Black has been my favorite color in Magic for a while now and I was thinking about doing something a little out of the ordinary. Then I thought about Mono Black Mill. Is it possible? Here's a stab my the concept. It's basically, stall, kill, and mill.
The win conditions. These are the mill cards. Sadistic Sacrament can be very painful early game (particuarly against combo decks), and and if kicked can essentially end the game. Haunting Echoes is just scary because it can exile huge amount of cards from an opponent's deck and Sands of Delirium is re-usable mill that is particuarly crazy with the mana ramp we have access to. Oona, Queen of the Fae is also a great mill option but it isn't as budget friendly. It also is a creature which I'm trying to stay away from.
The control. In other words, creature removal. There should be a wide array, edicts, spot removal, and board wipes. This means we can get rid of specific threats, swarms, or things with hexproof/protection. Innocent Blood, Go For The Throat and Black Sun's Zenith are all classic and need no introduction but there are other options of course and I would imagine the deck would have other removal spells. Other options include Barter In Blood, Mutilate, and Murder.
The ramp. Cabal Coffers, Crypt of Agadeem and Bubbling Muck all allow us to produce insane amounts of mana that we can use to mill our opponent. The best part is with the exception of Cabal Coffers these are very budget friendly. Liliana of the Dark Realms is great option here but she's clearly not budget friendly. Swamps are a given.
I would also imagine the deck would have some type of card draw. Possibly Phyrexian Arena or Underworld Connections (both budget friendly and very powerful). The deck would also have something to deal with planeswalkers, perhaps two or three Consume Spirit that could double as back up removal and keep us ahead in the life race.
Anyways, what are your thoughts on this concept? Is it possible? What would the deck look like specifically? How would you do it?
Of course it is possible - the real question is whether it is a better strategy than straight up killing your opponent via Consume Spirit with the available mana.
I like to think of Black Mill has a "targeted Mill" deck where you just get rid of the absolute threats in the opposing deck. It doesn't matter how many cards your opponent has left if they're all irrelevant/useless. I would consider Life's Finale and Eradicate. Alternatively you can use a trick like Mishra's Groundbreaker + Eradicate to get rid of a lot of your opponent's library lands.
Crypt of Agadeem requires that you play a lot of creatures so I doubt you could pull that off into a mill strategy unless you use a double mil strategy with Shared Trauma.
Ahh, that's so embarrassing. I thought Crypt of Agadeem gave you mana for each black card in your graveyard. I really like Life's Finale. There's too much black in my meta for Eradicate to work though.
Caged Sun is very solid, a couple of those certainly could fit. At the same time, I'm starting to think that 4 Cabal Coffers and 4 Bubbling Muck should be enough.
So what would the deck look like? How many of each thing? I'm thinking something like:
Extirpate would be a great turn 3 play if I get Counterspelled but frankly it's out of my price range.
Dark Ritual is one of my favorite black cards, it would be very nice to run turn one Sadistic Sacrament, but this deck really needs to hit a land every turn and other than Sadistic Sacrament, there's not much that I would want to play early. So I don't really see the point in running it.
How are my removal options? Better ideas? Should I run 4 Innocent Blood over 3? This is what the deck looks like now assuming I can get the scratch for Extraplanar Lens.
By then way, later today I am probably going to update the original post with everything i have so far (and put the older stuff in a spoiler so people can see how the concept has progressed)
The win conditions. These are the mill cards. Sadistic Sacrament can be very painful early game (particuarly against combo decks), and and if kicked can essentially end the game. Haunting Echoes is just scary because it can exile huge amount of cards from an opponent's deck and Sands of Delirium is re-usable mill that is particuarly crazy with the mana ramp we have access to. Oona, Queen of the Fae is also a great mill option but it isn't as budget friendly. It also is a creature which I'm trying to stay away from.
The control. In other words, creature removal. There should be a wide array, edicts, spot removal, and board wipes. This means we can get rid of specific threats, swarms, or things with hexproof/protection. Innocent Blood, Go For The Throat and Black Sun's Zenith are all classic and need no introduction but there are other options of course and I would imagine the deck would have other removal spells. Other options include Barter In Blood, Mutilate, and Murder.
The ramp. Cabal Coffers, Crypt of Agadeem and Bubbling Muck all allow us to produce insane amounts of mana that we can use to mill our opponent. The best part is with the exception of Cabal Coffers these are very budget friendly. Liliana of the Dark Realms is great option here but she's clearly not budget friendly. Swamps are a given.
I would also imagine the deck would have some type of card draw. Possibly Phyrexian Arena or Underworld Connections (both budget friendly and very powerful). The deck would also have something to deal with planeswalkers, perhaps two or three Consume Spirit that could double as back up removal and keep us ahead in the life race.
Anyways, what are your thoughts on this concept? Is it possible? What would the deck look like specifically? How would you do it?
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
I like to think of Black Mill has a "targeted Mill" deck where you just get rid of the absolute threats in the opposing deck. It doesn't matter how many cards your opponent has left if they're all irrelevant/useless. I would consider Life's Finale and Eradicate. Alternatively you can use a trick like Mishra's Groundbreaker + Eradicate to get rid of a lot of your opponent's library lands.
There's also Neverending Torment which can be good with your card draw, Shimian Specter/Memoricide, Geth, Lord of the Vault.
Crypt of Agadeem requires that you play a lot of creatures so I doubt you could pull that off into a mill strategy unless you use a double mil strategy with Shared Trauma.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Are there any other cards like Cabal Coffers, or Bubbling Muck that are artifact or black?
And I realize it would be a lot easier to just kill everything and win with Exsanguinate, but that's been done too many times.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Gauntlet of Power, but if your meta is heavy with black, it might hurt more than it helps.
Caged Sun fits the bill, although it's 1 mana more it doesn't apply the bonus to your opponents.
Awesome sig of awesomeness by Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures
So what would the deck look like? How many of each thing? I'm thinking something like:
4x Sadistic Sacrament
4x Haunting Echoes
4x Sands of Delirium
3 Innocent Blood
3 Go For The Throat
3 Barter In Blood
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Consume Spirit
22 swamp
4 Cabal Coffers
4 Bubbling Muck
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
I am strongly considering replacing Bubbling Muck with Extraplanar Lens and Snow-Covered Swamps. Just because it's better, more consistent and frankly more original. Unfortunately, Extraplanar Lens isn't very budget friendly and Snow-Covered Swamps aren't free either, so I may have to settle for Bubbling Muck.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
or extirpate to remove problem cards?
Dark Ritual is one of my favorite black cards, it would be very nice to run turn one Sadistic Sacrament, but this deck really needs to hit a land every turn and other than Sadistic Sacrament, there's not much that I would want to play early. So I don't really see the point in running it.
How are my removal options? Better ideas? Should I run 4 Innocent Blood over 3? This is what the deck looks like now assuming I can get the scratch for Extraplanar Lens.
4x Sadistic Sacrament
4x Haunting Echoes
4x Sands of Delirium
3 Innocent Blood
3 Go For The Throat
3 Barter In Blood
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Consume Spirit
22 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Cabal Coffers
4 Extraplanar Lens
By then way, later today I am probably going to update the original post with everything i have so far (and put the older stuff in a spoiler so people can see how the concept has progressed)
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
You forgot hybrid cards like Lurking Informant and Memory Sluice.
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