Mill decks have always been a fan favorite and cards like Profane Memento and Psychic Corrosion certainly bring some interesting options to the table. Since you don't see many multiplayer mill decks I thought that it might worthwhile to highlight some synergies that may otherwise go overlooked.
Altar + Corrosion are two of the stronger mass mill effects but reward you for entirely separate things. That is, unless, you're playing a spell that puts a permanent into play and draws a card every turn :). Top is fantastic at fueling both engines while also enabling powerful mass removal such as Terminus.
Scribe is a surprisingly decent miller + blocker and starts to feel bonkers once you have Delirium going. Between fetchlands, cantrips and self-mill it's trivially easy to enable his persistent mill mode. Moreover, Self Mill is fantastic at fueling Delve spells such as Treasure Cruise given that it essentially removes the colorless portion of their costs. Moving on, Self Mill is ideal in decks filled with cantrips such as Brainstorm and Ponder since it allows you bin dead/unwanted cards at your leisure. This brings an obscene quantity of resilience and consistency to your builds. Finally, given that Self Mill churns through libraries like there's no tomorrow it's the most efficient way to enable cards like Shelldock Isle and Visions of Beyond.
This one is fairly self-explanatory since it goes without saying that you want to draw lots of cards when one of your mill engines relies on it. It's especially brutal when you're chaining Windfalls into other Windfalls because those already have a mill function of sorts. Its' also extremely easy to curve cards like Windfall into "infinite" copies of Visions of Beyond, Trade Secrets and Treasure Cruise since the first will dig into the second which digs into the 3rd (on and on and on). This essentially transforms Psychic Corrosion into 1 card combo assuming that you have enough card draw.
Fetchlands are fantastic in mill decks since they trigger things like Crab and Brood multiples times. They also allow you to shuffle away dead/unwanted cards from cantrips such as Brainstorm and Ponder to ensure that you're only keeping the things that you need.
Memento doesn't care why the creatures are binned; it only cares that they are. This means that it works with both mill and mass removal making it the ideal defensive spell for the archetype. There's some obvious tension here with Terminus but ultimately you can't pass up on a 1 CMC Wrath in a multiplayer setting. You could potentially swap it for something like Planar Collapse if you really wanted to but I wouldn't advocate doing that.
While I don't normally advocate for "psychological" strategies this one-twp punch is fairly effective against newer players. Both of these cards punish players for casting spells and I've witnessed newer players refuse to play the game while they're in play. I'm not saying that it's logical or right, and it's not going to work against seasoned veterans of the game, but it's funny to watch inexperienced individuals literally stop casting spells when you curve these on turns 2 and 3.
It's important to remember that when you have both Visions of Beyond and targeted mill in your lists that it behooves you to "pick" on a single adversary with the latter. After all, the sooner that you enable your Ancestral Recalls the better. This is significantly more important than trying to mill everyone "evenly" since the boost of cards will make short of them once enough time has passed.
Sweet mini primer, really appreciate all the effort you put into sharing your knowledge! Would definitely build the mono blue mill build if money currently were not a restraint.
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I am restricted to the modern legal card-pool. (Unless it's EDH)
I don't think any MP-Mill deck is complete with an effect like Leyline of the Void.
There may be other options out there, but this one works with delve and it stops opponent's simply popping their Elixir of Immortality(or any other card with a similar effect) that nerf mill strategy.
I don't think any MP-Mill deck is complete with an effect like Leyline of the Void.
Good card but more of a "Sideboard" option than anything else. When it's good it's great but when it's dead it's useless. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing 4 but it's not inherently useful is all matchups.
I don't find Elixir of Immortality type cards to be a big problem with my mill deck since they have to actually draw them. There's a lot higher chance that I'll just mill them. OTOH, Cards that auto shuffle everything when they get binned from your library or anywhere like Gaea's Blessing or Eldrazis are a lot more difficult to deal with.
I run a couple Withered Wretchs to help deal with those problem cards. At the very least it's a grizzly bear.
(Leyline of the Void) .... When it's good it's great but when it's dead it's useless.
Mill has no plan B. All Mill decks switch on opponents' graveyard strategy, which is often a favourite strategy in MP. LotV-types negate that.
Dropping it on turn-0 is relevant to spew out your hand quicker, to work with Ensnaring Bridge(I use this one in Mill too).
I don't think it's utterly necessary, opponents dependent, but I don't play the deck without them personally, just sayin...
Cards that auto shuffle everything when they get binned from your library or anywhere like Gaea's Blessing or Eldrazis are a lot more difficult to deal with.
I run a couple Withered Wretchs to help deal with those problem cards. At the very least it's a grizzly bear.
I prefer Surgical Extraction. You don't have to keep up mana, it has the element of surprise, it often actually mills a little bit, and sometimes you can nix some other potential problems.
Card is like 20 bucks now :(. Granted, so are half the cards in my list, but it's still sad that all of the good GY hate is so expensive :(.
10x Island
4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Plains
4x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Profane Memento
4x Altar of the Brood
4x Mesmeric Orb
4x Psychic Corrosion
4x Terminus
4x Sublime Exhalation
4x Treasure Cruise
12x Island
4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
2x Shelldock Isle
4x Hedron Crab
4x Manic Scribe
Spells (30)
4x Brainstorm
4x Visions of Beyond
4x Profane Memento
4x Altar of the Brood
4x Mesmeric Orb
4x Psychic Corrosion
4x Memory Erosion
2x Ensnaring Bridge
Mill decks have always been a fan favorite and cards like Profane Memento and Psychic Corrosion certainly bring some interesting options to the table. Since you don't see many multiplayer mill decks I thought that it might worthwhile to highlight some synergies that may otherwise go overlooked.
1. Sensei's Divining Top + Altar of the Brood + Psychic Corrosion
Altar + Corrosion are two of the stronger mass mill effects but reward you for entirely separate things. That is, unless, you're playing a spell that puts a permanent into play and draws a card every turn :). Top is fantastic at fueling both engines while also enabling powerful mass removal such as Terminus.
2. Self Mill + Shelldock Isle/Cantrips/Visions of Beyond/Manic Scribe/Delve Spells
Scribe is a surprisingly decent miller + blocker and starts to feel bonkers once you have Delirium going. Between fetchlands, cantrips and self-mill it's trivially easy to enable his persistent mill mode. Moreover, Self Mill is fantastic at fueling Delve spells such as Treasure Cruise given that it essentially removes the colorless portion of their costs. Moving on, Self Mill is ideal in decks filled with cantrips such as Brainstorm and Ponder since it allows you bin dead/unwanted cards at your leisure. This brings an obscene quantity of resilience and consistency to your builds. Finally, given that Self Mill churns through libraries like there's no tomorrow it's the most efficient way to enable cards like Shelldock Isle and Visions of Beyond.
3. Psychic Corrosion + Brainstorm/Visions of Beyond/Trade Secrets/Windfall/Treasure Cruise
This one is fairly self-explanatory since it goes without saying that you want to draw lots of cards when one of your mill engines relies on it. It's especially brutal when you're chaining Windfalls into other Windfalls because those already have a mill function of sorts. Its' also extremely easy to curve cards like Windfall into "infinite" copies of Visions of Beyond, Trade Secrets and Treasure Cruise since the first will dig into the second which digs into the 3rd (on and on and on). This essentially transforms Psychic Corrosion into 1 card combo assuming that you have enough card draw.
4. Fetchlands + Hedron Crab/Altar of the Brood/Brainstorm/Ponder
Fetchlands are fantastic in mill decks since they trigger things like Crab and Brood multiples times. They also allow you to shuffle away dead/unwanted cards from cantrips such as Brainstorm and Ponder to ensure that you're only keeping the things that you need.
5. Profane Memento + Mill + Mass Removal
Memento doesn't care why the creatures are binned; it only cares that they are. This means that it works with both mill and mass removal making it the ideal defensive spell for the archetype. There's some obvious tension here with Terminus but ultimately you can't pass up on a 1 CMC Wrath in a multiplayer setting. You could potentially swap it for something like Planar Collapse if you really wanted to but I wouldn't advocate doing that.
6. Mesmeric Orb + Memory Erosion
While I don't normally advocate for "psychological" strategies this one-twp punch is fairly effective against newer players. Both of these cards punish players for casting spells and I've witnessed newer players refuse to play the game while they're in play. I'm not saying that it's logical or right, and it's not going to work against seasoned veterans of the game, but it's funny to watch inexperienced individuals literally stop casting spells when you curve these on turns 2 and 3.
7. Visions of Beyond + Targeted Mill
It's important to remember that when you have both Visions of Beyond and targeted mill in your lists that it behooves you to "pick" on a single adversary with the latter. After all, the sooner that you enable your Ancestral Recalls the better. This is significantly more important than trying to mill everyone "evenly" since the boost of cards will make short of them once enough time has passed.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
One of my fav combos is Spoils of Evil into Mind Grind. You only need to mill a handful of cards to get it started.
There may be other options out there, but this one works with delve and it stops opponent's simply popping their Elixir of Immortality (or any other card with a similar effect) that nerf mill strategy.
Good card but more of a "Sideboard" option than anything else. When it's good it's great but when it's dead it's useless. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing 4 but it's not inherently useful is all matchups.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I run a couple Withered Wretchs to help deal with those problem cards. At the very least it's a grizzly bear.
Mill has no plan B. All Mill decks switch on opponents' graveyard strategy, which is often a favourite strategy in MP. LotV-types negate that.
Dropping it on turn-0 is relevant to spew out your hand quicker, to work with Ensnaring Bridge (I use this one in Mill too).
I don't think it's utterly necessary, opponents dependent, but I don't play the deck without them personally, just sayin...
Card is like 20 bucks now :(. Granted, so are half the cards in my list, but it's still sad that all of the good GY hate is so expensive :(.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold