i really don't think a bunch of 1-drops are going to be any stronger. You'll just end up topdecking but with less useful creatures. There's really nothing else you're spending your mana on so the extra mana to cast servitude is not going to matter.
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yeah i forgot about blood artist (somehow). I had put bomber corps in there as a tempo move but was getting a little too cute to trigger high priest of penance w/o killing him also. I'll definitely be making the switch to BA
I actually just made a deck with this same theme. I put a focus on exalted and protection though. Let me know what you think:http://www.mtgvault.com/esper/decks/rwb-pro-servitude/
Looks pretty good, I have a similar deck. What I do though is use 4 drownyards and 2 mind grinds for a bit more stability. Paranoid Delusions + Invisible Stalker is a lot of fun though. Also consider some Chronic Flooding. I prefer it over Curse of the Bloody Tome because it's cheaper, has the potential to slow down some aggressive decks (or mill them hard early), and also has some nice synergy with your counter cards because they'll either have to eat the mill to counter or they have to save a lot of mana to be able to counter your counters. Not to mention Chronic Flooding gets around Witchbane Orb which you'll run into with mill mirrors -- especially drownyard mirrors.
Sounds like your opponent had some pretty sweet draws if he was able to get his turn 1 cackler, turn 4 hellrider and had the proper directs along the way to keep you down. Were you able to get your Ravenous Rats or Drainpipe Vermin out early? The discards early on can be helpful.
Hey I'm working on a Rat Deck myself. I would suggest adding in Immortal Servitude as a way to counter control/removal decks. Your main rats are all 2CMC making for a fairly cheap way to undo an entire games worth of removal. I'll post a link to my deck soon when I finish it up.