Is Mill aggressive enough to be competitive in Modern?
That's what I set out answer. I've always loved mill since I was first introduced to Magic. There's something novel and exhilarating about racing your opponent on a different axis than life points. Plus people rarely plan or know how to sideboard for mill making it extra fun (usually).
My local meta: A game shop with 10-15 participants each week. 2-3 Izzet Phoenix decks. Jund and Grixis Death Shadow (or a brew of it) appear next most often, followed by BG Rock, and a mix of others. I have encounter Dredge once and heard it's name a couple of times, but suspect it isn't as common as the previously mentioned. My takeaway from that is slightly heavier shift on grave-hate cards.
The goal for the deck is to play out something like this:
Note: Archive Traps are usually sprung when triggered for 0.
Turn 1 (in order of priority):
- Hedron Crab
- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Visions of Beyond
- Fatal Push
Here we want to get a Hedron Crab in place to setup the mill engine, or disrupt their strategy with Inquisition of Kozilek. In case of a slower hand, hope to Fatal Push something on their T1 or cantrip using Visions of Beyond.
Turn 2:
- Mesmeric Orb
- Search for Azcanta
- Hedron Crab + Land
- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Mission Briefing (if possible)
- Glimpse the Unthinkable
- Removal (Fatal Push, Surgical Extraction)
Same idea here as T1, except stronger. The Mesmeric Orb is usually a great piece to drop early for grinding out value as time goes on. A Search or Azcanta or second Hedron Crab and possibly a sac land is also a nice setup. Using a Glimpse the Unthinkable on T2 doesn't usually pay off as well as it does later in the game. Depends on the match up, board-state, and hand selection, but typically I only do it as a last resort for lack of better options. Waiting till end of their T2 to recover an Archive Trap from the graveyard using Mission Briefing is more optimal and removes it from grave-targeting.
Turn 3:
- Fraying Sanity
- Field of Ruin + Archive Trap
- Ensnaring Bridge
- Inquisition of Kozilek + Mesmeric Orb
- Crypt Incursion
Here's the big-money turn where you could get explosive. There's hardly a better feeling than dropping one of these T3 with an Archive Trap in-hand and them having a fetch land on the field. Fraying Sanity cuts your mill clock WAYYY down. If your opponent can't answer that in the turn you play it or one after, you can usually close it down. Popping a Field of Ruin on their fancy lands isn't a bad play either assuming you've got an Archive Trap in-hand. Otherwise, hold down the fort with Ensnaring Bridge or buy time with Crypt Incursion until you can draw some more mill gas.
Turn 4:
- Fraying Sanity
- Archive Trap + Field of Ruin + Mission Briefing
= 26 milled cards and a blown up land
- Glimpse the Unthinkable
- Visions of Beyond
- Crypt Incursion
Hopefully you've laid out your Fraying Sanity by now. If not, do it. If you have another, probably lay that down too. Remember, the Fraying Sanity triggers individually. For example, if 10 cards entered their graveyard this turn, at the end of turn 10 more will get milled from the 1st Sanity, and now 20(!) cards will get milled from the 2nd Fraying Sanity. Otherwise, evaluate the field and control the board as much as possible till the Crab/Orb/Traps/Sanity does the dirty work for you!
The sideboard is designed to provide redundancy with slightly wider options (e.g. Hero's Downfall vs Fatal Push, Extirpate vs Surgical Extraction). I can go more in-depth on the sideboard plans at a later date if anyone requests it in the comments.
Thanks for reading and making it this far. Open to your suggestions and feedback!
