[Standard] Newbie Mardu Midrange Needs Help!

[CardinalSilence]

Mardu Midrange Deck

I've playtested the deck quite a bit and it's been really powerful. It's very efficient and effective at shutting down the entire board, but the deck isn't super flexible and thing like Reflector Mage + Eldrazi Displacer combo just destroy it and I tend to not be able to adjust into a victory in game 2. The deck also seems like it isn't super consistent, some times I get every bomb, burn through the entire deck, no mana screw/flood, and other times I never get anything on the board and get stuck at 3 land with no card draw / madness.

I'm still working on the issues but if anyone has any suggestions or comments I'd love to hear it!

My only request is to keep any specific card suggestions to BFZ, OGW, and SOI as I'm a much newer player, thank you all

[NathanJ]

As far as consistency, I'm not really sure what to say. Standard is not overly friendly to tri-colored decks at the moment. Especially ones that don't run green. They can work, but they feel a bit more clunky than they did before this most recent rotation. A couple Evolving Wilds or Warping Wilds may help a little though. They allow you search for basic lands to fix what mana you have available. Plus a shuffle may save you from getting mana screwed. I know they were in an earlier iteration of a deck you had posted, but I can't think of anything in the sets you're asking for that will really help.

As for dealing with that combo... It's going to be a pain because it's a tough one no matter what. Now, despite your requested parameters about set, I'm going to say Hallowed Moonlight. That will end that combo.. But, since Origins is apparently a no no, I would suggest added removal that lets you target the victim of your choice. You could probably drop the artifacts in your sideboard for another Lightning Axe or two, as instants work best against these annoying flicker strategies. Another option is to add Murderous Compulsion, since you run Madness, as creatures flickered by the Displacer return tapped and playing the spell through Madness can work at instant-speed. More Anguished Unmakings would work as well. I just feel part of your problem here is that the bulk of your removal hinges on Sorceries and Creature abilities. Both of which are going to see the Displacer dancing all around you and controlling the game.

[NathanJ]

Warped Landscape not Warping Wilds. My bad. I don't know why I keep calling them that.

[KouriNick]

You can use your Anguished Unmaking to beat the combo (cast it on the Displacer in response to the ability). The Reflector Mage will land once, but is stopped after that. Maybe adding a couple more to your sideboard to fend off that combo.  I also liked NathanJ's idea to use Murderous Compulsion to get rid of the Reflector mage when it reenter's the battlefield. Again, it will trigger once, but then it's gone.

As for consistency, I see you have plenty of discard outlets, so maybe adding some more madness cards like Avacyn's Judgment will make those discard effects feel more useful. I'd also say increasing the Nahiri count to 4 would be worthwhile as she enables madness and can exile a lot of major threats.

I hope you found this helpful. Good luck and Happy Hunting