It doesn't take much to notice that the Modern meta has been undergoing a shift lately, and that's not even getting into the recent ban. The current top contenders are without a doubt Death's Shadow, Izzet Pheonix, Dredge, Burn, Tron, and Spirits. These decks are fast, reliable, and hard to disrupt. Of course, that is why to unseat them, we have to look towards aggressive disruption and timely displacement.
I am of course referring to Eldrazi Displacer. If you've never had access to this creature with three-mana open before, It's hard to describe exactly the shift in power you receive when it hits the board. Whether it's by tapping down key creatures, or being played in conjunction with the all-star Flickerwisp, Displacer can shut down nearly any strategy brought to bear by any of the top decks.
For those familiar with Death and Taxes variants, you'll notice the core is all up there. Leonin Arbiter and Ghost Quarter tax decks with greedy manabases and utility lands (Grixis DS and Tron). Thalia hits low mana plans with tons of spells (Pheonix, Burn, Grixis DS, Storm). Eldrazi Temple functions as a Sol Land to power through early Eldrazi and especially Reality Smashers. And as mentioned above, Flickerwisp and Displacer together are your swiss army knife in any match-up, tap down creatures, flicker away lands, shutdown planeswalkers, destroy tokens, or just attack through with three power creatures.
The majority of our sideboard is pretty regular - we are going to use our access to white to maximize our games two and three. Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, and Eidolon of Rhetoric completely shut down our opponenents' strategies. Kor Firewalker and Burrenton Forge-Tender hate on red strategies, and Mirran Crusader is for B/G midrange decks that require boardclears to cleanly deal with the doublestriker. Finally, Blessed Alliance exists as a catch-all for many different strategies, but is also especially effective against Death's Shadow decks.
Before we go, here is a quick sideboard guide for a few of the decks mentioned at the top:
Vs Death's Shadow
In: 2x Mirran Crusader, 2x Blessed Alliance, 1x Rest in Peace
Out: 3x Wall of Omens, 1x Wasteland Strangler, 1x Blade Splicer
Vs Izzet Pheonix
In: 2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation, 2x Rest in Peace, 2x Eidolon of Rhetoric
Out: 3x Wall of Omens, 1x Wasteland Strangler, 1x Blade Splicer, 1x Reality Smasher
Vs Burn
In: 2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation, 2x Kor Firewalker, 2x Blessed Alliance
Out: 4x Flickerwisp, 2x Reality Smasher
Vs Dredge
In: 2x Rest in Peace, 2x Mirrian Crusader
Out: 2x Reality Smasher, 1x Wasteland Strangler, 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Vs Tron
In: 2x Stony Silence, 2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Out: 3x Wall of Omens, 1x Blade Splicer
