Menace is the new Unblockable (Modern)

This deck wants to go for beatdown, but without having to worry about many blockers, because it's all about evasion here. With some nicely played Lightning Bolt and Sonorous Howlbonder, menace becomes just as good as unblockable. And if the opponent happens to block something, and we have a Labyrinth Raptor out, the opponent has to sacrifice one of the creatures blocking, leaving the enemy with less blockers for next time.

At first we just run 12 of the most mana efficient creatures with the keyword menace. So we play Stormblood Berserker, which is a nice 3/3 for two mana, if we get to play it in the post-combat main-phase, after we attacked with one of our one-drops, which our opponent probably wasn't able to block because of menace. We also play Grimdancer, which is nice, as it's pretty versatile: It can get lifelink and offset the life-loss of Stormfirst Crusader or it can get deathtouch, if our opponent has threats, our Lightning Bolt isn't able to deal with. Hunted Nightmare is also a close-to perfect fit, as it's extremely mana efficient, and almost all of our creatures will be able to dodge the deathtouching creature our opponent will get because of Hunted Nightmare. In theory we could also just Lightning Bolt the opponent's only creature while the Hunted Nighmare trigger is on the stack, leaving no target for the deathtouch counter.

Of course we need some payoffs, so I first packed the obvious choice with Labyrinth Raptor. If the opponent happens to block one of our creatures, he will lose one of the blockers, making it harder for the opponent to block at all. It also can work as an anthem-effect, which can be nice to finish the opponent off in one attack. Another good fit is Sonorous Howlbonder, which turns the menace basically into unblockable, as it's unlikely that the opponent will have three blockers each round (for each one of our creatures), especially with Labyrinth Raptor in play. Another nice payoff is Curse of Stalked Prey, growing our creatures bigger each attack.

For some general control we play mostly creatures, as we want as many beaters out as possible. For disruption we play a playset of Lightning Bolt, nice for early removal and making it even harder for the enemy to block. For hand-disruption we also play Cabal Therapist, providing us information about the opponent's hand, and making the enemy discard game pieces. For card draw we play Stormfist Crusader and Insolent Neonate, drawing us cards each turn and cycling cards we don't need.

As our average converted mana cost is pretty low at 2, we only play 22 lands, with Dragonskull Summit and Foreboding Ruins providing a budget dual mana base.

The deck is extremely budget, as it only costs about 30€ on Cardmarket.