Dawn of Deception (Sideboard Help Needed)

Standard* Competitive Mill UB (Dimir)

Zalephatos

Creature (18)

• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 2x Corpse Blockade
• 1x Doorkeeper
• 2x Hover Barrier
• 2x Nightveil Specter
• 2x Omenspeaker
• 2x Phenax, God of Deception
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 3x Wall of Frost
• 2x Wight of Precinct Six

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 2x Jace, Memory Adept

Land (27)

• 11x Island
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 9x Swamp
• 4x Temple of Deceit
• 2x Watery Grave

Instant (12)

• 3x Essence Scatter
• 3x Grisly Spectacle
• 2x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Psychic Spiral
• 3x Psychic Strike

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Mind Grind
• 1x Pilfered Plans

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Sideboard

Instant (13)

• 3x Annul
• 4x Cyclonic Rift
• 2x Hero's Downfall
• 4x Negate

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Curse of the Swine

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 2x Hover Barrier

Artifact (2)

• 2x Illusionist's Bracers

Instant (4)

• 4x Triton Tactics

Sorcery (6)

• 4x Hidden Strings
• 1x Pilfered Plans
• 1x Thoughtseize

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This deck is a Phenax-Defender Mill deck with a few alternate win conditions. This deck came to be after my last mill deck Dimir Millfest became a complete mess and I just decided to scrap it for something different. Anyway basic plan is play my defenders and use them to mill my opponents with Phenax's ability and controlling the field with my counter spells. Alternate win conditions include stealing my opponents cards with Nightveil Specter and swinging them to death Wight of Precinct Six and Consuming Aberration help with this plan and the basic deck strategy of the deck as well. Other win cons are mostly other mill cards such as Mind Grind, the almighty Jace, Memory Adept, and Psychic Spiral which is also a good card from getting back my own cards if needed. There is an another strategy I'd like to use which is an addition to my defender mill plan which uses Triton Tactics and Hidden Strings to untap my creatures and then retap them for more mill against my opponents but for the time being I can't think of anything I'd be willing to take out to place them in the deck. I may make another deck with this as the main plan of the deck but until then they sit in the maybe board.

Problems I have noticed with the deck is that it is a little slow to get started and I am often having to choose between playing a creature or saving my mana to play some of the higher mana cost counter spells like Psychic Strike. I also have a hard time dealing with some things once they get on the field like artifacts and enchantments. For example when I'm playing against a green deck I have nothing to deal with Bow of Nylea. Mistcutter Hydra is another card that gives this deck a hard time because it is primarily a Blue Deck. To deal with this I chose to take out 2 Doorkeepers in exchange for Corpse Blockade but I'm not sure how much good it will do as I have not gotten the cards together to finish this deck. A last problem which can really hurt the deck is Phenax, God of Deception himself, just because if I don't get him for a long part of the game I'm not really playing the deck how I want to play it though I feel this could be a problem I can't really help given the structure of the deck. Any and all advice is appreciated.

I'm pretty content with the deck as it is but what I really need help with is the sideboard, I have what I have and it can be useful but there are times when I feel like nothing in my sideboard would be helpful against what my opponents play. Any suggestions for sideboard cards would be amazing.

I played an Incomplete version of this deck at FNM last week and managed to score Top 8, which I feel proud of as it was the first time playing the deck competitively and I feel like if I had been more used to the deck I could have pulled top 4. I say this as I would commonly forget to tap my creatures for mill at the end of my opponents turn which is when you are supposed to be doing this as well as forgetting that I have counterspells in hand when they do things I'd rather they didn't etc etc.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	10 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 6 Rares 11 - 2 Uncommons 14 - 7 Commons
Cards	62
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Boar 2/2 G
Folders	Standard, Interesting, My players, Standard