I've never really played a mill deck, but as soon as Phenax, God of Deception was spoiled, it made me want to try it. Mill decks usually want to play big blockers like Wall of Frost anyway, so now that there's a card that can take advantage of the high toughness, I thought it would be cool to try making a deck around it. Here's a quick rundown of all the cards and why they're in there:
Mainboard
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: A solid early threat, helps with the milling, gives devotion, and gets an extra bonus against creature decks
Breaking: Mill. A lot of it.
consuming abberation: This guy is huge, and in conjunction with Phenax, God of Deception he can win games very quickly.
Cyclonic Rift: Gotta have that tempo. I don't think I'll be overloading this very often, but even just bouncing their one big threat lets me get in an extra turn of milling them for a lot. This answers basically everything you could possibly want, except for a Mistcutter Hydra
Frostburn Weird: Early threat against control, early blocker against aggro, and a devotion enabler. Also he has 4 toughness for when Phenax comes to join the party.
Jace, Architect of Thought: This card is just good. I don't need much explanation here.
Jace, Memory Adept: Draw cards, mill them. What more could I ever want?
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: Just for fun. This guy gives lots of devotion, is hard to deal with, and against any kind of big creature deck he can become a huge threat.
Nightveil Specter: Devotion, (relatively) high toughness, and with the added bonus of milling for 1 whenever he hits. I like this guy.
Pack Rat: This card can win games on its own, as I'm sure you're all aware. Plus it gives devotion, and I just love the idea of getting 5 pack rats out with Phenax and milling them for 32 each turn.
Whip of Erebos: Dat much needed life gain against aggro decks. It also allows me to get something back from the graveyard and either attack or mill with it. This might get replaced with Crypt Incursion in the maindeck though.
phenax-god-of-deceotion: Basically what this deck is built around. Getting this guy out with any other creatures is just huge, and allows me to mill people out in a few turns.
Ultimate Price: Hits pretty much all the big threats, except for Blood Baron of Vizkopa. But I have Cyclonic Rift for that guy.
Wall of Frost: The ultimate blocker. Also gives devotion and mills for a lot with Phenax
Sideboard:
AEtherling: Awesome against control decks. Also with Phenax out, I can give him -1/+1 as many times as I want and then mill them for a ton
Crypt Incursion: Gets me way out of reach against any creature aggro deck. Also stops any graveyard strategies, if those are ever a thing.
Drown in Sorrow: Also great against aggro decks, and all my guys are safe from it
Gainsay: For mono-blue and control matchups
Pithing Needle: Mainly for Elixir of Immortality, but there are some planeswalkers I would like to shut down with this as well.
Soul Ransom: Comes in against any big creature deck. At its worst, it's a draw 2, you discard 2, which is still pretty good.
Thoughtseize: For control and devotion matchups.
