When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

Commander / EDH Mill UB (Dimir)

marco-online

Mill related (26)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Bonehoard
• 1x Bruvac the Grandiloquent
• 1x Charix, the Raging Isle
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Cut Your Losses
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Dreamborn Muse
• 1x Fractured Sanity
• 1x Fraying Sanity
• 1x Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
• 1x Maddening Cacophony
• 1x Memory Erosion
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Mortivore
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Psychic Corrosion
• 1x Ruin Crab
• 1x Shadow Kin
• 1x Stitcher Geralf
• 1x Traumatize
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Undead Alchemist
• 1x Wight of Precinct Six
• 1x Zellix, Sanity Flayer

Graveyard Hate (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Manasource (38)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bad River
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Glasspool Shore  ^Flip
• 1x Hagra Broodpit  ^Flip
• 1x Ice Tunnel
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 15x Snow-Covered Island
• 9x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Wasteland

Other (7)

• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Sheoldred  ^Flip
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Terisian Mindbreaker
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Draw and Fix (6)

• 1x Coercive Portal
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Sire of Stagnation
• 1x Visions of Beyond

Commander (1)

Protection & removal (14)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Ixidron
• 1x King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Enablers (2)

• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Miscellaneous (2)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Memory Plunder

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Sideboard

Graveyard Hate (1)

• 1x Sepulchral Primordial

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Please, feel free and share your thoughts and knowledge with me.

I currently looking to cut something for Syr Konrad, the Grim to eventually pull off Mindcrank + Syr Konrad, the Grim . I like Konrad because without that combo its still damn solid.

Further I want to include Demon of Dark Schemes or Toxrill, the Corrosive or Deathbringer Regent for some more removal

Introduction Show

Do you like pet cards? Do you like to gamble? If yeah, this is the deck for you to check out. It's true EDH milling in Dimir {U}{B} colors with Phenax, God of Deception.

I tried the other mill commanders Lazav, Dimir Mastermind or Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. They can not reach up to Phenax, God of Deception. He is one of the best mill engines in the game hands down! Phenax, God of Deception usually is not removed, he will stick around as an indestructible enchantment.

This deck is not a high-class tier deck and never will be. You turn on hardcore-mode in EDH. You have to mill around 250 cards from your three opponents to win. Milling them causes them to hate you (apparently they don't get that mill is not an immediate threat). You are on your own with your gameplan - your opponents as a collective will concentrate soely on reducing life points but you are the only one aiming for their library count instead. Your opponents will occasionally benefit from your mill gameplan when you mill cards in their graveyard with Snapcaster Mage, Eternal Witness or any delve or graveyard based strategy. Most of our moves will not help the board state at all - mill in EDH ist one of the worst strategies you can come up with. If you don't care - go for it, its fun.

It's highly relevant to play the commander in this deck but it's not a must. This deck is no combo mill deck. It's not relying on one specific mill combo or the like. Because we have to mill 250 cards many of the regular mill all-star cards do not make the cut here.

Early/Midgame strategy Show

The winning strategy is to truly mill an opponent. First, we put enemy cards in the graveyard (gy). Then we profit from the milled cards, break the game and mill for the win.

To fill the graveyards our first option is using classic pay-to-mill cards. There have been wonderful upgrades in 2021 and 2022 We use, Traumatize, Maddening Cacophony, Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Cut Your Losses.

The latest bomb 4cmc mill half library card is Terisian Mindbreaker.

Our second and most efficient over time option to mill is using passive mill cards. We use Ruin Crab, Altar of the Brood, Mindcrank, Mesmeric Orb, Memory Erosion, Psychic Corrosion, Dreamborn Muse, and Court of Cunning.

The sole draw-to-mill engine Memory Erosion shall be exploited with either Rhystic Study, Visions of Beyond, Sire of Stagnation, Consecrated Sphinx and Coercive Portal.

when Phenax is on the field (again its not a must at all), each high toughness creature can be seen as a passive mill engine. It is the broken toughness ones which are of interest e.g. Tree of Perdition or Charix, the Raging Isle. The auto include here is Intruder Alarm (trust me here. don't look back).

Midgame strategy Show

We do not attack and try to make friends here on the table. Dont do regualr damage thats the mantra here.

While the game progresses milling cards in one way or another yields some benefits on the way e.g. Dauthi Voidwalker lets you play any of the milled cards for {B}{B}. The absolute auto include would be Captain N'ghathrod turning all horror damage into mill ( this build has 5 horros ) but more importantly ( of course ) letting you reanimate one artifact or creature milled each turn.

There are also some shapshifting benefits with good old hexproox Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. Another one would be Shadow Kin which also acts like a auto mill engine.

The Mid/Endgame Show

Now, that the graveyards are filled to some extend we can profit in different ways from that stage. We can now break ( feels like it ) the format with Consuming Aberration or Sewer Nemesis which get +X/+X for each milled card. Bonehoard, Nighthowler, Wight of Precinct Six or Mortivore get +X/+X for each milled creature card. With these broken creatures and Phenax, God of Deception on the field we are able to mill the required big numbers to win.

We further provit from a {B}{B} bargain Avatar of Woe and our versatile {B}{U} counter/removal spell Drown in the Loch. We can ancient-recall/draw-three for {U} with Visions of Beyond.

More profit and the most fun is assured with some graveyard hate/control like Animate Dead or Necromancy. Lategame Profits assured with Sepulchral Primordial.

My favourite move is exploiting Memory Plunder. This let's you play any opponents instant or sorcery for {UB}{UB}{UB}{UB} at instant speed! I rigged and warped so many games with this right before my next turn - picking and playing any sorcery for mana value 4 at instant speed from all the graves is really something broken.

How to Survive or Protect our Strategy Show

With most of the cards mana is payed but it does not affect the board state in any way. This means you pay mana get nothing on your field and remove nothing from their field - just putting cards from other people in the graveyard... Many rookie or casual players don't know that mainly because of this milling is a very weak strategy in edh. They hate mill because they think it decimates their strategy or take away the key pieces of their deck.

Oftentimes the gamestate forces you to sit around open rendering the biggest weakness facing that aggro from those players turning it into a fast pace beatdown. one can not afford to lose any life from our own cards here. Nothing is run that reduces our life total except the land fetches Prismatic Vista and Polluted Delta. It is mandatory to prolong games on purpose and survive.

Some sort of defences shall be set up to avoid attacks and not draw further aggro. Deterrents and board wipes printed into a creature help to survive.

As defence, I use No Mercy, Phyrexian Obliterator and Propaganda to deterr opponent attacks to some degree.

As a rattlesnake deterrent I use Tree of Perdition ( yes you have to make some deals here ). It synergies with Phenax and in the case of an attack from a pesky opponent I can revenge in setting his lifepoints to 13.

As classic board wipe I utilize Dead of Winter due to its asymmetric nature for us. The -X/-X style won't kill our huge creatures and Phenax is mostly not even a creature.

Further we use Coercive Portal ( yes you have to make some deals here ) and Cyclonic Rift to restart the game.

But here is the thing: Stuff on a stick ( Stuff printed on creature cards ) synergies with Phenax and also protect us further. Some examples:

There is targeted, recursive removal with Avatar of Woe and King Macar, the Gold-Cursed which taps because of Phenax each round.

Mass sacrifices with Archfiend of Depravity. Only we can have two creatures and a commander out since phenax is a non creature enchantment most of the time. The opponents will only have one creature besides his commander.

Wiping go-wide with Massacre Girl. Chaining the -1/-1 triggers does not kill our huge creatures.

Pseudo Wiping regardless with Ixidron. This sets the game back greatly turning all commanders (exept non-creature phenax) into 2/2 vanillas.

There is some bounce option with Ashiok, Nightmare Muses second ability.

Phenomenal protection from chump blocks that synergies with our style is given by the mill-for-token engines Undead Alchemist or Zellix, Sanity Flayer. There is also a way to spawn massive tokens with Stitcher Geralf.

To make sure that opponents won't use their graveyard to much as a resource and prevent bodyblows from Timetwister and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn effects there is just one option that I use: the angle exiling the graveyard at instant speed. Space is limited but we run Nihil Spellbomb and Tormod's Crypt. Using such an exile ability should be used with caution since it is a nonbo move with a lot of our other cards. This is why emphasis is on exile target opponent graveyard and not exiling everyones graveyard.

Final straw in this dimir build is set by counter magic: Mana Drain, Fierce Guardianship, Drown in the Loch.

Support cards + Misc Show

Demonic Tutor supports us find the needed pieces in any scenario here.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots haste the creatures for immediate enter the battlefield mills and sets up mild protection for them.

Thousand-Year Elixir is an absolute must and gets Phenax, God of Deception on crack. It doubles our most powerful Phenax mills and hastes Phenaxes plus any creature ability!

Bruvac the Grandiloquent doubles almost any mill effect in this deck and is another no brainer.

Fraying Sanity, a single opponent mill doubler. Auto include.

Combos Show

Some combos turned in this current build:

Altar of the Brood + Undead Alchemist = Zombie Batallion

Altar of the Brood + Zellix, Sanity Flayer = Horror Batallion

Fraying Sanity + Traumatize = milled out opponent.

Cut Your Losses + Fraying Sanity = milled out opponent.

Fraying Sanity + Terisian Mindbreaker = milled out opponent.

Fraying Sanity + Maddening Cacophony = milled out opponent.

Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Traumatize = milled out opponent.

Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Cut Your Losses = at least one milled out opponents.

Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Terisian Mindbreaker = milled out opponent.

Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Maddening Cacophony = mill out all ooponents.

Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank = one card in graveyard result in all cards being milled

Alternate Wincons: Show

Rogue's Passage provides an alternate win condition. It allows us to hit with our huge X/X creatures for lethal damage.

Bloodchief Ascension provides another alternate win condition. If online, each milled card yields 2 damage and 2 life for us. Most of the time 10-15 cards are enough to do lethal damage

Honorable mentions: Show

Archive Trap went out because it targets only one opponent and mostly sits in the hand.

Vantress Gargoyle went out because I never attacked with it. Mostly I could not hold 4 or more to block and the mill effect is very small.

Teferi's Tutelage went out because it targets only one opponent. The mill effect is very small.

Sphinx's Tutelage went out because it targets only one opponent. The mill effect is very small.

Manic Scribe went out because you do not have delirium early game and as creature this leaves the battlefield rather soon. The mill effect never really payed off.

Patient Rebuilding went out because it targets only one opponent. But this card did actually draw quite nice but the mill effect in total is totally mediocre because of target opponent.

Jace's Phantasm went out because its more win and does not mill (exept for the phenax ability). A vanilla 5/5 flyer does not help you survive.

Into the Story went out because it does not help the mill theme a bit. Replacements now draw and also help milling or surviving.

Silent Arbiter went out because no one wanted to not be able to attack and I got targeted to much with this.

Ensnaring Bridge went out because everyone targeted me after playing it.

Nevermaker went out as spot removal for mill since its just to clunky for now. It worked for me a long time.

Commit / Memory went out as spot removal for mill since its just to clunky for now. It worked for me a long time.

Bojuka Bog went out as you mostly can not time it because it is a land. Very bad and a nonbo here.

Combos (I currently don't like/run) would be the following: Show

Grindstone + Painter's Servant = milled out or

Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage = mill out all ooponents.

Helm of Obedience + Leyline of the Void = milled out

Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank Altar of the Brood + Undead Alchemist Fraying Sanity + Traumatize Mindcrank + Syr Konrad, the Grim Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Traumatize Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Maddening Cacophony Fraying Sanity + Maddening Cacophony Altar of the Brood + Zellix, Sanity Flayer Cut Your Losses + Fraying Sanity Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Cut Your Losses Fraying Sanity + Terisian Mindbreaker Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Terisian Mindbreaker
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 1 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Gold, Horror, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie */* U
Folders	EDH