Currently a work in progress. All feedback is welcome! This is a dedicated land destruction deck in modern. Boom is the allstar card in this deck when coupled with a fetch land or even better: tectonic edge. The other end being bust is a possibility late game against control decks, but is typically not used. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is another allstar returning fulminator mage or avalanche riders for two black mana. She can also return any Dark Confidants that our opponents manage to kill. Kohlaghans command is another route that can get back Dark Confidants, fulminator Mages, Avalanche Riders, or even an Alesha if you don't have one in hand. Lava claw reaches provide another source of damage late game if you don't have any creatures left to beat them down. Crucible of worlds works well with fetch lands, Boom//Bust, tectonic edge, and ghost quarter. However, it is not the focus of the deck, so we only include two. If it turns out to be insane, we might go up to three, or down to 0 if it turns out bad. Thoughseize and Inquisition provide angles for attacking their hand and taking any threats we might not want, for example low cost card advantage like Dark Confidant. Terminate provides a way to kill creatures, however might be changed to shriekmaw as another way to actually win the game. Grim Lavamancer is great when we are casting spells, fetching, etc. It's a way to kill utility creatures as well as deal damage to the opponent. Just make sure not to exile your creatures if you can because Alesha is the nuts. Not to mention if it dies you can get it back with Alesha.
One huge thing people might not understand is why on earth we aren't playing lightning bolt. Now it might be entirely wrong to not play this card, but it doesn't seem to fit in our deck at all, it just seems to be a one mana removal spell. However, lightning bolt might just be too good to leave out. We will have to test with and without it, I am just going to start without it as I am not sure what to cut for lightning bolt. Another thing people might consider is smallpox. Smallpox just seems bad when you aren't playing life from the loam, and to be quite honest this deck doesn't seem to be a life from the loam deck at all. Smallpox is alright with crucible, but since we are only playing two crucible it doesn't seem that good. Also I think this deck just wants to actually get to 3 and four mana as quickly as possible, it might even be worth going into a Jund shell and playing birds of paradise, abrupt decay, etc. Another exclusion is Liliana of the Veil, I honestly just didn't find room to include it in the list. However, if I feel like it will be good I will test with two, then decide if I want more or less.
I really like this deck and it's potential in the meta game. It seems quite hard for a deck like splinter twin to beat along with any control lists. Not to mention the bye you get when you get paired against any amulet bloom or tron deck. Jund and collected company decks seem to be a mediocre match up and that is where I think pyroclasm might be a good maindeck card except for the fact that it kills your creatures as well, but you are playing more of a control deck in that sense. Lightning bolt would obviously be good against these decks as well.
I am fairly certain that this deck cannot beat burn, it straight up just has a 20% match against burn. However, if burn keeps low land draws and you manage to destroy their one or two lands and they don't draw anymore I can see an avenue where you can win those games. That being said, I have 0 cards in the sideboard geared towards burn because I am just praying to not get paired against it. That being said as well, there are still cards you want in the side board like Pyroclasm.
Out of the sideboard you might notice the utter lack of bloodmoon, and that is for the reason that the decks bloodmoon is good against, you are already very good against. You don't need more hate against amulet bloom because you already are beating it 90% of the time.
Next up we have 3 boil. Now I am going to ask you if you have ever cast boil against UR splinter twin, merfolk, or any deck that plays islands for that matter. Usually it is atleast going to kill two lands against any blue decks. If you happen to get paired against UR twin or merfolk, it will usually get atleast three. Another aspect of this card is that your opponent will never expect it. It is not as if the UR twin player is going to go get mountains with their fetch lands to play around boil, they might get islands to play around bloodmoon. Even if they do have some basic mountains, those are just the cards you will target with your other land destruction.
Duress is in there for any matchup that isn't attrition based. This means splinter twin, tron, any control deck, probably amulet bloom even though you don't need to board anything against them. The next card is Olivia Voldaren. Olivia is insane in the GB/X deck matchup because of the power to take over the board late in the game. These match ups are relatively close as is, so the addition of olivia makes it that much better. Usually they have one or two in the board, but they aren't even good against you, so it doesn't even matter. The next most important card is pyroclasm. This comes in against nearly any creature decks with the exception of Jund because it doesn't kill Tarmogoyf. Damnation is the catch all that comes in against literally every creature deck except Burn.
Finally we have Chalice of the void in the sideboard. Again this card comes in against burn, but is not in here specifically for that match up because as I stated earlier, I have basically given up on trying to beat burn. It is mostly in here for the storm match up, which is not great as well, however with the hand disruption it isn't actually that bad. Chalice is also good against infect, boggles, and any delver lists.
If you have any suggestions please let me know! Thankyou for your input!
