Standard

Week of Brews #2: Madness? This is Innistrad!

There is no great genius without some touch of madness. – Aristotle

I’ll be honest, I was severely disappointed with WOTC’s choice of direction for Madness in Shadows Over Innistrad. I’m an Old Fogey, I got to play with the Madness cards the first time around. I was around to play with [card]Arrogant Wurm[/card]s and [card]Basking Rootwalla[/card]s and my little green-mage-heart was looking forward to returning to those glorious days.

And then they print zero green madness cards. Bummer.

Not to be deterred I decided to give the red cards a whirl, especially since they play so well with my new lady love, Nahiri.

[deck title=Travis Hall –RW Madness]
[Lands]
4 Needle Spires
4 Battlefield Forge
1 Caves of Koilos
2 Drownyard Temple
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Swamp
6 Mountain
5 Plains
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Linvala, the Preserver
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Axe
4 Tormenting Voice
2 Avacyn’s Judgment
3 Declaration in Stone
4 Fiery Temper
1 Pyromancer’s Goggles
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Quarantine Field
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Kozilek’s Return
2 Radiant Flames
1 Linvala, the Preserver
2 Eldrazi Obligator
2 Tragic Arrogance
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck looks to exploit Nahiri to the utmost. Her +2 ability works well with the Madness cards, and your token [card]Drownyard Temple[/card]s. Her Ultimate may not find an instant-win creature, but finding Linvala and [card]Goblin Dark-Dwellers[/card] is nothing to sneeze at, especially since they return to your hand for more shenanigans. Linvala especially is slowly starting to see some much deserved play.

Also, remember that Nahiri can search for an artifact, and recent Standard all-star [card]Pyromancer’s Goggles[/card] plays well with both [card]Tormenting Voice[/card] and a discarded [card]Avacyn’s Judgment[/card].

If Nahiri is the main attraction for this deck, the [card]Eldrazi Displacer[/card] is the sidekick. Your creature suite focusses on Enters the Battlefield effects, all of which can pay off huge with Dispalcer (who also provides a fair bit of defense against [card]Nantuko Husk[/card] and [card]Ormendahl, Profane Prince[/card]).

Also, let’s be honest, if you’re playing red, you’re playing Chandra. WOTC finally did it, they gave us a great Chandra.

Surprisingly, in playing this deck on MTGO, you will win a fair number of games with [card]Needle Spires[/card]. Your burn does a good job of keeping the board clear and [card]Needle Spires[/card] can flip a switch once you’re ready to enter beatdown mode.

If you like my suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter: @travishall456. I throw around random observations and deck ideas every day.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments