This is my primary Modern deck. It ain't perfect, it doesn't win every time, but damn is it fun to play every time. If you are playing Modern and haven't looked into a non-linear or "fair" deck yet, Eldrazi and Taxes is a great way to jump in. It's cheaper than Jund or Abzan, but consistently puts up decent enough results that I think it's worth the investment.
So here it is. An Imperfect (but fun) Primer for an Imperfect (but fun) Deck.
Matchups I find it Good against: Infect, Ad Nauseum, G/W Hatebears, Death and Taxes, Any Storm variation like Gifts Storm or Cheerios, Pyro Ascension, and really any deck that relies on a linear, "un-fair" win condition
Matchups I find it Decent against: Jund, Affinity, Naya Burn, B/W Tokens, Death's Shadow, Scapeshift, Grixis Control and Grixis Delver, Tron (all variants. Most trouble comes from Eldrazi Tron, however)
Matchups I find it Bad against: Fish, Abzan CoCo, decks that go wide with "larger" creatures such as Elves, Esper Control, decks that rely on reanimation like Goryo's Vengeance or Esper Gifts, Bant Eldrazi
Matchups I haven't tested: Zoo, Anti-Meta decks like Sun and Moon, Skred Red, the dreaded mirror
Now these are me and how I play. The deck has so many outs that many of the matchups in the Bad or Decent sections can be handily won with some elbow grease and good draws.
The main idea of the deck is to play, on tempo, cards that force the opponent to fall off of their tempo and corrupt what they're trying to do, then slap their face with some fat fatties. Tidehollow Scullers and Thought-Knot Seer are there to take removal and key combination cards from their hand. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is the primary tempo disrupter (along with IoK and Thoughtseize) and they do their best work being played on Turn 1 through 3 of the game. Flickerwisp is best utilized through Aether Vials, becoming basically a free counterspell with a body for most removal and is great at resetting Aether Vials if you overextend or removing a key piece of protection from their side of the field. That damn moth is maybe the best card in the deck, dawg. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE WISP! It even has an excellent synergy with Wasteland Strangler, essentially becoming Vindicate for 3WWB with the added bonus of getting a flying 3/1 and a grounded 3/2 body and giving a creature -3/-3, usually killing them as well. Brings me to Strangler, perhaps the second most useful card in the deck after Wisp. Wasteland Strangler puts suspended cards, like Ancestral Visions and Rift Bolt and Search for Tomorrow, in the graveyard without a cast, then lets you kill one of their guys, though sometimes you have to have it kill itself, but for a Visions or Lotus Bloom, it's worth it. Wasteland Strangler is also good at taking the cards Tidehollow Sculler takes a hold of and letting the Sculler get ready for a new card, whether flickered through Wisp or Displacer. Eldrazi Displacer is insanely powerful and is a magnet for removal. Should Displacer stick to the field, you'll have a guy that just negates removal, resets the ETB effects of Tidehollow Sculler, Wasteland Strangler, and Flickerwisp. By the way, keep in mind that Flickerwisp is the Morty to Displacer's Rick. Smasher is your janitor. Plop it down, turn it sideways and enjoy the sweat on your opponent's brow as they worry about how they want to get rid of it.
The removal suite is pretty basic. You want to exile guys to feed the Strangler with Path. Fatal Push is good to just rip away an annoying creature like Goblin Guide, Goyf or Snapcaster that would just give your opponent too much value or get in the way.
Aether Vial is really self-explanatory. It lets you bypass your own taxes as well as put guys straight on the field without the chance to be countered, which is good. I generally cap out at 3 charge counters, as your most potent tools are at 3 mana, though if you get land screwed, moving up to 4 for Seer, then to 5 for Smasher isn't a terrible idea, just be sure you can afford to reset with Wisp or have a second Vial if the fat fatties don't get you the game. Also, put something you'll have to move to draw a card so you don't miss the upkeep triggers!
I have decided to add some Liliana of the Veil to the deck. She's proven her worth. Her +1 and -2 abilities are always good, though her -6 tends to just be some extra text on the card you don't have to worry about. You're generally going to have an empty hand later on, so her +1 is good to keep threats out of their hand, but it also can just be used to remove chaff, like extra land or a really late Thoughtseize or that Aether Vial you don't need. Her -2 gets rid of blockers, and with how much removal you're playing, can let you choose who they lose. Lili's best benefit is that she provides a distraction. "IS THAT A LILIANA OF THE VEIL?!" Timmy will say from across the table while you smile evilly and just ask, "Do you want to kill her?" They usually say yes, but you already got your value out of her. She's just super great.
The land base is the hardest part of the deck to manage. Eldrazi Temple goes without saying. It's too damn good when playing Eldrazi. Turn 2 Thought-Knot into Turn 3 Smasher is just wonderful and usually wins when it happens. Caves of Koilos gets you whatever you need. Fetid Heath helps you get those more difficult to cast guys, like Wisp and Sculler and LotV, out in a deck that features so much colorless mana. Godless Shrine is a given. Shambling Vent gets you a nice boost to your life total in those long games and is a good sink when you inevitably run low on cards in hand.
That leaves Wasteland, I mean Ghost Quarter. Look at it. Read it. Look at it again. Yeah. It's super good. Hit those utility lands: E Temps that aren't yours, Urza Tron, the rare Nephalia Academy if you have to, Pendelhaven, that one land that's their only source of a color they need. Destroy the tempo. It's also good to fix your own mana later on in the game, especially if you need the colors and only have a Caves. Float you a colorless and blow that not as useful land up to go get that painless colored mana.
The sideboard is mostly hate and optimization when you need it. The cards to side out are generally Smasher, Thalia, Path, Push, Vial, and, rarely, Strangler. I recommend not siding out Tidehollow, Thought-Knot, Displacer or Flickerwisp as they're really the core of the deck. Use your best judgement to find when those cards aren't going to be terribly useful. Leonin Arbiter is there to stop decks that are low on mana and fetch a lot (coughdeathsshadowcough) or decks that want to constantly get cards from their library (coughgiftswhatevercough coughknightfallcough coughscapeshiftcough) and can, can, be useful, but generally are just annoying and buy a few turns, which is nice. Kambal's Chicken Noodle is good against any deck that relies on cantrips or spells to get what they want done. In a deck like this, Rest in Peace is worth siding in to turn off Snapcasters, Goyfs and Scavenging Ooze as well as the usual uses of it, but it also gives Strangler infinite food. RIP also has the benefit of presenting something that messes with their gameplan that they don't want on the field, eating some removal from your opponent's hand, and if it sticks, it's even better. Wrath of God is just for some protection from wide decks. Gideon is good for decks that want to interact with you a bit more than you expected and serves as a 5/5 that survives Wraths. Gideon also protects you a bit from the wider decks, which are a real problem. Blessed Alliance is a strong pick against any aggressive deck, giving you a bit more time to get your guys to stick and to pull some material from them that they may really want to keep. Liliana, the Last Hope is a great side in against the wide decks as well, killing their weenies and, if you can pop it off, making you go wide enough to probably eek out a win. Remember, Tidehollow Sculler is a Zombie, too.
In an opening hand, you generally want a turn 2 play. Vial, IoK or Thoughtseize turn 1 is optimal, but not necessary. You do, however, usually want at least one colored source, but you'll figure it out~
So anyway, if you decide to pick this deck up, play it a bit. It took me a few weeks to find exactly how it worked. Hopefully what I wrote up there is enough of a primer to help you start, but understand this deck's "outs" are numerous and esoteric about 100% of the time. Something that seems good may not be and vice versa. Keep in mind what deck you suspect they are playing by their first turn and play the proper hate, then play disruption. Play cards to get them killed. Eat removal and combo pieces with your Cromulon cards (SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT). The more they use, the less they have. Everything is expendable. I hope you have as much fun with this deck as I do!
And remember, only two things are inevitable in life: Paying taxes and getting cosmic spaghetti monsters thrown in your face.
