Hello and welcome to the first Deck Tech for For the Horde! Have a pleasant stay:
Mainboard
Removal
Lightning Strike - Comes in early, clears up mana dorks and aggro beaters, also hits walkers and 'the face' when necessary.
Bile Blight - Another early kill spell, good for aggro and tokens. Currently in testing, in a loose spot.
Crackling Doom - Very interesting, all upside Devour Flesh that also pings the opponent. Predicting to be very good against Sagu Mauler. Only running 3 MB due to strict mana requirements and sometimes awkward lack of good use.
Utter End - Hello not-quite-Vindicate. Hits walkers and indestructible thingers at INSTANT SPEED and EXILES. What's to say no to? Also good as an answer to pesky enchantments cough cough, Ascendancy's Also 3 MB due to high cost for removal.
Hero's Downfall - THE black removal spell for Standard. Need I say more?
End Hostilities - The new wrath. With things speeding up and beatdown decks juicing up, people may question having 4 five-drop wraths. But sometimes spot removal can only get you so far, and in the matchups where they're bad they can be easily sided.
Not Removal
Erebos, God of the Dead - Prevents any lifegain, makes for a decent draw engine now that Underworld Connections has left.
Read the Bones - Our main source of direct card advantage. Scry 2, draw 2 is incredibly powerful and I prefer it for that exact reason over Sign in Blood.
Thoughtseize - Strip their early plays. Take their kill spell and drop a walker. Remove their win-con and never care what they do for the game. And so on.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - Great walker. However, he's much better in more aggressive decks. That being said, he's an incredible threat once I've stabilized, and he can be another removal spell when need be for pesky things like Savage Knuckleblade or Courser of Kruphix
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Can you say win-con? Clears boards, presents a threat AND a safety net all in one. Lovely little package.
Sideboard
Crackling Doom, Utter End and Erebos, God of the Dead - Why one more? Well, why not one more of a card which is good enough to MB as explained above? Take out dead draws and replace with one of these when appropriate for great effect.
Anger of the Gods - If there were more Mardu aggro decks in my meta I'd be running these mainboard. These babies are incredibly strong against an opponent that makes plays on turn 1-3 that all have 3 or less toughness.
Deicide - Still an ideal removal spell for any decks that happen to be playing gods or enchantment creatures in general. Also good against Ascendancy decks.
Mardu Charm - More high damage instant speed removal, good blockers that can also be tiny threats, and instant Duress - great in many matchups.
Despise - Although it's a bit more awkward than Duress and I already have Mardu Charm, I've found that having even more discard essentially amounts to me running blue with counterspells. Incredibly effective against creature heavy and walker decks.
Resolute Archangel - This is not, as some may think, for the aggro matchup. This is for the just as painful but slightly slower Temur beatdown/green midrange decks that can dish out a lot of pain but still be knocked off kilter when you go back to the start with 1 creature.
Stain the Mind - We are living in a post Sphinx's Revelation world - despite there being less obvious targets now, the ability to never have to worry about a particular problem card and being able to answer in a totally different way is very strong. One card no one expects.
