Standard lands but of note I wasn't running Aether Hubs.
Played against Grixis emerge, BG delerium, UW flash-loss, BR agro, RG energy. Cut to top 8, Grixis midrange-loss.
It wasn't a bad run really, K-return and deepfiends were just lackluster for me all day. I guess I would want more ministers and the aether hubs as I really want to see amalgams in the GY more consistently and need better mana.
Played grixis emerge at game day. Lost first round in top 8 to a grixis midrange deck that dropped Kalitas both games on curve and I couldn't draw lightning axe, then ended the game with dark dwellers or gearhulk flashing back disintigrates.
Played ok but I felt I was fighting against my own awkward mana and draws more than my opponent in most games. It just didn't execute the emerge plan consistently and I was often just hellbent with a weak board facing threats I had no answer to.
I am planning BR madness going forward with more interaction and more aggression.
Early game clutter the board with humans and zombies while getting some disruption and value from them, then drop 6/6s for four mana the rest of the game. Whip and Spear pushes everything over the top and Downfall/Thoughtseize answer anything your army can't.
Funny thing I was just thinking earlier how much of a pain desecration demon is and decided I wanted to make a deck with 8 6/6s for 4 lol.
I made a crazy Dimir Midrange deck on cockatrice with every combo I could think of. Guildmage/Jace, Phenax/Aberration, Notion Thief/Madness, Whip of Erebos/Aetherling, Bogbrew Witch and her crew + elixir. I added a bunch of removal and then Omenspeaker to find combo pieces faster and Xathrid because I had no 3 drop dude.
Did you know Duskmantle Guildmage, Notion Thief, Bogbrew Witch and Omenspeaker are all humans? Niether did I till I started playing with the pile lol. I cut phenax and aberration after a few games. Cut a copy each of thief and madness added more removal and some mutavaults and Gorgons Head and my results have been surprisingly good. I often clutter the board with newts and zombies early game while I kill anything huge with removal then drop an Aetherling for game, or notion thief/madness for a mindtwist/brainstorm or jace with duskmantle out, or my favorite has been simply drain with newts and stampede with lifelinking zombies.
While I don't advocate this deck as amazing, some of the interactions are strong. You may like the Omenspeaker/mutavault/xathrid package for stalling, adding value to guildmage, scrying for combo pieces and being wrath resistant to keep bodies milling with phenax. Whip + Aetherling is unbeatable, dropping whip and self-milling for an Aetherling is probably something you want to consider. Speaking of mill, Whispering Madness is great even without a notion thief when you are a proactive deck that can cast more spells than your opponent while searching for your combo pieces and filling your/and their graveyard very fast. Also Bogbrew Witch, so much fun and actually better than I thought she would be in this slower format, she actually does some work most games then turns into a zombie, probably not better than just casting a demon though in a lot of games. I want to try a couple Soul Ransom alongside bubbling cauldron, considering that it shows up in a surprising number of games for only being a 1 of.
Well hope I gave you an idea or two, I plan to continue testing with Dimir, all Combos.dec
No denying that the Notion Thief Madness engine is super fun and powerful. I play am testing a more tempo-oriented thief deck with judges familiar and hidden strings and quicken. Allowing for t1 judges familiar, t2 hidden strings, attack with familiar, untap lands cast notion thief, t3 attack with familiar, untap lands cast quicken and whispering madness, GG. The rest of my shell includes cyclonic rift, some other removal, couple thoughtsieze, shipwreck singer, nightveil, Siren of Silent Song, duskmantle seer and civic sabres.
Basically cheap multicolored flyers all carry hidden strings and madness or civic sabre and have some other ability for potential card advantage. It's been a blast to play with but needs a lot more testing.
On topic though I was thinking of replacing the Duskmantles, (good but not great) with Whip of Erebos and Aetherling. I think they have better synergy with my evasive creatures and life link for racing or recurring a flyer and sticking sabres on it. Mainly though my intent is that whispering madness lets you see a lot of your deck and puts a lot of cards in your grave, pitching an Aetherling while I cycle into a whip then simply return the Aetherling seems like the fastest way to close the game after combo but also wins without it.
Two powerful combos that have synergy with each other seems like something worth exploring. Maybe UB self mill with a Phenax even, Whip of Phenax? Suddenly Pilfered Plans seems much better. Dimir Charm gets slightly better. DRS maybe? Go for broke and add Duskmantle Guildmage and Jace too lol. Dimir all the combos deck.
Cyclonic Rift followed by a whispering madness trigger is usually the blow out that ends the game, I use 3. All bounce spells are amazing with madness, but even better in your case with Toil//Trouble. I also use 2 Dimir Charm, 2 Rapid Hybridization, and a couple Hero's Downfall, to round out my main board removal as none of these are totally dead for me in any matchup.
I would also recommend another cheap evasive creature to carry a madness cipher. Judge's Familiar is one of my favorite targets early, and still useful late, I also use hidden strings though for t2 thief, t5 overloaded rift. Perhaps Chandra's Phoenix would be good for you? Toil//Trouble brings it back from being discarded/killed, but maybe the double red is too rough. Izzet Charm seems good here for killing, countering, and digging, also good with phoenix. The more I think about it the more I think you need the phoenix, with no raw draw spell you need a way to put cards in your hand or madness just gets smaller and smaller.
Satyr Firedancer + Essence Backlash, counter your creature, kill your other creature, you take X, my turn? Same cmc as Steam Augury if your keeping up 4 all the time. Lots of 4-5 cmc creatures being played currently.
Countering any of the gods is a large chunk of damage.
If Ephara enters as a creature she draws you a card on the opponents upkeep.
I was thinking Deputy of Acquittals might be interesting to run with her. Two devotion, flash, 2/2, and can save a guy from removal or blank an attack, and the ability is a may ability so can just use it as a 2 devotion flash bear if needed. You can even rotate two of them late game to draw an extra card every upkeep. Not exactly any awesome etb creatures to abuse though.
Most games are very fun and interactive even if I lose I never feel like the deck just did nothing. My favorite thing to do is hidden strings a familiar on t2 untap lands, attack, tap 2 land, trigger strings, untap those lands and flash in a thief t2. How to cast Whispering Maddnes on t3 though?
The other deck idea I have been playing with for fun are Civic Sabre decks, no one plays artifact hate lately. Basically Trying different guilds to find the best one with a curve of dual colored weenies plus a way to make multicolored tokens. "Boros Blade" turned out to fit the best. I also added an Accorder's Shield for fun, gotta have a sword and board right?
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Wretched Gryff
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Haunted Dead
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Kozilek's return
4 Cathartic reunion
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Lightning Axe
1 Fiery Temper
Standard lands but of note I wasn't running Aether Hubs.
Played against Grixis emerge, BG delerium, UW flash-loss, BR agro, RG energy. Cut to top 8, Grixis midrange-loss.
It wasn't a bad run really, K-return and deepfiends were just lackluster for me all day. I guess I would want more ministers and the aether hubs as I really want to see amalgams in the GY more consistently and need better mana.
Played ok but I felt I was fighting against my own awkward mana and draws more than my opponent in most games. It just didn't execute the emerge plan consistently and I was often just hellbent with a weak board facing threats I had no answer to.
I am planning BR madness going forward with more interaction and more aggression.
4x Desecration Demon
4x Banisher Priest
4x Xathrid Necromancer
3x Sin Collector
3x High Priest of Penance
4x Thoughtseize
2x Whip of Erebos
2x Spear of Heliod
1x Obzedat Ghost Council
4x Hero's Downfall
25 lands
Early game clutter the board with humans and zombies while getting some disruption and value from them, then drop 6/6s for four mana the rest of the game. Whip and Spear pushes everything over the top and Downfall/Thoughtseize answer anything your army can't.
Funny thing I was just thinking earlier how much of a pain desecration demon is and decided I wanted to make a deck with 8 6/6s for 4 lol.
Did you know Duskmantle Guildmage, Notion Thief, Bogbrew Witch and Omenspeaker are all humans? Niether did I till I started playing with the pile lol. I cut phenax and aberration after a few games. Cut a copy each of thief and madness added more removal and some mutavaults and Gorgons Head and my results have been surprisingly good. I often clutter the board with newts and zombies early game while I kill anything huge with removal then drop an Aetherling for game, or notion thief/madness for a mindtwist/brainstorm or jace with duskmantle out, or my favorite has been simply drain with newts and stampede with lifelinking zombies.
While I don't advocate this deck as amazing, some of the interactions are strong. You may like the Omenspeaker/mutavault/xathrid package for stalling, adding value to guildmage, scrying for combo pieces and being wrath resistant to keep bodies milling with phenax. Whip + Aetherling is unbeatable, dropping whip and self-milling for an Aetherling is probably something you want to consider. Speaking of mill, Whispering Madness is great even without a notion thief when you are a proactive deck that can cast more spells than your opponent while searching for your combo pieces and filling your/and their graveyard very fast. Also Bogbrew Witch, so much fun and actually better than I thought she would be in this slower format, she actually does some work most games then turns into a zombie, probably not better than just casting a demon though in a lot of games. I want to try a couple Soul Ransom alongside bubbling cauldron, considering that it shows up in a surprising number of games for only being a 1 of.
Well hope I gave you an idea or two, I plan to continue testing with Dimir, all Combos.dec
Basically cheap multicolored flyers all carry hidden strings and madness or civic sabre and have some other ability for potential card advantage. It's been a blast to play with but needs a lot more testing.
On topic though I was thinking of replacing the Duskmantles, (good but not great) with Whip of Erebos and Aetherling. I think they have better synergy with my evasive creatures and life link for racing or recurring a flyer and sticking sabres on it. Mainly though my intent is that whispering madness lets you see a lot of your deck and puts a lot of cards in your grave, pitching an Aetherling while I cycle into a whip then simply return the Aetherling seems like the fastest way to close the game after combo but also wins without it.
Two powerful combos that have synergy with each other seems like something worth exploring. Maybe UB self mill with a Phenax even, Whip of Phenax? Suddenly Pilfered Plans seems much better. Dimir Charm gets slightly better. DRS maybe? Go for broke and add Duskmantle Guildmage and Jace too lol. Dimir all the combos deck.
Cyclonic Rift followed by a whispering madness trigger is usually the blow out that ends the game, I use 3. All bounce spells are amazing with madness, but even better in your case with Toil//Trouble. I also use 2 Dimir Charm, 2 Rapid Hybridization, and a couple Hero's Downfall, to round out my main board removal as none of these are totally dead for me in any matchup.
I would also recommend another cheap evasive creature to carry a madness cipher. Judge's Familiar is one of my favorite targets early, and still useful late, I also use hidden strings though for t2 thief, t5 overloaded rift. Perhaps Chandra's Phoenix would be good for you? Toil//Trouble brings it back from being discarded/killed, but maybe the double red is too rough. Izzet Charm seems good here for killing, countering, and digging, also good with phoenix. The more I think about it the more I think you need the phoenix, with no raw draw spell you need a way to put cards in your hand or madness just gets smaller and smaller.
TLDR; Cyclonic Rift and Chandra's Phoenix I think would be great cards for you to try out here.
Countering any of the gods is a large chunk of damage.
I was thinking Deputy of Acquittals might be interesting to run with her. Two devotion, flash, 2/2, and can save a guy from removal or blank an attack, and the ability is a may ability so can just use it as a 2 devotion flash bear if needed. You can even rotate two of them late game to draw an extra card every upkeep. Not exactly any awesome etb creatures to abuse though.
Judges familiar
Shipwreck Singer
nightveil specter
Notion thief
whispering madness
cyclonic rift
aetherize
far/away
hidden strings
dimir charm
Most games are very fun and interactive even if I lose I never feel like the deck just did nothing. My favorite thing to do is hidden strings a familiar on t2 untap lands, attack, tap 2 land, trigger strings, untap those lands and flash in a thief t2. How to cast Whispering Maddnes on t3 though?
The other deck idea I have been playing with for fun are Civic Sabre decks, no one plays artifact hate lately. Basically Trying different guilds to find the best one with a curve of dual colored weenies plus a way to make multicolored tokens. "Boros Blade" turned out to fit the best. I also added an Accorder's Shield for fun, gotta have a sword and board right?
That's not the problem, the problem is the lack of tutors and cantrips to get your pieces together in a reasonable amount of time.
I also agree that devotion is a combo-ish mechanic and a deck might very well pop around that would be called a combo deck instead of a devotion deck.