This here's an update on this deck from an older version that I was considering FNM playable. After getting a larger budget for Modern and being able to buy some staples like Polluted Delta and Fatal Push, I was able to get a better grip on playing a variety of decks irl.
Mill is always going to be fringe in Modern but it's one of my favorite archetypes.
I'm comfortable with where the deck's at now but am always expecting a new card to totally throw me off, so take holes in the strategy with a grain of salt. Feel free to make suggestions for the maybeboard, but check out the upgrade list first.
Anyways, onto the deck itself!
Overview
The deck acts as a typical U/B control package, reminiscent of Grixis Shadow control with more counterspells and Opt. The deck plays on its toes nearly 100% of the time, able to tip over into a more tempo playstyle for control matchups and a slowroll against aggro.
Tempo cards include Opt, Vendilion Clique/Spellstutter Sprite and Remand.
Slower control includes Inquisition of Kozilek/Duress and Thing in the Ice
.
Strategy
As for the win condition, the goal is really to mill people out. Sphinx's Tutelage turns all of our cantrips into mini-mill spells and extending the game longer favors the deck greatly after it resolves. Paired with Whispering Madness, it can hit the opponent for a hefty chunk of their library. Forcing the opponent to discard their hand can be a neat trick in itself as well. Bouncing spells or permanents back to the hand and then cycling them away with a Ciphered up Whispering Madness can really turn the match in our favor. In this way, Thing in the Ice
can act as a wrath that gets around stickier, more resilient creatures.
Flipping thing to bounce a full board and drawing 5-7+ cards off of Whispering Madness and that many triggers on Sphinx's Tutelage is a great combo.
That being said, Thing in the Ice
and even our flying threats to kill the opponent with damage can be a viable wincon. I've gotten feedback that says the split nature of the deck makes it unfocused, but part of my personal playstyle is having a flexible win condition.
Weaknesses:
As stated above, the dual nature of the deck can sometimes come back to bite me. Running hot on a hand full of useless Sphinx's Tutelages when the opponent has already removed the few threats is unfortunate. More typical mill decks will focus very strongly on Archive Traps and Hedron crabs which are fine, but are essentially a blue burn deck. (which again just isn't my thing)
I'm also running four copies of Remand which is basically a Time Walk against some decks but can feel a bit silly when you bounce back a Lightning Bolt or Vine of Vastwood and the opponent replays it. Ideally one would want to cash Remand in for more than cycling or a cast trigger for Thing in the Ice
if possible. Drawing Inquisition of Kozilek or Duress in the late game is also often a pretty terrible top deck.
The ideal situation in terms of the deck's mill engine is a full grip of cards and a Sphinx's Tutelage, but a full hand can be hard to keep up, even if we do draw the pretty absurd number of cards we do in a match. (for Modern) An opponent with a 5+ hand or a well-timed Ancestral Vision into Whispering Madness can put me back in the game.
Strengths:
Being Blue and Black affords us pretty consistent hate against a variety of strategies. People usually assume it's some sort Grixis deck until we play more than a couple of basics or if they peek at our hand. What's nice about a brew that uses strong, meta picked cards is that it's easy to throw people off as to the win condition. If I know I'm losing game one of the match I'll do my best to conceal my strategy and sideboard intelligently.
Speaking of sideboard, I run two copies of Extirpate over Surgical Extraction due to budget reasons but because it's a control deck I almost always have the one mana to cast it in response. And frankly, Split Second has come in so handy. When the opponent goes to target Cryptic Command with Snapcaster Mage and you Extirpate it and nab both copies in their hand and they accidentally reveal their Dispel in an attempt to counter- that's a huge blowout.
One of the other upsides of running mostly basics is it's hard to get landlocked out of the game unless it's a prison deck or Ponza.
Matchups:
Burn - Here we have an awesome sideboard against burn. Two copies of Spellskite, Spell Snare and one of Dragon's Claw come in instead of some of the mill pieces to grind the game out. It can be hard to keep pace if I don't have the Fatal Push in hand but cest la vie.
Humans - No one in my local meta has played humans but I'm positive I'd have a pretty terrible time against them. Kitesail Freebooter, Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial all ruin my day on the spot. But I suppose there's a reason Humans is top of the meta.
Midrange/ Fair Decks - I'm going to lump Jund, Mardu Pyromancer and others in this category. We have a pretty great match against midrange, as Remanding expensive spells and just drawing more cards than the other player give us the edge. However Planeswalkers are difficult for the deck to deal with and I tend to avoid Liliana of the Veil like the plague. That card singlehandedly destroys the deck.
Control - I always feel confident going into a match against control/prison, since our suite of tools can usually deal with whatever threat they have going on and our grind is often better if I'm are able to control their Celestial Colonnade or own Thing in the Ice
. The one worry is that we'll go to time, and I've gotten a few ties as a result of the nature of the matchup.
KCI/RB Vengevine/ UR Wizards - These are decks I really don't have any experience playing against and would likely lose to the opponent just being a better player than I if I did. Extirpate would work wonders on KCI but again I don't have any experience.
Upgrades
Some of these are obvious for a self proclaimed control deck but my budget is pretty small considering how competitively I play.
Snapcaster Mage,
Cryptic Command,
More copies of Watery Grave,
Surgical Extraction,
Jace, the Mind Sculptor,
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth,
Creeping Tar Pit.
Anyways that's about it! IF you reached this point, wow, you must have some free time, cheers (nah jk ty for reading! ^u^)
