Madness is a both awesome and powerful mechanic that isn't understood super well. Aside from the Madness decks that dominated Standard almost two decades ago, the mechanic hasn't seen much competitive play because it requires such a delicate mix of enablers and payoffs.

This all changes with Historic Horizons enter the mix, which brings with it a concentration of good Red madness cards as well as discard outlets to join Faithless Looting, which is already one of the best cards in the format. Couple this with great enablers like Seasoned Pyromancer, awesome new threats like Managorger Phoenix, and the one-two punch of Dragon's Rage Channeler and Unholy Heat, and you've got a serious threat on your hands!

Time Stamps:

00:04:08 - Match 1

00:24:11 - Match 2

00:33:34 - Match 3

00:44:11 - Match 4

01:01:06 - Match 5

Mono Red Madness | Historic | Jim Davis

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Ox of Agonas
• 4 Blazing Rootwalla
• 4 Bomat Courier
• 4 Dragon's Rage Channeler
• 4 Magmatic Channeler
• 4 Managorger Phoenix
• 4 Seasoned Pyromancer

• Instants (8)
• 4 Fiery Temper
• 4 Unholy Heat

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Pillar of Flame
• 3 Shatterskull Smashing
• 4 Faithless Looting

• Lands (18)
• 12 Mountain
• 2 Den of the Bugbear
• 4 Ramunap Ruins

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Grim Lavamancer
• 3 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 2 Roiling Vortex
• 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 3 Abrade
• 3 Soul-Guide Lantern

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Not too shabby!

Usually, Mono-Red decks have a reputation for being very one and done. They fire off the early blitz, try to get some damage in, and then if they haven't won by turn six or seven that's usually all she wrote because they can't grind in a longer game. Well not so with this deck!

As we saw in the games, we were routinely our drawing and grinding our opponents, whether it was raw card draw from Bomat Courier and Seasoned Pyromancer, the recursive element of Managorger Phoenix and our flashback spells, or the utility of having nine of our lands act like spells to prevent flooding.

Furthermore, there's the fact that madness is just pure card advantage as a mechanic. If you play a Faithless Looting, discard a Blazing Rootwalla and a Fiery Temper and cast both, you've turned your Faithless Looting into one Red mana to draw two cards and generate three Red mana. That's insane!

This deck was very impressive, which doesn't really come as a surprise considering how many great cards it got from Historic Horizons. While it probably hasn't reached its final form yet, I expect this deck to be a contender in Historic for a long time to come!