As GP Toronto approaches, I am thinking of what to play. I was going to go with a UW control/tempo deck, but then it hit me. Would Mill actually be viable?
About every single deck tries to thin itself with fetchlands and therefore Archive trap would be pretty amazing.
Against the Eggs deck or combo decks, at some point in the game when your opponent's deck is thin enough, you can respond to a permanent sacrifice or card draw ability of some sort with archive trap emptying their library and when he comes to draw he would then lose the game.
Against Jund, it would be the lack of interaction with jund's removal spells. Jund really needs it's lands drop to come into play untapped so say you get rid of 4 stacked lands turn 3 on the play, that's a pretty big advantage with mind funeral.
Against Control, games would get stretched out, but if a Nemesis of reason can come out, he should be able to do the job pretty quickly
The only big issue would be very agressive decks, therefore Damnation could take care of the 4 CMC slot.
I'm largely debating if having such a somewhat random deck at a GP would help me or if I am just better off with straight UW control/tempo
Tricking people into archive trap is indeed a nice thing. Ghost quarter can screw people on lands or they can just walk into the AT. As for path, it does deal with threats that the jund deck can come out with or any very agressive deck! I will definately think of going with white as well should I go with a mill deck. Thanks!
Even with Surgical Extraction they will get their gy back. As long as Emmy is in the format I unfortunately cant see it being viable. Even if you Memrocide them for Emy you still can run into an ulamog...either way es no bueno
QFT. If you just want to throw spells at your opponent's faces until they die and only minimally interact with the board, play Burn. Mill is less efficient, slower, less versatile (burn plays control in some MUs like Affinity), and gets hosed by Eldrazis, which do see play.
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Standard: Humanimator
Modern: Jund, Wafo-Tapa UWR
Legacy: Witch-Maw Stoneblade
EDH: Ruhan of the Fomori, Hazezon Tamar, Maga, Traitor to Mortals
If you're worried about Tron decks having Emrakul and Storm decks taking advantage with Pyromancer Ascension and Past in Flames, then run Leyline of the Void (or even Rest in Peace if you're splashing White for Path to Exile).
Mill has never been competitive because quite simply, it's a bad archetype that has very little flexibility, loses to Eldrazi, and enables graveyard decks. Unless a combo comes along, or it's used as a control finisher ala Nephalia Drownyard (and not devoting deck slots to mill itself), I wouldn't bother wasting your time with mill.
That being said, if you really want to play a deck that's less interactive than storm, slower than burn (and also less interactive), and isnt' really good at anything outside randomly beating control decks or *some* combo decks, nobody is going to stop you.
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Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
I've tried modern mill on cockatrice with my buddies more than I care to admit, and it's so reliant on topdecks it's just a real pain honestly. I agree with everyone saying it's a bad burn deck. In addition, many decks are totally okay with having some stuff in the graveyard, because for those decks, it's like drawing free cards.
Tormod's Crypt laughs at Eggs. Extirpate nixes that 15 minute combo whenever you feel like it. Meanwhile, aggro runs it over and Splinter-Kiki wrecks it. I just don't see it as viable.
If you splash black, Haunting Echoes can present problems for an opponent, but unless you counter threats, you're not getting to that point.
Mill is actually viable and kind of powerful, Mill is highly disruptive and fast and less hateable, unlike burn which has some bad time against life gain, Mill is only suscetible to Eldrazi(Ok, Tron is popular) and Leyline.
If I were to play Mill, I would play Esper with a control shell with low cost efficient creatures as a backup plan.
It folds to the same hate as combo ie Leyline of Sanctity and Rule of Law. Tron's win condition is also a hard counter. Imo mill has no place in modern currently.
Tron's wincon is a soft counter. If you can disrupt the tron enough that you mill out the deck and leave them with no way to cast the only 2 eldrazi left in their deck, you sit on your hands while they draw them out and win.
yes? no?
still not a great idea, methinks.
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Here are the little self-imposed guidelines I'm working with for the multiplayer decks I've been building:
• Must be cheap. Total price tag < $100, preferably < $50. Ideally ~$30. No one card greater than about ~$6
• Format: Modern (makes getting the cards somewhat easier for the play group, and almost all my cards are Modern-legal)
• Must be relatively interesting in 1:1 games. I don't need to win against Splinter Twin, but I should be able to play duels now and then
• Avoid instant-win combos; they only serve to make me target #1, and then the deck is worse than useless because I get killed first, every time
• Must have a funny name!
I put together a modern mill deck on MTGO. Ran tormod's crypt main deck for the Eldrazi & storm decks. Had spellbombs in the board to increase the GY hate. I won a lot of random games but it's not consistent enough for a tourney. Gave up on it and went to burn
At 1 CMC you'd have
Hedron Crab
Tome Scour
At 2 CMC
Glimpse the unthinkable
At 3 CMC
Mind Funeral
At 5 CMC
Nemesis of reason
Archive trap
About every single deck tries to thin itself with fetchlands and therefore Archive trap would be pretty amazing.
Against the Eggs deck or combo decks, at some point in the game when your opponent's deck is thin enough, you can respond to a permanent sacrifice or card draw ability of some sort with archive trap emptying their library and when he comes to draw he would then lose the game.
Against Jund, it would be the lack of interaction with jund's removal spells. Jund really needs it's lands drop to come into play untapped so say you get rid of 4 stacked lands turn 3 on the play, that's a pretty big advantage with mind funeral.
Against Control, games would get stretched out, but if a Nemesis of reason can come out, he should be able to do the job pretty quickly
The only big issue would be very agressive decks, therefore Damnation could take care of the 4 CMC slot.
What do you guys think?
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
But other than Emrakul (Kozilek and Ulamog), I mean the metagame at PTRTR was essentially Jund.
Would it be viable then?
EDIT: I tried running Mill previously. You can run tricks like Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter into Archive Trap. Glimpse is good. I also liked Hedron Crab and ran the deck like a counter control build with Damnation and Haunting Echoes.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Tricking people into archive trap is indeed a nice thing. Ghost quarter can screw people on lands or they can just walk into the AT. As for path, it does deal with threats that the jund deck can come out with or any very agressive deck! I will definately think of going with white as well should I go with a mill deck. Thanks!
XXXX
Modern
URTwinRU R.I.P.
EDH
WUGRoon of the Hidden RealmWUG
QFT. If you just want to throw spells at your opponent's faces until they die and only minimally interact with the board, play Burn. Mill is less efficient, slower, less versatile (burn plays control in some MUs like Affinity), and gets hosed by Eldrazis, which do see play.
Modern: Jund, Wafo-Tapa UWR
Legacy: Witch-Maw Stoneblade
EDH: Ruhan of the Fomori, Hazezon Tamar, Maga, Traitor to Mortals
That being said, if you really want to play a deck that's less interactive than storm, slower than burn (and also less interactive), and isnt' really good at anything outside randomly beating control decks or *some* combo decks, nobody is going to stop you.
If you splash black, Haunting Echoes can present problems for an opponent, but unless you counter threats, you're not getting to that point.
http://supervillainous.spiderforest.com
If I were to play Mill, I would play Esper with a control shell with low cost efficient creatures as a backup plan.
Possible creatures: Jace Phantasm, Delver of Secrets, Undead Alchemist, Hedron Crab, Dark Confidant, Tombstalker, Fog Bank,Snapcaster Mage.
Mill Magicks: Thought Scour, Mind Funeral, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Mind Sculpt, Nephalia Drownyard, Chronic Flooding(This one is really good)
Protection: Path to Exile, Danmation, Ultimate Price, Supreme Veredict,Oust,Remand,Mana Leak,Delay,Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge
Main deckable hate: Extirpate, Surgical Extraction, Relic of Progenitus, Haunting Echoes, Bribery,Rest in Peace,Leyline of the Void
Boring...
Modern
WGBJunk:Feel the Rhinos WGB
RWUAmerican Taxes RWU
EDH
XKarn and the Living StaxX RETIRED
GWURoon of The Hidden RealmGWU
yes? no?
still not a great idea, methinks.
• Must be cheap. Total price tag < $100, preferably < $50. Ideally ~$30. No one card greater than about ~$6
• Format: Modern (makes getting the cards somewhat easier for the play group, and almost all my cards are Modern-legal)
• Must be relatively interesting in 1:1 games. I don't need to win against Splinter Twin, but I should be able to play duels now and then
• Avoid instant-win combos; they only serve to make me target #1, and then the deck is worse than useless because I get killed first, every time
• Must have a funny name!
My sales thread: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/1651-ktk-for-sale
I shall go the UW tempo control way it seems :)!