Inspired by the decks by Tyler Marklyn: and Romain Van Den Daelen .
My goal is to make an attempt at a fair mill deck in Legacy. This means no combo to mill all at once with
Helm of Obedience
, and not to go full on storm with
High Tide
. The existing decks mentioned above have had different takes on how to tackle this mission. But they are both a bit old now, and since then cards have become banned, and also new cards have been printed. Most notably
Mission Briefing
, which I believe in and will try as a 4-off, but more about that later.
Historically, some key cards in the fair mill deck have historically been
Hedron Crab
and
Archive Trap
and
Glimpse the Unthinkable
. They are effective at what they do, and are also featured in the modern versions of this deck.
Romains Esper Mill list is where I initially started. It utilizes mill to attack from two angles; one part is milling for victory, and the other is beating with
Jace's Phantasm
. Though there are quite a few parts of that deck that I don't fully understand. For once, white is included in the deck for only two cards;
Swords to Plowshares
and
Zealous Persecution
, the latter only a one-off in the sideboard. Here,
Path to Exile
can be used instead to synergize with activating
Archive Trap
. The initial gut feeling with this list is that it feels unfocused; there is much filtering, but the cards facilitating the milling are only 8 (!) in the main board. With seven cards as payoff, this feels a bit optimistic. I understand that the plan is to use the abundant filtering cards to reach there, but what I have tried it doesn't carry the whole way.
A nit-pick is that the
Wasteland
s seem just added for good measure, with not very much synergy in mind. I have tried a bit with using
Ghost Quarter
Instead, but it felt a bit gimmicky.
Tyler with his Turbo Mill used
Gitaxian Probe
in his version, which since then has been banned. This list, compared to the first, feels like it has a much more focused gameplan, with a serious mill-plan in focus, with 4x
Glimpse the Unthinkable
and 4x
Brain Freeze
ramping the mill up to 16 cards! The synergy with Gitaxian Probe was indeed good in this deck; a peek into the opponents hand could mean a much more effective
Surgical Extraction
. I have replaced this effect with
Duress
instead, which also reveals opponents hand.
Perhaps it is noticeable that I have left out one very common mill-card:
Glimpse the Unthinkable
, and delegated it to the sideboard. It is instead replaced with
Mission Briefing
. This new card brings much flexibility, and a nice synergy with being able to cast
Archive Trap
as well. So why is not
Brain Freeze
in the sideboard instead? Well, it has much going for it; if the opponent has cast two spells during their turn, a casting of
Brain Freeze
mills 9 cards. This is in the same range as
Glimpse the Unthinkable
. Additionally, it has an easier casting cost, is harder to counter, and a better casting speed. Being an instant is really nice, as almost the whole deck is instant speed, which gives the player much flexibility. if no profitable casting appears, a more appropriate spell can be cast for that situation, and
Brain Freeze
can be held for a later casting instead.
Some cards I have thought about but am unsure of are in the maybe-list;
Reset
can give an interaction with
Brain Freeze
, and
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
can fill the role as an engine when the player is low on cards.
Jace's Phantasm
can be experimented with for surprising with an aggro approach.
