Help Against Mill? (standard)
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 6, 2014, 11:47 a.m. by worn_chaos789
So me and my friend have been building decks to play against one another. He has a tendency to gravitate towards mill, no matter where he starts (to each their own I suppose) and I'm trying to stay true to a life gain deck, using Sanguine Bond as my primary way to deal damage. I need a few suggestions on how to effectively counter his mill using standard cards. I know there are quite a few ways to counter a mill deck in previous sets, but I've only encountered 1 card in standard so far that will help. Elixir of Immortality is a good card, but if it get's milled, it doesn't do me any good. Any ideas on other cards to counter a mill deck or maybe even give Elixir of Immortality the edge it needs to be even more effective?
worn_chaos789 says... #3
I'm currently running white/black, allthough I suppose I could do blue.That would kind of throw the lifegain aspect out of the window though lol Both the white and black portions of my deck do their fair share of life gain and damage, while blue would more than likely be strictly counter.
January 6, 2014 11:57 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #4
Elixer and Psychic Spiral are the best options you have in standard. If I may inquire why are you guys staying standard?
January 6, 2014 12:05 p.m.
worn_chaos789 says... #5
We like to play standard because it's a bit more of a challenge for us to construct decks that effectively work against one another. Helps us think a little bit more. A prime example would be what I'm going through right now. I've spent a good bit of money building a white/black lifegain deck, and now my only options to effectively run against his mill deck are either a card that has limited functionality (Elixir of Immortality ) or a card that is just outside of my reach unless I tear the deck apart and rebuild it (Psychic Spiral ). Playing standard seems to keep us on our toes a bit more when building decks. We take more into consideration and do a lot more analyzing than we would if we were playing, let's say, legacy. I know there are a ton of non-standard cards to help against mill.
January 6, 2014 12:15 p.m.
10vernothin says... #6
Whip of Erebos also helps a bit if you're a MBD kinda guy
January 6, 2014 12:38 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #7
OK well that is one of the better reasons I've seen. The only other suggestion I have would be if you can make room for Diabolic Tutor
along with the Elixir of Immortality
you could double your chances of getting a card that would allow you to not be milled out.
For a minute earlier I thought Worldspine Wurm
had the Gaea's Blessing
ability and was going to suggest running him but alas it doesn't. If you had a reliable way to discard it when you got it in your hand you could run some of them but I'm not sure if you want to go that route.
January 6, 2014 12:56 p.m.
worn_chaos789 says... #8
I've decided to build a completely separate deck, and come back to my Orzhov lifegain deck once my friend has ventured from his mill tendencies lol I'm going to try building an Izzet deck. That way, I can play a bit more aggressively on the red side (aggressive is my preferred playstyle) and a bit more control and help against mill on the blue side (Psychic Spiral is definitely an auto-include). Thank you all for your suggestions, but as previously stated, Psychic Spiral and Elixir of Immortality are really my only viable routes, and I feel as though the former has much more to offer than the latter. Thank you again :)
January 15, 2014 10:46 p.m.
Is he playing a Blue/White based control deck with Sphinx's Revelation and Supreme Verdict , with mill as his win condition or is he playing straight-up Blue/Black Mill?
If it's U/W/x control, then you'll want to build a fast aggro deck to spam creatures before he can stabilize with board wipes and get to milling.
If it's U/B/x mill, then he's playing a really slow deck that you can race. Mill means you start the game with 57 life and his mill spells are just really bad burn spells. If this is the case, then just ignore the fact he's playing mill and use a lot of four-ofs for maximum consistency, with either fast creatures or play lots of counter magic.
January 15, 2014 11:51 p.m.
Tradeylouish says... #10
Play a 100 card deck.
Joking aside, you can probably just play aggressive creatures and race him. Some possibilities would be Soldier of the Pantheon , Dryad Militant , Rakdos Cackler and Daring Skyjek . If you really want a card to help you fight mill directly, Elixir of Immortality should be fine.
Are you able to give us a better idea of what you and your opponent's decks contain?
January 16, 2014 12:07 a.m.
Rhinowarrior says... #11
Once Phenax, God of milling comes out your basically screwed. If you can't beat'em.. join'em.
January 16, 2014 12:31 a.m.
worn_chaos789 says... #12
Strangely enough, in response to the "play aggro" idea, my boros deck does actually manage to hold up fairly well, assuming it plays the way it's meant to. I did get a rinky dink izzet deck thrown together that managed to hold its own as well, and I ordered some cards that should give it quite the edge. Psychic spiral is included, but it's going to do a whole lot of burn. Guttersnipe , Shock , Lightning Strike , Young Pyromancer , lots of counter on the blue side, Melek, Izzet Paragon , you get the idea. That's the direction it's headed and I'm anxious to see how it works :)
January 22, 2014 8:05 p.m.
lord_of_the_snakes says... #13
Treasured Find if you want to splash green, a good way to counter mill is with a self mill deck
January 22, 2014 8:41 p.m.
My worst matchups milling are taking away the main sources of my mill or stoping my plan in its track or stuff like elixer and psychic spiral. So what you want is if your playing black any thoughtseizes or duress will take spells out of my hand and stop me in my tracks, if I have nothing to mill you then I cant win. 2nd plan is if im not playing mill spells but im using the new god to mill which will probably be the most common in standard now you want to keep my board clean because I have defenders who will be the main mill for Phenax, God of Deception or getting rid of the god himself because without him I am useless
January 22, 2014 9:04 p.m.
worn_chaos789 says... #16
Like I've mentioned, my izzet deck holds it own. He doesn't have any way to prevent me from burning him to death lol he has a lot of good defenders though that help his mill. Returned Phalanx , Wall of Frost , and Doorkeeper among others. So a fast aggro deck like my boros is living on borrowed time. If it stumbles even slightly, it falls flat on its back. The ideas I've got for my izzet deck should help me out tremendously though. Guttersnipe is obviously a huge part, as well as Young Pyromancer to keep my creature count up. I've included Elite Arcanist to copy a burn spell like Shock or Lightning Strike and essentially make it so that even if I don't have any in my deck, I can still cast them. Abilities like Guttersnipe and Young Pyromancer will go off each time I use Elite Arcanist 's ability, which should be effective if it works like I'm hoping. Then, if my burn somehow falls flat, I have Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius to give me some card advantage, and Dragonshift as well as Utvara Hellkite to put my creatures on the offensive. Utvara Hellkite and Dragonshift coupled with an Elite Arcanist could get very hairy very quickly for him, considering he has no flying creatures, and even if he did, the amount of 6/6 flying dragon tokens I could accumulate in just 2 turns would be more than enough to smash through and keep momentum. I'm hoping for a very positive outcome from this. The only problem I can think of at the moment is a lot of this izzet deck is going to be 4, 5, or 6 drops. So early game may be a struggle to keep going unless I can get a Young Pyromancer down early enough and cast a few spells to get some chump creatures down.
kriskurse says... #2
If your running blue, Psychic Spiral is good. other then that you don't have many more options then elixer
January 6, 2014 11:52 a.m.