I like Omenspeaker and I have like 80 of her, so I'll probably be throwing her in. Plus I kind of love Scry. How many would you suggest? Also, would you say 1 Ashiok and 1 Jace:Architect or 2 Ashioks?

+1 the suggestion for Omenspeaker . Ideally, I think you want to reliably be able to play her turn 2 to really set yourself up for the next couple of turns. As such, you probably want at least 3 to have a good chance of getting it by turn 2.

Also, maybe a couple of Dark Betrayal for your sideboard that you can swap in for Doom Blade when facing black. Other than that, maybe a little card draw could be helpful, something like Read the Bones ?

The tendency following rotation is for aggro to play a huge role. The combination of controls weapons rotating out and the generally easy replacement of role players in aggro decks leads to them being the most consistent at first. Control players require some time to tweak to the meta game.

Jacob van Lunen's article on the Wizards site last week laid out the major players on MTGO and it was primarily aggro with UW and Esper control having a strong showing of support as well.

I have to agree with Jace, Architect of Thought even though he's gotten quite expensive in the past few weeks. His pseudo-fog plus ability slows the aggro decks down and his mini Fact or Fiction minus ability picks you the best card(s) for the situation out of your top 3.

I won't be able to have Jace, Architect of Thought out at the same time as Jace, Memory Adept though, right?

Sure you can! :) They're both Jace, but they are different Jaces. The legendary rule won't apply in that case.

P.s. thanks for the link!

OH, that makes so much sense. That's awesome :D Totally thought I'd have to sacrifice Jace to put a different Jace out. Now I just have to get my hands on 2 Jace, Architect of Thought , even though I gave one away two weeks ago. Sads.

Thanks for the help!

The Planeswalker uniqueness rule cares about their subtype, in this case "Jace." Your initial thought was right DimirQueen. Unfortunately you can't have Memory Adept and Architect of Thought out at the same time.

The way I look at it AoT is your expendable version, the earlier drop that slows your opponent, digs for answers/threats and takes hits instead of you. Memory Adept is a win-con, and you can drop him when AoT is out put the AoT in your 'yard and keep Jace, Memory Adept . You can get two jacabilities in one turn that way.

But no, they can't both stay out at the same time.

Oh wow I apologize for misinforming you. I've been playing for a while and I still somehow managed to miss that fact.

This deck is similar to the one I'm trying to run, I'd suggest Nightviel Specter it has saved me many times, finding lands, removing threats, giving me threats, anti air, etc. If its in your budget perhaps increase your Jace and ashiok counts? Jace + Duskmantle Guildmage is a fun trick to pull, and Traumatize is always a fun thing to topdeck. I'll be following this deck in hopes of finding help for me deck, Dimir Calls You to Mil good luck!

Thanks Shadoh.net. Is your username a website or something? :P

I've been trying to follow advice to get rid of a chunk of creatures in my deck. I have a lot of control, so I'm mostly worried out aggro outpacing it, as aggro is pretty popular at FNM from what I've seen. I'm worried I'd be using Nightveil Specter as a chump blocker, what do you think?

I have the money to increase the counts, but I'm not sure what I'd take out at this point. I already had to find room for Ashiok. :/

I really wanted to stay Mill Kill but it doesn't look like that's viable anymore without Jace's Phantasm

If your deck functions like mine did when I went heavy mil, I was powerless until late game, I had Nighthowler in my deck for a while, recently took it out for removal, 4x Omenspeaker + 4x nighthowler worked well for me to stop aggro. I play 3x Ashiok, 3x Jace, t3 Ashiok out paces most of my opponents for at least 2 turns redirecting damage away from my to her, and letting me play creatures down, or set up for my t6 kill. Only suggestion I have would is 4x Omenspeaker, great blocker/scry, remove Breaking, its a nice hard but at sorcery speed its overkill if you end up running more jace, I'd try some Read the Bones , or Pilfered Plans , I got rid of plans, but bones helps me a lot. Only hope these decks seem to have against aggro is to always have an answer/drop.

My username? No its an old name from when i played SOF2, people kept taking my name so i used shadoh and my group of friends all ran .net/.com/.edu, etc.

Update from my last FNM, pulled 4th, nearly 2nd but the esper control 1st place guy kept having about 2 cards in his library at the end! I'm definatly headed more to the contorl side, running Negate and what not, but for you I'd recommend 2x Traumatize maybe even 3... I've had good luck with 2, but I upped jace to 4x, and traumatize to 3x, removed omenspeaker, havent had a chance to play test though >> If you're going to jeep running instant big creatures maybe look at the whip? I ran it with my lowbies and it actually helped!

That's awesome, Shadoh.net! I do want to keep the aberration, I think. Maybe look into getting all my control cards figured out. I'm probably going to take out Breaking , perhaps for a couple Traumatize . I'd really like to use Lazav, Dimir Mastermind too. :/ I'm just looking for a good amount of balance between control, creatures, and milling right now.

For creatures, what about adding Duskmantle Guildmage ? Use his first ability in conjunction with Jace, Memory Adept to lose 10 life a pop and you put a two-round timer on the game.Gives a nice alternative win condition.

I tried Duskmantle Guildmage and I almost always ended up using him as a chump blocker. :/

How is Codex Shredder working for you? Might be a good spot to run Lazav, Dimir Mastermind , sorry for the spam don't know anyone else running a dimir deck commonplace.

mmcfarlin says...

For creatures, what about adding Duskmantle Guildmage ? Use his first ability in conjunction with Jace, Memory Adept to lose 10 life a pop and you put a two-round timer on the game.Gives a nice alternative win condition.

Could you not use Duskmantle Guildmage first ability twice and then pop Jace, Memory Adept for 20 damage? if you have got the mana to summon jace you have the mana to use Duskmantle Guildmage twice?

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm still in the process of testing this deck out and seeing how it works after all the changes. I'll update what cards I'm using soon.

Again, Duskmantle Guildmage is too often used as a chump blocker on the field. I've never seen him used effectively in competitive play with this kind of deck. Additionally, it's dangerous to bank on something like that when they can prevent damage from target source or blow Jace or the guild mage up, and then I'd be tapped out on mana. It makes the guildmage a huge target.

Hello! It can be hard to put together a good mill-deck and find that right balance between creatures and sorcery/instant-spells.. But I think you have done a really good job! I also just started to play MTG, and I have a mill-deck too (I love Consuming Aberration !) If you want, youre welcome to look at my mill-deck "Return of Snasken" since I need some help too :P

I agree with the person who suggested Traumatize , since that's a really nasty card.. What about replace some of the Breaking and Codex Shredder with 4x Tome Scour ? And maybe add some flying mill-creatures like Jace's Mindseeker , or Balustrade Spy ? I think the Jace's Phantasm is a good card to play since it becomes a flying 5/5 after a short while. Maybe its good to add some more creatures in your deck?

Another fine sorcery is the Mind Funeral , but not if you want to keep your deck standard :/

/Hanna

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely take a look at your deck. I'm just going to be honest, Balustrade Spy is awful, and Jace's Mindseeker is not the best either. With 5 drops of Consuming Aberration , Jace, Memory Adept , and maybe Mind Grind , I don't really want to spend anymore mana. The plan is to control the opponent as best as I can until the Aberration and Jace can get out and start doing some hard mill. I'm probably going to take Breaking out altogether, actually, and focus on early control instead. The issue here is, how can a mill deck be as good as a normal control deck since we have to split our cards between our hard hitting creatures, control spells, and mill spells? The aberration does a TON of damage by itself, not to mention it mills EVERY TIME A SPELL IS CAST. WHICH IS AWESOME. Do small mill, destroy creatures, bounce creatures back, counter spells until the big guy can get out. Omenspeaker stops early aggro as a chump blocker and lets us scry, giving pseudo card advantage. Nighthowler is just great in a mill deck, really. Might take him out since his bestow is for 4.

Flying shouldn't matter, theoretically. All creatures should be adequately controlled, including flying. Since we lost Jace's Phantasm , I don't think including a less than good flier is really worth it. :/

I'd probably include Nightveil Specter if nothing else.

I personally don't like Crypt Incursion in mill decks. It just seems to hurt your own win con. The only hard core mill card you have right now is Mind Grind . I would pop in some Tome Scour , Breaking , Diabolic Tutor . It seems like if Jace, Memory Adept doesn't get out quickly, and stay alive, the deck falls apart.

Baleful Eidolon works well for a two drop, provides deathtouch to deter attacks, plus its cheap.

We lost a lot of good mill cards, I still don't have my mill standard working the way I want, but it feels pretty crummy to die to buffed Gladecover Scout ...

I'd have to suggest a Traumatize or 2 just because it's pretty awesome.

Do I send out a Jace and mill 10 this turn or put my opponent out 25 cards this turn... Seems like a good idea most of the time.