I think a lot of these lists have mana issues. Non green decks can't reliably support double white or double black on turn three into turn four double red. I think you need to pick a two color combination and just splash the other color. I have been having success the last two weeks with a red/black splash white deck. Also End Hostilities is the best card vs the green devotion decks.
Has anyone seen any cool mardu tech from the PT? I'm actually super excited for this format, and watching these games makes me very confident in mardu midrange. None of these matches look unwinnable. I think Crackling Doom is in a great position in this format. Rabblemaster has never stopped being a boss. Any big pros on this deck?
Edit: I'm hearing that mardu midrange is the third most popular deck at the pt after abzan midrange and jeskai tempo.
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
I think a lot of these lists have mana issues. Non green decks can't reliably support double white or double black on turn three into turn four double red. I think you need to pick a two color combination and just splash the other color. I have been having success the last two weeks with a red/black splash white deck. Also End Hostilities is the best card vs the green devotion decks.
I personally play 12 scry lands, 4 fetches, 2 Nomad Outpost, an Urborg, and four basics (3 Mountain, 1 Swamp), and it seems to be working out well for me. The format is still pretty slow and the scry is EXTREMELY useful in keeping what I need or getting rid of what I don't.
This is the deck I'm currently playing with. Game one it acts a general Mardu Midrange deck focusing on playing single threats and a suite of removal/disruption. Game two this generally changes into a control role except against a true control deck.
The 14 tap land manabase may seem shaky however the format is slow and the turns you want to have untapped lands are really only 3 and 5. Between the scry lands and Read the Bones you're able to dig through a decent part of your deck without a significant investment.
I think a lot of these lists have mana issues. Non green decks can't reliably support double white or double black on turn three into turn four double red. I think you need to pick a two color combination and just splash the other color. I have been having success the last two weeks with a red/black splash white deck. Also End Hostilities is the best card vs the green devotion decks.
I personally play 12 scry lands, 4 fetches, 2 Nomad Outpost, an Urborg, and four basics (3 Mountain, 1 Swamp), and it seems to be working out well for me. The format is still pretty slow and the scry is EXTREMELY useful in keeping what I need or getting rid of what I don't.
That's 12 etb tap lands. That is a mana base for a control deck not a mid range deck and it will cost you games.
This is the deck I'm currently playing with. Game one it acts a general Mardu Midrange deck focusing on playing single threats and a suite of removal/disruption. Game two this generally changes into a control role except against a true control deck.
The 14 tap land manabase may seem shaky however the format is slow and the turns you want to have untapped lands are really only 3 and 5. Between the scry lands and Read the Bones you're able to dig through a decent part of your deck without a significant investment.
14 taps lands is too greedy. the format is not that slow. Also your curve is pretty poor. Combining these to things I think will leave you playing too much on the back foot. The Jeskai deck can kill on turn 5, that is very fast for 14 tap lands.
Well the only real games we don't act as the control deck is against an actual blue based control deck. Against aggro and most other midrange decks we're trying to control the board while playing our own threats. I've been play testing with 14 tap lands and 11 non taps and it seems fine at the moment. They key turns for my deck are 3 and 5 and the deck seems to hit that.
The reason the key turns for your deck are 3 and 5 is because you have 2/3 of your non-land cards on either 3 CMC or 5 CMC, and that is a weakness. With over half your land etb tapped your turn 3 cards are more likely to hit play on turn 4 which makes you play like a control deck.. I would suggest some pain lands to help with this and other cards that cost 2 CMC in place of the 3CMC.
This is just a suggestion, but I think for a more controlling build you should send the rabblemasters to sideboard, add 1-2 stormbreath dragon and maybe 1-2 Chandra, pyromaster. When I was playing a more controlling build similar to your the problem I was finding up against alot of the midrange strategies in the format was that I was often just trading one for one removal with no real source of card advantage. Almost every threat that mono green and abzan drop are must answer cards and most games will become very grindy. Rabblemaster is not usually a card you are going to want to see after turn three unless you are already winning the game. In a control build, I would play Brimaz, King of Oreskos long before I would play rabblemaster. Just my opinion though.
One last thing, I think that magma jet does wonders for these types of deck. Burning an opposing rabblemaster and fixing your next two draws, helps with weak initial hand alot and helps against jeskai and mono black aggro. I know it doesn't kill a ton of midrange creatures, but that really isn't even the point. It's basically a versatile scry 2 card. I don't even really consider it removal, when I think about it. Killing baddies is just an added bonus that helps alot against aggro strategies.
This is the deck I played last week, going 3-1. However, while I beat Abzan Midrange and Green Devotion, their deck lists weren't complete. After watching the Pro Tour this weekend, seeing no Mardu in the top 8 (I'm not sure if any made top 16) I feel this deck needs to be tweaked.
I thought about adding lower CMC creatures to make the deck more aggressive. I also considered adding End Hostilities and making the deck more controlling. Another option is to make the deck more resilient using Spirit Bonds / Ajani's Presence (although that can slow the deck down). I feel the deck works when a power creature comes down while answering opponents threats.
This is the deck I played last week, going 3-1. However, while I beat Abzan Midrange and Green Devotion, their deck lists weren't complete. After watching the Pro Tour this weekend, seeing no Mardu in the top 8 (I'm not sure if any made top 16) I feel this deck needs to be tweaked.
I thought about adding lower CMC creatures to make the deck more aggressive. I also considered adding End Hostilities and making the deck more controlling. Another option is to make the deck more resilient using Spirit Bonds / Ajani's Presence (although that can slow the deck down). I feel the deck works when a power creature comes down while answering opponents threats.
What are your thoughts?
It was definitely hard watching all the Abzan dominance. That and Jeskai are clearly the front runners with current configurations. 7 out of the top 8 decks were Abzan or Jeskai.... Lots of work for Mardu to step up against those.
I played my own list of Mardu cards that I assembled on the fly today, and I have to say that Seeker of the Way in addition to Raise the Alarm is a very good combo when playing with Butcher and Sorin.
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The red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
I guess there's more power to this lineup than I realized? I thought all the CITP lands needed would make it unplayable.
That's what I started out with but I reached the conclusion that Brimaz was too hard on the mana unless you don't expect him to come down turn 3. I opted to make the white just a splash because of that. It just doesn't make sense when you want double black turn 2 and 3 and also red for Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, and Rabblemaster.
I don't run Magma Jet. I do play Bile Blight alongside the Strike. I find Brimaz tends to come down later on, though I have had games where he puts in a turn three appearance. Abzan and Jeskai have more quality at the low end than we do. I think control is our game. Now, should I build Mardu Midrange or RG/u Monsters? I am still on the fence here.
I dropped Brimaz about two weeks ago. He gets trumped too easily by the larger green creatures and does not trade up like rabble master does. Also Seeker of the Way has the same problem that Brimaz does plus it doesn't line up well with the discard spells that make black more appealing than blue as a match for r/w.
Im not sure this is the right place to post this as it is mid-rangey but different from these lists a bit. Im missing some key cards after looking over your lists, such as thoughtseize and sarkhan, also Butcher of the Horde maybe. This deck wants to swing while making it hard for them to block
My list is actually pretty similar to Killpo's, but with no creatures. That's right. But I do have 4x Elspeth and Stormbreath in the 75. The matchups have been going pretty well actually, I've stopped some aggro decks dead in their tracks where other decks would just roll over. Problem is, once you trade with everything - you quickly go to topdeck mode with the other player, and aside from a few copies of read the bones + erebos, I'm having trouble getting card advantage/recurrent value/etc. Here are my ideas at this point:
a) More of a walkers list, anyone have Levy's list?
b) Soul of theros/innistrad/shalandar - theros would be great to gain some life (really need this vs burn), innistrad if you run creatures/shalandar if you want a creature that wins most any block/attack. also nukes walkers.
c)In addition to mardu charm, elspeth, have a token generator (heliod, some instant spell, the convoke one, etc) and run an equipment like
-Haunted platemail (this could be decent)
-Godsend(I really have an ache to use this lol)
-Something janky like rogues gloves
My list is actually pretty similar to Killpo's, but with no creatures. That's right. But I do have 4x Elspeth and Stormbreath in the 75. The matchups have been going pretty well actually, I've stopped some aggro decks dead in their tracks where other decks would just roll over. Problem is, once you trade with everything - you quickly go to topdeck mode with the other player, and aside from a few copies of read the bones + erebos, I'm having trouble getting card advantage/recurrent value/etc. Here are my ideas at this point:
a) More of a walkers list, anyone have Levy's list?
b) Soul of theros/innistrad/shalandar - theros would be great to gain some life (really need this vs burn), innistrad if you run creatures/shalandar if you want a creature that wins most any block/attack. also nukes walkers.
c)In addition to mardu charm, elspeth, have a token generator (heliod, some instant spell, the convoke one, etc) and run an equipment like
-Haunted platemail (this could be decent)
-Godsend(I really have an ache to use this lol)
-Something janky like rogues gloves
How many sweepers are you playing? Is it possible that you're not getting enough value from them? I don't think the deck needs draw power against the current meta, although this could change if control gets more popular.
@Bluemagic, when you get a chance, you should update the first page of this when you can with the lists that had 21 points in the standard portion of the Pro Tour. There were 2 Mardu Midrange decks that did it, one was a more creature-ish build and the other was more Planeswalker oriented.
Ok, two key weaknesses I've seen with this list over the past weekend:
First, the deck tends to be slow, like really slow. Alot of CMC 4 and 5 spells - Butchers, Stormbreaths, Wingmates, all the Planeswalkers. It takes some time to get online and faster decks like Jeskai burn just steamrolls and kills us before that. Azban decks on the other hand, while almost as slow as we are, are far better suited for it than us with their superior life-gain / life-drain with the combo of Coursers, Siege Rhinos, Wingmates and Sorin.
Secondly, mana intensity, looking at the cards we want to play; Crackling Doom, Hero's Downfall, Brimaz, Butcher, Sarkhan, Stormbreath, these are pitfalls in it being hard to cast all of them consistently because the mana is all over the place, BWR for Butcher, Doom and Charm, xWW for Brimaz, xRR for Sarkhan and Stormbreath. It's cluncky, slows us down, and because of that we die.
Getting around these two problems require two things, becoming faster (as in cheaper spells) and becoming less mana intensive. Further than this I believe transformational sideboard is the way to go.
This is what I'm playing around with at the moment. Primary focus in black, since it's the easiest color to get online thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, with a seconday focus in red, Goblin Rattlemaster is simply too good. Weak third white because Butcher of the Horde and Crackling Doom are too good to pass on.
Cards I've cut:
Hero's Downfall, like I started with, we need to get faster and so running Downfall is unfortunately out. It's possible to get it into the SB somewhere but I'm not sure of it yet. Meanwhile Lightning Strike and Bile Blight works fine while also being quicker to get out. Lightning Strike to the face can also be redirected to hurt Planeswalkers.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos, white is our weakest color. xWW is too unreliable to have on T3 or even T4.
Stoke the Flames, I'd love to have it in here but I'm just not sure what to remove for it, max 2 or so off so maybe drop a Lightning Strike and something else for them.
Rounding off with a look at the sideboard. Mostly I've picked these cards with the Jeskai Burn, Jeskai/Mardu Tokens, Mardu midrange mirror and Azban Midrange matchups in mind, trying to metagame a little.
We got the Resolute Archangel and Wingmate Rocs for additional lifegain, I think the Archangel especially can pull its weight against Jeskai Burn and Azban midrange to get us back into the game by restarting our life total. Dark Betrayals for all the Siege Rhinos we will see and possible Butcher mirrors. Empty the Pits for the longer grinder games, instant speed make it bonkers. Erebos as a straight up hoser for the Azban matchup because of all the life-gain they have with Coursers, Rhino, Sorin and Wingmates. Elspeth and End Hostilities for those bigger monsters, Azban and Mardu midrange, possible green monsters as well. Liliana Vess for fetching whatever we need, and finally Scouring Sands for the token matchups primarily, since it saves our own tokens and only kills theirs. As compared to Anger of the Gods.
With Bile Blight / Ulcerate backup all of our creatures can fight through Coursers / Siege Rhinos and win, and Praying Mantis just straight up dies to them.
Secret deck-tech is using Sign in Blood for the final 1-2 points of damage to an enemy player.
My list is actually pretty similar to Killpo's, but with no creatures. That's right. But I do have 4x Elspeth and Stormbreath in the 75. The matchups have been going pretty well actually, I've stopped some aggro decks dead in their tracks where other decks would just roll over. Problem is, once you trade with everything - you quickly go to topdeck mode with the other player, and aside from a few copies of read the bones + erebos, I'm having trouble getting card advantage/recurrent value/etc. Here are my ideas at this point:
a) More of a walkers list, anyone have Levy's list?
b) Soul of theros/innistrad/shalandar - theros would be great to gain some life (really need this vs burn), innistrad if you run creatures/shalandar if you want a creature that wins most any block/attack. also nukes walkers.
c)In addition to mardu charm, elspeth, have a token generator (heliod, some instant spell, the convoke one, etc) and run an equipment like
-Haunted platemail (this could be decent)
-Godsend(I really have an ache to use this lol)
-Something janky like rogues gloves
How many sweepers are you playing? Is it possible that you're not getting enough value from them? I don't think the deck needs draw power against the current meta, although this could change if control gets more popular.
I think when I was testing, I had it at 3x anger 1x end hostilities. In the 75 its 4 anger 2 end hostilities. I've pretty much gotten sweepers exactly when I need them. Anger is so key right now IMO, hits just about everything except for fatties in abzan mid, which you can still hit caryatids or burn/blight to finish the siege rhino pre board. I can't really complain about the card intersection this deck has to offer. I love mardu charm, especially draw phase mardu charm however, the thoughtseizes/despises aren't the best topdecks. It would be nice to have something like faithless looting (there is the 2cmc sorcery) to pitch these/land floods for relevant end game cards.
Edit: I'm hearing that mardu midrange is the third most popular deck at the pt after abzan midrange and jeskai tempo.
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
I personally play 12 scry lands, 4 fetches, 2 Nomad Outpost, an Urborg, and four basics (3 Mountain, 1 Swamp), and it seems to be working out well for me. The format is still pretty slow and the scry is EXTREMELY useful in keeping what I need or getting rid of what I don't.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Creatures 10
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Butcher of the Horde
2 Stormbreath Dragon
Sorceries 8
2 End Hostilties
4 Thoughtseize
2 Read the Bones
Instants 11
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Utter End
2 Lightning Strike
2 Banishing Light
Lands 25
2 Nomad Outpost
4 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Malice
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Mana Confluence
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Urborg, Tomb Yawgmoth
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 End Hostilities
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Utter End
2 Empty the Pits
2 Mardu Charm
2 Nyx Fleece Ram
2 Read the Bones
This is the deck I'm currently playing with. Game one it acts a general Mardu Midrange deck focusing on playing single threats and a suite of removal/disruption. Game two this generally changes into a control role except against a true control deck.
The 14 tap land manabase may seem shaky however the format is slow and the turns you want to have untapped lands are really only 3 and 5. Between the scry lands and Read the Bones you're able to dig through a decent part of your deck without a significant investment.
That's 12 etb tap lands. That is a mana base for a control deck not a mid range deck and it will cost you games.
14 taps lands is too greedy. the format is not that slow. Also your curve is pretty poor. Combining these to things I think will leave you playing too much on the back foot. The Jeskai deck can kill on turn 5, that is very fast for 14 tap lands.
One last thing, I think that magma jet does wonders for these types of deck. Burning an opposing rabblemaster and fixing your next two draws, helps with weak initial hand alot and helps against jeskai and mono black aggro. I know it doesn't kill a ton of midrange creatures, but that really isn't even the point. It's basically a versatile scry 2 card. I don't even really consider it removal, when I think about it. Killing baddies is just an added bonus that helps alot against aggro strategies.
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Butcher of the Horde
2 Wingmate Roc
2 Stormbreath Dragon
Spells
2 Thoughtseize
2 Despise
4 Lightning Strike
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Caves of Koilos
1 Battlefield Forge
3 Nomad Outpost
4 Swamp
2 Mountain
This is the deck I played last week, going 3-1. However, while I beat Abzan Midrange and Green Devotion, their deck lists weren't complete. After watching the Pro Tour this weekend, seeing no Mardu in the top 8 (I'm not sure if any made top 16) I feel this deck needs to be tweaked.
I thought about adding lower CMC creatures to make the deck more aggressive. I also considered adding End Hostilities and making the deck more controlling. Another option is to make the deck more resilient using Spirit Bonds / Ajani's Presence (although that can slow the deck down). I feel the deck works when a power creature comes down while answering opponents threats.
What are your thoughts?
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde
3 Stormbreath Dragon
I guess there's more power to this lineup than I realized? I thought all the CITP lands needed would make it unplayable.
It was definitely hard watching all the Abzan dominance. That and Jeskai are clearly the front runners with current configurations. 7 out of the top 8 decks were Abzan or Jeskai.... Lots of work for Mardu to step up against those.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
That's what I started out with but I reached the conclusion that Brimaz was too hard on the mana unless you don't expect him to come down turn 3. I opted to make the white just a splash because of that. It just doesn't make sense when you want double black turn 2 and 3 and also red for Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, and Rabblemaster.
3 Iroas, God of Victory
3 Underworld Cerberus
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Tymaret, the Murder King
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Lightning Strike
4 Raise the Alarm
3 Mardu Charm
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Mana Confluence
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Temple of Triumph
a) More of a walkers list, anyone have Levy's list?
b) Soul of theros/innistrad/shalandar - theros would be great to gain some life (really need this vs burn), innistrad if you run creatures/shalandar if you want a creature that wins most any block/attack. also nukes walkers.
c)In addition to mardu charm, elspeth, have a token generator (heliod, some instant spell, the convoke one, etc) and run an equipment like
-Haunted platemail (this could be decent)
-Godsend(I really have an ache to use this lol)
-Something janky like rogues gloves
Current Decks
Standard:
GWB Junk Midrange BWG
RWB Mardu Midrange BWR
Modern:
GWB Angel Pod BWG
How many sweepers are you playing? Is it possible that you're not getting enough value from them? I don't think the deck needs draw power against the current meta, although this could change if control gets more popular.
First, the deck tends to be slow, like really slow. Alot of CMC 4 and 5 spells - Butchers, Stormbreaths, Wingmates, all the Planeswalkers. It takes some time to get online and faster decks like Jeskai burn just steamrolls and kills us before that. Azban decks on the other hand, while almost as slow as we are, are far better suited for it than us with their superior life-gain / life-drain with the combo of Coursers, Siege Rhinos, Wingmates and Sorin.
Secondly, mana intensity, looking at the cards we want to play; Crackling Doom, Hero's Downfall, Brimaz, Butcher, Sarkhan, Stormbreath, these are pitfalls in it being hard to cast all of them consistently because the mana is all over the place, BWR for Butcher, Doom and Charm, xWW for Brimaz, xRR for Sarkhan and Stormbreath. It's cluncky, slows us down, and because of that we die.
Getting around these two problems require two things, becoming faster (as in cheaper spells) and becoming less mana intensive. Further than this I believe transformational sideboard is the way to go.
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
3 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Seeker of the Way
1 Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Instants (14)
3 Bile Blight
3 Crackling Doom
2 Gods Willing
4 Lightning Strike
1 Murderous Cut
1 Ulcerate
2 Sign in Blood
4 Thoughtseize
Lands (24)
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Mountain
2 Nomad Outpost
2 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Temple of Malice
3 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Resolute Archangel
2 Wingmate Roc
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Empty the Pits
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Liliana Vess
1 End Hostilities
3 Scouring Sands
This is what I'm playing around with at the moment. Primary focus in black, since it's the easiest color to get online thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, with a seconday focus in red, Goblin Rattlemaster is simply too good. Weak third white because Butcher of the Horde and Crackling Doom are too good to pass on.
Cards I've cut:
Hero's Downfall, like I started with, we need to get faster and so running Downfall is unfortunately out. It's possible to get it into the SB somewhere but I'm not sure of it yet. Meanwhile Lightning Strike and Bile Blight works fine while also being quicker to get out. Lightning Strike to the face can also be redirected to hurt Planeswalkers.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos, white is our weakest color. xWW is too unreliable to have on T3 or even T4.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, CMC 5, simply too slow for what I want.
Stoke the Flames, I'd love to have it in here but I'm just not sure what to remove for it, max 2 or so off so maybe drop a Lightning Strike and something else for them.
Rounding off with a look at the sideboard. Mostly I've picked these cards with the Jeskai Burn, Jeskai/Mardu Tokens, Mardu midrange mirror and Azban Midrange matchups in mind, trying to metagame a little.
We got the Resolute Archangel and Wingmate Rocs for additional lifegain, I think the Archangel especially can pull its weight against Jeskai Burn and Azban midrange to get us back into the game by restarting our life total. Dark Betrayals for all the Siege Rhinos we will see and possible Butcher mirrors. Empty the Pits for the longer grinder games, instant speed make it bonkers. Erebos as a straight up hoser for the Azban matchup because of all the life-gain they have with Coursers, Rhino, Sorin and Wingmates. Elspeth and End Hostilities for those bigger monsters, Azban and Mardu midrange, possible green monsters as well. Liliana Vess for fetching whatever we need, and finally Scouring Sands for the token matchups primarily, since it saves our own tokens and only kills theirs. As compared to Anger of the Gods.
With Bile Blight / Ulcerate backup all of our creatures can fight through Coursers / Siege Rhinos and win, and Praying Mantis just straight up dies to them.
Secret deck-tech is using Sign in Blood for the final 1-2 points of damage to an enemy player.
I think when I was testing, I had it at 3x anger 1x end hostilities. In the 75 its 4 anger 2 end hostilities. I've pretty much gotten sweepers exactly when I need them. Anger is so key right now IMO, hits just about everything except for fatties in abzan mid, which you can still hit caryatids or burn/blight to finish the siege rhino pre board. I can't really complain about the card intersection this deck has to offer. I love mardu charm, especially draw phase mardu charm however, the thoughtseizes/despises aren't the best topdecks. It would be nice to have something like faithless looting (there is the 2cmc sorcery) to pitch these/land floods for relevant end game cards.