I want criticism!!
After weeks of play testing and 4 rebuilds, my speed-mill deck is approaching it's final form. My goal is to design a deck that can grind through an opponent's deck as turn-efficient as possible.
This build contains multiple ways to win, which all focus on milling. This is experiment 4 in my lengthy mill deck testing. With one more good tweak, the next rebuild should be the ultra-mean milling machine I have been dreaming about for weeks. Below are the game-winning combos and the potential changes which could finish this deck.
WAYS TO WIN
- With 3 mana and Duskmantle Guildmage on the battlefield, all milling directly damages your opponent's health. If it is combined with Mindcrank, any damage to your opponent or any card places into your opponent's graveyard will win the game.
* Playable with 5 mana in 2 turns [including a creature worth ≤3 mana with flying/unblockable on the 1 turn or a mill worth ≤2 mana on the 2 turn. - If your opponent's deck is monocolored [with no colorless artifacts], then Grindstone will win the game. If your opponent's deck is a guild-built machine or a shiny rainbow of mana magic, then
Painter's Servant
will give Grindstone the ability to make your opponent colorblind while they lose the game.
* Playable with 4 mana in 1 turn against a monocolored deck or 3 mana in 2 turns against a multicolored deck.
CURRENT EDITING DEBATES
- High Tide???
- Jace, Memory Adept is great, but it might not fit in this deck. With one Dark Ritual, he can enter the battlefield on turn 3 and instantly let you draw a card or mill your opponent for 10 cards. These uses are both useful and slow. Two of this powerful planeswalker were in all 3 previous versions of this deck. If you think he still deserves spots in this machine, tell me what he should replace.
- Which offers better defense against planeswalkers, Pithing Needle or Hero's Downfall? One is cheap, which is good for a fast deck, but the other is permanent and more useful.
- Wight of Precinct Six and Jace's Phantasm are great creatures for a mill deck. Wight of Precinct Six is more universally useful and more powerful. If you are playing against a control deck, a burn deck, or any deck with few or no creatures, then it becomes useless. In this situation, Jace's Phantasm can fill its holes. If you are playing against a control deck, you won't want a ton of creatures. Instead of replacing 4 Wight of Precinct Six with an equal amount of Jace's Phantasms, fill 2 of those holes with more control of your own.
- This build started with 2 Mystical Tutor and 2 Demonic Tutor. Demonic Tutor gives immediate access to the card you want while Mystical Tutor is slightly cheaper. If you disagree with my decision to replace both Mystical Tutors with Demonic Tutors, make your opinion known.
- Since
Painter's Servant
is only in this deck for combos and it can be pulled using Ponder, Demonic Ritual, OR Thought Scour, should I only have one in the deck? If so, what card should fill the hole created by that decision would? Mindcrank is also part of a specific combo, but it can be used in other situations as well. (Keep in mind that anything can happen in-game. If this deck plays against a control deck, then it mind need 4 Painter's Servants in order to setup that combo.)
- Thought Scour, Dimir Charm, or Breaking?
- This build had 2 Traumatize, but I switched it for 2 Grisly Spectacle. Taking half of your opponent's library is powerful and expensive. The replacement offers minor game control along with more milling.
- Should I keep Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker in this deck? If he didn't have flying, I would probably toss him, because he is only useful if he makes contact with your opponent. If he was equipped with Trepanation Blade, this would be a different deck and a different question.
- A noticeable part of this deck's speed is derived from Dark Ritual. If you can provide any other useful ways to amp mana or rush casting, please share them.
Are you bored? Do you feel like reading a bunch of random cards? Here. Enjoy this semi-detailed back story of this deck's previous builds.
The first build consisted of nothing but milling and cheap defenders.
Glimpse the Unthinkable
, Breaking, Tome Scour, Nemesis of Reason, Mind Grind [ > Mind Sculpt ] and Jace, Memory Adept combined with
Panoptic Mirror
, Twincast, and Snapcaster Mage to chisel into the enemy, but that approach was too slow.
In stage 2, I explored the uses of the opponent's swelling graveyard. Consuming Aberration, Wight of Precinct Six, Rise of the Dark Realms,
Crypt Incursion
, Sewer Nemesis, Haunting Echoes, and Keening Stone all angered my opponents, but those are mostly too mana-pricey and too late-game. Filling an opponent's graveyard can lead to more than an empty library. Why leave their trashed spells un-cast and un-used?
I rebuilt the deck again and experimented with cheap control cards. At this point in my practice, I wanted to know if milling and/or enemy-graveyard-based creatures was faster, cheaper, or easier than controlling my opponent without my own creatures. Complicate, Undermine,
Grip of Amnesia
, Grisly Spectacle, and even a Time Warp slowed my opponent while I dug into their libraries. This build damaged friendships while putting a smile on my face, but it wasn't fast enough or regularly effective.
The current build is number 4. As you read above, this version is all about combo killing by turn 5.
