The Kitchen Table #177 - Torment 250 (A.k.a. Madness 250)

Hello all, and welcome back to another in a series of articles where I take a look at a recently built – and fun – Five Color deck. I’ve done these articles on 250 decks like Snow and Spirits, and today I’m going to look at another theme deck that I recently built in the Five Color genre.

For those of you that are unaware, Five Color is a casual format where players must use at least 20 cards of each color and 250 cards in their deck. It uses the Vintage cardpool, but due to the uniqueness of the format we need to maintain our own banned and restricted list, which you can find over at www.5-color.com. We like to think we have generous mulligan rules, we allow ante if you really want, and we allow the dexterity cards, with Chaos Orb at the top.

My real life decks are typically, but not exclusively, designed for multiplayer. Today’s deck features a deck that is in front of me on the desk, so it appears to be pretty real life. Due to the nature of the theme, a vast majority of the deck is available to Magic: The Electronic players. If you want to kick it Prismatic style, then this deck would need little modification to make it all electronic and whatnot.

I decided to build this deck after I had a lot of fun playing with the Unraveling Mind precon. I had a lot of fun playing around with the new madness cards, so I decided to see if I could get a madness 250 deck built.

Before I head into the deck itself, allow me to talk a little about its construction. This is one of the very few Five Color decks I have ever built that tried to minimize the Green component. Sure, you have your Rootwalla and your Arrogant Wurm, but most of the good stuff is in other colors. I just ran some generic spellshapers and whatnot to round out the color. I think I got it down to 23 cards.

I also tried to minimize White, but that should be obvious from the theme. White’s two madness cards were never that hot, and her spellshapers, although solid, are not going to wow you. The one thing White did have was the ability to get multiple cards very cheaply (lands). Therefore, you’ll see some land search in White.

Blue gave me some tricks, some spellshapers, some outlets, and some card drawing. This was a pretty solid color through and through.

Black gave me good madness cards, unlike Torment, where Black, the main color of the set, got screwed out of one of that set’s mechanics. It also has some solid spellshapers and removal.

Red is the best color for this deck. Its two madness cards previously were great, and toss in Reckless Wurm and you have some solid madness cards. Then you can add several good spellshapers, including one recently printed legendary creature.

One of the challenges of building a deck around a madness theme is figuring out the proper balance. You toss in all of the madness cards that you feel are good enough to make the cut. That much is obvious.

Then you have to toss in the outlets that you feel are good enough to make the cut. From Wild Mongrel to Peace of Mind, you have to have enough outlets to work with. However, I’d prefer to discard a card to do more than give a particular creature +1/+1. Therefore, I included several spellshapers. Discarding an Obsessive Search, using its madness, to activate a Dreamscape Artist is pretty good.

If your deck has too many outlets and not enough madness cards, then you be sitting there with relatively minor permanents that have a limited impact on the board. If you have too many madness cards and not enough outlets, then you are sitting there with a handful of overcosted junk. No one wants to tap six mana for a Dark Withering.

Therefore, I decided to add a lot of outlets, both as cheap spells and as permanents. However, I also decided to add a lot of cards that draw cards cheaply, even if those cards are merely lands. That way I always have fodder for the good stuff.

After that, I included cards that had a synergy with the deck. You’ll see.

With the preamble out of the way, let’s look at the deck:

250-Card Five Color Deck

Abe Sargent

Test deck on 04-22-2007

Casual

Creatures (75)

Lands (66)

Spells (109)

One version of my deck had Blast from the Past. I just wanted to make sure it was stated up front that I played with an Unhinged card.

Alright, let’s start walking through the deck.

The Blue

In this deck, Blue is an interesting mash of abilities. Circular Logic’s inclusion is no surprise. I like Obsessive Search as well, because turning discard effects into one-shot cantrips is a great way to keep your hand full. That’s I included these two cards should hardly be controversial.

Aquamoeba is a solid outlet for cards, although it doesn’t do too much. It’s a mana-free outlet, and I wanted a few of those, plus it’s early defense. This card was included in many tournament-winning builds of Madness, so again, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock to see it here.

Neither should Compulsion. It’s a great Madness outlet, a way to dig and find cards, and a poor target for enchantment removal as long as you have 1U open. Another outlet that makes perfect sense is the Waterfront Bouncer. Its ability to bounce uses little in the way of mana, which suits the early to mid game very well, when Madness outlets should be cheap to play and use. Dreamscape Artist is another cheap to play spellshaper, although its activation cost is more than either the Bouncer or the Compulsion.

A later game Madness outlet needs to have a greater impact on the board. Compare Alexi with a Waterfront Bouncer and you’ll see what I mean. Alexi has a true impact on the board, maybe by saving your team from mass destruction or by sending away an opposing side to allow you to get a major offensive through.

Card drawing is vital. We have a full set of Rhystic Study. These force opponents to either spend extra mana, which slows them down and allows you to develop, or to allow you to draw cards. Either is good for you. These are a priority target for removal, so expect to get one smashed fairly quickly, but in the meantime, it can deliver quite a few cards to your hand before it goes.

Fact or Fiction is just good. It doesn’t have any particular synergy with the deck, it’s just a good card. Likewise, Wonder is a good card, and you can discard it easily, so that helps. It’s in the deck more to help with the Wonder race. A lot of multiplayer decks run Wonder and/or Anger. We have Wonder just to keep up with the Joneses.

Other card drawing is solid or specialized. Deep Analysis is solid, and you can discard it in a pinch and still get an effect from it. Ideas Unbound is specialized. Cast it to draw three cards, and when you have to discard, you get to say, “Oh look, there go some Madness cards.” Since it costs just two mana to use, you should have plenty of mana left over to play a discarded madness card or two.

Magus of the Jar is a similar effect to Ideas Unbound, just on a larger scale. Draw seven cards, then at the end of the turn, discard your hand. That means if you draw any madness cards off the seven, when you discard the lot, you’ll get a chance to play them. There is also a single copy of Compulsive Research in the draw and discard category. It was all I could find when I searched through some cards.

Ancestral Vision wraps up our card drawing. Its good to drop early and then it can give you some solid ammunition.

You want countermagic, right? Circular Logic is going to stand up on its own. That’s where the buybackable Forbid comes in. It’s discard buyback fits nicely with the madness theme while it also serves as an adjunct to the deck as a whole. Like many cards, it doesn’t need you to have madness cards in order to still be good.

I wanted to have a beater larger than a 4/4 trampling wurm. As such, you can see the Tidespout Tyrant in the deck. At first, you may wonder why I’m running the Tyrant over other beaters, but once you see it in action, there’s no question that he is an ideal choice for the deck. This deck has a tendency to cast a bunch of spells all at once. For example, you might cast an Ideas Unbound, and then drop two madness spells off it. When you are playing that many spells in a row, a Tyrant can really have a nasty effect on the board.

There are a few cards that I included one of because they were too limited to run in multiples, or because I just own one. Mind Over Matter is a great outlet that allows you get extra mana or tap a blocker or an attacker down, untap a creature that you attacked with to block again, and so forth. It’s very, very good. Stronghold Biologist and Diplomatic Escort are descent enough spellshapers, but they aren’t so powerful that they dominate a table and force the opposition to deal with them. Dralnu’s Pet is a nice choice to toss a Wurm or Recluse on. Play it, kick it and discard a Reckless Wurm, Arrogant Wurm, Gorgon Recluse, and you get a powerful flyer as well as your madnessed card. You can also set up a Dread Return by pitching something like Tyrant or a madness outlet by pitching Phantasmagorian.

The Multicolor

There are no gold cards, no split cards, and just Avatar of Discard (er…Discord rather) as a hybrid card. Again, I wanted a few beaters. It’s cheap enough that it can work well with madness cards. If you don’t have the cards to use him, just toss him into another discard outlet. He works well with the other cards in the deck.

The Green

Reduced to just 23 cards, this section isn’t as big as you’d otherwise expect. With Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, and Wild Mongrel in 12 of those 23 spots, there’s isn’t a lot of conversation I can do. Do you really need me to extol the virtues of these three cards?

I’ve talked about the Greenseekers in previous articles, so I won’t spend forcer talking about them. I love them. As a one-drop spellshaper, you can be using its ability long before you need to set up defenses on later turns. It’s not a mana accelerant like Silverglade Pathfinder. I never bought much Masques, so I don’t have any Silverglades running around, but I’m not sure that I’d run them over the Greenseekers in this deck. A Silverglade has to be played on the second turn, activated on the third, so it’s the fourth before you can do anything. The Greenseeker can often be used alongside the things you are doing with its cheap cost to use, plus you get it down earlier and thus finish fixing your mana earlier.

There’s a solid recursion theme going on in this deck. From Reap to Genesis to All Suns’ Dawn to Nostalgic Dreams to Restock, this is one theme I kept in the deck. With all of the discarding going on, I felt that some recursion might be appropriate. You’ll note the lack of cheaper recursions like Regrowth, Eternal Witness or Recollect. I wanted my recursion to also be a source of getting extra cards in the hand to use for future spellshaping purposes.

Sylvan Library is just a cheap enchantment that can increase the quality of your draws or get you some cards in a pinch.

One card I wish I could have used was Dawnstrider, but again, I really don’t have any.

The White

Another color with a diminished element, I cut White down to the bare 20 cards required. I decided to include Frantic Purification. In the pantheon of madness cards, it will never be thought of as a home run. However, by using this I was able to skimp out on the enchantment removal in other areas, and that was important to me. This deck has more important things to do than dedicate a bunch of spots to Orim’s Thunders, Hull Breaches and Dismantling Blows.

Peace of Mind is a great madness outlet and a solid way of gaining life. There probably won’t be much of a question why I included it. Other madness outlets include Devout Witness, which helps to shore up my weakness to artifact and enchantments, Avenger en-Dal which is money against attackers, and an Icatian Crier, because its foil and it works well with Dread Return.

I would have tossed in more Avengers, but I only had the one extra. They are great on a multiplayer table, often keeping multiple major creatures at bay. People generally don’t want to walk their uber-powerful critters of doom into your little Avenger.

Glory is a great way to protect your creatures, plus there should really be a problem finding a way to get it into a graveyard. As a surprise discard and activation, it can stop removal or help to alleviate alpha strikes with aplomb.

Vengeful Dreams is cheap enough to allow you to activate madness effects off the discard. Plus removing attackers is tech in multiplayer. Taking out Akroma the First and Darksteel with equal nonchalance is something that should be admired and copied in your removal spells.

The final section of White is dedicated to cheap card drawing in the form of Tithe, Land Tax, and Weathered Wayfarer. You can use these to smooth out your mana base or to give you cards for your various discard outlets. Land Tax is especially tasty.

The Black

The madness cards among Black are some of the best and some of the worst with that mechanic. For every stinky Psychotic Haze there is an amazing Dark Withering. That’s just the odd way that the color works.

Deciding what madness cards to include was not always easy. Sure, Dark Withering goes in and the Haze of Suckiness stays out. After that, however, there are some questions. Big Game Hunter is removal and has a cheap cost, with little impact on the board once played… you have to ask questions. Still, I think he’s good enough to play. Gorgon Recluse is a solid creature, but the double Black madness cost is a bit expensive. On the other hand, it’s great to drop the Recluse when attacked and then through her in front to auto-kill the attacker. So she goes in.

After that, it’s more of a question. There are not enough Black creatures for Call to the Netherworld and not enough Black cards for Nightshade Assassin. Strength of Lunacy is too weak to play. Brian Gorgers are really strong in a duel, but in multiplayer? Their power diminishes with the more opponents that you have. Psychotic Episode ain’t bad, but again, discard like this is really only good in a duel setting. Lastly, Muck Drubb was the last madness card cut from the deck. It’s a creature, but you’ll rarely want to use its redirection ability, making it a Hill Giant that’s madnessable for just one less than a Hill Giant. That’s nothing to write home about.

Phantasmagorian is an amazing creature in this deck, although it’s a bit pricey. It’s just a 6/6 while in play, and its ability to be countered looks pretty poor. However, when dead, at any time to can discard three cards, with no mana cost, to bring him back. This enables the feared triple madness play, which I’ve pulled off numerous times. It’s a great card to toss to Dralnu’s Pet or Volrath. It’s also a madness outlet that’s usable after a sweeping effect goes off – such as a Wrath or Disk.

For outlets, we have several options. Urborg Syphon-Mage is a nod to the multiplayer environment and would not make the cut in a more duel oriented deck. It’s a great way to gain a bunch of life while also serving as a decent enough sized creature. Most spellshapers of this type are 1/1 scrawny guys. At a 2/2, this is much better than a Grey Ogre or Scathe Zombies. Tortured Existence turns weaker creatures into stronger creature, and occasionally will allow you to madness out a creature as well. Undertaker also fits the recursion and madness theme, helping your team by both serving as a madness guy and a recursive guy. He segues in nicely. Finally, Volrath is a good outlet for the expensive beaters, making him very, very large.

Sickening Dreams can be a solid removal spell as well as a descent outlet, yadda yadda. The Firestorm cards in Torment are solid choices for this deck because they are cheap, so as a madness outlet they leave mana available to be used on those cards.

Dread Return plays a lot of roles in this deck. It can be discarded and still have a use, that’s pretty good in a tight situation. If you discarded a big critter in the early game, you can now bring it back. It can be used to bring back a critical madness outlet like Jaya Ballard. With all of those uses, including the flashback one, it is the only pure reanimation spell in the deck.

Chainer’s Edict is useful for the same reasons. You can toss in into a discard and still have it available later for use. Plus, you need some removal that is more aggressive than Vengeful Dreams and still takes out the major group of nasty creatures, like Akromas and Darksteel Colossi.

Demonic Collusion and Tutor are included for their obvious helpfulness in finding a critical card. This deck runs less tutor power than normal, so if you get a Demonic Collusion, I’d definitely look at buying it back. If it were legal, Insidious Dreams would also be included, but its not. On the chance that your group doesn’t care, feel free to toss one in.

There are two Black cards that may not have an obvious use. Ill-Gotten Gains causes everybody to discard their hands (hello madness) and then return three cards from their graveyard. This is great because you get to set up any three cards from your graveyard, but so does everybody else. However, it is your turn first, so you get a chance to drop some stuff before others do.

The other odd card is Chain of Smog, which your target can then copy. Laugh as opponents copy them and send them at each other. Punish them if they choose you by going with the discard of the madness.

By the way, I would have loved Notorious Assassin for this deck, but again, I was outta the good Masques cards.

The Red

I love Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption and Reckless Wurm. No color has a core of madness cards as good as that trio.

Red also has the single best madness outlet in the deck with Jaya Ballard. No other single card has even two ways of discarding cards for effects while Jaya Ballard has three. To be fair, you won’t be shaping many Infernos, but she still is a great card for your madness outlets. Blue decks simply must take her out, which they will have difficulty doing.

Hammer Mage is a great choice because the deck has few artifacts. Watch them clear out a nice section of decks whenever you have the need. I included one Kris Mage because it was foil and I didn’t want to clog my deck up with them but sometimes just one damage is enough.

You’ve seen Firestorm-esque cards from Torment making the cut in other colors, so spying Firestorm itself here it certainly in line with that. Its scalability is known, and its amazingly cheap mana cost allows it to combine with madness cards with significance.

I love Lightning Axe in this deck. Lighting Axe + Dark Withering is the new Terminate, only better. (There are a lot of combos in this deck that make other cards. Activate Peace of Mind and madness Fiery Temper for Lightning Helix. Tap Waterfront Bouncer and madness Obsessive Search for Repulse.)

Death Spark is one of my cool little tricks I like to discover and play with in my decks. Use Death Spark whenever a creature of yours is about to die, and then just return it. If a creature of yours is dying, and the damage from Death Spark isn’t going to do much to the board, discard it for an effect, then return it during your upkeep. By doing this, Death Spark becomes a very powerful discard mechanism.

Lastly, we have an Anger. Like the other incarnations, it’s a breeze to get it into the yard. Most decks that run Anger want to attack on the first turn. This deck, however, wants to activate on the first turn. Play a Diplomatic Escort, and it cannot be Capsized with you being able to protect it.

This deck gets much better with Squees and Krovikan Horrors. Like other cards mentioned, however, I was out of them. Wheel of Fortune would also be great, and again, I’m out.

The Artifacts

I’m going to skip the artifacts that are used to make mana. There are only so many times I can expound on the usefulness of Fellwar Stone.

Fool’s Tome draws you cards for cheap. This is an artifact (double entendre alert) of a previous incarnation of the deck that included a lot of hellbent cards in the deck. I found the hellbent cards to be very underwhelming. As a result, I yanked them, but this worked well enough to stay. The madness deck with its many discards often runs out of gas, and this is a way to increase the gas-ness.

Also helping with the drawing of cards are Skullclamp and Mind’s Eye. There are a lot of clampable creatures in the deck, so feel free to take out a Greenseeker that’s outlived its usefulness or an Automation that you are about to off to draw a card anyway. Journeyer’s Kite gets you a card every turn guaranteed. The Eye allows you to draw many cards, but like the Rhystic Study, expect it to get destroyed quickly. Even the Sensei’s Divining Top can assist in your card quality and get you a card in a pinch.

Mindless Automaton is the final madness outlet. I’m sure you are getting tired of me saying that! It’s a decent enough creature, and I like getting an outlet in the colorless region of my deck, allowing me to have an outlet no matter what colors I draw.

Memory Jar would have been nice here, but like other cards I mentioned, I’m simply out of that card.

The Lands

I just used basic lands for this article. In real life, my deck has a combination of Invasion tap lands, a few white-bordered painlands, a couple of lairs, and whatever else I could find lying around. Writing up that anemic manabase would, in all fairness, take forever, clutter up the article, and make you laugh at me.

You might be surprised to discover just 66 lands in the deck. However, I have found that with our generous mulligan rules in Five Color combined with a large multi-player table where countless mulligan are often taken in each game, a lowered mana count is not necessarily a bad thing. Considering the deck has a lot of cards that make mana from Fellwar Stones to Greenseekers to Tithe, it has proved to be fine so far.

…

And with that out of the way, we come to the conclusion of another article devoted to all things casual. In the next couple of weeks you can expect my Future Sight review. Until then, allow me to leave you with one extra thing.

Okay, here’s a super special tidbit. While building this deck, I realized that madness needs a card. Please, Wizards, print this card (or a version of this card).

(I give Wizards permission to read the below card and revoke my right of ownership over said idea, such that should Wizards print this or a similar card, I will not sue them or hold them accountable in any way.)

Mad World
Land
Tap for a colorless mana.
Madness 0 (or maybe 1)
Tears for Fears rules over all! (So does Donnie Darko) -Abe

A Madness land! Now that’d be cool!

Until later,

Abe Sargent

Appendix – Want to make this a Magic: The Electronic deck? I’d take out everything that’s not legal (Rhystic Study, spellshapers like Waterfront Bouncer, Forbids, some mana artifacts, stuff like Ill-Gotten Gains). Then, I’d up the legal stuff like Tithe to larger amounts. I’d also remove some elements that are multiplayer oriented, such as Urborg Syphon-Mage and Mind’s Eye. In would go Brain Gorgers and Psychotic Episode. Is your Black heavy enough to finally run Nightshade Assassin? It might be after you pull some of the older stuff you can’t play and replace it with goods in Black.

There are some cards that are not Prismatic legal, and if you wanted legality there, you’d need to pull Demonic Collusion. I’d up the cheap card drawing, especially since you lost the awesome Rhystic Study. Bring up Compulsive Research numbers to four and maybe look at Thirst for Knowledge. You could increase some other cards that are not restricted in Prismatic, like Nostalgic Dreams or All Suns’ Dawn.