Pattern Recognition #120 - Madness

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

22 August 2019

1012 views

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Written by myself, berryjon, I aim to bring to my reading audience each week a different look into some aspect of Magic: The Gathering - be it an individual card, a mechanic, a theme, or even just general history. I am something of an Old Fogey and Smart Ass, so please take what I say with a grain of salt. I enjoy a good discussion on the relevant subject matter!

And now, welcome to week two of my retrospective of the mechanics involved in Commander 2019! With their official release tomorrow, I think that I'm going to take the opportunity to go over the mechanic that I feel is the most solid and well rounded one of the four. It's also the one that has been published the most over the history of Magic, so I suppose there might be a correlation between the two.

First published in Torment, part of the Odyssey Block, Madness is a mechanic whereby if you discarded a card with the Madness ability, you could instead cast it for its Madness cost, allowing you to play the card even as it (usually) headed into the Graveyard.

OK, it looks simple, but let me unpack it here. When you discard a card, it goes into the Graveyard. This is something that's been written into the game since before day 1, and is true even today, and will be true long after the last card has crumbled to dust. However, when a card with Madness is discarded, the ability causes the card to make a side trip into the Exile zone. There, you have the option of casting that card from exile by paying the Madness cost. If you do, it counts as a card being cast for all intents and purposes, and if you do not, then it finishes the trip to the Graveyard in an orderly fashion.

Essentially, Madness is an alternate casting cost that has a prerequisite trigger of "this card must be in the process of being discarded to use this alternate cost".

Historically speaking, Madness was one of three mechanics introduced in the Odyssey block to fill out the theme of "Graveyard Matters". That being, this was a mechanic that cared about the state of the graveyard, rather than treating it as a resource like the later Delve and Dredge mechanics would. The other mechanics were _Flashback (to be covered next week or the week after) and Threshold, a mechanic that gave the relevant cards a boost if you had seven or more cards in your Graveyard.

It's a silly mechanic, that one, one that might get a mention someday when I group it in with Spell Mastery and Delirium.

From the Vorthos standpoint, in Torment, Madness was indicative of the Dementia Wizards, part of the mono- Cabal, the dominating force across the Dominarian continent of Otaria. If this sounds familiar, it's because it was this group that was high jacked by Demonlord Belzenlok to twist history to his own ends, and this style of magic was used unsuccessfully against Shanna, Sisay's Legacy when she was being recruited by Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain to help fight the Cabal and it's new leadership.

It is indicative of the internal madness of these Dementia Wizards spilling over into the real world, their crazy insanity made manifest. It's not pretty, it's pretty in context, and in the story, it's the premiere skill of Chainer, Dementia Master (or his newest version, Chainer, Nightmare Adept), who pulls forth his nightmares into the real world to fight on his behalf.

On the other side of this magic, the works of Ixidor, Reality Sculptor also led to the creation of Akroma, Angel of Wrath, while an illusion in nature, was also utilizing much of the same underlying magic that Dementia Magic does.

Anyway, back to flavour!

Madness, crazy people, skulls overflowing, so the leakage gets utilized? That sort of thing.

But you have to accept that Madness wasn't limited to just as in Torment, each color got a taste of it, but it was that got the most. And effectively, once the next proper set with this mechanic came out, everyone except and were locked out of the mechanic.

Madness made a return in Time Spiral, including one of my hilarity-inducing cards, Big Game Hunter - because you would have to be MAD! to try and do what he does for only . But then again, this is Time Spiral block we're talking about here, and should never be taken as a sign that anything involved is normal.

However, Madness really made its debut and began to become a Mechanic actually worth something with the release of Shadows over Innistrad. This set bridged the gap from Victorian Horror into Cosmic Horror, and if there's anything that these two themes have in common is that people are going to go quite mad in the process.

Let me be clear here. Innistrad had very few failings in either block, and the inclusion of Madness was not one of them. It fit thematically, and mechanically into the second Innistrad Block, and it is definitely one of those decisions that Wizards should be proud of.

In Shadows, Madness became associated strictly with , and by association, the Vampire tribe from that block. Yes, there were some cards as well, including Just the Wind. But this was flavoured not as something inherent to the colour or the tribe, but rather as an aspect of 's search for knowledge in a setting where there are Things that Man was not meant to Know.

Moonfolk, like Tamiyo, Field Researcher, on the other hand, are quite alright, if Tamiyo's Journal is anything to go by.

Anyway, back to Madness itself. As a mechanic it appears on any card type except for Artifacts, Lands and Planeswalkers. Now I want to see a Planeswalker with Madness, and with an ability that's a Madness enabler. That would be pretty nice. (Please Wizards? Please?)

The important part about this is that because of Madness, the timing on the playing of cards is thrown completely out the window. Now, I've seen Vedalken Orrery completely dominate the game when it resolves, and Madness does much of the same thing. Because Madness triggers when you discard the relevant card, think of all the times when you discard a card. During your upkeep? During your End Step? During... now, stay with me here, because this is going to blow your mind... during your opponent's turn!

Madness essentially allows you to play your spells as though they had Flash - as long as you're in the process of discarding the card!

But, you know, without the cards having Flash, or having the relevant text anywhere. It's slightly counter-intuitive, but the real strength behind Madness isn't the (usually) cheaper cost, but rather the timing is what changes. Dark Withering becomes a surprise Terror for , Distemper of the Blood is a cheap means boosting your creature on . And Fiery Temper is a Lightning Bolt!

Ok, so that last one doesn't count, being an Instant already, but it does segue into my next point.

Madness costs tend to be lower than the default cost of the card. Aside from Asylum Visitor, Insatiable Gorgers, Malevolent Whispers, Murderous Compulsion, Nagging Thoughts, Obsessive Search, Senseless Rage and Stensia Masquerade which have the same cost. And Broken Concentration, Chilling Grasp Ichor Slick which increase the cost when casted while Mad.

This lowered cost is something that is part of the basic assumption of the mechanic. That for the most part, the cost of playing when discarding is lower because you're already in the process of discarding a card.

This is a false assumption, a false conclusion. You see, of all the colours in the game, the reason why and are the ones to have this mechanic above all others. They are the ones that are the most likely to discard their own cards to gain an advantage. These are the colors of Tormenting Voice, of Faithless Looting, of Anje Falkenrath.

Here's the first major thing people understand about Madness, and it's once you realize that you can control when and where you discard cards, you can better play these cards for far more cheaply than you normally would. The key here is that at its core, teaches its players to treat everything it has as a resource, including losing life for an advantage. And when you are giving up something as precious as your life, it's actually a step back, a step toward the easier to consider discarding your cards as a viable option when it comes to gaining an advantage.

This is self evident. Or at least it is to me, and my old school thoughts.

But there's another, slightly more hidden truth to Madness. One that turns the whole thing on its head, and I think should give you a new appreciation for the whole thing.

Recall that back when the mechanic was first introduced, wasn't the only colour to have Madness as a mechanic. Everyone else did as well, and I think the hidden, subtle and perhaps more important reason is that Madness is at it's core, an Anti- mechanic.

No! Wait! Let me explain!

You have to understand here, that is the core colour that forces someone to discard. can sort of do it by overfilling a person's hand with cards, forcing them down to 7 at the end of their turn. does it to itself, drawing and discarding in equal measure to never gain cards in hand, but to flush out bad cards for new.

But ? Oh, this colour will cause people to discard cards as easy as breathing. It's written into the very fabric of their being, from Duress to Descent into Madness (hah! that works on multiple levels!) to everything else, is the card to cause you to lose from your hand with no arguments.

So, what do you do when you discard these cards? Why, cast them for their Madness cost, of course! And because these costs tend to be cheaper, you're in fact, punishing your opponent for playing cards they normally want to against you. Look no further than Basking Rootwalla, a classic card from Torment that got reprints in both Vintage and Ultimate Masters because of this effect. Well, that, and it's a 3/3 on Turn 2 when you swing in with it, but that's a different story.

It's also casting Strength of Isolation on a creature to further punish the deck. It's just taking what doesn't want you to have, and making sure you keep it, all the better to make MAD.

Madness is a great mechanic. Brilliant even. It's an alternate cost that doesn't appear in a vacuum. It's still casting a card, with all that implies (including being addressed by counters), and you're not really cheating a card into play, which is often the result of alternate casting costs. It doesn't require fixes, and it can be put on cards in the future without breaking the game in any serious matter.

And I look forward to seeing it again.

Join me next week when I either look at Morph or Flashback. I don't know yet.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!