New at Modern (as well as MTG), can anyone give me advice on my deck

[drrizzy]

Dear wonderful people at deckstats,

I am what you call a "noob" when it comes to MTG, and especially to Modern.  I love playing MTG, and I especially love the aspect of building decks.  That being said, I built a completely awful Modern deck the first time.  After being thoroughly trounced in my first Modern tournament (I lost all 4 matches and only won one game), I got some more advice from the people at the tournament.  With that advice I refined my deck.

Here is the general strategy of the deck.  The deck is a green and red landfall deck.  Scythe Leopards, Plated Geopedes, Snapping Gnarlids and Makindi Siderunners are there to provide creatures that grow larger with landfall.  Elvish Mystics are there so that during the beginning turns I can get creatures out quicker.  Skyshroud rangers are there to help drop an extra land.  Lightning bolt is there for removal.  Swell of Growth is a good landfall spell.  It and giant growth are there to hit opponents harder, should they choose not to or be unable to block a hit.  Earthen arms and solidarity of heroes are meant to work together well (add the two earthen arms +1/+1 counters to a creature, cast solidarity of heroes next turn and then lay down landfall).  I cannot currently afford 4 wooded foothills so I am using Cinder Glades instead.  The blighted woodland is for a "kill shot" toward the end of the game.

The sideboard is mainly for playing against players who use an enchantment deck (one of my friends is great with this) or who use a control deck and I might want to hit harder as the game might go longer.

I have the following questions.  One is about the number of lands that I should have in my deck.  Since my deck has a small casting cost (1.53 avg.) should I go with fewer lands?  On the other hand it is a landfall deck.  What are people's experiences in this area.

Another question is about the Elvish Mystics and Skyshroud Rangers.  The reason I have four Elvish Mystics is to increase the chance of drawing one on first turn.  Should I have more, less?  Also, should I even include the Skyshroud Rangers?

Also, I had Flesh/Blood in my deck at one point for the Blood spell.  Would this work better than Swell of Growth?  The reason I took some of the Swell of Growth cards out was because it is a great +2/+2 spell, but if I didn't have any land in my hand it would not be as good.  What are people's experiences in choosing spells to optimize landfall decks.  Is this concern about Swell of Growth legitimate; or if one has a fairly good hand, and good land draws is this not really a worry?

The deck is included below.  Thank you for your help.

Steve

4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
9 Forest
5 Mountain
4 Scythe Leopard #need three
4 Snapping Gnarlid
4 Plated Geopede
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Blighted Woodland #need one
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Skyshroud Ranger
4 Makindi Sliderunner
4 Giant Growth #need two
4 Earthen Arms
2 Solidarity of Heroes
2 Swell of Growth

//Sideboard
SB: 4 Back to Nature
SB: 4 Titanic Growth

[G. Moto]

     Hello drrizzy my name is G. Moto and I want to say welcome to Magic the Gathering. As I reply to your post I'll be addressing your various questions before I move on to actually critiquing your deck.

     1) As far as lands go it entirely relies on the type of deck you're running. For my decks I try not to run any less than 20 lands whatever type of deck it is. 24 is a safe number to start off with because it gives me a healthy balance between spells, creatures and lands. For a landfall deck you're going to want to run probably MORE lands but not so many that you get mana flooded.That's why playing cards that put the lands in your hand such as seek the wild or seek the horizon are cards worth having because it thins out the deck, improves your draws and sets you up for moves using cards like swell of growth. Also if you play cards that "bounce" or "flicker" your lands such as slab hammer or ghostly flicker (if you ever play blue) then you can execute plays such as these and get extra power out of only having a few lands.

     2) The skyshroud ranger I would prefer over the elvish mystic because this way you can play MORE lands in your deck, if they're in your hand then you can play them and get the landfall trigger instead of mana pumping from a creature. That's where creatures like oran-rief hydra come in heavy and strong because they get stronger with specific lands you drop. Also retreat to kazandu would help speed up the +1/+1 accumulation and it would also benefit if you had undergrowth champion.

     3) Lastly as far as the swell of growth goes the trick it to have plenty of lands in the deck but and being able to PULL them FROM THE DECK. This means cards such as seek the horizon and sylvan scrying let you add basic lands to the hand help this out. Also as a substitute you can add natural connection and play lands from your deck to the battlefield tapped and get landfall effects on your opponent's turn or in the middle of combat as well. Swell of growth is a great card but you have to incorporate it into the deck instead of just adding it to the deck.

     Now looking at your deck I see a lot of low drop creatures so you're most likely going for the aggro approach. My recommendation is to add larger creatures such as belligerent whiptail and tunneling geopede and even the oran-rief hydra that I mentioned. This way you'll have speed from the smaller creatures, stability from the 4-6 drops and anything 6-mana or more can give you the late game push you'll need. The important thing to keep in mind is that If you're playing landfall then the deck will run slow unless you get the consecutive land drops you need EVERY turn. Otherwise the game will draw out and you'll have a whole bunch of land and small creatures that can not grow anymore because you've over-extended yourself too early. As far as the deck goes the land choices are great and so are the spells, just try to work on adding other creatures that can actually CARRY the deck and not just FIT into the deck. Let me know what you think of this later. 

[drrizzy]

Dear G. Moto,
Thank you very much for your advice.  You are very right in that the game can run slowly with landfall if I have larger creatures (I originally built it with Oran Rief Hydra, Rampaging Baloth, Baloth Woodcrasher, etc).  I reworked the deck with others' advice to go for the aggro approach.  I most recently reworked it again.  I posted the revised deck after the post you replied to.  I apologize for this and I appreciate your advice.  The current, reworked deck is definitely going for the aggro approach.  The main changes are that a lot of the "mana dorks" (Elvish Mystics and Skyshroud Rangers) have been removed and replaced with some Kird Apes, quick drop spells to pump creatures up and roast (since one guy at modern plays a Tarmagoif deck).  If you have time I would love your feedback on this deck.  The main questions I have for the new deck are about whether to replace the Become Immense with Sylvan Scrying, and about other spell choices.  Also, should I add the Slab Hammer permanently?  Thank you again for your response.
Steve
The revised deck is below:
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Forest
7 Mountain
4 Scythe Leopard #need one
4 Snapping Gnarlid
4 Plated Geopede
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Blighted Woodland #need one
4 Makindi Sliderunner
2 Giant Growth
4 Blood
4 Kird Ape
2 Roast
3 Become Immense
3 Groundswell

//Sideboard
SB: 4 Back to Nature
SB: 4 Boiling Earth
SB: 1 Become Immense
SB: 1 Slab Hammer

[G. Moto]

I would recommend adding slab hammer permanently because it is a great way to boost up your creatures and secure consecutive land drops. Also if you keep using the effect on rugged highlands then you can also keep gaining life as you do so. Also sylvan scrying would be best if you had the swell of growth in this deck. Since you removed it the become immense would be the next best choice since you don't have any creature recursion and you can get rid of the used instant and sorcery spells that you have in your graveyard. Personally I like the sylvan/swell combo because it gives you exactly what you need (color wise) and dropping that land on an opponent's turn would give them a taste of what an aggressive landfall deck can really look like. 

[drrizzy]

Dear G. Moto,
Thank you very much for your advice.  I really like the idea of the slab hammer and rugged highlands.  The sylvan scrying and swell of growth combo is great as well.  Thank you for your help.
Steve

[G. Moto]

No problem Steve, if anything else comes up or you need assistance on another deck just shoot me a message or make a new post on the forum and I'll be sure to respond as soon as I'm able.