In the maybeboard I have a number of spells I've tried in here that could work, but just didn't do as well in playtesting. I also have in there some cards to turn this into a mill deck. I may create a second deck based on this one that is mill, because it seems like it could be pretty powerful with all the drawing happening.

So I'm considering replacing Avaricious Dragon with Molten Vortex. Thoughts?

I really like the ability to assure madness every turn, but maybe it would be better to make sure every draw is useful, since having a few mana drawn isn't very useful later in the game. Plus then I'll have a good T1 drop. Insolent Neonate has also crossed my mind as a T1 drop that can later be used for a draw.

I really like this deck and how it plays.

It seems to me that Clash of Wills is kind of limited. Do you find this true?

If so, I'd suggest another prowess creature, like the Abbot of Keral Keep or Elusive Spellfist, or possibly a madness creature like Incorrigible Youths.

Reckless Scholar would help at any stage also: you'd draw more cards when you needed to, and you could force extra damage on your opponent if Fevered Visions is on the battlefield.

If you decide to keep Clash of Wills, and you're lucky, the Scholar might even draw you one after the Dragon makes you discard your hand.

+1 for the name.

I'm trying to go as creature lite as possible, but thanks for the suggestions! The Fevered Visions already draw for me after dropping my hand, and Reckless Scholar requires I drop a card after I draw. That would be fine if I draw a madness card, but if I draw something I want on my next turn, I have to drop it.

Incorrigible Youths is only slightly under vanilla as a madness card, so unless you are playing with vampire specific stuff, I don't see him as a great card, at least here.

Elusive Spellfist is something I considered when I first started working on this, but because I wanted as few creatures as possible, I decided I liked Stormchaser Mage more. I'll add him back into the maybeboard though and try him out again.

Abbot of Keral Keep has been suggested to me before, I'm just always worried I'll drop him and then not be able to play the next spell, or that he's a dead card until I have enough mana to be able to play anything before dropping him. I do have a high number of cheap spells, so it's definitely an option, but I don't like the chance of dropping more cards on top of my Avaricious Dragon.

Thanks for the comment! I'll play around with the Abbot and Spellfist and see if I should make some room :)

Thanks Ownagemaster, but you don't think the deck was worth a +1 as well?

lol :)

Harbynger well yeah, but I have a love of izzet is it puns.

Kinda feel like Displacement Wave and Profaner of the Dead are the same thing. Maybe free up a spot for more side tech?

Also, have you considered including Sin Prodder in the main? I find not a lot of people are willing to eat the damage from his ability.

Something about this deck makes me with that Avaricious Dragon had haste. Just saying.

Personally, I wouldn't be too worried about Abbot of Keral Keep exiling something you can't cast. Worst case scenario, you could always flip Thing in the Ice  ^Flip to get your Abbot back, then recast it for value. Also, with the number of instants/sorceries you're going to end up with in your graveyard, how about Rise from the Tides as either a 1/2-of mainboard finisher or as sideboard tech?

Mj3913, I think I'm leaning towards Sin Prodder to replace my Avaricious Dragon. I REALLY wanted the Avaricious Dragon to work here, but the more I play this deck, the more I don't like seeing it in my hand. It's only really good later in the game when I've played most or all of my hand already, and Sin Prodder will be good as soon as I drop him. Also, the reason I have both the wave and the profaner is because they are pointed at specific things. If my opponent is running cheap creatures or tokens, then the wave is the obvious choice. If not, the profaner will let me hit some bigger creatures without having to drop my own... though through testing, the profaner appears to not be as good as I initially had hoped, unless I just haven't seen the right deck yet.

Asphodel, I agree it would be nice to drop the dragon and swing immediately for the 4 flying damage! I don't really have a need for something like Expedite outside of him though, so I'm not sure it deserves the spot, especially since I'm not sure the dragon is worth having anymore. You also may be right about the Abbot, but what would I drop to replace it? Do you think it deserves the dragon's spot over the sin prodder? Also, Rise from the Tides could be interesting, but the fact that it's a sorcery AND they come in tapped are huge negatives, since I want to be as agro as possible.

I was able to play this deck in a number of games tonight (well, my wife played a lot of them lol) and in the games I played, it performed VERY well. My wife had some poor luck though with bad mana draws, so she was about 50/50. In every game though, we both didn't like the dragon, so I feel it's on the chopping block unless I can find something that changes my mind.

Thanks for the comments guys! Keep 'em coming!

So I've been thinking of trying out Brain in a Jar and am thinking of also adding in Talent of the Telepath to mainboard. I'm just thinking of an instance where I use Brain in a Jar to cast Talent of the Telepath on opponents turn, which then gets me a chance at 1-2 more spells cast. That could be 3 spells cast for 1 mana on their turn! Thoughts? Either card could be good in here by themselves, but I'm really interested in seeing this scenario happen lol.

Have you thought about Tormenting Voice to get some card draw?

Yeah, Tormenting Voice could be nice for card rotation and madness trigger... but I'm running this deck very tightly with control, damage and creatures. I'm not sure what it could replace that would increase effectiveness of the deck. I could definitely be wrong though, do you have a suggestion for what would be the best card to remove for it?

Maybe Just the Wind. Yes, it's a nice card but I think the card draw would be more important.

Just my opinion though.

With the draw from both Fevered Visions and Sin Prodder, I don't think I want to drop a madness card to add another discard card. It will gain me no card advantage, and just cycle cards unless I had some other use for it. If I was keeping the madness, I would probably see more use for that card, but not in place of something with madness.

i'd add Exquisite Firecraft, it's very good for finish and also to deal with planeswalkers, since it cant be countered most of times, if not always.

I used to have that in here, but the 3 cost and devotion to red made it a hard sell. What would you suggest I drop? I've had really good luck with madness so far in here, so Fiery Temper and Just the Wind I really like.

In UR builds i tend to use between 21 and 22 lands, i'd cut one or two clash of wills if you want to keep 23 (i'd run x10 Mountains and x8 Islands + x4 Shivan Reef)

I saw you lack some tech cards for GW Tokens, i know displacement is good enough but you could run x2 Twin Bolt for White Weenie and some answer for Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip maybe Tears of Valakut, both sideboard wise.

I'd only add a "two of" of Exquisite Firecraft btw :)

I prefer Sparkmage's Gambit over Twin Bolt for the added control. I like the idea of Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip, but I'm not willing to drop that much money on a single card. One of those costs more than half of my current deck! I'll have to playtest some with Exquisite Firecraft, but I want to test it as is first before making any more changes. I haven't had a chance to play this since swapping a couple cards, and it's not a good idea to change too much between tests :)

Thanks for the input! It's really appreciated!

I've been messing with Avaricious Dragon after reading this thread a while back.

I really like that card. If you're dropping a 4/4 flyer turn 4, and your opponent can't get rid of him quickly, you have a serious advantage.

Check out the deck I made around that card:

Izzet madness

Standard* krunchyfrogg

SCORE: 3 | 1 COMMENT | 209 VIEWS

Depends on how you're running your deck. Blue is famous for its ability to deny spells, which makes your opponent think twice when you have cards in hand. Also, a lot of the standard removal these days are sorcery spells. Both those facts combined... You play your dragon, cool. End step, pitch your hand to the yard. No cards in hand, no threats or surprises. Opponents turn, cast removal unopposed. You just wasted 4 mana, a turn, and your hand.

All bad, I know. Alternatively, if you for some reason have decided to forgo any sort of control, go balls to the wall and empty your hand by turn 3... Sure, go for it, you probably won't have a hand to discard anyway, but again... No stops for removal. This build seems as bit more control oriented to run Avaricious Dragon at this time. Not to shoot you down, just saying there's a time and a place for it.

So I dropped Avaricious Dragon for EXACTLY the reason Mj3913 just mentioned. There is a way to remove creatures in every color, and I saw my hand drop just to have him killed before I get the double draw. It was ok if I waited until turn 6-7 to drop him and had a Fevered Visions out so I could draw into a counter... but that never happened. Removing him from this deck ended up helping I think. I'm still not sure on the Sin Prodder though, because all my important cards are pretty cheap CMC, so they normally didn't mind taking 1-3 damage to stop me from getting a card I needed... and now that card is gone. I had mixed results with it.

Overall though, the deck is performing well. It's not great in multiplayer, but it's been very competitive in duels.

Yo Harbynger, regarding my Archangel Avacyn comment, i was talking about including Tears of Valakut to kill decks with Avacyn!

I also see Avaricious Dragon being a bad turn 4 since it gives nothing but an empty hand, even tho u used Fevered Visions on T3.