War-Riders

[Maraxus of Keld]

This is a fun little deck I thought up awhile back, and I finally managed to put it together a few days ago. Here's the design:

Land:

4 Forbidden Orchard
6 Plains
8 Mountain

Mana Accel:

4 Lotus Petal
4 Seething Song

Combo:

4 Varchild's War-Riders
4 Dingus Staff
4 Æther Flash

Tutoring:

4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Academy Rector

Defense:

2 Wall of Glare

Removal:

4 Pyroclasm
2 Tremor
4 Seal of Fire
2 Wing Shards

The idea of the deck is pretty simple: Exploit the synergy between Æther Flash and Dingus Staff. In order to do this, the opponent must have creatures that die. To that end, I give them 1/1 tokens with Varchild's War-Riders and Forbidden Orchard.

I have a ton of removal spells to sweep away any tokens I might have given an opponent before Æther Flash hit the table, or for creatures they play that are too big to get zapped as soon as they come in. I also have 8 cards that can pull an Æther Flash and 4 that can fetch the Staff.

While the idea of the deck is pretty good (in my opinion, anyway), something is missing. So far the deck's record is an unimpressive 0-2. Both games I have gotten my combo into play within the first few turns. However, in one game my War-Riders were killed by a Death Cloud and my Forbidden Orchard was shut down with double Psychic Venom. In the other, the War-Riders were again killed, and I was swarmed by big creatures the turn before I could finish my opponent with Forbidden Orchard. So any ideas to improve the deck are extremely welcome.

[snake]

Saw this deck in action. I always wanted to see Forbidden Orchard in use, but never knew the cards to match it. This deck was quite effective despite what you might say Maraxus.

[Maraxus of Keld]

It's all well and good that the combo is effective, but I know it can be better.