Maniac self-milling (help please!)

Casual* Budget Casual Mill Mono-Blue

seiseises

Creature (16)

• 4x Hedron Crab
• 4x Jace's Phantasm
• 4x Laboratory Maniac
• 4x Skaab Ruinator

Instant (8)

• 4x Dream Twist
• 4x Thought Scour

Land (20)

• 2x Evolving Wilds
• 14x Island
• 4x Terramorphic Expanse

Artifact (4)

• 4x Perpetual Timepiece

Sorcery (12)

• 4x Ponder
• 4x Tome Scour
• 4x Treasure Cruise

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Maybeboard

Creature (22)

• 4x Curious Homunculus  ^Flip
• 4x Deranged Assistant
• 2x Dreamscape Artist
• 4x Drift of Phantasms
• 4x Fatestitcher
• 4x Vedalken Aethermage

Instant (8)

• 4x Deprive
• 2x Memory's Journey
• 2x Psychic Spiral

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Compulsive Research
• 4x Increasing Confusion

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Fraying Sanity
• 4x Jace's Erasure

Land (4)

• 4x Ghost Quarter

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Trying to build a nice self-milling deck based on Laboratory Maniac. I tested it for some time with my friends and works quite well, but it sure can be improved. The main issue I found is the lack of protection against aggro decks in the first turns, and also I miss a bit of board control while I set up everything.

The main points where I'd like to hear your suggestions:

• The most important: Suggestions for bringing the Laboratory Maniac from graveyard to hand/play/deck? It would be for extreme cases because I usually draw at least one Maniac, but obviously it's important for the deck to get them, and it happened a couple of times that I just milled all of them :/ I'm testing Memory's Journey and it works fine, but the ideal scenario requires splashing green for playing them from graveyard, which I'd prefer to avoid if there are alternatives. Maybe using Vedalken AEthermage for making sure the Maniacs come to my hand?

• Curious Homunculus   or Deranged Assistant? Or both? The latter is very useful in early game because it helps filtering draw, and helps playing creatures too. But the Homunculus almost always transforms, so it's just much better in all other scenarios. Currently playing with two of each, but can't decide what to do.

• Dreamscape Artist is so good if there are Hedron Crabs in play, but a bit useless if not. I had 4 and removed one, should I leave just 2 of them? Or just play Ghost Quarter instead and add more milling/drawing spells?

• What do you think about the drawing? The deck is Modern but since I don't play competitive, I threw in Treasure Cruise and Ponder

• Do you think Psychic Spiral would be a good idea as an alternative win con? It sounds fun, but with all the exiling needed for the flashbacks, cruises and Skaabs, I'm not sure I could mill the opponent's whole deck without a few more spells.

The Maybeboard is some cards I have that could fit the deck or the sideboard, but feel free to suggest others! Please keep in mind that it's for casual use, and that I want to keep the price relatively budget.

Looking forward to hear what you think!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Casual legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 4 - 0 Rares 8 - 0 Uncommons 30 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.20