There have been many attempts to make this type of deck viable, and I'm intent on making it work.
So here goes nothing.
The style of deck is pretty obvious - we have big creatures like Hunted Horror and Hunted Phantasm that have awful ETB effects for us. What we have to try to do is null those effects with Torpor Orb, Tocatli Honor Guard and Hushwing Gryff.
Why three different cards that do the same? Glad you asked. The main problem this deck can suffer is casting a payoff creature and having the orb destroyed. Most past iterations of this type of deck have only run a playset of orb, and maybe one or two Sundial of the Infinite.
I didn't choose to put in Sundial because it always costs 1 more mana for it to work. Granted, it's pretty great against opponent's effects (like responding to them cracking their fetch, or cast an Opt at the end of your turn), I feel like it's slow. Though it can still be viable to run, especially if running Geist of Saint Traft, because you can keep the tokens he makes ;)
Also, Geist on its own is a great card. A 2/2 with hexproof that puts 4/4 angel tokens attacking when he attacks is pretty sweet, especially with the Sundial.
But back to the main deck. I have run through so many color iterations so far, and think that Esper is probably the best build for it. Black is necessary because of the hunted creatures, Hunted Horror is by far the best. And white is super important because it gives you redundancy in the Honor Guard and the Gryff It also allows for Geist and the best sideboard cards in modern.
Collective Brutality makes good use of the card redundancy in the deck, and is critical for aggro matchups like Burn. Thoughtseize is in for combo breaking and taking away their good removal so we can drop our Horror with no problem.
Path to Exile and Fatal Push for being midrange-y and buying time until we can drop or big creatures.
Muddle the Mixture is Counterspell for their removal and doubles as a tutor for our hunted horrors, brutalities, torpors, honor guards and, if ever needed, our things in the ice. Also pairs very nicely with Echoing Truths in our sideboard, which can be an extra token removal and/or a way to combat certain things that may stop our plans (Detention Sphere, Ensnaring Bridge, etc).
And finally, the most janky thing in the build, Thing in the Ice
.It's a good T2 blocker, that doubles as a sweeper once we started playing our Paths, Pushes, Brutalities and Thoughtseizes. Also, a nice little extra, it doesn't bounce Hunted Horror back to our hand :)
Sideboard
The sideboard was a bit rushed. But basically I added cards for match ups that I think are pretty bad for us, like Stony Silence and Rest in Peace (Affinity, Dredge, . Hinders DS, UW Control and Jeskai).
Surgical Extraction for combo decks (paired with our discard, it's fabulous. Also considered running Lost Legacy because it just grabs anything in their hand and deck).
Supreme Verdict for creature heavy decks (like Elves and Humans) that are way too fast for us. Might play something else like Languish because it doesn't kill our creatures, but it does wipe tokens we might give them.
Leyline of Sanctity is for discard decks, but pairs very nicely vs Burn, which is always nice because Burn outraces us.. very much so.
Finally, Engineered Explosives gives another way to wipe tokens and also serves as a regularly wonderful sideboard card against a lot of decks. Particularly, it's also good against Tokens, Elves, Humans, and pretty much any deck that plays a lot of cards around the same CMC.
The Maybeboard
Forbidden Orchard is a very good card, but really only works if I run Illness in the Ranks, Ratchet Bomb and/or Engineered Explosives main board (which, in turn, are great ways to get rid of the tokens that our creatures give, save for Hunted Horror whose tokens are 3/3 so Illness doesn't really get them).
Spellskite is a possibility to protect our creatures, as are Dispel and Apostle's Blessing. Instant speed is what kills us. Though perhaps the mass redundancy of creatures means that these types of cards won't be necessary (especially considering the main board Muddle the Mixtures).
Inquisition of Kozilek is another discard spell. Cheap, no life loss.
Pithing Needle is good against a lot of cards in modern. Plus, having a Torpor Orb down + Pithing Needle, we can shut off most interactions our opponents might have (consider that people will probably run Engineered Explosives and Ratchet Bomb out of their sideboards. Uncounterable abilities if they land on the board.
Bitterblossom can greatly help against aggro decks at the cost of a little life. If running this, I would suggest cutting shocklands/fetchlands for some checklands and possibly fastlands.
Not of This World is another possible counter spell, though, again, with Muddle I don't think it's necessary.
Conclusion
I would love any and all feedback possible! I want to make this a viable deck in modern, and I'm 90% sure it can be! :)
