Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus are out due to the rules committee being absolute idiots. Quick slot ins for now until I have some time to look more are The Mindskinner and Chromatic Lantern. Will update descriptions eventually.
Welcome my fellow grain grinding enthusiasts! Forget the dusty, tribal zombies of Scarab God decks of yore, this deck is a true mill deck, sprinkled with a touch of reanimation and life drain / gain triggers. The support that mill has gotten over the last 3 years in recent sets has made the act of milling out our opponents for the win less of a long-shot and much more of a reality, especially with this deck. Our main wincon and goal is to STRAIGHT UP MILL all of our opponents for the victory, but we also run a fair bit of reanimation spells to abuse our foes with all of the nasty creatures they inevitably fill up their graveyards with from our many mill triggers. Of course, even without these reanimation spells, our fearless Dark Insect Lord Commander The Scarab God and his built in zombie token creation trigger is our primary means of exploiting all our enemies milled creatures to ensure our ultimate victory. We also run the likes of Bloodchief Ascension and other damning life drain / gain effects, which when combined with our massive milling capabilities, can end games quick. In the deck I will often refer to Scarab God's reanimation ability, do keep in mind though it is not actually reanimation as Scarab God is exiling a creature card from a graveyard and making a 4/4 zombie token version of it. We do aim to make plenty of these exiled zombie token warriors and have a few other cards that can make zombies, but our beetle Lord's scry ability is not a focus of ours in the deck and just a nice bonus when we get a few peeks at the top of our deck from it. All cards are separated below into our main synergies / themes. I currently have just a small maybeboard, but this section will continue to grow and have descriptions added to it in the coming weeks. Please throw a flour making, Dark Lord worshipping brother an upvote if you enjoy the bread!
Card Draw / Tutors / Windmills
All Commander decks want to draw cards and we are no exception. We are sticking with our color's most powerful staples and wheels to achieve this.
Dark Deal, Whispering Madness and Windfall
Our three "windmill" wheel spells. We love these wheels because they can not only re-draw our hands, but also fill our opponent's graveyards with tasty reanimation targets. Whispering Madness gets an extra shout out for its cipher to creature ability, which can enable us to wheel each turn we are able to connect for combat damage with our ciphered creature. Don't underestimate how much these cards can shake up our opponents entire game plan when they are forced to discard their original hands. We run both Bone Miser and Waste Not, as well as Sangromancer, to get additional powerful benefits from our wheel spells.
Eldritch Pact
I've found it's always great to have at least one "hail mary" card in your deck to draw an obscene amount of cards in an absolute emergency, but that is not the reason the card has made the cut and become one of my favorites. The reason Eldritch Pact is so good, is to USE IT ON OUR OPPONENTS. Any game our mill gets swinging (and swing it does) Pact is a one shot kill. Our opponent has 46 cards in their graveyard? 24? 17? That's direct life loss of whichever amount to their FRIGGIN FACE. This is often an out of nowhere one shot kill on an opponent. Thank you to the random Muldrotha, the Gravetide *f-etch* player who used this on me when I was playing Disa the Restless and had 63 cards in my graveyard for showing me the way and ruining my evening at the exact same time.
Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study
Two of the best to have ever done it. Both excellent opening hand keepers that can ensure us some great early game draw opportunities. Also come in clutch late game when our hands may be low.
Life Drain / Gain
All of the mighty mill in our deck achieves one main purpose, putting lots of cards into everyone's graveyards (including our own). These cards take advantage of this by draining our opponents for their precious life points and gaining us life as the same time whenever cards hit the graveyard. These cards are how we most often win games we have not been able to mill our enemies to completion.
Bloodchief Ascension
Our main wincon piece in the deck besides total enemy mill. Once activated with 3+ counters, we have many spells in our deck such as Maddening Cacophony or Traumatize that can end games or single opponents in just one cast. Every one of those cards going into our enemies graveyards is hitting them for 2 life and gaining us 2 life. It gets lethal quick folks...Also infinites with Mindcrank.
Kokusho, the Evening Star
With three opponents still alive, a single death trigger nets us 15 life, while draining each of them for 5 life. One of our top reanimation targets whenever our spectral dragon friend ends up in our graveyard.
Sangromancer
We like gaining life, it keeps us alive, especially if a turn 1 Mana Crypt has been taking its toll on us. Sangromancer is one of our best ways to stack up our life total. Combined with any one of our wheel spells Dark Deal, Whispering Madness and Windfall (as long as someone has a decent amount of cards in hand) we can be looking at some serious 30+ life gain effects on a turn. Don't sleep on how good Sangromancer is against any card draw heavy decks who haven't found their Reliquary Tower yet and are discarding multiple cards to get down to hand size each turn.
Syr Konrad, the Grim
Old, steady, dark Knight Syr Konrad. The versatility of his damage triggered ability is the best in the game. Now, whenever a creature is milled or placed into ANY graveyard, we hit our enemies for direct damage. Just wait, there's more folks, whenever a creature card LEAVES our graveyard we drain all our opponents as well, plain incredible and a nice deterrence to our opponent's exiling our reanimation targets when he is on the battlefield and our yard is full of creatures. Don't forget about his pay 2 mana mill one card ability in any situations you find one of your opponents at 1 life and you have no other way to activate a final damage trigger. A lucky creature mill from any of our opponents or ourselves can send our weak foe back to the hell they came from and secure us the W. This is another card that ends games when combined with the likes of Maddening Cacophony and Traumatize.
Welcome to the Gristmill
The heart of our deck is here. We run almost every blue mill staple card as well as some powerful mass exile effects to help empty our opponents libraries.
Miller's Tools of the Trade
Altar of the Brood, Mesmeric Orb and Mindcrank
Our artifact mill staples. All great cards to end up with in an opening hand. Altar, although the slowest of the three, is great reliable turn after turn mill and our Holy Orb is one of the most potent cards we have to rapidly mill our opponents (and selves) each turn. The ol' Crank does draw us a lot of ire from the table, but as we get this anyhow once our milling ways are reveled, we'll take the hate for the sheer amount of cards Crank can mill once some creatures start swinging. Goes lethal infinite with Bloodchief Ascension.
Catastrophic Flour
Cut Your Losses and Maddening Cacophony
Our two cataclysmic mill spells that can put half of each of our enemies libraries into their graveyard. Partnered with Bruvac the Grandiloquent, these spells can end the game by milling out our foes in one single shot. Don't forget you need a permanent with power 2 or greater to sacrifice in order to target two separate players with Cut Your Losses.
Solid Grains
Fascination and Mind Grind
Both X pay cost spells that can hit our enemies for solid mill. Fascination has the bonus of emergency card draw capabilities, but remember that it will also draw all of our opponents cards and thus should only be used in dire circumstances.
Fractured Sanity
In an absolute pinch, we can cycle Fractured to draw a card and still get a 4 card mill out of our enemies. With that in mind, we want to be using Sanity for its "each opponent mills 14 cards" ability whenever possible, as it is one of our largest, universal mill effect spells in the deck.
Re-Occuring Bread
Court of Cunning, Memory Erosion and Psychic Corrosion
All mill effects that trigger each turn or every time we draw a card or an opponent casts a spell. Court of Cunning gets an extra shoutout for its monarch ability and the extra card draw opportunity.
Targeted Loaves
Although our deck focuses on mill abilities and triggers that universally hit all of our opponents at the same time, these next cards are strong enough that we do not mind that they target only a single one of our enemies instead.
Archive Trap
Zero mana cost capability spells are just plain fun and let's be honest, when was the last time you had the chance to efficiently run a trap in a deck? All good reasons to add Archive into our mill madness. A great one to get off early game on an enemy fetch land trigger for zero cost and create some early reanimation triggers for our Scarab God when he hits the battlefield.
Psychic Spiral
Our only way of saving us from the dreaded self-mill in the deck except for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Should be prioritized for this purpose, but can also be a one shot knockout mill kill to any threatening opponent when our graveyards are packed. The perfect situation is we are casting this late game, with only one opponent left and a stuffed graveyard for the instant mill win on their next upkeep.
Traumatize
Our catastrophic, single target mill spell. Again, with Bruvac the Grandiloquent on the battlefield, this is a one shot opponent mill kill.
Creature Oats
All creatures with powerful mill abilities and triggers. Some of our go-to wins in the deck are reanimating these creatures with Scarab God and our other return from graveyard to battlefield spells.
Consuming Aberration
It just doesn't get old casting this horrific Aberration for 5 mana and many games getting a 50/50+ P/T creature in return. Add in the potent effect of milling our opponent until they reveal a land EVERY time we cast a spell, Aberration is an absolute powerhouse in our deck.
Dreamborn Muse
One of our best re-occuring creature mill abilities. Combined with the likes of Mesmeric Orb our opponents often end up dreading their usual gleeful upkeep steps.
Fleet Swallower and Terisian Mindbreaker
Boy are these to worth it when we are able to get them off and one of the main reasons we run Lightning Greaves. Another two that combined with Bruvac the Grandiloquent one shot mill kill whichever opponent we swing at. Mindbreaker is especially effective as (with no other reanimation spells considered) we can use its 4 mana cost unearth ability to return it to the battlefield from the graveyard for another attack and mill half library trigger, even without Scarab God on the battlefield.
Sphinx Mindbreaker
When our Sphinx enters the battlefield, all our opponents mill ten cards. Another great Scarab God / reanimation spell target when in the yard.
Special Doughs
Bond of Insight
Everyone mills 4 and we put our cherished Cyclonic Rift, Deadly Rollick and / or Mana Drain back into our hand from the graveyard. Incredible way to re-use our most powerful removal spells when able, but also a great spell to take advantage of the instant and sorceries we end up milling throughout the game.
Bruvac the Grandiloquent
Our corpulent, eloquent MVP of the deck, Bruvac. The man who has single-handedly enabled so many of our mill victories and made them all possible. The only card in the history of Magic to double ANY and ALL mill effects, on release Bruvac instantly rejuvenated all of us hopeless miller's wildest dreams and fantasies for efficient milling domination. In fact, I think it was shortly after his Jumpstart debut that I began re-tooling my old zombie heavy Scarab God deck into this current mill version. One of our top Demonic Tutor targets and reanimation targets when the time is right to go off for a same turn opponent mill kill.
Dread Summons
This is an excellent spell in our deck not only for Summons universal mill effect, but because we get the bonus of creating a number of 2/2 zombie creature tokens for every creature card our enemies mill. This pairs quite lovely with our Scarab God's scry ability each upkeep (which we otherwise don't run much synergy for) and gives us some zombie creature firepower to swing / block with.
Raul, Trouble Shooter
One of the biggest downsides of an all out mill deck is the amount of cards we inevitably "waste" by putting them into our graveyard. Hence, why we run a decent chunk of reanimation spells in our deck and Scarab God is our Commander. Along these reanimation lines, our decaying companero Raul is our "any milled spell" solution. Now, with Raul shooting things up on the battlefield, we can cast one spell we have milled on each of our turns from our graveyard. This is an incredibly strong effect in our deck as we aim to be milling each and every turn. Bonus that in a pinch we can also tap Raul to have everyone mill 1 card when needed.
Shadow Kin
Wow, I had no idea how good this card was going to be when I first slotted it into the deck. We may not always get this lucky of course, but first time I had Shadow Kin hit the battlefield it milled and became a copy of an enemies flying, trample 13/13 Emrakul, the Promised End. That's right folks, a 4 mana cost Emrakul. Besides the fact that Shadow Kin also is a re-occuring mill each of our upkeeps, this card is so spectacular because unlike the likes of Faerie Artisans, we get to CHOOSE if Shadow Kin transforms into one of our enemies milled creatures or not each turn. You guessed right that I ended up keeping Emrakul around that entire game, but the versatility of being able to hold onto the most powerful copied creature each turn and only morph it whenever a better one is milled is simply mwah
Banish from the Bakery
These are powerful library exile spells that help us achieve our opponent's total and utter mill.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
I wish I had the look on my face recorded when someone nailed me with this spell for the first time. It did not help that I was playing a white weenie deck. For only a mere 3 mana we can exile a large amount of our enemies decks. This is a great lucky (or skillful) answer to one of our deck's biggest threats, opponent's playing cards like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth that are preventing us from milling them to zero cards in their libraries. Another rarely seen one I have been more than pleased with.
Ulamog, the Defiler
Being of the Dimir tribe, ramp can be difficult for us, so we are often stuck "just" reanimating Ulamog for his annihilator triggers. Remember he gets counters equal to the highest mana cost card in exile, NOT just cards exiled with his ETB on cast only ability. This means when we exile Ulamog with Scarab God's ability from our graveyard, our highest exiled card is now our very own 10 mana alien scum and our Ulamog token enters with annihilator 10 every time. The main reason we do include this atrocity of a piece of cardboard in our deck though is indeed with the hope of casting him for his 10 colorless cost and exiling half of our most threatening or most milled opponent's library.
Yeast / Wheat Cost Reduction
Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo
Our EDH "yeast" ramp staples. A huge part of our game plan requires having Scarab God on the battlefield to abuse all our enemies milled creatures, so we run Mana Vault and Thran Dynamo for the extra colorless boost.
Jeweled Lotus
I'll say it again, we want our insect Lord on the battlefield whenever possible. Jeweled Lotus give us three mana of any one color to call him forth. This is especially useful to us to save mana, as except when exiled, Scarab God's last ability returns him to our hand on our end step from the graveyard and negates the normal Commander tax.
Throne of Eldraine
One of the best new card draw and ramp spells in recent memory. An auto-include in any mono colored and most dual colored identity Commander decks. We are casting this royal chair for BLUE mana, 9/10 times to enable our most powerful mill spells like Maddening Cacophony and removal such as Cyclonic Rift. The only time I would recommend picking black is if you find yourself with only Throne and a black powerhouse spell such as Breach the Multiverse in hand late game. Thought four colors of mana to use on any mono-blue spell wasn't good enough? We can also choose to pay 3 mana and tap Throne for a valuable two card draw each turn instead. Our shining ramp star in the deck.
Training Grounds
The only spell in all of magic that truly reduces the cost of activated abilities. As we want to be using Scarab God's token reanimation ability as many times per turn as possible, Training Grounds is one of the best cards in our deck. Another great opening hand keeper and Demonic Tutor target.
Back in the Toaster
Animate Dead, Necromancy and Reanimate
Our classic Commander reanimation spells. We are milling tons of creature cards into graveyards and are running all three of these cards to take advantage of this. Combined with our Scarab God's token reanimation ability, we are covering the battlefield with our enemies Frankensteined slain warriors before we know it.
Breach the Multiverse
Please note, ANY and EVERY BLACK DECK you EVER build, YOU SHOULD BE PLAYING BREACH THE MULTIVERSE, it is really that good. 7 mana, blah blah, this thing could and probably should be 10 mana and I would still play it. I don't care if you playing mono Rats, some Dimir faeries or Orzhov angels, does your commander have black in their color identity? PLAY BREACH THE MULTIVERSE. Oh, we're stealing a creature from every opponent 90% of the time on their mill and filling their graveyards with other tasty reanimation targets for our spells? Not to mention reanimating one of our own creatures as well? PLAY BREACH THE MULTIVERSE. This also ends games with an activated Bloodchief Ascension on the battlefield. Not to mention it mills everyone for ten cards. It’s so good, I just copy and paste this section into every one of my decks.
Virtue of Persistence
One of the few cards in our deck well worth the high 7 mana cost. This is our most potent reanimation piece in our deck. Get it out for its 2 adventure cost early to wipe an opponent's pesky Esper Sentinel and then cast it later for its 7 normal cost from exile when you have the mana. Now, each of our upkeeps we can return ANY creature from ANY graveyard straight to the battlefield. I had excluded this originally in the deck for its high mana cost, but its effect, along with the utility of its adventure sorcery is just too strong in our deck to miss out on. This card has been absolute money since I have slotted it in and goes off often.
Throw out the Mold
Cyclonic Rift
One of the most played blue cards in all of Commander for a reason. Yes, we want to always use it for its overload when possible, but don't underestimate casting it for its single target removal in emergencies. A great target for our Bond of Insight after we've cast it once or it has ended up milled.
Damnation and Toxic Deluge
Our two main board wipes in the deck. Can't argue with Damnation's 4 drop mana cost destruction efficiency and Deluge's life cost paying versatility.
Deadly Rollick
Our one and only creature exile spell, use it wisely and ideally for its zero mana cost with Scarab God buzzin' around the battlefield.
Feed the Swarm and Steal Enchantment
Our two answers to pesky stax enchantments in our deck. Swarm can also be used to destroy a creature, but we want to hold it for an answer to a formidable enchantment threat whenever possible. Steal Enchantment can be quite entertaining and nothing is more satisfying than using the likes of someone else's Painful Quandary against them. YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF.
Infinite Obliteration
Believe it or not EDH players, there are quite a number of these three mana cost black "remove all cards with same name from all areas" in Magic. No-one just ever plays them in Commander, like ever. I mean, why the hell would you? I will tell you why. It's to remove Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre from our foe's decks. We want to win by STRAIGHT milling ALL of our opponents oats into our own fine flour and these cards which shuffle their owner's graveyards back into their libraries are our greatest threat. Infinite Obliteration is our one answer to this. A niche play, but oh my Lord is it rewarding when it pays off and well worth keeping this slotted in for. Wait for a large mill spell when we notice which Eldrazi our enemy shuffles back in and then name it next turn with Infinite on the stack to eliminate the problem. Yes, its just one answer, but the games we run up against two enemies both playing mill protection is few and far in between. Is also a great answer to any graveyard cards causing us big problems such as Anger, Spore Frog, or Wonder.
Mana Drain
The best counter spell in the history of the game that's not zero mana cost. We will hold up the two blue when we can in hopes of catching a large mana cost spell to counter to gain the free colorless mana on our next main phase. A usual auto-include when playing any blue.
Oubliette
There's no chance for our enemies Commanders to flee back to the Command Zone when they are phased out, making this pit in the ground one of the meanest and most effective Commander removal spells out there. Especially strong against mono-black and other enchantment removal light colors.
Sheoldred *ser*
The newest rendition of the Phyrexian temptress, Sheoldred. This has quickly become an auto-include in any of my Commander decks with black in their color identity. For just 5 mana, each of our enemies has to sacrifice a NONTOKEN creature (how’s that indestructible treating you now?) and once an opponent’s graveyard has 8 or more cards in it, we can transform her into a Saga and destroy one target creature of our choosing for EACH opponent. This card can be absolutely clutch for destroying the biggest threat from each individual player in one single transform trigger. If you happen to get the ultimate and return all creatures from all graveyards to the battlefield and then re-transform our Saga back into Sheoldred for another sacrifice trigger, I applaud you. This has not happened in over 500 games for me. Again, incredible if it happens for you, but the main utility of this card for us lies in its original sacrifice and initial transform to destroy ability. Another clutch reanimation target when we need removal in a pinch. Edit. Last night 9/6 I had Sheoldred's saga flip for the first time ever to return every creature from the graveyard to me for the win and wow, dreams do come true after all...
Special Cultures
Bone Miser and Waste Not
Our two card drawing, mana producing, token creating discard benefit spells. We keep both these in our deck hoping to get them on the battlefield with Dark Deal, Whispering Madness or Windfall in hand. Ensue chaotic shenanigans all around.
Lightning Greaves
We like protecting our bug Lord for 2 mana (zero equip cost) and giving him haste. Also fantastic for our Ulamog, the Defiler for same turn annihilator triggers or any of our 4/4 token zombie creature copies we have made that have punishing attack or combat damage triggers.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Not that our twin Ulamog's 10/10 P/T indestructible annihilator 4 should be laughed at, but our main purpose for including the Infinite version of our Eldrazi friend is he is our main answer to the dreaded and embarrassing lethal self-mill. Self mill is a reality in our deck so try to keep the ol' Gyre out of our hand and let him hit the graveyard repeatedly to shuffle all of our discarded cards back into our library time after time.
Zellix, Sanity Flayer
Whenever our opponent's mill a creature card (and we aim for them to do this quite often) we create a 1/1 black horror creature. We can also tap the Flayer himself to have an opponent mill three cards, but we are primarily interested in creating a bunch of free horrific tokens off our mill triggers.
Special Recipe Lands
Agadeem's Awakening
With Dimir's double color identity it's more of a why not include Agadeems? We can pay 3 life if we need it to come in untapped and have the possible bonus of returning some of our slain creatures to the battlefield.
Duskmantle, House of Shadow
We'll take the loss of a black or blue producing land for the ability to mill everyone for a single card. Rarely used, but can make all the difference in close engagements when we just need that one last Bloodchief Ascension or Syr Konrad, the Grim trigger to seal someone's fate.
Field of the Dead
The only reason we've thrown some pretty snow lands into our basic mix is to help our "seven different named lands" activation fee on Field of the Dead. We run enough nonbasics in the deck that it wouldn't make sense not to play everyone's favorite zombie token creating grassland.
Phyrexian Tower
It's great to have an available sac outlet on a land, especially one that can net us an additional 2 black mana as well. A good exile defense for us when we want a creature to end up in our graveyard instead for reanimation. Scarab God in particular.
Scavenger Grounds
The times we activate Grounds are few and far in between, as normally we want all graveyards as full as possible from our many mill spells. Despite this fact, I always like to have at least one answer to possible main opponent strategies as now and again we do come up against powerful graveyard ability decks such as Araumi of the Dead Tide or Muldrotha the Graveside. Scavenger Grounds is our answer the few times we find ourselves losing the graveyard battle.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
As Shizo comes in untapped for one black mana, it's another why not include it card when running Dimir. Another one we rarely activate, but can make all the difference once we reanimate an enemy creature that has treacherous combat damage triggers we want to make sure hit.
Strip Mine
Land destruction is a must in any Commander deck. There's friggin Glacial Chasms out there people. I usually run Wasteland as well, but for now I've been getting by with one in favor of Duskmantle, House of Shadow's mill ability.
War Room
We like backup card draw opportunities where we can get them. Bonus we only have to pay 2 life in addition to the 3 mana to activate War Room's draw. Great late games in a pinch when mana is high and cards are low.
Basic Grains and Other Lands
We run the one dual we can Underground Sea for maximum efficiency, as well as a mix of bonds, fetches, filter and flip lands to create us as much untapped black and blue mana as possible. For basics, we are running x10 Islands (x5 Reg. x5 Snow) and x6 Swamps (x3 Reg. x3 Snow). The snows as previously mentioned are just to help get different named lands to activate Field of the Dead. If you look at our adorable mana pie chart on the right banner you'll notice we are matched up quite nicely.
End of the Grind
Well fellow millers, we've made it to the end of our deck. Before we go, I have one important tidbit to remind everyone of. No matter how many times I try to explain to opponents that our insect Lord is a benevolent, bread baking God, our deck often incites massive hate from the entire table. In other words, WE ARE A TARGET. Stay focused and remember to take full advantage of our Scarab God's return to hand from graveyard ability when destroyed. It's not really our Scarab baker himself that draws all the animosity, but more so whenever we reveal our true mill intentions with the likes of Mesmeric Orb. Any game I do not draw strong mill in my opening hand, I will take the opposite approach and try to ramp quietly and keep friendly with the table (sometimes not even casting Scarab) until I am able to drop a powerhouse combo like Bruvac the Grandiloquent and Maddening Cacophony out of the blue. Although total enemy mill is our primary objective, the real fun of this deck comes in filling our opponent's graveyards with tons of enemy creatures for us to reanimate with Scarab God and our other spells. Hope you all enjoyed the journey and can use this deck to mill all of your opponents into that sweet, fine white flour. Keep bakin' and a shoutout to all my twisted, fellow mill lovers. We are a rare breed.
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