This is an old deck and hasn’t been edited since the release of mission briefing. I personally think it has a place in the deck because of the power it has in combination with archive trap and surgical extraction.

"Exploring The Modern card pool" -> "Defensive spells" -> "Graveyard hate" -> Goryo's Vengeance cannot be used to grab creatures from the opponent's graveyard.

What do I change around for mission briefing? It allowing us to cast instead of give flashback seems quite useful

Sorry guys I had to leave my work on Mill behind me for a while. I'll let you know if I ever could work on this project again.

everstar123, RainbowKraken, olivertwist I covered up those card.

Flaggofchaos Tailoring your deck for your metagame is what you should do. Bravo!

frogkill45 Thanks for the info!

SurpriZe It happens when your hand force you to play it on turn 1. It is a rare occurrence, however.

aquacode I'm sorry I couldn't read your post in time!

pimplez Thanks! I've made an update.

zga Thanks! I would totally cut some Breaking s in order to make room for Fatal Push . I recommend to leave the rest as it is.

doc_brietz Well said!

Kingpin4life Giving up on Fatal Push in the main surely gives you worse games-1 in some match-ups, but it's totally worth it in most metagames.

Dasein07 I wouldn't make those changes. I argued about the choices a lot in the primer. Give it a read if you need.

zga That card is flawed like Snapcaster Mage is, and about the ability of casting Archive Trap there can be an argument about Trapmaker's Snare being a better card overall, especially when playing Field of Ruin .

So yea i been jamming mill for like 3 years at fnm. My lgs is pretty diverse in the top tier decks since we usually have 5 rounds of modern each friday. I dont use this list but i started here for a reference point. If you play your deck enough you know what works and what cards under perform. Mission briefing right now is under performing for me and i will swap at least 1 and 1 fatal push for collective brutality. Its still a good card but i recommend 1 or 2 copies only. I think i like it more because of surveil 2 but its kinda bad with mesmeric orb.

Thanks for making this primer. It's always good to hear other people's thoughts on and approaches to Mill. While I did not fully read everything, and I deeply apologize if you already discussed it, I wanted to know your thoughts on adding at least a single Oboro, Palace in the Clouds for repeatable Hedron Crab and Fatal Push triggers and did you ever consider running a couple or playset of Mission Briefing as a way to not only act as additional copies of mill and defense spells, but also digging to find said mill or defense cards?

Hey Peisistratos, what are your thoughts on Ashiok, Dream Render as a sideboard card? The repeatable graveyard hate seems useful and the static ability is just icing on the cake but could come in handy in a pinch. I realize I'm only one guy in one metagame, but I'll likely try 3 in the sideboard tonight at my lgs and post any results (I typically go 3-0 occasionally, 2-1 most often, and 1-2 much less often).

TheSpanishInquisition13 i run 1 oboro for the reasons you listed. it has been pretty sweet.

aquacode I run 2 main 2 sb and ill tell you my first night using her i ran into tron and scapeshift and lets just say she did work on them. I think Ashiok is in a great spot for modern, shuts off fetch lands and any tutoring. plus if they arent interacting with ashiok it just says mill 20. Gives you a way to deal with emrakuls in the deck (if you get lucky to hit it on the 4 ashiok mills) since its ability has to finish resolving before emrakuls trigger goes off and when it does there is nothing in the yard to shuffle back in.

frogkill45 and aquacode, regarding Ashiok, Dream Render : I'd personally avoid running it. Other graveyard hate ( Leyline of the Void , Nihil Spellbomb , Ravenous Trap ) is almost certainly more consistent when you need it. Turning off fetches and tutors is where the main draw lies, but realistically protecting a walker is going to be more trouble than they're worth. Also worth noting the anti-synergy with Archive Trap --you'd basically need to choose one, and I know which I'd rather have. Definitely worth the consideration, though.

frogkill45 I agree with Mission Briefing being too conditional and especially bad when playing Mesmeric Orb . I would not play it. I would love to play Oboro, Palace in the Clouds , but it'd be my 25th land because the other ones are too important. And a 25-land deck is probably a totally different deck, and surely a bad mill deck.

ANounYouMissed you read my mind about Ashiok, Dream Render .

Just in case you haven’t come across it, field of ruin still works for opp searching even if you have ashiok out.

Kingpin4life Thanks!

How do you feel about Scheming Symmetry ?

aquacode

From the primer:

"Fraying Sanity all-in combo

The aim of the deck is having a reliable turn-4 kill via a Fraying Sanity , two Archive Trap and a Field of Ruin /Scheming Symmetry. Scheming Symmetry combined with cheap mill spells is a one-sided Vampiric Tutor , so that you virtually have 8 Fraying Sanity , 8 ways to force your opponent to search, and 16 Archive Trap (counting in Trapmaker's Snare and Merchant Scroll ). Extensive goldfishing indicates a turn-4 kill happening around one third of your games, making the disfunctional hands too much a liability overall."

I like the idea of Scheming Symmetry in mill. It can force a deck search needed to activate Archive Trap. Mission briefing is cool too. (If you don’t wanna run snap caster)

CaveBoy Thanks to your comment I've had the opportunity to update the Scheming Symmetry entry in order to explain why it is bad in my version. On the other hand, I've already shown why Mission Briefing is a very poor option in any playable Mill deck.

This is an amazing deck! The only problem in my mind is that it is much too expensive-slowness doesn't really matter in my playgroup. Do you have any suggestions to make this slightly cheaper?

dalek001 Thanks! You can replace the expensive cards with the options which didn't make the cut (for example Mind Sculpt instead of Glimpse the Unthinkable ). You can find them in the section 'Exploring the Modern card pool'->'Mill cards' (or whatever you need a substitute for).

If you really want to go super budget you can cut mesmeric orb for Manic Scribe as a substitute repeatable mill.

Take away your expensive fetches for 4 Evolving Wilds and 4 Terramorphic Expanse , add a couple more basics.

Other than that, the rest of the main deck is pretty necessary.

So I completely agree with your analysis regarding Mission Briefing as a card in this version of the deck. However, what about using mission briefing in the Scheming Symmetry - Archive Trap deck and ditching fraying sanity all together? That deck is much more likely to get archive trap into the graveyard thanks to the 8 to-hand tutors and Symmetry itself. I have a prototype decklist I tried this week (I hadn't read your analysis) and fell into the problems you mentioned of Glimpse not working in that kind of deck. I think I'll add white for winds of abandon and adjust the list some time tonight. Let me know your thoughts on mission briefing in the symmetry build when you can

aquacode if we lacked tutors for Archive Trap , I'd play Mission Briefing for sure. But since that is the cog which leaves me worried about the least, I'd aim at increasing my chances playing more copies of the elements we are less able to find with consistency. However, play Mission Briefing if 24 lands are too many (but I fear you'd have color issues then, since you play 3 colors now).

aquacode Good idea with Manic Scribe. I'm using a lot of basic lands and some jank stuff, here is my current decklist- kinda expensive, partially budget here

Returning to this a few years later and wanted to know why you think it is that the more controlling, less all-in builds like this seem to put up results. Note that I don't mean this specific instance, but I've seen this kind of decklist time and time again even though I prefer yours.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-league-2019-09-03#tibalt_of_red_sub_-