Soulknife Spy

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Brawl Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Soulknife Spy

Creature — Elf Rogue

Whenever this deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

Balaam__ on Balaam__

2 years ago

lespaul977 I don’t mind offering advice, but I’m not exactly a tier 1 player myself. So I’d definitely recommend shopping the idea for this deck around and collecting as much perspective as you can on it before you invest any time or money in finalizing it.

This may sound excessive but I’d cut

Djinni Windseer (doesn’t contribute)

Eternal of Harsh Truths (doesn’t contribute)

Homarid Explorer (cmc too high, not enough value)

Laboratory Maniac (useless, you’re milling the opponent and not yourself)

Minister of Inquiries (it’s ok, but with no way to get more energy counters his value fades fast. Blinking him to get more energy counters is not efficient)

Screaming Swarm (cmc way too high, won’t see play often and mill decks rarely have more than a handful of creatures, none of which are used for attacking)

Soulknife Spy (doesn’t contribute)

Essence Flux (Blink is ineffective here)

Trepanation Blade (seems good but rarely is, not to mention you won’t be attacking)

Curiosity (doesn’t contribute, your other draw spells are much better)

Wizard Class (doesn’t contribute)


So that’s what I’d cut. Dream Twist and Visions of Beyond are great and synergize well, Unsummon is good but Vapor Snag is better; I’d replace that with it if possible. I’d fill the remainder of the slots with Crabs if it’s an option (see below), countermagic (Counterspell, Mana Leak, Spell Pierce etc) and if you are adding (again, see below) there are oodles of instants/sorceries to choose from. If not, try to accommodate as many mono direct mill spells as possible.


I guess we have to address some of the elephants in the room. If you’re intent on keeping this mono , then you’ll miss out on what the complimentary color brings to the Mill archetype: cards like Breaking / Entering and Glimpse the Unthinkable.

Which brings us to the next obstacle, budget. If you’re looking to keep the price down and/or only build from your current collection, that also complicates things. Cards like Archive Trap and Tasha's Hideous Laughter are Mill staples, but are also costly. There are alternatives, like Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony which are both cheap and mono , so that can help fill the gaps.

Third, you’ll want to run the crabs. Hedron Crab is pricey, but Ruin Crab is doable. Ideally you’d run both, but one is ok. You’ll be capitalizing on every possible opportunity to mill like this; every land played mills, nearly all your spells should mill, etc.


Hope this helps, and again—I’m no expert. But I’ve built one mill deck (check my page if interested, I think it’s called Trouble at the old mill or something like that) and have another in the works so I’m somewhat familiar with how they play. Ask around, collect info and don’t be afraid to inspect the ones the pros play for some ideas.

Balaam__ on

2 years ago

The overwhelming majority of Mill decks go all-in on the milling. It’s basically a prerequisite. The two main strategies are self mill with a wincon like Laboratory Maniac or by decimating the opponent’s library and forcing a draw. I think there are too many cards here that don’t contribute to the main strategy, things like Djinni Windseer and Soulknife Spy. It’s ok to have some non-mill cards that protect the main strategy (like Counterspell), but otherwise you kind of need to make it all or nothing. Thats been my experience, at least.