Milltown Amonkhet

Anyone who knows me will know that I don’t really like playing blue decks. As I stated before in the article Modern is not all it seems I don’t really enjoy control decks, as they have never fit into my wheelhouse, and it’s fair to say lots of those decks certainly have some blue in them. However there is one exception to the rule, and that is when I get to Mill my opponents out.

Back during magic origins, I managed to put together a mono blue mill deck during a draft. Not only was the deck really sweet, but I managed to mill out every single one of my foes. The look on my opponents faces when the realised they didn’t have any cards left in their deck was priceless, and ever since then I have had a soft spot for this kind of strategy. Though I haven’t had chance to build a mill deck for a while now, I have been keeping my eyes peeled, waiting to see when the next piece of tech for the deck would appear. And now, thanks to Hour of Devastation, I do believe we have such a card.

Fraying Sanity is an enchantment aura-curse, that essentially doubles the amount of cards that we can mill during any given turn. Not only does it help boost our own mill spells, but forces our opponents to mill an extra card every time they put anything in to their own graveyard. Cracking a fetch, casting an sorcery/instant, or losing one of their creatures, all help us to win the game. But we can’t just rely on this new card to win the game, it’s gonna need some friends.

Glimpse the Unthinkable has long been a mainstay of the mill deck, wiping out a sixth of our opponent’s library for only two mana. While one of the most expensive cards in the deck it is just two good not to include, so a full playset is a must. Mind Funeral is the next addition to the deck, with three copies in the mainboard. Although this Sorcery might have a high degree of variance, with most decks running between twenty and twenty-four lands, we will average out at about ten to twelve cards per cast. Next, we include a full playset of Archive Trap. With a huge amount of Fetchlands and Tutoring effects in the Modern format, we will rarely be paying retail for this trap card. We will also want to include four Mesmeric Orb, which will quickly accumulate a heavy toll on our opponent’s library. Though it may be a symmetrical effect, the threat of milling ourselves is extremely slim. Finally, we will include a couple of Traumatize. All of these cards get better with a Fraying Sanity, but Traumatize becomes an instant win if we can resolve it.

Although we can win extremely quickly we still need to protect our life total from the more aggressive decks in the format. Hedron Crab and Manic Scribe are not only reasonable early game blockers, but can also help us with our mill plan if we can meet their stipulations. Jace’s Phantasm is also a creature we want to include, as it will rarely be a 1/1 Flyer and can even work as an alternative win condition if our opponent can prevent us Milling them out. Crypt Incursion can help us gain some life as the game progresses, and Ensnaring Bridge can lock some opponents out of the game. We will also include a few Visions of Beyond which might as well be Ancestral Recall in our deck, to help keep our hand full of gas.

The mana base has a healthy split of Basics and Watery Graves, as well as Fetchlands to help trigger our Hedron Crabs. A couple of Shelldock Isle for some cheap Traumatizes and two Darkslick Shores are also helpful. We will also include a couple of Ghost Quarters to punish anyone with a greedy mana base. Lastly, a single copy of Ipnu Rivulet to add even more options to our battle plan. In terms of our Sideboard we want to cover as many bases as possible. Leyline of the Void helps us with Dredge and other graveyard based decks. Profane Memento is great against heavy Creature strategies, as well as a couple extra Crypt Incursion. Extirpate can work wonders against combo decks such as Storm, and Set Adrift can help us hand hate cards such as Leyline of Sanctity. Finally, a couple of Hurkyl’s Recall for the Affinity or even the Lantern Control match up.

Creatures (10)
4 Hedron Crab
4 Jace’s Phantasm
2 Manic Scribe

Instants (9)
3 Visions of Beyond
2 Crypt Incursion
4 Archive Trap

Sorceries (9)
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
3 Mind Funeral
2 Traumatize

Artifacts (7)
4 Mesmeric Orb
3 Ensnaring Bridge

Enchantment (3)
3 Fraying Sanity

Lands (22)
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Shelldock Isle
1 Ipnu Rivulet
2 Watery Grave
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter

Sideboard (15)

4 Leyline of the Void
2 Profane Memento
2 Crypt Incursion
3 Extirpate
2 Set Adrift
2 Hurkyl’s Recall

 

And there we have it, the latest iteration of Modern Mill. If you want to run this out at your new FNM, there is a few things you need to bear in mind. First off you are an aggro deck. You might not be the typical Burn or Affinity builds, but you want to be attacking your opponent’s library as much as possible. If your opponent cracks a Fetch and you have three Archive Traps, then go ahead and use them all. If you can maximise your strategy with a Fraying Sanity that is great, but don’t try to be clear. You see an opening to attack your opponent’s library then you take it, that’s the name of the game.

So, what do you think? Are you tempted to walk on the wild side and win in new ways? Hour of Devastation has given us all some new and interesting cards to improve our favourite decks, so why not try some new builds for yourself. If you have enjoyed this article why not give us a like and share on social media, it’s a great way to help us grow the site. Until next time though we here at Master of Magics wish you Good Luck, and hope you Have Fun.

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