MTG Salvation

A coworker has been talking to me about magic for the past few months and I've finally given in. I'm wanting to get back into it, but before I do I want to revamp some of my older decks just to have some fun. This one is fairly basic though I imagine far too simple. This isn't for any particular format, so I'm quite open to any suggestions you all have. Of course, I would prefer to avoid crazy expensive cards. Thanks all!

Szadek, Lord of Secrets and Mind Funeralare a good mix if you decide to splash black in down the road also Mind Grind and Paranoid Delusions but for straight mono Hedron Crab is a nice card and there is a good synergy with evolving wilds type cards. Archive Trap for a good chunk if people are searching in there decks and has a good combo with Ghost Quartereven funnier if you use twincast or similar cards after. Keening Stone is decent Tome Scour are dirt cheap so it Increasing Confusion Sands of Delirium is another decent artifact along with codex shredder if you can snag a Jace, Memory Adept cheap online there nice to have in a mill Vision Charm is a awesome multi-purpose Jace's Phantasm is a nice creature for mill decks Visions of Beyond are good for draw if you cant get any ponder is nice for rig and draw and Thought Scour is good mill and draw guard gomazoa and fog bank are great for blocking unwanted swings will building up for milling mind sculpt is a good 7 shot to the deck and finally of the top of my head Psychic Spiral can make people cry

I was looking to mill as quickly as possible while mitigating as much damage as I can. I realize with my set up that most games would be fairly close. I'm fairly sure I'm going to drop Meekstone because I've realized that the version I have says power of 2 or greater don't untap but the more recent incarnations say 3 or higher. This makes is a bit less valuable at preventing damage. If that goes so will Niblis of the Breath. I'm thinking Mind Sculpt Thought Scour and Jace's Phantasm might make it in there.

Quote from Xyx »

The 4th Edition and older versions say "power greater than 2 don't untap", which is equivalent to "power 3 or greater don't untap".

It seems that I had misread it then. Still I'm not sure if those seven cards are effective enough at preventing damage long enough for me to successfully mill my opponent down. The use of Jace's Phantasm was a consideration just so I could have something cheap to defend myself with, but I guess Fog Bankor Guard Gomazoa as Uldakh suggested above would be better since I'm looking for pure damage prevention.

I've decided to splash black into the deck. I've drastically changed what was in the deck and believe this to be a more mill focused deck now. Any feedback would be appreciated. Feel free to be harsh. I need to relearn somehow.

Lim-Dûl's Vault can be nice to stack the top 5 to your favor and consider Perplex to rip someones arms off so to speak haha. For lands look into/consider these as alternatives to coral Atoll and Everglades Duskmantle, House of Shadow Darkslick Shores Bojuka Bog to deal with people pulling from there graveyards if you run into that in play group Jwar Isle Refuge and Dimir Aqueduct there are also other lands that are blue and black but ill let you look those over these are just to name a few. consider Dimir Infiltrator as a nice cheap unblock-able to attach Paranoid Delusions to or to pull your guildmages. And finally Psychic Drain can be nice if you find yourself taking a beating it gives and takes what you put in which can be a tide turner and think of possible board wipes if running against faster decks since your not running to many creatures.

Seeing as you are running black and blue, I'd like to cast a vote for Nemesis of Reason and Trepanation Blade. Very mean combo.

I would suggest replacing Szadek, Lord of Secrets with Consuming Aberration. I find him pretty fun.

I did consider Duskmantle, House of Shadow when going through specialized lands. I'm not entirely convinced by it since it only mills one card per use. The main reason I put Coral Atoll and Everglades in there was to continuously make use of my Hedron Crab. This is one of the main reasons I'm doing my best to keep everything rather cheap casting wise. Everything is 3 or less converted mana cost with the exception of Szadek, Lord of Secrets and Traumatize. I think I might swap out Drowned Catacomb for Darkslick Shores that way it wont slow me down as much if I pull those early.

Thanks for the tip on Dimir Infiltrator. I wasn't entirely sold on Paranoid Delusions just yet since I wouldn't have a creature that could consistently hit. The fact that it has dual purpose is also appealing.

Quote from CaptainM0M0 »

Seeing as you are running black and blue, I'd like to cast a vote for Nemesis of Reason and Trepanation Blade. Very mean combo.

I really like that combo. My only concern is the same as above with switching out those lands. Since I'm running most things with a relatively cheap casting cost I'm not too keen on adding another 5+ cost card; however, Trepanation Blade with Dimir Infiltrator could also prove to be nasty (though not as nasty).

I feel like I missed out by not playing for 15 years. There are so many new and interesting cards out there.

Most of the best mill cards are Dimir, so that's probably the right way to go.

If you're running Duskmantle Guildmage, you might as well run Mindcrank for an instant win.

Glimpse the Unthinkable is stupidly priced at the moment, but great in mill.

Undead Alchemist though super casual, can generate a big threat in a hurry if left unchecked.

Haunting Echoes can really start taking a deck and its value cards apart in a hurry.

Jace, Memory Adept demands an answer, and quick.

Nephalia Drownyard, though slow, can be effective in the late game.

Okay I think I've found a version I'm going to attempt to run. The biggest problem that I see is that I have almost no defense. I'm pretty reliant on being able to mill someone out before they kill me unless I can get Consuming Aberration out quickly. Additionally with everything being so cheap I'm concerned with not drawing enough this is why I added Pilfered Plans and Jace, Memory Adept, but I'm not sure if it will be enough. Regardless I think this might work out well enough. Most everything here has multiple purposes. Even the lands become a consistent weapon with the Hedron Crab and the lands that allow me to replay other lands. I don't remember it being so hard to decide what to put in deck. I guess it's either there are so many more cards to choose from now or I didn't give it this much thought in the past.

EDIT: Did some tinkering with the deck. After a bunch of solitaire rounds I've found you can pretty reliably go infinite by no later than turn 9 and almost mill yourself with card draw by 13.