Confiscator of library cards.
Alright. I threw this together this week. It hasn't gone any further than some light playtesting, so it will definately see a lot of tweeking as I play it and get a better feel for what it needs.
While what this deck does most is mill opponents (and self occasionally) and it's definitely possible to mill multiple opponents entire libraries, it is not intended as the primary wincon, if only because Eldrazi see a lot of play in my playgroup, and render milling someone to death virtually impossible, without going through the hastle of well placed graveyard hate.
The idea is to dump stuff in people's graveyards both depleting their ressources and then abusing them. The most obvious ways of doing this is with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, copying whatever situationally optimal creature you happened to mill that turn.
There are quite a few creatures in the deck, and there is no need to be over careful keeping them there as the deck packs a good reanimation package, Soul Manipulation, Palace Siege, Havengul Lich is hilarious and enables some both creative and unexpected combos depending on what happens to be in graveyards at the moment. Sepulchral Primordial is a midgame bomb that gains you huge board presence, and with Sheoldred, Whispering One and Grave Pact rounding it out, you'll get plenty of chances to abuse the fact that you're milling everyone for ridiculous amounts.
Now I do realise that I could conceivably make a reanimator player very happy by helping him along by dumping stuff in his graveyard, while that is useful politically, I do keep a little something to exile graveyards that others can abuse better than me. Namely Bojuka Bog, Ravenous Trap and Tormod's Crypt, and I'm wondering whether I should have more or not...
The overarching theme here is to dig the gap as much as possible between the abundance of my ressources and the depletion of my opponents. For that reason, I capitalise also on something of an aikido package, using my opponent's ressources instead of mine is a good way to run them dry and make sure they're short on answers when I start dropping finishers. This is where Beguiler of Wills, Clone, Dimir Doppelganger, Evil Twin, Mindleech Mass, Notion Thief, Phyrexian Ingester, Phyrexian Metamorph, Wrexial, the Risen Deep and Memory Plunder come in. All ways of turning your opponent's ressources into yours.
Wincons will likely be the occasional milling someone out, beating down with lazav cloning something nasty, or an out of control Consuming Aberration, dropping Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur or dumping a huge amount of mana in Oona, Queen of the Fae via Cabal Coffers and/or Crypt Ghast Caged Sun. If you've milled actively, and you should, any of these should become pretty easy to land while your opponents frantically realise that all their answers are likely in their graveyards.
Then of course there is the combo package. Needless to say Bloodchief Ascension and Duskmantle Guildmage combo with all of your mill, so dropping one of these two and dumping all of your mana in a late game Mind Grind could very well be GG, depending on circumstances you can also pair them with a Psychic Spiral to take out one opponent, same goes for Oona against a mono-colored deck.
More specific and nasty combos include:
Duskmantle Guildmage + Mindcrank
or alternatively Bloodchief Ascension in place of the mage with any mill trigger will get the job done for a one hit kill.
Hinder + Tunnel Vision
or alternatively Spell Crumple will kill someone on their next draw step, barring any Eldrazi in the deck. Not to mention two of those pieces can serve as tuck or counters in a pinch.
I know I said the deck isn't intended to mill people out as a primary wincon, but it's still an option. I just can't rely solely on that.
The things that concern me most, is that I may not be running enough reasonable card draw. I have jin-gitaxias and notion thief which are both the kind of draw that gets out of hand quickly if you haven't landed a reliquary tower, but I'm short on controllable draw engines. That said, I'm playing blue here, so if I find myself short of card draw, it won't be hard to fix. My real concern is if the control package is sufficient. I'm not running many instants or sorceries, very few counters, a single boardwipe in the form of Plague Wind and I'm mostly relying on creature abilities for spot removal, which means no instant speed removal. On the one hand, I'm not sure how much I need it, on the other hand, as a control player, it feels off key to go into battle without a full hand of countermagic. So while I'm happy to get input on any aspects of the deck, opinions on the control package (or lack thereof) is what I feel would help me most.
Hope you enjoy the list.
