Okay, so this is my latest modern deck, and it's actually been about a year under construction now playtesting various cards. I think I'm finally mostly happy with it though, although I would appreciate any detailed and/or constructive criticism anyone is prepared to give me. (numbers are always changing so the quantities of cards given in the description below may no longer be accurate)
Edit: flame slash now roast, basic role in the deck has not changed though, but it kills angler, siege rhino and tasigur which is too important
The deck works around a loose theme of 'lands matter'. At its heart it is a control deck, using counterspells and cheap red removal to stall the game out long enough to win with trade routes + Seisemic assault (for those unaware, you use trade routes to bounce all your lands and then throw them all at the face of the opponent). Crucible of worlds is a very important card in this mix as it allows the deck to grind out wins in very, very long games (in particular control mirrors) and also gives the trade routes and seisemic assault package another redundant piece which is necessary as the deck is somewhat vulnerable to abrupt decay.
Key combos: Seismic Assault
+
Trade Routes
Seismic Assault
+
Swans of Bryn Argoll
Crucible of Worlds
+
Tectonic Edge
Below are specific evaluations of the cards in this deck.
MAIN DECK:
Enchantments:
4x trade routes: The core of the deck and the reason it was built, although not the most powerful card. It thins out the deck, turns lands in to gas later on, and works with seisemic assault to provide a quick and uncounterable win later on. It can also be used in desperate times with assault earlier on to save a game by returning 1-2 lands and throwing them at creatures.
4x seisemic assault: Better than molten vortex because of the combo potential. Hard to cast but it's both a win condition and occasionally a way of getting there, turns lands in to damage and occasionally cards using the swans of bryn agroll
Artifacts:
3x crucible of worlds: They are a little rough against the faster decks but backbreaking in any control mirror, seriously in a matchup agaist an equally slow grindy deck you almost cant lose with this in play and either a fetchland or a tectonic edge in the yard. Also speeds up the assault kill significantly with a fetchland in the yard. Best card in the deck when it's good, but the worst card in the deck against aggro.
Creatures:
3x swans of bryn agroll: Not the first time this card has been used with seisemic assault either, while this does not win the game immediately if it comes down it is a very hard to kill threat which attacks from a different angle to the rest of the deck and between assault and lightning bolt/flame slash draws a massive number of cards. hard to lose after sticking one of these, it can feel something like having a mini griselbrand at times. May add a fourth copy at some point. It's that good.
Sorceries:
3x serum visions/2x sleight of hand: have a split here with more visions because it IS the more powerful of the two. But I want some number of sleights as well because here are always times I want to draw a specific card and visions digs deeper but you get to take advantage of the dig from sleight when you cast it rather than the next turn. Otherwise they are both efficient deck filtering cards which is necessary given the number of lands.
3x flame slash: Role player more than a powerhouse, it's sorcery speed and can't hit players and those things matter but on the other hand you can occasionally snag a tarmogoyf with it and it draws masses of cards with swans of bryn agroll. Also can't be hit with dispel, which is semi-relevant.
Instants:
4x lightning bolt: Excellent card, obviously. usually in this deck you hit creatures but given that you kill with damage you can go face with it too. Also another card to point at the swans, so it's not dead against creature light decks either.
3x mana leak: it's cheap, it's versatile, it's disruption and it's probably if I'm honest the card that I'm least happy with in the entire deck. But that said, it fills an important role and if you can get a tectonic edge lock going with crucible of worlds then it's far more powerful for far longer.
cryptic command: mana leak can go home now, THIS is a man's counterspell. It's incredibly hard to cast and you need the cheaper counters to get you to the point where this is good, but once you hit 4 mana the deck has very few real reasons to tap out (unless you're trying to resolve a swans, which will usually pull you very far ahead anyway) and all 4 modes of this card have their uses. bouncing swans or combo pieces to protect them does not come up often, but it's an important mode to remember when it does.
electrolyze: 3 mana for 2 damage and a card is not that great, nor is it overpowering, but it is a lot of value and the card does exactly what this deck wants to do, it grinds extremely well and can kill or even 2 for 1 many of the best threats in the format.
Lands (that matter, most of them honestly just provide mana):
4x scalding tarn: Notable because fetchlands can be brought back with crucible, giving you land drops for the rest of the game.
4x tectonic edge: Besides being good disruption in general, it can be a sort of soft lock with crucible against a vulnerable enough mana base, true you can never lock them out of the game but sometimes you can take out an entire colour. Depriving twin of its second red source continually is a personal favourite trick of mine.
2x temple of epiphany: Really pull their weight actually, mostly it doesn't punish you too badly to play tapped lands and you can get multiple turns worth of scrying from trade routes.
SIDEBOARD:
3x spellskite: Mostly insurance against splinter twin and the little played boggles deck, it's mainly in here as a pure hate card, however it can also protect the odd crucible from artifact destruction and stop an opponent getting a free ancestral recall by bolting your birds, for this reason I sometimes side in a copy against the snapcaster mage/lightning bolt decks, especially if they've already lost a game to crucible.
4x blood moon: One of the big, big, biiiiggg payoffs of only running two colours, this singlehandedly shuts down an unbelievable amount of decks and makes the otherwise horrendous tron matchup almost favourable (so long as you draw it. Be careful with it though as it does switch off a lot of the crucible shenanigans, so if you're siding these in it's best to side crucible of worlds out.
3x pyroclasm: Have you SEEN the elves collected company deck that's floating around?! Dat stuff be scary man... also good against affinity.
1x shattering spree: I like this effect more than shatterstorm as you can just fire it off for 1 mana if there isn't much that needs killing, and the mana is good enough in this deck that killing 3-4 things isn't inconceivable for beating decks like affinity.
The counterspell package: Mostly there to shore up the matchup against certain combo decks and to replace with some of the more dead cards against creature light-light decks. Honestly the negates are there for scapeshift more than anything else.
