Pitch Burn
Okay, okay so it's not technically a pitch spell, but using Collective Brutality to get an extra "-2/-2" effect here or "opponent loses 2, you gain 2" there (for free!) still feels pretty good; the pitch=black pun makes enough sense to keep it as a deck title, imho. This is basically a Burn deck that slows things down a little bit to get some big value out of some madness cards.
(Other possible deck names: Pitch Black Burn, Madness Burn, Rakdos Slow Burn, Cathartic Brutality Burn, etc.)
What's new?
Shadows Over Innestrad revisited madness and printed Alms of the Vein which provides a very strong 6-life swing at the low low cost of B. Eldritch Moon then printed the strong modal spell of Collective Brutality; while the modes are fairly costed at 1B the true strength lies in the escalate cost functioning as a madness discard outlet as well as an engine for generating value off of dead cards.
A couple red cards also support similar lines. Bedlam Reveler out of EMN provides a heavily discounted beater attached to a draw spell and discard outlet (or vice-versa). Kaladesh brings Cathartic Reunion which provides a big cycling effect- filling the grave for Reveler while providing a discard outlet for madness.
Like What?
Here's a starting point I'm currently testing (currently 0xCathartic Reunion until Kaladesh MTGO release):
4xBloodghast - Strong. Though BB can be hard to hit, pitching the body with Collective Brutality then playing a land is gold.
2xBedlam Reveler - Great. Should up to 3x (maybe 4x if I drop more creatures for higher spell count).
2xMonastery Swiftspear - Good. Sorcery speed madness from Collected Brutality often leads to 2+ prowess triggers per turn.
2xGoblin Guide - Iffy. Collective Brutality and madness makes this black-red burn list slower than typical burn decks. GG handing out land drops gets bad when games don't close so quickly.
3xInsolent Neonate - Good. An additional discard outlet is great, especially attached to a free chumpblock. Also helpful with off-turn-draw miracles strategy.
Bloodghast offered strong value with Collective Brutality, and Bedlam Reveler was a great way to apply pressure while refilling the hand. Swiftspear felt pretty solid while Goblin Guide underperformed. Insolent Neonate wasn't half bad as a draw/discard tool, though I'm not sure the best number to run.
Collective Brutality was very fun to use, especially with Alms of the Vein to create a 10-point swing (in life totals) for a combined 3cmc. The tested number of madness spells was about right for the number of discard outlets, but I'll definitely bring the number up when I can add in Cathartic Reunion.
3xLava Spike - Okay. Good cost but not horribly flexible.
0xRift Bolt - Similar, didn't feel the need for more creature-targeting.
3xBump in the Night - Great. Lets the manabase go more black for Brutality/Alms. Flashback cost is high, but not crazy unheard of.
Nothing too crazy here; I liked having an excuse to play Bump. Bolt is as helpful as ever. I'm not sure how many Spikes and Bumps will stick around after Cathartic Reunion enables more madness, though.
Initial Evaluation: Miracles
2xBalduvian Rage - Not good. Basically it was just a 1cmc prowess trigger and delayed cantrip. Mishra's Bauble may be a better replacement?
3xThunderous Wrath - Pretty great. Big chunk of damage for 1cmc. Neonate a bit of an all-star.
1xBonfire of the Damned - Tough. Having a fair bit of mana up (if attempting off-turn) was difficult to do. Sideboard might be best.
1xGeier Reach Sanitarium - Pretty great. Worked as both a madness-enabler and a miracle-enabler. Will probably attempt 2x.
This is a little shakier, theoretically speaking. There isn't really a strong reason to force an extra miracles sub-theme onto the deck, but my reasoning was that if I'm going to be pitching some number of unused Lava Spikes, etc. to Collective Brutality (and/or discarding them to Bedlam Reveler and Cathartic Reunion) then why not discard Thunderous Wrath instead? Getting 5-damage for R every now and then is pretty awesome, and with all the discard effects around it's not like dead-in-hand miracles will stay there for long. All said and done, I'll probably just simplify things and run 4xThunderous Wrath, sideboard Bonfire, and ignore any opponent's turn miracles-draw shenanigans off Balduvian Rage or Mishra's Bauble.
How was it?
Overall, the pitch-esque feel brought by Collective Brutality was very cool. The games felt quite different from typical burn lists, however. Mostly the game was draw-go until turn-3 or so when there was enough mana up for Collective Brutality and a madness spell. Games weren't decided as quickly, but the lifegain off of Brutality/Alms kept my health pretty high despite being slow for a burn deck (ignoring the game where I lucked out drawing miracles).
In games I've done alright against creature decks and other burn decks, but have so far haaaaated the blue-control matchup (they can typically draw into counterspells and more draw before the slow-burn can close out the game, and hard countering a Reveler just shuts off the gas).
Let Me Know What You Think
Looking forward to any and all feedback, but especially so from any Burn players and/or anyone who's tried a similar list with Cathartic Reunion on Xmage/Cockatrice to let me know how it improves things.
Just scrolling through the site and I had a similar-ish idea for a BR Madness burn deck.
First off if you're running Bloodghast you may want to run fetches for maximum value.
Anyway, to the deck... instead of Reveler and the like I went with a more tribal vampire style aggro with 12 bolts backing it up. I've only goldfished so far and found I can usually get to lethal by turn 4-5, which is reasonable and I believe the deck to be pretty resilient. Anyway this is the list I'm running.
The deck has 4 different Madness enablers in Stromkirk Condemned, Heir of Falkenrath, Faithless Looting and Collective Brutality and every card can be, or has the potential to be, Madness-ed out except Lightning Bolt. Falkenrath Aristocrat is a great curve topper finisher that comes down and ends the game basically, Bloodghast is a hard to kill threat that can be easily recurred through the fetches.
The idea is to come out of the gate fast and rush them down while burning away with the 12 Bolts.
It's a work in progress as I still have no board and am deciding whether to cut creatures for Bump in the Night or Lava Spike and go full on Burn
Just scrolling through the site and I had a similar-ish idea for a BR Madness burn deck.
First off if you're running Bloodghast you may want to run fetches for maximum value.
Anyway, to the deck... instead of Reveler and the like I went with a more tribal vampire style aggro with 12 bolts backing it up. I've only goldfished so far and found I can usually get to lethal by turn 4-5, which is reasonable and I believe the deck to be pretty resilient. Anyway this is the list I'm running.
The deck has 4 different Madness enablers in Stromkirk Condemned, Heir of Falkenrath, Faithless Looting and Collective Brutality and every card can be, or has the potential to be, Madness-ed out except Lightning Bolt. Falkenrath Aristocrat is a great curve topper finisher that comes down and ends the game basically, Bloodghast is a hard to kill threat that can be easily recurred through the fetches.
The idea is to come out of the gate fast and rush them down while burning away with the 12 Bolts.
It's a work in progress as I still have no board and am deciding whether to cut creatures for Bump in the Night or Lava Spike and go full on Burn
Drop the aristocrats, Bring in Bump in the Night; Bump doesn't work against like only 1 deck (Ad Nauseam), and you can't prevent loss of life. If you deal with a long grindy control matchup, I'd sideboard in Call the Bloodline, because if your creatures just die over and over, use the ability to just get 1/1 lifelinkers too.
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Okay, okay so it's not technically a pitch spell, but using Collective Brutality to get an extra "-2/-2" effect here or "opponent loses 2, you gain 2" there (for free!) still feels pretty good; the pitch=black pun makes enough sense to keep it as a deck title, imho. This is basically a Burn deck that slows things down a little bit to get some big value out of some madness cards.
(Other possible deck names: Pitch Black Burn, Madness Burn, Rakdos Slow Burn, Cathartic Brutality Burn, etc.)
What's new?
Shadows Over Innestrad revisited madness and printed Alms of the Vein which provides a very strong 6-life swing at the low low cost of B. Eldritch Moon then printed the strong modal spell of Collective Brutality; while the modes are fairly costed at 1B the true strength lies in the escalate cost functioning as a madness discard outlet as well as an engine for generating value off of dead cards.
A couple red cards also support similar lines. Bedlam Reveler out of EMN provides a heavily discounted beater attached to a draw spell and discard outlet (or vice-versa). Kaladesh brings Cathartic Reunion which provides a big cycling effect- filling the grave for Reveler while providing a discard outlet for madness.
Like What?
Here's a starting point I'm currently testing (currently 0xCathartic Reunion until Kaladesh MTGO release):
3 Goblin Guide
2 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Insolent Neonate
4 Bloodghast
2 Bedlam Reveler
Pitch (8)
4 Collective Brutality
3 Alms of the Vein
1 Fiery Temper
0 Cathartic Reunion
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Bump in the Night
3 Lava Spike
Miracles (6)
2 Balduvian Rage
3 Thunderous Wrath
1 Bonfire of the Damned
Land (22)
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
4 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Graven Cairns
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
Initial Evaluation: Creatures
Initial Evaluation: Pitch Spells
Initial Evaluation: Burn Spells
Initial Evaluation: Miracles
How was it?
Overall, the pitch-esque feel brought by Collective Brutality was very cool. The games felt quite different from typical burn lists, however. Mostly the game was draw-go until turn-3 or so when there was enough mana up for Collective Brutality and a madness spell. Games weren't decided as quickly, but the lifegain off of Brutality/Alms kept my health pretty high despite being slow for a burn deck (ignoring the game where I lucked out drawing miracles).
In games I've done alright against creature decks and other burn decks, but have so far haaaaated the blue-control matchup (they can typically draw into counterspells and more draw before the slow-burn can close out the game, and hard countering a Reveler just shuts off the gas).
Let Me Know What You Think
Looking forward to any and all feedback, but especially so from any Burn players and/or anyone who's tried a similar list with Cathartic Reunion on Xmage/Cockatrice to let me know how it improves things.
First off if you're running Bloodghast you may want to run fetches for maximum value.
Anyway, to the deck... instead of Reveler and the like I went with a more tribal vampire style aggro with 12 bolts backing it up. I've only goldfished so far and found I can usually get to lethal by turn 4-5, which is reasonable and I believe the deck to be pretty resilient. Anyway this is the list I'm running.
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Blood Crypt
3x Dragonskull Summit
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
3x Swamp
1x Mountain
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Stromkirk Condemned
4x Bloodghast
4x Falkenrath Gorger
4x Heir of Falkenrath
4x Asylum Visitor
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Fiery Temper
4x Alms of the Vein
4x Faithless Looting
2x Collective Brutality
The deck has 4 different Madness enablers in Stromkirk Condemned, Heir of Falkenrath, Faithless Looting and Collective Brutality and every card can be, or has the potential to be, Madness-ed out except Lightning Bolt. Falkenrath Aristocrat is a great curve topper finisher that comes down and ends the game basically, Bloodghast is a hard to kill threat that can be easily recurred through the fetches.
The idea is to come out of the gate fast and rush them down while burning away with the 12 Bolts.
It's a work in progress as I still have no board and am deciding whether to cut creatures for Bump in the Night or Lava Spike and go full on Burn
Drop the aristocrats, Bring in Bump in the Night; Bump doesn't work against like only 1 deck (Ad Nauseam), and you can't prevent loss of life. If you deal with a long grindy control matchup, I'd sideboard in Call the Bloodline, because if your creatures just die over and over, use the ability to just get 1/1 lifelinkers too.
I hold the job of resurrecting dead threads.
Formerly presumed dead, but also formerly presumed alive.