MILL BY SWARM - is a mill/zombie combo deck that is centered on the synergy of these cards: Altar of the Brood and Undead Alchemist
KEY COMBOS:
Altar of the Brood and Undead Alchemist both in play will trigger a chain milling and zombie token creation once either a permanent enters play or an opponent's creature is put into the graveyard. The chain will only stop once there are no more creatures getting milled. In case the enemy deck is non-creature heavy, Endless Ranks of the Dead can supply the permanents that the altar needs - and once the token creation escalates, it would very hard to stop the milling swarm save for a boardwipe or some form of card removal.
Sedraxis Alchemist's bounce ability can be used for removing unwanted enemy permanents from the battlefield or bouncing our own so that when re-cast will trigger the Altar - It's actually one way to refill your hand with permanents to cast, in case the first Altar-Alchemist combo stops. Gravecrawler also helps in the Altar-Alchemist combo by way of it returning from the graveyard. Gravecrawler can also by theory be allowed by the opponent to deal combat damage rather than be blocked, die and return into play again; but if both Altar of the Brood and Undead Alchemist is in play, Gravecrawler dying or dealing damage would almost always trigger the Altar-Alchemist combo.
EMPOWERED
Death Baron gives other zombies deathtouch and +1/+1. Diregraf Captain's ability - aside from empowering his fellow zombies with +1/+1 - is to have the opponent lose 1 life for each zombie death.
SEARCH AND SUMMON
Altar of the Brood needs to be in play as early as possible, so Fabricate is included in case it doesn't show up anytime soon; and Ghoulcaller's chant is present for a handy reanimation whenever possible. Rooftop Storm though, when finally in play, allows for free casting of zombies either from hand or from the grave.
But if you wanna go for a cute mill kinda deck (that might be a bit more streamlined), you could consider Extractor Demon + some kinda creature loop (Myr Retriever + Heartless Summoning or Saffi Eriksdotter + Crypt Champion or both. Demon has its advantages over Alter since you can chose to self mill with it (creature loops tends to abuse the yard) and you can play it from the yard too (which again fits the self mill plan). Alternative win condition could be Bridge from Below which fits both the self mill plan and the Zombie theme!! It's weaker than the Demon since you have to wait a turn.
KEY COMBOS:
Altar of the Brood and Undead Alchemist both in play will trigger a chain milling and zombie token creation once either a permanent enters play or an opponent's creature is put into the graveyard. The chain will only stop once there are no more creatures getting milled. In case the enemy deck is non-creature heavy, Endless Ranks of the Dead can supply the permanents that the altar needs - and once the token creation escalates, it would very hard to stop the milling swarm save for a boardwipe or some form of card removal.
MILL
Curse of the Bloody Tome ensures constant milling during the opponent's turns.
Haunting Echoes is great for removing entire card sets from the library.
ENTERS THE BATTLEFIELD:
Sedraxis Alchemist's bounce ability can be used for removing unwanted enemy permanents from the battlefield or bouncing our own so that when re-cast will trigger the Altar - It's actually one way to refill your hand with permanents to cast, in case the first Altar-Alchemist combo stops.
Gravecrawler also helps in the Altar-Alchemist combo by way of it returning from the graveyard. Gravecrawler can also by theory be allowed by the opponent to deal combat damage rather than be blocked, die and return into play again; but if both Altar of the Brood and Undead Alchemist is in play, Gravecrawler dying or dealing damage would almost always trigger the Altar-Alchemist combo.
EMPOWERED
Death Baron gives other zombies deathtouch and +1/+1.
Diregraf Captain's ability - aside from empowering his fellow zombies with +1/+1 - is to have the opponent lose 1 life for each zombie death.
SEARCH AND SUMMON
Altar of the Brood needs to be in play as early as possible, so Fabricate is included in case it doesn't show up anytime soon; and Ghoulcaller's chant is present for a handy reanimation whenever possible. Rooftop Storm though, when finally in play, allows for free casting of zombies either from hand or from the grave.
4x Undead Alchemist
4x Sedraxis Alchemist
4x Death Baron
4x Diregraf Captain
4x Gravecrawler
ENCHANTMENTS
4x Curse of the Bloody Tome
2x Endless Ranks of the Dead
2x Rooftop Storm
4x Altar of the Brood
SORCERIES
2x Fabricate
2x Haunting Echoes
4x Ghoulcaller's Chant
2x Profane Memento
2x Mindcrank
LANDS
4x Dimir Guildgate
10x Swamp
6x Island
But if you wanna go for a cute mill kinda deck (that might be a bit more streamlined), you could consider Extractor Demon + some kinda creature loop (Myr Retriever + Heartless Summoning or Saffi Eriksdotter + Crypt Champion or both. Demon has its advantages over Alter since you can chose to self mill with it (creature loops tends to abuse the yard) and you can play it from the yard too (which again fits the self mill plan). Alternative win condition could be Bridge from Below which fits both the self mill plan and the Zombie theme!! It's weaker than the Demon since you have to wait a turn.
Self mill with Heartless Summoning also opens you up to cute things like Haakon, Stromgald Scourge + Court Hussar (infi Ponder/Impulse) or Nameless Inversion (infi removal). Plus Haakon is a Zombie as well!!
Some crazy brainstorming there...
moved to sideboard:
removed:
Added:
The deck kicks of midrange now; but it does pick up once it gets going.
Have both altar of brood and phrexian altar on board.
Sac Gravecrawler to phyrexian altar, use mana to play Gravecrawler, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat