U-mill-iating (old standard)

Modern* Combo Competitive Midrange Mill UB (Dimir)

jokercrow

Creature (18)

• 3x Consuming Aberration
• 3x Invisible Stalker
• 3x Jace's Phantasm
• 1x Mindshrieker
• 3x Shriekgeist
• 2x Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 3x Undead Alchemist

Land (24)

• 4x Drowned Catacomb
• 8x Island
• 3x Rogue's Passage
• 5x Swamp
• 4x Watery Grave

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Curiosity

Instant (5)

• 2x Dimir Charm
• 3x Thought Scour

Sorcery (10)

• 3x Hands of Binding
• 1x Hidden Strings
• 4x Paranoid Delusions
• 1x Stolen Identity
• 1x Temporal Mastery

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Tormented Soul
• 1x Undead Alchemist

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Gift of Orzhova

Instant (11)

• 1x AEtherize
• 2x Cremate
• 1x Crypt Incursion
• 2x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dimir Charm
• 2x Negate
• 1x Psychic Strike
• 1x Syncopate

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Maybeboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Augur of Bolas
• 1x Fog Bank
• 1x Gloom Surgeon
• 1x Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
• 1x Shadow Alley Denizen
• 1x Shimian Specter
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Wight of Precinct Six

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, Memory Adept

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Gift of Orzhova

Instant (4)

• 1x Spell Rupture
• 1x Syncopate
• 1x Tribute to Hunger
• 1x Ultimate Price

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Appetite for Brains
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Sever the Bloodline
• 1x Sleep
• 1x Whispering Madness

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U-mill-iating

"It only hurts because you believe it's really is happening"

RESUME

This deck is milling with a cipher twist.

This deck is unusual and for that reason, it's hard to read, but believe me, it's better than it seems.Let me start by explaining how it works in 3 easy steps:Step 1: Send the cipher monkeysStep 2: Build a wall of creatures and slow the opponentStep 3: Mill to death

I'll try to explain now in more details how the deck works as clearly as I can. I'll show what I am trying to do and with what cards. In each parts, cards I consider more useful to achieve each goal are in order of efficiency. Please notes that some cards are in more than 1 list when they have more then one purpose.

WIN CONDITIONS

Many of these cards abuses cipher and mill. If the opponent does not take care of them soon enough, they will just overcome him/her faster then it might have seem.

• Consuming Aberration: This is the biggest threat of the deck. I can make this card abusive by using a lot of cipher and draw. From the time I put it into the battlefield, it can often mill an opponent in only 2 or 3 turns. As if it wasn't enough, I can make it unblockable.
• Talrand Sky Summoner: As soon as he hits the battlefield, he starts building a flying army that can block almost anything or overcome the opponent in a few turns.
• Undead Alchemist: Against creatures deck, this card is a beast ! It build an army faster then anyone and mill to death like crazy.
• Jace's Phantasm: A 5/5 flying creature for 1cmc, what more should I say ?
• Mindshrieker: Against mid-range and re-animator decks, this creature can become VERY big.
• Stolen Identity: It can copy some of my other winning condition to just make it faster, or when the opponent try to get me with a really big threat, I just make myself more copies of it. It is some kind of back up plan and a way to accelerate to killing blow because one turn can make the difference between a lose and a win.
• Rogues Passage: Because if Godzilla can disappear, than my fat aberration can too !!!

CIPHER MONKEYS

Before being able to cast cipher spells, I need good creatures with evasion.

• Invisible Stalker: Definitly the best cipher monkey out there !
• Jace's Phantasm: It could not be a cheaper cipher monkey, plus it can even become a 5/5 creature.
• Mindshrieker: For 2 mana plus the ability to mill and to become a fatty. Not to take lightly.
• Shriekgeist: It's a good cipher card and it can even mill. What more could I ask for ?
• Talrand, Sky Summoner: This card is not supose to provide cipher monkeys, but having back up plans is always good.

CIPHER

Now that my cipher monkeys are there, I can start encoding them with cipher spells.

• Hidden Strings: When I feel confident, it can make me cast all of my cards in no time for a faster win. It can also leave me open mana for Mindshrieker and Dimir Charm .
• Paranoid Delusions: The only card that does both mechanics of this deck witch makes it an absolute 4 copies.
• Hands of Binding: Can take control of the biggest threat on the battlefield.
• Stolen Identity: Not only this card is adaptative, a winning condition, but also a cipher... It does everything I want and even more !

EARLY MILL

The next step is to mill at least a little bit so I can cast Consuming Aberration and trigger Undead Alchemist's second ability.

• Paranoid Delusions: Usually, mill deck uses Mind Sculpt , but with all the cipher monkeys out there, this card is just better most of the time !
• Shriekgeist: Not only this card can mill, but it can do it the turn I put my Consuming Aberration or my Undead Alchemist on the battlefield for no additional mana.
• Thought Scour: It's not gonna mill anyone to death, but for one mana it as a great synergy with all the rest of the deck.
• Mindshrieker: It's the card that will use my unused mana witch is always good.
• Undead Alchemist: If this card is not dealed with, it can mill to death in no time.
• Dimir Charm: This card just mill as a back up plan, but I just love back up plan. It saved me many times from uncomfortable situations.

DRAW

Card advantage is more than important and playing blue without it is asking for trouble.

• Curiosity: This card has been made for that deck ! Card advantage, easier to get the cards I need, and more spells to trigger all my winning conditions.
• Thought Scour: Draw plus mill, I take it !
• Temporal Mastery: This card is just awesome in this deck. Not only it gives me another card, but must of all, it makes me trigger my cipher another turn witch means my Consuming Aberration, Talrand, Sky Summoner and Undead Alchemist will trigger more often.

CONTROL

This deck doesn't try to control anything, but some threats must be addressed.

• Dimir Charm: Against aggro and control decks.
• Hands of Binding: Against my opponent's creatures... lol

CONCLUSION

My specialty is aggro, but I felt like doing something different so this is my first attempt at milling. Since I did not really know how to deal with that style, I made a lot of test to find the most efficient and the most original way to mill my opponent. I most often try to make original decks even if it's really hard to make competitive.

So here are all the test that I made before choosing this deck.. All of them with a deferent approach:

U-mill-iating - Control versionU-mill-iating - Creature versionU-mill-iating - Instant versionU-mill-iating - Zombie version

If you know the style a little bit, if you are making tests like me, let me know what you think, let's just talk about milling for a moment to understand it better.

So... what do you think ?

Thanks in advance.

Top Ranked	Achieved #61 position overall 11 years ago
Date added	11 years
Last updated	11 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 18 - 3 Rares 11 - 2 Uncommons 17 - 10 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.53
Tokens	Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Joker, Dimir, Nice1, Mill ideas, decks
Based on	U-mill-iating - Zombie version jokercrow STD