The goal of the deck is to mill (make it so there's no cards left in their deck/library) your opponent to secure victory. In order to do this, we rely on a combination of 3 different cards - a mill engine, a tap source, and and untap source.
Other mill decks that I've viewed don't have these combinations, but rather rely on powerful single cards to mill a chunk at a time. The issue I find with these decks is that you can mill 20, 30, 40 cards in big chunks at a time, but if you can't mill that last card before getting killed off, then it was all for naught.
These combinations provide for a reusable loop that means once you have the combo, you win the game. It also means this deck is much more competitive in 3+ player games since you don't have to rely on a
Traumatize
that can only target 1 of your 2+ opponents.
Another benefit of this strategy is that it's more competitive against graveyard focused decks. Instead of fueling your opponent with 5, 7, 13 cards at a time, you can wait until you have the combo before you finish them off in a single turn.
Also, even if you don't get the full 3 card combo, it can still produce either partial mills or tokens to defend against attacks - it's not all or nothing.
Lastly, this deck is fast. In the ideal setup, you can win by turn 4 with any of the combos listed below. I'd also recommend taking aggressive mulligans. You should always have at least 1 of the 3 cards needed for the combo in your opening hand. I frequently mulligan to try to have at least 2 of the 3 cards needed for the combo in my opening hand.
I do feel that some cards is this deck are good, but could be replaced with even better cards so I'd welcome any suggestions on that front. For example,
Aura of Dominion
,
Sygg, River Guide
, or any of the instant cards used mainly for defense.
Mill Engines:
Drowner of Secrets
Grimoire Thief
Altar of the Brood
Tap Source:
Drowner of Secrets
Paradise Mantle
Aura of Dominion
Untap Source:
Aura of Dominion
Freed from the Real
Intruder Alarm
Viable Mill Combinations
Drowner of Secrets + Intruder Alarm + Stonybrook Schoolmaster
Freed from the Real + Grimoire Thief + Paradise Mantle
Viable Swarm Combinations (Just add
Altar of the Brood
for a 4 card mill combo)
Freed from the Real + Paradise Mantle + Stonybrook Schoolmaster
Intruder Alarm + Paradise Mantle + Stonybrook Schoolmaster
