This is a modern take of a "madness" deck I originally built for legacy. It consists of an assortment of discard outlets, madness cards, and creatures with graveyard recursion. The work-horse of the deck is Lotleth Troll.
When I changed the deck to modern legal, I lost Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla and Arrogant Wurm, but by adding red to the deck I was able to add some decent alternatives for both discard outlets and graveyard recursion. I only really miss the Wild Mongrel. Flamewake Phoenix is an awesome addition due to it flying and Squee, Goblin Nabob is stupid good with Lotleth Troll and generally re-filling your hand for more discard shenanigans (like if you draw into a Thought Gorger late game).
The Gravescrabbler is an interesting card. I thought I would use it to return a critical card to my hand (like Lotleth Troll) or maybe screw up someone else's graveyard recursion attempts, but I generally use it as a combat trick; adding "additional surprise counters" to the troll on attack or returning Briarhorn to hand for an extra 3 damage.
In play testing, I tried some other creatures I had lying around like a single Vengevine and a couple Gravecrawlers. Vengevine works well with Gravecrawlers and the legacy legal, Basking Rootwalla, but I find it is more difficult to actually cast two creatures in the same turn with this build. The Flamewake Phoenix and Bloodghast, for example, are not cast when played from the grave. The Gravecrawlers are but got cut because the Flamewake Phoenix is so much better on the field due to the evasion, haste, and bigger body. I found Gravecrawler is an awesome first turn play, but a terrible draw once your opponent has a board presence. "Oh yay, a 2/1 that can't block, is easily blocked and can't swing in for a surprise attack". In contrast, drawing a phoenix puts a smile on my face. The phoenix is also a bit easier to return to the battlefield (but not always).
Two creatures I am testing right now are Thought Gorger and Extractor Demon. Thought Gorger is supposed to be a backup Lotleth Troll; a discard outlet, beater with trample. I also like that your opponent pays for destroying/exiling it. So far I have found its casting cost a bit difficult at times. And it isn't always very big. I did have it come out as an 8/8 once at FNM. =) The Extractor Demon is pretty decent. Being able to swing in for 5 flying damage turn 3 is pretty nice. Or if you don't have a troll out yet, you can wait a turn and use its size to help bring out a phoenix on the same turn.
I think the deck needs some more cheap discard outlets. Should I get my hands on more Lightning Axes? And the mana base doesn't seem to be dialed in yet. Ideas?
