The main reason it doesn't see much play anymore is due to Tribute Summoning generally being too slow
Thus the Fountainports may look strange, but they are actually critical to the deck: although they will occasionally trip you up casting Excruciator, in the matchups where Excruciator is your best plan, the ability to generate treasures with Fountainport in order to build up to combo in one turn is important, which is most relevant when facing a potential opposing Jace, and in the matchups where Excruciator is secondary to your midrange role, having access to Fountainport in a deck full of removal is even more important
To those people I would sadly have to say, "Hell no!" There is no magic formula, at least certainly not one I'm aware of
Cloakwood Hermit Watch out for the horde of Squirrel tokens that come with Chatterfang, Squirrel General as the commander and Cloakwood Hermit in the 99
For two level-4 monsters, you get a 2000 attack dragon that can attack directly, while also being indestructible as long as you control a spell