Mental Discipline seems an interesting card to combat MBC. Good find, I'll be testing two copies in my side, although I suspect it's a little bit too mana intensive. Here's the list I've been running for a month or so. It runs smoothly, and it has been capable to combat MBC somewhat decently thanks to the addition of two copies of Gush.
So far it runs smoothly, but I notice a slight excess of lands, so I'll probably cut off a Forest and see what happens. Ponder has been miles better than Though Scour or Careful Study, and Thornwood Falls have been an improvement over Evolving Wilds. However the Mandrills are a tad slower now, and I'm looking for a way to solve this without going back to the worse cards.
I'm missing a little more of beatdown. 2 more fatties should suffice, one probably going out for the Forest. We really need Innistrad to have a Madness 1U 2/3 Flying (or 2/2 for U) or a Wild Mongrel functional reprint.
So far it plays smooth. Evolving wilds is kind off a necessary evil i think. Thornwood Falls might be better here, but it doesn't feed the bears. Trickster mage is great discard outlet. Tapping down blockers/potential attackers. And it can even power out T3 wurms, which is awesome. I even screwed a guy off his splash color once.
Any tips and ideas? I could swap the ponders for thought scour i guess, but you really want to find key cards sometimes. Scour might help me grow my werebear faster i guess, and might be good with all the flashback cards in the main and side. Thoughts on this?
I also wanted to find room for Gush. It's awesome with mongrel and can even make those lowly Aquamoeba's better.
I love Daze. But I'm not sure on it. When Storm & Infect were legal, it was necessary to keep them off real fast plays when you tapped out for Delver. Much like people used to run Phantasmal Bear to race & chump.
Now that more midrange decks seem to be the thing (UW/WR Artifacts, UB Teachings, 3C tortured existence, MBC moving to devotion than than recurring value 3 drops etc), it's about resiliency rather than early disruption.
I think it'd be best in aggressive Delver decks and more all-in versions of Kiln Fiend these days. Pauper just isn't as mana tight as Legacy.
But you're right on the Trickster mage. The Madness goes on top of the stack. Ohwell. Good thing it never came up :p.
I took first place. We played 5 rounds and i went undefeated.
R1 Infect. The waterfront bouncers from the side stole these games. I also think he didm't play any vine of vastwood.
R2 Red Sligh. I moment's peaced him 3 times game 2. He was not amused.
R3 MBC. Sinkholes and Hymn's are just a scary as they where in 94. Lucky me was living the dream though. I got a free lizard of his t1 hymn to touch g1 and had a counter for his t2 sinkhole. I still del victim to edicts and plague rats G2 and G3 Acorn Harvest and spell piercesaved me from edicts and sinkholes while my dogs, wizards and wurms went for the kill. He did resolve a Gurmag Angler or two. But he blocked the wurm and i vapor snagged it.
R4 Mono U Delver. G1 i overwhelmed him with lizards and dogs. G2 A hidden spider made short work of his spire golems aerial assault. A wurm with counter backup sealed the deal
R5 Goblins. Goblin grenadesure packs a punch. Luckily a combination of moment's peace and a few tactically placed vapor snag's bought my wizards and worms enough time to seal the deal.
It was a fun tournament. I'm thinking of switching to thought scour because of the great deal of flashback cards i'm running and because my werebear often grew a bit to slowly for my taste. I've thought about switching him with monkey's but his mana ability has proven to be great to hard cast wurms. The monkey's also tend to delve away to many valuable flashback cards.
I love daze. But without it's partner in crime, wasteland, i don't think it holds enough weight in the mid to late game in a format that's not as mana tight/greedy as Legacy and vintage. I never felt i needed it vs the decks i've been facing. It might good with trickster mage, though. Taxing their mana in their upkeep.
I'm going to test Tangle, but the flashback on moment's peace has been awesome.
As of cards vs MBC. Now i board in Spell Pierce and Acorn Harvest. Pierce is to help fend of those pesky sinkholes and hymns. And the acorn harvest helps vs edicts and is ok to have discarded. The geist sounds good on paper. Maybe i'll switch the harvest with geists.
I think this is how i'm going to play the deck next time. Switching a ponder for mental notes and adding 2 gushfor some increased speed. Maybe ponders card selection might be better, but for now i'll try the 3/3 split before going to 4/2.
If you Rancor an Aquamoeba you just spent two cards and three mana to make a 3/3 trample. Not very exciting. Multiple rootwalla's aren't bad. Multiple Aquamoeba's are. Rancor does seems fine on a dog or a bear, though. It does open you up to the 2 for 1 play from an opponent.
Guys what you thinks about of this cards? ghostly wings we dont have wonder but this can be "wonder" or another snap
and skywing aven
I'm sorry but I dont think there is a wonder replacement for pauper. ghostly wings power/cost ratio are not great, and opens you up for an easy 2-1 (even discarting a card and retuing the creatures is still 2-1). Used as a bounce it also costs you 2 cards, and a normal bounce spell is already card-disadvantage enough for me. skywing aven also has a lower power/cost ratio and using it as a discard outlet is not really what you want to do, as it costs you 3 mana every time you do. With both mandrills and wurm in my deck I don't really experience a lack of evation, trample is prety desent. You could try adding rancor this atleast has some resistence to being 2-1.
If you Rancor an Aquamoeba you just spent two cards and three mana to make a 3/3 trample. Not very exciting. Multiple rootwalla's aren't bad. Multiple Aquamoeba's are. Rancor does seems fine on a dog or a bear, though. It does open you up to the 2 for 1 play from an opponent.
Ugh I was thinking the moeba's would just be ball lightning but ur right makking a 3/3 isn't really worth it. Still atleast the first turn you can turn it into a 5/1 trample and attack and let it die if you have multiples. Well lets hope a madnesse 3/3 or 3/4 blue flyer will be in Shadows over Innistrat
Spectral Flight seems far superior to ghostly wings. Skywing Aven and Thalakos Scout are a little bit to control-y for my taste. While it's true that your opponent probably never ail get rid of it, their 2 power makes them slow finishers. Using them as a discard outlet is simply to costly. They're good cards and a reliable win-con, but a slow one. And madness isn't about being slow. Rancor, spectral flight or one of the drakes seem better as an extra threat.
And you want to make your aquamoebas more useful? Spider Climb has got your back!:sunny: But seriously, Spectral Flight is a good card. It might open you to more 2 for 1's than rancor, but it wil probably get more damage in if it sticks. It also makes Aquamoeba into a 5/3 flying.
I hope that SoI brings us some goodies, but i fear Madness wil get pushed into red and black. I still have high hopes for good undercosted U/G Delerium creatures.
I think Rancor wouldn't solve our problem at all: our problem is not threat quality but threat density. We need more aggressively costed creatures, like Wormfang Drake or Stitched Drake. However, Wormfang is plain asking for a 2-for-1 on us, and we don't have ETB creatures to exploit him, so I think testing 1-2 Stitched Drake is the way to go. We'll have to find a way to get a guy in the grave early enough, although I suspect he'll compete with Mandrills.
Stichted Drake does compete with the monkey. However he is BFF's with dogs, elemental beasts and still works decently with druids suffering from lycanthropy. Stormbound Geist is a card that's already seeing SB play. Maybe he can move to the main? I'm still having my fingers crossed for SoI and Eternal Masters for a few new goodies.
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“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
Yeah, I also think we will have to wait until SoI and Eternal Masters for something else. Just one undercosted threat more (preferably with Flying) will possibly make us a serious Tier 1 contender.
Meanwhile, I think we should talk about the "free" part of the deck. Having a handful of free cards like Basking Rootwalla, Daze and Gush has been pretty good for me overall, so what do you guys think about a Vapor Snag to Snap swap? I ran the Snaps in the earlier iterations of the deck, but quickly took it out for Vapor Snags. Pros and cons of each:
Vapor Snag
+ Lower initial cost.
+ Pings for 1, which helps to keep up the pressure.
+ Aggressive tempo spell.
- It hurts us to save our own guys from removal.
- Doesn't allow us to chain several spells a turn.
Snap
+ Free if we have two lands.
+ Doesn't hurt to save our guys from removal for no real mana cost.
+ Flexible and good spell overall.
+ Can produce an insane mana advantage when combined with Daze or Gush + land drop.
- Hurts a lot if it gets countered.
- Initial 2 CMC investment.
- No pinging.
I've also looked at Gitaxian Probe since it basically cycles for free, feeds Mandrills and gives us info of the opponent, which is always valuable. If we're low on life, it's easy discard bait.
That's great news! The spell itself sucks and is worse than Vapor Snag 90% of the time, but it means that Madness is in Blue and that we will probably get more goodies! (and hopefully a better discard outlet than Aquamoeba, but seeing that it's now considered uncommon we probably won't get one).
GB Madness plays a different game altogether: it goes down the Dredge and value avenue and acts more as a midrange / control decklist trying to grind you down, while the UG version is more tempo-based and wants to deploy threats backed up by counterspells to victory.
4 Hooting Mandrills seem too much IMO. I'm running just 2 at the moment, but I don't have any dedicated cards to feed them. I think I will wait for the full spoiler to be revealed and hope we get another undercosted beater.
Yeah. Just the wind might only be better than Vapor Snag in this deck if you pitch it for an aquamoeba. Since it then does 2 extra dog instead of 1. if you pitch it for a mongrel it does the damage amount. But you can't eot just the wind to sneak an extra damage in like you could with snag. It deserves some testing.
The best news is, indeed, that this means that blue also gets madness cards.
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“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
Gathan Raiders aside, because it can be included in both Madness decks, all R/G has to offer is Lightning Axe and Lightning Bolt (since Fiery Temper is just Bolt 5-8). A point can be made for Faithless Looting because it has flashback, but we have Careful Study. If they had Reckless Wurm too then the RG version would be plain better, but at the moment I think that the UG one is better suited for the tempo game thanks to the cantrips, counters and free cards.
It looks like black/red got all the madness goodies this set. Green got nothing and blue got just the wind and nagging thoughts. White got a pretty decent discard outlet in Stern Constable though.
Nagging thoughts seems pretty decent of you're playing a big amount of flashback spells. Then it's basically 1U draw two cards.
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“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
I don't think Nagging Thoughts is much betther than all the 1 CMC Cantrips (or Telling Time for that matter). We could expand a bit more into that though. Besides Deep Analysis and Think Twice which cards could we play? We could also use self recurring ones, Flashback aside.
What captivated though is Moldgraf Scavenger. Has the magical 4 Toughness, 3 power to put pressure, and is really easy to get online. You can chain multiples and it's not dead in hand early either. It lacks evasion, but who cares: it's a pauper Tarmogoyf! Easier to get online than Werebear and less frail in the meantime. This is the critter we were looking for.
Kinda sad that Stitchwing Skaab is Uncommon. It would have been killer to have a threat like that in our arsenal: discard fodder, evasive beater and discard outlet all rolled in one nice package
Just the Wind is inferior than Vapor Snag except when discarded to Aquamoeba, which makes it do 2 damage instead of 1. I would absolutely never go below 4 Circular Logic, it's the best counterspell in the format when you can reliably cast it for it's Madness cost, and because it and Arrogant Wurm are our payoff cards for playing the archetype.
That said, I've tested Moldgraf Scavenger these days. Hooting Mandrills definitely hits harder than it, but Scavenger is overall a bit better, as you can chain multiples unlike Mandrills, and you can always count on playing them on curve. A turn 1 Evolving Wilds / Ponder, followed by a turn 2 Moldgraf Scavenger usually means it will start hitting for 3 damage from that turn onwards, and block ground guys on the very turn two. It also ignores the strain that a playset of Hooting Mandrills puts on Circular Logic. That said, I think it's time to give the step I've been reluctant to do for so long: adopt the format's boogeyman, Delver of Secrets, and use it alongside Scavenger and Wild Mongrel to become a full fledged Tempo deck, with cheap counterspells and threats.
It's incredible what Delver did to the deck. Now we have enough threat density, and we are a lot faster. Delver being evasive means we have some kind of reach. 20 Instants and Sorceries + 7 setup cantrips is more than enough to flip him consistently, and the cantrips dig for discard outlets or more threats.
With such a configuration of 6 self-sacrificing lands, 11 instants, 9 sorceries, and 7 cantrips to find what I need, it's also pretty easy to turn on Scavenger too. If I somehow start durdling around, a well placed Madness outlet will enable the missing parts of Delirium real quick. I'm missing Rootwallas 3 and 4 though, so I need to make some changes. Probably cut a land and go down to 18 for the third rootwalla.
When I first came back to mtgo I decided to play only pauper as standard had skyrocketed into 1000+ dollar decks and I sold out my entire collection a while back. I have played a lot of magic and I love tempo decks more than any other kind.
I built a similar list when I first came back to MTGO and I thought it was a pretty solid deck. It is interesting to think about the new pauper fungus that is scavenger. I think we have the ability to cheat delirium better than most formats because we can play things like the artifact lands, and many other cards that have multiple types built into them. When I first saw scavenger I wasn't a huge fan of him because he just seemed to weak to the format that hates graveyards so much, but then I realized in this deck he is the exact threat that it needs. He can come down quick and instant speed become a 3/4 at the right times, that has a huge benefit of screwing over opponents attack phases and can clog boards early to give us advantages vs stompy, which I think this deck needs. It will be interesting to figure out how to enable him best. I think careful study is probably going to have to be a key part of that, discarding an artifact land + any other card that isn't a sorcery is delirium. Turn 1 Careful study into a rootwalla and discarding an artifact land means that turn 3 any card that goes into the yard that is a creature/instant/enchantment is going to enable delirium. We have plenty of ways to do that on turn 3, most of them being vapor snag or snap, then swingin with a 3/3 rootwalla and a 3/4 fungus on turn 3 after bouncing their guy and untapping seems pretty strong.
Just the Wind is inferior than Vapor Snag except when discarded to Aquamoeba, which makes it do 2 damage instead of 1. I would absolutely never go below 4 Circular Logic, it's the best counterspell in the format when you can reliably cast it for it's Madness cost, and because it and Arrogant Wurm are our payoff cards for playing the archetype.
That said, I've tested Moldgraf Scavenger these days. Hooting Mandrills definitely hits harder than it, but Scavenger is overall a bit better, as you can chain multiples unlike Mandrills, and you can always count on playing them on curve. A turn 1 Evolving Wilds / Ponder, followed by a turn 2 Moldgraf Scavenger usually means it will start hitting for 3 damage from that turn onwards, and block ground guys on the very turn two. It also ignores the strain that a playset of Hooting Mandrills puts on Circular Logic. That said, I think it's time to give the step I've been reluctant to do for so long: adopt the format's boogeyman, Delver of Secrets, and use it alongside Scavenger and Wild Mongrel to become a full fledged Tempo deck, with cheap counterspells and threats.
It's incredible what Delver did to the deck. Now we have enough threat density, and we are a lot faster. Delver being evasive means we have some kind of reach. 20 Instants and Sorceries + 7 setup cantrips is more than enough to flip him consistently, and the cantrips dig for discard outlets or more threats.
With such a configuration of 6 self-sacrificing lands, 11 instants, 9 sorceries, and 7 cantrips to find what I need, it's also pretty easy to turn on Scavenger too. If I somehow start durdling around, a well placed Madness outlet will enable the missing parts of Delirium real quick. I'm missing Rootwallas 3 and 4 though, so I need to make some changes. Probably cut a land and go down to 18 for the third rootwalla.
Looking to get into pauper so I have a lot of questions:
1: Is there a reason why you're not running careful study?
2: Are you looking to run artifact lands?
I think the main reason for not using Careful Study is the fact that it's a Sorcery. You want your Madness enablers to be instant speed and free so you can utilize your options better. Arrogant Wurm pretty much has Flash if you discard at instant speed. Circular Logic is pointless at Sorcery speed and you effectively increase the Madness cost by using Careful Study to enable them.
I think the main reason for not using Careful Study is the fact that it's a Sorcery. You want your Madness enablers to be instant speed and free so you can utilize your options better. Arrogant Wurm pretty much has Flash if you discard at instant speed. Circular Logic is pointless at Sorcery speed and you effectively increase the Madness cost by using Careful Study to enable them.
okay that's what I was thinking and totally makes sense. thanks!
Oh hey, there is a thread for this already. I know I'm late to the party but I've been running madness on MTGO for the past couple weeks because my usual format (Modern) is pretty bad right now. I've been splashing red for Electrickery and Ancient Grudge, but there might be other cards I should be using that I'm just not familiar with; I never played Madness when it was standard, and I'm fairly new to Pauper in general.
2 Merfolk Looter
3 Aquamoeba
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Hooting Mandrills
Instant (13)
4 Circular Logic
4 Vapor Snag
3 Daze
2 Gush
4 Ponder
3 Deep Analysis
Land (20)
4 Thornwood Falls
6 Forest
8 Island
2 Quicksand
3 Stormbound Geist
3 Aerial Volley
3 Natural State
2 Sandstorm
2 Feed the Clan
2 Bojuka Bog
So far it runs smoothly, but I notice a slight excess of lands, so I'll probably cut off a Forest and see what happens. Ponder has been miles better than Though Scour or Careful Study, and Thornwood Falls have been an improvement over Evolving Wilds. However the Mandrills are a tad slower now, and I'm looking for a way to solve this without going back to the worse cards.
I'm missing a little more of beatdown. 2 more fatties should suffice, one probably going out for the Forest. We really need Innistrad to have a Madness 1U 2/3 Flying (or 2/2 for U) or a Wild Mongrel functional reprint.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
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4 wild mongrel
4 aquamoeba
3 trickster mage
beaters
4 arrogant wurm
4 basking rootwalla
3 werebear
draw
3 deep analysis
3 ponder
2 vapor snag
4 mana leak
4 circular logic
4 evolving wilds
1 terramorphic expanse
9 island
8 forest
2 waterfront bouncer
2 hidden spider
2 spell pierce
2 curfew
2 vapor snag
2 acorn harvest
3 moment's peace
So far it plays smooth. Evolving wilds is kind off a necessary evil i think. Thornwood Falls might be better here, but it doesn't feed the bears. Trickster mage is great discard outlet. Tapping down blockers/potential attackers. And it can even power out T3 wurms, which is awesome. I even screwed a guy off his splash color once.
Any tips and ideas? I could swap the ponders for thought scour i guess, but you really want to find key cards sometimes. Scour might help me grow my werebear faster i guess, and might be good with all the flashback cards in the main and side. Thoughts on this?
I also wanted to find room for Gush. It's awesome with mongrel and can even make those lowly Aquamoeba's better.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Now that more midrange decks seem to be the thing (UW/WR Artifacts, UB Teachings, 3C tortured existence, MBC moving to devotion than than recurring value 3 drops etc), it's about resiliency rather than early disruption.
I think it'd be best in aggressive Delver decks and more all-in versions of Kiln Fiend these days. Pauper just isn't as mana tight as Legacy.
But you're right on the Trickster mage. The Madness goes on top of the stack. Ohwell. Good thing it never came up :p.
I took first place. We played 5 rounds and i went undefeated.
R1 Infect. The waterfront bouncers from the side stole these games. I also think he didm't play any vine of vastwood.
R2 Red Sligh. I moment's peaced him 3 times game 2. He was not amused.
R3 MBC. Sinkholes and Hymn's are just a scary as they where in 94. Lucky me was living the dream though. I got a free lizard of his t1 hymn to touch g1 and had a counter for his t2 sinkhole. I still del victim to edicts and plague rats G2 and G3 Acorn Harvest and spell piercesaved me from edicts and sinkholes while my dogs, wizards and wurms went for the kill. He did resolve a Gurmag Angler or two. But he blocked the wurm and i vapor snagged it.
R4 Mono U Delver. G1 i overwhelmed him with lizards and dogs. G2 A hidden spider made short work of his spire golems aerial assault. A wurm with counter backup sealed the deal
R5 Goblins. Goblin grenadesure packs a punch. Luckily a combination of moment's peace and a few tactically placed vapor snag's bought my wizards and worms enough time to seal the deal.
It was a fun tournament. I'm thinking of switching to thought scour because of the great deal of flashback cards i'm running and because my werebear often grew a bit to slowly for my taste. I've thought about switching him with monkey's but his mana ability has proven to be great to hard cast wurms. The monkey's also tend to delve away to many valuable flashback cards.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
I love daze. But without it's partner in crime, wasteland, i don't think it holds enough weight in the mid to late game in a format that's not as mana tight/greedy as Legacy and vintage. I never felt i needed it vs the decks i've been facing. It might good with trickster mage, though. Taxing their mana in their upkeep.
I'm going to test Tangle, but the flashback on moment's peace has been awesome.
I'm also curious about the stitched drake list.
As of cards vs MBC. Now i board in Spell Pierce and Acorn Harvest. Pierce is to help fend of those pesky sinkholes and hymns. And the acorn harvest helps vs edicts and is ok to have discarded. The geist sounds good on paper. Maybe i'll switch the harvest with geists.
I think this is how i'm going to play the deck next time. Switching a ponder for mental notes and adding 2 gushfor some increased speed. Maybe ponders card selection might be better, but for now i'll try the 3/3 split before going to 4/2.
4 wild mongrel
4 aquamoeba
2 trickster mage
beaters 11
4 arrogant wurm
4 basking rootwalla
3 werebear
draw 10
2 deep analysis
2 gush
3 ponder
3 mental note
2 vapor snag
3 mana leak
4 circular logic
Lands 20
4 Thornwood falls
9 island
7 forest
2 waterfront bouncer
2 hidden spider
2 spell pierce
2 curfew
2 vapor snag
2 acorn harvest
3 moment's peace
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
On Tangle vs Moment's peace.
Moment's peace allows you to use your thought scours, aquamoebas and mongrels more aggresively. I'll test them.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
I think if you want to pack more threats, wormfang drake/ stitched drake are a bit better.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
ghostly wings we dont have wonder but this can be "wonder" or another snap
and skywing aven
Spectral Flight seems far superior to ghostly wings. Skywing Aven and Thalakos Scout are a little bit to control-y for my taste. While it's true that your opponent probably never ail get rid of it, their 2 power makes them slow finishers. Using them as a discard outlet is simply to costly. They're good cards and a reliable win-con, but a slow one. And madness isn't about being slow. Rancor, spectral flight or one of the drakes seem better as an extra threat.
And you want to make your aquamoebas more useful? Spider Climb has got your back!:sunny: But seriously, Spectral Flight is a good card. It might open you to more 2 for 1's than rancor, but it wil probably get more damage in if it sticks. It also makes Aquamoeba into a 5/3 flying.
I hope that SoI brings us some goodies, but i fear Madness wil get pushed into red and black. I still have high hopes for good undercosted U/G Delerium creatures.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Stormbound Geist is a card that's already seeing SB play. Maybe he can move to the main? I'm still having my fingers crossed for SoI and Eternal Masters for a few new goodies.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Meanwhile, I think we should talk about the "free" part of the deck. Having a handful of free cards like Basking Rootwalla, Daze and Gush has been pretty good for me overall, so what do you guys think about a Vapor Snag to Snap swap? I ran the Snaps in the earlier iterations of the deck, but quickly took it out for Vapor Snags. Pros and cons of each:
Vapor Snag
+ Lower initial cost.
+ Pings for 1, which helps to keep up the pressure.
+ Aggressive tempo spell.
- It hurts us to save our own guys from removal.
- Doesn't allow us to chain several spells a turn.
Snap
+ Free if we have two lands.
+ Doesn't hurt to save our guys from removal for no real mana cost.
+ Flexible and good spell overall.
+ Can produce an insane mana advantage when combined with Daze or Gush + land drop.
- Hurts a lot if it gets countered.
- Initial 2 CMC investment.
- No pinging.
I've also looked at Gitaxian Probe since it basically cycles for free, feeds Mandrills and gives us info of the opponent, which is always valuable. If we're low on life, it's easy discard bait.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
That's great news! The spell itself sucks and is worse than Vapor Snag 90% of the time, but it means that Madness is in Blue and that we will probably get more goodies! (and hopefully a better discard outlet than Aquamoeba, but seeing that it's now considered uncommon we probably won't get one).
GB Madness plays a different game altogether: it goes down the Dredge and value avenue and acts more as a midrange / control decklist trying to grind you down, while the UG version is more tempo-based and wants to deploy threats backed up by counterspells to victory.
4 Hooting Mandrills seem too much IMO. I'm running just 2 at the moment, but I don't have any dedicated cards to feed them. I think I will wait for the full spoiler to be revealed and hope we get another undercosted beater.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
The best news is, indeed, that this means that blue also gets madness cards.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Nagging thoughts seems pretty decent of you're playing a big amount of flashback spells. Then it's basically 1U draw two cards.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
What captivated though is Moldgraf Scavenger. Has the magical 4 Toughness, 3 power to put pressure, and is really easy to get online. You can chain multiples and it's not dead in hand early either. It lacks evasion, but who cares: it's a pauper Tarmogoyf! Easier to get online than Werebear and less frail in the meantime. This is the critter we were looking for.
Kinda sad that Stitchwing Skaab is Uncommon. It would have been killer to have a threat like that in our arsenal: discard fodder, evasive beater and discard outlet all rolled in one nice package
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
That said, I've tested Moldgraf Scavenger these days. Hooting Mandrills definitely hits harder than it, but Scavenger is overall a bit better, as you can chain multiples unlike Mandrills, and you can always count on playing them on curve. A turn 1 Evolving Wilds / Ponder, followed by a turn 2 Moldgraf Scavenger usually means it will start hitting for 3 damage from that turn onwards, and block ground guys on the very turn two. It also ignores the strain that a playset of Hooting Mandrills puts on Circular Logic. That said, I think it's time to give the step I've been reluctant to do for so long: adopt the format's boogeyman, Delver of Secrets, and use it alongside Scavenger and Wild Mongrel to become a full fledged Tempo deck, with cheap counterspells and threats.
This is the list I'm running right now:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Aquamoeba
2 Basking Rootwalla
Instant (11)
4 Circular Logic
4 Snap
3 Daze
4 Ponder
3 Preordain
2 Deep Analysis
Land (19)
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Quicksand
7 Island
6 Forest
3 Stormbound Geist
3 Aerial Volley
2 Feed the Clan
3 Natural State
2 Sandstorm
2 Bojuka Bog
It's incredible what Delver did to the deck. Now we have enough threat density, and we are a lot faster. Delver being evasive means we have some kind of reach. 20 Instants and Sorceries + 7 setup cantrips is more than enough to flip him consistently, and the cantrips dig for discard outlets or more threats.
With such a configuration of 6 self-sacrificing lands, 11 instants, 9 sorceries, and 7 cantrips to find what I need, it's also pretty easy to turn on Scavenger too. If I somehow start durdling around, a well placed Madness outlet will enable the missing parts of Delirium real quick. I'm missing Rootwallas 3 and 4 though, so I need to make some changes. Probably cut a land and go down to 18 for the third rootwalla.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
I built a similar list when I first came back to MTGO and I thought it was a pretty solid deck. It is interesting to think about the new pauper fungus that is scavenger. I think we have the ability to cheat delirium better than most formats because we can play things like the artifact lands, and many other cards that have multiple types built into them. When I first saw scavenger I wasn't a huge fan of him because he just seemed to weak to the format that hates graveyards so much, but then I realized in this deck he is the exact threat that it needs. He can come down quick and instant speed become a 3/4 at the right times, that has a huge benefit of screwing over opponents attack phases and can clog boards early to give us advantages vs stompy, which I think this deck needs. It will be interesting to figure out how to enable him best. I think careful study is probably going to have to be a key part of that, discarding an artifact land + any other card that isn't a sorcery is delirium. Turn 1 Careful study into a rootwalla and discarding an artifact land means that turn 3 any card that goes into the yard that is a creature/instant/enchantment is going to enable delirium. We have plenty of ways to do that on turn 3, most of them being vapor snag or snap, then swingin with a 3/3 rootwalla and a 3/4 fungus on turn 3 after bouncing their guy and untapping seems pretty strong.
Looking to get into pauper so I have a lot of questions:
1: Is there a reason why you're not running careful study?
2: Are you looking to run artifact lands?
Modern
GWBAbzan CompanyGWB
Pauper
UGU/G BeatsUG
okay that's what I was thinking and totally makes sense. thanks!
Modern
GWBAbzan CompanyGWB
Pauper
UGU/G BeatsUG
looks like it. I use to play UG beats when it was standard so this, this is awesome.
Modern
GWBAbzan CompanyGWB
Pauper
UGU/G BeatsUG
Here is the list - input is appreciated:
4 Aquamoeba
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
24
3 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
4 Counterspell
3 Deep Analysis
1 Echoing Truth
2 Essence Scatter
2 Obsessive Search
2 Spell Pierce
3 Vapor Snag
1 Snow-Covered Forest
8 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Thornwood Falls
2 Spreading Seas
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Dispel
3 Electrickery
2 Hydroblast
2 Natural State
2 Pulse of Murasa