There are a bunch of Madcap decks recently posted on these forums. As an initial proponent of Madcap --> Emperium, I must apoligize. I've been fooling around with Madcap into Emperion since Madcap got spoiled and there are some issues. First, suprisingly . . . a 4 mana 8/8 even with "life total can't change" just isn't that good in legacy. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not an OMG play. And that play turn 4 is even less impressive, when by turn 4 most legacy decks are already about to win. As such, while I agree that a pure combo route is probably wrong, I do think you need to have some way to consistently power out madcap turn 3 or earlier. Sol lands or mana dorks for example. Additionally, you need to run more ways to get rid of Emprium from your hand than jsut brainstorm. Even though you only run 2 of them in the deck, that's 1 more dead draw than you want. Madcap --> Emperium almost definitely will find a home in Modern, but I don't think it is legacy material. Additionally, Madcap and a bunch of artifacts runs into other problems, in that the deck runs like a less efficent MUD without Chalice.
So what to do? That is to go full combo.
Madcap plus any number of cards is basically a tinker, only that it searches up a random artifact card in your deck instead of a specific one. The most obvious card is of course Blightsteel. . . but that card to seems like putting a bunch of cards into one fragile basket. Additionally, that runs into the issue of "what to do with big guys that you draw."
My solution and proposal is to (1) run Madcap with at least 8 cards that can "combo" with it, and run (2) only blue artifacts to be able to pitch to force of will.
The cards I chose to combo are: Intervention pact which I find the cheapest - having 1WW shoudn't be a problem after you cast Madcap, moreover, even if they wasteland one of your lands, you should still ahve 1WW available, so you won't lose. Additionally, it give you life in exchange so for 3R, you get a good artifact creature and around 12-25 life. The other card is soulfire grand master - which not only combos, but has lifelink by itself and makes lightning helix and bolt even better.
This means that the deck is a lot less explosive with getting out an early turn blightsteel, or getting out an imperium, but you are also running cards that can pitch to FOW. The deck ends up running like other UWR control decks, but one that has an almost Natural Order finish.
4 STP
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Madcap Experiment
4 Intervention Pact
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
2 Lightning Helix
4 Delver
4 Soulfire Grand Master
3 Inkwell Leviathan
or
3 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
(include Inkwell in decks with STP and Sphinx against others)
19 Lands (TBD)
I doubt that the above deck is Tier 2 even yet, but i think it is a start, and a start that is distinct and probably more likely to succeed than Madcap combo into blightsteel or Madcap into Emprion in legacy.
One issue with this approach is I am unsure it is much better than playing S&T, I am stillfooling around with it however.
Have you considered the madcap+tutor plan at all?
Yeah, I did. My issue with it is that if you run it along with a tool shed of other artifacts, that means Madcap will ONLY combo with the etutor and that's just a 3WR combo for blightsteel. If you run it without the toolshed, then its just more expensive than Pact. The only way it makes sense to run it, is if you run a toolshed of big creatures ONLY and then run it alongside pact and/or grand master. So something like:Originally Posted by rufus
-2 Pact
+2 Etutor
-2 Inkwell Leviathan
+1 blightsteel
+1 Sphinx
to get a more tinkery feel.
The only thing Madcap Experiment has going on that's better than SnT is that it's one-sided, but that's a stretch.
The benefit of Madcap > Platinum Emperion, is that even if PE is removed by Swords to Plowshares immediately in response, we don't cop the damage from Madcap.
I've actually been going through some of the decklists here on source, looking for decks that might benefit from Madcap > P.E.
There's not many besides Burn, given they run perms like Sulfuric Vortex, that don't run any artifacts in the main, and I'm not sure Burn would even benefit from this given their low land count.
I think Blightsteel Colossus is the reason in Legacy to run Madcap, especially if you can enable haste or give it hexproof/shroud.
A tutor to bring it close to the top of the deck in Long-Term Plans could work. Very next turn, cast Madcap.
I guess . . . we can focus on a purely enchantment based ET tutor package instead of an artifact one, and then run Mad cap + tutur into blightsteel
What are the best enchantments?
Energy Field + Rest in Peace
Chained to the Rocks
Porphyry Nodes
Runed Halo (also combo's with madcap)
Oblivion Ring/Detention Sphere
Additionally, if it's hard to justify Madcap over S&T why not run both? Madcap could be S&T 5-6?
This is another rough list - but the idea is that you either S&T into Emrakul/Blightsteel with FOW backup, or you E-Tutor into Madcap. Obviously it's a rough list - but this is one is trying to address the fact that Madcap is always going to be worse that S&T, but could maybe be better than Sneak Attack.
So maybe something like:
4 STP
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Show and Tell
2 Madcap Experiment
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
1 Energy Field
1 Rest in Peace
1 Detention Sphere
4 Emrakul, Aeon's Torn
3 Blightsteel Colossus
20 Lands (TBD)
The Madcap Experiment and Platinum Emperium combo is a lot better than you think it is, it's easily accelerated with 2 mana lands, Dark Ritual, Simian Spirit Guide or Deathrite Shaman and is arguably better than Natural Order Progenitus was.
It's the best 4 drop Dragon Stompy could ask for and a very splashable strategy for Reanimator, will see play for sure.
While I agree with the first sentence in vacuum, I disagree with the second. Putting a CotV@0 or a chrome mox into play for 4 manas is not what you want to do with Dragon stompy. And I cannot see rea going to 4 manas, including red, to have a play that is beaten by cage. Especially in a version without mana accelerant (as you have to not play petal).
B/r Reanimator can use Dark Ritual and Simian Spirit Guide to accelerate into Madcap Experiment, and even if it doesn't get around Grafdigger's Cage it does get around every thing else. Dragon Stompy would have to cut Chalice of the Void and Chrome Mox, it depends on whether or not you value the threat or the disruption base more, othewise you could use it as a SB strategy vs aggressive decks that challenge your life total like Eldrazi. I think it's splashable in a lot of the same places Natural Order was, maybe in a U/b/r aggro-control shell or a Jund shell that lacks any other way to stop combo from top-decking the win. There's bound to be something that isn't strictly going all-in on the Sneak Attack route.
It would be quite strange from Br reanimator to cut lotus petal, especially to accommodate this. for the same manacost, you have sneak attack. Which sees only occasional play as a SB card and is arguably more powerful without requiring to cut one of the few IMS of the deck.
On dragon stompy, if you cut mox chrome, CotV and trinisphere from it, I don't exactly get what deck you are talking about.
On the aggrocontrol Ubr or jund shells, I cannot see why not to try it out. Note that you cannot use FoW to protect your platinium.
Yeah there are issues to be sure, I am kind of wondering if it could be some kind of SB option for aggro control to just screw over Eldrazi or other aggro control decks?
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