I was just browsing old decks and I came upon the old UG Madness Extended deck. It's one of the most historic mtg decks, that was an extended staple for a while. But could it work in pauper? Most of the cards are common, including Wild Mongrel and Circular Logic. Am I missing something? This seems like it would be amazing.
So far as I've seen, in Pauper when you find an amazing deck and have to ask why it isn't ruling the format, the answer is probably "It folds to (pick one) Delver, MBC, Eye Candy, or G Stompy."
FWIW, here's a write-up that sounds like what you're fishing for. Maybe you could modify this to include Gurmag Angler and do some GB Tortured deck? Just throwing it out there.
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I've been piloting an UG Madness list close to a year (since Vintage Masters was spoiled and the key cards downgraded). It's only problem is being weak to MBC, but if you can race them and buy enough tempo by countering their spells you're in good shape. Plus, KTK brought us Hooting Mandrills, which is another solid, fat beater that punishes them for filling our graveyard too much alongside Circular Logic. Here are the cards that reward you for playing Madness:
It's missing some interesting cards like Thought Scour / Gitaxian Probe to power up Mandrills, but you can tweak the instants as much as you want. Spell Pierce MB helps a lot against MBC and Delver alongside our other cheap counters though, and Vapor Snag feeds Mandrills, keeps the tempo up and pings them for 1. It can also be used defensively on our creatures to counter spells like Tendrils of Corruption (Saving a creature and negating them a ton of life gain are more than worth 1 life point). Rune Snag is also a real card if you manage to run the full playset.
Looters are unable to keep up with the pressure and can't discard repeatedly (Merfolk) or at Instant speed (Il-Kor). Neither of them can enable Madness the turn they come into play. Also, with such a low creature count, all your creatures need to consistently keep up the pressure, and since Aquamoeba hits for 3 if left unchecked, it meets such criteria. Plus it can play a defensive role, setting it back to block 2/X, and also freely attacking into 2/X as well to let other creatures pass through (or hitting for 3 itself if the opponent chooses to not block). My sideboard right now:
Sabotage is intended for artifact hate rather than auras, since I can severely screw the Boggles player with an instant speed Serene Heart in the Blockers phase. Sabotage might not break the auras fast enough, but you're right, so I might swap 1 Heart for something else.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
FWIW, here's a write-up that sounds like what you're fishing for. Maybe you could modify this to include Gurmag Angler and do some GB Tortured deck? Just throwing it out there.
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Circular Logic
3 Deep Analysis
And these are the Madness enablers themselves:
4 Aquamoeba
4 Careful Study
These 27 cards, in a 19 land build, leaves us with 46 cards, which means 14 flex spots. Here's my current build:
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquamoeba
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Hooting Mandrills
4 Circular Logic
2 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
4 Vapor Snag
Sorcery (7)
4 Careful Study
3 Deep Analysis
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Quicksand
8 Island
6 Forest
It's missing some interesting cards like Thought Scour / Gitaxian Probe to power up Mandrills, but you can tweak the instants as much as you want. Spell Pierce MB helps a lot against MBC and Delver alongside our other cheap counters though, and Vapor Snag feeds Mandrills, keeps the tempo up and pings them for 1. It can also be used defensively on our creatures to counter spells like Tendrils of Corruption (Saving a creature and negating them a ton of life gain are more than worth 1 life point). Rune Snag is also a real card if you manage to run the full playset.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
2 Moment's Peace
3 Gleeful Sabotage
3 Serene Heart
2 Hydroblast
3 Disdainful Stroke
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!