I'm building this deck just to play casually with friends and family. I drew up a really low budget mill deck many years ago and finally got the spark to try and make it really something and competitive. I know that at the heart of things, Mill decks can never really be competitive, because they're too slow and you have to try and stay alive long enough to mill 53 cards, which is no small feat.
I'm been fiddling with this deck for countless hours and desperately trying to figure out how to balance it to 60 cards. Any assistance would be incredibly helpful.
Without further ado, here's what I'm thinking in terms of strategy.
Main themes are defense and milling (as previously mentioned, staying alive.)
Defense:
Three Fog Bank, two Guard Gomazoa are my primary blockers a they have the benefit of being flying and taking any damage, infect or otherwise. Riddlekeeper and Kami of the Crescent Moon make for okay blockers as well.
I have two Wash Out for removal, and two Counterspell for canceling, but the main combo is Curse of the Swine
+
Echoing Truth
to get some blue board wipes.
Im using the two Retraced Image as mana ramps/ways to pay 1 for extra 3 cost permanents.
MILL Strategy:
Hedron Crab is what I built this deck around initially, so four of those. Sphinx's Tutelage is the backbone of this deck (I know Grindstone + Painter's Servant
is an awesome instant mill win, but those are way too expensive for me to fill the deck with.) Draw cards as Alhammarret's Archive and Kami of the Crescent Moon help support the Tutelage, but the main kicker is the 4 Visions of Beyond which make for an easy three card draw in most cases.
Sanity Grinding and Startle Awake are my big mill cards, with Traumatize being a later game big drop.
Both Jaces support both classic milling, but Jace, the Mind Sculptor plays right into the tutelage combo.
At this point though I don't know what to cut. I feel that I'm running way too many spells/not enough mana to stay alive for the spells to mill anyone out. No point in hitting with Startled Awake
turn 3 (using Retraced Image as an Island ramp) if I get obliterated turn 5 by all the creatures that have been hitting me since the game started.
Any ideas? I'm trying to keep it mostly mono Blue, if possible. (I have like 4 Blue/Black decks, so even though Mind Funeral and Consuming Aberration are great, they arnt what I'm looking for, unless I can somehow splash black without making it a main blue/black deck.)
Since its casual, any cards are on the table, but the limiting factor is cost. This isn't a budget deck, but I can't blow 3,000 buying four Ancestral Recalls lol.
UPDATE
Took out all three Sanity Grinding, as there are other cards that more reliably get me mill points, such as more Startled Awake
. Replaced them with Startled Awake, Alhammarret's Archive, and another Riddle Keeper. Also took out the Retraced Image and Counter Spell cards for lands/to cut deck size. Good idea?
