MTG Salvation

Another ~20 person FNM reportI decided to try shaving 2x Lotus Cobra for the 3rd Hierarch and a Reflector Mage. I then substituted the 2x Wall of Omens with utility 2-drops, Scavenging Ooze and Selfless Spirit (didn’t have Spellskite), with the reasoning that perhaps the extra consistency of Wall wasn't as important if the ramp package was less manic bipolar sans Cobras and perhaps the blocking power wouldn't be as important if we could flicker/clone Reflector Mage.

In the side I swapped Harmonic Sliver in over Reclamation Sage, and made the somewhat agonizing cuts of -1 Stony Silence and -1 Eidolon of Rhetoric (there's one Storm player that comes occasionally but we've never played and I'd never had any other reason to bring Eidolon in yet) in order to squeeze in two copies of Unified Will.

Match 1: Naya 8-Whack (1-2)
G1 I make a mistake and think I'm against a naya burn list and I choose to Path Nacatl T1 rather than shocking myself to play Hierarch. He ends up overwhelming me with a Whack wave and I have no blockers. G2 the opponent starts developing his board with BTE, Loyalist, and one of the Whacks but Bird into T2 Courser stabilizes, followed by T3 evolve Birds into Finks -> T4 Evolve Finks into Gearhulk naming Courser as my enchantment, Finks as creature, and Gearhulk as artifact. Opponent scoops. G3 I keep a hand with Engineered Explosives, Reflector Mage, and Staticaster with a Bird and 2 Fetches. He plays Nacatl, I play Birds into Reflector Mage on Nacatl. T3 he dumps ~4 creatures onto the board and Whacks me for a big chunk of life. Unfortunately none share the same name so Staticaster stays in my hand and I play Explosives on 1 and pass. He plays several more hastey whack'd creatures, I detonate explosives and take out 2-3 (and my own bird) but still take a bunch of damage. Unfortunately I hadn't drawn any more lands, so with my Bird fried I'm stuck on 2 lands and die to the remaining Whack squad.
SB in: Explosives, Staticaster, Gearhulk || out: Eternal Witness, Rallier, Saheeli

Match 2: Bant (Non-Vizier) Knightfall (0-2)
G1 I play Wooded Foothills, fetching Forest into Birds and pass. My opponent plays Wooded Foothills, fetching forest into Hierarch and passes. We look at each other and laugh, each one wondering if we're playing the mirror. We start setting up and he reflects my Finks with Reflector Mage, and then when I try to cast Felidar to blink an Oath he exiles Felidar with Spell Queller. From there he responds to something with CoCo to Quell another one of my spells (forget which) and Vendillion Clique to strip my Evolution. He's got me way beat on the board. I topdeck Reflector Mage, bounce his Queller to resolve Felidar Guardian, play Saheeli, tick down targeting Felidar... and Felidar eats a Path. Almost! Next turn his hoard cleans up. G2 I keep a hand with Saheeli, Path, Evolution, and Voice. Voice sticks followed by a topdecked Gaddock Teeg to shut CoCo off completely. He plays Knight, which I Path. He then plays a second Knight, Selfless Spirit, and a Voice. I block with Voice, evolve Gaddock into Felidar, but then die with Saheeli in hand.
SB in: 2 Gaddock, Linvala, Gearhulk || out: Ooze, E-Witness, ??? (can't remember, sorry)

Match 3: WBu Polymorph Tokens (2-1)
G1 I lead with Hierarch, and when I see him pass with just an Island I figure it's control and slam Saheeli T2. He passes again and I play Felidar to combo out. I didn't get to see any cards but from the UW I assume it's UW control (although in retrospect this was a weird assumption since I would've expected him to play Mana leak / Path / something on T2 last game. G2 I board in all my Ux control stuff and basically try to run back the same play: Dork into Saheeli. On the end of my Turn 2 he plays Raise the Alarm into Intangible Virtue on his turn, and kills Saheeli with 2x 2/2 Soldier Tokens. That was a surprise! I play Finks into Felidar blinking Finks but he plays Spectral Procession into Smuggler's Copter and I can't keep up with his sky beats. G3 I sideboard against tokens, lol. I play Gaddock into Voice, and he gets some soldiers down and exiles Voice with Anguished Unmaking. I evolve Voice into Felidar, blinking an Oath to find Saheeli. Next turn I combo out.
SB game 3 in: Explosives, 2 Gaddock, Staticaster, Glen Elendra, Lark, Gearhulk || out: 3 Path, Ooze, Reflector Mage, Huntmaster, Thragtusk

Match 4: My opponent drops /shrug

Overall 2-2

Thoughts:
Man! Spell Queller does a lot of work against this deck, disrupting the combo both on the stack and flying over blockers to snipe Saheeli, ensuring that you can pretty much only cast her the turn you're looking to combo out. The only answer I can think of (beyond running more spot removal ala NateG's Lightning Helix SB) might be to run an Angel of Sanctions to evolve into in order to exile Queller -- even if they kill Angel the Queller won't get to counter another spell. Otherwise we just have to hope we can get Linvala / Lark in the skies or get a Gearhulk wipe.

In general I feel like most of my game losses (barring misplays) were because I failed to stabilize fast enough, got behind on tempo, with a couple games made worse by mana screw.

This is the second night I've run Scavenging Ooze and Selfless Spirit and they are obviously great cards, especially against midrange and control, but I didn't really get to see either shine in these aggressive matchups. Wall feels better to me in the main for my meta, and I'm tempted to bring those back in since the cantrip effect means they at least cycle and provide Evo fodder even in matches where they can't block G1.

I'm less sure of how I feel about 2x Cobra vs Hierarch / Reflector Mage. It's tempting to wonder whether an early Cobra could've helped me keep pace with 8-Whack or Knightfall better. I still think Reflector Mage is a solid card, though, and having another source of Exalted via the 3rd Hierarch is nice. The Reflector Mage might also become some other utility card like MB Angel of Sanctions or a second copy of one of the existing 3-drops for added consistency.

Angel is difficult to assess. It’s a little overcosted for its stats but it can always answer random hate cards like Worship, Pithing Needle etc that your opponent might bring in. In these situations siding in Reclamation Sage feels bad if you draw it but don’t see a hate piece but Angel is at least a flying 3/4 threat that can also cover creatures and Planeswalkers. Having a catch all at the top of your curve also feels better to Evolve into rather than Evoing for Pridemage and then paying 1 to take care of Worship, for instance.

I’m starting to think that most of the utility options should be in the 3-5 CMC range while keeping my 2-drops devoted to setup of some kind.

Good luck! Thanks for taking the time to test this list, I think it will make comparison between the lists much easier and move us along to something more optimal faster.

I will also be playing tomorrow night, though I haven't finalized my 75 yet. I would try out your list but I don't have Kikki or the lands to run it at the moment.

Quote from VenocStorm »

For Blood Moon, I still believe that this isn't a Blood Moon deck because we aren't built to take advantage of it in the same way that Skred, Ponza, or even Blue Moon are.

I agree that we don't take advantage of Blood Moon quite as well as the decks you listed, but I don't have a better plan against Titanshift / Eldrazi / Tron. Running Magus of the Moon and 1+ copy of Blood Moon in the side seems like a necessary evil against these decks, no?

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@e302: I agree with most of your post with a few minor exceptions:

I would argue that the 2x Lotus Cobras, 2nd Rallier, 4th Path, Thragtusk, and Sun Titan can all be really excellent somewhere in the 75 but their inclusion
in the MB is still somewhat of a meta call as we've seen successful lists without each of them. I would personally lump them into the flex slots.

Quote from e032 »

I didn't mind Reflector Mage when I tried it but it's not an effect I'd Evo for, even blink with Guardian isn't that exciting when we're backing up the tempo with 2/3 and 1/4 on the ground.

When I was running Reflector Mage I didn't usually Evo for it. The exceptions were (1) when they had a creature such as Thalia, Heretic Cathar that prevented me from comboing and I had the combo ready to go, (2) when I knew or had reason to suspect that they had another copy of the reflected card in hand that would also get caught by the casting block, and (3) against Delve and other threats that I knew they wouldn't be able to recast easily. While I agree that our board pressure isn't always strong, I think the fact that we can suddenly combo out means that our overall Tempo (both real and "virtual") is perhaps better than you give it credit for. Furthermore, Saheeli alternating between cloning Reflector Mage and Scrying has bought me several turns against aggro before, enough to close out some close games.

I do agree that the major draws to building around Saheeli are the potential to build a consistent, lower-pain manabase and the ability to more reliably threaten the opponent with an early combo or proactive value-beats. It's hard for me to say how much you gain vs lose when you start splashing in Kiki-Chord pieces and their requisite manabase... to what extent does it make the plan more resilient and flexible, and to what extent does it make it less consistent? I'm really glad that we have VenocStorm and NateG in here to offer some good perspective on both angles.

Weird dude.

Going for maximum value as Plan A with 9 (!) flicker effects and 17 ETB targets not including Saheeli and then making the combo more of an incidental Plan B? Probably good against slower fair decks, looks like it needs a lot of hate to shore up the unfair matchups.

Coiling Oracle probably isn't doing much ramp with 18 lands (30% ramp rate) and I'm unsure of Vial in this list.

If anyone watches the videos before I can get to it I'd be curious to read a summary of the matches.

Personally I'm happy for Nathan's success and glad the deck's putting up results but I can't tell if his list is expertly crafted to his expected meta or just unfocused between the singleton Chord, 3x Oath / Felidar / Saheeli and the fairly GY-intensive top-end Of Lark and Titan. I'd be curious to read a write-up on his deckbuilding choices and matches.

Worship has come up here a few times and probably warrants further consideration.

Another ~20 person FNM report:

My list is mostly unchanged from my last postI did end up keeping Staticaster over Fiery Justice in the side and Rallier over Tracker in the main. These turned out to be good calls.

Match 1: Goblins (2-1)
G1 is hazy. I stabilize at 3 life and then beat down. G2 I think I'm stabilizing and he pulls double Goblin Grenade into double Bolt the next turn to kill me out of nowhere. RIP, not much I can do about that. G3 we reach a board stall and I topdeck into the combo to win.

Match 2: Grixis Death's Shadow (2-1)
My opponent rolls out an Urza's Tower mat and I prepare for the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised by Shadow. G1 my hand is destroyed by repeated discard but he stumbles on land drops and I claw my way back with Courser + Voice and slooowly chip in for the kill. G2 he lands an early Liliana, The Last Hope and snipes my birds. He ticks lili up to target my Felidar (without Saheeli on the board) and states that this should prevent the combo kill since Saheeli would create 0/2 copies. I'm pretty sure this is wrong (right?) but I don't bother to call a judge as my Saheeli is Stubbornly Denied anyways and he follows with a 5/5 Shadow and Zombie Fish to close the game. G3 he tries to be sneaky and flashes in Snapcaster Mage to block Voice, which gives me two Elemental tokens lol. Those keep him busy until I can evolve a Bird into Rallier to return Voice and beat down.

Match 3: Affinity (2-1)
G1 I'm on the draw, immediately faced with 3x Thopters and a Pest. I Path the Pest during combat, forgetting that the Battle Cry buff remains (>.<). Next turn brings an Arcbound Ravager which he uses to sac everything and animate a 5/5 Inkmoth to deal 5 poison. He ignores my Saheeli, tapped out, and I combo out with Felidar before he can finish infecting me. G2 he vomits out a wretch of robots on T1 and Plates up one of the Thopters. I Evolve a dork into Reclamation Sage to destroy the plating, but he plays a second Plating next turn and finishes me off. G3 I have the most exquisite curve of T1 Hierarch, T2 Stony Silence + Bird, T3 Cobra + Saheeli + Oath, T4 Felidar and there's pretty much nothing he can do.

Match 4: Mardu Burn (2-0)
G1 I hit Bird -> Finks -> Felidar flicker, landed a Voice, and beat down. G2 I hit Hierarch -> Evo Hierarch into Finks -> Felidar Flicker. This put me far enough ahead on life to play Eternal Witness to grab back a burned-out Saheeli and complete the combo.

Final record 4-0. After a couple of weeks of correcting misplays and meta calibration the deck seems to be working well for Friday's more aggressive crowd. Having Cobra (and 12 fetches) was an important part of getting under Affinity and Shadow, and I appreciated the blocks and consistency that Wall provided, so I'll be leaving them in the 2-drop slots for now. I also realize that the global meta is a bit slower and grindier than what I faced here so I dunno how much help this list will be to you all, but I was pleased as it seemed reasonably fast, consistent, and proactive -- playing to the archetype's strengths.

EDIT: Looking back over the list the card that felt the most replaceable was Sigarda. She can certainly win games on her own but I'm not running into much LotV / Annihilator / Smallpox and against Black midrange I find myself boarding in Lark to help recover from discard and I overall feel perhaps slightly favored. Linvala / ScOoze / Selfless Spirit / Fiery Justice / Tracker / Counterspell are all looking for room in the 75 so I'm guessing this slot will get taken to help fix whatever match I have trouble with next unless someone convinces me I'm crazy

Opt!

Lantern, Ux Control, and GBx midrange specialize in destroying magical christmas land synergistic play states. That Fauna Shaman + Saheeli scenario almost certainly won't happen in that meta.

I tried cutting down to 21 lands and adding a couple extra Ralliers. I got constrained on lands a bit more than I'd like, though -- either stuck at 2 unable to cast Rallier, having Rallier without fetches to help ramp, or wishing I was drawing some extra lands to sustain Cobra and Tracker throughout the mid game. I didn't have enough games to say whether this was just bad luck or representative of a true average but I think I will stick with 22 lands leaning on Canopy to avoid flooding for now. You could get around some of this with more aggressive mulling but for a combo deck I like to have relaxed odds on drawing hands with usable lands so I can focus on mulling for key combo pieces, and in that respect 22 lands is less likely to pull 1 land hands.

I think we are in agreement that Titan probably goes in the side so I'm toying with Rallier vs P&K vs Huntmaster vs something else in that slot. I'm a little wary of going too hard on the graveyard to the point that we start getting soft to hate (the deck seems to do a good job of riding the line of making GY hate juuust profitable enough that the opponent isn't sure they want to board it in since it doesn't directly disrupt the combo), but maybe we're still ok even with a set of Ralliers. Right now my list is fairly red-light so I'd have to shock myself more to run P&K. Maybe it's worth having the second Stomping Ground in there anyways since I had problems last night getting my only red source covered by Spreading Seas? I was eventually able to flicker it to get my red back but it was still annoying.

Matches against Burn last night were pretty close and Thragtusk secured most of my wins. I'm pretty pleased with him in the main so far but I understand if anyone wants to cap their curve at 4 CMC. Having both Felidar Guardian and Thragtusk be over 3 CMC was pretty nice against Eidelon. I didn't get a chance to test Forge Tender but I will try to do so soon.

Strange to play Image in a deck where it cannot interact with Saheeli, Guardian, or Kiki

That list looks a little strange to me. Phantasmal Image is powerful, but why run only 1 Rallier with it? Wouldn't it be better to run more of them, since returning Image to copy Rallier is such a nice synergy? Also, this list has 4 Saheeli, 4 Felidar, 4 Evo, 1 Kiki, so it's definitely trying to combo a lot, but how does Image support that plan? It can be a "cheap" 3/4cmc creature to enable Evolution for Kiki, but doesn't Lotus Cobra gives us even more explosiveness? I guess copying Felidar to flicker Oath allows us to chain a lot of Oath triggers together to eventually combo, but without Cobra that can take some time.
Maybe the power and utility of Image justify its lack of direct synergy with the combo core of the deck, I would have to playtest that. It can do a whole lot for just 2 mana, and scales very well into the later turns, but on the other hand it isn't always good on turn 2.

I agree with maniospas, tutoring for a 5-drop should not be your only plan vs Humans. While it works often, you won't always have a draw that can get a 5-drop into play quickly, and cards like Reflector Mage and Kitesail Freebooter make it harder. In addition to that, Gearhulk lets them keep a Mantis Rider in play, while Glorybringer is probably not what you want to be doing against a deck with 3-4 Phantasmal Image.

@itslightninghelixomg: 9 mana creatures plus 23 lands is a lot, you could consider going down a land to 22. I personally don't like having more than 5 shocklands in my deck, drawing multiples in the opening hand can be quite painful.
Rogue Refiner is very interesting, but I'm not sure it's actually better than Renegade Rallier. They're obviously very similar: The cmc and body are identical, the mana cost is similar with Rallier being slightly easier to accomodate, and they both generate card advantage in some form when they enter. Rallier is clearly the more swingy card, since it sometimes lacks Revolt or targets of value. Also, it can be interacted with by grave hate like Scavenging Ooze or fetchland hate like Blood Moon or Leonin Arbiter. It's floor is clearly lower than that of Rogue Refiner, which will just reliably draw a card whenever it enters the battlefield. However, when Rallier returns a land that you actually need (usually for Cobra), a valuable creature (Voice, Gaddock etc) or Oath of Nissa, it's a lot more powerful than Refiner, because in addition to the raw card advantage, you also get something else: an extra land directly into play, a creature that you don't need to pay for or the card selection from Oath. (Rallier returning Horizon Canopy is slightly worse than casting Refiner unless you have Cobra.) Another minor but valuable aspect of Rallier is that it can allow us to quickly get lots of basics into play in Blood Moon matchups.
All in all, Rallier, despite its lower floor, has a much higher ceiling in my eyes. On balance, the chance to do something unfair with it (if you play the necessary numbers of fetchlands and Cobras) seems worth more than the consistency of Refiner to me.

@Koopa, congrats on the nice finish. How did 2 Felidar Guardians feel to you? My lists with Kiki have always run 4, as I'm angling to combo a fair amount of the time. Even with Shalai, I still dig having access to Eidolon in the board. It's redundancy against Storm, and puts in work against decks like Burn, Elves, and Living End.

Alright so like I said I went to Regionals yesterday here in Columbus. The event ended up hitting its 240 person cap so we played 9 rounds with the cut to Top 8. I ended up going 7-1-1, making Top 8 and then losing in the quarterfinals with the below list:



My matchups went as follow, I won't go into anything as it just standard play. I will say that I probably had a 55/45 split between games won via combo vs games won via beatdown. That said, there were certainly countless times where my opponents made sub-optimal plays in order to respect a potential combo, which is obviously one of the decks greatest strengths.

Round 1: 5 Color Zoo (2-0)
Round 2: Jeskai Control (2-1)
Round 3: UW Control (2-1)
Round 4: Zur?! (2-0)
Round 5: Goryo's As Foretold (0-2)
Round 6: RG Valakut (2-1)
Round 7: Affinity (2-1)
Round 8: Burn (2-0)
Round 9: ID
Top 8: Zoo (0-2)

All of the matches that I had felt winnable except the As Foretold deck where he killed me on Turn 3 in both games. Honestly, I have no idea if we can do ANYTHING against them except play stuff like RiP or maybe Loaming Shaman? I am not really concerned about fixing the matchup and will glady take the auto-loss here. RG Valkaut is also a fairly bad matchup and I was only able to win Game 2 by turboing out the combo and Game 3 by my opponent misplaying and attempting to pay a Pact trigger with only 1 Forest in play while I had a Magus. I may want something else going forward for this matchup.

Both of my control games felt a little unfavored preboard but very favored postboard. The aggro decks that I was worried about with previous iterations of the deck are much easier with the inclusion of Reflector Mage and Justice out of the board.

While I didn't play against Humans, Hollow One, or Mardu I tested extensively against all 3 of those decks and feel them to be even to favorable matchups. Reflector Mage pulls a lot of weight against the first two.

As for individual card choices:
-Shalai over-performed all day. It was lights out against Burn and was a nice roadblock against Valakut.
-Huntmaster, however, was meh all day. Whenever I tutored it was almost ways for Shalai first or Guardian if I was going for the combo. When I casted him from hand he was never amazing but was overall okay. P&K may be a better card here, though there were plenty of times that I would have been unable to cast P&K where Huntmaster would have been castable.
-Rallier was also very good all day. There was only 1 time during the day where I had to cast a naked Rallier and even then it served as a removal spell to trade in combat. It consistently dug me out of games all day by either generating card draw via Oath or Canopy or just generating value with Voice. As I have always felt, the card is a cornerstone of the deck and I will continue playing 4.
-Kiki was good. It was stuck in my hand on a couple of occasions and I was able to cast it from hand in the Top 8 where it could have done more had I not had to mull to 5. I think it has warranted it's spot.
-SB was fine. Teeg was great against control. I never saw Eidolon and if I don't expect any Storm maybe I don't need it and with Shalai being in the deck maybe I could use the slot for other, more common matchups, but I know the first time I die to a Grapeshot because I decided to cut it I am going to want to die.

Also, I had a friend come with a list very similar to the Atlanta list. He went 6-3. There was another guy playing the deck there as well. I didn't see very many of his game but he was still playing Sun Titan. I believe he also went 6-3.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Just got another 5-0 with good ol 4C Saheeli, this time without Bloodbraid Elf (too much variance).

Round 1: 2-0 vs Abzan Midrange
Round 2: 2-0 vs RW Burn (Got to surprise-block Goblin Guide with Qasali Ambusher game 2, then untap and Evolution into Thragtusk :D)
Round 3: 2-0 vs UR Storm (Got back Gaddock Teeg 2 times from gy with Rallier to seal the deal)
Round 4: 2-0 vs UW Planeswalkers Control

So, 8-0 in games before the final match... where I face the mirror (Opponent was 2-0 though). We both comboed off turn 3-4 with Cobra each game, so my only game loss was vs the mirror

Here's the decklist I played (EDIT: Now up on Wizards site as well: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-06-01)
I've been playing this deck since GP Copenhagen last year and I still find new ways to win in almost impossible spots. It takes A LOT of practice to fully master this deck and I still feel I have more to learn.

For bonus fun I'm attaching a screenshot from game 3 in the finals. I mulliganed to 6 and kept a one lander and scryed a Birds of Paradise on top. In opponent's turn 3 they cast Acidic Slime to blow up my only land (screenshot taken here). When it's my draw step I draw a card and after some thinking I'm able to win that very turn.

What's the card and how do I win?

Can you give some concrete examples for matchups where Magus of the Moon is a creature you would tutor for? I've played the card on and off, but rarely been impressed. It requires set-up (get basic lands in play, optimally both a Forest and a Plains) and if you want to Evo it into play quickly, you will probably need to sac a mana dork, which is the exact kind of creature you actually want to have with Magus in play. At the same time, Magus dies to everything (maybe not to Fatal Push because Revolt gets harder to achieve) and makes our Cobras and Ralliers a good deal worse. It can certainly dominate games, but there are also a lot of scenarios where it underperforms, especially if the opponent is aware of the card.

Concerning Kiki: It's in the deck to allow us to use Evolution for a combo piece once we already have Felidar Guardian. Just having one Kiki to tutor for really increases our consistency at assembling a combo quickly. Cobra makes casting it a reasonable plan, but I've also had it stuck in hand more often than I'd like. As maniospas stated, you have to build and especially play with Kiki in mind. When in doubt, fetch another red land!

As for P&K vs Huntmaster: They play a similar role, and are close in power level in my opinion. P&K shines vs Affinity, whereas Huntmaster gets the nod vs Burn.
I like P&K a little better, but its mana cost is also noticably tougher. Though once you have Kiki in your deck, might as well play P&K too.

Since I'm writing about all red cards anyway, I'm currently watching the Pro Tour top 8 (Standard), and Goblin Chainwhirler is totally dominating that tournament (28 out of 32 possible copies in the top8 decks). While the mana cost seems like a huge (!) stretch, the card has potential to be great in our deck too. It's similar to Orzhov Pontiff, which has been a solid role player in Modern for years, but the body is so much better, and pinging planeswalkers can be a very useful bonus (remember the days when Saheeli did that for us?). Nevertheless, is it at all possible to make the mana work? And would the card even be worth the effort? Both seem unlikely, but what do you guys think?

Went 2-2 tonight with the same list I posted before (4 Cobra, 4 Felidar, Kiki, Reveillark). My wins were not close (vs Blue Tron and Esper Control) whereas both losses (Affinity and Jund) went to 3 games and could have gone either way. Some thoughts:
Reveillark was very good tonight. I drew it twice vs Jund and it dominated the game both times. It's obviously way too slow in combo matchups, but one of the very best tools to win grindy games. If Burn isn't a factor in your meta, it's probably better than Thragtusk.
Pia and Kiran also convinced me tonight. Returning it with Reveillark felt like cheating. Multiple flying blockers (with the option to get even more if you flicker or copy it) is such a huge factor against Affinity or Humans. But, the RR cost was difficult.
Kiki-Jiki won several games, but also got stuck in my hand twice with only two fetchable red sources in my deck. I will definitely add either a second Stomping Ground or basic Mountain for next time.

@Jankoz: Dorks and Evolutions aren't great against those highly interactive decks for the reasons you described, you should trim a few when sideboarding. Try to keep Saheeli out of Bolt range if possible by using +1 unless you are confident that your -2 activation won't be disrupted by removal. Other than that, cards like Voice, Rallier, Thragtusk, Sun Titan, Reveillark, Tireless Tracker and Felidar blinking Oath should gradually generate card advantage. Lean on those cards, chaining enough of them together is your best route to victory. Moon effects and Gaddock Teeg can provide some level of disruption, but will usually not lock them out entirely.

Went 4-0 at 20 person FNM with this deck. I've been really liking having two mainboard reflector mages and acidic slime. I'm still not sold on Sun Titan in the main, but I'm not sure what to run in its slot. Huntsmaster is absolutely insane in the deck. It not only acts as life gain and clogs us the board, but it can also remove small toughness creatures. I've only been on the deck for about a month, but overall it has far exceeded my expectations, especially its midrange plan b.

R1: 2-1 against Devoted Druid Company
R2: 2-0 against Ponza
R3: 2-0 against B/W Planeswalker Control
R4: 2-1 against Mardu Pyromancer

Blood Moon can be good in any matchup naturally. I would still play it in the maindeck, but you can cut it down to a singleton if you wish. Your meta seems really good for Mardu, I generally consider Humans, Elves, Affinity, Taxes, Merfolk, DS, Jund, Control, Abzan CoCo and Hollow One to be very beatable. The only really bad matchups are Titanshift and Tron. Storm and Burn can be dicey but I personally wouldn't mind playing against the decks. Lantern depends on the clock.

I would not play mainboard sweepers, but I would maybe up my count on Fatal Pushes and lower the count on LoTV. I would also consider LtLH maindeck. A singleton Forked Bolt would also be an option.

I don't think you need speed really, but I would probably play a couple of Rabblemasters to have a decent clock against Tron, Storm, Titanshift and Lantern.

I think you can skimp on GY hate easily. The only matchup where you really want it is Hollow One and the mirror. And therefore I would cut down to 2 Spellbombs for example.