I don't think Essence Harvest fits here at all. Where are your Glimpse the Unthinkable ? Phenax is simply too slow for Modern and Grisly Spectacle is the clunkiest kill spell you could possibly be playing. keep in mind that you're facing down decks that won't net you more than four cards optimally and more than two or three regularly for that spectacle. Hedron Crab is much better with a real land base. try getting your hands on some fetches and see how that gets you. Watery Grave should be an auto include. If you really want to get damage through, Rogue's Passage is by far one of your least viable options. Try Distortion Strike

Im poor, so there wont be any Glimpse the Unthinkable or Watery Grave s. But the land I have seems to be working so far, but keep it coming with the suggestions..

Phenax, God of Deception combined with Consuming Aberration or Wight of Precinct Six makes for a powerful late game play, nearly killing the opponent on that turn, in most cases. Failing that, Rogue's Passage allows them another form of instant kill. And as an additional backup we have Essence Harvest which, if used on a Consuming Aberration , is another win. The deck usually wins by turn five anyway, but if the match lingers on.. It usually gets heavy pretty quick.

Distortion Strike is cool, but it would take away from my other cards, whereas a random land card wont be a huge disadvantage. As for cost? Yeah Distortion Strike is cheaper, but we're looking at the final turn here anyway..

I mostly picked Grisly Spectacle because it fit in my mana curve AND milled, seemed logical, but you're right. it is pretty wonky. replacement ideas?

if your opponent has fetch lands then Archive Trap would be great. If they do not have fetchlands then you could play Ghost Quarter to ensure that they shuffle there decks, plus it mills them of one card. If this is not budget then you should be playing cards like Misty Rainforest to be more triggers from Hedron Crab

Well it's not strictly "budget" but Misty Rainforest cards, along with Glimpse the Unthinkable are just crazy out of my price range.

Okay though so Archive Trap maybe a couple Ghost Quarter , what am I takin out? Immediately my mind moves to Grisly Spectacle but I'm iffy about running without some form of removal

If Misty and Glimpse are out of your price range, than it is a budget build.

Anyway, yes Grisly Spectacle leaves, and you put in either Dismember or Bile Blight . Most modern cards don't have more than 3 toughness so you don't need to waste mana on a sure kill. Plus, Spectacle is no way an efficient use of mana to mill.

Okay. Any ideas on what I should take out to make room for Archive Trap ?

@NuBByThuMB I do appreciate the deck referral though. However if you look at comment #27, you'll see why I'd like to stick with my version.

HeroFallenVillain, iamacasual: I've updated the deck, if you've got the time, I'd appreciate your opinions. Also check out Labyrinth of dementia for a completely different mill concept

I'm not sure what you're trying to do here.

I intend to mill. Hedron Crab inspired me to make a mill deck that works every turn, whether I play a card or not. So this is what I came up with.

Howling Mine and Font of Mythos make you and the opponent draw tons of cards.

Mesmeric Orb punishes them for playing them. But if they don't, the extra cards are discarded. Any cards they do play will fall to removal.

The increased draw capacity makes Jace's Erasure and Underworld Dreams do some serious damage. And maybe you don't want the opponent drawing extra cards? I feel the same way. Notion Thief makes us draw ALL the extra cards.

With a giant hand, Teferi's Puzzle Box cycles it back into your deck and makes you draw your giant hand again. This activates Jace's Erasure and Underworld Dreams again.... Assuming Notion Thief is out. You get the idea?

I really, really don't like Orb in mill. I feel it's a bad turn 3 play, and milling your own mill spells isn't efficient card use either.

So, you want them to draw to trigger mill? I have never seen that before, but you did say you were on a budget. As I've never attacked mill with this strategy before, I cannot offer any advice. Best of luck.

Well thanks for taking a look

Mind Funeral ?

Minds Aglow isnt legal in modern play, if your planning on using this for FNM i suggest Mind Funeral or Keening Stone

or Divination

That's annoying, Brainstorm ?

Apparently not.. Okay then

This is very interesting...got some good ideas for my deck. Thanks for giving me advice on mine and linking this one.

Any time

I do like the mill decks! The thing with this one, is how well does the deck perform when you don't draw into a Notion Thief ? The thief has a fairly high cmc, and comes down on the turn that many other decks try to win on. It's also a nombo with Black Sun's Zenith in the MD. Maybe instead of the zenith, you could add more spot removal of your choosing (I find Doom Blade very effective in modern, as most decks that use black don't really run many black creatures). Also dedicating 2 lands to make creatures unblockable when you don't use many creatures doesn't seem that good to me. You have a large number of colorless land in a deck that looks like it needs 2 colored lands for many of its cards. I'd scrap the Rogue's Passage for some Darkslick Shores (and take the Drowned catacomb count down to 4 lol). Kami of the Crescent Moon is another fun Howling Mine effect tacked on to a creature, and the new Dictate of Kruphix gives you the first drawing benefit when you flash it in.

The real question is how do you want your deck to win? It mill the goal or is beatdown the gameplan? If the answer is mill, then there are some big changes I'd make. If you want a beatdown backup, then maybe we'd go a different direction.

I've seen good results without pulling a Notion Thief . If I don't pull one of those I usually get Howling Mine , Jace's Archivist , and Teferi's Puzzle Box . Those cards usually let me draw as much as I need to keep my hand full while keeping the number of cards drawn per turn relatively high.

The Rogue's Passage is for Psychosis Crawler , he can easily kill an opponent with one blow. Especially if I use Warped Physique to kamikaze him for double damage.

I do like Kami of the Crescent Moon though..

Well the ideas here is to just draw as much as you can. Jace's Erasure makes sure they mill out before I do. I have Black Sun's Zenith simply as a cheap board wipe. I can do it all the time and I don't have to wait like with Cyclonic Rift . I hope I answered your questions right. What do you think?

Assuming Notion Thief and Jace's Erasure , your opponent is getting milled 1-card-per-turn faster than you. I wouldn't be happy with that. You are relying on getting a Thought Scour or Elixir of Immortality at the right time (bearing in mind you're going to be discarding like crazy unless you get a Reliquary Tower ) in order to be safe.The whole point of a Howling Mine deck is usually to mill with the card draw itself. If you let them draw their cards AND mill them for every card you draw then their library will be depleted twice as fast as your own.

Psychosis Crawler and Warped Physique is a nonbo. Warped Physique targeting your own Psychosis Crawler will always result in it's near immediate death. You really need some lessons if you think that a creature with 0 toughness will survive long enough to deal damage.

Thanks for reminding me about Master of the Feast !

Your condescension is noted. Although I do agree that a single Jace's Erasure doesn't help much on a small scale, it does stack. Drawing more cards means finding more Jace's Erasure or Teferi's Puzzle Box .

And Notion Thief when combined with Jace's Erasure doesn't actually change the rate at which they lose cards, it just makes it so that their hand stays empty (leaving them to top deck for the rest of the game), while giving me more access to my spells, all the while milling them.

I don't know if you skimmed through the description, but it really can be quite powerful, especially in multiplayer.

And you're right about the Psychosis Crawler + Warped Physique thing. I guess I thought it was X+1/X+1. Still though, it's a good removal card for a deck like this.

I've been thinking about adding Underworld Dreams and Fate Unraveler to build some synergy with Psychosis Crawler ? What do you think?

Dimir Aqueduct with Hedron Crab is awesome, seems you've overlooked it

Nice !