This is my first deck since returning to MTG and I'm happy to be playing Mill/Control with Black/Blue again.
With the completion of the Return to Ravnica cycle, I feel like milling and control are finally more viable and reliable than before with more potential win conditions.
This deck started as pure Mill/Control with really no win condition other than milling. However, it was very, very slow and nigh unplayable against a decent rush or creature swarm.
Looking around and doing some more research I think I've found an interesting combination of cards that allow for multiple win conditions that can each succeed reliably.
Creatures:
Consuming Aberration is often seen as the main mill source, but frankly I have never been able to protect it long enough for it to mill substantial amounts, especially when I had/have no creatures to divert some of the various creature destruction cards other players employ.Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker is a fantastic new mill creature who is basically essential to the mill deck now.Jace's Phantasm is a good creature who's won me about as many games (possibly more) than milling has. However, I changed my deck to only include two because I feel like as the deck strategy started evolving, phantasm became less necessary.Wight of Precinct Six took one more slot than phantasm because of his potential to grow larger than phantasm. Something that I will be relying on for attacking, blocking, and generally surviving.
Planeswalkers:
Jace, Memory Adept is the obvious choice in a mill/control deck. Expensive and hard to protect, but absolutely worth it for the mill potential.
Sorcery and Instants:
Breaking / Entering are gold card, somewhat harder to use, but better at milling..Thought Scour offers early deck thinning, a quick spell, hand advantage, and milling. Dimir Charm are versatile for killing small creatures, fixing the opponents draw, and countering pesky sorcery spells. I recently removed some in favor of...
Far / Away
bounce and creature destruction!Psychic Strike is the perfect spell for a mill/control. There I said it.Mutilate is more expensive than simple creature destruction, but I believe it's much more useful. Mill have a problem with small creature rush. Mutilate kills small to medium sized creatures. It interacts well with Phantasm and Wight because they will more than likely be more powerful and potentially gain power from it's use. Similarly, it's fantastic against indestructable creatures and hexproof creatures as well.Grisly Spectacle is spot cleaning with mill, better for the one or two odd large creature that is simply a nuisance or difficult to get rid of.Pilfered Plans is a recent entry but I think is decent for it's average cost and mill effect. It's got some potential in my book.Mind Grind is a late game killer. More often than not this is what wins me games.
Enchantments:
Heartless Summoning is a fast way to get out a Mirko or Consuming without worrying that it'll die from it's negative effects. We'll see how this goes.
Also, even though I originally did not like the idea of using Essence Harvest, I have grown to understand why it's so necessary and so good. I realized a lot of the current game revolved around simply taking damage earlier on and just regaining it all and more during the later part of the game, something that I just didn't have the ability to do before. Life is simply a bargaining tool than can be replenished. Harvest is in itself a potential game winner and a life saver at the same time, and more and more I realize I need it to actually survive.
Nephalia Drownyard
is simply a milling land that more and more I think I want just for the option to mill. I think Rogue's Passage is definitely the superior land to have because of the additional win condition it opens up, direct attacking of a large creature. Both are viable, but I think Passage is ultimately what I would rather add.
