You obviously need to be discarding this for it to be good. But if you do, paying 3 mana for a 8/4 that kills their best creature (and probably loses you some life) instead of discarding a card is amazing.
This is particularly brutal to have on turn 3 if your 2-drop was Heir of Falkenrath (or Fleeting Spirit or Seasoned Hallowblade in BW). Having this in your deck makes Survival of the Fittest ridiculous (if it wasn't already) and Fauna Shaman a must kill for creature decks (if it wasn't already). However, since the madness cost is 3, you need a lot of free discard outlets for this to reach full potential. With Pack Rat for example, you can only get this on the board once you reach 6 mana.
If you manage to hardcast this, you aren't that sad either, though that definitely should not be your main plan if it's in your deck. Hardcasted, this is like a bit worse Noxious Gearhulk for 1 more mana. Similarly, this isn't the worst creature to reanimate (especially as reanimator decks typically have discard outlets to make use of the madness).
Not sure how I feel about this, since there's some real high highs but some real low lows. Seems like an awful topdeck in just about everything, only has 4 toughness, costs you almost half your starting life total, and a bunch of other peoples' decks literally won't even play creatures, especially not ones that are worth killing that will gain you any amount of life back.
With that said, when this thing works out, it's a complete ******* beating. In matchups without creatures you probably don't care too much about the life loss regardless, the madness ability makes this card advantage, and the sac ability is reminiscent of Soul Shatter, which I know is a good card that is worth the mana. So a 2-for-1 madness Soul Shatter strapped to an 8/4 makes this a 3-for-1. That might cost you like 5 to 6 life on average at that point in the game?
Still seems really clunky, but has enough upside in weird aggro decks and in reanimator that I'm happy to try this out. Obviously at its best in aggro/midrange/reanimator with Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman, but blue, red, and black also might have enough ways to pitch this thing on turn 4 and before.
Only big questions I have are if this is as terrible against aggro as I think it probably is, and secondly how many good+cheap discard outlets do you need to play this thing? I'm guessing like 4?
Again, not high on this at all, but at least it's cool so we'd probably be down to at least try it.
I think this is good - especially with all the random discard outlets out there.
The problem is who to cut.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Not good enough for most cubes, but one of the more powerful madness payoffs ever printed.
In any lower powered cubes supporting that , this seems great. Same with cubes that run a ton of self discard.
With psychic frog being printed and a potential madness theme in MH3, this card is worth a revist.
The best madness card available for cube that I've seen.
With enough looting effects this card is quite strong.
You obviously need to be discarding this for it to be good. But if you do, paying 3 mana for a 8/4 that kills their best creature (and probably loses you some life) instead of discarding a card is amazing.
This is particularly brutal to have on turn 3 if your 2-drop was Heir of Falkenrath (or Fleeting Spirit or Seasoned Hallowblade in BW). Having this in your deck makes Survival of the Fittest ridiculous (if it wasn't already) and Fauna Shaman a must kill for creature decks (if it wasn't already). However, since the madness cost is 3, you need a lot of free discard outlets for this to reach full potential. With Pack Rat for example, you can only get this on the board once you reach 6 mana.
If you manage to hardcast this, you aren't that sad either, though that definitely should not be your main plan if it's in your deck. Hardcasted, this is like a bit worse Noxious Gearhulk for 1 more mana. Similarly, this isn't the worst creature to reanimate (especially as reanimator decks typically have discard outlets to make use of the madness).
With that said, when this thing works out, it's a complete ******* beating. In matchups without creatures you probably don't care too much about the life loss regardless, the madness ability makes this card advantage, and the sac ability is reminiscent of Soul Shatter, which I know is a good card that is worth the mana. So a 2-for-1 madness Soul Shatter strapped to an 8/4 makes this a 3-for-1. That might cost you like 5 to 6 life on average at that point in the game?
Still seems really clunky, but has enough upside in weird aggro decks and in reanimator that I'm happy to try this out. Obviously at its best in aggro/midrange/reanimator with Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman, but blue, red, and black also might have enough ways to pitch this thing on turn 4 and before.
Only big questions I have are if this is as terrible against aggro as I think it probably is, and secondly how many good+cheap discard outlets do you need to play this thing? I'm guessing like 4?
Again, not high on this at all, but at least it's cool so we'd probably be down to at least try it.
The problem is who to cut.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
In any lower powered cubes supporting that , this seems great. Same with cubes that run a ton of self discard.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
The best madness card available for cube that I've seen.
With enough looting effects this card is quite strong.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg