A few things you may want to consider are Forbidden Alchemy , Think Twice , and perhaps Trepanation Blade .

The first 2 allow you to cycle cards, while having Flashback, thus giving Consuming Aberration more mill power.... the second is a nice milling fit with Tormented Soul and Invisible Stalker , and since it mills before combat damage, it boosts Consuming Aberration

Splashing white for a single card is a bad idea... I know Double Strike increases Cipher's ability, but adding a color splash when the card requires 2 of that color to cast is usually detrimental.

You might be right about Silverblade Paladin , but I always feel like it's the only way to make cipher playable in standard. Witch makes me sad because I like the ability, but every cards with it cost just to much to be worth it.

If I ever remove the paladin, I will have to consider Forbidden Alchemy and, Think Twice as an alternative, but I keep hoping it's playable. And I think that Trepanation Blade might cost to much and won't trigger Consuming Aberration .

I will still think about all of those ideas.

Stolen Identity is definitely worth the cost... it's expensive, but the value from the card is great. Creating a copy of a Consuming Aberration ... 2 in the first turn you cast it, and another each turn thereafter... is just awesome.

Hidden Strings

Undead Alchemist needs to go, there just aren't enough zombies here for him to be effective.

Not really a fan of your enchantments either, id say replace with some Jace's Phantasm and another Hidden Strings

Curiosity is definitely awesome in this deck, but maybe you are right about Gift of Orzhova . I will make some test with Jace's Phantasm and/or Hidden Strings .

What I like about Hidden Strings is the fact that I can cast more small cmc cards each turns with it. What I hate about Hidden Strings is the fact that I cannot cast bigger cmc with it... I will have to try it to be able to chose whether or not I'm gonna use it.

I understand what you mean about Undead Alchemist and you might very well be right too, but he help me a lot, when I try to survive against creature deck. But he isn't a winning card here. He is just there to add zombie tokens for a defensive purpose. Maybe he should just be in my sideboard... If I don't have enough place in my sideboard for all 4 of them, I will still keep 1 on the main since he is the best defense I could hope for against a lot of creature decks.

Although it slightly reduces your milling, have you considered swapping 2, Thought Scour to Cremate , this would give you some grave removal if you come up against a re-animator deck.

Mind Sculpt can get you started off really well, especially if you plan to play Jace's Phantasm and another great creature Wight of Precinct Six .

Also if trying the above Spell Rupture can work wonders.

@Rayenous: Sorry about the delay, but I had to make some tests before telling if Stolen Identity was as good as it seems, and now I can say that it's much better than I thought. I think it makes the deck better in defense, it makes the milling much faster and it's the deck is even more fun to play. Thank you for that great idea, it helped me make my choice from all those version. On the other hand, since I chose the cipher version, I have leaved the Gravecrawler idea for the zombie version. It seems like a good idea, but unlike the Stolen Identity idea, it didn't go as well as expected when tested.

@neoharri: I have added Cremate to the sideboard, it really is a good idea. For Mind Sculpt , I don't feel it. I think Paranoid Delusions fits the deck much better.

I don't plan on using Wight of Precinct Six on this version of my milling deck. I need creatures with evasion. Jace's Phantasm on the other hand could be an idea, I just can't deside witch one to use between him and Shriekgeist . It's a hard dessision to make.

cipher mill decks are very powerful especially when you can get copies of Consuming Aberration and Wight of Precinct Six

I must say, I was skeptical until I tested it. But you are right, it can be, but as strong as it can become, it's hard to build a competitive one, maybe even impossible. But I'm working as hard as possible to push it to it's limit.

Have you considered adding Nephalia Drownyard to increase your milling capabilities? Esper Control will use Drownyards by themselves as a win con.

Of course I did, but since I rely less on control, I've got less instant spells and with my other cards, I can mill much more then Nephalia Drownyard can. This cards fits better, in my point of view, in a control deck. Not much in this deck. I prefer using Rogue's Passage for the killing blow with the aberration.

I have test it a lot in my U-mill-iating - Control version, U-mill-iating - Instant version and in my U-mill-iating - Zombie version and in this version.

Have you considered Cackling Counterpart to make it easier to copy?

Sure, I've thought about it and I think it's a great card, but I prefer Stolen Identity for it's better synergy with Consuming Aberration and because it can copy my opponent's creatures witch helped me many times.

I see. So it seems like your entire deck relies heavily on the Hands of Binding on Invisible Stalker combo until Consuming Aberration . I tried to rock the cipher approach for a while but found it to be lacking: Invisible Stalker is a must as your vehicle for ciphers; Paranoid Delusions , for example, is only effective over time; Hands of Binding can lock down a creature (or creatures if you have multiple ciphered/first turn cast + cipher) for a little bit. Point is, I felt like these 10-12 slots were better spent on rounding the deck out, rather than focusing on a "perfect world" type hand/opponent responses.

I'm not trying to be a dick or put down your deck concept, that's just my experience with a cipher-oriented mill deck. That's the beauty of Magic though, we can all play our own way and have fun doing so. If you're interested in another take on milling take a look at my deck, Return of the Mill. Good luck!

It seems like you understood the deck just right. The deck revolves a lot around Hands of Binding on Invisible Stalker combo until Consuming Aberration like you said. And the deck is really vulnerable like you said. It needs a lot of cards for the combos to get working. So it's hard to keep enough spots open to protect those combos. My games often ends in one of those two situations.

The first: I destroy my opponent with a good hand when they can't deal with invisible stalker and consuming aberration.

The second, I don't draw a stalker or my opponent deal with it and the deck falls flat.

I am making this deck with it's strength and weakness in mind. My goal is to make it as constant as possible. Here are a list of way I am tried to accomplish this:

1- Using enough counterspells to protect my important cards.

2- Using a lot of draw to get more chance of drawing my stalker and to put more pressure using more cards.

3- Doing enough control to get enough time to be able to do the killing blow.

From the test that I have made until now, as surprising as it seems, the second option did the best. That's why I a playing a lot of Thought Scour , Curiosity and Temporal Mastery .

I already have a good deck that wins tournaments (28 Hours Later (1st at FNM)), put I love to take challenges like making a deck from an uncompetitive concept like milling and cipher. I want to surprise my opponent's with a deck that is much better than it seems at first sight. Maybe it just can't be done, but I won't quit until I tried everything possible.

I think that I already have a good milling deck, but there is a lot of thing that I need to change and I am working on that. It is not ready yet, not at all.

Thanks for your comment. And if you have other suggestion and want to help me accomplish my challenge, please tell me.

Gotcha. I found the same to be true when I ran a cipher heavy mill: Stalker + Hands in opener = almost a guaranteed win. If opponent responds to Stalker or I didn't get one I'm dead in the water. I'd probably recommend tightening some things up:

Curiosity is phenomenal if you get that onto a Stalker as the card advantage really adds up. I could see Shriekgeist being a good home for it as well, though easier to respond to. I might look at Think Twice over Curiosity as the flashback is nice and being instant speed you can leave mana untapped on your turn and posture (nothing scarier than starting your turn with an opponent playing blue with 3+ mana untapped) and then play on end phase.

Hidden Strings can be really nice to float mana and get more bang out of your buck that turn, but it's a 1 of so it's in no way reliable. And again, unless you're getting this on Stalker you're not going to use it to its fullest.

Stolen Identity as you elaborated on above has awesome synergy with Consuming Aberration , but problem is it's such a big combo: you need Invisible Stalker and Consuming Aberration on the board, you need 4UU for Identity, and you better hope nothing gets countered. It's too Christmas for me, personally. If you're worried about consistency and being able to perform without the optimal starting hand I wouldn't be as focused on such a combo.

If those cards were dropped that would open up 5 slots for you. Personally, I would run only 2 of Temporal Mastery because I would hate to see that get drawn early before I can get the most out of it. Also Undead Alchemist as a 1 of... he's cool, but I'm not sure your deck takes full advantage of him. This would give me 7 cards to play with and I might do something like this: +2 Think Twice +3 Psychic Strike and +2 Unsummon (would allow you to SB Cyclonic Rift for matchups where enchantments or artifacts ruin your day) - increase consistent draw power, allow for more breathing room via counter spells, and control tempo via bounce. I know, this would drop 3 of your cipher cards but you would still be sitting at 8, which to me is enough to consider it a main deck mechanic.

It's also worth looking at how Paranoid Delusions performs for you: I found myself running 3 of this card because early in the game I'm fond of leaving myself untapped to posture/I found myself wanting to cast other spells before this one.

@ alulien Sorry for the delay, I was not very active on tappedout, but I tested the deck a lot.

It seems like:

If I remove Stolen Identity or Temporal Mastery , yes it looks like Christmas, but I can't win on the 6th or 7th turn witch is often the difference between a win and a loss.

If I remove the cipher cards, I can't win on the 6th or 7th turn ether.

If I remove cards like Invisible Stalker , Mindshrieker and Shriekgeist , I get nowhere to put my cipher cards.

If I remove Thought Scour and Curiosity , it gets really hard to draw the other cards that are needed for the win.

And if I remove cards like Dimir Charm , Far / Away and Negate , the deck gets easy to counter.

Undead Alchemist saved my ass a lot of time against creatures deck and it become an alternate win condition in some situations, but it's also a dead card against some decks.

Witch means that I don't get a lot of options and still the deck isn't constant... I don't know what to do now. I think there is 3 options left:

1- I abandon the deck... not !

2- I tweak the deck the best I can with what I have and try to get the most out of my sideboard.

3- I continue testing weird stuff until I find something good and unexpected.

This is a strange formula for a mill deck. My problem with it is not defined by particular cards, but I think the deck's overall philosophy has a problem. I see fourteen total cards capable of milling the opponent, sixteen if we count Stolen Identity . I also see a LOT of tap-down effects and a general obsession with cipher.

There's nothing wrong with cipher, and there's nothing wrong with milling, but these two things, at least in this deck, are not working well together. You have a lot of machinery turning this way and that in order to get creatures tapped down that you could spend more effectively, I think, on directly milling your opponent.

Or, to look at it another way, this could be a very effective cipher deck, EXCEPT for the mill stuff. If you really want this to be a MILL deck, I'd say get rid of Invisible Stalker and all the cipher cards. I guarantee you there are better ways to mill your opponent than trying to build that complex contraption.

Contrarily, if you want it to be a CIPHER deck, you need more hexproof creatures, counterspells, fearsome cipher spells, etc, which you can make space for by clearing out all the mill stuff.

Overall - this deck feels like it isn't jibing because its constituent parts aren't cooperating.

If I got you right, you are telling me that I should go for option 1... Well, you might very well be right, but I am the kind of guy that just don't abandon until it's not standard anymore. So I'll see then if there is a way that nobody have saw or if I just can't get it to a competitive level. But than you for telling me that it's a strange formula because I play magic in part for making original deck. So I'm happy to see that you have seen it.

I know, KrazyCaley, that you are a very busy person and I appreciate your time, so thank you very much, and I hope that I will be able to prove you wrong... : P

I hope so too! Believe me, I could easily be wrong about this. Keep brewing.

I will go at a FNM as soon as possible. I'll keep you informed with the result whether it's good or bad.

Thanks again !

As much as I love mill decks, I can't say I'm too good with them. I know you need a focus. Either you are going to slowly mill your opponent until they cannot draw a card, or you mill them and play creatures that get buffed from the size of their graveyards. If you use creatures that get buffed from the size of all graveyards then that's an added bonus. From my experience the best person to ask about mill decks is probably Xindlepete.

I'm talking about cards like Consuming Aberration , Jace's Phantasm , Wight of Precinct Six (I realise you already have some of my suggestions but it's late and I'm working off the top of my head)

You can even use cards like Trepanation Blade on your Invisible Stalker .

With this many cards going to the graveyard you can even include Lazav, Dimir Mastermind .

And as last note, all mill decks, no matter which type, will need a draw mechanic.

I will give you a +1 :)

Maybe Trepanation Blade could be a good addition and you are not the first to point that out, but since the deck revolve in part around Consuming Aberration , I don't feel like it has a good synergy. I am reticent to use it also because it seems to slow for that particular deck. Maybe I should test it anyway. It would not be the first card to impress me.

I will think of all those good tips and I will make the necessary changes then.

Thank you Cyrrus for your comment and your +1. : )

I am thinking for some times, that could explain in more details what are my cards there for and against witch type of deck. Then, I'll definitely ask Xindlepete for more help.

So I was told there's a budding Millwright in need of some assistance? Let's get to work! :D

First off, KrazyCaley is correct - you are straddling the line between a cipher focus and a mill focus, and not really hitting that center-line of cipher-mill. So here's what we do...

Creatures- Drop

Ditch any and all creatures that don't accomplish one of two tasks- 1) does it have some kind of effect that causes mill 2) does it get any sort of bonus from milling? Keeping this in mind, Talrand, Sky Summoner needs to go. Invisible Stalker is the exception to the rule, seeing as he is the ultimate cipher-monkey. 1 open slot.

Consuming Aberration is a beast, and yes he does meet BOTH of the previous criteria, but he is a bit pricey for a mill deck's curve. I have had much better success with my own Kill Mill, Vol. 1 running only 2x Consuming Aberration . I heavily recommend dropping him down, seeing as your mana curve is a tad ridiculous at the moment. 3 open slots.

In my experience playing MTG in general, 1-of cards are something to be avoided. If it works well, you can find room for more copies. If it doesn't work well enough to warrant more copies, then you'll probably be fine without it. With this in mind, pull your 1x Mindshrieker . 4 open slots.

Sorceries- Drop

Again, in my personal experience with my Kill Mill, Vol. 1 deck, you should only have Hidden Strings OR Hands of Binding , but not both. Personally I've had more success with Hands of Binding , but Hidden Strings does have it's pros as well. Either way, you should only need 3x here, since it isn't your primary focus, but it is an important aspect of the deck. This drops a total of 3 cards, now leaving 7 open slots.

Since Temporal Mastery is not a primary focus of this deck, AND because it is only useful as a Miracle cost, it is the only card in your list I would recommend as a 1-of. Powerful and useful should you miracle to it, and minimizing the possibility of pulling it in a starting hand, or drawing into it later on your turn with Curiosity triggers. Now to 8 open slots.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Stolen Identity for mill decks. To me this feels too far off-topic, and we can find some more useful spells to fill this slot. I think drop them, which opens up 10 slots.

Instants- Drop

Far / Away is useful, but not worth keeping around as a one-of. You are also mistaken, as fuse cards are NOT considered two separate spells, but one spell with two effects. It will still only trigger Consuming Aberration once. Drop it for 11 open slots.

Enchantments- Drop

Curiosity is handy, and it does grant a nice draw recursion. However, it is not a cipher spell, so it doesn't trigger Consuming Aberration . We will take a look at a replacement option in a moment, so don't panic just yet. :) 13 open slots.

Now that's enough of looking at the "negative". Why not take a peek at the positive? :)