Pre-rotation I loved Black/White Control, after the last rotation I have been trying to find a way to play it still. But with the loss of Languish it has been hard to find a good cheaper board sweeper. This is where Radiant Flames comes in!
Not only do we get a a cheap board sweeper but we get access to Incendiary Flow to pick off other creatures and also deal direct damage to the player.
We lost Read the Bones but since we are in 3 colors now we can use Painful Truths and draw 3 cards, and as we have seen in the past drawing 3 cards can swing a game BIG time.
Below is a list I have put together in a hopes of starting talks about a new deck type that could be competitive against the new U/W Flash, B/G Delirium, and R/W Vehicles decks.
I've actually been working on Mardu Control/Midrange ever since the full set was spoiled. Here's a list I just took to top 8 of a local SCG IQ this past weekend.
My deck is definitely more focused on a midrange strategy, but you could switch out only 5-6 cards to get a more controlling deck. That being said, without access to blue the slower Mardu decks, in my opinion, naturally shift closer to midrange. This version of the deck was made to combat Aggro, Ux Control, Metalwork Colossus, and Aetherworks Marvel decks and it tested very well against each archetype. I also was still testing out Incendiary Sabotage to add a silly "GOTCHA!" factor to the deck over Radiant Flames, but it was admittedly too cute and is being cut from future versions. Sadly, I didn't progress past the quarterfinals because there were many more GB Delirium and UW Midrange decks than I expected, two decks that this version tested poorly against. If I had known there would be that many midrange decks, I probably would've brought a list closer to this one.
In my testing and research Liliana, the Last Hope and Chandra, Torch of Defiance didn't exactly fit in line with the particular strategy I was going for. My plan was to do exactly one of three things every turn: 1) resolve a threat that had to answered immediately, 2) kill off a high-priority threat from my opponent, or 3) dig for a card or set of cards that would fulfill the other objectives. Both those planeswalkers are very much about setting up for later turns or getting gradual advantage. Neither of them have to be dealt with for quite a while and they have very little impact the turn they hit the board. Every time I had them in hand against aggro I felt like I needed to wait until turn 5 or later to ensure I still had removal to deal with Smuggler's Copters. You run into a very similar problem against midrange (Spell Queller or Smuggler's Copter from UW, Hissing Quagmire from GB) and they simply don't do enough against control, especially since you have no way of winning counter wars besides "splashing" for Negate or Ceremonious Rejection and Torrential Gearhulk can take them out very easily. Liliana seems great in a version more focused on the Gearhulks, like the Refurbish builds, but outside of that I don't think she does a whole lot for this deck.
For Chandra, I much prefer the Chandra, Flamecaller since she has a great immediate impact and can take over a game quickly if left unanswered.
As far as Gideon, Ally of Zendikar goes, he can definitely be cut if you want to go for a slower, more reactive deck, but he's effectively the Thragtusk of the current Standard and I feel any Wx deck should be playing him in multiples, even if he's just in the sideboard. He "gains life" by soaking up attacks, represents a very large 5/5 body, and even if he's dealt with you still have a smaller body to compensate.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis is a card I actually just rediscovered and I feel he matches the deck very well. We're generally high curve, so the first ability has the chance to clock for 4-6 damage on top of the card draw and the life gain on the second ability is a huge boon against midrange.
Ob Nixilis, Reignited is, in my opinion, a glorified Unholy Hunger. He definitely has the chance to draw us a lot of cards but the deck has always felt so slow that the life loss is incredibly relevant. I still think he's strong enough to see play in a lot of builds, but I am reluctant to run him myself in favor of cheaper removal.
Creatures
Noxious Gearhulk is obviously a good card. He kills the biggest threat on the table, swings the life race back in our favor most of the time, and is a very big body with soft evasion. With the mana cost in mind, though, I feel two is the perfect number. Cataclysmic Gearhulk is always a win for us since we can keep our two best creatures (three if you're playing Gideon, Ally of Zendikar) and we typically have plenty of spot removal for whatever is left on the opponent's side. Combustible Gearhulk is the card that can break the Ux control matchup. If it resolves we get a huge advantage over our opponent so it tends to draw out their counterspells and tie up their mana. With the high curve these decks tend to have we always have the chance to clock our opponent for the majority of their life unless they give us the cards. I wouldn't play it in every build, but if he is being played it should probably only be 1-2 copies.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is great in most matchups as he stabilizes against aggro and midrange while presenting a relevant threat for control. Definitely auto-include material.
The utility of Archangel Avacyn's indestructibility trigger is mostly lost on this deck, but having a threat with Flash is very strong indeed. After this past weekend I agree she should be played, but I personally don't find her as a centerpiece of the deck like she is in UW Midrange or the GW decks that are starting to gain popularity.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers is very close to additional Noxious Gearhulks in this deck. The body is very comparable and 90% of the time you'll be recasting a removal spell, but he has the added utility of recasting card draw or discard spells. He's a big reason why the first version of the deck is playing more Live Fast than Painful Truths, but I'll get into why I'm still running the same split later.
Weaver of Lightning has been seeing play in the Jeskai/Grixis control lists due to its tremendous strength against Smuggler's Copter, Rattlechains, Selfless Spirit, and the RW tokens deck. I would love to play 3 in this deck somewhere, but I've been having a hard time cutting cards to make room for it. If you're expecting more of UW Midrange and RW Tokens they can likely take the place of the Negates in the sideboard, as that card is only for specific matchups (explained in the Utility section).
Removal
I do not like Incendiary Flow. The exile clause is, many times, not very relevant on the creatures it can kill and since it's sorcery speed it will never touch a Smuggler's Copter. Hitting face is okay, but with a slower game plan in mind it can leave threats around for too long. I much prefer Harnessed Lightning, as it always at least deals the same amount of damage, is instant speed, and occasionally can kill an Avacyn, Kalitas, or Grim Flayer. Live Fast also pairs very well here as each one you cast upgrades your Incinerate into a Roast. The variability of Harnessed Lightning makes it incredibly strong and a much better option for damage-based removal.
Grasp of Darkness is definitely a strong card, but the BB casting cost is incredibly taxing on our manabase. It's really tough to justify playing a full 4 copies without good fixing or a lot of black lands but some number is still very strong against midrange and aggro. I initially passed on it, but have been reconsidering it after seeing my local meta.
Ruinous Path is a very edge-case card. The sorcery speed really hurts it in a controlling shell, but it's a necessary evil with Gideons and Lilianas running around everywhere. I've also found that it rarely gets cast for its Awaken cost unless we're in topdeck mode. Our big creatures and our manlands are decent answers to planeswalkers already so I've opted for less copies in my builds.
Unlicensed Disintegration is basically a better version of Murder for our deck. Even if Gearhulks are the only artifacts in the deck it's still an unconditional, instant-speed kill spell for three mana. I think it should see play in every single RBx Midrange/Control deck, at least as a 2-of.
Immolating Glare and Blessed Alliance showed their strength at the Pro Tour in Carlos Romao's Jeskai Control and they're still plenty strong here. It gives us a great answer to bigger threats like Metalwork Colossus and opposing Gearhulks that we can't find in red or black for two mana. I believe that you should always be running more Glares than Alliances but that both should be in the deck as the flexibility of Alliance is nothing to scoff at. With how low our life total can get it's very refreshing to gain some bonus life off our removal and it can, if very rarely, result in a devastating 3-for-1 in our favor.
Declaration in Stone has fallen from its pedestal as best removal spell in the format quickly, but it is still incredibly useful. Sorcery-speed still hurts it but it can very cleanly answer tokens and Emrakul. I feel its inclusion is up to the pilot, though, as it is not necessary. Essence Extraction falls into a similar boat as it can kill Tireless Tracker and Smuggler's Copter while helping us catch up but is much more narrow than our other removal options. Anguished Unmaking fits into here too since the flexibility of hitting any threat is strong but the life cost is very relevant in our slower playstyle.
Radiant Flames is sadly the best we can do for board wipes. It's cheap enough to deal with aggro but it's a shame that it can only deal three damage when we have bigger butts coming out of GB Delirium. A necessary evil.
Fumigate is incredibly slow, but effective. It's too slow for the aggro decks where the life gain would be a huge swing, but against midrange it's probably the best sweeper around. Descend Upon the Sinful is in a similar position, even though it costs one more mana. With our Gearhulks and planeswalkers it actually isn't too difficult to activate Delirium, even though we don't have nearly as much self-mill as GB.
Quarantine Field is an incredibly strong card that is hard for certain decks to answer. It's at its best in the midrange and control matchups where they have few but powerful threats and not many ways to remove it. Stasis Snare is another powerful option for this slot.
To the Slaughter is an interesting one. As I said with Descend, it isn't too difficult to hit Delirium so getting the double effect happens pretty often. It's best in the sideboard to bring in against decks running Gideon, Liliana, or Emrakul, the Promised End.
Utility
Prophetic Prism is sorely underplayed in my mind, especially in Mardu builds. It allows us to keep many more seven card hands as any two-lander with this card is very likely to work. It fixes our mana for cards like Grasp of Darkness and Radiant Flames while also replacing itself so we don't lose much card advantage at all. It's definitely not the best card to draw late game, but casting this turn two is always good. It has the added benefit of turning on Unlicensed Disintegration.
If your build does not need the color fixing as much there are other options for 2-mana artifacts that work well in this deck. Corrupted Grafstone is an option I have been experimenting with. We rarely have it online early on, but in the mid and late game it can give us a nice boost in mana. Hedron Crawler is always online so that may be a good option here and allows for T3 Gideon or Kalitas with the right hands. Metalspinner's Puzzleknot is a very risky choice but it gives us options late game against slower decks like Control. Lastly, Brain in a Jar could be very cool. We're already playing a lot of instants and sorceries and this could allow for some really great turns as we grind the game down.
Live Fast and Painful Truths both serve the same purpose and the split depends on the rest of your deck. Live Fast makes any energy spenders, like Harnessed Lightning or Dynavolt Tower, much better while Painful Truths can draw us more cards. We need to be very careful with these, though, since the life can matter in a lot of different matchups.
Dynavolt Tower is one of the best answers we can have for planeswalkers. We're typically very heavy on instants and sorceries which makes it very easy to fuel this card. Almost every planeswalker can be answered as soon as it comes down with one activation and an attack from a manland. It should probably be relegated to the sideboard for most builds, but is definitely a card to consider. Even though the damage can be directed to a creature I don't consider this a removal option because it's way too slow to deal with aggro, but if you happen to be playing them maindeck you can occasionally snipe a Smuggler's Copter or two in G1.
If we want things to get really spicy, with enough color fixing we can play off-color cards in the sideboard. My build for the IQ was running 4 Ceremonious Rejection, inspired by Lee Shi Tian's Mardu Vehicles list from the Pro Tour, mostly for combo decks like Aetherworks and Colossus or to fight opposing Void Shatters against Control. I have since switched to Negate as it has much wider applications while still keeping the surprise factor.
Discard spells are the bread and butter of Bx Control and Midrange decks. Transgress the Mind is an obvious include as most of the threats we can't deal with otherwise are very expensive. Pick the Brain is even better as we can just rip all copies away from our opponent. Like I've said before, Delirium is not that hard to achieve so it's very often a better Infinite Obliteration.
Lands
Shambling Vent is one of the best manlands in Standard right now. It's a great blocker against aggro and a decent early threat against control. I do think, though, that Needle Spires should be paid attention to as well. It's an amazing planeswalker killer, trades with a lot of the creatures from midrange strategies, and can very easily win us the game.
Blighted Fen is more than just an Emrakul answer, it's actually very good against Torrential Gearhulk as well. It's an instant speed removal spell that can't be countered in most cases (and who really wants to spend a Summary Dismissal on this effect). We can't recur it like GB Delirium can, but even just one in the manabase doesn't throw off our colors by much while giving us a strong option against slower decks that play less threats at a time.
I believe that every 3+ color deck (and even some 2-color decks) should be running a playset of Aether Hub, even if you aren't generating energy. It's always exactly the color you need early game and late game you likely have enough other lands that the lack of energy doesn't matter. It does get a slight boost if you are running energy cards as it instantly boosts your next Harnessed Lightning up a notch and benefits slightly off any excess energy you get throughout the game.
As I've been playing the deck more I'm actually growing less fond of Evolving Wilds. Not enough to cut it from my builds just yet, but with so many better options to fix mana it feels very weak. It puts you behind by a turn and late game it has the chance to be a complete dud. It might be necessary in builds not running Prophetic Prism, but outside of that I'm not yet sure.
Conclusion
I'm primarily a Ux combo/control player, so I still find it weird that I've been drawn so heavily to this deck. I've put a lot of time and research into iterating and improving it, though, but I know I'm nowhere near finished. I may not even be correct in some of my evaluations, but this is where I am at the moment. Don't take my post as saying your build is bad and it needs to be exactly like mine, but I hope I at least gave you some insight into other directions to take this.
Also, I'm going to shamelessly plug my podcast here. I run the Wizard's Brew Podcast with my close friend and playtesting partner where we discuss deckbuilding, deckbuilding theory, and top performing decks at high-level constructed events. We cover every format, from Vintage to EDH, although most episodes focus on the Standard metagame. New episodes typically go up every Friday afternoon or evening and this week I'll be doing a tournament report from the same SCG IQ where I played the first list I posted here. Please check us out, we're easy to find on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Thank you king for your reply DubiousKing. It seems you have put a lot of testing into the deck.
After playing around with Incendiary Flow I think I agree that Harnessed Lightning will be better. Also some how I totally forgot about Goblin Dark-Dwellers! Those guys are nuts in a control deck.
I'm at work reading this lol. I am going to read some more and think about it and see if maybe I can tweek my deck a little bit.
I started building this deck, unfortunately I don't have any of the expensive pieces (Gideon, Liliana, Kalitas). That being said, even without them I'm sure I can make it work. I'll post a list when later this week.
I have a question though: against what do you bring in Pick the Brain and Transgress the Mind?
And what's the game plan against the 3 top decks?
Honestly, I wouldn't play the deck. I played it at the beginning of Kaladesh, but it is really, really bad against all blue decks. All they have to do is counter your few threats and it is over. The deck stomped a lot of aggro decks though, but struggled mightily against artifact based and blue decks.
I started building this deck, unfortunately I don't have any of the expensive pieces (Gideon, Liliana, Kalitas). That being said, even without them I'm sure I can make it work. I'll post a list when later this week.
I have a question though: against what do you bring in Pick the Brain and Transgress the Mind?
And what's the game plan against the 3 top decks?
Pick the Brain and Transgress the Mind come in mostly against other midrange decks (UW Flash, BG Delirium) and control decks, anything where the game has a great chance of going long. They're both also useful against combo decks like UR Spells and the Aetherworks Marvel decks, which aren't seen too often but are around in my local meta so I keep them in mind.
For UW Flash our plan is to just have more removal than they have threats. We aim to win the late game with our manlands and planeswalkers. With the more current build I'm using our game against them is better with the addition of Avacyn since we can match theirs pretty well. It is an uphill battle since almost all of our interaction can be taken by Spell Quellers, though. I'd recommend running a sideboard with Negates and bringing in a combination of those, board wipes like Descend Upon the Sinful, and hand disruption. Casting T2 or T3 Transgress on the play can bring things heavily in our favor.
Against RW, we are the control deck. We run enough removal to deal with the threats from the Vehicles builds and after sideboard our Tokens matchup gets slightly better. I think the Tokens builds are tougher when we don't draw Radiant Flames so if you expect to see that deck you may want to go up to 3 copies in the maindeck with maybe other anti-aggro options in the sideboard.
GB Delirium is a wash game 1, it's very unlikely we win unless we run hand disruption maindeck or get extremely lucky. After sideboard we have a dearth of options like Transgress, Pick the Brain, Quarantine Field, Descend Upon the Sinful and To the Slaughter. This brings the matchup only slightly in our favor, but it's very winnable. We have access to Lost Legacy as well, which is not a great option but can help us win the late game when we name Emrakul.
Honestly, I wouldn't play the deck. I played it at the beginning of Kaladesh, but it is really, really bad against all blue decks. All they have to do is counter your few threats and it is over. The deck stomped a lot of aggro decks though, but struggled mightily against artifact based and blue decks.
It definitely does have problems against the blue decks. Running Prophetic Prisms and sideboard Negates helps alleviate this a little, but it is still very tough. If you're planning on running something Mardu in a blue-heavy meta you're better off with the aggro builds with Smuggler's Copter and Scrapheap Scrounger. Mine doesn't have too many blue decks (1 Grixis Control, 1 Jeskai Control, 2 UW Flash, 1 UR Spells, 1 UR Colossus) so I'm comfortable running this version, at least in local events.
I think the artifact-centric decks are actually not bad if you run a few copies of Fragmentize in the 75, especially if you're running a Goblin Dark-Dwellers build. The only artifact deck they're not too good against is Metalwork Colossus but in my experience our massive amount of removal can deal with them pretty easily.
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Not only do we get a a cheap board sweeper but we get access to Incendiary Flow to pick off other creatures and also deal direct damage to the player.
We lost Read the Bones but since we are in 3 colors now we can use Painful Truths and draw 3 cards, and as we have seen in the past drawing 3 cards can swing a game BIG time.
Below is a list I have put together in a hopes of starting talks about a new deck type that could be competitive against the new U/W Flash, B/G Delirium, and R/W Vehicles decks.
All constructive feedback is welcome!
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Noxious Gearhulk
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Radiant Flames
3 Painful Truths
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Ruinous Path
4 Incendiary Flow
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Shambling Vent
4 Inspiring Vantage
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Smoldering Marsh
2 Concealed Courtyard
1 Combustible Gearhulk
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Unlicensed Disintegration
1 Ruinous Path
1 Anguished Unmaking
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Immolating Glare
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Incendiary Sabotage
3 Live Fast
1 Painful Truths
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Dynavolt Tower
3 Shambling Vent
1 Inspiring Vantage
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Needle Spires
3 Smoldering Marsh
4 Aether Hub
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Ruinous Path
2 Pick the Brain
3 Transgress the Mind
2 Quarantine Field
2 Fumigate
1 Descend Upon the Sinful
My deck is definitely more focused on a midrange strategy, but you could switch out only 5-6 cards to get a more controlling deck. That being said, without access to blue the slower Mardu decks, in my opinion, naturally shift closer to midrange. This version of the deck was made to combat Aggro, Ux Control, Metalwork Colossus, and Aetherworks Marvel decks and it tested very well against each archetype. I also was still testing out Incendiary Sabotage to add a silly "GOTCHA!" factor to the deck over Radiant Flames, but it was admittedly too cute and is being cut from future versions. Sadly, I didn't progress past the quarterfinals because there were many more GB Delirium and UW Midrange decks than I expected, two decks that this version tested poorly against. If I had known there would be that many midrange decks, I probably would've brought a list closer to this one.
2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Archangel Avacyn
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Unlicensed Disintegration
1 Essence Extraction
1 Ruinous Path
1 Anguished Unmaking
3 Harnessed Lightning
2 Immolating Glare
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Declaration in Stone
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Radiant Flames
1 Painful Truths
4 Prophetic Prism
1 Blighted Fen
3 Shambling Vent
2 Inspiring Vantage
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Needle Spires
2 Smoldering Marsh
4 Aether Hub
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Negate
1 Ruinous Path
2 Pick the Brain
3 Transgress the Mind
2 Quarantine Field
1 Fumigate
1 Descend Upon the Sinful
1 To the Slaughter
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Planeswalkers
In my testing and research Liliana, the Last Hope and Chandra, Torch of Defiance didn't exactly fit in line with the particular strategy I was going for. My plan was to do exactly one of three things every turn: 1) resolve a threat that had to answered immediately, 2) kill off a high-priority threat from my opponent, or 3) dig for a card or set of cards that would fulfill the other objectives. Both those planeswalkers are very much about setting up for later turns or getting gradual advantage. Neither of them have to be dealt with for quite a while and they have very little impact the turn they hit the board. Every time I had them in hand against aggro I felt like I needed to wait until turn 5 or later to ensure I still had removal to deal with Smuggler's Copters. You run into a very similar problem against midrange (Spell Queller or Smuggler's Copter from UW, Hissing Quagmire from GB) and they simply don't do enough against control, especially since you have no way of winning counter wars besides "splashing" for Negate or Ceremonious Rejection and Torrential Gearhulk can take them out very easily. Liliana seems great in a version more focused on the Gearhulks, like the Refurbish builds, but outside of that I don't think she does a whole lot for this deck.
For Chandra, I much prefer the Chandra, Flamecaller since she has a great immediate impact and can take over a game quickly if left unanswered.
As far as Gideon, Ally of Zendikar goes, he can definitely be cut if you want to go for a slower, more reactive deck, but he's effectively the Thragtusk of the current Standard and I feel any Wx deck should be playing him in multiples, even if he's just in the sideboard. He "gains life" by soaking up attacks, represents a very large 5/5 body, and even if he's dealt with you still have a smaller body to compensate.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis is a card I actually just rediscovered and I feel he matches the deck very well. We're generally high curve, so the first ability has the chance to clock for 4-6 damage on top of the card draw and the life gain on the second ability is a huge boon against midrange.
Ob Nixilis, Reignited is, in my opinion, a glorified Unholy Hunger. He definitely has the chance to draw us a lot of cards but the deck has always felt so slow that the life loss is incredibly relevant. I still think he's strong enough to see play in a lot of builds, but I am reluctant to run him myself in favor of cheaper removal.
Creatures
Noxious Gearhulk is obviously a good card. He kills the biggest threat on the table, swings the life race back in our favor most of the time, and is a very big body with soft evasion. With the mana cost in mind, though, I feel two is the perfect number. Cataclysmic Gearhulk is always a win for us since we can keep our two best creatures (three if you're playing Gideon, Ally of Zendikar) and we typically have plenty of spot removal for whatever is left on the opponent's side. Combustible Gearhulk is the card that can break the Ux control matchup. If it resolves we get a huge advantage over our opponent so it tends to draw out their counterspells and tie up their mana. With the high curve these decks tend to have we always have the chance to clock our opponent for the majority of their life unless they give us the cards. I wouldn't play it in every build, but if he is being played it should probably only be 1-2 copies.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is great in most matchups as he stabilizes against aggro and midrange while presenting a relevant threat for control. Definitely auto-include material.
The utility of Archangel Avacyn's indestructibility trigger is mostly lost on this deck, but having a threat with Flash is very strong indeed. After this past weekend I agree she should be played, but I personally don't find her as a centerpiece of the deck like she is in UW Midrange or the GW decks that are starting to gain popularity.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers is very close to additional Noxious Gearhulks in this deck. The body is very comparable and 90% of the time you'll be recasting a removal spell, but he has the added utility of recasting card draw or discard spells. He's a big reason why the first version of the deck is playing more Live Fast than Painful Truths, but I'll get into why I'm still running the same split later.
Weaver of Lightning has been seeing play in the Jeskai/Grixis control lists due to its tremendous strength against Smuggler's Copter, Rattlechains, Selfless Spirit, and the RW tokens deck. I would love to play 3 in this deck somewhere, but I've been having a hard time cutting cards to make room for it. If you're expecting more of UW Midrange and RW Tokens they can likely take the place of the Negates in the sideboard, as that card is only for specific matchups (explained in the Utility section).
Removal
I do not like Incendiary Flow. The exile clause is, many times, not very relevant on the creatures it can kill and since it's sorcery speed it will never touch a Smuggler's Copter. Hitting face is okay, but with a slower game plan in mind it can leave threats around for too long. I much prefer Harnessed Lightning, as it always at least deals the same amount of damage, is instant speed, and occasionally can kill an Avacyn, Kalitas, or Grim Flayer. Live Fast also pairs very well here as each one you cast upgrades your Incinerate into a Roast. The variability of Harnessed Lightning makes it incredibly strong and a much better option for damage-based removal.
Grasp of Darkness is definitely a strong card, but the BB casting cost is incredibly taxing on our manabase. It's really tough to justify playing a full 4 copies without good fixing or a lot of black lands but some number is still very strong against midrange and aggro. I initially passed on it, but have been reconsidering it after seeing my local meta.
Ruinous Path is a very edge-case card. The sorcery speed really hurts it in a controlling shell, but it's a necessary evil with Gideons and Lilianas running around everywhere. I've also found that it rarely gets cast for its Awaken cost unless we're in topdeck mode. Our big creatures and our manlands are decent answers to planeswalkers already so I've opted for less copies in my builds.
Unlicensed Disintegration is basically a better version of Murder for our deck. Even if Gearhulks are the only artifacts in the deck it's still an unconditional, instant-speed kill spell for three mana. I think it should see play in every single RBx Midrange/Control deck, at least as a 2-of.
Immolating Glare and Blessed Alliance showed their strength at the Pro Tour in Carlos Romao's Jeskai Control and they're still plenty strong here. It gives us a great answer to bigger threats like Metalwork Colossus and opposing Gearhulks that we can't find in red or black for two mana. I believe that you should always be running more Glares than Alliances but that both should be in the deck as the flexibility of Alliance is nothing to scoff at. With how low our life total can get it's very refreshing to gain some bonus life off our removal and it can, if very rarely, result in a devastating 3-for-1 in our favor.
Declaration in Stone has fallen from its pedestal as best removal spell in the format quickly, but it is still incredibly useful. Sorcery-speed still hurts it but it can very cleanly answer tokens and Emrakul. I feel its inclusion is up to the pilot, though, as it is not necessary. Essence Extraction falls into a similar boat as it can kill Tireless Tracker and Smuggler's Copter while helping us catch up but is much more narrow than our other removal options. Anguished Unmaking fits into here too since the flexibility of hitting any threat is strong but the life cost is very relevant in our slower playstyle.
Radiant Flames is sadly the best we can do for board wipes. It's cheap enough to deal with aggro but it's a shame that it can only deal three damage when we have bigger butts coming out of GB Delirium. A necessary evil.
Fumigate is incredibly slow, but effective. It's too slow for the aggro decks where the life gain would be a huge swing, but against midrange it's probably the best sweeper around. Descend Upon the Sinful is in a similar position, even though it costs one more mana. With our Gearhulks and planeswalkers it actually isn't too difficult to activate Delirium, even though we don't have nearly as much self-mill as GB.
Quarantine Field is an incredibly strong card that is hard for certain decks to answer. It's at its best in the midrange and control matchups where they have few but powerful threats and not many ways to remove it. Stasis Snare is another powerful option for this slot.
To the Slaughter is an interesting one. As I said with Descend, it isn't too difficult to hit Delirium so getting the double effect happens pretty often. It's best in the sideboard to bring in against decks running Gideon, Liliana, or Emrakul, the Promised End.
Utility
Prophetic Prism is sorely underplayed in my mind, especially in Mardu builds. It allows us to keep many more seven card hands as any two-lander with this card is very likely to work. It fixes our mana for cards like Grasp of Darkness and Radiant Flames while also replacing itself so we don't lose much card advantage at all. It's definitely not the best card to draw late game, but casting this turn two is always good. It has the added benefit of turning on Unlicensed Disintegration.
If your build does not need the color fixing as much there are other options for 2-mana artifacts that work well in this deck. Corrupted Grafstone is an option I have been experimenting with. We rarely have it online early on, but in the mid and late game it can give us a nice boost in mana. Hedron Crawler is always online so that may be a good option here and allows for T3 Gideon or Kalitas with the right hands. Metalspinner's Puzzleknot is a very risky choice but it gives us options late game against slower decks like Control. Lastly, Brain in a Jar could be very cool. We're already playing a lot of instants and sorceries and this could allow for some really great turns as we grind the game down.
Live Fast and Painful Truths both serve the same purpose and the split depends on the rest of your deck. Live Fast makes any energy spenders, like Harnessed Lightning or Dynavolt Tower, much better while Painful Truths can draw us more cards. We need to be very careful with these, though, since the life can matter in a lot of different matchups.
Dynavolt Tower is one of the best answers we can have for planeswalkers. We're typically very heavy on instants and sorceries which makes it very easy to fuel this card. Almost every planeswalker can be answered as soon as it comes down with one activation and an attack from a manland. It should probably be relegated to the sideboard for most builds, but is definitely a card to consider. Even though the damage can be directed to a creature I don't consider this a removal option because it's way too slow to deal with aggro, but if you happen to be playing them maindeck you can occasionally snipe a Smuggler's Copter or two in G1.
If we want things to get really spicy, with enough color fixing we can play off-color cards in the sideboard. My build for the IQ was running 4 Ceremonious Rejection, inspired by Lee Shi Tian's Mardu Vehicles list from the Pro Tour, mostly for combo decks like Aetherworks and Colossus or to fight opposing Void Shatters against Control. I have since switched to Negate as it has much wider applications while still keeping the surprise factor.
Discard spells are the bread and butter of Bx Control and Midrange decks. Transgress the Mind is an obvious include as most of the threats we can't deal with otherwise are very expensive. Pick the Brain is even better as we can just rip all copies away from our opponent. Like I've said before, Delirium is not that hard to achieve so it's very often a better Infinite Obliteration.
Lands
Shambling Vent is one of the best manlands in Standard right now. It's a great blocker against aggro and a decent early threat against control. I do think, though, that Needle Spires should be paid attention to as well. It's an amazing planeswalker killer, trades with a lot of the creatures from midrange strategies, and can very easily win us the game.
Blighted Fen is more than just an Emrakul answer, it's actually very good against Torrential Gearhulk as well. It's an instant speed removal spell that can't be countered in most cases (and who really wants to spend a Summary Dismissal on this effect). We can't recur it like GB Delirium can, but even just one in the manabase doesn't throw off our colors by much while giving us a strong option against slower decks that play less threats at a time.
I believe that every 3+ color deck (and even some 2-color decks) should be running a playset of Aether Hub, even if you aren't generating energy. It's always exactly the color you need early game and late game you likely have enough other lands that the lack of energy doesn't matter. It does get a slight boost if you are running energy cards as it instantly boosts your next Harnessed Lightning up a notch and benefits slightly off any excess energy you get throughout the game.
As I've been playing the deck more I'm actually growing less fond of Evolving Wilds. Not enough to cut it from my builds just yet, but with so many better options to fix mana it feels very weak. It puts you behind by a turn and late game it has the chance to be a complete dud. It might be necessary in builds not running Prophetic Prism, but outside of that I'm not yet sure.
Conclusion
I'm primarily a Ux combo/control player, so I still find it weird that I've been drawn so heavily to this deck. I've put a lot of time and research into iterating and improving it, though, but I know I'm nowhere near finished. I may not even be correct in some of my evaluations, but this is where I am at the moment. Don't take my post as saying your build is bad and it needs to be exactly like mine, but I hope I at least gave you some insight into other directions to take this.
Also, I'm going to shamelessly plug my podcast here. I run the Wizard's Brew Podcast with my close friend and playtesting partner where we discuss deckbuilding, deckbuilding theory, and top performing decks at high-level constructed events. We cover every format, from Vintage to EDH, although most episodes focus on the Standard metagame. New episodes typically go up every Friday afternoon or evening and this week I'll be doing a tournament report from the same SCG IQ where I played the first list I posted here. Please check us out, we're easy to find on iTunes and SoundCloud.
After playing around with Incendiary Flow I think I agree that Harnessed Lightning will be better. Also some how I totally forgot about Goblin Dark-Dwellers! Those guys are nuts in a control deck.
I'm at work reading this lol. I am going to read some more and think about it and see if maybe I can tweek my deck a little bit.
Honestly, I wouldn't play the deck. I played it at the beginning of Kaladesh, but it is really, really bad against all blue decks. All they have to do is counter your few threats and it is over. The deck stomped a lot of aggro decks though, but struggled mightily against artifact based and blue decks.
Pick the Brain and Transgress the Mind come in mostly against other midrange decks (UW Flash, BG Delirium) and control decks, anything where the game has a great chance of going long. They're both also useful against combo decks like UR Spells and the Aetherworks Marvel decks, which aren't seen too often but are around in my local meta so I keep them in mind.
For UW Flash our plan is to just have more removal than they have threats. We aim to win the late game with our manlands and planeswalkers. With the more current build I'm using our game against them is better with the addition of Avacyn since we can match theirs pretty well. It is an uphill battle since almost all of our interaction can be taken by Spell Quellers, though. I'd recommend running a sideboard with Negates and bringing in a combination of those, board wipes like Descend Upon the Sinful, and hand disruption. Casting T2 or T3 Transgress on the play can bring things heavily in our favor.
Against RW, we are the control deck. We run enough removal to deal with the threats from the Vehicles builds and after sideboard our Tokens matchup gets slightly better. I think the Tokens builds are tougher when we don't draw Radiant Flames so if you expect to see that deck you may want to go up to 3 copies in the maindeck with maybe other anti-aggro options in the sideboard.
GB Delirium is a wash game 1, it's very unlikely we win unless we run hand disruption maindeck or get extremely lucky. After sideboard we have a dearth of options like Transgress, Pick the Brain, Quarantine Field, Descend Upon the Sinful and To the Slaughter. This brings the matchup only slightly in our favor, but it's very winnable. We have access to Lost Legacy as well, which is not a great option but can help us win the late game when we name Emrakul.
It definitely does have problems against the blue decks. Running Prophetic Prisms and sideboard Negates helps alleviate this a little, but it is still very tough. If you're planning on running something Mardu in a blue-heavy meta you're better off with the aggro builds with Smuggler's Copter and Scrapheap Scrounger. Mine doesn't have too many blue decks (1 Grixis Control, 1 Jeskai Control, 2 UW Flash, 1 UR Spells, 1 UR Colossus) so I'm comfortable running this version, at least in local events.
I think the artifact-centric decks are actually not bad if you run a few copies of Fragmentize in the 75, especially if you're running a Goblin Dark-Dwellers build. The only artifact deck they're not too good against is Metalwork Colossus but in my experience our massive amount of removal can deal with them pretty easily.