One thing thats different now from back when Rancor was a thing in Standard is the number of exile effects going around
Vs Black/Yellow Blackbeard (OP16-080, current meta share ~8.3%): Blackbeard's leader text is a defensive attack-redirect, not a Life-attack tool: once per opponent's turn, he may trash a card with [Trigger] from hand to redirect that attack to his Leader or a Blackbeard Pirates Character
Two of the easiest upgrade paths would be to head toward a big artifact / reanimator strategy with cards like Goblin Welder, Daretti, Scrap Savant, and other huge artifact finishers like Wurmcoil Engine, or play a token- / Thopter-themed deck with the help of cards like Sai, Master Thopterist, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and friends
I like to run these cards in Commander since getting higher life totals is easier when you start at 40
Due to the way Floral Spuzzem was originally worded, players were led to believe the card itself had to make a choice of which artifact it would destroy