The Story of a Dog, a Lizard and a Wurm

I was 14, my first time on a bus travelling to Pretoria from Pietersburg. So excited I cannot barely contain myself. I was trying to qualify for my first Nationals. Sleeved up I had my trusty and all-time favourite deck. Ready to take on the Big City Players.

I was playing my favourite colours and my favourite creatures.

The creatures were really powerful and synergized well. How could you possibly make these creatures more powerful? Let’s add Islands, of course! Adding Blue for utility and card draw was what it needed. The Deck was good. No, wait. The deck was amazing.

I was also fairly new and didn’t have any other cards except from the Odyssey Block. So rocking up at Regionals with a block constructed deck wasn’t ideal. But in the end this bad boy helped me qualify for my first nationals.

Sixteen years later, and Wizard’s managed to make me feel like a teenager again………..

All Grown Up and still crazy 

Shadows over Innistrad brought back my favorite mechanic, Madness. I do believe madness will be a highly competitive deck going forward in this Standard season. Let’s look at the new toys we got. 

The Creatures

Clearly we are running Rakdos. Madness goes well with red. One of the better standard decks during the Invasion/Odyssey Standard period was Frog in a Blender, the deck was designed to beat UB Psychatog which was the control boogieman at that time.

Look at that! That Power. Let’s chat about the bloodthirsty guys. 

• Heir of Falkenrath. This card is the new Wild Mongrel. Two Mana with discard transforms into a 3/2 Flyer.
• Falkenrath Gorger. One Mana 2/1 with a sick ability, yes please!
• Ravenous Bloodseeker. Potentially 3/1 for two mana. Slightly less powerful than the Heir.
• Incorrigible Youth. 4/3 Haste for Three mans. Check!
• Asylum Visitor. Definitely one of the more important cards that will go into the deck. It receives all the ticks. 3/1 body, Madness and Card drawing engine.
• Olivia, Mobilized for War. I was skeptical at first, but after play testing I found this card is absolutely broken.

The Spells

• Fiery Tamper. This card is Lightning Bolt in the right deck
• Lightning Axe. Great removal spell and madness enabler.
• Alms of the Vein. One B for six life difference, sure.
• Call of the Bloodline. Another great Madness enabler that creates vampires.

The Deck

Now that we have the Core of our build, let’s put it together.

Rakdos Madness V1.3

This is my third variation of the deck. Getting the numbers right is extremely difficult. I am still not 100% sure about the amount of lands in the deck. It is really important to curve out with the deck, so I decided to stick with twenty four. Late game it is easy to discard the lands to Call the Bloodline.

This version seems to be the most stable and consistent.

How to Play the Deck?

The Main goal of the deck is to curve out and smash face. Ideal draws consists of Falkenrath Gorger, Heir of Falkenrath and Incorrigible Youths. This draw is great and sets you up for a potential turn 4 win.

Longer games are generally where aggro decks start to fall of the board, but this deck has some serious potential to stay alive against heavy control decks.

Asylum Visitor is great at keeping your hand full when you emptied your hand with Madness. There’s sweet little combo with Call the Bloodline and Olivia, Mobilized for War especially when your hand is empty. Discard, make a token, and discard the other card, pump and swing and then you replenish your hand during your upkeep. So Awesome!

Olivia and Falkenrath Gorger Synergizes great with any discard affect. Discard to your Heir of Falkenrath, Madness your Vampire in and discard to the Olivia trigger and give it Haste and +1/+1. There is plenty of interactions in the deck that you will see once you start playing.

Drana and Kalitas are great additions to the deck as they are powerful cards on their own and flashing them in with madness just seems a bit unfair.

The Removal package is fairly simple. Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe do great work as cheap removal. Another great addition is Avacyn’s Judgment, a Forked Bolt early game or it can become a huge game ending burn spell.

I will be monitoring Standard very closely from next week and check online results when they start happening. I will definitely be playing Madness for the WMCQ.

If you have any questions regarding the deck or how it has been performing, you are more than welcome to drop me a PM on Facebook.

Enjoy the list and happy brewing.