Just realized I was the first one to comment on this deck and somehow didn't upvote, oops xD Now I did.

Looking at it right now I must say I like this version a lot! Maybe, just maybe, consider Profane Command for the Bond of Agony. Bond looks like a finisher in your deck and really isn't so flexible while costing you life as well. Profane Command can make up for the extra mana by resurrecting a Death Cultist or giving evasion to your dudes for example while otherwise being more flexible and less painful.

Bojuka Bog could go into the deck, but absolutely doesn't have to. It's a tapped land so there's opportunity cost and you already have an on-theme sideboard slot so it don't need to be there either. Just bringing it up for it to be on your radar.

Very nice deck indeed!

Infernal Grasp is a nice improvement over Cast Down. Not sure if it's already been mentioned. Lithoform Blight is another pet card of mine that might be an option.

@sergiodelrio thanks, and thanks for the suggestions too! I went ahead and added Profane Command to the maybeboard for now. That was a card I overlooked back when I built this, and maybe it is worth including. I happen to have a few too, if I recall. I’ll probably eventually give this deck an overhaul, at which point it might find a spot.

@Chasmolinker ah, thanks for the recommendations. I don’t think Infernal Grasp had come out when I built this, but it’s definitely worth considering over Cast Down. I think I had Cast Down here as a remnant of an earlier Pauper draft I wasn’t able to get working, but with the multitude of Legendary creatures in Modern I agree Infernal Grasp is a better choice. I’ll maybeboard it for now until the overhaul process. Thanks!

It is always cool to see your brews. Looks super fun and that it would confuse the hell out of your opponents!

Thanks Oldcrow80, much appreciated!

I'd give this deck +2 if I could. One because it's brutal, and again because you're running the most underrated card in black!

Too many pages of comments to see if anyone had already suggested Priest of Forgotten Gods, so I'll go ahead and do that. She covers a few of your themes in one card. She certainly would be even better if you had some Mumms in there with your Scorps, but I think there's enough on the list already to squeeze her in.

Cheers!

Thanks Epicurus, and I appreciate the suggestion too. I’ll add Priest of Forgotten Gods to the maybeboard for the eventual revision.

Edit-it’s literally not letting me save the deck after adding the card. No idea what’s going on. I’ll try again later.

Even though you probably have one of the best shells for it, Bond of Agony looks pretty bad.

Red burn decks usually don't play Fireball or any of its superior versions, even though they are way better than Bond of Agony

You have 18 lands, meaning you scale very slowly into a range where Bond can deal any more damage than your other spells, and once you get there, 5 mana + pay 4 life to cause a 4 point life loss? That seems just awful. And it's especially bad since you have Syphon Life which means you'll just be discarding additional lands when you hit your curve stopper unless you're sitting with Bond of Agony in hand.

If you want some late-game potential, I would look into adding a single B/R source to flashback Bump in the Night because the opportunity cost of doing to is so low. Alternatively, consider Sword-Point Diplomacy as a card that can pull you ahead in stale-mate against another deck that didn't quite manage to do its thing.

Thanks for the input, Kjartan. Most appreciated. Always looking to improve whatever I’m building, so I take everything under advisement.

I guess I should begin by acknowledging this is not meant for any competitive play, not by any stretch of the imagination. Just a fun thought experiment that turned into something better than anticipated. I think some of your points are valid—it’s been awhile since I’ve looked at this one, and the mana base does seem to be a little stingy. Could probably do with an overhaul, as many new sets/cards have arrived since.

That said, I disagree about Bond of Agony. It’s proven itself to be a decent finisher. When all goes to plan and this is playing like a normal red burn deck, you should always be a point or two ahead of your opponent’s life total making the investment lethal for them while you squeak by. Things don’t always go to plan though, and should your life total be less than your rivals’ or if the spell gets countered, well…

Balaam__ When things go well, you should absolutely be ahead on life, but not ahead on mana. You need to have a lot of lands in play for Bond of Agony to compare on power-level with your cheaper burn spells. You need 4 lands for it to just rival Sovereign's Bite, and that's with the life-gain reversed. You need 5 lands in play for it to do something your other cards can't.

That said, even with Syphon Life to discard excess lands, I do get that there are scenarios on rare occasions where you end up with 5-6 or 7 lands on the battlefield, and a healthy life-total to boot.

If you want specifically an X spell for this scenario, may I instead suggest Profane Command. It's even more budget friendly than Bond of Agony and it's a much safer path to victory. It causes 1 less point of life loss under normal circumstances, but with a Death Cultist in your graveyard, it can have the exact same effect but without paying any life cast it. On top of that, it's just extremely flexible. You can play it for three mana just to ping for one and get a Serrated Scorpion back, or use it to alpha-strike through a board of blockers.

Ah! I misunderstood what you were saying, I see what you mean now. Yes, that might indeed pose a real issue. I do really like the card, so when I eventually give this deck an overhaul I’ll do my best to adjust the mana base to see if it can still have a place here. If not, I suppose it’ll have to go and I’ll check into the other suggestions. Thanks again for the insights.

hey Balaam__, such a cool deck! don't know if it would work but you could use Chancellor of the Dross both as an early game and late play.

Thanks for posting, Cloudy2024. I think I considered the Chancellor at the time I was building this, but ultimately decided to forgo him for a couple reasons. I believe at the time he was very expensive and I don’t think I own any, and while that’s no longer true I also left him out because I just seem to have the worst possible luck with those Gemstone Caverns type ‘opening hand’ cards. I could shuffle the deck 100 times and in 99 of them all four copies will be near the bottom. Maybe it’s a good addition for someone with better luck than I, ha.