The goal of this deck is to be a classic mill deck that controls or stalls the game to relieve the opponent of all their cards. Obviously there are not a lot of mill pieces in standard right now but this deck also has the advantage making all creature removal dead. In my area there hasn't been a lot of enchantment removal being played aside from Knight of Autumn. My current build is what I am practicing with on MTGA and I would like some help refining the list or sorting out what is not helpful to my goal.
If you would like to suggest another color, I'm all for that but I still want to work on the mono list as well because it holds a special place in my heart.
My goal, is to take a mill deck to my PTQ that is going to be played one month from today, December 1st. I'm not great at this game but I'd like to learn and I love playing it.
Psychic Corrosion is the main mill engine of the deck, the only mill engine. This relies on an enchantment that must resolve on the battlefield and must also be defended once on the battlefield. Since this is the 'working class' card of the deck it means that the game needs to be controlled until it is safe to play this. Makes for a slow game regardless of the match up because aggro and midrange have to be held in check and control has to be held off so they don't know what is coming.
1. The Countermagic: The main way to defend and control the game is going to be by using countermagic. The mainboard holds 11 counterspells. Only 3 of them are hard counters but they are the best ones because of the surveil mechanic. There is flexibility in the sideboard to move 2 more in or swap Unwind around for what may be less useful (maybe disdainful stroke is pretty dead, so Unwind replaces it). Not sure if Syncopate should be in this list as well, it's not exactly mana leak but it can be a good early counterspell.
2. The Bounce: There are seven bounce spells in the main board with 4 more that can be sided in to help disrupt the game plan of creature based decks. I'm not using disperse because the bounce is being primarily used to slow down and stall the creatures instead of other permanents plus the surveil mechanic seems to be helpful in controlling what I draw. There is once mass bounce in the mainboard while the other 4 spells in the sideboard can hit multiple creatures, selective snare is specifically helpful in tribal matchups or places where there are lots of 'elves' or 'knights' or 'soldiers.'
3. The Draw: There are 13 cards in the mainboard that can be drawn. The most flexible draw spell that I have in the list is Chemister's insight because it can still be chucked to surveil and used later in the game if it is not helpful to my current hand. Sift is also very powerful because Psychic corrosion triggers off of the individual draws, so three cards plus a discard is very good for me. Chart a course is also strong being 2 mana for 2 cards before a discard. Blink of an Eye qualifies as a bounce spell but lategame it can bounce and draw a card for an extra trigger on the engine.
Patient rebuilding is painfully slow but when it comes to a board that I have under control and have access to enough mana it becomes very strong, refills my hand and ensures that the game is all but over. The same goes for weight of memory, which I have had to discard a few times due to being clunky.
4. The Stall: Murmuring mystic is the only creature that I'm running. I've found three is working so far on arena because when he comes up he is safe from most burn (not fight with fire obviously) and he makes a ton of birds to help block and clog up the board. With all the instants and sorceries in the deck, some of which have jumpstart, it is easy to use this as a stall tactic or as something to put pressure on a control deck. The sideboard has additional stall that can transform the deck into a traditional control deck if the mill aspect is completely out of the question for the matchup. Surge Mare is a great blocker and easy to defend, a couple of deep freeze can deal with a couple of problematic creatures and eliminate any abilities, the giant blue creatures give me an attainable win condition.
Like I said, I'm not good at this so if you have any opinions or like the idea of a mill deck of some sort then please leave a comment
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If you would like to suggest another color, I'm all for that but I still want to work on the mono list as well because it holds a special place in my heart.
My goal, is to take a mill deck to my PTQ that is going to be played one month from today, December 1st. I'm not great at this game but I'd like to learn and I love playing it.
3 Murmuring Mystic
Enchantment
1 Patient Rebuilding
4 Psychic Corrosion
Land
20 Island
2 Zhalfirin Void
Instant
3 Negate
2 Blink of an Eye
3 Essence Scatter
3 Sinister Sabotage
4 Unexplained Disappearance
4 Chemister's Insight
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 River's Rebuke
3 Chart a Course
1 Weight of Memory
2 Sleep
2 Sift
3 Surge Mare
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
2 Deep Freeze
2 Unwind
1 River's Rebuke
2 Sleep
3 Selective Snare
The Mill Engine:
Psychic Corrosion is the main mill engine of the deck, the only mill engine. This relies on an enchantment that must resolve on the battlefield and must also be defended once on the battlefield. Since this is the 'working class' card of the deck it means that the game needs to be controlled until it is safe to play this. Makes for a slow game regardless of the match up because aggro and midrange have to be held in check and control has to be held off so they don't know what is coming.
1. The Countermagic: The main way to defend and control the game is going to be by using countermagic. The mainboard holds 11 counterspells. Only 3 of them are hard counters but they are the best ones because of the surveil mechanic. There is flexibility in the sideboard to move 2 more in or swap Unwind around for what may be less useful (maybe disdainful stroke is pretty dead, so Unwind replaces it). Not sure if Syncopate should be in this list as well, it's not exactly mana leak but it can be a good early counterspell.
2. The Bounce: There are seven bounce spells in the main board with 4 more that can be sided in to help disrupt the game plan of creature based decks. I'm not using disperse because the bounce is being primarily used to slow down and stall the creatures instead of other permanents plus the surveil mechanic seems to be helpful in controlling what I draw. There is once mass bounce in the mainboard while the other 4 spells in the sideboard can hit multiple creatures, selective snare is specifically helpful in tribal matchups or places where there are lots of 'elves' or 'knights' or 'soldiers.'
3. The Draw: There are 13 cards in the mainboard that can be drawn. The most flexible draw spell that I have in the list is Chemister's insight because it can still be chucked to surveil and used later in the game if it is not helpful to my current hand. Sift is also very powerful because Psychic corrosion triggers off of the individual draws, so three cards plus a discard is very good for me. Chart a course is also strong being 2 mana for 2 cards before a discard. Blink of an Eye qualifies as a bounce spell but lategame it can bounce and draw a card for an extra trigger on the engine.
Patient rebuilding is painfully slow but when it comes to a board that I have under control and have access to enough mana it becomes very strong, refills my hand and ensures that the game is all but over. The same goes for weight of memory, which I have had to discard a few times due to being clunky.
4. The Stall: Murmuring mystic is the only creature that I'm running. I've found three is working so far on arena because when he comes up he is safe from most burn (not fight with fire obviously) and he makes a ton of birds to help block and clog up the board. With all the instants and sorceries in the deck, some of which have jumpstart, it is easy to use this as a stall tactic or as something to put pressure on a control deck. The sideboard has additional stall that can transform the deck into a traditional control deck if the mill aspect is completely out of the question for the matchup. Surge Mare is a great blocker and easy to defend, a couple of deep freeze can deal with a couple of problematic creatures and eliminate any abilities, the giant blue creatures give me an attainable win condition.
Like I said, I'm not good at this so if you have any opinions or like the idea of a mill deck of some sort then please leave a comment