V8: draws island what was it I said about too many lands... Ugh! plays and island and sighs.

A8: draws Steam Vents and plays it tapped attacks with the holy god-slaying reckoner from hell and his zombie brethren explodes into exile. V takes 2 (V12/A15).

V9: draws Consuming Aberration and casts it looking at Apoptosis’s graveyard, there are 4 creatures in the yard. End step Apoptosis casts Izzet Staticaster, but it runs into Essence Scatter. Apoptosis mills a Hallowed Fountain off the top from the trigger.

A9: draws Sacred Foundry and plays it tapped. Attacks with the Boros Reckoner, no block (V6/A15).

V10 draws Tome Scour and casts it Apoptosis mills 5, including 1 creature. Consuming Aberration triggers and mills two creatures, making the aberration an 8/8, but unfortunately, vasiliosn is dead on the board and concedes.

Thoughts on game 1. Apoptosis’s library was down to 25, which is a ways to go but vasiliosn did get a little land flooded. vasiliosn did see that there are lots of first strike creatures and saw a Gorgon's Head go into the yard so has a good idea what to expect. For Apoptosis, this is where Godsend shines. It’s really underrated in that it’s perfect for the mid/late game where you’ve got 3 CMC creatures on the board but your opponent has stabilized with something big. Just pick up that sword and swing away. I love it on any first striker as it can exile, probably kill, and has to be dealt with: Boros Reckoner, Fiendslayer Paladin, brimaz, all come to mind.

Sideboard tech for vasiliosn, no sideboard? Well, that’s easy then. In the future, if someone submits a deck without a sideboard I’m probably not going to pick it. Please give me something to work with!

Sideboard tech for Apoptosis, a slow mill deck means +4 Chandra's Phoenix and - 4 Polymorphist's Jest. Honestly, I don’t feel like I need the Izzet Staticaster either. Rather I want to use the Chandra's Phoenix against vasiliosn and add more burn so -4 Izzet Staticaster +4 Boros Charm. I’m thinking about going even more nuts and adding dictate and the lightning strikes, but that seems a bit “win more” for this matchup.

Onto Game 2!

vasiliosn on the play mulls a one land hand. And keeps island, swamp, 2x Tome Scour, Wall of Frost, and Jace, Memory Adept.

Apoptosis keeps Mana Confluence, Hallowed Fountain, Temple of Triumph, 2x Magma Jet, Ash Zealot, and Chandra, Pyromaster.

V1: plays island casts Tome Scour, Apoptosis gets dumber and mills 5 (3 creatures, no phoenix).

A1: draws Sacred Foundry, plays Temple of Triumph, scry’s Turn / Burn (keep).

V2: draws Hero's Downfall, plays swamp, casts Tome Scour. Apoptosis forgets his cousin’s name and mills 5 more (1 phoenix).

A2: draws Boros Reckoner plays Sacred Foundry untapped (V20/A18), casts Ash Zealot and swings (V18/A18).

V3: draws Pilfered Plans and wishes it was a land.

A3: draws Sacred Foundry, casts Magma Jet (V16/A18), Chandra's Phoenix triggers and returns to Apoptosis hand. Plays Sacred Foundry untapped (V16/A16), casts Chandra's Phoenix and attacks with both (V12/A16).

V4: draws Traumatize, which is no help right now.

A4: draws Gorgon's Head, plays Hallowed Fountain tapped, casts Boros Reckoner. Attacks with the bird and zealot (V8/A16)

V5: draws Phenax, God of Deception, which is also no help.

A5: draws Boros Charm and attacks with everything (V1/A16), then casts Magma Jet for the win.

Apoptosis wins the game and match.

Thoughts on game 2. Ok, mana screw sucks. Second, while I don’t consider my deck an agro deck, it can win by T5, which means vasiliosn needs a ton of removal in the sideboard to bring in (at least) and lower his curve. It’s no fun having cool looking cards that you 1. Can’t cast and 2. Will be dead before you can cast them, sitting in your hand. But it does suck that in the first game vasiliosn floods a bit, then game 2 gets mana screwed. I’m going to run a third game to see what happens. Apoptosis hits the tapped out shuffle button 3x for good measure and reloads the playtester.

Onto extra innings!

vasiliosn on the play draws 3x swamp, island, Temple of Deceit, Psychic Strike and Pilfered Plans ok seriously, what would you do? No early removal, but some draw and a counterspell. Ugh. Keep I guess. More removal or at least bodies with a big butt, possibly regeneration to get in the way of threats!

Apoptosis draws Steam Vents, 2x Sacred Foundry, Gorgon's Head, [[magma jet] ], and Chandra's Phoenixsolid.

V1: plays Temple of Deceit, scry’s island (BOTTOM!!!).

A1: draws Ash Zealot just became a nut draw, plays Sacred Foundry untapped and casts Gorgon's Head (V20/A18).

V2: draws Returned Centaur, plays island.

A2: draws Turn / Burn, plays Sacred Foundry untapped (V20/A16), casts Ash Zealot and attacks (V18/A16).

V3: draws Jace, Memory Adept interesting, but can I protect it?, plays swamp.

A3: draws Precinct Captain, plays Steam Vents untapped (V18/A14), casts Chandra's Phoenix, but it runs into Psychic Strike Apoptosis mills two lands off the top. Attacks wit the zealot (V16/A14).

V4: draws Clone, plays swamp, casts Returned Centaur, Apoptosis mills 4 (no creatures).

A4: draws Boros Charm, casts Precinct Captain.

V5: draws and plays island, casts Jace, Memory Adept here we go, strap in kids and mills Apoptosis for 10 (2 creatures, one bird).

A5: draws Temple of Triumph and plays it to scry Boros Reckoner (keep), casts Boros Charm for 4 damage, which is redirected to Jace, Memory Adept, who dies.

V6: draws and plays swamp, casts Clone to copy the Returned Centaur, Apoptosis mills four (2 creatures, 1 is a phoenix) lots of birds in the yard.

A6: draws Steam Vents and plays them untapped (V16/A12), casts Magma Jet at vasiliosn (V14/A12), scry’s two temples (bottom), triggers brings 3x Chandra's Phoenix back to Apoptosis hand, who casts 1 and attacks with it (V12/A12).

V7: draws Dimir Guildgate, casts Pilfered Plans and draws Hero's Downfall and Consuming Aberration, Apoptosis mills 2 lands, vasiliosn plays guildgate.

A7: draws Mana Confluence and plays it. Casts 2x Chandra's Phoenix (V12/A11). Attacks with all three birds (V6/A11).

V8: draws island, plays swamp. Casts Consuming Aberration, which is currently a 2/ 2.

A8: draws Boros Reckoner. Attacks with three birds, in response vasiliosn casts Hero's Downfall to kill a bird. Consuming Aberration triggers and mills 3 (2 creatures) to become a 5/5 (V2/A11). Apoptosis casts Turn / Burn for the win.

Thoughts on its-miller-time-12-03-14-1. For mill to be an effective strategy, it needs to be in a control shell that can defend the player. This means being able to effectively gain card advantage while neutralizing threats. At the least this requires a great deal of flexibility, and unfortunately this deck does not have enough card advantage nor flexibility to win. I realize that this is a budget build, but it’s just not there. Many of the cards in this build are two narrow in what it does, yes Tome Scour can pump a Consuming Aberration, but what good is that when you have three Chandra's Phoenix pounding your face? I want to say, go esper to get access to the solid control cards: Detention Sphere, Supreme Verdict, Azorius Charm, and Sphinx's Revelation and add hand disruption like Thoughtseize so that you grind out the win over more turns after your opponent has gassed out. I’ve been playing esper control recently with a mill component and it can work, but it’s not cheap. But since this is a budget build, I think Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver (it exiles creatures) and more Jace, Architect of Thought (draw and shuts down agro) and one additional Jace, Memory Adept is the way to go. Use AoT to shut down agro and gain card advantage until you are ready to land the adept. Bump the removal way up and remove the narrow cards that won’t get you there. Also, the mana curve is a bit off, I would remove the narrow expensive cards like Traumatize and fragile cards like [[Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker] ] and Consuming Aberration. If you want to win by mill, in my opinion Jace, Memory Adept with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in support are your win-con and build the rest of the deck to support them. 4x Nightveil Specter is key in this role: blocks flyers, helps the mill machine, and can activate Phenax, God of Deception. I would get rid of the narrow cards like Tome Scour for more blockers and rely less on counter magic. What about a full playset of Returned Centaur and 4x Quickling? I don’t know. If you want to be really silly I saw a build that used the combo of Whispering Madness and Waste Not to great effect. If you go that way add a playset of Siren of the Silent Song, as the evasiveness will make the trigger go off easier.

Well, that’s it for me. Thanks to everyone for reading. Comments/suggestions are always welcome. If you’d like to go up against my build in two weeks, please post on my wall. Remember: consistency, flexibility, resiliency, sustainability, and ugh... smash-it-icity? Slam-a-lam-a-lam-acity? Ok, you get the idea, go read E’s article for the details. Happy Tapping!