You can stick Dimir, Izzet and/or Rakdos Signets to allow for some colourless sourcs, as suggested by Badd Business. This also would allow for Thirst for Knowledge, a cheaper instant speed draw that you can play early on, which was also suggested by Badd Business.
Well if you think that the combo deck has a counter you can just wait until you have enough mana to counter their counter. You could also check with Vendillion Clique's and targeted discard to see if its safe to cast. Also you can play ramp with artifacts, which most lists with Revelation don't play, which can allow you to play ultimatum earlier than Revelation.
I think that it is because the namesake card of this thread, Cruel Ultimatum, has been outclassed by Return to Ravnica cards.
What Return to Ravnica cards are you referring to? Cruel Ultimatum is still an amazing control finisher in my opinion and the only card from Return to Ravnica that might be better than it is Sphinx's Revelation, but these are two very different cards in my opinion. First of Sphinx's Revelation only draws cards and gains life. Cruel Ultimatum draws and discards cards, sacs a creature, and both gains and loses you life. You could say that the instant speed advantage may swing the Revelation as a better card, but i don't believe this is true, as if you're using cruel ultimatum you should have experience to know when to use Cruel ultimatum so that when you use it you almost always win.
Yes, but if you want to its best to run a fair bit of hate in your sideboard (The usual sort of sowing salt hate is fairly good, also Slaughter Games is a favourite of mine since it's a. uncounterable and 2. strong against decks with few win -cons and combo), however if you want you could run hate mainboard, cards like spreading seas, which is fairly good because it can also target man lands that can be trouble, well for me at least xD. Vendillion Clique is another good mainboard or sideboard card that you can play, and as i have said before is good because it comes back with cruel ultimatum.
Have you considered Erayo, soratami ascendant? I played a similiar list with it and it was fun, maybe more of a sb idea but still could be a lot of fun if you get erayo and canonist online
SaintS I'd recommend using mana leak over rune snag, you always get an guarantee of pay 3, rather than a chance for it to be better, also you're using Snappy, so if you target rune snag it's no longer in your graveyard, which wont help additional rune snag's out. I'm not a massive fan of discard, I'd run it in the sb, if at all and in place of it put spreading seas, more card draw and more help for vsing Tron and Man Lands, which I always find to be problems.
I'm thinking of taking the Lily out of the SB and putting them MB, but I don't know what to take out, Also I feel like the mana leak could be remand, but I'm not sure. All help greatly appreciated! c:
Nixernator, if you still do go 4 colour control, and do have trouble with tron i would suggest adding in hide/seek since it gets rid of their Emrakul, and you gain heaps of life that you can use to stall with for awhile.
I'd take out 1 plains and 4 archaeological dig and and add in 5 islands, then take out 1 silence and add in the fourth Faith's Reward, you want to have a full set for consistency and u can just take out a Nihil Spellbomb in the board to add in the 3rd silence so u can still have a full set to side in game 2.
I play a Modern Pauper deck that I entered on the Modern Extreme Budget Challenge Thread, its a tempo deck, but it might give you some ideas and its a lot of fun c: I call it UR Fiend Tempo
What Return to Ravnica cards are you referring to? Cruel Ultimatum is still an amazing control finisher in my opinion and the only card from Return to Ravnica that might be better than it is Sphinx's Revelation, but these are two very different cards in my opinion. First of Sphinx's Revelation only draws cards and gains life. Cruel Ultimatum draws and discards cards, sacs a creature, and both gains and loses you life. You could say that the instant speed advantage may swing the Revelation as a better card, but i don't believe this is true, as if you're using cruel ultimatum you should have experience to know when to use Cruel ultimatum so that when you use it you almost always win.
3 Mulldrifter
3 Terminate
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Cryptic Command
2 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Damnation
2 Mana Leak
4 Serum Visions
3 Izzet Charm
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
3 Darkslick Shores
3 Sunken Ruins
I'm thinking of taking the Lily out of the SB and putting them MB, but I don't know what to take out, Also I feel like the mana leak could be remand, but I'm not sure. All help greatly appreciated! c:
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
4 Kiln Fiend
3 Shock
4 Burst Lightning
3 Staggershock
2 Spell Pierce
3 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Wee Dragonauts
13 Mountain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Assault Strobe