I'm not a modern master (since I only play BW Tokens and BRW Burn in modern, going to swap to Brobots soon) I don't think Boros Charm (as a protection spell) is good in Modern due to all the Sac and Exile effects, chains is good since it deal with goyf but so does Dismember (which would most likely hurt you less then all the pain lands you have to take to get white).
I'm pretty inexperienced with Modern myself, I've basically done one FNM in February using a BRg Burn deck (went 2-2). So I'm going in pretty much blind in this one. I asked a guy about the local meta and his response was:
Popular: Pod (assuming both types), Affinity, UWR, MonoR.
Somewhat popular: Junk, Jund. BW hatebears, GW hatebears, W hatebears, Boros landfall, Pox (
monoB), RUG Vial.
Fringe: Combo (scapeshift, storm)
He counted me among the MonoR decks, so I'm not sure how many of those are around. We usually get around 20 players, so it's going to be a varied meta.
Your thoughts on Boros Charm is valid, I think. It's hard to test it in a vacuum, but black will be played in several decks which means Liliana of the Veil and other sacrifice effects. So, yeah it's not any good against those. I was thinking of having it as a surprise against mainly Supreme Verdict and Anger of the Gods (or other red sweepers), maybe it's not worth it and it's probably better to play around those anyway.
Chained is good against Wurmcoil Engine as well, but I don't know how many of those there will be. It's basically damage from lands or damage from Dismember if I play either one of them. In my testing I usually took 4-5 damage from the lands during the first two turns. Now, Dismember does 4 damage since I don't have any black sources. So it doesn't look too bad, and it
can always be played with my mana. But here's the thing, does it really only cost 4 damage or is it 4 in addition to those 1-3 damage I've taken during turn 1-2 from fetches and shocks even in a RG deck? So in that light, taking that 4-5 damage in order to get Chained isn't so bad after all.
I don't like Keldon Marauders or Stormblood Berserker in Zoo but that is just me, Dryad Militant is really cool tech vs Snapcaster Mage and Goyf though.
My deal with the Berserker is the situation where you go E1, BTE->Berserker. You want to play BTE->something with 3 power or toughness before the attack so that E1 is a 3/3, but then you don't get bloodthirst for Berserker. I like Dryad Militant for just those reasons you mention. And with BTE I have 8 red one-drops and 8 green one-drops to chain, and that's just sweet.
So, with all this in mind I arrived at this version:
[deck]
Land (19)
4 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
n1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
Creatures (32)
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Rancor
Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Shattering Blow
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Molten Rain
3 Torpor Orb
[/deck]
Between fetches and shocks I have 9 lands that get me a white source. Assuming I want to get rid of a big Goyf, then on the play that's turn 3 at the earliest, that's a 79.4% chance to have a white source available. I can live with that. The Gorges and lower amount of white shocks help keep the land damage down a bit. I'm dropping the Boros Charm and a land. The land drop might be a bad idea The deck need two lands in play by turn 2, and 19 lands mean dropping by 2.8% to 79.6% chance for that. The slots left by the Charms need to be filled, I'm leaning towards Rancor
right now because it pushes damage through and it together with Bolt is another decent BTE chain targets.
Edit: Changed the sideboard. I really want those Torpor Orbs against Pod.
Edit 2: Blarghh...I need to check the chance of drawing a Chained without having any white as well...