Mermaidsheep - You're exactly right about the Fog Bank. It was originally apart of my deck, but my counters more than make up for it. Mesmeric Orb didn't perform overly well for me originally, but my deck was a bit different back then. I'm only really dropping a maximum of 2 spells a turn, 3 if it's late game, so I may consider putting it back in. I'm not sure what I will switch out though, because so far, my counters have been very necessary, especially against metas. Even if I'm only drawing counters with a bit of light mill, the 1 and 2 drop make it easy to control my opponent while I wait for potent mills and combos.

As for all this about Twincast, I will not be adding it.

Also Tome Scour is too light, even if it is a 1 drop.

At 1 cc there is also Thought Scour but your Visions of Beyond will be bether in the long run maybe. As for counters i like Spell Pierce + Turn Aside . The good thing about Mesmeric Orb is that its a pasive mill card u dont have to pay for all the time, the downside is it wont fit with ur Snapcaster Mage.

I always liked the idea of a good mill deck, they just look so dang fun to play. I wish Wizards would make it an actual thing and boost its competitiveness some -- work it up in tier value, get it winning some large tournaments.

Have you considered Thoughtseize to deal with hand answers / situational strategy and to create instant targets for Extirpate or Surgical Extraction? Also, have you considered splashing white for perhaps some sideboard copies of Rest in Peace?

Great work!

scholar - Based on how many mill decks I've seen around deck-building sites, I'm clinging to the hope that someone significant at Wizards has considered making it more viable. If they were going to release cards specifically geared towards making mill competitive, I'd hope that they would do something very quirky with big chains, or more land-based milling... that'd be fun.

As for your suggestions, I do like the idea of Thoughtseize interacting with my Surgical Extraction. It would be tough to pick which of my cards to replace it with...Maybe Go for the Throat?

Rest in Peace won't work sadly. It will turn off my only thinning card, Visions of Beyond. The best suggestion I've had for dealing with cards that play from the graveyard is Grafdigger's Cage, which I've added to my side deck.

What do you think about cutting Mana Leak for Remand?

I like the idea of Remand as well, @tclaw12. Also, in my opinion, the full playset of Snapcaster Mage should be included in this deck to give you more options and playability. And for the sideboard, I think it should be filled with Relic of Progenitus for a number of things (especially Tarmogoyf), creature kill, and various types of countermagic. Also, probably Extirpate over Surgical Extraction, because countermagic is a bitch. And no Mind Sculpt?

I suppose Remand could be more reliable against mana heavy decks, though Mana Leak has worked well for me so far, so I'd playtest Remand before adding it to my deck. What are it's other pros?

A full set of Snapcaster Mage was brought down to 3 to help make room for some board control.

Do you mean -2 Surgical Extraction for +2 Extirpate? Just not sure what you meant.

No room for Mind Sculpt. The balance of control and mill has been working really well for me overall. There is nothing I can drop for this mill. Plus I find it pretty slow for a 2 drop.

Relic of Progenitus is a tough decision for me also. I do have other ways of exiling troublesome creatures with Surgical Extraction etc, and can also switch in Grafdigger's Cage if they reanimate. I also really love love Crypt Incursion. Super fun exile card. Anyways, what would you replace for Relic of Progenitus?

I think the cantrip you get from Remand is the most obvious reason to switch from Mana Leak. Mill also seems like a pretty proactive deck, so a tempo play seems much stronger than a (sometimes) hard counter. I'm also a big fan of Remanding your own spells in a counter war to get value, but that's pretty narrow.

I'm pretty sold on it then. Ill make the switch shortly, as I'm at work posting from my phone, and I can't spend the time it takes to switch on this crappy phone lol

@Kazicon, yes, I would play a full playset of Extirpate before I would involve Surgical Extraction. On other topics... you probably won't see much reanimation in competitive Modern play, so Grafdigger's Cage may not be a strong sideboard card. I think Relic of Progenitus would be an excellent choice as a sideboard card, given that you are playing mill. Since it's sideboard, you don't have to be too fussy with what you remove from your sideboard to make room for it, as a sideboard is always evolving, just use whatever works and change it up if it doesn't (expect to do this weekly). If you're looking for mainboard room, Hedron Crab, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, and Trapmaker's Snare would all be my first go-to choices if I was looking to drop something. I still feel strongly about full mainboard playsets of Thoughtseize and Snapcaster Mage, but that's just my opinion. I think I'm going to fiddle around with a similar build, I'll definitely link you to it when it's done.

Note that Grafdigger's Cage helps against more than just reanimator. It prevents your opponents from using Snapcaster Mage's ability as well. It also shuts down Green Sun's Zenith, Kitchen Finks's persist, Saffi Eriksdotter, Collected Company, Summoning Trap, etc.

I think I will try dropping Go for the Throat for Thoughtseize and see how that works. I will be switching out Mana Leak for Remand since I could use the thinning power. We will see how a cantrip stands up against a counter in this deck. I'm not 100% sold on Relic of Progenitus yet, so I will play-test it before switching it here. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is something that could be switched out, yes. She's proved useful, but not vital. Same with Trapmaker's Snare. Hedron Crab is serious s**t though. It was just last night I had 3 down on T4 with some Polluted Delta and Scalding Tarn in my hand. That was 18 cards for playing a fetchland. 1 crab got destroyed on T6, but I won for the seventh turn. I will never drop my crabbies . Snapcaster Mage doesn't necessarily "cause issues" while running 4, but I found 3 works just as well, which gives me room for more control that I need. And I'd certainly rather run 3 snaps then 3 of one of my big mills, though maybe dropping Ashiok could make room for this change. I know snaps are good for recasting control cards as well, so it is a pretty nice multi-functioning card, much like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Or I could just lose my Trapmaker's Snare and throw in an extra snappy and maybe another Remand or Thoughtseize.

@Kazicon, I'm honestly thinking about buying the rest of what I need to play a strongly similar build, it just looks so fun to play, win or lose (but I really want it to win lol). My biggest worry playing with a deck like this, is playing against aggro (i.e. Burn, Infect, Affinity) or countermagic (i.e. Delver, Blue Moon). Aggro is just too fast, Burn would likely burn us out before we ever mill them out and playing against countermagic really is a bitch. All they need to do is counter a couple of our mill cards and that will really put us down -- I play Burn, so my deck is full of the same ingredient and it still really hurts when my stuff is countered. Also, any presence of a creature (really, any creature) on the opponent's side will hurt, as there is little in the way of dealing with it. These are things to look at in competitive play and things I'm considering in my own build. I'm tossing around the idea of running an alternate win condition, something along the lines of Jace's Phantasm and Creeping Tar Pit. I'm not sure how (or even if) I want to go this route, it could be mainboard strategy, but it could also be worked entirely into the sideboard for game 2 and beyond, surprising the opponent as they were expecting pure mill. Sorry for going on, just some things to think about, I certainly am :)

Also, good call on the Hedron Crab, I overlooked its usefulness.

Jace's Phantasm isn't actually a horrible win con. It's worked for me before, but I've never run them MB before. The best defence against a burn deck is Crypt Incursion, but that's only if you can draw it. And then it's also a 3-drop :(

I'm working on a separate U/W just like the old days that will focus on getting out Duskmantle Guildmage + Mindcrank, or Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank. The rest will be utility... white has so many answers, and I think it'd help protect the mill strategy against countermagic. The deck still is far from worthy from being public.

with black splash obviously

What are your thoughts on Extirpate vs Surgical Extraction. It's not mentioned in the description, so I thought I'd bring it up here.

While the two are similar, I run Surgical Extraction in my own build, purely because I value phyrexian mana cost. Not being able to counter Extirpate, doesn't seem (at least on face value) as valuable as casting the spell for free, considering mana is often quite scarce. However, the life loss could be what divides you between winning and losing, especially when you run 7 fetches (compared with 4 for me- though I may bump it up with copies of Flooded Stand or Bloodstained Mire).

Well originally it seemed like a good idea because of what you said about my fetchlands. Generally a 1-drop isn't going to be a problem to cast for me, and I hate having to to pay any more life then I already do (note: Thoughtseize). But after some time on untap.in last night, I might switch it back to 2 of each. That was working fairly well for me. I may even try 4 Surgical Extraction.

Personally I prefer using Surgical Extraction in my mill list. You can theoretically mill someone for 2 using Thought Scour, then Extract their combo piece before they have a chance to play their first land in a game. Your list doesn't run Thought Scour, but I've found that line to be helpful against Tron and Twin decks in my testing. Here you could do the same thing, just with black discard in your list; ripping apart their hand and extracting all other copies away. The only downside to that is you can't rip away lands against Tron decks. If you're worried about lifeloss, then I'd still use Surgicals but maybe switch out the Thoughtseizes with IoKs.

Split second can be pretty sweet, definitely worth the mana. I'd run both.

@GeminiSpartanX You can "rip away" non-basic lands with Surgical Extraction, so vs Tron, you could theoretically prevent them from even setting up Tron Turn 1 just by Thought Scouring them paying 2 life to get rid of all 4 copies.

Guftders- I'm well aware of that, but when I said 'rip away' I was referring to using black hand discard spells which for the most part can't discard lands from hands. Sorry for the confusion.

Say hello to Blackmail :P Yes, you only get to see 3 cards (which, btw, is about half of their hand), but you get the chance to ditch lands (yes, I know, bad suggestion is bad)

Honestly, I loved the idea of this deck first time I came upon it here, I've tried it on FNM 3 times so far, with few edits, those being Remands from the start in instead Leaks due to as pointed out them stalling the enemy. 1st place once, 2x 3rd, usually losing to burn if it draws well.

Few things that used to frustrate me in playtesting and I adjusted was Ashiok - who is not really doing anything for me - feels like casting any milling spell is almost better and having Ashiok replaced with a 4th Snapcaster works out just fine, You can chompblock and grab Archive Trap mostly or Visions eventually. Also, I play 4x Extraction instead Extirpate, I just want to mill as fast as I can rather than having to save mana.

Lastly, I was wondering as to why You don't play Darkslick Shores, they work out pretty well for me.

But ye, overall definitely +1, love this deck and ppl always go WTF, what have I just lost to, esp the despair in their eyes when they see they are without a library on their turn 4 draw.

Akinu- Just to be clear, you know that you cannot play Archive Trap for free from the GY with Snapcaster right? I generally use Snapcaster as a 2-of in my mill deck since I consider him a 4-drop to flashback Glimpse or Breaking for that reason.