UG Madness

Alandariel · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 136

I was a big fan of it back in the day. Well I was just playing a random casual game at my local store and this guy was playing its original build. And I'm playing T2 BG Rack. And I drop Tarmogoyf. And I almost shit myself...

I believe with the addition of Tarmogoyf UG Madness could be viable again, if not a competitive force. Here's my list... pretty basic but it works.

// Lands
5 [UG] Forest
3 [UG] Island
4 [10E] Yavimaya Coast
4 [DIS] Breeding Pool
2 [ON] Windswept Heath
1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
1 [ON] Flooded Strand

// Creatures
2 [JU] Wonder
2 [FD] Thought Courier
2 [10E] Merfolk Looter
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [TO] Basking Rootwalla
4 [OD] Wild Mongrel
4 [TO] Arrogant Wurm

// Spells
4 [OD] Roar of the Wurm
2 [TO] Deep Analysis
4 [OD] Careful Study
4 [TSB] Call of the Herd
4 [CS] Mishra's Bauble

Maybe it'll even get an update from Lorwyn, but I don't know anything about the set or what's in it, so I'll have to go check it out later.

Mke410 · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 23

needs more fetches. Take out the coasts for them. Also lose the baubles and replace them with circular logic. That will greatly improve the deck.

kendiggy · Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 295 Location: not here

as much as we all love ug madness, and tarmogoyf, unfortunately right now the powerhouse in extended is dredge, and it wins on turn two. u/g madness had no effective way other than tormod's crypt to stop dredge and every dredge deck is prepared to deal with crypts. I suppose you could play leyline of singularity, but then they just reanimate a huge golgari grave troll and ichorid every turn, and you're left chumping or racing, and that doesn't seem like a good race for you.

I have seen a lot of folks playing main-deck root maze and ground seal, which is pretty good hate for them. It allows you to steal a game one and then maybe side in some crypts along with the main deck hate and it becomes pretty overwhelming for the dredge deck to beat. Not only do they have to have chain of vapor to bounce your ground seal, they also have to have a needle or something to stop crypt.

If you can find a way to incorporate these strategies or something similar, then I would endorse your deck. But until then, unless you're expecting a dredge-hating metagame, I would try something else.

kendiggy · Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 295 Location: not here

Actually, now that I think about it, it seems that leyline of singularity could be pretty good against them, not just because it kills tokens, but because it'll be really hard for them to get three creatures in play to flashback dread return. If they flip two Narcomoebas, they both die, then they get two tokens and they both die. They have to get one token, one moeba and one putrid imp, if they're even playing him. Give that a shot, get it in play and then protect it.

edit: I suppose you could play engineered explosives, too. Maybe some sort of trinket mage engine. But that just becomes another target for needle, not to mention you really end up becoming a totally different deck at that point.

Volrath89 · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 17

Isnt Looter il-Kor better than:

2 [FD] Thought Courier
2 [10E] Merfolk Looter

???

kendiggy · Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 295 Location: not here

not really, looter il kor forces you to discard during your combat phase, merfolk looter and thought courier let you discard whenever you want to, so you can discard circular logic and counter a spell, instead of banking on having a mongrel in play.

center425 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 112

is aqumeoba better?

Alandariel · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 136

Thanks everyone for your input.

center425 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 112

I really think aqua. keeps the deck on the agressive slant and you turn into more of a control build with out them. Either way I don't think this deck is competive simply because you have no real advantage over any other deck.

R3wind · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 434

So someone help me understand why "Root Maze" is good hate for Dredge? Because there lands and artifacts coming into play tapped is so bad for them... Really what does it buy you one turn? I really don't understand how that helps.

Also the deck can splash red and black with all of the Ravinca dual lands.

Dark Withering, Fiery Temper, and Ichor Slick maybe good for removal. I like Ichor Slick for the off chance that you can cycle and madness but Dark Withering is more stable.

Psychotic Episode, with other discard or counter spells could be very nice.

Reckless Wurm is Arrogant Wurm 5-8

So I am not really really sure if it worth testing. There are some other cards that are worth at least looking in to.

If you could work out the combo matches the deck maybe a contender again. I think that adding some of the new madness cards like Reckless Wurm and Dark Withering, would give the deck more reach and more control.

center425 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 112

The real question is why would you want to play this over any other aggro deck? Then if you take it to a more controling rout why would you want to play it over Loam or Flow? This deck just isn't very good at anything it does or could do.

ChuckNorris · Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 69

Definately run Aquameoba. It's a beater, and you already have infy card drawing with deep anal and careful study. I took a whack at the deck recently and came up with the following:

Idiots
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquameoba
3 Wonder
4 Arrogant Wurm

Non-Idiots
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Memory Lapse

Manas
4 Chrome Mox
4 Breeding Pool
6 Fetches that get breeding pool
1 Centaur Garden
1 Cephalid land
1 oboro
2 tree of tales
1 Seat of the synod
1 forest
1 island

Trotsky1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 322

you really do want to add black for psychatog its so easy to do, tog mongrel gofy all in one deck sounds pretty good.

yho · Joined: 25 Nov 2004 Posts: 20

add blue char

R3wind · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 434