So while looking up combos for a mill deck I stumbled upon this article (http://casualplaneswalker.com/blog/killer-combo-clear-your-mind-and-your-library/) from 2011 and loved the idea behind it and would like some input before I buy the cards. I started out with the cards mentioned in the article and comments and played around with the quantity of cards and looked for alternatives that would be more effective. I personally like the fact that the majority of cards in this deck cost 3 mana or less which allows multiple cards played per turn in the late game which can overwhelm the opponent.
It focuses on Jace's Archivist + Sphinx's Tutelage
bouncing their abilities off each other. Jace's Archivist is great because I get a fresh 7 cards, and my opponent gets a fresh 7 cards, but because of Sphinx's Tutelage, my opponent also has to mill a 14 additional cards. Jace, Memory Adept pairs with both of these cards. Jace's +1 works with Sphinx and his -7 works extremely well with both Sphinx and Archivist. In a possible scenario you could use Jace's ultimate to have both players draw 20 cards (Although I find myself using his 0 most often). Due to Sphinx's ability the opponent would have to mill 40 cards. Then if Archivist is on the field you could make him discard the 20+ cards in his hand likely making him/her lose. However the deck does no rely solely on this combo. Any two of these 3 cards combo well for a win condition. A recent edition is Fraying Sanity which doubles the speed of this mill machine.
Hedron Crab and Psychic Spiral add to the mill machine. Psychic Spiral also allows for cards previously used in the duel to be used again. And because land tends to stay on the field the new library will have a higher spell to land ratio which means more spells faster, if that make sense. Fraying Sanity + Psychic Spiral
is also a killer combo.
Cancel, Negate, Turn to Frog, and Vapor Snag all are meant to pull the classic blue deck strategy of preventing your opponent from doing anything to get ahead. Visions of Beyond adds drawing power while Omenspeaker and Shelldock Isle allows you to sort through your cards so you can draw the most advantageous card. Snapcaster Mage allows you to reuse instants and sorceries from your graveyard and can me used to block attacks aswell.
Jace's Phantasm and Fog Bank are meant to be a low cost creature that could either play a defensive role and block the opponent's creatures, or in Jace's Phantasm's case, play an offensive role and put pressure on the opponent. It would be a rare occasion that I wouldn't be able to make it a 5/5. My other defense is
One thing I have an issue with is when the opponent plays many creatures and takes my life points faster than I can mill their cards. To counter that I have considered adding cards like Duskmantle Guildmage, Countersquall, Glimpse the Unthinkable, etc. Do you think that this would help or be more harm than good.
If anybody has any ideas on how to make this deck more effective please let me know.
TL;DR: Mill alot, prevent opponent from getting upper hand with instants.
