I like indie control decks.
The deck is held together by Mystical Teachings, an instant speed tutor for many of the situational singletons in the deck. It allows you to have the best response at any time - low opportunity costs in exchange for high mana costs. The fact that Teachings natively has flashback means that this deck's game only increases as the match (inevitably) drags on.
Yeah, this is not a fast deck. Not even slightly. The usual plan is to grind your opponent's hand and board position out in the most efficient way possible. From there, Creeping Tar Pit beatdown is the usual route to victory, or if there's a window to find and resolve White Sun's Zenith then that can cripple aggro decks and allow you to crack in for 8-18 damage out of nowhere (hopefully).
Classic control cards such as Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation stabilise or generate card advantage when needed, Smother and Disfigure hit a shocking number of relevant creatures in Modern and along with Doom Blade and Path to Exile form a very robust removal suite. Hand destruction is a solid opening strategy against every modern deck, and can be brutal if you can combine with Surgical Extraction. Otherwise, Cryptic Command and Mana Leak represent solid, reliable countermagic in the early game, allowing you to reach the part of the game where you can just grind out opponents.
Obligatory call-out on how stupid Snapcaster Mage is in decks like this.
Some of the cuter tactics to use with Mystical Teachings involve finding pacts, or Bile Blight as super-situational spells to surprise opponents with. Blight has most game against the BW tokens deck, usually, but also shuts down plenty of random 3-toughness creatures or an opponent going for a Kikki-Jikki / Pestermite win. Extracting is another great surprise to spring on an opponent who is over-reliant on their graveyard. I hate Finks.
Sideboarding is one of the more challenging aspects of running this deck. The inclusion of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and a pair of huge, subsequently tutorable creatures provide post-board ways of stabilising and winning. Other creatures have flash natively and synergise well with Mystical Teachings; nobody ever expects Aven Mindcensor or Notion Thief, and together they can shut down draw and search engines.
Some more conventional sideboard choices include Stony Silence verses Pod and Affinity. Fracturing Gust also provides an opportunity to cripple those decks while protecting your life total. Tribute to Hunger is some nice removal against classic anti-control cards like Thrun, the Last Troll or Great Sable Stag. Black Sun's Zenith and Supreme Verdict can't be found with Teachings, but it represents such a blow against the Pod deck and its persist creatures it's too good to miss. Mindbreak Trap hoses Storm completely and can save you from a Tron deck trying to resolve Emrakul. Countering Living End with Spell Burst is one of the last things that makes me laugh in this world.
Yes, sometimes I go into certain matchups and expect to have a low shot at victory (Fish and Affinity are particularly bad) but I very rarely don't have fun playing this deck. Silly as it sounds, it's fun to be 'that guy' with the weird deck at the modern events (not just another Pod, UWR control or Twin deck, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course). The same is rarely true for my opponents; most of this deck's wins come from opponent's concessions due to boredom rather than Cat or Pit beatdown.
Based on decks presented by Jacob Wilson and the MTGS member Mastodon.
