Mardu Mill
Standard forum
Posted on Sept. 29, 2014, 10:04 a.m. by xGhostx
So was browsing through my binder last night, and was like I wanna play these cards...... I really do.... Kept looking at Altar of the Brood trying to think, how does it work, how does it see competitive Standard play.... Mardu Charm / Hordeling Outburst with some help from Mardu Ascendancy to create tokens for days is how.
This deck, its New Control at its finest. It typically will only fail to top decking answers, and even then, it does not fail per se, just kinda slows down, until a new wincon comes back into play.
Has anyone else built this, does it work? Like I know it works in concept and in theory, but does the deck win, consistently?
I want to build it, but its got some keys that would take a large chunk from my trade binder, so not sure if its a full investment I am ready to make before seeing if people are winning with it......
iBroke Mardu (Mardu Aggro Mill) Playtest
Standard*
SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 98 VIEWSI have seen the Ornithopter + Midnight Guard combo but felt it was very conditional, as well as can be interrupted by a kill spell / counter between Thopter being returned and recast. So I did not want to go that route.
As for the deck playing better without the mill, that was kind of the concept I was going for. I wanted Mill to be the primary wincon for the most part because, well its fun and different. That said, I wanted to ensure the deck was capable of winning on its own.
Thanks for the comments!
September 29, 2014 10:36 a.m.
weisemanjohn says... #4
Mill is never "fun"... As a midrange player, I'd rather see what you can bring to the table, not keep off it. That being said, I do have Altar of the Brood in two of my edh decks, Krenko, Mob Boss and Brago, King Eternal as secondary win con's just because both spam permanents onto the field.
In limited, I ran this card and it was annoying as hell, but that's it.
Coming to standard, you have to deal with a much larger deck than limited with more responses and you have less combos and less time to work with than edh. As a 1 week fnm mess around it could be entertaining, but not right after release like it is now while people are wanting to test their decks. You will be the target of much hate for doing this.
That being said, Mardu would be the prime example of who could most effectively use this strategy as they can spam goblins like no tomorrow between Mardu Ascendancy , Goblin Rabblemaster , Hordeling Outburst , and Ponyback Brigade . Throw in a Butcher of the Horde since you have an abundance of sac fodder and you have yourself a deck that can limit your opponent's responses through mill and kill with butcher. I cannot say though that Altar of the Brood will be a win con being that it must be 1 permanent for 1 card. You would need too many permanents entering to be effective fast enough.
September 29, 2014 10:49 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #5
I've been tooling around with it in EDH. Found a combo with it that is absolutely stupid: Undead Alchemist . Mill someone with any source (Traumatize for example), hit X creatures, everyone mills X, hit Y creatures, everyone mills Y, rinse repeat.
As for standard, the best place I see it is goblin tribal and if you have rabblemasters out you should be winning via damage anyways.
September 29, 2014 10:57 a.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #6
I feel like I should be playing Altar of the Brood , but at the same time it would kinda be netdecking now.
September 29, 2014 11:04 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #7
I was thinking Leonin Relic-Warder
+Phyrexian Metamorph
in Modern. I'd been running it as infinite life gain with Soul Warden
but infinite mill just seems more fun. No reason not to do both I guess.
September 29, 2014 11:06 a.m.
weisemanjohn mill is fun, its out of the norm, there are very few competitive Standard decks that can Mill out a win. Thats what I am looking for.
I am also tossing around the idea of Purphoros, God of the Forge to chuck fireballs at the same time the deck mills from the token creation.
September 29, 2014 11:10 a.m.
Nigeltastic says... #9
Has this deck ever won through mill while playtesting it? It seems like a Mardu aggro tokens deck that you stuck Altar of the Brood into for some odd reason. It seems like if the game goes long enough for you to play ~55 permanents, you'll have lost anyway.
September 29, 2014 12:38 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #10
I've been toying around with it in a BUG Midrange shell. Definitely not a tier 1 Standard deck, but it's fun. I was torn between tokens and BUG when deciding what to build, so I went with the colors I enjoy most. Plus, with the huge mana acceleration green provides, I can run Villainous Wealth for an alternate win (I usually win through damage). At the worst, I can somewhat control my opponents draws when they're revealing their top deck with all of the Coursers running around.
September 29, 2014 12:40 p.m.
Nigeltastic It has won via mill in playtesting yes. I am sorry if the build is not up to your Standards.... but at the same time I am also looking to remove answers from my opponents deck, while creating/swinging with Token's
Aggro Tokens lose to monsters/boardwipes, Polukranos, World Eater , End Hostilities Bile Blight as well as many other currently played standard things, that mill can assist with.
Altar of the Brood is not in the build for "Some odd reason" its in there for a very synergistic reason. Why not mill my opponent while creating tokens I would create anyway?
September 29, 2014 1:09 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #12
xGhostx -- The reason is because mill, as a whole, is an inconsistent beast at best, and a non-viable mechanic at worst. With mill, you are essentially playing a burn deck. However, instead of your opponent being at 20 life, they're at 53 life (assuming a 7 card opener), and they lose 1 life per turn automatically. Additionally there are several methods for them to go back up to maximum "life" again rapidly (ie Elixir of Immortality , Cranial Archive ) as well as plenty of ways for them to rapidly regain "life" (ie Bow of Nylea ). Because of these troubles, mill decks are rarely tier 1, and if they are, it's due to some infinite combo that mills instantly, or they're some sort of control deck that uses mill as an eventuality, and doesn't care if it takes forever.
Altar of the Brood seems to be random to me because you could be playing something that actually helps you vs. problematic matchups, instead of a card that might be annoying to them. It seems like control decks should be able to handle the minor annoyance of the mill by limiting which cards hit the board to enable the mill engine, or by recycling their cards, and midrange decks will just be focused on going over the top and racing out tokens and mill. Something that seems more useful to me would be Thoughtseize or Despise , which clear the way for your tokens to do massive work by pulling out all of these problems, rather than hoping you hit their answers by milling them.
I'm also not looking to crap all over your dreams, and if you love this deck, I wouldn't think of discouraging you from playing it. You asked for feedback, and I am giving my honest opinion on the subject, and if you disagree, that is 100% fine.
September 29, 2014 1:33 p.m.
Thanks for your feedback :) I fully understand your point of view. I like, Janky, left field builds, and normally I would just build it. The only issue is that this one has some expensive pieces that are required for results.
Thats why I was looking for feedback before jumping and picking up 4 Rabblemasters, 4 Mana Conf's, 2 Elspeths, 2 Sorin's ect.
Thanks!
September 29, 2014 2:23 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #14
I completely understand that, those cards are rather expensive, and something not everyone can just go out and dump cash into. That said, If you see yourself playing this style of deck or those colors for a while those aren't bad cards to pick up in the long run overall, they're playable in Mardu decks of all sorts, and not bad investments for Standard at least. Mana Confluence is also actually not a bad eternal card either, as it is conditionally better than City of Brass .
Thank you for being reasonable when someone disagrees with an idea you had, not everyone is, and it can be difficult to have a good discussion due to that sometimes.
September 29, 2014 2:40 p.m.
:) No worries.
I currently have one $500-$600+ Standard deck so it can be hard to convince myself, my bank account and my wife to build a second rather costly deck lol
I strictly play standard, so if I did not like the build, or partially finished and stopped building the pieces would turn to trade bait lol. I started playing back in Ice Age, played until Masques then got out of Magic for a long time. Came back in for Nyx. So for me, its rather pointless to try for Modern as I missed the vast majority of it and it would be hard to be competitive.
Legacy is so expensive, and my truly favorite build from that period would be a B/R/U Sneak and Show build that utilizes Pandemonium
and Recurring Nightmare
dropping ridiculous things like Phyrexian Dreadnought
and Colossus of Sardia
lol which again is a very expensive pill to swallow at the moment.
September 29, 2014 3:22 p.m.
So many decks to build and so little dollars to do it with lol
September 29, 2014 3:24 p.m.
UPDATE - Built the deck, well most of it. Could not find a few pieces, primarily land so running proxies as of right now.
It works, and well. If it does not trump by simply being Aggro, the mill works very well. in playtests I was able to mill the opponents deck to under 30 by turns 5/6 in multiple games removing any answers he was praying to top deck.
Butcher of the Horde is INFINITELY better then expected. Feeding him tokens for Haste/Vigilance/Lifelink is a game changer. May increase to 3of.
My major issue at the moment is finding the correct mana base. I dont want to run Mana Confluence but I dont think I have a choice not to. Sting lands are showing to work well.
lemmingllama says... #2
Altar of the Brood will see competitive play in combo decks. It already has two separate combos that infinite mill, a good deck that shows that is PORNITHOPTER
Still, your deck doesn't really need the mill. I tested it out and normally it worked better with just plain aggro than with mill. Plus its likely that the milling will help people using delve.
September 29, 2014 10:14 a.m.