Anje Falkenrath is a commander I've wanted to brew with basically since she was spoiled years ago. I love the Madness mechanic, and the ability to continuously untap her and cast cheap Madness spells seemed ripe to abuse. Unfortunately, the combo potential I initially thought might be there when I started putting this together evaporated quickly. Anje is unfortunately limited by the kinds of cards they put Madness on, most of which aren't terribly good combo pieces. I'm sure r/badmtgcombos could come up with something, but I do want to have a fighting chance to win games so I wound up building the deck as a value engine.
I should say up front that there are some obvious improvements to the deck. I know the black tutor package is missing from my list, and that's by intent. I want a certain degree of redundancy in my EDH decks to make them function, but I don't really want games to play out the same way every time. At some point Gamble might make it's way in, but only because it fits the Madness theme. I may tweak the list as I'm able to transition back to playing in person and get more reps in, but for now I think I've gotten it to a power level I'm happy with.
While Madness cards don't lend themselves well to combo potential, there are plenty of individually powerful cards that fill a number of different roles. Muck Drubb gives big haymakers a degree of protection usually only afforded by Blue (and now Green, I guess). Big Game Hunter is a cheap answer to powerful creatures. Gorgon Recluse and Archfiend of Spite are fun surprises to drop into play mid-combat. Being able to play at Instant speed can be a significant advantage given the range of Madness tools at the deck's disposal.
Of course, on its own just casting undercosted creatures with decent abilities won't win games of EDH, so I wanted a bit more of a value engine. Surly Badgersaur, Bone Miser, Conspiracy Theorist, and Archfiend of Ifnir reward you for discarding--even if you're not pitching a Madness spell. One angle I've found comes up is just using Anje to filter through the deck and find answers, haymakers, lands--whatever the deck needs in that moment. Getting rewarded for those non-Madness discards is an important part of the deck being able to function.
I also built in another angle to give the deck play at a table of more powerful decks, which is a small Reanimator package consisting of Reanimate, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Entomb, Sheoldred, and Grave Titan. The latter two are targets I won't go for by default, and at lower power level tables reanimating something like Archfiend of Ifnir on turn 2 or 3 might actually be more impactful. The nice thing about having Anje in the command zone is being able to discard some of the more expensive creatures in the deck, just to bring them back a turn or two later. Her ability is also why I didn't overload on Entomb effects--ideally the Reanimator spells will function just off discarding fatties.
There's also a pretty sizeable interaction package. Honestly, part of the reason it's as large as it is is because there aren't tons of Madness spells or incentives for discarding, and a bunch of the best Madness cards are removal spells! Fortunately, being in Rakdos colors gave me access to a wide range of potent creature and artifact removal. Basically every removal spell is a flex slot that a different piece of interaction could take--the only two I wouldn't touch are Bedevil and Abrade. I really just wanted the most flexible options for my first pass on the list, and going forward could definitely see myself adjusting the list to include more focused pieces of removal, or an additional wrath or three.
Some cards that I might cut:
Seize the Day - This made the cut because I wanted cards that do something from the graveyard so I wouldn't feel too bad about discarding them. Seize the Day is a powerful card, but getting an extra combat with just one creature is rarely all the good, unless it's with Neheb or Glint-Horn Buccaneer.
Bedlam Reveler - Initially, I expected to be Hellbent a lot more so included Bedlam Reveler and Ox of Agonas as ways to refuel. In actually playing the deck though, I find myself with a full hand more often than not, usually because my discards are loots/rummages or put additional cards in my hand with something like Bone Miser in play. I like Ox because of the ability to recur it for cheap, but Reveler is definitely less good than I expected.
Nighthowler - Wanted a random big beater and I have nostalgia for playing Nighthowler in awful BG graveyard decks when it was Standard. It just has too much of a fail case to consistently perform.
Underworld Breach - Largely a remnant from when I was trying to do combo things with the deck. It's still a really powerful late game card, especially since this isn't really a Past in Flames deck. If I owned a Yawgmoth's Will it would probably take this slot and I wouldn't even consider cutting it, but Underworld Breach has enough downsides I'm not fully sold on keeping it.
Dark Deal - Maybe the worst wheel effect ever printed? The thing is this deck can mitigate the downside by casting Madness cards and using the graveyard advantageously, while basically forcing everyone else to go down a card. I like it way more thematically than functionally and might just replace it with a more playable wheel effect.
Dread Return - Fits the reanimator sub theme and also gave me something to discard for "free." The issue here is the deck rarely puts out enough creatures to capitalize on the Flashback, so unless I add more ways to make tokens or other fodder I don't mind sacrificing it's probably going to make it's way out of the list.
