Exsanguinate is a card that will always go in an out of my deck. Great wincon, can sweep up several low life opponents, or can stall a loss if you cast it for even a mid range amount. Just an all around solid card. That being said, it comes out regularly to make room for things I want to try. My Wishboard is it's present home, which is a great location for it for me. I can get it for with Burning Wish, but it also gives me access to things like Insurrection and Austere Command. If I cut Burning Wish, I am not sure which I would replace it with, Exsanguinate or Insurrection. Either way, it will alway occupy a flex spot in the deck, because it is not key to the functioning of the deck, but it is amazing when you need it. Thaumatic Compass is pretty great. It has made a great showing in 2 of the last games and played a key role. The last game it didn't show up. What did show up was Teferi's Protection . I won the game against a semi-mirror match against a newly minted Bant Aikido deck. It went Demonic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor to get Master of Cruelties and Key to the City, cast Master of Cruelties. Opponent casts Path to Exile on Master of Cruelties. I cast Teferi's Protection , saving my entire board. Pass the turn, my opponent gets nothing, and passes the turn, knowing she is at least mostly dead. I draw the Key to the City, cast it, and tap and discard to Key to the City on Master of Cruelties, attacking with Master of Cruelties. This bypasses my opponent's Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, Clever Impersonator cloned No Mercy, and her Delaying Shield, as well as a held Dawn Charm to put her at 1 life. I transmute Shred Memory into Price of Progress and cast it, knowing that she doesn't have enough to pay the mana to Delaying Shield to save herself next turn. Pass the turn, and good game. This was after she let an Insurrection through to take out both other opponents earlier in the game when she could have Dawn Charmed to save them. I was expecting her to hold a fog, so I took out them instead of her. She ended up dyeing with that Dawn Charm in hand. Super interesting to see the deck in a multiplayer against another Aikido deck, this one with arguably more control and defense in the form of blue control and green rattlesnakes, but with less aggression. The aggression won out. Mardu aikido is amazing, super fun, and will probably always be my favorite. Thanks for helping me to build my deck, and congrats on the 100+ upvotes. The deck is truly rad.

precociousapprentice, totally agree with you regarding Insurrection and Exsanguinate as finishers. Ultimately I am going with Insurrection for flavour reasons...it's more of a true aikido card. Nice army you have there...mind if I borrow it for a turn?

Thaumatic Compass is already proving its worth...so easy to flip and it is just nasty combined with any other pillow fort effect.

That sounds like a very intense matchup. Aikido vs. Aikido can lead to very long games of back and forth. What commander was she playing? Angus Mackenzie?

Thank you for all the support you have given. I love how our decks seem to inspire each other.

She is my daughter playing a Phelddagrif Aikido deck I am working on with her. "Hey, I'll give you a hippo and a card if you can take out his commander right now." Gifts, clones, stealing, pillow fort, green rattle snakes, and a purple winged hippo. She had been envious of my Marchesa for a while, but when she saw the potential of the gifting purple hippo, she immediately started deck building. I am helping her tune it. Right now we need to work on card draw. We have it disguised as a typical group hug deck with things like Howling Mine, Propaganda, and Ghostly Prison, but I outpaced her with card draw using The Monarch and snake tokens to collect cards off of an Edric our opponent was playing. She didn't get her card draw, chose to Clever Impersonator a No Mercy instead of the Edric, and when she Control Magic'd Marchesa from me, she never got an assassin token in for damage to steal The Monarch due to a Maze of Ith, a Kor Haven, and an Ophiomancer. I just outdrew her, collected 3 tutors and a wish, and then went for the kill. I had Disrupt Decorum Remanded twice before she Counterspelled it. She put up a remarkable fight, considering. I think her Phelddagrif Aikido will end up pretty brutal. Not at all oppressive, since it will play like my Marchesa, but will surprise a lot of people expecting the cute blonde girl with the purple hippo to be playing group hug, only to catch their own creatures and combos in their faces for a loss.