What's that? I couldn't hear you. Oh, you said "Dega/Mardu is not a viable color pie in the modern format?" Too, bad, I'm doing it, because
I DEG TO DIFFER!!!!(Someone please kill me)
But seriously, I wanted to make a mardu midrange deck that was packed with good value creatures, lifegain, efficient removal and burn spells, good planeswalkers, and token generators. Fortunately, this particular wedge is great at all of that stuff, and this deck can help to showcase that style of play very nicely.
I'm extremely tired and don't feel like making a longer description since i just wrote a short story on This Horde Stays Twinning. This list is just basically an offshoot of that one minus the twin package anyway.
EDIT
I made a sideboard. Its iffy and a first draft at best, and I know Avalanche Riders are not ideal, but he is budget friendly and can be pretty effective against the big mana decks.
EDIT TO THE EDIT
My sideboard has been upgraded slightly. I made the decision to add 2 Rending Volley to the board to combat splinter twin decks over the rakdos charms
I also ponied up the cash to afford the 3x Fulminator Mage.
TIDBIT ON STRATEGY
One strong interaction between Butcher of the Horde and Tidehollow Sculler occurs when you respond to the ETB trigger of the latter by butchering it. That way, you get vigilance/LL and they permanently exile the card, which is such big game against so many decks.
It makes tidehollow also a very good late game topdeck, which it already was, and it is a much better topdeck than seeker/pack rat/pyromancer pretty much any time. Of course, you could already have rats/tokens/mutavaults out, which might make the pack rat rip off the top the final piece to the puzzle. Still, the only concern I have with running both
Seeker of the Way
and Young Pyromancer, or even building the list to have Monastery Mentor with either of the two, is that you just have way too many weak topdecks in the mid-late game.
In modern, card quality is paramount. With a color pie that is not going to out-draw your Grixis/UWr/BGx/brokencombo.dec wielding opponent very often, it is important that every single card can just grind extremely hard and synergize with your strategy while also providing good enough value on its own. Lingering souls, kitchen finks, crackling doom, kolaghan's command, lightning helix, pack rat, tidehollow sculler, etc. are good examples of cards that pack good value and that are useful in nearly any situation (barring a hellbent opponent or you being hellbent with a pack rat).
