Maddening Cacophony is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
KickerEach opponent mills eight cards. If this spell was kicked, instead each opponent mills half their library, rounded up.
Complete guide
Maddening Cacophony is a blue sorcery from Zendikar Rising that offers a flexible way to deplete your opponent's resources. Whether you need a small mill effect early or a devastating blow late in the game, this spell scales effectively with its Kicker cost. By understanding how rounding and total costs work, you can turn this card into a game-ending threat.
What It Does
At its base cost of {1}{U}, Maddening Cacophony forces each opponent to mill eight cards. However, if you pay the optional Kicker cost of {3}{U} as you cast it (for a total of {5}{U}), the effect increases dramatically. Instead of a flat number, each opponent mills half of their library, rounded up. This is a replacement effect that changes the 'eight cards' instruction into the 'half the library' instruction.
How It Resolves Step by Step
First, the game checks if the Kicker cost was paid. If it was not, each opponent moves the top eight cards of their library to their graveyard simultaneously. If the spell was kicked, you look at the total number of cards currently in each opponent's library. You divide that number by two, round up to the nearest whole number, and that is how many cards that specific opponent must mill. For example, if an opponent has 45 cards left, half is 22.5, which rounds up to 23 cards milled.
Common Mistakes
A common point of confusion is how Kicker affects the spell's Mana Value. Even if you pay the total of six mana to kick the spell, its Mana Value remains 2. Another mistake involves copying: if you use an effect to copy Maddening Cacophony while it is on the stack and the original was kicked, the copy will also be kicked. However, you cannot choose to pay the Kicker cost for a spell you are casting for free unless the effect specifically allows for additional costs.
When to Play It
In the early game, casting it without Kicker can help set up graveyard synergies or remove key pieces if the opponent is using library manipulation. In the late game, the Kicker mode is almost always superior, as it scales with the size of the library and can often mill 20 to 30 cards at once, putting the opponent under immediate pressure to finish the game before they draw from an empty library.
Interaction examples
If your opponent has 53 cards in their library and you cast Maddening Cacophony with the Kicker cost paid, you calculate half of 53, which is 26.5. You round this up to 27. Your opponent then places the top 27 cards of their library into their graveyard.
PonderIf your opponent casts Ponder and chooses to leave a powerful card on top of their library, you can cast Maddening Cacophony on your turn. Even without the Kicker, the mill eight effect will force that known card (and seven others) into the graveyard, effectively negating their library setup.
WindfallYou can use Windfall to force opponents to draw and discard, further reducing their library size. If you follow up with a kicked Maddening Cacophony, the 'half the library' calculation applies to their already thinned deck. Between the discard from Windfall and the massive mill from Cacophony, an opponent can easily lose over 60% of their deck in a single turn cycle.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Maddening Cacophony
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
If a card or token enters as a copy of a permanent, the new permanent isn't kicked, even if the original was.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
If you copy a kicked spell on the stack, the copy is also kicked. If the copied spell is a permanent spell, the token the copy of that spell becomes when it enters is also kicked.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
If a spell's kicker cost was paid, the spell is "kicked."
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
The kicker ability doesn't let you pay a kicker cost more than once.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
If you put a permanent with a kicker ability onto the battlefield without casting it, you can't kick it.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #6· Wizards of the Coast
To determine a spell's total cost, start with the mana cost (or an alternative cost if another card's effect allows you to pay one instead), add any cost increases (such as kicker), then apply any cost reductions. The spell's mana value remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying
, causing each opponent to mill their library due to Bruvac.
Riverchurn Monument + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying , causing each opponent to mill half their library, rounded up.
- 2Activate Riverchurn Monument's exhaust ability by paying
and tapping it, causing each opponent to mill the remainder of their library.
Duskmantle Guildmage + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Activate Duskmantle Guildmage's first ability by paying
. - 2Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying , causing each opponent to mill half their library, rounded up.
- 3Duskmantle Guildmage triggers for each card milled this way.
- 4Resolve the first Duskmantle Guildmage trigger, causing the opponent to lose 1 life.
- 5Repeat step 4 until the opponent loses the game due to having zero or less life.
- 6Repeat from step 4 for each remaining trigger.
Phenax, God of Deception + Consuming Aberration + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying , causing each opponent to mill half their library, rounded up.
- 2Activate Consuming Aberration by tapping it, causing a opponent to mill cards equal to the cards in opponents' graveyards, milling the remainder of their library.
Maddening Cacophony + Keening Stone
- 1Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying , causing each opponent to mill half their library, rounded up.
- 2Activate Keening Stone by paying
and tapping it, causing an opponent to mill cards equal to the number of cards in their graveyard, thus milling the rest of their library.
Phenax, God of Deception + Sewer Nemesis + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Cast Maddening Cacophony with kicker by paying , causing the opponent named by Sewer Nemesis to mill half their library, rounded up.
- 2Activate Sewer Nemesis by tapping it, causing the opponent to mill cards equal to the cards in their graveyard, milling the remainder of their library.
Doomsday Excruciator + Maddening Cacophony
- 1Cast Doomsday Excruciator by paying .
- 2When Doomsday Excruciator enters, it triggers, causing each player to exile all but the bottom six cards of their library.
- 3Cast Maddening Cacophony by paying , causing each opponent to mill the rest of their library.
Legal formats
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Meta decks with Maddening Cacophony
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