4x Cabal Therpy

// burn (6)
4x fiery temper
2x Violent Eruptions

// draw stuff (2)
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Sketal Scrying

// Land (24)
4x Black/Red   Sac Land
4x Black/Red Dual land
4x swamps
2x Mountain
1x Jet Mox
1x Mox Ruby
1x Black Lotus
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
3x Wasteland