[Home]MagicTheGathering/MadnessMechanics

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Discussion of the mechanic "Madness", introduced in the Torment expansion in spring 2002:  (moved here from CircularLogic)

Madness is (as admitted by the rules team themselves) the most complex mechanic to come along in the past couple of years.  There were a grand total of 10 cards printed with Madness.  It basically means that if you discard the card that has Madness (whether it's as part of a cost, or part of an effect), and if you can pay the Madness cost (for this spell it's U, i.e. one blue mana), then you can play it instead of it going to your graveyard.  This is cool for putting creatures into play at instant speed; cool because a number of cards are cheaper to play for madness than their regular mana cost, like this one; and cool because it turns a discard, normally card disadvantage, into (usually) card advantage.  --AlexChurchill
(PeterTaylor) Why not just make the card cost U?
The difference this makes is that it would allow more flexible times to use the card.  Since you can ONLY use madness in responce to a discard you need to find something which requires you to discard first, in order to be able to use it.  Having said that, and without knowing exactly the environment madness thrives in, I'll have to say this is horrible, broken, overpowered and a perfect example of how you need to know what else is out there, in order to evaluate something, and hence play.  -- Vitenka
Once again I disagree, on two fronts.  I disagree that it's overpowered and broken, but that's something subjective, and everyone's free to reach their own conclusion by playing (with and/or against) some cards with the ability.
More to the point, I disagree that you need to know the existence of all the latest mechanics to play well.  (The point works mirrored for new players too: I disagree that a new player needs to know the existence, let alone rules subtleties, of all the older mechanics in order to play well.  What's your opinion on this latter?)


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Last edited November 28, 2002 10:18 pm (viewing revision 1, which is the newest) (diff)
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