Can a self-mill deck hold its own?
Deck Help forum
Posted on May 14, 2013, 11:51 a.m. by jermtube
My BUG deck Varolz's Scars and Skaabs is fun to play, but its biggest adversary is control. The threat of being 2-for-1ed is frustrating, so I'm thinking that I should find a way to make the deck as fast and efficient as possible, so that the opponent needs a perfect hand to keep up with what I'm doing. Give me your thoughts, I'd like to hear them.
thanks for the suggestion here, Rayenous. its definitely thinking outside the box, i'm just not sure what to cut for them. maybe they're good sideboard material.
May 14, 2013 12:33 p.m.
For your deck, I would say sideboard, at most... Notion Thief should be an auto-include for B/U sideboards, as there are just too many decks that rely on Sphinx's Revelation out there.
May 14, 2013 12:57 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #5
A "Self Mill" by its very nature deck will cause you to have serious card disadvantage unless you have ways of using the cards after they've been put into the graveyard. I assume that if you are "Self Milling" you are trying to win with the Laboratory Maniac . rather than milling yourself, you're better off drawing cards until you run out, that way you can get the cards you need to hold your own. One way to do this quickly is to use a combo with Omniscience , Enter the Infinite , drop the Maniac, then draw at least two cards.
May 14, 2013 1:11 p.m.
hiddengibbons, if you take a look at the deck list i mentioned, you'll see its something of a Scavenge deck with Varolz, the Scar-Striped .
May 14, 2013 1:21 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #7
Oh. Sorry. I mistook that deck link for a card tag. Haven't memorized the new cards yet. After looking at the deck I would say that you're investing a lot into getting creatures out there that are highly susceptible to any kind of removal and they aren't creatures that are going to really win the game. Scavenge as a mechanic I think is better suited for drafts. It seems like the deck wants to be Reanimator or Zombies. With Reanimator you can throw game-winning creatures away and get them out quickly. With Zombies you can come out quickly and wreck your opponent before they stabalize. Sometimes you have to ask yourself "Do I want to Scavenge or do I want to Win?" and "How many cards are out there that people actually play that are going to completely wreck this deck?" In a matchup against Reanimator I forsee you having Varolz, Ruinator, and say Corpsejack out there (I assume that would be a pretty good combination with the deck) so you can start making the creatures really big, and then your opponent reanimates Angel of Serenity
and exiles all three of them. If I were going to make a Scavenge deck, it would simultaneously be a Bloodrush deck. A sort of 1-2 punch.
May 14, 2013 1:58 p.m.
yea that's why i mentioned that control is this deck's biggest adversary. without actually changing the point of the deck, though, i'd like to make this gimmick the best it can be. i can sideboard hexproof Instants, for example. to answer your question, "Do I want to Scavenge or do I want to Win?", i say that i want to win with Scavenge, so i'm asking for suggestions within the point of the deck build i have.
Rayenous says... #2
2 cards: Notion Thief and Whispering Madness
Opponent will be top-decking, and can only get 1 card at a time, while you rapidly cycle through your cards.
And, don't worry, the Cipher casting of Whispering Madness is optional, so you won't be forced to use it if you attack with the creature you ciphered it to.
I use this in a B/U deck (A maniac's notion) that works around Laboratory Maniac ... it's very fast and efficient. First 2-3 turns may be slow, but then it's essentially game over, as they can't respond efficiently, and I always have a hand full of cards.
Might not be quite as useful in your deck, but would certainly let you get cards into your graveyard fast, and the Laboratory Maniac could make for a good sideboard win-con against Rest in Peace , Tormod's Crypt , or other such graveyard hate.
May 14, 2013 12:13 p.m.