Maniacal Rage MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 8 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant

Key Takeaways

  1. Boosts power and toughness, creating card advantage by outmatching opponents’ threats on the board.
  2. Two mana cost for an enchantment with immediate board pressure encourages early, aggressive plays.
  3. Vulnerable to removal, investing in one creature risks a two-for-one loss for the player.

Text of card

Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and cannot block.

Only by sacrificing any semblance of defense could Gerrard best Greven.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Maniacal Rage, while not a direct source of drawing cards, provides a significant boost to a creature’s power and toughness, which can convert into card advantage by overpowering opponents’ creatures and creating more favorable trades on the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: This enchantment costs only two mana, allowing for aggressive plays early in the game. It accelerates your board presence by making an immediate impact on the creature it enchants, potentially leading to faster victories.

Instant Speed: Though Maniacal Rage is an enchantment cast at sorcery speed, its permanent effect on a creature is a strategic tool. The instant increase in power creates opportunities to apply pressure on your opponent unexpectedly, right after your draw phase or just before your combat phase.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Being paired with an enchantment like Maniacal Rage means you’re investing multiple resources into one creature. Should that creature be removed, you not only lose it but also the enchantment, representing a potential two-for-one loss for you.

Specific Mana Cost: Maniacal Rage has a color-specific cost, namely two red mana. This can be restrictive and may not fit easily into multicolor decks, especially those not heavily favoring red.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For an aura that grants +2/+2 and stipulates that the enchanted creature can’t block, the cost may be seen as steep. Other cards might provide similar buffs without such a downside, or offer additional benefits for the same investment, potentially making them a more efficient choice in competitive play.


Reasons to Include Maniacal Rage in Your Collection

Versatility: Maniacal Rage is a card that can easily fit into a variety of aggressive red decks, bringing a solid boost in power that can quickly turn the tide of a game.

Combo Potential: This enchantment synergizes well with cards that have benefits upon being targeted or that require a certain power threshold to activate their effects, making it a great piece in combo strategies.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where faster, aggressive strategies prevail, Maniacal Rage helps to apply early pressure and close out games before control decks can establish themselves.


How to beat

Maniacal Rage presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. This enchantment card boosts a creature with a significant uptick in power and toughness, giving control players a headache to deal with a suddenly pumped-up threat. The key to overcoming Maniacal Rage lies in your ability to manage and remove threats swiftly. Spot removal spells, like Path to Exile or Unsummon, could effectively neutralize the threat by dispatching the enhanced creature or bouncing it back to the owner’s hand, simultaneously stripping it of the enchantment’s benefits.

Having a robust sideboard strategy can also pay dividends against Maniacal Rage. Including flexible removal options that don’t care about the size of a creature, or enchantment removal cards like Disenchant, can offer a safety net during gameplay. It’s also worth noting that Maniacal Rage has a drawback – it prevents the enchanted creature from blocking. Smart players can exploit this by strategizing attacks and blocks to turn the tables, emphasizing the importance of tactical play when facing this aggressive card.

In summary, though Maniacal Rage can turn any creature into a formidable adversary, with careful planning, precise removal, and an understanding of its intrinsic limitations, you can navigate around this enchantment and maintain control over the game.


Cards like Maniacal Rage

Maniacal Rage adds a layer of aggression to creatures in Magic: The Gathering, much like other enchantment auras that bolster power and toughness. Compared to a card like Madcap Skills, Maniacal Rage grants a smaller power increase but doesn’t provide the useful evasion ability of being harder to block. However, the lower mana cost of Maniacal Rage can be appealing for an aggressive strategy seeking to maximize damage output early in the game.

Another card to consider is Goblin War Paint. Both enchantments carry the same mana cost and provide a similar power boost. The key difference is the addition of haste by Goblin War Paint, allowing for immediate combat potential. While Maniacal Rage lacks this immediacy, it compensates by having a permanent effect on toughness, making the creature slightly harder to remove.

Assessing the value and potential of Maniacal Rage in comparison to its peers, it stands as a solid option for decks that aim to quickly pressure opponents with increased combat statistics, despite the lack of additional abilities some similar cards may offer.

Madcap Skills - MTG Card versions
Goblin War Paint - MTG Card versions
Madcap Skills - Gatecrash (GTC)
Goblin War Paint - Zendikar (ZEN)

Cards similar to Maniacal Rage by color, type and mana cost

Power Surge - MTG Card versions
Raging River - MTG Card versions
Smoke - MTG Card versions
Goblin Kites - MTG Card versions
The Brute - MTG Card versions
Giant Strength - MTG Card versions
Lightning Reflexes - MTG Card versions
Consuming Ferocity - MTG Card versions
Agility - MTG Card versions
Errantry - MTG Card versions
Heat of Battle - MTG Card versions
Goblin Festival - MTG Card versions
Scald - MTG Card versions
Cave Sense - MTG Card versions
Flowstone Surge - MTG Card versions
Battle Strain - MTG Card versions
Goblin Bombardment - MTG Card versions
Underworld Breach - MTG Card versions
Lightning Rift - MTG Card versions
Fractured Loyalty - MTG Card versions
Power Surge - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Raging River - Collectors' Edition (CED)
Smoke - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Goblin Kites - Fallen Empires (FEM)
The Brute - Renaissance (REN)
Giant Strength - Fourth Edition (4ED)
Lightning Reflexes - Mirage (MIR)
Consuming Ferocity - Mirage (MIR)
Agility - Mirage (MIR)
Errantry - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Heat of Battle - Stronghold (STH)
Goblin Festival - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Scald - World Championship Decks 1999 (WC99)
Cave Sense - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Flowstone Surge - Nemesis (NEM)
Battle Strain - Odyssey (ODY)
Goblin Bombardment - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Underworld Breach - Theros Beyond Death Promos (PTHB)
Lightning Rift - Onslaught (ONS)
Fractured Loyalty - Mirrodin (MRD)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Maniacal Rage MTG card by a specific set like Exodus and Battle Royale Box Set, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Maniacal Rage and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Maniacal Rage Magic the Gathering card was released in 8 different sets between 1998-06-15 and 2020-08-13. Illustrated by 4 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11998-06-15ExodusEXO 871997normalblackPete Venters
21999-11-12Battle Royale Box SetBRB 421997normalwhitePete Venters
32000-10-02InvasionINV 1551997normalblackMatt Cavotta
42009-02-06ConfluxCON 682003normalblackBrandon Kitkouski
52015-05-06Tempest RemasteredTPR 1422015normalblackPete Venters
62018-10-05Guilds of RavnicaGRN 1102015normalblackHeonhwa Choe
72019-07-12Core Set 2020M20 1492015normalblackHeonhwa Choe
82020-08-13Arena Beginner SetANB 772015normalblackHeonhwa Choe

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Maniacal Rage has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
AlchemyLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

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