Someone was testing a red/blue deck the other day and we ended up on this topic. What is the threat in standard, sorceries or instants? After much debate we agree there's good sorceries but Dromoka's Command is really holding the scene hostage right now. Plus CoCo is a very big threat.

As to whether or not invasive surgery was worth sideboarding right now... that's the real question. That's purely based on what your local decks are.

"ahem"

A small slew of sorceries that are seeing, or will be seeing play, that are by proxy targetable by the Surgery:

Declaration in Stone

Collective Effort

Collective Brutality

Collective Defiance

Avacyn's Judgment

Nahiri's Wrath

Whispers of Emrakul

Open the Armory

Prey Upon

Traverse the Ulvenwald

Incendiary Flow

Dark Salvation

Eldritch Evolution

and lets not forget the ever popular Coax from the Blind Eternities because effing EVERYONE runs Emrakul.

Hyperalgialysis - Took 2nd out of 30 today! I feel it's very strong right now. I get to use the madness off of Fiery Temper more than I expected.

TheRedGoat - You made a very good point. However, I haven't had much luck with it. I want to put it on the sideboard, but I'm hesitant to change a deck that is serving me so well.

Most of the dangerous sorceries aren't actually a big deal for a mill deck. The biggest one is Collective Effort, all the others are mildly annoying or just summon creatures which you can burn away. Surgery is good, but there's a reason you see it left out of sideboard in a lot of decks. Deck knowledge is much more important than using sideboard space for a card that only reacts to one other card an opponent has. So you're better off playing a strong counter / burn game because it's also more flexible.

Fiery Temper is very awesome! Also this is a discard heavy deck so working in madness is important I think. After play testing your last version a bit I realized I was discarding too many cards that I also wanted to use. Madness helps give you peace of mind when the discarding happens. Plus you needed more answers to 3 toughness which it seems you have!

You made some changes close to what I ended up playing with. I don't remember what you originally had but...

• Kozilek's Return -> Engulf the Shore, Nahiri + Kozilek is too much & bouncing Bedlam back to your hand is funny & effective.
• Clash of Wills <-> Fiery Temper, sometimes you need more burn, sometimes you need more counter.
• 2-4x Day's Undoing, forgot what I rotate for these but when you play against someone you can push around this is a very good follow up to Engulf. Not sure if you're avoiding rotating cards though, but it's hand disruption + 14 minimum mill (for 3 mana!). Startled awake was 4 for 13 lol. I always wondered why Mill decks never ran it?
• 2x Exquisite Firecraft, I deal with a lot of planeswalkers so this was nice, but I was thinking I rather have Lightning Axe.

I was also playing around with a funny 4 Bedlam + heavy bouncing deck. The "discard hand" portion prevents it from being abused unless you get lucky. I wish that wasn't there...

After some more play testing I might take it into FNM this week and see how it fairs. My scene is like 40-60 tournament snobs who are unfortunately incredibly good at deck building. So I hope I can piss a few of them off!

noClue -- Good luck this weekend and thanks for the input. Am I misunderstanding something about Day's Undoing? Why would I want the player who I have milled so much to shuffle their graveyard into their library?

Disregard my brain! When I added that my mind was overly focusing on draw power and I completely disregarded the entirety of the card lol, I noticed my screw up when I played today. Welcome to my confusing life of magic, I do that way too often! Everyone's telling me to remove Nahiri since engulf is better, hmmm.

noClue -- haha I hear ya, we all miss stuff... like today I just realized if I have two mana open at the end of my opponents turn (i.e. I had no reason to play an instant with that mana), I should be tapping Geier Reach Sanitarium on THEIR turn. D'oh!

In regards to Nahiri's Wrath, it's always going to depend on your meta, but I will say this: MTG Goldfish does a series called Much Abrew About Nothing where they explore different decks, and they try out two versions of a tutelage mill deck.

One used 1x Nahiri and three Engulf and the other ran not a single Nahiri and not a single Engluf. I like using Nahiri with the high CMC of Bedlam Reveler, it can be a great way to take out creatures that would generally take you out. My meta has a lot of ramp.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-about-nothing-curious-tutelage-standard

The other problem I have with Engulf the Shore is that it's based on how many Islands you have, and there's only 8 in the entire deck. It only really works as a late game drop unless you're going up against white weenie or some other low CMC creature deck.

Comments have been archived up to the Kaladesh release! All input appreciated!

I recommend taking the Ceremonious Rejection down to 3, as not all decks will have colorless cards and they can be dead draws in game 1. Perhaps another wincon? (Torrential Gearhulk)

Convolute? If you're going for fast wins, I'd avoid it, but if not, it's not very likely your opponent will ever have four mana open, and if he/she does, he/she probably won't want to spend that much.

Maringam - I really like the idea of Torrential Gearhulk, thanks!

I'd Definitely add four Thermo-Alchemist

typing for updates +1

Just a suggestion, i think any deck running fevered vision could use unsubstantiate, while running UR myself, i found that spell very useful as it kept a card in their hand, sure they can recast it, but less mana to cast other stuff in their hand. +1

Fateful Showdown seems great here -- it can deal 5-6 damage reasonably often and seems really powerful with both Fevered Visions and Torrential Gearhulk. I'm also going to say that Ceremonious Rejection seems like a definite sideboard card. Sure, some decks will have colorless cards, but against a GW Gideon, Ally of Zendikar + Nissa, Voice of Zendikar deck, or a Thalia's Lieutenant deck, or other Fevered Visions burn decks, or planeswalker control decks, it's completely dead. I would try to avoid maindecking a card like that.

So just a thought with the new set and all. Reckless fireweaver + thermo alchemist + trail of evidence + 22 instant and sorcery spells = very sad opponents. Should you try and make this deck function like my example? No absolutely not. Would you probably enjoy playing a deck like my example? Probably and I bet it would be more competitive than it seems at first glance.

Hyperalgialysis - no reason I can't play two! Amazing ideas as always dood. I'll make a new deck page.

If the blue gear hulk is good here, i dont see how the Red one, Combustible Gearhulk isnt just as suitable to this decks playstyle. Also, Tormenting Voice is outclassed by the new red draw spell, Cathartic Reunion.

Cathartic Reunion might be better than Tormenting Voice. And I think you should at least play 1 Combustible Gearhulk.

Also Avacyn's Judgment might be a good madness card because of all your discard enabling

I would suggest sticking with 24 lands. This deck has a bit more top end than the pre-rotation UR decks, and most of those even ran 24. Maybe throw a Geier Reach Sanitarium in for a Tormenting Voice or an Insidious Will.

Probably should have a full playset of Fiery Temper with all the discard you have.

Your suggestions have been very helpful.

I've spent the majority of today play testing on XMage, and I can tell you this is working very well. Seems to be well balanced, mana curve is great, and Combustible Gearhulk WINS GAMES hands down!

Sideboard certainly needs help.