Topic: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

I'm starting a blue mill deck and was wondering if this is a good start. I don't have a lot of things i want in there but hopefully I can build up. Suggestions would be very helpful. http://deckbox.org/sets/197911

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

You have a good start here, but at the moment your creatures don't really help your overall objective.

First off, are you worried about maintaining a specific format?  At current it says your deck qualifies as "Extended."  That's ultimately going to decide which cards you're going to keep or need to pick up.

One creature that the best mill decks just NEED is Hedron Crab.  Every time you play a land, they lose three cards.  Play one on the first turn and another on the second turn and you've already cost them three cards and on turn three when you play a land, BAM, that's nine total cards down already.  Also, they're good blockers for early game.

For other creatures, Fog Bank and Guard Gomazoa give you incredible blockers that can stop practically anything without getting killed.  The only real problem you would have there is with trample damage.

Thought Scour and Mind Sculpt are GREAT.  But you should also pick up Traumatize, Increasing Confusion, and Jace's Erasure.  Each of those will give you more spells that can drop a LOT of cards quickly.

Another fun card to work with in a Mill context is Geralf's Mindcrusher which can serve as a big creature if you get stuck trying to win with damage, OR, you can pair it with Nephalia Smuggler/Deadeye Navigator/Ghostly Flicker/Conjurer's Closet to flicker and repeat the ETB effect, causing your opponent to drop cards five at a time.  If you have Altar of Dementia you could make them drop another 10 cards when you sack it and then just flicker it to lose the undying counter - rinse repeat.

Trepanation Blade is a good piece to pair with any creature as it normally will cost them 3-4 cards per attack, if not more.  Keening Stone can be a good win condition as it can snowball VERY quickly.

I would also recommend consolidating your countermagic as it's really scattered at the moment.  More Mana Leaks, Unsummons (or even Boomerang).  If you're open to any format, Temporal Adept is a great option that can essentially give you as many Boomerangs as you could want.

Lastly, Jace, Memory Adept is perfect for mill decks.  His +0 ability results in an opponent dropping 10 cards.  If you can protect him at all, that can REALLY add up quickly.

I hope all of that helps make sense.  The best part being not much I've suggested is all that expensive.  Jace is pretty pricey (~$10) and Altar of Dementia is mid-range (~$3-5), but outside of those, pretty much any of these should be around a dollar or less to pick up.

Good luck!

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

Thanks that is really helpful. I'm definitely going to add a few to my wishlist.

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

I have a mill based EDH deck that I run, and I can definitely get behind some of TyWooOneTime's suggestions.

Traumatize is an amazing mill card, and so is Keening Stone.  My last game with the deck I combined them, one turn after the other and there was nothing they could do because their library was instantly gone.

Another great one to add into the mix that I don't think was suggested yet is Memory Erosion.  It really makes the opponent hold back, because every spell they play causes them to be milled.  The same goes for Riddlekeeper; every creature they attack with mills them for another two.

A very interesting card is also Telemin Performance, because it mills them and lets you steal a creature.

For the late game there is also Chancellor of the Spires because it can make use of all of those cards that you milled, and will also help you if it is in your opening hand.

I can probably come up with a lot more, but I'm not sure what format you're going for, so I don't want to lead you too much down the wrong path.
Here is my EDH Mill Deck, feel free to poke around and see what else you might find.

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

Mind Funeral, Nemsis of Reason, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Szadek, Lord of Secrets, Sanity Grinding. Just a couple I thought of...

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

All of the above-mentioned cards are great ideas, alot of really good mill cards are both blue and black so thats something to consider along with the fact that it usually takes more turns to mill someone than to do 20 damage so it's good to have control notably creature removal, which is why I almost never do a milling deck without black if you go for black Nephalia Drownyard is also pretty sweet on any turn that you draw a land or something. You should also get something to exile cards in graveyards at instant speed, the 3 legendary Eldrazi, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre) even with one of them in a graveyard completely shuts down milling strategies but because of tricky stuff you can exile it before it's graveyard ability goes off and therefore it doesn't get shuffled back in

Last edited by imsully2 (2012-08-01 20:43:46)

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

imsully2 wrote:

All of the above-mentioned cards are great ideas, alot of really good mill cards are both blue and black so thats something to consider along with the fact that it usually takes more turns to mill someone than to do 20 damage so it's good to have control notably creature removal, which is why I almost never do a milling deck without black if you go for black Nephalia Drownyard is also pretty sweet on any turn that you draw a land or something. You should also get something to exile cards in graveyards at instant speed, the 3 legendary Eldrazi, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre) even with one of them in a graveyard completely shuts down milling strategies but because of tricky stuff you can exile it before it's graveyard ability goes off and therefore it doesn't get shuffled back in

Actually, you can't do that.  The ability triggers as soon as it's in the graveyard.  Since neither player will get priority before the effect resolves, the Eldrazi are not valid targets for removal at any time.  That would be a situation that would require an alternate win condition.

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

the_wizard_666 wrote:
imsully2 wrote:

All of the above-mentioned cards are great ideas, alot of really good mill cards are both blue and black so thats something to consider along with the fact that it usually takes more turns to mill someone than to do 20 damage so it's good to have control notably creature removal, which is why I almost never do a milling deck without black if you go for black Nephalia Drownyard is also pretty sweet on any turn that you draw a land or something. You should also get something to exile cards in graveyards at instant speed, the 3 legendary Eldrazi, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre) even with one of them in a graveyard completely shuts down milling strategies but because of tricky stuff you can exile it before it's graveyard ability goes off and therefore it doesn't get shuffled back in

Actually, you can't do that.  The ability triggers as soon as it's in the graveyard.  Since neither player will get priority before the effect resolves, the Eldrazi are not valid targets for removal at any time.  That would be a situation that would require an alternate win condition.

The ability goes on the stack and priority is passed, that's how the Goryo's Vengance card works to reanimate the titans. There are tons of modern reanimators that use that combo so as long as it's instant speed it works.

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

imsully2 wrote:
the_wizard_666 wrote:
imsully2 wrote:

All of the above-mentioned cards are great ideas, alot of really good mill cards are both blue and black so thats something to consider along with the fact that it usually takes more turns to mill someone than to do 20 damage so it's good to have control notably creature removal, which is why I almost never do a milling deck without black if you go for black Nephalia Drownyard is also pretty sweet on any turn that you draw a land or something. You should also get something to exile cards in graveyards at instant speed, the 3 legendary Eldrazi, (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre) even with one of them in a graveyard completely shuts down milling strategies but because of tricky stuff you can exile it before it's graveyard ability goes off and therefore it doesn't get shuffled back in

Actually, you can't do that.  The ability triggers as soon as it's in the graveyard.  Since neither player will get priority before the effect resolves, the Eldrazi are not valid targets for removal at any time.  That would be a situation that would require an alternate win condition.

The ability goes on the stack and priority is passed, that's how the Goryo's Vengance card works to reanimate the titans. There are tons of modern reanimators that use that combo so as long as it's instant speed it works.

Hmm...just dug it up in the official rules...I stand corrected.  However, the shuffling will still occur.  You can remove it from the game, but the ability will still be on the stack, so the graveyard will still shuffle into the library.  It just won't protect them forever.

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

the_wizard_666 wrote:

Hmm...just dug it up in the official rules...I stand corrected.  However, the shuffling will still occur.  You can remove it from the game, but the ability will still be on the stack, so the graveyard will still shuffle into the library.  It just won't protect them forever.

Yup, but it makes their Eldrazi similar to an Elixir of Immortality instead so that's at least in my opinion better than just pretty much losing by default

Re: Mill Deck...Feedback and Suggestions Welcomed

Yeah, it's a much better strategy than I had first assumed.  Good call!