Here's my take on modern counterburn.
The idea with this deck is to provide early game card advantage and counterspells and then sweep in for the kill with creatures. In the words of WotC, describing the R/U Wrath of the Mortals event deck: "Don't be afraid to take some early game damage." I've found that Clout of the Dominus is really an excellent card. The +2/+2 and haste are great, but the shroud is the quality that makes this deck somewhat special.
Two cards here aren't modern legal: Perordain and Memory Lapse. Preodrain is illegal because it has been abused by the Storm mechanic, which this deck doesn't run. If I wanted to run a very similar card, I'd switch to the modern legal Serum Visions. However, at the time of this writing (July 2015), Serum Visions (near mint) sells for $14.99 on card kingdom. Preordain (near mint) is 99 cents on card kingdom. Mechanistically, I don't really care which I run, but $60 is a large sum of money to spend on a playset. That's like 8 good sandwiches I could've bought! Or three nights at a hostel in Anchorage! Or 4/5 of a snapcaster mage - I won't even request the fifth that contains the card's name!
Memory Lapse is included due to similar circumstances. It is not modern legal because it's too old. However, its modern legal conuterpart, Remand, offers the same thing: a counter and card advantage for 1U. Many heated discussions on the differences and similarities of these two cards can be found online, and I've reached the conclusion that they're just as powerful as each other. The difference is the a Remand will cost you $9 while a Memory Lapse runs for $0.5. I only want to run three in this slot, so I could pay $1.50 or $27 ... The modern legal route leaves me bereft of half a dozen packets of 4th of july sparklers, or three shirts, or this one textbook I bought from a friend.
I'm a big advocate of finding cheap replacements for modern stuff. Even with this consideration, the deck ended up being overbudget.
And I am running 61 cards. Have you ever moved at 58 mph on a bicycle? Have you ever made love to a stranger turned friend, in 1 day? Have you ever ran 61 cards?? I live on the edge.
Current edits to paper: gotta add an island, take away a mountain. Also the steam vents and such. And ... I'm considering taking out an electrolyze for a spell snare. Electrolyze is playing quite well; the card draw is a dream, and the red blue activates Mimic, it buffs Chimera, and it destroys dorks. Yet sometimes creature removal is a problem for this deck (not with clout though! :) ), and spell snare can help with this. Further, in some early games, I do use electrolyze to do face damage to opponents if their creatures are too large. That feels kinda weak.
Ok I made the edit here. Now it's gotta happen in real life.
...Ok, fine.
Remand and Serum Visions might be better for this deck than Memory Lapse and Preordain, respectively.
Memory Lapse is much more useful in the late game than it is in the early game (so I think). The other counterspells are useful in the early game (izzet charm and rune snag both can be countered with enough mana / cant kill large creatures). If I switched to Remand, then all of the counterspells would have highest utility in the early game. But ... this deck works by getting a clout on some dude and then swinging. In order to do that, you'll have to draw cards. Sure, memory lapse sets the opponent back in terms of card advantage, which is a way allowing you more time to get to clout / creature, but the card draw from remand seems more direct.
The same need for speed informed the switch to Serum Visions, though this switch wasn't as clear of a choice. In order to get the right cards, I think I'll want to dig as deep as I can. Preordain lets you get the clout on a guy if it happens to be in the top 3 cards, so it's better in that scenario ... but if you have neither creature nor clout, then serum visions let you dig the farthest.
