Thing is, even if you extirpate or extract emrakul, most tron decks still play 1x Ulamog, and even if they're not, they still get a shuffle trigger from Emrakul.
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Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
Everyone seems to ignore my list, but it's probably the only one that's proven itself somewhat. My girlfriend came in 34th at a modern PTQ before AVR was released with that list. The lists that go too deep for the all-in mill strategy are gonna get smashed by the combo and aggro decks for not having enough removal.
Her answer to tron was 2 maindeck Surgicals, a maindeck Ravenous Trap that can be tutored with Trapmaker's Snare, and sideboard Nihil Spellbomb and additional Surgicals. She has a draw against Tron at the aforementioned PTQ because her opponent was a jerk. She archive trapped him, he milled an Emrakul and an Ulamog, and before she can respond with Snare for Ravenous he picked up his deck and shuffled it in. She called a judge, who made a bad call in giving the Tron player a warning and not changing the game state, so she just effectively wasted 4-5 turns of milling him and he got all his stuff back.
EDIT:
I just think mill decks can't work because the hate for Mill is the same as the hate people use for storm.
Cards like Rule of Law and Leyline of Sanctity are very common. If your gonna go against the grain and play a rogue deck in a sea of tier 1 netdecks, then play one that doesn't get hated out. If you are willing to endure the hate, you may as just play the Tier 1s. =/
Leyline is hard to deal with, but you have an assortment of bounce spells/Oblivion Ring in the sideboard. Rule of Law, on the other hand, does very little against this deck. It stops Snapcaster/Twincast, but most of the time you're content playing one spell a turn. You can play Mill sorceries on your turn (or Trapmaker's Snare) and then cast removal or instant-speed mill on your opponent's turn.
Oh, I thought he was talking about playing a spell that is countering a spell with counters on it as it comes into play, but I see you guys were just discussing whether he was flashing a creature with flash in order to flash a flashback or just flashing a creature with flash but not needing flash in order to flashback a spell without flash.
Also twincasting grapeshot is a terrible idea, storm doesnt trigger off of copying spells.
I thought about that after I posted and realized it probably doesn't work that way. However, I was able to twincast a Banefire vs Elfball ftw once. What you hit and how you use twin is really an on the spot call. Throwing a Blightning back at an opponent, or anything else that is relevant at the time can be an effective use for the card. I get that it's not a great top deck. The way I play the deck, I rarely am in top deck mode. If I get to that point, I am already losing.
That's too bad you can't afford fetch lands. They really make Hedron Crab go a lot further. I am questioning whether or not he is good enough to play without them. Currently I am thinking no. Here is a pro tip if you are going to play them: Don't forget that you can always Ghost Quarter your own land for the extra landfall, and you can even get an extra color that you need. I remember one time I popped one off with 2 crabs on the board, got me a Plains (after I already used my other mana for the turn) and then pathed one crab to get another landfall, which won me the game.
Focusing more on milling and exiling cards now.
No scalding, misty and such its over my budget.
I like the current deck now, looks good. Some changes:
EDIT: -1 Ravenous Trap (not Trapmaker's Snare), +1 Mana Leak
-1 Leyline of the Void, +1 Snapcaster Mage
Mana Leak's gonna come in handy, and I'll never play less than a playset. Maybe Remand would do better for you here though. Leyline just doesn't do much, you already have another trap to deal with those things. And another Snapcaster would probably do better to recur the trap/trapmaker's snare in case you need it.
As for the fetches, yeah it'll work great with the crab so that's just something for you to invest on slowly.
Not sure on the perplex now. What does it actually get? It was only good in block constructed. A lot of decks can spit everything from their hand on the table before turn 3.
Perplex bonus is to reduce the opponent's hand down to 1 card after he draws the next turn. Kinda meh but it does its job and it can somehow link to Surgical extraction as the cards are in the graveyard and maybe the opponent discard something useful and ya can exile it from the game.
But then they kill you with the card they played. Have you tested it? I played it in block and very rarely does it do what you want. I usually muted it for hit and run to actually kill the card played. Honestly it really only worked like maybe 5 times. They pitch hand then I played an actual counter card.
I think it is high time to bring this thread back to life.
I have a friend who is obsessed with Mill...he has been tuning for awhile and is actually starting to do pretty well at tournaments, so I thought I would give it a shot.
After trying Mono-Blue and then Esper, I've decided on this list. It is testing very well...a control deck with a mill finish mostly.
I tried splashing white for o ring and path, but it just wasn't worth it. The mana issues involving cryptic were too much. I realized that most of the things that I wanted to deal with could be dealt with just as easily in black or with pithing needle. I then introduced the trinket mage package and it has been pretty boss in the deck. Maindeck pithing needle is such a backbreaker sometimes, as EE on 1 can be also.
Ghost quarter is clutch in terms of activating archive trap. They always fall hard for it g1...after which, g2 they are so afraid of it often turns into a strip-mine, which is golden.
Cryptic command as usual keeps the deck together by bouncing hate pieces, tempoing out aggro, and putting the fear of god into your opponent.
I like the Trapmaker's snare package idea introduced by hammerandsickled, but drawing rav trap was the worst. Still, I like having access to mindbreak trap in case of storm or eldrazi main.
So far the deck is running pretty damn nicely after testing about 15 matches. Most of the time they rage quit, which is always hilarious.
I would like to squeeze one more land in. I also feel like there needs to be 12x mill cards but Tome Scour is only decent. Still on the fence about it. It helps you get your visions of beyond active, which is extremely important, but is rarely enough to kill.
Shelldock needs to be in everyone's lists. It allows instant speed kill via glimpse or trap, or even instant speed damnation. It gets there, even if it is a tad slow on the mana.
I'm still testing but the deck has promise. Haunting echoes and Jace Inept both might have a place as a 1 of.
I have never liked Shelldock Isle. Even when it was hugely popular in TwinSanity, I never felt like it was very good outside of a turn 1 play. I never wanted my lands EtB tapped, which was almost always a problem if I drew one midgame.
Tome Scour is by far the weakest card in your deck. It should get dropped for Mind Funeral and your extra land. If you decide to put fetches in, it could be replaced with Hedron Crab.
I disagree on shelldock but that's fine. Utility and card advantage > 1turn tap land.
I agree, tome scour is the weakest link even though 1 mana is nice and it does it's job ok. Crab though activates their early removal and makes the mana-base need to stretch further than it should by requiring so many fetches and life loss. If crab goes in, snapcaster should go in. I suppose the deck could hypothetically go that way...I just found that with all the sorcery speed stuff, snap was way worse than I wanted.
Why remand over manaleak Sick? Leyline of the void seems playable, sure. A maindeck mindbreak trap and a main deck fetchable relic help. Disenchant for white is good. You lack any board control though, which I think means your matchup vs aggro is much weaker, even if you pack more mill spells for a faster win. Damnation or some other sweeper is a necessity.
Maybe the mill 7 for 2 card is better. Mindfuneral at 3 is a bit rough but maybe it could be a 2-of. The problem is that it isn't at all consistent. I've got 4 with it a few times....or 20. Who knows. honestly, if I could just play 8x Glimpse, it would be best.
Also, if you aren't playing 4x visions of beyond, you are doing something horribly wrong.
Jace, memory adept should be a 1-of I have decided.
There is a 1k modern tournament here in Austin tomorrow and I'm going to try out mill. After playtesting last night on mtgo I have settled on a similar build to dlite's (control/mill) but as Esper with black as a splash and heavy white. The way I see it, the only card in black that is really key is Glimpse the Unthinkable. Otherwise, white has far better removal (with synergy) and sideboard options. Here is my build:
At first I was going to go with Relic of Progenitus maindeck instead of the spellbombs in case I face Tron, but my local singles shop is out of that card. It turns out nihil spellbomb has more synergy with snapcaster mage anyway, so we'll see. Mindbreak Trap is another single they are out of, I would have liked it against storm. In my playtesting though it seems storm is a good matchup for us naturally though since they mill themselves, and most don't run creatures so Telemin Performance automatically wins you the game.
Thing is, even if you extirpate or extract emrakul, most tron decks still play 1x Ulamog, and even if they're not, they still get a shuffle trigger from Emrakul.
Her answer to tron was 2 maindeck Surgicals, a maindeck Ravenous Trap that can be tutored with Trapmaker's Snare, and sideboard Nihil Spellbomb and additional Surgicals. She has a draw against Tron at the aforementioned PTQ because her opponent was a jerk. She archive trapped him, he milled an Emrakul and an Ulamog, and before she can respond with Snare for Ravenous he picked up his deck and shuffled it in. She called a judge, who made a bad call in giving the Tron player a warning and not changing the game state, so she just effectively wasted 4-5 turns of milling him and he got all his stuff back.
EDIT:
Leyline is hard to deal with, but you have an assortment of bounce spells/Oblivion Ring in the sideboard. Rule of Law, on the other hand, does very little against this deck. It stops Snapcaster/Twincast, but most of the time you're content playing one spell a turn. You can play Mill sorceries on your turn (or Trapmaker's Snare) and then cast removal or instant-speed mill on your opponent's turn.
-regarding Snapcaster Mage.
Even if you manage to remove him he still triggers the reshuffle.
My bad, at least you managed to take out an Eldrazi. Although there is still Ulamog to go.:rolleyes:
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
I thought about that after I posted and realized it probably doesn't work that way. However, I was able to twincast a Banefire vs Elfball ftw once. What you hit and how you use twin is really an on the spot call. Throwing a Blightning back at an opponent, or anything else that is relevant at the time can be an effective use for the card. I get that it's not a great top deck. The way I play the deck, I rarely am in top deck mode. If I get to that point, I am already losing.
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3x Darkslick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Evolving Wilds
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Island
5x Swamp
2x Devastation Tide
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
4x Mind Funeral
Instant (17)
4x Archive Trap
3x Mana Leak
2x Ravenous Trap
4x Surgical Extraction
4x Trapmaker's Snare
4x Hedron Crab
2x Maralen of the Mornsong
3x Snapcaster Mage
Enchantment (1)
1x Leyline of the Void
Focusing more on milling and exiling cards now.
No scalding, misty and such its over my budget.
Modern : Huh?
EDH : UBGW Thrasios / Tymna Combo UBGW // GRW Mayael Big Stuff GRW // GU Edric Timewalkers GU
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I like the current deck now, looks good. Some changes:
EDIT: -1 Ravenous Trap (not Trapmaker's Snare), +1 Mana Leak
-1 Leyline of the Void, +1 Snapcaster Mage
Mana Leak's gonna come in handy, and I'll never play less than a playset. Maybe Remand would do better for you here though. Leyline just doesn't do much, you already have another trap to deal with those things. And another Snapcaster would probably do better to recur the trap/trapmaker's snare in case you need it.
As for the fetches, yeah it'll work great with the crab so that's just something for you to invest on slowly.
2x Dissipate
4x Mana Leak
4x Perplex
3x Surgical Extraction
4x Thought Scour
Creature (8)
4x Fog Bank
4x Snapcaster Mage
Artifact (2)
2x Keening Stone
3x Darkslick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
10x Island
5x Swamp
Sorcery (9)
2x Devastation Tide
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
3x Haunting Echoes
Planeswalker (2)
2x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Devastation Tide
How about this, slightly slower version but your more likely to survive longer.
Also cheaper to construct.
Modern : Huh?
EDH : UBGW Thrasios / Tymna Combo UBGW // GRW Mayael Big Stuff GRW // GU Edric Timewalkers GU
Perplex bonus is to reduce the opponent's hand down to 1 card after he draws the next turn. Kinda meh but it does its job and it can somehow link to Surgical extraction as the cards are in the graveyard and maybe the opponent discard something useful and ya can exile it from the game.
Also looking at Quash pretty neat but its costly
Modern : Huh?
EDH : UBGW Thrasios / Tymna Combo UBGW // GRW Mayael Big Stuff GRW // GU Edric Timewalkers GU
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I have a friend who is obsessed with Mill...he has been tuning for awhile and is actually starting to do pretty well at tournaments, so I thought I would give it a shot.
After trying Mono-Blue and then Esper, I've decided on this list. It is testing very well...a control deck with a mill finish mostly.
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Sunken Ruins
4x Shelldock Isle
4x Island
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Nephalia Drownyard
1x Swamp
3x Trinket Mage
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Brittle Effigy
1x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
3x Cryptic Command
3x Damnation
2x Go for the Throat
1x Dismember
1x Mindbreak Trap
4x Archive Trap
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
4x Tome Scour
2x Trapmaker's Snare
1x Twincast
4x Jace's Phantasm
4x Negate
2x Disfigure
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Telemin Performance
1x Ravenous Trap
Visions of beyond is the sole reason to play this deck. Honestly.
I tried splashing white for o ring and path, but it just wasn't worth it. The mana issues involving cryptic were too much. I realized that most of the things that I wanted to deal with could be dealt with just as easily in black or with pithing needle. I then introduced the trinket mage package and it has been pretty boss in the deck. Maindeck pithing needle is such a backbreaker sometimes, as EE on 1 can be also.
Ghost quarter is clutch in terms of activating archive trap. They always fall hard for it g1...after which, g2 they are so afraid of it often turns into a strip-mine, which is golden.
Cryptic command as usual keeps the deck together by bouncing hate pieces, tempoing out aggro, and putting the fear of god into your opponent.
I like the Trapmaker's snare package idea introduced by hammerandsickled, but drawing rav trap was the worst. Still, I like having access to mindbreak trap in case of storm or eldrazi main.
So far the deck is running pretty damn nicely after testing about 15 matches. Most of the time they rage quit, which is always hilarious.
I would like to squeeze one more land in. I also feel like there needs to be 12x mill cards but Tome Scour is only decent. Still on the fence about it. It helps you get your visions of beyond active, which is extremely important, but is rarely enough to kill.
Shelldock needs to be in everyone's lists. It allows instant speed kill via glimpse or trap, or even instant speed damnation. It gets there, even if it is a tad slow on the mana.
I'm still testing but the deck has promise. Haunting echoes and Jace Inept both might have a place as a 1 of.
Standard
Blows
Modern
BWUTeachingsBWU
GUGU TempoGU
WLifeW
RWValakut ControlRW
UBModern MillUB
Legacy
UMUCU
BPoxB
BWRTokensBWR
Pauper
UBGRW Domain UBGRW
Vintage
RVise-Burn!R
"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Tome Scour is by far the weakest card in your deck. It should get dropped for Mind Funeral and your extra land. If you decide to put fetches in, it could be replaced with Hedron Crab.
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Now I've seen this one, and it seems more active.
Thought of the Month:
I gave up from trying to require the 'i' on my name: SolesticIo
I disagree on shelldock but that's fine. Utility and card advantage > 1turn tap land.
I agree, tome scour is the weakest link even though 1 mana is nice and it does it's job ok. Crab though activates their early removal and makes the mana-base need to stretch further than it should by requiring so many fetches and life loss. If crab goes in, snapcaster should go in. I suppose the deck could hypothetically go that way...I just found that with all the sorcery speed stuff, snap was way worse than I wanted.
Why remand over manaleak Sick? Leyline of the void seems playable, sure. A maindeck mindbreak trap and a main deck fetchable relic help. Disenchant for white is good. You lack any board control though, which I think means your matchup vs aggro is much weaker, even if you pack more mill spells for a faster win. Damnation or some other sweeper is a necessity.
Maybe the mill 7 for 2 card is better. Mindfuneral at 3 is a bit rough but maybe it could be a 2-of. The problem is that it isn't at all consistent. I've got 4 with it a few times....or 20. Who knows. honestly, if I could just play 8x Glimpse, it would be best.
Also, if you aren't playing 4x visions of beyond, you are doing something horribly wrong.
Jace, memory adept should be a 1-of I have decided.
Standard
Blows
Modern
BWUTeachingsBWU
GUGU TempoGU
WLifeW
RWValakut ControlRW
UBModern MillUB
Legacy
UMUCU
BPoxB
BWRTokensBWR
Pauper
UBGRW Domain UBGRW
Vintage
RVise-Burn!R
"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Nephalia Drownyard
3x Hallowed Fountain
2x Watery Grave
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Seachrome Coast
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Island
4x Hedron Crab
4x Archive Traps
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
3x Trapmaker's Snare
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Visions of Beyond
1x Ravenous Trap
Control 13x
3x Supreme Verdict
3x Mana Leak
3x Cryptic Command
4x Path to Exile
2x Disenchant
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Detention Sphere
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Telemin Performance
2x Negate
1x Mindbreak Trap
At first I was going to go with Relic of Progenitus maindeck instead of the spellbombs in case I face Tron, but my local singles shop is out of that card. It turns out nihil spellbomb has more synergy with snapcaster mage anyway, so we'll see. Mindbreak Trap is another single they are out of, I would have liked it against storm. In my playtesting though it seems storm is a good matchup for us naturally though since they mill themselves, and most don't run creatures so Telemin Performance automatically wins you the game.
EDIT - I updated the deck list, see next post