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I am totally on a Modern Tribal kick right now, and this one is rather obscure... Trust me, nobody has a deck that uses most of these cards... Here's how it all came together.
Before drafting Furtive Homunculus in Shadows Over Innistrad, I had no idea that "Homunculus" was even a creature type. I decided to have a look at gatherer.wizards.com and see how many of these weird eyeball things there are. Turns out, not many. Doorkeeper caught my attention, and I decided that I would attempt to make a Tribal Homunculus Mill Deck.
Sure, why not.
The main sources of Mill here are Doorkeeper and Memory Sluice. In fact, they are the only two main board cards that have any sort of Mill at all. Sluice can pretty easily just Mill 8 cards on it's own for one mana, so it speaks for itself. I like it better than Tome Scour, it has a cooler name and I really like the artwork. It's the simple things sometimes... Doorkeeper can be untapped and used to Mill repeatedly, which is the basic combo for the whole deck. It is fueled by creatures with Defender for some reason, so I had to make sure that as many creatures as possible have it. Training Grounds isn't required to win, but it does allow you to use more spells and untap abilities to Mill several times a turn and win faster (makes Doorkeeper activate for one Island). Bonded Fetch is one the oddest creatures I've seen. It's basically a Wall with Haste... It is a decent draw mechanic and it fuels the Doorkeeper's ability, so it works.
The only non-homunculus creature in the deck is Wall of Frost because it is probably my favorite Wall in all of Magic that can stop most creatures from attacking, and slows them down for an extra turn if they do. 11 creatures in the deck have Defender already, and I can turn Furtive Homunculus into a Defender with Zephyr Net to fuel the Mill when it gets started. The other option is to put Ghostly Touch on Futive Homunculus which is likely to be able to attack freely with Skulk and untap the Doorkeeper to Mill some more.
Crab Umbra is a great enchantment that protects the Doorkeeper with it's second ability (Totem Armor), but sadly doesn't qualify for the discount from Training Ground. Freed from the Real does the exact same thing without the protection and activates for 2 less mana, making the Mill much more repeatable.
Cerulean Wisps and Dream's Grip can untap the Doorkeeper for a single mana while also gaining card draw or allowing you to pay one more to tap an attacker. More options to keep the Mill running. Turn Aside is nice and cheap protection for the little eyeball guy sitting on the door frame.
The sideboard is a lot more Counter and a bit of Control to deal with different situations. Tormod's Crypt is always a great way to screw Reanimation which is the one sort of deck that doesn't usually mind getting Milled. Psychic Spiral can be a finisher, but is a nice way to cycle everything back into your own library and being a pretty decent source of Mill.
It all works pretty well. If you have say 5 creatures with Defender out on the board, you can repeat the Mill usually between 2-4 times (or more depending on how long the game has been going) every turn for 10-20 cards each turn. Add the 8 cards for every Memory Sluice, and you can Mill someone to death in just a few short turns. There's just enough control and protection to typically clench a win that your opponent wouldn't be expecting (especially playing with cards like Furtive Homunculus on purpose...), and it's not your run of the mill, Mill.
For under $35 this deck should be a surprisingly effective and fun Mill deck that uses a lot of otherwise undesirable cards. The only card of real value that makes up $12 of the total cost are the two Training Grounds.
And there you have it, the only Tribal Homonculus deck in existence (I'd like to see another if I'm wrong) that can Mill with the best of them on a real budget.
Thanks for reading along, and as always let me know what you think in the comments section :)
