A mad notion

Standard UB (Dimir) UBR (Grixis)

cybishop

Creature (18)

• 4x Agent of the Fates
• 2x Nivmagus Elemental
• 4x Notion Thief
• 4x Tormented Hero
• 4x Triton Fortune Hunter

Land (23)

• 8x Island
• 7x Swamp
• 4x Temple of Deceit
• 4x Watery Grave

Artifact (1)

• 1x Elixir of Immortality

Instant (11)

• 4x Boon of Erebos
• 3x Mizzium Skin
• 4x Triton Tactics

Sorcery (7)

• 4x Hidden Strings
• 3x Whispering Madness

---

Sideboard

Creature (3)

• 3x Lifebane Zombie

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Gift of Orzhova

Instant (9)

• 3x Cyclonic Rift
• 2x Essence Scatter
• 1x Mizzium Skin
• 3x Negate

---

A deck based on Whispering Madness and Notion Thief. Those two cards can allow a ridiculous amount of card drawing while forcing your opponent to discard everything. Until the combo goes off, it should play like a UB heroic deck.

I first threw together the "mad notion" deck back when Notion Thief was first spoiled and basically forgot about it until April 2014. The original had several Innistrad block cards in it. I came back to it when I read about someone else trying to make it work. It occurred to me that some heroic decks were seeing a little play here and there, so I decided to mash those together. Some notes:

• I realize taking a janky combo and adding heroic creatures is, well, mad, but I think they might actually work well together. The "mad notion" idea is already like a heroic deck in that it wants to attack with creatures that are relatively weak on their own. Also, it needs a win condition. Elixir of Immortality is slow, but attacking with heroic creatures is faster. Meanwhile, a heroic deck is really happy to have its hand full.

• One thing I'm not sure about is the creatures, after Notion Thief itself. I need some 1- or 2- drops to start attacking right away and some ways to take advantage of heroic triggers, but all of the options have drawbacks.

• Hidden Strings looks awesome here. Multiple heroic triggers, gets blockers out of the way and generally slows the opponent down. I might want it in a "mad notion" deck even if the deck didn't use heroic.

• To get the basic idea to work, I had to look hard for ways to kill two birds with one stone. Triton Tactics gives me heroic triggers, stalls, and protects my creatures. Agent of the Fates is a mediocre edict effect, but it's also a creature with 3 power, and a deathtouchy blocker. Boon of Erebos protects my creatures, triggers heroic, and inflicts a little more damage. None of these cards are the best options there are for what they do, but I hope they'd be good enough, with the synergy among them. That might be a bad sign about the deck. I realize it'll never be tier 1, but I hope it's not completely helpless...

Date added	12 years
Last updated	10 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	21 - 6 Rares 13 - 2 Uncommons 11 - 7 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.11