@ducttapedeckbox I took out Grisly Spectacle. Spectacle has been really terrible for me. Always milling 1-3 cards at best, or it just sits in my hand cuz I'm murdering their deck and countering stuff. For 1 more mana it seemed fitting to prevent them from casting stuff even more. With all the mill to land, my opponents have been hard up to get the mana they need to cast stuff. Locking their pool was better for me than trying to gibb creatures they wouldn't be casting anyway.

Correction, I took out 4x Grisly Spectacle and put in 2 in the sideboard along with 2x Agoraphobia and 4 Destroy the Evidence. When you nerf their creature it does wonders for your sustainability, and then you can pop it off and spectacle it, then return the enchantment to you hand.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but: on the stack you would return Agoraphobia first, then respond with Grisly Spectacle, since the cost has already been paid for Agoraphobia it should return to your hand using last known information since the cost was paid?

ducttapedeckbox I checked out that deckbuilder article and I definitely need to try Codex Shredder.And yes Enyeto you would bounce Agoraphobia to your hand first, but that all seems a little excessive for a mill deck when you could just use Tribute to Hunger or Devour Flesh to kill creatures. The added mill from Grisly Spectacle just seems a little aribitrary for the cost. Should be sideboarded at best imo.

Its an instant speed removal spell without any hindrances. It can target any type of creature, and not only does it kill any creature for 1 more mana (compared to Murder, because there are no artifact creatures being run right now), but it also helps your mill engine, which is the focus of this deck.

Personally... The card is good to be used in most situations. Against aggro, you will definitely need the cheap kill spells to be able to stabilize, but anything that isn't aggro, you could definitely put some hurt on them with a single, well timed Grisly Spectacle.

However.. as far as running 4 in the mainboard... I'm not so sure as. I wouldn't go more than 3 because you wouldn't want to use this on a 1/1. Rather, you'd like to save it for their bombs like Thragtusk or Thundermaw Hellkite. Having one in your opening hand isn't always needed. It takes up a slot that could be something more useful during the early game.

If anything, I would swap out 1 Grisly Spectacle and 1 Cyclonic Rift for 2 Barter in Blood or 2 Think Twice. OR, take it a completely different route, and remove 2 Grisly Spectacle and 1 Cyclonic Rift and throw in 3 Contaminated Ground mainboard to screw up your opponents mana fixing.

@ Vos_Is_Boss -- I've been playtesting with Duskmantle Seer and I'm still debating on which to run. I agree with you about running Grisly Spectacle, but I will have to play around with the numbers to see what works best. Think Twice is something I'm definitely considering.

@ Enyeto -- It may be my meta, but Grisly Spectacle is extremely helpful in almost every game I play. Even when it's popping a Boros Reckoner, it's doing the work of at least two cards, by killing it and milling three. I'm concerned with the higher costs of the other suggest cards.

@ eslaton7751 -- I'm against Devour Flesh and Tribute to Hunger as well. I never ever want to give the opponent a chance to decide anything. And think about it this way: Murder costs 1BB, so any milling Grisly Spectacle does only costs 1. I don't think that's half bad.

@eslaton7751 It's great against Thragtusk, Any evolve deck, Primordial Hydra, other x/x creatures like Geist-Honored Monk, etc. I altered this deck a little bit so I'm playing a little more control in the deck than this.

I do my best not to not let the big stuff resolve, but when it does, I have a couple turns of answers for it. Remember that mill is not a fast paced win like direct damage. It'll be a grinding process like extorting. Of course there are cards that mill for a good amount for low cost; but, looking at this realistically, there will be several times where you get land flood/drought. On numerous games I have had hands with 2 Psychic Strike and 3 Grisly Spectacle all the while, I have been milling past their creatures and they are only playing lands.

All these changes are most likely from my local meta. People either play weenie aggro, bant control or jund at my place.

Cant say much man, this deck looks great, shows me just how much i have to learn with building decks that work and dont cost hundreds of dollars. After work i plan to really sit down and playtest this deck to try and glean some knowledge from its construction, maybe figure out some competitive deck building strategies. Thanks!

@ Shadoh.net -- Please let me know if you have any suggestions, questions, or insights that arise through your playtesting! I'm glad you like the deck!

Why Thought Scour instead of Tome Scour ? Granted you get to draw a card with thought scour but you're milling 3 extra cards with tome scour.+1 though.Check out my mono-blue mill deck Trash it. It's still a work in progress

Tome scour is not standard legal... even if it were, drawing cards is nice.

Ah forget this was standard legal. Though it was modern.

Yuppp it's Standard. I will check your deck out though!

really like this deck. definitely +1 from me. not sure if you can squeeze 'em in with your mana base here but a couple of Ghost Quarter s might not be too bad. helps out a ton with Consuming Aberration and Mind Grind . plus you can get rid of any pesky "special" lands they might have going. given how few basic lands some decks run these days, they might not even get to replace their land at all. just a thought.

@ casey -- I'm not sure if the current land base allows for that, but in a non-budget version of this deck that includes Drowned Catacomb and Watery Grave , it would probably fit. I'll play around with it. Thank you for the suggestion!

is there a black or blue card to remove artifacts?

@ mmdw34 -- To specifically remove artifacts? Not that I know of. I think the best (and only) option is to bounce/counter them.

ducttapedeckbox Can you recheck my deck again? Here's the link. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/new-duskmantle-control/

@ riccochet -- I have it opened in another tab so hopefully I'll remember to check it out later.

ducttapedeckbox - I highly respect your deck building skills. I've followed and kept up with your Milling deck for quite some time and even made a 'copy' of it on MTGO to have some fun with.

I plan on doing the same for this deck as well. I had an idea for a deck and thought if anyone could tell me if it is even a viable idea or if it's even worth looking into, I would ask you for your help.

All I'm asking is to take a peek at the description to get the idea, see if you think it's viable, if so, then I'll start playtesting it online and search manipulate the cards where I think it falls short, or you think it falls short.

I know you're bust by reading your blog post etc... but if could manage to find the time I would greatly appreciate it.

Redbeck Drain

@ bcoots -- A little late in saying this, but I've checked out and posted on your deck!

You are the man! I love keeping up w/ and reading about your decks.

I looking at this deck and comparing it to the mill deck I created, I wonder whether you were creating this deck with the express purpose of milling someone to death, or whether you were also looking for the chance to simply kill someone with creatures that got bigger off of mill. I realize that the deck can do both, it's just that it seems to me that this deck is more concerned with how mill affects the creatures rather than milling specifically. Am I reading this deck correctly, or am I out in left field?

Well you see that there are only 8 creatures in the deck. All of the other 28 nonland cards are used to mill, not to mention that the Consuming Aberration actually has a mill effect of its own. So milling is the main win-con but there's that bonus back up of brute strength to finish your opponent off if you need it. At least that is my view of the deck

The Invisible Stalker with a well placed Dark Favor can be very useful and pose as a viable distraction to your opponent in match play. It forces your opponent to deal w/ a 4/2 hexproof/unblockable powerhouse on turn 2 that will start wreaking havoc on turn 3. It helps alot if you have to race against fast gruul aggro decks. In my Dimir Mill deck I main deck the Fog Banks to hide behind and sideboard Hover Barrier if my opponent is playing burn spells. I also run Vampire Nighthawk which works as creature control and a small life engine, all good distractions while I'm milling my opponent and forcing them to use their burn/control spells on my alternate win conditions until I drop Aberration on the board for the coup de grace.

@ nyctophasm -- This deck was designed to mill for the win. It just so happens that the best creatures to include in the deck (in my opinion of course) get really big as you mill. And, as DirtyItai46 mentioned, there are very few creatures, and three of them assist in the milling. Jace's Phantasm is just too good to not include, and Lazav, Dimir Mastermind is for an interesting alternate win condition. With that said, the primary purpose of the deck is to mill - almost every card contributes to it.