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Madness burn

Modern

foreverTuesday

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Sorcery (21)

Creature (13)

Instant (8)

Land (18)

Sideboard

Instant (7)

Sorcery (7)

Creature (1)

Maybeboard

Creature (25)

Sorcery (10)

Instant (4)

Enchantment (5)

Land (1)

I built this deck with a goal in mind: to fairly reliably cast cards for madness along with traditional burn spells to enable a fast burn deck. I designed the deck to be decently competitive (not aiming for it to be tier 1, just want to sometimes do well at modern night at my lgs).

I welcome any comments, critique, and advice about this deck. Feel free to make suggestions as to what cards you think the deck should and shouldn't be running. I have worked very hard to make this deck what it is and am always looking to make it better. In particular, I am not super happy with the 2 copies of Tormenting Voice that I run and am looking for a card to replace it with.

The sideboard is far from finalized and suggestions for it are welcome, however, I'm waiting to see how this deck does in my local meta before really working on it.

This is, above all, a burn deck, so focus on killing your opponent with direct damage. You usually don't want to spend any spells killing their creatures unless a single creature poses a big enough problem that you will lose the game otherwise. Ideally you want to be pitching (and casting) madness spells to your discard outlets, however, you can also use them for cycling useless cards (usually extra lands) out of your hand. In late game, you may find it useful to cast your madness spells (and rift bolt) for their full cost, but generally this is something you want to avoid doing.

The deck runs only 18 lands because that is all it needs. Duals that come in untapped are also integral to this deck working as it should.
4x Blackcleave Cliffs - a perfect dual land for this deck as it almost always comes in untapped (you're probably already flooded if it doesn't)
4x Bloodstained Mire - A fetchland to get the mana you need (plus it provides some deck filtering). If you can use the mana, fetch asap and go for a Blood Crypt unless you already have a black source.
3x Blood Crypt - Very important because you can fetch for them and always have the option to bring them in untapped. Make sure to bring them in untapped unless you are 100% sure you cannot use the mana until your next turn. The deck could run 4, but 3 is really all it needs.
6 Mountains, 1 Swamp - basics are good. Usually you just need mountains for this deck. Keep the swamp in there just in case.

Because the goal of this deck, like most burn decks, is to deal damage directly to an opponent as fast as possible, it runs very few creatures.
4x Insolent Neonate - This little guy can usually ping your opponent for a few points of damage due to menace making him unblockable in early game. His sac ability is a great madness casting outlet that you should usually wait to use until your opponent tries to kill him or is blocking him.
4x Monastery Swiftspear - A staple of any burn deck. Prowess makes her get bigger as you burn your opponent and haste means that you can usually ping an opponent turn 1. You can get her up to 6/7 on turn 3 with the right cards, but usually she's a 2/3 or 3/4 swinging in for decent damage. If you have her out, you always want to play your sorceries in your first main phase and your instants at the last possibly moment before combat damage is dealt.
4x Vexing Devil - usually a bolt that does 4 damage since few opponents want to leave a 4/3 on the field turn 1. The only downside is that it will die to a deck that runs enough removal to kill it before it can attack.
Notably, the deck does not run Goblin Guide. He would fit nicely in the deck and I made the choice not to include him because the card is so expensive and I am trying to buy the actual cards for this deck. If I put him in at some point, he will probably replace Vexing Devil.

4x Lightning Bolt - The cornerstone of any burn deck. Nothing beats three damage for one mana. Mostly you just want to hit your opponent in the face with it, but it can be good removal in a pinch.
4x Rift Bolt - Lightning Bolt except it hits on the turn after you play it (don't hardcast it except in special circumstances).
4x Lava Spike - Lightning Bolt except it can only hit your opponent (or a planeswalker they control) and only at sorcery speed.
4x Bump in the Night - Lava Spike that can't hit a planeswalker. The flashback is nice, though expensive enough that you'll only be able to use it once in a blue moon.
4x Fiery Temper - Lightning Bolt if you can cast it for madness. Kind of shitty if you can't.
4x Alms of the Vein - Better than Lightning bolt if you cast it for madness. The life drain can occasionally save you in a tight game.
Note that most of these cannot legally be redirected to Spellskite, which is neat.

4x Faithless Looting - Great madness enabler. Ideally, you cast it turn 3 and discard-cast two madness spells. The flashback cost means you can cast it a second time from your graveyard, which can help keep you from running out of gas. You should always cast it (normally or flashback) if you have no other cards in hand and will still have at least 1 mana up after paying for it because you can cast any madness spells you draw (and then promptly discard) with it.
2x Tormenting Voice - Basically just a worse Faithless Looting. It can enable just one madness spell, but it does replace itself in the draw, so it keeps you the card advantage that Faithless Looting loses you. I'm hoping to find a better card to replace this with in the deck.

This deck handles most matchups similarly to a traditional burn deck with one notable exception: it does better than traditional burn against any deck with a discard strategy. The fact that discarding can be advantageous to you makes it a weaker strategy against this deck. Although you will likely lose some card advantage in early game to spells such as Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, an opponent's Liliana of the Veil is often helpful as it gives you an easy way to cast spells for madness.
You will lose if your opponent has leyline of sanctity out (so will most burn decks). There are no answers for it in either red or black. Luckily, it doesn't tend to see a lot of play as it is a mostly useless card against most decks.

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)

16 - 3 Rares

16 - 5 Uncommons

21 - 7 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.62
Folders Decks, Modern interesting
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