I'm very surprised that we haven't seen a RG thread on here yet, considering how powerful the deck has been in testing among various people. Amonkhet has some very powerful cards for this archetype. My 60 is still in flux, but it looks something like this:
Bloodrage Brawler: this card is gross. Discarding a card is meh but he turns on Rhonas immediately and hits like a truck. You'll often have some garbage to pitch anyways.
Rhonas the Indomitable: this card is also gross. He's easy to turn on in this deck and a pain to get rid of. They need Stasis Snare or Cast Out (which is a fantastic card btw) to get rid of him. One of the #1 threats int his deck. Bristling Hydra: this thing is hard to kill, which is what we're looking for. Big, beefy nonsense that's is difficult to get off the table. Not as good as some of the other threats, but serviceable. Glorybringer: This guy is great. Flying + haste is really good. It reminds me a lot of Stormbreath. On top of that it kills basically everything on the ground and answers Gideon very cleanly. Attune with Aether: This deck is very energy hungry. With Servant helping us get to 4 and 5 earlier and Aether Hub acting as a dual land, we really rely on this card to get going early. I may even cut a land because 21 + Servant + Attune may be enough. Samut, Voice of Dissent: This guy is cool, but not as flashy as it looks. I may end up cutting him for more Hazoret or something like Tireless Tracker. Manglehorn: Expect this guy to be everywhere in constructed for the foreseeable future. It hates on both Mardu (kills Ballista, HoK & Harvester) and also hates on the Saheeli combo. The numbers on this guy are probably the most fluid.
Some other cards that I've been looking at, but haven't tested fully yet Blossoming Defense: Seems nice against 3 and 4CMC removal. Not so hot against Harnessed Lightning but oh well. It may end up making the main deck. Arlinn Kord: Might be good enough now? Plays nicely with Glorybringer (or basically anything that hits on the ground). Acts as additional removal. Might be worth a couple slots. Sheltered Thicket: This may be better than Cinder Glade. If we have enough R/G sources in Attune/Servant/Hub/Game Trail than we could consider running these to smooth our draws later in the game.
You do not need 4 Rhonas, and 3 samut. Both of those cards are horrible in multiples. I would go 2 for each
Also, Hazoret is not very good in this deck so I would cut Hazoret as well.
I would go 4 of Greenbelt Rampager. Also 22 Lands might be an issue. You do not have a lot of low drop creatures, which means you want to hit your land drops. Anything less than 23 would be bad. Attune is nice, but playing attune on turn 3 to hit your land drop makes your curve hurt a lot.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Some call it a Habit, Cardboard Crack Addict
Tried to pull away, but now I'm Back At it
Love is Emphatic, cards need to be played
Hailing from the BA, accumulating CA"
Yea, those are MTG Bars. What can I say, I am a dork
You do not need 4 Rhonas, and 3 samut. Both of those cards are horrible in multiples. I would go 2 for each
Also, Hazoret is not very good in this deck so I would cut Hazoret as well.
I would go 4 of Greenbelt Rampager. Also 22 Lands might be an issue. You do not have a lot of low drop creatures, which means you want to hit your land drops. Anything less than 23 would be bad. Attune is nice, but playing attune on turn 3 to hit your land drop makes your curve hurt a lot.
Rhonas is bad in multiples, but at the same time you want to make sure that you draw him every game because of how powerful he is. I could see going to 3, but never 2.
Hazoret could be cuttable, especially when deviating from the Madness theme that some of the other decks have. I'm a bit biased towards him because both he and Rhonas survive sweepers and he turns on the latter, but he might not make the cut.
I've been unimpressed with Rampager so far, but I haven't tried him much beyond his initial trial.
Bloodrage Brawler makes you discard a card and trades with a Rogue Refiner.
I think I'd sit him out.
No way. The Brawler turns on half the deck and hits like a truck. So far I haven't had too many problems with him being stonewalled. It's possible the situation just hasn't come up and may be more prevalent, but Brawler is way too powerful to not play.
I have been trying this list a bit, so far so good but at times I have trouble in finishing the game. I only managed to drop them to 5-8 and ran out of gas.
Bloodrage Brawler makes you discard a card and trades with a Rogue Refiner.
I think I'd sit him out.
No way. The Brawler turns on half the deck and hits like a truck. So far I haven't had too many problems with him being stonewalled. It's possible the situation just hasn't come up and may be more prevalent, but Brawler is way too powerful to not play.
None of these RG Aggro decks are fast enough to not care about pitching a card.
I'd seriously, seriously, need a good reason to play this card.
In the attrition war that is standard, you can't afford to just pitch cards unless you're getting value or killing them so quickly it doesn't matter. Trust me. All I do is play RG midrange/aggro.
There are plenty of other ways to turn on Rhonas -- many of which don't use up a card.
I agree with Bloodrage Brawler. I did test it out and it was excellent with Bloodlust Inciter. Turn 2 4/3 haste is outstanding, but the discarding part makes it kinda meh. It could be great at discarding redundancy, like Rhonas, or embalm cards but as mentioned earlier, it trades with Rogue Refiner. We lost 2 cards while they lose only 1.
Bloodrage Brawler makes you discard a card and trades with a Rogue Refiner.
I think I'd sit him out.
No way. The Brawler turns on half the deck and hits like a truck. So far I haven't had too many problems with him being stonewalled. It's possible the situation just hasn't come up and may be more prevalent, but Brawler is way too powerful to not play.
None of these RG Aggro decks are fast enough to not care about pitching a card.
I'd seriously, seriously, need a good reason to play this card.
In the attrition war that is standard, you can't afford to just pitch cards unless you're getting value or killing them so quickly it doesn't matter. Trust me. All I do is play RG midrange/aggro.
There are plenty of other ways to turn on Rhonas -- many of which don't use up a card.
That is a fair point. I've just been impressed enough with the card in testing to want to continue using him. I've also seen decks running Honored Hydra to synergize with Hazoret and Brawler, which is interesting.
Although now that the Cat is gone we don't have to worry about Rogue Refiner so much. It also may let us drop Manglehorns from the maindeck, depending on how the meta shakes out.
I truly believe that a lot of these lists on the internet are trying to do too many things(Energy, Discard, Scrapheap) when this deck truly has to commit to an idea in order to maximize efficiency. Currently I believe the most effective way to utilize Glorybringer and Rhonas within this shell is to COMMIT to the Haste mechanic.
My personal favorite card in this list, aside from Glorybringer, is Crocodile of the Crossing!!! Being able to Rhonas, or even Hellion, into a 5/4 with Haste that can add the counter to Channeler Initiate feels busted with Glorybringer on curve right after!
You talk about running out of gas late game. What about the old stand by Fling? Can send through the last few points of damage.
Otherwise, with so many creatures, what about Rhonas' Monument. Yes you burn a turn, but you end up with a pump spell every turn WITH trample.
I like Fling but I'm using Heart-Piercer Manticore instead, with a body and embalm. But I might consider 1 Fling, because most of the time I'm stuck at 5 life or less, so drawing Fling or Heart-Piercer Manticore is excellent with Rhonas on board.
So far I've had two major dilemmas in building this deck:
1. Is Arlinn Kord worth it? I know that her +1 is great with Glorybringer but her other abilities look pretty subpar. Plus she competes with Hazoret in the 4-drop slot and Hazoret is absolutely insane.
2. What about Sweltering Suns? This deck is definitely trying to go aggro and I'm not sure if it would be wise to kill your own creatures. I put it in there in case I were to get l run over by zombies.
Any additional feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
While I can respect the thought of madness being "too cute" I have tested both the haste deck and YouTube's own Dev from SB MTG's list and here's my thoughts through testing of both.
Hazoret is the best 4 drop to play, period. It turns on Rhonas and can only be prevented by Grasp of Darkness or Cast Out. Granted the others have the same pitfalls as him but he can't be Lightning Axed, Nevered, Ruinous Pathed or any other damage or destruction based removal. I haven't played against white based control but they're coming once tuned and Fumagate will happen. His reach also is important especially if we're in top deck mode and draw lands/terrible cards we don't need. Puts them one clock. An argument can actually be made on which God is better. Rhonas can get wrecked when a 4 power creature is gone. Hazoret with 1 or fewer cards, especially late game, is better. One is worse against Grasp of Darkness than the other but it's not as clear as it seems.
Attune with Aether is worse the Oath of Nissa. Oath can do the same thing and even more so as a late game top deck.
The 2 drop spot is very important. Servant and Channeler are no good. Having just Harnessed Lighting as removal is terrible against Zombies decks. Channeler I know will have a place just not with the strategy. Only thing I did like was with Crocodile Crossing and that was all.
Lathnu would be broken if he could not have a draw back but this deck doesn't produce enough energy to have him stay around for Rhonas.
Bristling Hydra is the card I like the most of the creatures in your list. I just don't know if there's a spot for him in the Madness strategy.
Dev's list runs Heart of Kiran and it gives it another way to get there that your list lacks at times. Bloodrage Brawler is being held up by opposing creatures on board, he can crew HOK up and still fly over.
Bloodrage Brawler is a must have. It's great on turn 3 with Rhonas with a Fiery Temper in hand. Turn 2 pitching a Honored Hydra is also as good as advertised.
Noose Constrictor is one I'm not sure of. I haven't had it last to beat someone on a slow start. He's cool to get Hazoret turned on but he's pretty weak. This deck likes to discard for value and not just do it because. Getting to just 5 or 6 mana is fine and all it needs. Lupine Prototype might be better, I would need to test it in place to see if it can be done. But I think he may just because he avoids Grasp of Darnkess/damaged base removal (aside from Lightning Axe) and turns on Rhonas even if he can't attack.
Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe is as good as you would think they would be together on turn 2 on the draw.
Glorybringer being a 4 of is what I adopted from your list vs Dev's running only 2. He's one of the best cards along with the Gods to have as a win condition. He's probably the best win condition in the entire deck.
Arline Kord I like to allow for your smaller creatures to get bigger and have Vigilance. Allowing her to crew HOK and then activate her + abilities on either side is as good as advertised. The token is not super relevant except on a clean board.
Here's some bad matchups I've experienced thus far. G/B can just go wide and slow you down to a crawl at times. Ulamog just wrecks you, no real answer for an attacking one. Westvale Abby for the same principle. I think Heroic Intervention needs at the least a spot in the side board to protect against spot removal and destruction based board wipes. Westvale Abby I think just wrecks us if we don't kill the W/B Zombie player before they get it going. Dark Salvation, you have to pay attention to how many zombies they have, they can still kill a god with paying 0 for XX if they have enough zombies already in play.
I know I replied to just your deck but I wanted to at least give you an idea on your deck and this strategy in general.
Adding another color just doesn't seem viable. There's something here and Madness is just better at the current moment. Jund may actually be the only one I would consider. I'll explore at another time. Energy of any kind just slows this strategy down too much. Hopefully there's others out there that care about this enough to help us out here.
After more testing I've concluded that the idea of a Madness-themed deck is too inconsistent. The deck shines when you have your discard outlets and the stuff you want to discard at the same time, but that doesn't always happen. But what will happen is that you will be empty-handed by Turn 3-4 a lot, and being empty-handed just isn't going work in this meta when control decks are on the rise. In fact being empty-handed in general is bad; you're basically saying, "I can't stop you. You're free to do whatever." We had several Madness support cards before Amonkhet but it never became competitive for a reason; this time is no different.
Being to deal 8 damage with a glorybringer or 10 with a rhonas could give an unexpected victory.
Not sure actually. It being sorcery speed doesn't impress me. When they can't block I can see it being bad ass but I can also see it being a dead card. Jury is out imo. Interesting idea though.
After more testing I've concluded that the idea of a Madness-themed deck is too inconsistent. The deck shines when you have your discard outlets and the stuff you want to discard at the same time, but that doesn't always happen. But what will happen is that you will be empty-handed by Turn 3-4 a lot, and being empty-handed just isn't going work in this meta when control decks are on the rise. In fact being empty-handed in general is bad; you're basically saying, "I can't stop you. You're free to do whatever." We had several Madness support cards before Amonkhet but it never became competitive for a reason; this time is no different.
Yea, it's just not there. Rhonas is harder to turn on than people realize where Hazoret is a bit easier. Rhonas and Hazoret as a tag team is insane. But there's times you have them both out there and one can swing but the other one can't. Arlinn Kord I liked a lot. This is a tap out deck, Cenosr can suck, lol. But usually turn 4 you want to do something else not use Rhonas's ability to turn him on. It's clunky and unrefined. That being said, it's really fun.
There's 2 local game stores by me. One is more competitive on Wednesday and the other is your usual FNM. I think this will be the FNM deck and I will go another route for the more competitive store. And may mix it up as we go. Hopefully there may be a breakout deck at the Pro Tour, not holding my breath though lol.
After more testing I've concluded that the idea of a Madness-themed deck is too inconsistent. The deck shines when you have your discard outlets and the stuff you want to discard at the same time, but that doesn't always happen. But what will happen is that you will be empty-handed by Turn 3-4 a lot, and being empty-handed just isn't going work in this meta when control decks are on the rise. In fact being empty-handed in general is bad; you're basically saying, "I can't stop you. You're free to do whatever." We had several Madness support cards before Amonkhet but it never became competitive for a reason; this time is no different.
Yea, it's just not there. Rhonas is harder to turn on than people realize where Hazoret is a bit easier. Rhonas and Hazoret as a tag team is insane. But there's times you have them both out there and one can swing but the other one can't. Arlinn Kord I liked a lot. This is a tap out deck, Cenosr can suck, lol. But usually turn 4 you want to do something else not use Rhonas's ability to turn him on. It's clunky and unrefined. That being said, it's really fun.
There's 2 local game stores by me. One is more competitive on Wednesday and the other is your usual FNM. I think this will be the FNM deck and I will go another route for the more competitive store. And may mix it up as we go. Hopefully there may be a breakout deck at the Pro Tour, not holding my breath though lol.
Right. And I would even go further and say that Rhonas doesn't belong in this deck. Using Rhonas to pump up a weaker creature should be used as a finisher rather than a last resort to activate himself. Rhonas needs multiple 4 powered creatures on board at once to ensure he stays active when your opponent picks off one of them and that is just too tall an order right now. Your best bet would be Bristling Hydra since it can protect itself but the thing costs 4 mana, and getting more than 1 out at the same time gets clunky.
Then I would say Noose Constrictor would need to go and Lupine Prototype would be the better 2 drop if Rhonas stays in the deck. Him along with Bloodrage Brawler are the best 2 drops to have to keep Rhonas turned on. Sure, Fatal Push is still a card but they both avoid Magma Spray. I would also go up to 4x Heart of Kiran. Lupine Protype can at least do that where Noose Constrictor makes that awkward.
Also, Hazoret can help dump your hand of the last few cards you need to pitch to get her online. So Constrictor isn't a necessary piece for purely pitching cards, though it does help in the early game.
Lupine is also a good early game and late game draw in this deck,whereas you don't really want to be drawing into Constrictors in late game very often (except for discard fodder I suppose). If you don't have any of the Minotaurs in hand to drop down, it gets Rhonas online. If you need to crew HOK it gets that done. Lupine's problem has always been how to usefully use one in the early game, and this deck situated that. At worst it's a late game 5/5 for 2 and that's not bad at all.
I'm going to be testing this out with no constrictors and 3 Lupines and see how it fairs.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Currently Playing:
:symrg:Domri's Savagery:symrg:
:symw:Humans:symw:
:symw::symu::symg:Trostani Bant:symw::symu::symg:
:sympu:Architect:sympu:
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4 Game Trail
4 Cinder Glade
4 Aether Hub
7 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Bloodrage Brawler
4 Voltaic Brawler
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Rhonas the Indomitable
4 Bristling Hydra
1 Hazoret, the Fervent
3 Samut, Voice of Dissent
4 Glorybringer
2 Manglehorn
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Attune with Aether
Breakdown of some of the cards
Bloodrage Brawler: this card is gross. Discarding a card is meh but he turns on Rhonas immediately and hits like a truck. You'll often have some garbage to pitch anyways.
Rhonas the Indomitable: this card is also gross. He's easy to turn on in this deck and a pain to get rid of. They need Stasis Snare or Cast Out (which is a fantastic card btw) to get rid of him. One of the #1 threats int his deck.
Bristling Hydra: this thing is hard to kill, which is what we're looking for. Big, beefy nonsense that's is difficult to get off the table. Not as good as some of the other threats, but serviceable.
Glorybringer: This guy is great. Flying + haste is really good. It reminds me a lot of Stormbreath. On top of that it kills basically everything on the ground and answers Gideon very cleanly.
Attune with Aether: This deck is very energy hungry. With Servant helping us get to 4 and 5 earlier and Aether Hub acting as a dual land, we really rely on this card to get going early. I may even cut a land because 21 + Servant + Attune may be enough.
Samut, Voice of Dissent: This guy is cool, but not as flashy as it looks. I may end up cutting him for more Hazoret or something like Tireless Tracker.
Manglehorn: Expect this guy to be everywhere in constructed for the foreseeable future. It hates on both Mardu (kills Ballista, HoK & Harvester) and also hates on the Saheeli combo. The numbers on this guy are probably the most fluid.
Some other cards that I've been looking at, but haven't tested fully yet
Blossoming Defense: Seems nice against 3 and 4CMC removal. Not so hot against Harnessed Lightning but oh well. It may end up making the main deck.
Arlinn Kord: Might be good enough now? Plays nicely with Glorybringer (or basically anything that hits on the ground). Acts as additional removal. Might be worth a couple slots.
Sheltered Thicket: This may be better than Cinder Glade. If we have enough R/G sources in Attune/Servant/Hub/Game Trail than we could consider running these to smooth our draws later in the game.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
You do not need 4 Rhonas, and 3 samut. Both of those cards are horrible in multiples. I would go 2 for each
Also, Hazoret is not very good in this deck so I would cut Hazoret as well.
I would go 4 of Greenbelt Rampager. Also 22 Lands might be an issue. You do not have a lot of low drop creatures, which means you want to hit your land drops. Anything less than 23 would be bad. Attune is nice, but playing attune on turn 3 to hit your land drop makes your curve hurt a lot.
Tried to pull away, but now I'm Back At it
Love is Emphatic, cards need to be played
Hailing from the BA, accumulating CA"
I think I'd sit him out.
Rhonas is bad in multiples, but at the same time you want to make sure that you draw him every game because of how powerful he is. I could see going to 3, but never 2.
Hazoret could be cuttable, especially when deviating from the Madness theme that some of the other decks have. I'm a bit biased towards him because both he and Rhonas survive sweepers and he turns on the latter, but he might not make the cut.
I've been unimpressed with Rampager so far, but I haven't tried him much beyond his initial trial.
No way. The Brawler turns on half the deck and hits like a truck. So far I haven't had too many problems with him being stonewalled. It's possible the situation just hasn't come up and may be more prevalent, but Brawler is way too powerful to not play.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
// 25 Creature
4 Servant of the Conduit
3 Channeler Initiate
2 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Walking Ballista
2 Glorybringer
1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
2 Bristling Hydra
// 9 Instant
4 Harnessed Lightning
3 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Fatal Push
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Aether Hub
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Game Trail
6 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Swamp
// 3 Planeswalker
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
// 3 Creatures
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Glorybringer
1 Bristling Hydra
// 4 Instant
1 Fatal Push
2 Shock
1 Magma Spray
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
// 6 Sorcery
2 Radiant Flames
4 Transgress the Mind
Just classic monster style deck. Unsure if I want to run the full 4 glorybringer. Its very likely I do.
Standard:RWUJeskai WinsRWU
Modern:GWBMelira PodGWB
Legacy:WDeath & TaxesW
4 Bloodlust Inciter
4 Channeler Initiage
4 Servant of the Conduit
3 Rhonas the Indomitable
3 Lathnu Hellion
4 Bristling Hydra
4 Heart-Piercer Manticore
4 Glorybringer
3 Cut // Ribbons
4 Invigorated Rampage
Lands
4 Game Trail
2 Cinder Glade
9 Forest
8 Mountain
Lathnu Hellion gets chumped easily so I was thinking to replace it with Ahn-Crop Crasher but it doesn't turn Rhonas online.
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
None of these RG Aggro decks are fast enough to not care about pitching a card.
I'd seriously, seriously, need a good reason to play this card.
In the attrition war that is standard, you can't afford to just pitch cards unless you're getting value or killing them so quickly it doesn't matter. Trust me. All I do is play RG midrange/aggro.
There are plenty of other ways to turn on Rhonas -- many of which don't use up a card.
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
That is a fair point. I've just been impressed enough with the card in testing to want to continue using him. I've also seen decks running Honored Hydra to synergize with Hazoret and Brawler, which is interesting.
Although now that the Cat is gone we don't have to worry about Rogue Refiner so much. It also may let us drop Manglehorns from the maindeck, depending on how the meta shakes out.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
4 Bristling Hydra
4 Channeler Initiate
4 Crocodile of the Crossing
4 Glorybringer
4 Lathnu Hellion
3 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Samut, Voice of Dissent
4 Servant of the Conduit
2 Arlinn Kord
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Sorcery - 4
4 Attune with Aether
Instant - 4
4 Harnessed Lightning
Lands - 21
4 Aether Hub
2 Cinder Glade
6 Forest
4 Game Trail
5 Mountain
3 Magma Spray
3 Manglehorn
2 Natural State
1 Nissa, Vital Force
3 Prowling Serpopard
3 Sweltering Suns
My personal favorite card in this list, aside from Glorybringer, is Crocodile of the Crossing!!! Being able to Rhonas, or even Hellion, into a 5/4 with Haste that can add the counter to Channeler Initiate feels busted with Glorybringer on curve right after!
Arlinn Kord has found her home next to GloryBringer and I believe that the Fun-Ofs, Samut, Voice of Dissent and Chandra, Torch of Defiance also are strong players within our strategy.
I will continue to test this list and make any necessary adjustments as time goes on.
4 Khenra Charioteer
4 Channeler Initiate
4 Crocodile of the Crossing
3 Glorybringer
2 Lathnu Hellion
2 Rhonas the Indomitable
4 Bloodrage Brawler
4 Bloodlust Inciter
4 Attune with Aether
Instant
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Blossoming Defense
2 Invigorated Rampage
Lands
4 Aether Hub
2 Cinder Glade
6 Forest
4 Game Trail
5 Mountain
3 Magma Spray
3 Manglehorn
2 Natural State
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Prowling Serpopard
2 Sweltering Suns
Otherwise, with so many creatures, what about Rhonas' Monument. Yes you burn a turn, but you end up with a pump spell every turn WITH trample.
I like Fling but I'm using Heart-Piercer Manticore instead, with a body and embalm. But I might consider 1 Fling, because most of the time I'm stuck at 5 life or less, so drawing Fling or Heart-Piercer Manticore is excellent with Rhonas on board.
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
4x Bloodrage Brawler
4x Noose Constrictor
4x Channeler Initiate
4x Honored Hydra
3x Glorybringer
3x Hazoret the Fervent
2x Rhonas the Indomitable
2x Tireless Tracker
3x Oath of Nissa
Instants (10):
4x Lightning Axe
4x Fiery Temper
2x Blossoming Defense
Lands (21):
4x Game Trail
3x Cinder Glade
7x Mountain
7x Forest
3x Prowling Serpopard
2x Magma Spray
2x Blossoming Defense
2x Manglehorn
2x Appetite for the Unnatural
2x Key to the City
2x Sweltering Suns
So far I've had two major dilemmas in building this deck:
1. Is Arlinn Kord worth it? I know that her +1 is great with Glorybringer but her other abilities look pretty subpar. Plus she competes with Hazoret in the 4-drop slot and Hazoret is absolutely insane.
2. What about Sweltering Suns? This deck is definitely trying to go aggro and I'm not sure if it would be wise to kill your own creatures. I put it in there in case I were to get l run over by zombies.
Any additional feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hazoret is the best 4 drop to play, period. It turns on Rhonas and can only be prevented by Grasp of Darkness or Cast Out. Granted the others have the same pitfalls as him but he can't be Lightning Axed, Nevered, Ruinous Pathed or any other damage or destruction based removal. I haven't played against white based control but they're coming once tuned and Fumagate will happen. His reach also is important especially if we're in top deck mode and draw lands/terrible cards we don't need. Puts them one clock. An argument can actually be made on which God is better. Rhonas can get wrecked when a 4 power creature is gone. Hazoret with 1 or fewer cards, especially late game, is better. One is worse against Grasp of Darkness than the other but it's not as clear as it seems.
Attune with Aether is worse the Oath of Nissa. Oath can do the same thing and even more so as a late game top deck.
The 2 drop spot is very important. Servant and Channeler are no good. Having just Harnessed Lighting as removal is terrible against Zombies decks. Channeler I know will have a place just not with the strategy. Only thing I did like was with Crocodile Crossing and that was all.
Lathnu would be broken if he could not have a draw back but this deck doesn't produce enough energy to have him stay around for Rhonas.
Bristling Hydra is the card I like the most of the creatures in your list. I just don't know if there's a spot for him in the Madness strategy.
Dev's list runs Heart of Kiran and it gives it another way to get there that your list lacks at times. Bloodrage Brawler is being held up by opposing creatures on board, he can crew HOK up and still fly over.
Bloodrage Brawler is a must have. It's great on turn 3 with Rhonas with a Fiery Temper in hand. Turn 2 pitching a Honored Hydra is also as good as advertised.
Noose Constrictor is one I'm not sure of. I haven't had it last to beat someone on a slow start. He's cool to get Hazoret turned on but he's pretty weak. This deck likes to discard for value and not just do it because. Getting to just 5 or 6 mana is fine and all it needs. Lupine Prototype might be better, I would need to test it in place to see if it can be done. But I think he may just because he avoids Grasp of Darnkess/damaged base removal (aside from Lightning Axe) and turns on Rhonas even if he can't attack.
Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe is as good as you would think they would be together on turn 2 on the draw.
Glorybringer being a 4 of is what I adopted from your list vs Dev's running only 2. He's one of the best cards along with the Gods to have as a win condition. He's probably the best win condition in the entire deck.
Arline Kord I like to allow for your smaller creatures to get bigger and have Vigilance. Allowing her to crew HOK and then activate her + abilities on either side is as good as advertised. The token is not super relevant except on a clean board.
Here's some bad matchups I've experienced thus far. G/B can just go wide and slow you down to a crawl at times. Ulamog just wrecks you, no real answer for an attacking one. Westvale Abby for the same principle. I think Heroic Intervention needs at the least a spot in the side board to protect against spot removal and destruction based board wipes. Westvale Abby I think just wrecks us if we don't kill the W/B Zombie player before they get it going. Dark Salvation, you have to pay attention to how many zombies they have, they can still kill a god with paying 0 for XX if they have enough zombies already in play.
I know I replied to just your deck but I wanted to at least give you an idea on your deck and this strategy in general.
Adding another color just doesn't seem viable. There's something here and Madness is just better at the current moment. Jund may actually be the only one I would consider. I'll explore at another time. Energy of any kind just slows this strategy down too much. Hopefully there's others out there that care about this enough to help us out here.
Being to deal 8 damage with a glorybringer or 10 with a rhonas could give an unexpected victory.
4x Bristling Hydra
4x Glorybringer
4x Lathnu Hellion
3x Rhonas the Indomitable
4x Servant of the Conduit
3x Tireless Tracker
Instant (4)
4x Harnessed Lightning
Sorcery (4)
4x Attune with Aether
4x Aether Hub
2x Cinder Glade
7x Forest
4x Game Trail
5x Mountain
Planeswalker (5)
3x Arlinn Kord
2x Nissa, Vital Force
Artifact (3)
3x Heart of Kiran
2x Appetite for the Unnatural
2x Blossoming Defense
2x By Force
4x Magma Spray
2x Prowling Serpopard
1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2x Sweltering Suns
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
Not sure actually. It being sorcery speed doesn't impress me. When they can't block I can see it being bad ass but I can also see it being a dead card. Jury is out imo. Interesting idea though.
Yea, it's just not there. Rhonas is harder to turn on than people realize where Hazoret is a bit easier. Rhonas and Hazoret as a tag team is insane. But there's times you have them both out there and one can swing but the other one can't. Arlinn Kord I liked a lot. This is a tap out deck, Cenosr can suck, lol. But usually turn 4 you want to do something else not use Rhonas's ability to turn him on. It's clunky and unrefined. That being said, it's really fun.
There's 2 local game stores by me. One is more competitive on Wednesday and the other is your usual FNM. I think this will be the FNM deck and I will go another route for the more competitive store. And may mix it up as we go. Hopefully there may be a breakout deck at the Pro Tour, not holding my breath though lol.
Right. And I would even go further and say that Rhonas doesn't belong in this deck. Using Rhonas to pump up a weaker creature should be used as a finisher rather than a last resort to activate himself. Rhonas needs multiple 4 powered creatures on board at once to ensure he stays active when your opponent picks off one of them and that is just too tall an order right now. Your best bet would be Bristling Hydra since it can protect itself but the thing costs 4 mana, and getting more than 1 out at the same time gets clunky.
Lupine is also a good early game and late game draw in this deck,whereas you don't really want to be drawing into Constrictors in late game very often (except for discard fodder I suppose). If you don't have any of the Minotaurs in hand to drop down, it gets Rhonas online. If you need to crew HOK it gets that done. Lupine's problem has always been how to usefully use one in the early game, and this deck situated that. At worst it's a late game 5/5 for 2 and that's not bad at all.
I'm going to be testing this out with no constrictors and 3 Lupines and see how it fairs.
:symrg:Domri's Savagery:symrg:
:symw:Humans:symw:
:symw::symu::symg:Trostani Bant:symw::symu::symg:
:sympu:Architect:sympu: