Prices are crazy because the costs are crazy. WotC doubled the costs of all the different products for this set, so retailers have to do the same. Blame WotC, not the stores.
You want a more aggressive manabase. Decks have moved away from utility lands. I'd drop the Swamp and Forest for a Mountain and a Shriekhorn. That'll move you to pretty much a stock list. As for Shriekhorn, most people run 4, however some will drop 1 for a mainboard Darkblast.
Card Choices: Driven // Despair - Helps with Storm mostly. Also operates as a pseudo-Overrun effect Horizon Canopy - Can't say whether it's helped or hurt yet. The extra card draw has been useful, but I'm worried about hitting no-red hands. Ghost Quarter MB - Same as above. I believe a list placed well online running 1 in the main a little while back, so I picked it up.
Double Darkblast - With Affinity being on the rise, I feel like being able to snipe Steel Overseer and Signal Pest on turn 1-2 is fairly important.
Recommendations? Also, thoughts on the UW Sideboard plan?
I'm working on a similar build myself, however I see a few issues with your list. First, Panharmonicon is far too slow for Modern. Secondly, relying on Eldrazi Skyspawner for colorless mana to power Displacer will lead to many situations where Displacer is just a vanilla 3/3. I recommend dropping the plan, and adding more value. I run Scavenging Ooze, Voice of Resurgence, and Qasali Pridemage to fill out the 2-drop slot. Snapcaster Mage also seems underpowered here because of the lack of Instants and Sorceries. Although it can't be flipped off Collected Company, Restoration Angel is also great for this kind of build as a 2-3of. Your mana base has room for utility lands as well, by cutting down on basics. Gavony Township, Ghost Quarter, and man lands (Celestial Colonnade, Stirring Wildwood, and Lumbering Falls).
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
1 Haunted Dead
3 Insolent Neonate
4 Bloodghast
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Narcomoeba
Spells (18):
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reuinion
2 Darkblast
3 Life from the Loam
3 Conflagrate
2 Driven // Despair
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
2 Blood Crypt
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Mountain
2 Lightning Axe
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Nature's Claim
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Gnaw to the Bone
Card Choices:
Driven // Despair - Helps with Storm mostly. Also operates as a pseudo-Overrun effect
Horizon Canopy - Can't say whether it's helped or hurt yet. The extra card draw has been useful, but I'm worried about hitting no-red hands.
Ghost Quarter MB - Same as above. I believe a list placed well online running 1 in the main a little while back, so I picked it up.
Double Darkblast - With Affinity being on the rise, I feel like being able to snipe Steel Overseer and Signal Pest on turn 1-2 is fairly important.
Recommendations? Also, thoughts on the UW Sideboard plan?
I'm working on a similar build myself, however I see a few issues with your list. First, Panharmonicon is far too slow for Modern. Secondly, relying on Eldrazi Skyspawner for colorless mana to power Displacer will lead to many situations where Displacer is just a vanilla 3/3. I recommend dropping the plan, and adding more value. I run Scavenging Ooze, Voice of Resurgence, and Qasali Pridemage to fill out the 2-drop slot. Snapcaster Mage also seems underpowered here because of the lack of Instants and Sorceries. Although it can't be flipped off Collected Company, Restoration Angel is also great for this kind of build as a 2-3of. Your mana base has room for utility lands as well, by cutting down on basics. Gavony Township, Ghost Quarter, and man lands (Celestial Colonnade, Stirring Wildwood, and Lumbering Falls).
WUBR - (UB/WR)
UBRG - (RB/UG)
WBRG - (RG/WB)
WURG - (GW/UR)
WUBG - (WU/BG)
Won't be in:
3 Etherium Sculptor
4 Painter's Servant
4 Master of Etherium
4 Grand Architect
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Talisman of Dominance
2 Thoughtcast
1 Academy Ruins
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Gemstone Caverns
9 Island
Still tweaking it, but it's got a +60% win rate against the various Eldrazi decks, with RG being the most difficult.