Abrade - - An early answer to both creatures and artifacts these are extremely useful in holding back early game drops while we shut our opponent out with Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere. I choose to go with these due to the added artifact removal effect as well as avoiding the 1 counter Chalice of the Void which counters Lightning Bolt.
Arid Mesa - fetchland - Used to pull Mountain and reduce the number of "dead lands" we draw mid-late game. This deck becomes controlling and operational at three mana so we don't need/want to be drawing too much mana late game. These also can be a target for Boom / Bust which we can then sacrifice in response for a mountain.
Bloodstained Mire - fetchland - Used to pull Mountain and reduce the number of "dead lands" we draw mid-late game. This deck becomes controlling and operational at three mana so we don't need/want to be drawing too much mana late game. These also can be a target for Boom / Bust which we can then sacrifice in response for a mountain.
Blood Moon - - A sideboard card which can be pulled in versus tron, humans, scapeshift, or any other deck which has given up their basic lands for a greedy number of non-basics in a deck which cannot make use of red mana. When I sideboard these in I typically sideboard out Molten Rain and Crumble to Dust; Crumble to Dust cannot target any lands once Blood Moon is in play, and Molten Rain becomes less effective vs. mountains as it loses the 2 damage effect. Additionally, once we have Blood Moon in play we only need destroy basic lands our opponents have to keep them off their colors so reducing the amount of land destruction allows us to bring in more win-con from the sideboard such as our creatures.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - land - Sideboard this in against to fight their counter spells. This card is a nail in the coffin against decks which rely solely on counter spells if we can draw one early. Taken out of the sideboard as it was too narrow and the current meta requires wider sideboard tech. Counter spells are often not played outside of Azorius control which is too small of a share of the meta to use 3 sideboard slots for.
Crumble to Dust - - Remove all copies of target land from the game. This is fantastic against decks running any specific land as a fallback or win-con. This also works nicely against modern affinity as you can remove all copies of Darksteel Citadel from your opponent's deck which often are needed to get their metalcraft operational early game. Against Tron one of these is automatic prevention of their tron lands becoming operational in the match up. Against Scapeshift you can remove their main win-con of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, or four copies of one of their non-basic mountains holding the deck down from enough lands to activate Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle's damage.
Desperate Ritual - - A little extra ramp early to get out a Chandra or to get a turn 1 or 2 land destruction spell cast. Late came we can use this just as a spell to trigger Chandra, Torch of Defiance emblem, or to correct mana if we cast Boom / Bust and need more R mana.
Deus of Calamity - - While the casting cost is extremely hard to hit, a late game Cascading Cataracts make this playable as a sideboard card. Currently in testing, however the fact he is a 6/6 trample is great for a big creature win-con out of the sideboard after our opponents have sideboarded out creature removal. The passive fits with the strategy of keeping our opponents off lands and becomes a reusable land destruction each turn if we are able to keep it on board.
Ensnaring Bridge - - Ensnaring Bridge is a phenomenal way to freeze attacks again aggro decks or decks which seek to win the game through creatures. Because much of our hand we are dumping as land drops or as turn 2-4 cast our hand is usually diminished early in the game making Ensnaring Bridge extra effective. Another piece of the prison.
Fiery Islet - land - Horizon land, this can be sacrificed to draw us a card if the extra mana is less relevant then the card draw but still provides if necessary. Can also act as a target for Boom / Bust which then can be sacrificed in response to draw a card.
Fulminator Mage - - Fulminator Mage is a three mana land destruction when needed which can also be activated later for double land destruction when needed who also serves as a 2/2 creature for attacking and blocking late game. Keeps with our CMC target and gives the deck some extra creep block when needed.
Grafdigger's Cage - -This card assist Surgical Extraction with ending dredge decks or Arclight Phoenix decks with additional hard counter to them. With a cost it is easily dropped into play early in play and unlike Leyline of the Void which I ran in this sideboard previously we do not need to rely on it being in our opening hand after sideboarding to get any use out of it.
Goblin Rabblemaster - - If a deck seems extra weak against aggro creatures or if we think they are going to take all of their creature removal out of their deck this can be a great turn 1 or 2 drop that closes out a game before it begins.
Leyline of the Void - - Exile their entire graveyard as it comes in. This card is tricky as we cannot hard cast it unless we filter with Cascading Cataracts, but it also protects our deck from graveyard strategies and can remove all the lands we destroy in the event that that is necessary for us. If/when a B/R Horizon land gets printed this deck will put two of those in mostly for this and Dismember instead of the current Fiery Islet and Sunbaked Canyon.
Lightning Bolt - - Single target removal for creature, planeswalker, or just for bolting your opponent to the face to close out a game. These can be turned off by Chalice of the Void but is generally still worth it as an early response to creature pressure or low CMC planeswalker.
Pithing Needle - - This is our go to answer for opponents who play planeswalker as their primary win con. Especially effective against Teferi and Karn. Pithing has a variety of other sideboard uses against artifacts and other activated effects.
Ratchet Bomb - - A great card to drop into play when the opponent only has 0 or 1 land in play and we have a Trinisphere in play preventing them from casting. Or when we have nothing else to cast or cast at early game. Ratchet Bomb is great as if we can predict what they will play that we need to remove (Surgical Extraction is great at helping us plan for that) we can get up to that number of counters and wait. I especially like this because other than Trinisphere this deck requires very few non-land permanents to operate. Crucible of Worlds and Trinisphere having the same CMC of is also nice as it really un-restricts Ratchet Bomb's use without us worrying about collateral damage.
Roiling Terrain - - Roiling I tend to hold onto as possible. Only playing it early if it is our only land destruction in hand. In drawn out matches or against decks which use a large amount of fetchlands this can pack a significant punch of damage and really end games.
Shattering Spree - () - The best red spell to counter artifact decks in my opinion. gives us the ability to destroy artifacts early and delete tons of artifacts later game. Replaced for more sideboard tech since we can use multipurpose main red cards for artifact removal like Abrade and Pillage.
Shivan Wumpus - - Force your opponent to decide between a 6/6 trample or sacrificing a land. The downside to be aware of is that your opponent can allow you to cast the Wumpus in order to break out of being held down by land destruction. I tend to only cast Shivan Wumpus when I have no other land destruction cards left in hand or if my opponent only has 0 or 1 land in play and cannot break out past my control anyway.
Tectonic Reformation - - A new addition from Modern Horizon's release. I'm testing this as a one off. Early game if we need to draw it can be cycled and because cycling isn't casting we can do this for 2 if we have a Trinisphere out or a Chalice of the Void with two counters. If we draw this later on or are mana flooding we can cast this and cycle our mountains to make sure we are hitting land destruction and don't give up our mana-lock to a land draw or to mana flooding.
Wooded Foothills - fetchland - Used to pull Mountain and reduce the number of "dead lands" we draw mid-late game. This deck becomes controlling and operational at three mana so we don't need/want to be drawing too much mana late game. These also can be a target for Boom / Bust which we can then sacrifice in response for a mountain.
