With the advent of a new Magic the Gathering set is the usual flurry of deck-building, and as always I find myself drawn towards building a mill deck in some shape or form.
Quick aside for those who don't know, Magic is a collectible card game where you are a powerful wizard called a 'planeswalker'. The objective is to beat other planeswalkers (players) in one-on-one or multiplayer duels. This is achieved primarily by either reducing an opponent's life to zero or running the opponent out of cards (although other less common ways to win do exist). This deck takes the latter option.
Here's the deck I played over the weekend at a local competition. It's pretty decent, going 3-2 against my opponents, and very fun to play! Not bad considering that I assembled it in about 15 minutes! There's still lots of room for improvement though, and I'll be tweaking the deck as time permits over the next few weeks.
Blue/White/Black Mill (Zendikar Standard)
4 x Hedron Crab
Spells (24)
4 x Archive Trap
4 x Mind Funeral
4 x Angelsong
Artifacts (4)
4 x Howling Mine
Planeswalkers (3)
3 x Jace Beleren
Land (23)
4 x Arcane Sanctum
4 x Glacial Fortess
4 x Drowned Catacomb
4 x Marsh Flats
3 x Island
2 x Plains
2 x Swamp
Sideboard (15)
4 x Twincast (more milling ammunition/"reflecting" a spell at the opponent)
4 x Safe Passage (damage prevention)
3 x Esper Charm (disruption and enchantment removal)
2 x Baneslayer Angel (alternative win condition)
2 x Telemin Performance (additional milling + good against creature-light control decks)
1 x Haunting Echoes (graveyard removal + additional milling)
Problems
One major stumbling block the deck faces is extremely fast and aggressive decks. My first loss piloting this build came to a Red/White aggressive deck. Basically it's hard to play and win when you're on the backfoot from start to finish. As they say, the best defense is a good offense, eh?
The other major stumbling block is any deck that happens to run Progenitus, Darksteel Colossus or the supremely annoying Quest for Ancient Secrets - cards which either put themselves back into the library or shuffles the graveyard into the library, thereby negating all the work that I've been doing. My second loss came when my opponent cast and later activated his Quest for Ancient Secrets TWICE during the game, necessitating me to mill his library all over again two more times! Needless to say, I lost. On the bright side, I now know that the deck can mill for over 150 cards if given a chance.
Deck changes
Early damage prevention or disruption out of the sideboard is essential versus fast aggressive decks, although I'm not sure what to add. Graveyard removal is another priority, especially to counter cards like Quest for Ancient Secrets or reanimation strategies - I'll be adding Relic of Progenitus to the sideboard for this.
Another possible sideboard inclusion is black removal spells to deal with frustrating irritants like Iona, Shield of Emeria which can stop my spell-casting dead it its tracks (set to Blue to prevent me milling, or set to White to prevent me disrupting their game plan).
Twincast and Telemin Performance were never utilised in any of my matches, nor did I ever have a need to cast either, so I'll probably be taking those cards out. Baneslayer Angel is a bit of a conundrum for me, because even though she never saw play, it's always good to have a backup alternative win condition just in case.
Any Magic players out there with any thoughts/comments/suggestions?
