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I've been working for quite a while to explore Sultai in the Modern format. Many have tried and failed at building the other GBx variant to be as powerful as Jund and Abzan. It's my belief that through tons of testing, with multiple builds and endless card choices moving in and out of the deck, you find the best ones rising to the surface and a game plan that differs from what you initially expected. Sultai doesn't want to grind in Modern. Sultai wants tempo, efficiency, and relatively clean board states. I firmly believe that Thought Scour/Goyf/Flayer/Stubborn Denial are the most fundamental cards to achieving success with Sultai and the rest of the list should further that game plan.
This deck plays like a hybrid of a traditional GBx grind-them-out list and a Delver tempo, aggro-control gameplan. It has some very big pros and cons to Grixis Delver, Abzan, and Jund depending on match-ups, and depending on the predicted meta any given weekend, could easily be a highly competitive choice.
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I like your choice of counter Spells. Would you care to elaborate on you choice for creatures? I won'the ask for a game plan as this looks to be a highly interactive deck but maybe you could tell me about the pros and cons in comparison to grixis conteol/delver
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I don't think it's quite there for today's Modern metagame. You can often get past having less powerful removal spells like Path, Bolt, and Terminate by leveraging countermagic, but you can be overpowered or have the wrong interaction at the wrong time. The deck feels much stronger against Grixis Delver as you're playing a more similar gameplan to Delver (tempo) with, on average, bigger threats that bolt is bad against. The deck is really good against noncreature combo like Ad Nauseum, as you get access to Maelstrom Pulse, Discard, Lili, Abrupt Decay, as well as Stubborn Denial, which is really tough for them to beat.
As far as creatures go, Goyf is pretty obvious. Grim Flayer is the card the deck is built most around, as a turn 1 bauble, fetch land, and thought scour very frequently turns on Delirium on turn 2. There's an inherent tension between Flayer/Snapcaster and Tasigur/Cut, so it takes a lot of reps with the list to know how to manage your graveyard (like Grixis Delver) to keep Delrium going and delving around it. The major impetus for playing the deck is Stubborn Denial, which I think is an incredibly powerful card. You only play two Snapcaster because without Bolt or Path, they're clunkier, yet still powerful. Mindwrack Demon is very much a flex spot. I have liked it during testing as it refills the graveyard for Delve, Delirium, Snapcaster, and Goyf. I've also tested Whirler Rogue, Tireless Tracker, and a few other 1-of threats in that slot. You're basically looking for evasion, value, and a threat in that slot. I've also valued having my 4-drop being resilient to Liliana of the Veil. I'm very excited to test Heart of Kirin in this list, perhaps with Ashiok or Garruk Wildspeaker. Heart of Kirin is crewed by the deck's threats, enables Stubborn Denial, and works well with and defends Planeswalkers. Another card I'm considering in the flex slot is Glen Elendra, as I think she's much stronger when you have a powerful board presence.Another matchup I've been quite pleased with is Dredge. The combination of countermagic to stop Rally the Peasants and Conflagrate, big threats on the ground, Scavenging Ooze, and discard all give you a very fair shot against anything but their most explosive hands game one and the sideboard hate has been quite effective.
Overall, you're playing a game plan that falls somewhere between Grixis Delver and Jund. You have more ways to exploit tempo than Jund and can often close a game on turn 5-6. It's not quite as fast as Delver, but is able to create bigger threats on average and can be a bit more disruptive with discard and Lili.
Thanks for the quite elaborate answer. I like the idea of mind wrack demon but while your explanation features is your deck list does not. This leads me to the assumption that your decklist/sideboard max not be quite up to date. Could you tell me what role jace fulfills apart from mini fact or fiction. And how your titan/valakut match up is ;)
Titan Valakut is tough. You need pressure and disruption and I've considered running a Disdainful Stroke or two in the sideboard for that matchup and Tron, even though I don't like sideboarding for Tron. I think Stubborn Denial maindeck is better against Tron than sideboard Fulminator anyways. I do think you have more game against Breach Titan than Jund or Abzan, as counterspells are far stronger than removal in the matchup. As you mentioned, the list has been changing a bit, mostly to test cards, and I consider Jace, Nihil Spellbomb, Tasigur, 1 Scavrnging Ooze, and Vapor Snag to be flex spots. I really like Jace in a list that is disrupting an opponent and deploying threats prior to Jace coming down. I think he's awful in the format when you're tapping out to cast him without a way to protect him. He's been great in grindy matchups when the board is relatively clear, is great against Lingering Souls, Narcomoeba, and Stinkwred Imp. Against Dredge, I find myself winning game one when they don't have the busted turn 1 draws when I can hold up Stubborn Denial to stop Conflag/Rally, use Jace/Lili the Last Hope to pick off threats, and bide time for Scavenging Ooze to take over the game. Jace had also been great at stabilizing against a Young Pyromancer out of Grixis and letting bigger threats and Stubborn Denial take over the game. Overall I don't love Jace in the format but I think he shores up some weaknesses in the deck and plays best with big Goyfs and Flayers to hold off the ground.
Thanks for your fast and detailed reply I might sleeve up your list as proxies and take it for a spin as I unfortunately at Ely still lack flayer and lilies to take it out for real. ;)