Drop Consuming Aberration it is too slow and competes with phenax and with phenax add atleast 1 if not 2 more. He is your main win con get more of him. I would drop the 2 Gray merchants for 2 Cyclonic Rift . I dont particularily like Mirko but he could work however I would replace 4x Doom Blade with 4x Hero's Downfall

oh and -1 Mirko and in place +1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

I'm working on aquiring a second Phenax, God of Deception for sure, I don't draw him nearly as much as I'd like with only one. Mirko #3 is in his place for now.

Swapping Gray Merchant of Asphodel for Cyclonic Rift is interesting. I like the idea, and I'll see how it holds up.

As for Consuming Aberration , he and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker are such great creatures, because getting rid of opponents land is both evil and hugely satisfying.

For Hero's Downfall , I wouldn't need Dark Betrayal in the sideboard anymore, so what would you suggest in its place?

To add a second Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver , I think I'd drop a Whip of Erebos because by dropping the two Gray Merchant of Asphodel for Cyclonic Rift , I'm making it much less useful.

Dark Betrayal is still great in sideboard when facing another black deck I would keep it. and if you are dropping whip which I agree with I'd run 2 ashioksand 3 cyclonic Rifts.

Also I am currently in possession of an extra phenax if you would like to talk about trading email me at [email protected]

and please comment on my deck Black Devo Splashing White

upvoted you as well sorry about taking whole comment space for this

Maybe I'm missing something, but with only two creatures I see Phenax, God of Deception kind of going to waste here. Mirko Vosk can mill more on his own

My mistake, ignore that. I had two windows open and the comment has nothing to do with your deck lol

Looks nice, +1 from me.

@MistaMint Lol it happens, no worries!

@mercurial_golem Thanks! Do you have any suggestions?

I've been thinking of swapping Nightveil Specter out for Desecration Demon , remove kill spells (probably Far / Away ), and add more counters (most likely Dissolve ). Reason being, while Nightveil is awesome and gives 3 devotion, D-Demon is just better. An opponent can sac a creature to tap him at combat, and if I have Phenax in play I can respond by tapping D-Demon to mill, and he'd still get a +1/+1 counter from the sacced creature.

Nightveil is better against other types of control though, so I'd side them and take out Woodlot Crawler .

Drop your consuming aberration and 1 nightveil for 3 dese. Dese are faster and more reliable and serve as pseudo removal and you cna tap them to mill in response to them saccing a creature to tap it. You want to keep nightveil becasue 1 nightveil makes phenax a creature. Phenax is devo to both blue and back therefore nightveil has 3 blue and 3 black for a total of six devotion. Phenax takes 7 combined and has 1 and 1 putting you at a grand total of 8.

Next I would drop your 2 aetherling for 2 Dissolve aetherling is a win condition you dont need and takes too long to get out. Not to mention every time you exile it, it comes back with summoning sickness so you cant mill.

You could also drop thassa for more counters/removal or dese and nightveil but I like the scry so I would keep it personally.

@wolfsokol: A) Phenax, God of Deception + Nightveil Specter is not enough devotion. Nightveil, despite having both symbols, only provides three devotion.

B) Consuming Aberration may be slow, but it mills them out stupid fast and gets stupid huge if they dont deal with him. I have kill spells and counters to stall until I can drop him.

C) AEtherling is a double win-con. He deals damage, and can mill for as much as I want if I have Phenax, God of Deception in play. Also, he comes back at the beginning of the next end step, so I can in one turn use him to block, then tap him to mill, then exile him and still be able to attack or mill with him come my turn.

I've been trying to make this deck concept work at my local card store. been playing it for a month it's very competitive but I always loose to control U/W, Esper, and America. my deck is in my folder if you want to see how I currently have it. +1 for standard mill control.

@ TheHroth not to be rude but you are wrong.I will try to find the ruling about it for you.

Alright I found it http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/therosmechanics that is the post and this is the quote from that post.

It doesn't come up in Theros, but hybrid mana symbols and other unusual colored mana symbols also count toward your devotion to each of their colors. For example, a permanent that costs Red or Green ManaRed or Green Mana adds two to your devotion to red and two to your devotion to green.

Giving this nightveil automatically makes him a creature.

Yes, Nightveil Specter provides three blue as well as three black devotion, so he counts as three towards Thassa and Erebos. Phenax is different though, because of the way he is written. He asks for devotion to black and blue together, not devotion to black and devotion to blue separately. There is a really good article somewhere on this site exaining exactly this, and I'll try to find it again.

Here is the page explaining the devotion:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/mogis-god-of-slaughter-devotion/

Forgot to actually like it, here:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/mogis-god-of-slaughter-devotion/

Link not like XD

Huh interesting, thanks for clearing that up. They really should make that more clear.

@ TheHroth would you mind taking a look at my mill deck Mill on mine mill on yours it is very similar to yours. However I am thinking I wil ltake my Nightveils out, however I do not what to replace with.

What about Lazav, Dimir Mastermind ? He would work as another win con.

I used to run Lazav, Dimir Mastermind but found him to be a) very hard to cast and b) mostly unnecessary. I always found myself holding onto him even when I could cast him. He is a great guy, but I dont think he works very well in this deck. For 4 mana I'd much rather play Desecration Demon because it accomplishes three things: mills with Phenax, God of Deception , works as pseudo removal, and beats opponents to death if I don't draw Phenax, God of Deception . Lazav, Dimir Mastermind doesn't have the same versatility to him, and seems like a dead draw if I don't have Phenax to mill something he can turn into.

I'm surprised there's no Hover Barrier in the sideboard to deal with flying things.

Also, what about Wight of Precinct Six ? Gets bigger on creature mill so good for Phenax, plus optional attacker.

I've long debated Hover Barrier over Wall of Frost in the main board, but I usually find myself with enough removal/counters to deal with fliers so I'm not sure. The extra toughness and freeze ability of Wall of Frost make me like it more. If I were to sideboard Hover Barrier , what would you remove for it?