Yes it's mill! The old laughing stock of mtg archetypes, well I'm here to change that. I think that the new, large modern card pool has opened up a lot of great possibilities for mill giving it a chance at being competitive.
The name of the game is speed and efficiency here in modern. With that, there are inherently 3 big problems that have always plagued mill and kept it from becoming a real threat.
-Milling an opponent doesn't immediately affect him/her until their library reaches 0
-Making an opponent reach 0 can take a while as they beat your face with creatures in the process.
-Sometimes you just don't want some certain cards in an opponents grave yard, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, flashback cads, ect...)
Here is the key to the deck, the card that will solve all our problems... well, a few cards actually but they all do similar things.
Those cards are our disruption. See a powerful card in an opponents GY? Surgical Extraction it. Get rid of BBE or goyf against jund, snapcaster for control, ect. These cards make sure we don't see these threats while we mill our opponent whether they're nasty, fast creatures that can kill us before we win or cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn that stop our deck all together. They even get rid of non basic lands!
Mind Funeral: This card can hit HARD... or it won't. Either way, for 3 mana it'll mill a good amount of cards. Extirpate nonbasic lands for a better chance at milling for more!
Tome Scour: One mana, 5 cards. Efficient and cheap!
Mind Sculpt: Little less efficient, but still decent.
Visions of Beyond: Draw 3 cards for 1 mana. Awesome card, but you don't want too many because they can sit in your hand for the first few turns. Draw is important for mill so we don't cast all our spells quickly and run out of gas.
Compulsive Research: Like I said above, another draw spell so we don't run out of gas and go into topdeck mode.
Sadistic Sacrament: You'll be dead before you can kick it, but removing 3 aggressive cards could be useful.
Black Sun's Zenith: Good Sb card if you're playing faieries or something.
With all these cards, some are better than others. I listed a number of them so you could all get an idea of what we have to work with. That being said, I think that the quicker approach with mill is the better approach. Cards like Jace, Memory Adept and Nemesis of Reason hit hard, but too slowly imo. Mill should be draw cards, deck neutering and obviously, quick mill spells.
It plays like a control deck that slowly leeches a win with extort. I won one game on cockatrice by pathing one of my own thrull parasite and paying extort with another one.
Why not throw in a Crypt Ghast? It'll help you double up on the extorts you pay for with black, assuming you can get enough extorts on the battlefield at one time to make it worthwhile.
I tried Crypt Ghast out but it felt too slow too me. I replaced it with Ghost Council of Orzhova which is fun as hell and good against removal which this deck is weak against. If someone tries to path it or something, you can sac a creature and path loses it's target and fizzles.
2
Yes it's mill! The old laughing stock of mtg archetypes, well I'm here to change that. I think that the new, large modern card pool has opened up a lot of great possibilities for mill giving it a chance at being competitive.
The name of the game is speed and efficiency here in modern. With that, there are inherently 3 big problems that have always plagued mill and kept it from becoming a real threat.
-Milling an opponent doesn't immediately affect him/her until their library reaches 0
-Making an opponent reach 0 can take a while as they beat your face with creatures in the process.
-Sometimes you just don't want some certain cards in an opponents grave yard, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, flashback cads, ect...)
Here is the key to the deck, the card that will solve all our problems... well, a few cards actually but they all do similar things.
Those cards are our disruption. See a powerful card in an opponents GY? Surgical Extraction it. Get rid of BBE or goyf against jund, snapcaster for control, ect. These cards make sure we don't see these threats while we mill our opponent whether they're nasty, fast creatures that can kill us before we win or cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn that stop our deck all together. They even get rid of non basic lands!
Any good mill deck should be playing
4 Extirpate
2 Haunting Echoes
Now let's get on to the fun part. The part that makes mill mill, the mill cards!
Archive Trap: This card is one of our hardest hitting mill spells and can be cast for free if you Ghost Quarter an opponents land or cast an Extirpate or Surgical Extraction.
Glimpse the Unthinkable: 2 mana, 10 cards. Amazing.
Mind Funeral: This card can hit HARD... or it won't. Either way, for 3 mana it'll mill a good amount of cards. Extirpate nonbasic lands for a better chance at milling for more!
Tome Scour: One mana, 5 cards. Efficient and cheap!
Mind Sculpt: Little less efficient, but still decent.
Bitter Ordeal: Gravestorm makes this card hit hard.
Sanity Grinding: This card is better in mono blue mill decks, can be very inconsistent sometimes.
Jace, Memory Adept: Little bit slow but powerful in a mill deck. Some will play him, some won't.
Hedron Crab: Essential in any mill deck. 1 drop with a body that works amazingly in multiples and with ghost quarter / fetches.
Dream Twist: Essentially 3 mana to mill 6 cards. meh.
Drowner Initiate: Another body that can block if needed.
Nemesis of Reason: slow but strong.
Now, the support spells. Cards that don't necessarily mill directly, but still aid our efforts nicely.
Twincast: Manage to get one on a free Archive Trap? Hello 26 cards going to the grave yard. Even better, a Mind Funeral.
Visions of Beyond: Draw 3 cards for 1 mana. Awesome card, but you don't want too many because they can sit in your hand for the first few turns. Draw is important for mill so we don't cast all our spells quickly and run out of gas.
Compulsive Research: Like I said above, another draw spell so we don't run out of gas and go into topdeck mode.
Sadistic Sacrament: You'll be dead before you can kick it, but removing 3 aggressive cards could be useful.
Black Sun's Zenith: Good Sb card if you're playing faieries or something.
Quash: Counters and removes threats.
With all these cards, some are better than others. I listed a number of them so you could all get an idea of what we have to work with. That being said, I think that the quicker approach with mill is the better approach. Cards like Jace, Memory Adept and Nemesis of Reason hit hard, but too slowly imo. Mill should be draw cards, deck neutering and obviously, quick mill spells.
Here's my list.
4 Hedron Crab
Mill
4 Archive Trap
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Mind Funeral
4 Tome Scour
4 Mind Sculpt
4 Visions of Beyond
Neutering
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Extirpate
2 Haunting Echoes
Lands
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Swamp
SB
Leeched images removed; warning issued.
-Tom
1
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
4 Dark Confidant
3 Kingpin's Pet
4 Thrull Parasite
4 Syndic of Tithes
2 Ghost Council of Orzhova
1 Angel of Despair
4 Castigate
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Pillory of the Sleepless
Lands
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
6 Plains
6 Swamp
It plays like a control deck that slowly leeches a win with extort. I won one game on cockatrice by pathing one of my own thrull parasite and paying extort with another one.
I tried Crypt Ghast out but it felt too slow too me. I replaced it with Ghost Council of Orzhova which is fun as hell and good against removal which this deck is weak against. If someone tries to path it or something, you can sac a creature and path loses it's target and fizzles.
1