I've never had any trouble with my fetch targets in many hundreds of games; they are enough even in the longest games against control decks. So I see no reason whatsoever to run more. However, trouble I had when I tested with fewer fetchlands: you'll give up on many wins if you can't play fetchlands after your Hedron Crabs often enough. I suggest not to tamper with the manabase!

Two questions from your experience: profane memento seems to be working rather well instead of fatal push to have a fog like effect in particular against aggro; in sideboard against Leyline or the kind what about turning the deck to self mill through laboratory maniac (knowing that those are uphill battles anyway)

Diblagi I already addressed both subjects, but I'll articulate again the first one. (1) Both Fatal Push and Profane Memento need you to play them very early, and they practically return the same result. The only difference is that Profane Memento is stronger when your opponent's damage output at a certain point becomes almost constant (like in Zoo, as opposed to Merfolk), but those circumstances are negligible since it is hard to come to a point where that matters even against those kinds of deck; on the other hand, Fatal Push is an all-star in particular situations, killing combo creatures (e.g. Vizier of Remedies) or hatebears (e.g. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben). Given that, the choice between the two becomes easy. (2) You can find alternative plans under 'Building attempts.'

Hey Peisistratos, I'm actually trading a bunch of my cards to get into modern with this deck. I noticed that you recently traded out the Crypt Incursions for Collective Brutalitys. Can you give a quick rundown as to what matchups you would use this against and what it replaces in the mainboard when you side it in? I've been playing magic for about 8 years but still don't know too much about the intricacies of the modern format. Thanks in advance!

Ehi aquacode! Nice catch! :D

I've found that not only I do not want Crypt Incursion against anyone, but also that I would never board it in in this list. Collective Brutality appears in its place out of desperation, as there isn't actually much more you'd want because there are so many matchup where you'll lose no matter what you do. Collective Brutality is good against Burn, but such is one of those unwinnable matchups even with this addition - so that it doesn't really count; anyway, against Burn Darkness and Mesmeric Orb are your worst cards, though you need some Mesmeric Orbs if you're boarding some Set Adrifts in (for Eidolon of the Great Revel, as a losing proposition as it is). Collective Brutality makes the control matchup - which was already super favorable for us - totally unwinnable for them; and retains some usefulness against random combo decks and Hatebears (despite being quite bad against Thalia, Guardian of Thraben which should be your main target). But that is ultimately all speculation, just build the sideboard according to what you expect to fight.

As for the maindeck, I suggest swapping Fatal Push for Breaking / Entering, adding redundancy in order to have better tools against midrange: Fatal Push is not so good against them if it is not killing a turn-2 Tarmogoyf, and against other decks there is little to go goldfishing when it is a blank so many times.. I'm not updating the decklist here because this is strictly a metagame decision, close enough to other options that should probably change with any fluctation of the expected field!

I used your list before your recent update (putting Fatal Push on sb). But instead of Fatal Push on the board, I placed 4 Manic Scribe instead. Got the 2nd place on my LGS 12 man tourney. Losing to a tarmo/liliana/death shadow variant deck, which is silly cause I only drew lands on 2 games for 3 turns.

This is a very decent list. And I do agree that the sb can be changed depending on the meta where you play. I still have 3 Crypt Incursion on sb which helped me win against slivers and humans gaining an absurd amount of life. I also added 2 Damnation and 2 Silent Arbiter in replacement of the Collective Brutality and placing 4 Leyline of the Void for the spellbombs.

I removed Fatal Push because it's pretty redundant with the use of Darkness.

May I have your thoughts on my current sb?

jaredpaolo25 Sure! Here we go!

Leyline of the Void combats on a slight different axis than Nihil Spellbomb: if that is what you need, go ahead. I have nothing helpful to say about that; just be sure about the efficacy of your plan against the decks you are targeting.

About Damnation, a competent aggro player won't play into it, all the while still being able to represent lethal damage at a relevant turn; they would however be encouraged to commit more to the board if they knew of Crypt Incursion, but if you have Crypt Incursion in your deck either it shouldn't be there (it is bad against most opponents if you don't play another defence spell before it, and it is a bad choice if when it is good you would also win with any other card) or you are sporting so much defence that they could simply slow their clock down and commit less. And if Silent Arbiter is good, chances are Ensnaring Bridge is better. Nonetheless, Damnation seems a good play in some scenarios out of the Human matchup (the ones with certain combinations of hatebears), but rarely critical and overall very narrow and probably just too small an upgrade over some other sideboard card.

Have fun!

Thanks! I'll keep those in mind. And maybe it's just me, but i prefer Silent Arbiter on turn 4 than an Ensnaring Bridge because the latter conditional and small creature decks can still attack (spirits or goblins). And like as you said, Fraying Sanity is a better 3rd turn play than an Ensnaring Bridge.

And I'll follow your recent update by replacing my Manic Scribe with Breaking for more consistency.

Thank you very much for this list! :)

jaredpaolo25 There is obviously a niche where Silent Arbiter is better than Ensnaring Bridge: what I did was just suggesting of not overestimating Silent Arbiter.

You're welcome! Enjoy your games!

I was looking at this deck, and it occured to me that a good way to prevent cards that make a deck unmillable from being played is to use Card:Sadistic sacrament without the kicker you can just remove key cards, while with the kicker you could reasonably remove every useful card remaining in their deck (which in a mill deck, wont be much)

Used a slightly altered version of this. I ran crypt incursion at 2 and ensnaring bridge at 2 instead of main boarding breaking. I felt ramping up as little stall with the life gain on crypt saved me in a few games. I went 5-1 losing to a combo with burning wish fetching out wheel of sun and moon. I won 1 game with infect because I ran phyrexian crusader in my side board so against hate-bears with leylines it was my only win. Overall I like this layout with a few minor changes to fit my personal playstyle.

I believe TCGplayer Corbin Hosler took your decklist to youtube for some matches today. Only got to watch one so far but I noticed the list and thought i would let you know.

@Peisistratos How often and in which common situations do you cast Visions of Beyond to draw only one card?

Peisistratos And what about Thought Scour?

what about chancellor of the spires ?

what about chancellor of the spires ?

@olivertwist I would think Chancellor is much too slow, and if you don't get it in hand it is a completely dead card that you will never cast. That and modern is a very quick format. A 7 mana card will do you no good in a deck without ramp.

i think Surgical Extraction and Extirpate would help more than Darkness or Visions of Beyond. you're still getting cards out of the opponents deck, but more importantly you're hitting their win conditions. theres more than a few decks where a Surgical Extraction/Extirpate or 2 essentially forces them to scoop immediately. and even if you don't "completely" rob them of win conditions, you're bound to hit something that can let you slow the game enough to mill them at your leisure.

@Peisistratos, in preparation for the GP in Vegas (which I'll be taking this deck to) Do you think running some removal or counterspells in the mainboard might be wise? Particularly because of humans and jeskai control? I'm not particularly worried about tron

Very good read! In the graveyard hate section you jokingly mentioned using Goryo's Vengeance to steal their Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Goryo's Vengeance can only target your own graveyard so as hilarious as it would be it cannot be done. I think it is worth mentioning that you can do this with Entering off of a Shelldock Isle. While it isn't very likely to happen, it does provide a main board answer to an opponents main board eldrazi.

Thanks for such a detailed and thoughtful guide. I've 4-0'd my local with your 75.

My question is Modern is particularly fast and particularly creature-heavy right now. There are many instances in which Fatal Push is as good as Darkness, and a more permanent solution at that.

Given that the games in which I resolve Darkness tend also to be the games that I win, I am thinking of running 2 Fatal Push mainboard to function as Darkness #5 and #6. I would cutting two copies of Mesmeric Orb and/or Mind Funeral, as they tend to be the clunkiest to deploy and also the slowest forms of mill (Fraying Sanity excluded, but I am quite high on that card as it provides immense inevitability).

I haven't done any math but to me this seems like an innocuous if not effective change, especially considering I board this way nearly every game.

I play only this deck on Xmage and I rarely lose with it. The only archtypes I have have lost are a colorless tron with Eldrazi, mono green, and just tron in general. It is a very salt inducing deck. I can see bumping up surgical extraction to 4. I have rarely sided in that delve bounce spell. My current enemy is Leyline of Sanctity. People just aren't ready for mill. I have, amazingly enough, played a mirror match or two that I also won. This is probably the best mill deck out there out of the box. I am not sold 100% on the side board, but that is what the sideboard is for.

@Peisistratos How’s things? I put this deck down for a bit but reacently picked it back up. I dropped 1 mind funeral for a set adrift main and changed the sb up a bit. The removal of push main means you’re giving up game one in some matchups? You logic of needing a push or darkness to live until t5 was pretty sound to me and living through push killing Thalia’s Edison’s mmage’s blighted’s etc has been too valuable to put into sb imo (but I’ll try it out).

My new sb: Must haves: 3 set adrift 4 n spellbomb 4 surgical Flex spots: Crypt incursion (pretty sure I’m done with this still nice for humans & living end)

Collective brutality (no longer the biggest fan)

Thing in ice (nice wall, rests board but slow for deck to get 4 spells, alt win con)

Vampiric link (amazing vs burn turns and edilon into a win con bc they have to use a card to remove their own creature and the lifegain allows you to continue casting. Playable vs other creature decks as well)

Spellskite (has allowed me to win some matches in testing vs infect! Also nice for burn, and not bad vs bogles.

Currently I’m using 2 skite/2 Vlink in the flex spots.

@Peisistratos

Hey, you really did a nice analysis!

*** This it's what I will try: (-1xMesmeric orb, -1xMind funeral, -1 Field of ruin & -1 Shelldock Isle) for (+3xFatal push & +1 Darkslick shores) Worth it? maybe just 2 fatal push? 3 shelldock isle seems nice, but maybe need 4 field of ruin?

*** Angel's Grace > Darkness ? I know that 3 colors + 8 mill lands are not easy to manage, but Angel's Grace works like 99% of the times and split second seems really good. Basicaly better agains burn, some combos and counters. If I go for the 3 colors version, what you prefer: fatal push or path to exile?

Thanks you!!

@Peisistratos

Thought's on Mission Briefing? I agree with your logic against Snapcaster but surveil 2 is big for this deck AND the upside of casting Archive Trap again is huge.