Alms of the Vein: Probably my favorite Madness card of the block and absolutely spot on in flavor. A 6 point swing in life between you and your opponent for one black mana while enabling the ability of another card? Yes, please.
Bloodhall Priest
: Not as useful until you are out of cards but ramps up the damage as soon as you are. There are many ways to dump your hand all at once to maximize the effectiveness of this card. I like it.
Borrowed Hostility
: A great cheap buff that has many worthy targets. Paying the full cost of 4 to get both modes is never worth it, especially since Stensia Masquerade is already going to give your creatures first strike. Not enough room to make this a full playset, but the one to two times it comes up in the game should be huge.
Call the Bloodline
: Love this. Cheap and reusable discard outlet that grants you the bonus of a Lifelinking Token. The fact that it is a vampire works well with Stensia Banquet and gives you fuel for Voldaren Pariah
. Solid card.
Collective Brutality: Probably the most important card in the deck. Being able to choose multiple modes for removal, disruption, and life drain is absolutely fantastic for only 2 mana. On turn 3 you can play this and discard Alms of the Vein to kill an early creature or disrupt your opponents hand while forcing a 10 point swing in life totals between you and your opponent (Down 2 from this and 3 from Alms while you go up 2 and 3). That's huge value.
Falkenrath Gorger: If you have the option to play this, Insolent Neonate, or Vampire Cutthroat save this for when you have a string of madness triggers ready to go. You only have one so make sure you make the best use of him. Usually this is going to be waiting until you have Olivia, Mobilized for War on the board and a couple of other one drops to play. Cast Gorger, discard Neonate or Cutthroat to gain a +1/+1 counter and haste. Then activate Olivia again when the Cutthroat or Neonate enter the battlefield and discard another. Repeat as many times as you can and end the chain with either Alms of the Vein or
Fiery Temper
. Attack with everybody and you just threw a ton of damage at your opponent for like 4 or 5 mana. Big plays.
Fiery Temper
: Alms red burn cousin. Incredibly easy to discard and play for it's madness cost, this belongs in the deck as much or more than any other card. In almost any circumstance you are going to want to aim for the face. This deck wants to be aggressive and win as fast as possible, and there's a decent chance that you'll have Stensia Masquerade granting all of your creatures First Strike so your opponents creatures won't typically be an issue.
Foreboding Ruins: Most people would probably run 4 of these for the mana fixing so feel free to take out a Mountain and a Swamp to do so. I'm ok with 2 since there is a chance that you will draw one without another land in hand and it will come in tapped which will slow you down a turn. I wasn't willing to spend $6 for two more to find out if that becomes an issue.
Furyblade Vampire: The only vampire with Trample, this guy should be able to get out of hand when combined with Stensia Masquerade to build up +1/+1 counters. He is probably the best target for Uncaged Fury since he has Trample and one of the highest attacking strength when he buffs himself.
Geier Reach Sanitarium: Had to make room for one. This is very useful when you run out of gas. Using this to cycle through your deck while giving you a chance to activate madness could be the difference between winning and losing.
Insolent Neonate: One of the best one drop Vampires in the block with Menace and a one time use madness enabler. A great utility creature that replaces itself when you need to even if he's tapped. Always a good idea to keep a starting hand that involves Neonate and
Fiery Temper
with a mountain to start things off with a bang, that's 4 damage on turn 2 with an extra card draw and you might be able to cast a Vampire Cutthroat or another Neonate depending on what kind of mana you start with. Great way to start the game.
Lupine Prototype: A bit out of place perhaps, but a pleasant surprise because of how quickly you can activate him. With only one in the deck you'll want to get him out as soon as you know you can drop your last card to get full value. Even one attack makes 5 damage for 2 mana which is awesome. If all it does is block and kill a creature that's 2 cost removal which is better than most anyway. This guy could possibly go up in count to a full playset in place of something else if you wanted to since it is very easy to activate with plenty of discard outlets. If you go in that direction I would also bump
Bloodhall Priest
to a full set since they were cut from the same cloth. This could be a cool main strategy to build around, but here it is a nice alternative option to keep things interesting.
Olivia's Dragoon
: I like this better than Heir of Falkenrath
even with one less power simply because you can discard whenever you need to and as often as you need to. As soon as turn 4 you can use this to discard your whole hand and drop a
Bloodhall Priest
for 2 damage while also allowing your Lupine Prototype to start swinging. You would also have another mana available to activate Alms or Temper while unloading your hand for maximum value.
Olivia, Mobilized for War: Another card that could go up to a full set but you would need to also go up to a full set of Falkenrath Gorger and all of your other one drops including Alms of the Vein and
Fiery Temper
. This would be due to the amazing chain drop burst attack potential described with Falkenrath Gorger. I would also go up to 4
Stromkirk Condemned
as the best free discard outlet and two drop. The double black could be problematic so I would also keep at least a couple of
Olivia's Dragoon
just in case, or split both cards with 3. This would become the main win condition and probably be a great deck. I like it as an optional plan if the moons align.
Stensia Banquet: Incredibly good or incredibly bad. The part that makes this usually fall into the good category is that it also replaces itself. You should always be able to rely on at least 2 damage with this so 2 damage plus a card draw for 3 mana isn't too bad. The same thing but for upwards of 5-10 damage later in the game help this scale nicely.
Stensia Masquerade: A neat trick to madness this after blockers are declared to give your vampires, well, bite. An unsuspecting opponent that doesn't block will end up giving you a bunch of +1/+1 counters or find themselves wiping out their own board instead of taking down yours in the process.
Stromkirk Condemned
: Love the field buff, this works great with your little lifelinkers, especially if you have Masquerade. Once per turn doesn't mean you can't discard on your opponent's turn and you don't have to tap it so you can do this the same turn you play him. Very useful in pretty much every situation.
Uncaged Fury: Best when saved and used as a finisher. This is fun to stack with
Borrowed Hostility
on a Vampire Cutthroat that goes unblocked due to Skulk. You can also stack in there the added bump from Stromkirk Condemned for a total of 12 lifelink damage (Starts at 1, +3 from Hostility, +1 from Fury, +1 from Condemned, x2 with Double Strike = 12). That's huge!
Vampire Cutthroat: Great first turn drop to give yourself advantage right from the beginning. Lots of ways to take advantage of Skulk and push through extra damage. Great creature.
Voldaren Pariah
: Could be a board wipe for your opponent when activating it's transformation. Obviously this is another solid choice for Uncaged Fury, especially when stacked with
Borrowed Hostility
. By turn 5 you can have the 3 other creatures to sacrifice and afford to flip, pump, and win. Turn 4 use any of many discard outlets to cast this with Madness. Even better if done at the end of your opponents 3rd turn. Then, turn 5 use one mana to drop a 4th creature, sacrifice three of them to transform and wipe your opponents board, then use the last 4 mana to play Uncaged Fury and
Borrowed Hostility
. That should add up to 20 damage all in one swing (6 to start, +3 from Hostility, +1 from Fury, x2 with Double Strike = 20). Even if your opponent does manage to keep a creature it is unlikely that it could block the Pariah in the air anyway. Scary stuff. Seriously, look at the card art.
