Continuing my love of mechanics featured in Innistrad sets, I'm back this week to discuss everything you need to know about the mechanic, Madness. Madness is a unique MTG mechanic that allows you to cast cards at an alternate casting cost if the card is discarded.

Originally printed in the Odyssey block in the set Torment, Madness has made an appearance in a variety of sets, having an especially flavorful tie-in to my favorite Magic: the Gathering set, Shadows Over Innistrad. Overall, Madness is a fun, unique mechanic that takes some great patience and skill to play.

What is Madness?

Madness is a keyword ability found on spells that lets you cast the card for an alternate casting cost, if you've discarded it. One neat aspect about Madness is that not only do you sometimes get to cast cards for a discounted cost, you actually can play them at instant-speed when you discard them, regardless if that card is an instant or not.

With Madness, you can catch your opponent completely off-guard by essentially "flashing in" a creature or casting a sorcery spell at instant-speed, as long as you have a way to discard it. Madness has shaped decks that have been cornerstones of certain Limited formats all the way to top Pro Tour and Worlds Constructed decks.

History

Madness was first introduced in the Odyssey block, in the set Torment back in February of 2002. During this time, the FNM Constructed format was Standard. However, the Pro Tour Qualifier format was Odyssey Block Constructed, meaning you could only use cards from Odyssey Block sets to build your decks for these competitive events. This gave birth to Magic's most quintessential Madness deck, "UG Madness" or "Wild Mongrel." This deck utilized cards like Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, and Arrogant Wurm.

UG Madness | Odyssey Block Constructed, Top 8 World Championship 2002 | Amiel Tenenbaum

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Wonder
• 4 Aquamoeba
• 4 Arrogant Wurm
• 4 Basking Rootwalla
• 4 Wild Mongrel

• Instants (19)
• 4 Aether Burst
• 4 Circular Logic
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Quiet Speculation
• 3 Roar of the Wurm
• 4 Careful Study
• 2 Standstill

• Lands (22)
• 8 Forest
• 10 Island
• 2 Centaur Garden
• 2 Cephalid Coliseum

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Quiet Speculation
• 4 Envelop
• 1 Howling Gale
• 2 Krosan Reclamation
• 3 Psionic Gift
• 2 Ray of Revelation
• 2 Spellbane Centaur

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With Madness, this deck could gain serious advantage by making use out of discarding cards for value. For example, you can grow your Wild Mongrel to become a bigger creature by discarding a card, which under normal circumstances would be a detriment. However, with cards like Arrogant Wurm and Roar of the Wurm, you could power out pretty beefy creatures while not losing any value.

The other major aspect of why this deck was so important for Magic's history is that during this time Blue-Green Madness was a fairly inexpensive deck to build. With every card being a common or uncommon (save for a Tarnished Citadel) you could pick up this deck for cheap and have it ready for your local FNM or PTQ scene. While there were other viable Block decks in this format, Madness provided a cheap competitive way for players to get into Magic.

Madness returned as a mainstay mechanic in the two-set block of Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon.

Limited Decks

Speaking of Shadows Over Innistrad, Madness had a lot of utility in Magic's return to the classic gothic horror plane. Shadows Over Innistrad was a return to the gothic horror plane of Innistrad, although this time in this two-set block, the real horror revolved around Emrakul's influence and imminent emergence onto the plane, warping the plane's humans and monsters into something even more sinister.

Madness played a key role mechanically and thematically in this block, as it was used as a way to imply Emrakul's influence onto the plane, slowly corrupting the minds of Innistrad's inhabitants. This was primarily shown in cards that featured vampires, giving the Madness mechanic to mainly Black and Red cards in the set (although some Blue cards featured the mechanic as well).

Looking at the Limited format for Shadows Over Innistrad in particular, here's some data that was gathered before Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad:

With cards like Heir of Falkenrath and Call the Bloodline, you could get value out of your discard outlet cards by Madnessing in creatures like Incorrigible Youths, or casting spells like Fiery Temper for a discounted cost.

Madness Throughout Magic's Sets

Madness has made a variety of appearances in other Magic: the Gathering expansions. Since its initial printing in Torment, it's made its way into sets Planar Chaos, Commander 2019, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, and the Modern Horizons sets.

This past week I actually was able to utilize a Madness card in my chaos draft deck! In chaos draft you draft three different Magic draft boosters (instead of the traditional same three for a given set), and I happened to open a Modern Horizons 2 pack. I opened a Revolutionist, which I took for my Grixis-spells deck. While Revolutionist is kind of a mediocre Archeomancer for six mana, if you Madness it you can cast it at instant-speed for only four mana. This allows you to not only give you a way to buy back an instant or sorcery card whenever you want (like returning a Counterspell to your hand to remove your opponent's next play), but it also gives you a flashed in 3/3 creature, which could block in combat. I was able to flash in Revolutionist a number of times by discarding it on my end step with Canyon Crab!

Overall, Madness is a very unique mechanic that alters the casting the cost of a spell if you can discard it. Madness provides a different angle of attack when playing a game of Magic, letting you play cards at instant-speed you otherwise couldn't, dependent of course if you have an outlet to discard them. You can catch your opponent off guard with a Madnessed creature, or gain some extra value by discarding a card you otherwise would lose completely. Madness has been a key mechanic in a few sets throughout Magic's history, tying very closely to the lore, especially in Shadows Over Innistrad. It's a mechanic that has inspired various Constructed decks, and even provided an accessible way for players to get into the game during the time of Odyssey Block Constructed.

I hope this article provided you with some useful historical and practical context on how to use Madness in your next deck.

-Roman Fusco