Effective milling is pretty hard in Standard format. I would certainly run two more Startled Awake  ^Flip. I've tried to make clues work with mill, it's nearly impossible as you need all your mana for mill. I don't see Sphinx's Tutelage, an extremely OP mill card. I just don't think this deck in its current form can hold out long enough. Ditch the clues, ditch Turn to Frog, put in Void Shatter over Spell Shrivel. I'd add two more Manic Scribe.

Check out my mill deck. It shares a lot in common, and I've put in A LOT of work. I know you're trying to stay budget, but at the very least you should check out the comments on this deck, it should give you some ideas. The main thing is making sure you're milling every turn. For a budget deck, I'm not sure a secondary win con is an option. Good luck!!!

Startled Blue and Red Splash Milling

Standard Blotterhead

SCORE: 10 | 54 COMMENTS | 2111 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS

As much as you may not want to build around it, Sphinx's Tutelage is the best mill card out there. And you don't HAVE to build around it, as some other decks choose to, since it still generates mill through your draw step and with Clues. I would think it's necessary in this deck as the only way to mill recurrably without a mana investment.

Blotterhead I can afford the Sphinx's Tutelage if I have to. As I said, I was trying to build around that I already owned. I definitely can't afford the Planeswalkers in your deck but it definitely gives me some ideas to do for a mono-blue.

abby315 Looks like I am going to have to sink the money into the Tutelage at least. Thankfully it's not TOO expensive of a card.

Blotterhead So I am looking at this right now to replace some of the cards in the deck.

+3x Dreadwaters

+4x Forgotten Creation

+2x Manic Scribe

+4x Sphinx's Tutelage

+4x Talent of the Telepath

+4x Void Shatter

+2x Startled Awake

Thus removing

-2x Benthic Infiltrator

-3x Daring Sleuth Flip

-2x Erdwal Illuminator

-2x Fleeting Memories

-3x Ongoing Investigation

-2x Spell Shrivel

-2x Turn to Frog

Obviously it's not an even spread, will probably remove 2-3 lands as well.

Dreadwaters is too slow from my experience. A waste on turn 4 and even by turn 7 it's like a weak Talent of the Telepath.

Are you able to get Fevered Visions? I would put this in over Dreadwaters for two reasons. First, it's just a better, more likely to be played card. Second it helps even the card types for delirium on Manic Scribe.

Also to activate delirium you should run 2-4 Evolving Wilds with Fevered Visions. That will balance your card types.

If you do not want to go that route I would dump the Manic Scribes completely, and maybe replace them with two Pore Over the Pages or Reckless Scholars or Youthful Scholars or Forgotten Creations and then two Salvage Drones or Palace Familiars.

Also, I think 23 lands is perfect, maybe even 24 total if you run the Evolving Wilds.

Blotterhead I can replace the Skyline Cascades with Evolving Wilds if that will help with the Manic Scribes though I think running Reckless Scholar makes more sense. I added in the 4 Forgotten Creations already. Replace the Dreadwaters with Pore Over the Pages? The deck definitely feels like it needs more draw.

Only drop two Skyline Cascades. Then drop one or two Islands for one or two Evolving Wilds (three or four total).

Replace the Dreadwaters with Pore Over the Pages like you said.

I personally would take Palace Familiar or Salvage Drone over Reckless Scholar due to cost, and the fact that you won't be able to use the ability on Reckless Scholar until minimum turn four, but not likely even turn four, because on turn three you'll want to spend your mana on Sphinx's Tutelage.

I don't see Uninvited Geist  ^Flip having any place in this deck, I would replace all three. Hope that helps.

((Blotterhead)) So creature wise I should be looking at 4x Forgotten Creation, 4x Salvage Drone, 4x Palace Familiar, 4x Manic Scribe? Or dropping Scribe entirely? Also should Sphinx stay in or no?

Also, I've been looking at your BW Allies deck to help with mine a bit.

So I was suggesting two routes. Manic Scribe only works well if you have a good balance of card types and you have lots of discard cards. If you wanted to keep Manic Scribe, then I would run 2 or 3 Fevered Visions and 2 to 4 Salvage Drones and maybe 2 two Palace Familiars, you'd have to play around with it. I wouldn't run more than 8 creatures total, and that includes your Manic Scribes. 10 absolute max.

Also, I would drop Anticipate for Catalog since Catalog let's you draw to activate Sphinx's Tutelage and discard for delirium on Manic Scribe.

The alternative to that would be to give up on Manic Scribe all together, and instead use draw cards to really focus on activating Sphinx's Tutelage. I've mentioned most of what I think is good. Vessel of Paramnesia is worth considering.

I wouldn't have Negate and Void Shatter on the mainboard at the same time. Move Void Shatter over to the sideboard.

I keep Engulf the Shore on my sideboard, but for this deck you might consider putting them on the mainboard.

Blotterhead Going to remove some creatures (thus leaving 4 Palace Familiars, 4 Forgotten Creations, and one Sphinx)) for some draw spells. However, I'm not sure which route to take. Should I be using something like Grip of the Roil and run 2 or 4 of those or should I be looking at Hydrolash or something of that nature? I also added another Jace. How does the deck currently look? Sorry to pester you so much about this I just want to get it squared away before I snag the cards I need to round it out.

How about give Salvage Drone a try instead of Palace Familiar?

Delta-117 I don't like Salvage Drone because I'm not using these cards for attacking, more for blocking/draw if my deck isn't giving me responses or I need 1 more land for the response or something of that nature. A flyer allows me to block their flying creatures since none of my other creatures have it. Salvage drone also requires me to discard a card if I draw one where Palace Familiar is straight draw. I'd rather have that since I don't have anything that let's me run spells from the graveyard or that have madness. I'm currently looking at replacing them with Thing in the Ice  ^Flip.

Yeah I realize the fact they have flying is good, I just suggested this card for when standard rotates.

I was actually going to suggest Thing in the Ice  ^Flip but I seen you were trying to keep this deck budget friendly so I was unsure.

what's up dude! When i first started playing, mill was my very first standard deck, and unfortunately it was the time around rally the ancestors.... so that was really bad like a UB ride from the tides deck lol. But with shadows they've definitely given us some nice mill cards. One thing I might suggest is instead of thing in the ice you can just maybe use manic scribe. it compliments the deck much more than thing in the ice does and a lot less scary than thing in the ice so they might not instantly remove it and you lose value. and i think if you're running radiant flames, you can maybe even use the UB or BR handlands so you can get even better value for it. magmatic insight is also insane if you discard drownyard temple. just some suggestions my man. good luck milling!

pischrena TitI allows for great bounceback which stalls the game further. Also 0/4 defender is A+. I originally pondered a manic scribe and I may ponder it again depending on how well or how much I use the Stormchaser Mage since its the same mana and survives the basic radiant flames I have (and also makes it a 2/4 flyer). I'm mostly using radiant flames for the weenies decks to stall out. It's a really big flex card at the moment. Mill is really fun. The mono-blue of this deck when it worked was so so so fun.

this looks pretty solid. I'm moving into myself right now(Not control),but I like your build. Have you considered Skin Invasion  ^Flip? It might be fun in your deck. Slap it on your opponents creatures, then block with a flipped Thing or an activated Fumarole... Then you have another horror creature that is safe from your Thing flipping.

Might I recommend Collective Defiance? You can either mill your opponent for how many cards they have in hand, or better yet, if you have Sphinx's Tutelage out, then they mill two for each card in your hand at minimum.