Your deck is a bit slow for Modern. It's definitely a strong deck, especially for being your first. However, after playing around with it in the play tester, it didn't get rolling until around turn 6 or 7. Games of Modern tend to be determined on turn four. Part of the problem with mill decks is they're trying to do 53 points of damage, vs. 20.

Check out this deck. You have most of the pieces in place already to build it. It's basically an aggro deck that gets fuel from milling the opponent. The combination of Archive Trap and Ghost Quarter gives it a lot of disruption, along with punishing your opponents for using fetch lands.

You'll also want some disruption to stop decks that like having a full graveyard. Living End and Past in Flames love it when the graveyard is full. Counter magic (such as Mana Leak or Remand ) can stop crucial spells from going off. Cards like Deathrite Shaman or even Scavenging Ooze make green worth splashing since they can exile key threats.

Thanks sylvannos. Yeah I noticed that I couldn't get it going until about then. Wow, Ghost Quarter and Archive Trap make a pretty cool combo! I'm still having trouble seeing what could give me the speed I need. I think I'll try to add the Ghost Quarter and Archive Trap for sure. What do you guys think about a card like Chronic Flooding ? I can see it being a pretty decent early game tool if you get lucky, but how often is that gonna happen?

Should I aim for making my deck faster or making it more able to disrupt theirs? Do alot of decks require them to search through their library?

Updated Three cards that I might add to the deck

Surgical Extraction , Extirpate , and Haunting Echoes .

does anyone know if the above 3 cards activate Archive Trap ?

I'm tinkering with the deck as we speak so don't mind if the lists are all messed up

I don't believe they would because they instruct you to search their library, whereas Archive Trap says "if an opponent searched his or her library this turn"

Yeah, I'm hoping it does even though I'm not expecting it to. A mill deck that excels at control and eliminating threats. Sounds like a upside for my favorite deck. Also looking at trying to fit in some Visions of Beyond because I have found that I hit an empty hand far too many times.

Thanks ljs54321. Magic rules seem pretty straightforward most of the time so you're probably right.

Haunting Echoes is a maybe for a 2 slot... So op, but I feel adding more 5 drops could be really detrimental to the deck. What do you guys think?

hmm the deck still takes a whiile to start up. Are there any black and/or blue monsters that would be great at getting some tokens up or something? Still tweaking for mill speed. Might run 3 Extirpate and Surgical Extraction .

Surgical Extraction , Extirpate , and Haunting Echoes don't trigger Archive Trap because you're the one searching, not your opponent.

I wouldn't recommend running Extirpate or Surgical Extraction mainboard because they're dead cards vs. control and aggro. They're much stronger vs. combos, like Splinter Twin or even Birthing Pod . That would free up eight slots for four Visions of Beyond , two Archive Trap , one Snapcaster Mage , and another Mana Leak . You can then move Extirpate and Surgical Extraction to your sideboard.

(continued)

As far as speeding the deck up, there's a few cards that are slowing it down. Psychic Strike , Essence Harvest , Twincast , and Consuming Aberration are all replaced by stronger, cheaper cards.

Psychic Strike doesn't mill enough cards to justify the three mana to hard counter. Spell Pierce and Spell Snare will both do the same job, at the trade of two less mana for not milling. That's extremely beneficial. It will also help you play a tempo game by stopping your opponent long enough for you to mill them out or out-right kill them with Jace's Phantasm .

Essence Harvest is a really strong finisher, but it requires a huge Consuming Aberration . If they Path to Exile in response, you're basically paying three mana to do maybe five damage off Jace's Phantasm . I feel like you need a removal spell in this slot, such as Go for the Throat or Dismember .

Twincast can be a strong card. If you had to cut one more card for more removal or counterspells, I'd cut this out. If the deck is running fine without them, then I think Twincast is a safe bet.

Consuming Aberration is much stronger in Standard because it's slower. Games of Modern are decided on turn four, however. Since you have no ramp, the soonest you'll see Consuming Aberration is turn five. You risk missing that crucial window where you need to either win the game or completely blow out your opponent. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver or Liliana of the Veil might be worth a shot in this slot. They both have strong synergy with the rest of the deck, while presenting major threats that need to be dealt with.

If neither of those strike your fancy, Gatekeeper of Malakir or some other creature that sets up two-for-ones might be in order here. Then you can just go on the offensive after helping you stabilize the board.

Great suggestions. Working on it!

So when I first came to this site, I decided that I would use the deck builder to build decks towards my goals, not my budget. I lost sight of that as I started seeing the prices of some of these cards.

Now that I've rediscovered what was holding me back, I am unafraid to put the expensive cards in here.

I've made some modifications to the deck and think it runs much smoother than ever before. Let me know what you guys think!

I had 2 Mind Grind s instead of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver s, but I tossed them in and i really like it. That being said, I'm not sure I like Snapcaster Mage . Any suggestions on replacements? I'm not sure i want to go for the big hitters like Nemesis of Reason or Consuming Aberration . I like the cheap efficiency i have going right now. Makes having mana in the later turns great for counters.

Also what kind of counters would you guys recommend? I like 4x Mana Leak and Spell Pierce but i def wouldn't mind going 3x each and +2 other counter for some variety. Anything just as cheap with great counter potential? maybe a black? or multicolor?

What are some counters I could add that would give me some flexibility? I don't mind 4x Mana Leak and 4x Spell Pierce , but I feel I'm lacking on variety.

Also as much as I like Snapcaster Mage I feel like I could add something else to give me more capability in any aspect of my deck. It gave me a meatshield and a costly flashback. I just think with all the cards in modern that we could do better. Any ideas?

Since I lack experience in duels, what do you think could make this deck even more dangerous? I really liked the Ghost Quarter // Archive Trap combo, but I don't know how often people search their decks these days. What do you guys think?

Why Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - he is horrible. Where are Consuming Aberration ??

I had Consuming Aberration before. Just felt too slow. Maybe I'll throw in 2 instead of Snapcaster Mage . I really like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver . Its an easy 3 exile mill every turn that increases its life by 2. Pretty much a self healing meat shield that has auto milling every turn, plus its a 3 drop.

So i just took out 2 mana for Mind Sculpt . I kept on playing hands and found that i was getting alot of full mana hands and no mills. 25 mana to 23

A card you may want to consider is Underworld Connections , I found that the life lost is worth the card advantage it provides.

I love being able to limit others' options while giving myself options to play.

HumpFree thanks! I also enjoy disabling others while I enable myself. I'm probably going to try to build a discard/burn deck next for fun.

Seems like a good card, but something that would just take up space for a 3 drop. How does enchanted land work? You put it on a land and that land has that ability?

I'm trying to fit in 2x Death's Approach for the sake of having a more control. It's really cheap and I think fits the deck well. Maybe i'll keep it in the sideboard.

I really like Curse of the Bloody Tome . I want to find room for it. It's a 3 drop that mills over time!! It'll at least draw out a counter from the opponent. The more passive mill the better imo. Even considered Chronic Flooding which punishes the opponent for using his/her mana.

Might just buy the cards to run a mono blue/defender mill lol.

Hello,a friend is running a similar deck and Snapcaster Mage is just great (well, from my side, horrible) for Glimpse the Unthinkable and Mind Funeral . I really think he's a must have in those black/blue mill decks.

I don't really like Curse of the Bloody Tome : way to slow, a snapcasted mind funeral can make the same thing as 5-6 turns of this curse, even more if you are lucky. Just try it to see how it goes.

Hedron Crab is real threat if you use some fetch lands. On a budget Terramorphic Expanse works the same way.

Jace, Memory Adept is slower but hit harder than Ashiok. And Ashiok exile cards, it doesn't fit well with Consuming Aberration

When it comes to enchanted land, you can either tap the land for mana or use its ability like a creature or other permanent, it basically grants the land in this case an activated ability.

Some lands will be given static abilities, like the Chronic Flooding .

Also, Death's Approach is a solid card but make sure you have other removal, as you need bodies in the grave for it to work; it also can remove Indestructible creatures as it is not technically damage or a destroy effect, it simply reduces their toughness to zero.

Also, I would go with Jace over Ashiok as you need cards in the grave and she works against that.

I would definitely recommend Jace, Memory Adept like most people are.

Also maybe Grisly Spectacle in sideboard against some decks that use huge creatures as their win con or against another deck that uses Consuming Aberration (just imagine the look on their faces when you kill their 30ish/30ish Consuming Aberration and then mill them 30ish cards... I was once on the receiving end of this.... Not cool but at the same time VERY cool) +1 from me.

If you have time I'd appreciate it if you can look at

Thanks to Lord007 , HumpFree and lordnapalm!!

Thanks for the suggestions I'll try to make room for Snapcaster Mage and Jace, Memory Adept again. Geez this deck got expensive really fast!! lol.

I don't know much about fetchlands, but I get the concept. Which ones would I use in my deck?

I MIGHT try to make room for the Ghost Quarter // Archive Trap combo... It's just so good and adds so much disruption. I'd have to take out alot of cards though. Maybe a Deathrite Shaman ?

I might be getting a little ahead of myself again lol.

Nice deck!! +1

What do you guys think about Perplex ?

I'm actually thinking about taking out the play set of Glimpse the Unthinkable because lets face it, this deck would be a great budget deck if it weren't for the 80$ set. I got 4 Breaking for 75 cents a piece including a foil. I wish I had the money or the cards though, because Glimpse the Unthinkable is 20% more efficient than Breaking for the exact same cost. Just immense.

Geez I can't get over the potential of having the archive trap // ghost quarter trap in my deck, but i'm not sure what i should sacrifice. if anything.

It guess i'll keep the Glimpse the Unthinkable in the deck for dream's sake, but I'm still tweaking it around let me know what you guys think.