This deck is pretty versatile. It's a human tribal aristocrat deck, with the vast majority of the creatures and tokens generated being humans (exceptions include stuff like cruel celebrant, which is too good to pass up). My playgroup avoids building towards infinite combos (incidental ones are fine) and has also banned most tutors, some fast mana and many other staples, so that has influenced the cards in here.
Ramp:
There is plenty of 2 or less cmc ramp to get us going in the early game, and we have big mana rocks (eg chromatic orrery, gilded lotus) to keep us up to speed in the late game along with black market, pitiless plunderer and phyrexian altar to help convert the human tokens we are producing into mana if needed. This allows us to get going reasonably quickly and still have staying power, though the deck is vulnerable to something like vandalblast. There is a bit of land ramp in wayfarer's bauble, keeper of the accord and knight of the white orchid which is a bit more robust.
Card draw:
Primarily, the card draw in this deck comes from our humans dying, either sacrificed onto Silvar, caught in a board wipe, or blocking/attacking. There are several cards that facilitate this- dark prophecy, species specialist, morbid opporunist and skullclamp. Mentor of the meek lets us draw when we create the tokens, which is great. For more general card draw, there is Marchessa who gives us Monarch and makes tokens (sadly not humans), and Mengara who is nice to plop down turn 3/4 and draw us several cards over the course of the game. Humble defector can be tapped then sacrificed to get us a human sac trigger and 2 cards without his usual downside. Getting one or two of these pieces is usually sufficient draw for the game, because even with all the artificat ramp Mardu will have difficulty playing 3+ cards a turn.
Removal:
There is plenty of removal in the deck- lots of single target and versatile removal like chaos warp, generous gift, anguished unmaking and tibalt's trickery. Also some good single target creature removal for exiling a problem commander ASAP (deadly rollick, swords to plowshares, etc). This deck has 3 board wipes- ruinous ultimatum is very strong if we can pull it off, and is basically a wincon. Damn is nice because it's cheap and versatile, and austere command is great if we come up against an artifact/enchantment heavy deck- also very versatile. There is also some creature based removal in here- plaguecrafter and demon's disciple are humans and make everyone sac on etb, which is great for aristocrat triggers. General Kudro can also exile enemy creatures if needed, which comes in handy.
Aristocrats:
This deck includes several card draw aristocrats and ramp aristocrats as mentioned earlier. There are also 5 blood artist effects (zulaport, cruel celebrant, bastion of remembrance, meathook massacre, syr konrad). Adding any more would compromise the human theme of the deck, I think I have all good the human-based ones in here already.
Recursion:
We are in black and want our stuff to die, so a little bit of recursion has been included (there wasn't much room sadly). Reanimate and animate dead are just excellent cards, and can grab a big bomb from someone else's graveyard or one of our key pieces. Priest of fell rites is a cheap human that can sacrifice and recur itself, which is also great synergy.
Human generators:
Our entire deck relies on having a lot of humans, so there are many cards dedicated to creating them. Adeline, hanweir garrison, Jerren, Trynn, eslpeth, and to a lesser extent general's enforcer all ensure a steady stream of tokens. Trynn being in the command zone is great because she can reliably make a token every turn, and most players won't bother removing her. We have a few one-off token effects like bastion of remembrance, Jirina and call the coppercoats which are excellent value. Bloodsoaked champion can also be recast continually, and makes infinite death/etb triggers with phyrexian altar and pitless plunderer. Additionally, Queen Marchessa and keeper of the accord both make tokens, and while they aren't humans, these tokens still trigger all our aristocrat effects so make for good blockers or attackers.
Anthems:
This is primarily an aristocrat deck, but we generally want to be attacking often and an army of buffed up humans can quickly end games. Jirina, general kudro and shared animosity can make our board of 1/1s much scarier- especially shared animosity, it's not hard to have 40+ power worth of humans out of nowhere on turn 5
Wincons:
This deck is quite adaptable, which is one of the reasons I like playing it. We build up an army of humans pretty quickly, and against slower decks like simic value we want to be attacking every round to get their life low to drain them to death in the lategame. Silvar is a key piece of the deck, and once he hits the field it's usually worthwhile to attack with him every turn. His menace and easy access to indestructible make him annoying to deal with, and if an opponent lets him through we can sac creatures to buff him up and chunk off their life. Falkenrath aristocrat is a hidden finisher. She can come out of nowhere, and if your opponent has no flier and is low you can sac your board into her to drain them and finish them off with her damage. Ruinous ultimatum is also a great card to drop in the lategame and finish everyone off. Another card that can win the game out of nowhere is deathrender. If you have several creatures in hand and/or a card draw engine on the field (eg dark prophecy) you can cycle through a large number of creatures out of nowhere and go off. While the exact way to win isn't set in stone, there are a few steps you will want to take to keep your options open for the endgame:
1: Early on, you want to deal as much damage as possible to the slower decks that will eventually outvalue you and build up a big board. Failing to do this, just pray you draw sorin to put them on 10 life.
2: Build up a board and make it painful to wipe. The individual pieces of this deck are not particularly threatening, except sylvar who has built in protection. It is unlikely that you will be the biggest threat on the table in the mid-lategame, so use that to your advantage. Often you will be ignored, try and ally with another player.
3: Surprise everyone by dropping an anthem, a second blood artist, a ruinous ultimatum, a falkenrath aristocrat, a broodmoth to sac your board twice, sorin the guy with the most life down to 10, or a giant call the coppercoats. Sacrifice your whole board to finish off the value player you brought low early, and your 'ally' who the value player has hopefully been weakening. Another option is to board wipe, in response sacrifice your entire board onto sylvar (indestructible) and then attack with him to finish someone while they're open for big damage. You just need to stay alive long enough to get to this stage, so use removal to keep yourself alive until you are ready to win.
Other synergies and good cards:
Luminous broodmoth protects almost all nontoken creatures in this deck from boardwipes and lets you sacrifice them twice
Arena rector/sorin is probably my favourite set of cards in here. Putting the guy who is winning onto 10 life for just 4 mana feels so good, and often puts him in reach of being killed by your boardstate if you have a blood artist effect out
General's enforcer is a great 2 drop because many of the humans in this deck are legendary, and having indestructible attackers/blockers is useful.
Any comments, criticism or suggestions appreciated.
