magicviking

Any tri-color Modern deck is going to need a lot of tinkering with the mana base so don't feel bad about that!

I like Ravine a lot and play it in several decks I have but I am not 100% sure it fits in here because of the high activation cost in a deck that otherwise runs on 3 lands in play. My question is, at what point will you have Ravine and 4 other lands in play to activate it? Maybe if you were playing Birds, (a totally different build), or going flat out aggro with Assault as a tail end combo but maybe not in a control build like this...
I was thinking about running a solitaire Inkmoth Nexus in one of my builds but that would require me to take out a Ghost Quarter or Tec Edge and I'm not sure I even want to do that because of the way either one of them destroys Tron and can cripple control and other tri-color decks like Jund, (all are types you will run into).
That said, I have not played Ravine in any Assault Loam decks so my observations are not based on experience.

I do have to say though that not playing 4 Looting is a mistake. It is such a crucial card to feed your engines, (especially as you don't have the full set of Bobs), that I would not dream about running this without all 4.
Just my 2 cents...

Other then that I think it looks really good and you should take most any meta by surprise and rack up a nice win record before everyone starts hating on you!

In an ideal world you Crime their hand away, Jab and Assault their critters and swarm with all those Elementals, (in that order)...

Not sure about cutting the Raven's Crime as it is so powerful as recurring disruption and can destroy an opposing deck by itself but I totally agree about the recycling Ghost Quarter, just make sure not to add too many non color producing lands as they will hurt your tempo as early draws.

Liliana of the Veil is an auto include if you have her and a full set of Bob's is also optimum, (I get it if you dont have 'em, I've only got 3 myself).
One thing that concerns me a little is the self-inflicted damage potential of this deck. With all that fetch, shock, seize and Bob damage lurking it looks a little like you are setting yourself up with a -5 life disadvantage in every game, (scary in a format as quick as Modern).
Considering you should never drop a land sideways in this deck maybe replace a few Shock lands with Check or Tap lands, (Dragonskull Summit, Copperline Gorge)?
Maybe Inquisition over Thoughtseize, (in Modern it is practically as good early and equally bad late without the life loss involved)?


For some more budget minded options available:
Monastery Swiftspear has played incredibly strong in a budget build, (and in pretty much every other Modern legal deck), I run. With Loam running and all the Retrace you have I can see it being really strong in here.
I have also played Darkblast before and it kind of sucks. You are far better off with the 4th Faithless Looting to feed Loam and Retrace.

Your SB options also seem a little weird but I assume they are keyed towards your local meta...

Zed.
Ex: Bile Blight in hand with no critters in play = dead card. (with big critter in play it is only marginally less dead), Play Guttersnipe = Bile Blight now live card.
With only 6 critters in the deck any removal across the table that is not multi-purpose will often be dead in their hand and adding more easily removable critters will turn those cards live.
Ex2: Standard mid-range Mardu with 12+ removal cards v/s UB Control with 1 Pearl Lake Ancient gives the Mardu player a lot of sideboarding to do for game 2...

Furthermore your advice about removing the 4 basic lands for Guttersnipes shows you truly dont get how this deck ticks. Jack is running a bare minimum of 24 lands as it is and removing any will tank the deck. If anything it might run smoother if the land count got increased. The regular Jund version of this runs 28 lands.

Pyromaster +1 would add to the control/damage and the 0 add some digging when needed and could easily be playable.
However I was thinking more along the lines of the Firebrand as the +1 has all the control of Pyromaster and the -2 looks plain nasty in here...

Agreed, Inkmoth Nexus would be awesome but I might be pushing the "budget" moniker a little to far?

If he sticks he would be awesome but like Jack said, he'd likely die instantly and now you have just made their dead removal card live...

I play Shard Volley in a budget aggro loam build, (no Snapcasters), and it works great as Bolt 5 & 6 in there, (especially with Countryside Crusher), but I'm not sure how efficient it would be in here, (notice only 2 Loams and 1 Revival in the main).

With 'goyf now in the deck maybe a Walker like Chandra could work here, more control and if she dies 'goyf grows...

You need some ramp to be able to play all those high casting cost spells you have. Mana dorks, Caryatid and Courser will help.
Playing multiples of Walkers wont do much for you as when you drop say Steadfast it makes Mentor of Heros unplayable, (only 1 Ajani in play at any given time). You also need more dual lands to hit your colors at the right time.

Hope that helps.

Actually, with "everybody" playing Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze mainboard the entire concept for this deck was almost impossible to pull off. With DS gone it might be time to revive it? Like it!

Hey, just trying to help a fellow Mardu player.
#1 and #2 - Tokens as a wincon fails against sweepers when you cant protect them. Hell, even a 1/2 hexproof dude will give you problems.
#3 - You are welcome. Bile Blight will work great in your deck but it is also the bane of your deck. It will basically single-handedly destroy it.
#4 - Utter End is a nice enough card it is just costed very high for the colors you are in. RWB has the best removal in Magic available.
#5 - None of what you said made any sense. It is simply too conditional of a spell when you have access to the best removal in the game.
#6 - Why do you play with shit cards in the first place, (oh yea, you have to dump those Suspension Fields, Triplicate Spirits, Utter end and the 2nd and 3rd Murderous Cut at some point). <grin>

Biggest upgrades you can do quickly is Chained to the Rocks, Read the Bones, Bile Blight and probably Sarkhan. Loose what you would lable as shit you dump with Tormenting Voice and you have a much smoother deck with a quicker response time.

Have fun!

I have been running a few different Mardu builds over the past couple of months and here is a couple of things I have noticed:

Elspeth as your main wincon seems extremely fragile, as a single Thoughtseize or Despise will severely hamstring you and a single Bile Blight/Anger of the Gods/Drown in Sorrow can easily cripple the rest of the tokens generated. With no counter ability available you are putting all your faith into stripping their hand of a sweeper before they can drop it, (and it wont work on the most effective sweeper Bile Blight anyway as it is an instant). Maybe add Sarkhan to the super-friends list to add some additional kick? Raise the Alarm at instant speed will likely also help achieving your goal...

Bile Blight's token slayer ability combined with it's combat trick possibility far outweighs Utter End's flexibility at BB versus BW2, especially since you are playing Downfall already. I highly recommend making that swap! If you are not running a full set of Lightning Strike then adding the scry from 2 Magma Jets will likely benefit you more then the 2 Strikes.
3 Murderous cut out of the board seems excessive as you will rearly be able to play more then 1 for cheap, plus the main reason to play it in Mardu is to target Stormbreath and you already have answers for those.

Suspension Field is one of those cards that looks great when you first see it, but turns out to be so limited when you actually play it that it quickly ends up in the SB and from there disappears into oblivion. Chained to the Rocks with 4 fetchlands and 6 mountains is far superior.
Tormenting Voice is just bad in a build where you have access to Read the Bones and to a lesser degree Sign in Blood. Crater's Claws without a reliable Ferocious trigger also falls into that category as Stoke the Flames combines well with tokens.

Hope that helps you out and that you can use some of my observations to your benefit.

Seeker of the Way looks like it would be very strong in here as you have plenty of non-creature spells.
Ripper is a much worse opener then say, Bloodsoaked Champion. Both die to any type of removal, (and your opponent WILL have removal), but the Champion will bounce back unless exiled, (and if exiled your opponent has 1 less exile spell for your Phoenix).

I love the Roc but in this build maybe Sorin, Solemn Visitor would benefit you more? +1-0 and Lifelink to everyone AND he spits out tokens... They are priced closely enough that you can still claim to be a budget build...

I have tested extensively with Ride Down in a non-budget build of mine and without Goblin Rabblemaster, Akroan Hoplite, Foundry Street Denizen to take full advantage of the trample it turned out to be to conditional to include in the main over just straight removal like say, Bile Blight.
Despise is a great turn 1 play against most decks in the format right now but after turn 2 it gets progressively worse and ends up being a horrendous topdeck midgame, (pretty much a wasted slot). It is far better coming out of the SB against decks that are weak against it. How about Mardu Charm for it's versatility instead? It is more of a midrange solution to several problems and is never a dead card...

Finally, 12 taplands seems like a ton when you have 19 spells that cost 2 or less, plus those taplands will pretty much always delay your plays that was supposed to happen on turn 3 or later one additional turn. That is a HUGE tempo advantage for your opponent for the measly benefit of 1 life. Maybe invest in a few painlands and drop the budget moniker?

Or go all the way and make a Pauper deck:

http://www.mtgvault.com/magicviking/decks/paper-pauper-goblins/

What blows my mind is that you had to purchase and trade for Storm Crows, I can't give mine away! :)

BTW: I've had a Modern legal deck laying around for a while that includes the combo for those of you that just can't enjoy it without it being "Formatted"
http://www.mtgvault.com/magicviking/decks/grand-illusion/

Zak: I totally see where you are coming from and trust me when I say that it hurts me to see a "kitchen table" deck cost more then a truly competitive one! A few trades and some playtesting could turn this slowpoke into something we would all enjoy playing.
Example: http://www.mtgvault.com/magicviking/decks/rdw-devotion-budget-standard/

I certainly hope so, if not then I guess I'll have to convert it into Modern, (although adding some Vexing Devils and Lightning Bolts does sound appealing...)

Well, it's "unloved" because nobody but you commented on it! :)