Patron of the Arts

Just type "Madness" in the subtype field of the CardgameDB deckbuilder and you will feel like a kid in a candy store.

Apeirophobia, Blind Submission, Devolution, Infernal Obsession, The Greatest Fear... to name just a few.

His Artist "lord" ability is nothing to sneeze at, with Ben Herriot, Erich Zahn v2, Deranged Diva and the zero-cost Starving Artists around.

One of the very best cards of the set... and Hastur faction altogether. 5/5.

The cost "drive a character insane" does that mean you could drive one of the opponent's characters insane to pay the cost?

No, you can only ever pay costs with things you control.

I have played with this card and it is awesome beyond measure.

Combos particularly well with Starving artist. (When Starving Artist would be driven insane, draw 1 card).

Or Charles Dexter Ward for unlimited repeatable targeted insanity.

Makes Infernal Obsession a much stronger card, probably putting it ahead of Stygian Eye.

Painful Reflection or the Greatest Fear are excellent choices for repeated use, as they directly leverage the card advantage and can lead to a hard hand-lock against your opponent.

As a recursion engine it is much easier to start than a Hamu cycle.

(It also gives you yet another way to guarantee a Hamu will trigger.)

'Or Charles Dexter Ward for unlimited targeted insanity.'

Do you think this combo could be up for Errata if there was a new one? In other words, is it overpowered?

I wouldn't think so.

Deranged Diva+Arkham Asylum has almost as much impact, it can consistently drive insane all susceptible characters, and yet it hasn't seen Hastur dominate.

What it has done is to make almost every deck in virtually every meta have a significant resistance to directed insanity. (ie have a good coverage of Terror/Willpower).

This combo is instantaneous, and with no resource cost to maintain, but is slower to get on the table. I think it strengthens Hastur, but I can't see it being too omnipresent. (I am yet to see more than one Hastur deck turn up at a time in my regular group of 4-8 players - and of those decks, it seems that Patron is popular, but I almost never see Dexter)

They only usually break up combos or errata things if they gain too much traction or skew the meta in bad ways. I don't see this has done either.

Also, this is one one of several infinite insanity combos The Mark of Madness brought to Dexter, so I suspect a fix would have to be of him, not the Patron.

Also, this is one one of several infinite insanity combos The Mark of Madness brought to Dexter, so I suspect a fix would have to be of him, not the Patron.

This isn't an infinite insanity combo by my definition.  Patron limits it to once per phase, so I would categorize it as Repeatable targeted insanity, but not infinite....

What hampered my first use of the Dexter-combo was the fact, that I needed a Madness in my discard pile which for the love of all that is tentacle-y could find while drawing cards. Anecdotal "luck" aside, this card really is awesome.

Any way, I'm with Richard on the "if things needed to be done"-side. All and every "infinity" (yeah, it's not strictly infinite, but close, enough phases/turn to be as close as need be) madness shenanigans are rooted in Dexter. I think the reason for him not being oppressive is the clunky-ness of the combos he's usually involved in. Or there simply hasn't been good enough decks discovered that abuse him. Maybe with Shocking Transformation/Crazy Eddie etc. to get him and necessary combo pieces faster/fast enough on the table. But still: It's only insanity and there's a reason why the Hastur box put emphasis on *alternative* results to the terror struggle besides insanity - half the board is usually flat-out immune to it and Dexter doesn't change the fact. To be able to do that, you need even more combo pieces (The Enchanted Wood f.e.) and the number becomes way too high to be feasible.

Do I understand this card correctly. You can not drive a character insane unless you have a madness card in your discard pile, correct? If it would let you drive a character insane even if you did not have madness cards it would say 'if able' regarding madness cards in discard pile?

Yes, you need to be able to choose a target madness card in your discard to be allowed to resolve this effect. Legal targets is a requirement of declaring effects.

Sadly you can't just start using the various combo effects, without getting a Madness into your discard pile first.

That said, you don't actually have to be able to get the card, you could trigger this even if your discard pile is locked, eg by Snow Graves.

With Master of Amulets, Benjamin Herriot, Bedlam Boys, you can just need one Madness card to draw 30 cards additionally in one turn...it's too ridiculous!

This card provides a huge assistance to Master of Amulets, a self-insane engine without paying resource.

With Master of Amulets, Benjamin Herriot, Bedlam Boys, you can just need one Madness card to draw 30 cards additionally in one turn...it's too ridiculous!

If I understand your combo properly... I'm not sure Master of Amulets can trigger Benjamin Herriot's response.  The Master of Amulets restores AND readies a character in the same action.  To use Benjamin's response it says to ready him after he's been restored.  Would Master of Amulet's ability work here?

If I understand your combo properly... I'm not sure Master of Amulets can trigger Benjamin Herriot's response.  The Master of Amulets restores AND readies a character in the same action.  To use Benjamin's response it says to ready him after he's been restored.  Would Master of Amulet's ability work here?

I don't think Herriot's ability will work if he's been Master of Amuleted.

That was my take as well.  It's the same reason you can't use Dr. Carson or Arkham Asylum to work around the built-in negatives of cards like Benjamin Herriot or Jean-Jacques Minot and still be able trigger their responses.

Agreed.  There is no window in which you can trigger the response so the combo does not work.