I'm starting down a path here that I hope will be helpful to people interested in Modern but unfamiliar with the format. I plan to do a write-up of each of the popular decks explaining card interactions, combos and different lists from time to time. If there's a particular deck that you'd like some info on just let me know!
Splinter Twin is a pretty easy deck to grasp overall but I figure it's better to go for a layup as I'm getting started rather than run straight for the end zone. You see that? I made 2 non-connected sports references in one sentence!
Splinter Twin gets it's name from, surprise surprise, the card Splinter Twin! Here's a good time to remind you about the auto-card anywhere add-on for your web browser. Splinter Twin combo's instantly with several cards in the modern format including, but not limited to, Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite and Village Bell Ringer to make an arbitrary number of hasty attackers. This is effectively an infinite damage, instant win, 2-card combo.
The way this works is your creature enchanted with Splinter Twin makes a token copy of itself which then is able to untap the original creature with it's "enters the battlefield" effect.
There are 2 types of decks that play this combo. First is an "all in" combo deck that can essentially only win by combo. It will usually contain combo pieces and cards that help to dig for the combo pieces with a minor amount of disruption and protection for the combo.
Example List - All-in Combo
4 Pestermite
4 Deceiver Exarch
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Splinter Twin
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Flame Slash
1 Dispel
1 Mizzium Skin
2 Cryptic Command
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Island
2 Mountain
You'll notice Kiki-Jiki as Splinter Twins #5-7 here. He combo's in the same way as Splinter Twin with our blue 3-drops and helps give the deck more "I Win" cards. He's quite a bit harder to cast and a little bit more vulnerable, but you have to take what you can get. It's worth knowing that because Kiki-Jiki has haste you can actually cast him on the same turn as the creature you plan to copy and still get the kill, something that Splinter Twin itself can't do.
Cards worth mentioning here:
Boomerang - buys you time by bouncing a creature or an opponent's land. Contributes to the evil nut draw of Boomerang your land, tap your land in your upkeep, combo.
Lightning Bolt - probably the least explanation needed card but Bolt is actually pretty weak in this deck because it is almost useless when pointed at the face.
Flame Slash - kills Spellskite, a card that shuts down your combo on it's own.
Dispel & Mizzium Skin - these are cheap cards that can protect your combo from removal, you'll see all kinds of different combinations and number of these cards.
Cascade Bluffs - it's tempting to try and cut these expensive lands from the deck but they make casting Kiki Jiki and Cryptic Command much more likely. On the other hand you don't want too many of them because it can't actually cast anything at all by itself.
The strength of this style of deck is the free wins you get in Game 1's a rather large percentage of the time. You are actually favored vs. everything except for BG Midrange decks sporting Abrupt Decay and multiple discard effects quite heavily. The problem comes in Games 2 and 3 where people will almost always have extremely powerful and varied hate cards in their sideboards.
This style of Twin deck fell out of favor because Jund and decks like it were a large percentage of the field but it's possible that with the banning of Deathrite Shaman it's time to bring them back.
The second style of Splinter Twin deck is one that contains the parts to win via combo but is generally just as happy winning through attacking with it's creatures. Lately these decks have been the most successful because it's much harder to pick up on what they're doing. These decks are a bit harder to classify because they can come in several different combinations of colors and contain a variety of support cards.
Example List - Tarmo-Twin
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Deceiver Exarch
3 Pestermite
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Flame Slash
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Splinter Twin
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
3 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sulfur Falls
This deck takes advantage of the super fantastic mana fixing available in Modern to essentially splash green for Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze. Goyf is arguably the best creature in the format and Scooze gets large rather easily and has the benefit of randomly hosing any deck relying on the graveyard.
The biggest strength of this deck is that it can cast a Goyf early and apply pressure, all the while threatening to win out of nowhere if the opponent expends too many resources on dealing with the Goyf. Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolt give the deck a large amount of closing power should the opponent take too much damage from the Goyf.
There aren't any huge, glaring weaknesses to this list which explains why it's becoming more and more popular. You're spreading yourself across 2 paths to victory and your manabase is a little worse but this is a very strong strategy.
Example List - UR Tempo Twin
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Pestermite
2 Deceiver Exarch
1 Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vedillion Clique
4 Splinter Twin
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
3 Remand
1 Peek
2 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
1 Izzet Charm
1 Dispel
1 Desolate Lighthouse
5 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
3 Sulfur Falls
1 Tectonic Edge
This version plays out similarly to the Tarmo Twin version but gets to use more basic lands and more powerful Blue and Red spells as support. Aside from the mana base and the easier access to Blood Moon I'm not sure there's a good reason to run this list over Tarmo Twin...that is unless you don't feel the strong urge to spend $800 on 4 green creatures.
Example List - UWR Twin
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Pestermite
3 Restoration Angel
3 Wall of Omens
1 Kiki Jiki Mirror Breaker
1 Vendillion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Splinter Twin
4 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
4 Celestial Colonade
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Desolate Lighthouse
UWR Twin is sort of the bastard child of UWR Control and Twin. You get to kill off your opponent's things, draw cards and maybe even eventually win the game. You get even less free wins because you're playing less total of the combo cards and a lot of your lands come into play tapped. In return you get more powerful creatures and Celestial Colonade as well as MUCH better removal spells.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of Splinter Twin strategies because the Modern format is constantly evolving. If Twin sounds interesting to you it's a good idea to grab the core cards shared by the majority of lists, then it will be a simple matter of swapping around all the extras to try out the different versions. If you've got any questions feel free to post here and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability. If something I wrote is horribly wrong then let me know, I'm always happy to learn something new!
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