Phenax, deep sea terrors mill Commander

Commander / EDH UB (Dimir)

TheFathersZwei

Creature (21)

• 1x Breaching Leviathan
• 1x Charix, the Raging Isle
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Eater of the Dead
• 1x Fleet Swallower
• 1x Gyruda, Doom of Depths
• 1x Hedron Crab
• 1x Iceberg Cancrix
• 1x Icebreaker Kraken
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Ludevic's Test Subject  ^Flip
• 1x Mesmerizing Benthid
• 1x Nemesis of Reason
• 1x Ruin Crab
• 1x Runo Stromkirk  ^Flip
• 1x Sire of Stagnation
• 1x Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1x Stormtide Leviathan
• 1x Thing in the Ice  ^Flip
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Wrexial, the Risen Deep

Artifact (9)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Jester's Cap
• 1x Keening Stone
• 1x Midnight Clock
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Land (35)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Ice Tunnel
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 10x Snow-Covered Island
• 10x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (11)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Didn't Say Please
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Hinder
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Crumple
• 1x Swan Song

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Jace Beleren
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Liliana Vess

Commander (1)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Breaking Wave
• 1x Cut Your Losses
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Maddening Cacophony
• 1x Mind Grind
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Traumatize
• 1x Tunnel Vision
• 1x Whelming Wave

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Marit Lage's Slumber
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Parallel Thoughts
• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Quest for Ula's Temple

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Sideboard

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Increasing Confusion
• 1x Peer into the Abyss
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament

Artifact (1)

• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Creature (2)

• 1x Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1x Pearl Lake Ancient

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Meishin, the Mind Cage

Instant (2)

• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Summary Dismissal

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Phyrexian Revoker

Instant (1)

• 1x Teferi's Response

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Suppress

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Phenax Dimir sea creature tribal mill. This deck heavily relies on multiplayer pods drawing aggro off of you as well as ramping with cards like Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, or Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you're lucky enough to draw them or search them out; alternatively, just having enough mana to get Omniscience is ideal of course. One of my favorite search combos in this deck is using Parallel Thoughts then searching out a few cards like Brainstorm and Ponder to draw the searched pile out faster; also if you plan accordingly, you can also search Temporal Mastery into the pile, then set yourself up with a Brainstorm to get an easy extra turn on your next turn.

One card that can easily finish any creature heavy deck is Eater of the Dead since as long as there is a creature in ANY graveyard you can untap him and mill another target player for another 4 cards or more if he's buffed. A fun, but mana intensive alternative if you're playing against a noncreature spell heavy deck would be to counter one of their spells with Hinder or Spell Crumple then follow it up with Tunnel Vision to mill them out as long as they don't force a shuffle in response. Jester's Cap is usually enough to take care of an opposing decks' reshuffle effects such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre if they run those cards; Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger will simply cut right through enemy decks. For especially problematic decks with a lot of recursion such as dredge or aristocrats, swap in Tormod's Crypt and similar cards for the less optimal counterspells in the deck.

Thousand-Year Elixir is a phenomenal card to have on the field as it allows for pseudo-haste for your creatures to use Phenax's mill ability. Pemmin's Aura and Freed from the Real can provide a lot of mill potential if attached to a high toughness creature, especially if you have any of your "additional mana" artifacts on your board already. Crab Umbra is an okay card to consider; the added creature protection is nice but in my experience it was simply too mana intensive to be a practical choice, since I often had better alternative plays to make with other cards using my mana.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 2 Mythic Rares 41 - 6 Rares 14 - 2 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.20
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Illusion 0/2 U, Marit Lage