Not so Mono Red Modern

I have been playing more and more MODO over the last couple of weeks. After starting off on basic mono red I have been slowly adapting my deck in order to give it a little more play and build up my collection of Modern/Legacy Staples. My deck of choice would be the UR delver list that Patrick Chapin played in the World Championships (or some variation). Unfortunately Scalding Tarn's are ~$40 a pop on Magic Online. It is hard to justify buying these when I instead bought Polluted Deltas for ~$5 each. Since it looks like I am in MODO for the long haul I am going the patient route. There are also a couple of UR commons that are quite pricey - Serum Visions ($6-7) and Gitaxian Probe ($2-3). For comparison Brainstorm is around $0.04 a pop....
 
Chapin's List
 

Creature [13]

1 Snapcaster Mage

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Young Pyromancer

Instant [15]

1 Electrolyze

1 Izzet Charm

1 Mana Leak

1 Remand

2 Spell Snare

2 Vapor Snag

3 Thought Scour

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorcery [14]

2 Forked Bolt

4 Gitaxian Probe

4 Serum Visions

4 Treasure Cruise

Land [18]

1 Arid Mesa

1 Mountain

1 Sulfur Falls

3 Steam Vents

4 Flooded Strand

4 Island

4 Scalding Tarn

 

Sideboard [15]

2 Dispel

2 Spell Pierce

1 Negate

1 Bonfire of the Damned

1 Electrickery

1 Magma Spray

1 Harvest Pyre

1 Izzet Staticaster

1 Threads of Disloyalty

2 Blood Moon

2 Smash to Smithereens 

 
So like I said I have been buying the remainder of these cards to build up my collection but on the way I have been playing a tweaked version of this:
 

Shahar Shenhar List

 

Creature [8]

4 Goblin Guide

4 Monastery Swiftspear

Instant [16]

2 Searing Blaze

2 Skullcrack

4 Boros Charm

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Mutagenic Growth

Sorcery [12]

4 Lava Spike

4 Rift Bolt

4 Treasure Cruise

Enchantment [4]

4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Land [20]

2 Bloodstained Mire

2 Sacred Foundry

2 Steam Vents

3 Arid Mesa

3 Wooded Foothills

4 Mountain

4 Scalding Tarn

 

Sideboard [15]

2 Searing Blaze

2 Skullcrack

4 Geist of Saint Traft

3 Smash to Smithereens

2 Wear // Tear

2 Combust 

This is a pretty sweet little list and I fell in love with the Mental Misstep's for lightning bolt that (Mutagenic Growth) that are in Shenhar's list. The only card that I didn't pick up for this is Geist of Saint Traft and some slightly different fetch lands (Scalding Tarn again). Conveniently enough it seems like a large % of other people also wanted to play Either Patrick Chapins list above or Wrapters Jeskai Ascendency combo deck. Thankfully this version of Mono Red is pretty good against both.
 
My Current List:
 
Creature [8]

4 Goblin Guide

4 Monastery Swiftspear

Instant [19]

2 Searing Blaze

 

1 Searing Blood

 

4 Boros Charm

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Mutagenic Growth

3 Skullcrack

Sorcery [10]

2 Treasure Cruise

4 Lava Spike

4 Rift Bolt

 

1 Forked Bolt

Enchantment [4]

4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Land[19]

1 Steam Vents

2 Sacred Foundry

3 Arid Mesa

4 Blood Stained Mire

 

4 Wooded Foothills

5 Mountain

Sideboard [15]

1 Magma Spray

 

1 Grim Lavamancer

2 Smash to Smithereens

1 Combust

1 Timely Reinforcements  

2 Searing Blood

 

2 Searing Blaze

 

1 Skullcrack

2 Molten Rain

2 Everlasting Torment  

 
I have been pretty happy with the deck so far and it has quite a bit of reach and a little more play than your regular mono red deck due to Treasure Cruise, Boros Charm and Mutagenic Growth. I am being a little bit of a greedy face by only playing 19 lands but so far I haven't been punished too badly (yet). I really like the idea of having 1 shard volley in the list to help pump up my treasure cruises and give a little more reach but I don't think it is possible with only 19 lands. If I go up to 20 lands I don't think I have the space to shoehorn it in the list. The only kind of odd ones are the Forked Bolt and the Searing Blood. I have gotten quite a bit of mileage from both of these and they help diversify my burn spells some. Showing the Forked bolt after fetching for a Steam Vents often makes my opponent think that I am on UR delver which lets them walk straight into mutagenic growth. Searing Blaze seems much better than Searing Blood but often times you don't have any extra lands to trigger landfall making it slightly worse as the game goes on.
 
Cheers,
Simon