Stormbreath Dragon does have 2 turns on Wurmcoil Engine though. But it is an interesting concept. You could probably cut the Timely Reinforcements for two in the sideboard.

Timely Reinforcements is mostly for burn. Kinda almost want Kor Firewalker lately though

Is there a reason you're not running a full set of Lightning Helixes between MB and SB?

Kor Firewalker is for fast paced decks, as all it does is slow burn by 1-3 turns. They will still finish you off if you don't have enough damage to back it up really early in the game.

lack of need for them. They're good but I don't ever see needing them over Terminate but they are nice to have around when you go up vs smaller dude decks like zoo or elves

For the burn matchup as well, they can take down a Goblin Guide / Monastery Swiftspear / Eidolon of the Great Revel and negate a Lightning Bolt all in one.

This deck is awesome! I'm definitely going to have to playtest it some more when I have the time, but I love the idea here. Easy +1!

Is Lili out of budget range?

OH! Sorry I see that has been addressed

+1

I have to say I do not like the blue. Straight Mardu was pretty awesome I must say. I've done a handful of games playtesting this deck, and I've been very impressed by it. I've been taking mental notes on what was good and bad, and I was going to tell you about them eventually, but I feel as if I need to tell you now since you're attempting 4c.

I have not playtested the blue version yet, but no more Butcher of the Horde and less Lingering Souls worries me. They were awesome in here. Literally every time you beat my deck was through those cards. Hangarback Walker was unconventional, but totally awesome in here. Take that to heart because I really hate hangarback in modern, but it worked in here. I was very impressed with its power and synergies. The deck had problems, Thundermaw Hellkite being the biggest of them in my experience, but the deck played mostly very smoothly with great synergies. If you want to attempt 4c midrange, have at it, but I'd at least keep the mardu decklist because it was awesome. I'd love to spend more time trying to help you improve it.

On a side note, was there a period of time when this had Bitterblossom? If so, what were the flaws with that? Without having played it, it looks super strong in here to me. Good luck!

Sorry about that, the mardu will be back tonight. I'll be making a separate deck for 4 color testing. Thanks for the notes and yea bitterblossom was where hangarback is

Oh the flaws was that it felt maybe a little slow in that if you drew it without any way of gaining life, decks like twin and rdw would easily burn you out. Also it makes you really rely on vault against jun(d/k) where you really don't want to. Overall not bad but i wasn't thoroughly convinced

I have been happy with a Blood Baron in the board for grindy matchups. Not sure if Hellkite/Stormbreath are better, but Blood Baron is randomly amazing against lots of people other than Jund/Abzan.

Maybe try Grim Lavamancer or Pack Rat in place of Blossom? Both are pretty solid cards.

If you want to maindeck Fulminators, I'd go "all-in" with 2 Ghost Quarters as well. If you're going to beat lands, beat them hard. My changes are -3 Blossom, +3 Fulminator, -1 Pia and Kiran/Olivia, +1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor.

How I would build your manabase:

8 black fetchlands, 4 shocklands (2 Blood Crypt), 4 basics (2 Swamp), 4 Blackcleave Cliffs, 2 Lavaclaw Reaches, 1 Ghost Quarter. Play 2 GQs if you want Fulminator, I think.

I really don't like Bob in this list. Bob works super well in Jund/Junk because they can consistently provide a threat that actually ends games, in the form of Goyf or Scooze or Rhino. In other words, they almost always have a serious board presence that threatens the opponent. The thing is, you don't have that, you have very small advantages like Bitterblossom that can win you games... but over a much longer span of time than Jund/Junk. If you really want drawing for late games, I would put some Phyrexian Arena in.

Which brings me to my next point: I feel like you badly need finishers. At this point, the only serious threats you have are 3x Bitterblossom, 1x Olivia and 1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Since there are only five of those, you'll probably draw around 2-3 in a game. Which means that if your opponent can deal with those 2-3 cards (which you have no way of protecting and little ways of recurring), they just boosted their winning chances by about 80%. And I know that you have the Abbot and Lingering Souls which can provide some pressure, but I doubt that it's enough.

Now for suggestions. Contrary to Glistener's opinion, I would keep the blossom and get rid of the bobs for a Phyrexian Arena or two. I think that 2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa should also work great to balance out the lifeloss (and he's also resistant to 95% of removal in Modern), and I would try a few Grim Lavamancers instead of a few Abbot of Keral Keep.

Also, just curious on why you decided to take out the Crackling Doom.

I'm going to bring a third opinion:

Put the butchers back in! I agree with watermelon that Bob should go, and I think that Butcher was fantastic in here. The hasty lifegain when facing burn is super helpful and although he's soft to removal, he loves you blossoms and lingering souls.

Whoa. 3 in a row huh...

Well the hate on bob caught me off guard. He's never failed to generate good card advantage (which is a thing this deck desperately needs)

I don't think i want arena. It's kinda lame on its own when people are throwing around Abrupt Decay that means they spend 2 mana to get rid of my 3 mana opposed to it being an even trade.

Butcher is only out temporarily but i will say this : people have got to start ignoring his abilities more. You can't comfortably use them when your opponent has mana open so more often than not he's just a 5/4 flier for 4 (which isn't bad really)

Doom got the cut because of abbot. Flipping it of of him is no bueno.

More games will be played. I'll be adjusting for main deck fulminators. If he doesn't work, I'll be going for either finks or some number of packrat/lavamancer with possible mutavault back up

Bob is fantastic and shouldn't go anywhere. Maybe drop down to 3 but no less. Butcher is good, but there's just too much removal in the format for him to be a reliable powerhouse.

Grim Lavamancer all the way. Provides amazing utility, locks down a number of matchups, gets rid of the need for a lot of 2 for 1 situations.

3 Bobs I believe is ideal in mardu. Mardu doesn't have nearly as much lifegain as Jund or Junk.

FAMOUSWATERMELON's points against Bob is valid, but is even more valid against Abbot of Keral Keep. In Jund, there's almost nothing you don't want to play or permanently exile with Abbot of Keral Keep. You generally drop him down when you have 5 or 6 mana, and see what you get. If you want what you exiled, you can play it. If you don't, play something else from your hand. However, with Mardu, you need everything you got for specific situations. Your removal is only against creatures and you generally need to keep it open and not squander it at any point. Jund and Junk can happily play instant speed at sorcery speed, but Mardu cannot. Mardu wants the value of instant speed to gain value over the opponent.

You particularly mentioned being weak against aggro, so I suggest this: Mainboard 3-4 Auriok Champions and 2 Shambling Vents. Shambling Vents is also excellent against Jund, just as long as you don't swing it into an obvious bolt.

Butcher of the Horde's abilities is only useful when you have things to reliably sacrifice without the opponent 2-for-1'ing you. Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Lingering Souls, Abbot of Keral Keep, Bitterblossom and Young Pyromancer are generally what I'd sac (or the tokens they generate) to him. At the moment, I don't think it is best in this deck list.

To an extent bob HAS to stay. He's one of the only sources of effective card advantage these colors will ever get. Arena won't cut it. Outpost Siege did once upon a time but those days are passed.

Abbot, as I've stated before, is experimental. He's been fine so far. Not nearly as good as he is in jund. That much is clear but we may still get decent value. There is two reasons why this deck just doesn't work the way it should.

1: our actual threats cost too much and simply don't generate enough value. Compare our 2 midrange threats to gbx.

We have Fulminator(2/2), brimaz(legendary),hangarbacks(1/1), ect. The point being our 2 mana stuff is basically only ever going to be 2\2 and our 3 mana will either be legendary or fail to generate enough value.

They have goyf and scavenging ooze that's a 3/4-4/5 and a creature that both gains life and gets big at any point during the game. They get to play both these AND spells in the same turn. The tempo simply wins there.

Manlands.

Compare our

Lavaclaw: 3 mana - 2/2 firebreathing

Vents: 3 mana 2/3 lifelink

Them:

Ravine: 4 mana 3/3 gets bigger with every attack

Village: 2 mana 3/3 trample.

Automatic value there for them.

Basically we'll always be behind man. We need a better way

Maybe you should be taking this in an entirely different direction. Maybe play with Young Pyromancer and try for a more aggressive deck with lots of cheap removal. Bob gets even better, and Abbot is great in that sort of shell also.

Like you said, you aren't going to get ahead of Jund by being similar.

What if we became a pox control deck instead and REALLY beat lands?

Reference

(Id be playing gurmag angler over haunting echos fyi)

Looks interesting. Play Ajani Vengeant over Gideon, Ally of Zendikar also.

Repeating Lightning Helix does sound like a good wincon...Sorin, Lord of Innistrad will also be considered