Time for the next installment in my T/O tourny! You have made it to the top 8, ducttapedeckbox! To go to the final four, your match up is...

Perfection of Milling vs. Undying Unleashed.

Game 1: You kept a decent hand, especially since I LOVE starting out with a Mind Sculpt . I got off to a quick start, dropping multiple Strangleroot Geist , Rakdos Cackler and Young Wolf . You couldn't keep up, and when you played an 11/11 Consuming Aberration , it looked like it would be a little closer. Guess not, as I had a Dreadbore waiting. I swung again and again until I secured the win.

Game 2: I got an amazing combo in this game. Corpsejack Menace + Pyreheart Wolf (who is even better because of the amount of creatures in your deck) + Curse of Stalked Prey . I'm effectively attacking with unblockable creatures that get 2 +1+1 counters on them every time they deal damage. It wasn't pretty, as you drew into lands and only had one creature. It was quickly over. Undying Unleashed wins 2-0.

Well, looks like no top four ;p. I was interested to see what would happen in this match up, as this is the first very aggro oriented deck you have played yet. Granted I got a pretty beastly combo in game 2, but aggro seems to be really good against your deck. I played my quick little guys who could continually swing for 4 or more a turn, and Dreadbore d or Abrupt Decay ed anything you played. You didn't have enough removal or board wipes to deal with all of my undying/just plain aggro creatures.

Hey, it did good for a budget deck! :P and my first serious standard build in a while... I think after the first game, I would've side boarded in Fog Bank and Talrand, Sky Summoner to keep up with the waves of creatures. And, would card:Grafdigger's Cage prevent undying? Thanks again for the playtesting with my deck!

Oh, and coffeemunster -- I have, but right now, I'm not sure what I'd remove for it. I'd be happy to hear suggestions for that!

i would take out either Hands of Binding or Dimir Charm for Trepanation Blade

I couldn't say what to remove for it! I am very new to mtg so I thought I would look around for a deck to play with instead building one myself without the experience. Your Perfection of Milling caught my attention because I love the strategy behind it and it is relatively inexpensive compared to others I have seen! I'll be purchasing the cards soon and trying it out!

@ Dragonis89 -- Those two cards are essential to this deck's success, in my opinion of course. They both provide the control aspect that is necessary for a mill deck to even be viable in standard play. As KrazyCaley described in one of his recent articles (I hope I reference this correctly), you have to group cards together that accomplish the same thing -- this deck can be stratified into three categories: lands, mill, and control. The trick is finding a balance between these three, and the current set up provides that balance. Sorry, this is getting a little wordy... But what I was getting at is that to add a mill card, I think I should be removing another mill card.

@ coffeemunster -- I'm glad you'll be trying this deck out! My biggest goal was to create a competitive, budget deck - I've been playing for years, but have lost the interest in the biggest, baddest deck I could build. This one, although not one of the "traditional" top-tier standard decks, is a lot of fun to play, and still wins games. I hope you have fun playing around with it, and if you decide to make a deck of your own and want input, let me know!

no i understand what your saying. It was just a thought either way i like your deck.

I appreciate the thought and still welcome a suggestion of something else to remove, but I was merely expanding on why I didn't think it would be appropriate to remove Hands of Binding or Dimir Charm . Another card that I'm considering is Essence Harvest . Thoughts?

Best mill deck i have seen soo far on tapped out. +1 from me.

Thanks so much!

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for mill (mainly because it seems to piss my friends off to the n'th degree XD) and this really tickled my fancy. I'll be using this at my next FNM for sure :DHave you considered Dreadwaters and Spell Rupture ? I've had good experiences come from Dreadwaters in the past, and Spell Rupture has absolutely fantastic synergy with Consuming Abberation.

I say yes to Essence Harvest . It provides an extra win con, can save you as a last trick (when people only expect the revelation which is white) and is a 3 drop, which you don't have many of. Take out Duskmantle Guildmage . You have so many 2 cmc cards and this one does not seem to do enough or requires too much.

Spell Rupture is iffy because staying alive the first five turns is crucial so you don't have the aberration out. Then again, maybe the phantasm provide enough power for it to work. Your choice!

@ Epoch_WIn -- I'm glad you like the deck and will be using it at FNM! I haven't been able to bring this to an event yet, but it has performed pretty well on Cockatrice and versus my friends. Please let me know how it does! I don't really like Dreadwaters because it requires me to have 7 lands in order for it to compete with Mind Sculpt . I think the mill cards I am running are pretty reliable, and I don't know what I'd remove for it. You can refer to Post #48 for an explanation of why I will only remove another mill card for it.

I agree with w999 that Spell Rupture is very conditional -- if I don't have Consuming Aberration out of have started to mill, it's pretty useless. Psychic Strike on the other hand only costs one more, will always counter the spell, and mills 2 in the process!

@ w999 -- I will definitely playtest with Essence Harvest in place of Duskmantle Guildmage . I don't think I necessarily want to run three though, because it's not great if I don't have Consuming Aberration out.

The big question to start this new slate of comments is: Essence Harvest ? Yes or no? and if yes, what to remove?

So far, w999 has suggested removing Duskmantle Guildmage for it.

Like always, I welcome all comments/suggestions!

Ok, the question is, how are you trying to win? Mill them out as the main win con, and damage if you get desperate? Or damage, and the mill if you get desperate? If you are mainly going for damage, then yes, Essence Harvest could be really nice on a huge Consuming Aberration . But then again, which is more effective at dealing damage, Essence Harvest or Duskmantle Guildmage ? Do you want the guildmage in as a creature to chump block sometimes?

The real main thing is, if you go into a game, do you have the mindset that your going to mill them out, or try to win by damage?

Honestly, I think it's really hard to mill someone out to win. Might be doable in some other format but in standard, eh. I believe he is trying to win through damage though

It really depends on the game. If it's an aggro deck, milling is out of the question. It simply takes too long. However, if it is a slower deck, milling is an option. But it really comes down to the game, and hopefully my sideboard can help me adjust to the game (which needs work).

Perhaps you should add Invisible Stalker and bank on Cipher cards?

Read the description please :P

Essence Harvest is a great combo card with Consuming Aberration . You only need 1 or 2 in the deck for it to be effective this way. Obviously, if you are down a lot of life late game, there are probably a huge number of cards in the opponent's graveyard; at this point Essence Harvest is a game changer, if not game winner.

I play an esper mill deck with 4 Consuming Aberration s, and essence harvest has helped me win each time I've drawn it.

I'm really interested in trying it out. Do you think Duskmantle Guildmage is a good thing to drop for it?

Hmm actually, I could drop Artful Dodge for it.. I like that better actually

GREAT budget deck, and I LOVE the idea of running Talrand, Sky Summoner in conjunction with cipher spells, cause it will go off so often! definitely using some ideas from here for my Millfest 2013 deck.

Snapcaster/ Resto Angel destroy this dick. I would have 4 card:Grafdigger's Cage if I were you.

@ Prinnyfan -- I'm glad you like the deck so much!

@ Falco1663 -- To start, have I lost games to decks using Restoration Angel and/or Snapcaster Mage ? Of course. Have I won games too? Yes to that as well. You're going to have to be more specific to the type of deck that I won't do well against. And this is a budget deck, so well-built, expensive decks have the upper hand. That's the nature of almost any budget deck. Running 4x card:Grafdigger's Cage is excessive in my sideboard. Most of my games are played versus my friends, who I know for a fact don't use either of the aforementioned cards. And in the event this deck is taken to FNM, I'll consider upping the count on the Cage to 3.