There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
So I was looking at cards the other day, and I noticed Fraying Sanity + Ipnu Rivulet
. This appeals to me for a number of reasons: It's mill, it's land mechanics, and trying to put together a real deck out of it to take to FNM is probably a bad idea.
Goal
The goal of this deck will be to use Fraying Sanity + Ipnu Rivulet
to mill the opponent's deck away, fielding tokens, walkers, and a lot of removal to control the game until then.
Early drafts of the deck tried to keep the mana curve low and flat, intending to reach a point where I could comfortably blow up my own lands and still do things. But with the addition of Nissa, Steward of Elements I feel more comfortable taking a more viable control curve.
Colors
Blue
As a mill deck this started Blue and more colors were added from there. However, looking at the final first draft I'm seeing some room to reduce Blue to more of a splash, as Fraying Sanity, Ipnu Rivulet, and Nissa, Steward of Elements are the only Blue cards that I'd consider essential.
Black
Once I realized Fraying Sanity would even mill from creatures dying, I knew I wanted to pack some board wipes. As Yahenni's Expertise would allow me to throw in a free Fraying Sanity when cast, and because I will always be Dimir at heart, Black makes the cut as the deck's control color.
Green
I may be a fool, but even I'm not fool enough to try building a land-focused deck without green. With Nissa, Steward of Elements coming out and possibly dropping extra lands as early as turn 3, and Vraska, Relic Seeker to boot, Green opens up some much-needed land support and a pair of strong walkers that I can field with confidence.
Notables
Lands
With Ipnu Rivulet being the main mill engine, most of the mana base needs to be Deserts. Thankfully there's some pretty cool Deserts out there. Dunes of the Dead spits out a token when sacced, so that's decent value. Hostile Desert can re-use Deserts to become an extra blocker. Scavenger Grounds is an answer to any sort of graveyard tomfoolery.
Mill
It might be more accurate to put Ipnu Rivulet here rather than in the Lands category, but in its absence Fraying Sanity is the MVP. Compelling Argument is along for the ride, while Fleet Swallower is mostly there out of a sense of obligation, and will be the first to get cut if I need an extra slot.
Control
Probably the part of the deck that needs the most work, honestly. Yahenni's Expertise plays main wrath thanks to the bonus effect, with Bontu's Last Reckoning as a backup hard wipe. Vraska's Contempt and Vraska, Relic Seeker herself are most of the single-target removal, while Supreme Will is there because it seems like it'd be useful, though I've never played enough counterspells to really know.
I'm still considering Torment of Hailfire. It could be a truly devastating play, but maybe not so much in this deck, where the opponent is likely to have plenty of life to spend.
I'd really appreciate any advice on how I could strengthen the control suite! It feels weak - incomplete, even - but I can't put my finger on why. Needs more targeted removal, maybe?
Support
Nissa, Steward of Elements is pretty much the whole reason for this category. More lands means more leeway to use Ipnu Rivulet more frequently. Hour of Promise seemed like a perfect addition as well - more deserts to sacrifice and more tokens to block with.
Originally Primal Amulet
had a place here, but Baral, Chief of Compliance made an immediate replacement when pointed out as a cheaper, more immediately useful effect, and castable with Nissa to boot.
I figured some card draw would be prudent, so Overflowing Insight is there to refresh my hand if needed. Being a targeted draw spell it can also work as a finisher. Pull from Tomorrow is also a strong contender. It's not targeted, but much more flexible.
The single Search for Azcanta
is there because I like these new transforming lands, and scrying for Nissa every turn sounds hella useful.
Concerns
The Mana Base
It's been years since I last tapped a land and I still know how absolutely crucial a good mana base is to a deck - especially a tri-color deck where I'm sacrificing my own lands! So I'm very concerned about getting the mana base right. I'm chiefly worried about color balance and speed.
Color Balance
The big problem I've run into with all these Desert lands is most of them produce colorless mana! So I'd like to reduce the risk of being color screwed as much as I can. Hence the Painted Bluffs, but I'd really appreciate any suggestions either for a better color balance, or better color fixing.
Speed
There are a lot of taplands in Standard right now. Particularly the colored deserts, which I'm hesitating to include because if I just throw in a pile of taplands I'll be a turn late to do anything at all. Having colors does little good if they enter tapped on the turn I need them, so that's another concern of mine.
The Control Package
I was a clumsy amateur control player years ago, and time away from the game hasn't helped. The control element is the weakest part of this deck - even with just cursory playtesting it feels inconsistent and vague. I'd appreciate any input on it at all.
Alternate Approaches
While looking at how this deck could go I've identified a couple of alternate routes that could be taken towards the same goal. So I'm writing some quick summaries of my thoughts here as a sort of maybeboard.
Graveyard Explorers
Ramunap Excavator and the Explore mechanic indicate a promising alternate direction, but shifting to a creature-heavy approach would mean rethinking and rebuilding the entire deck. I might make a separate listing to explore this angle.
Temur Prowess
Going with Red over Black would open a more spell-focused approach, with cards like Bloodwater Entity and Refuse / Cooperate making Compelling Argument more usable and re-usable, as well as perhaps justifying the inclusion of Primal Amulet
better than the current setup. I could name it something cool like The Fire Sermon or something.
Fleet Swallower
The sane and sensible thing to do would be to tune a brutal control engine around dropping Fraying Sanity and Fleet Swallower in the late game. I'm calling that a solid plan C for if I can't make the other approaches work to my satisfaction.
Thanks for reading!
