Here's the theory: the prevailing decks in modern at the moment are Hammer Time, which is of course a weenie build that relies on value advantage and tempo to win (notably with no interaction basically at all), control decks running lots of fat 3-drop and 4 drop value counters (and such), Lurrus's Jund build with land manipulation and spot removal, the Murktide Regent control variant that takes a bit to fill the grave, cascade combo builds, Elementals, and the timeless taples like Burn and Tron, etc. The only build I'm seeing that runs mass removal is the Azorius control, and the only decks running critters that are in any way beefy are powered up Elementals and the Tron variants that have critters. So, the most prominent deck in the meta, Hammer Time, can be shut down by fast beefy critters taking the field, and can do almost nothing about it beyond getting it's hammer off for two hits. Most control decks aren't running nukes, and are instead relying on spot removal and slower value cards to 'make up' in material/tactical advantage what they lose in speed (with Archmage's Charm for example). And plenty of decks benefit from filled graves, meaning most decks are running grave hate.
Thus, perhaps the best answer to this meta is an old-fashioned beat down deck that has almost no need for a filled grave, hits the field faster than its control rivals, has almost no need to worry about a nuke, and can out-beef its critter-based rivals. Introducing just such a build, smacking opponents to death since 1993.
Here are some specific mainboarded meta-choices and synergies of the build:
Endurance- beefy death-stick with built-in grave hate with Flash and the occasional Evoke-kicker.
Eidolon- this deck doesn't really care what its life total is, but opponent is forced to because you're running critters, so it's a win-win for you.
Cindervine- absolute death to control builds, gets great damage against Jund, Tron, and Burn, and is mainboarded hate (albeit slower than ideal) against Hammer Time's equipments.
Sunbaked Canyon/Watterlogged Grove- again, this deck doesn't care about its life total, so it's all profit pretty much. Low curve means sacking off these fellas is an easy choice once you hit your 2-land operational curve and/or your 4-land full curve (26 cards are 2-drop or lower).
Kazandu Mammoth- same principle really, if you need the land you have it, when you don't (and you probably won't) you get a fat beater with a buff abil.
Underworld Rage-Hound- this one was, at least in my opinion, a fun quirk of the meta. Yes, it benefits from a full grave, which this deck can provide for it quite easily (fetch/sac lands, dead critters). However, the quirk runs as follows: if opponent has mainboarded hate against the grave game 1 and they see the Hound, they might keep it mainboarded games 2 and 3. If they don't, you lose nothing and your Hound gets the chance to create advantage. If they do, you lose the chance at 3/60 cards in the deck producing a +1, and you're left with a 3/1 beat stick that's at least going to go 1 for 1, either to a critter or spot removal. Either way, you're just fine. If opponent sees it in game 1 and decides you have grave mechanics and sides against it, you just got a +X against opponent and have lost virtually nothing.
Just my attempt at a meta-read and subsequent response. I'm hardly active these days, but it was a fun exercise.