This deck is from our new podcast Mull to 3, Episode 8 'Mill to 3' posted on the 16th of August 2017.
Setting the Scene
Mill is an extremely unusual and extremely fun way to play magic, and the Modern format has many powerful mill cards that wizards has printed over the years. Despite this however, mill has never been able to get over the hump and become a Tier 1 deck.
Mill decks do currently exist in Modern, but they are slow, grindy, and not particularly effective. A major issue is that they aren't fast enough to beat aggro or combo decks that are able to win the game by turn 4.
The recent release of Hour of Devastation has provided us with what could be the most powerful mill card to be printed in a very long time - Fraying Sanity.
The Challenge
Is it possible to make a mill deck that was as fast or faster than the current aggro or combo decks ruling the format? A mill deck that 'burns' as fast as a burn decks can?
The Plan
'Mill to 3 - Burn Style' will use Fraying Sanity as the lynch-pin turn 3 play of the deck, using turns 0-1-2 to mill and set up your hand/board, and using turn 4 to finish off your opponent's library, aiming for the win on your opponents next draw.
Turn 0
Turn 0 is all about using zero-cost cards to give your mill a very helpful head start.
Chancellor of the Spires needs no explanation, he operates on turn 0 as a 0 cost 7 card mill who can also on the off occasion be hard-cast if the game drags out, or cheated into play off a Shelldock Isle. The most hilarious play for this sphinx however remains to watch your opponent mulligan, scry a card they really need to the top, then reveal him and watch their face sink as their second land goes into their graveyard. He also has the added bonus of being discard fodder, Liliana of the Veil or Kolaghan's Command anyone?
Archive Trap is another fun turn 0 card. The most ideal way to use this card is at the end of your opponent's first turn after they fetch - watch their face sink as they mill a whopping 13 cards. This card also has utility in being cheated onto the stack via Shelldock Isle, or even hard cast in a game where the turn 4 kill isn't an option. Funnily you can even mill your opponent's entire library before your first turn if you have a combination of enough Archive Traps and Chancellor of the Spires.
Turns 1-2
Turns 1-2 are used to set up your board state and craft your hand.
Cards like Shriekhorn, Minister of Inquiries, and the all time all star Hedron Crab can be played on turns 1 and 2 to sit on the board and wait to do some major milling once Fraying Sanity hits the board on turn 3. With a Fraying Sanity in play suddenly these 1 cost cards can each mill anywhere from 10-30 cards by turn 4.
These are the turns in which you play your lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Halimar Depths lets you dig three cards deep, avoiding any Chancellor of the Spires that may be coming your way. If you don't like any of the cards that you see - not a problem! Just crack a fetch-land to shuffle your library or mill yourself with one of the one drop permanents. Serum Visions fulfills a similar role - but a pro tip would be to almost always use halimar depths first, you never know when you really need a land to not come into play tapped so get it out of the way early.
Shelldock Isle doesn't do much to start with, but hiding away one of the big mill hitters can help to close out the game on turn 4. Chancellor of the Spires is a fun target, but don't forget you can also activate the entering side of Breaking / Entering to surprise your opponent with a reanimated Griselbrand.
Turn 3
Turn 3 is where we drop our big gun, Fraying Sanity. If this card resolves on turn 3 there is a very high chance that you will win the game the next turn. If you don't get our signature card don't fear, a combination of one drop mill permanents, lands that enter the battlefield tapped, and some of our two cost mill spells can still quite easily close out the game by turn 4.
Turn 4
This is it, the end game. If all has gone well to this point you have a real chance to finish your opponent's library off on this turn, so play wisely.
Ideally this turn you want to play a either a combination of two cost mill spells like Glimpse the Unthinkable or Breaking / Entering, or a two cost mill spell alongside a Shelldock Isle activation, or the single play of Startled Awake
. With a Fraying Sanity in play you can mill anywhere from 26 cards to 46 cards on this turn alone. Without Fraying Sanity you can still mill a very respectable 13 to 23 cards with reasonable reliability. If so you've probably done it - a turn 4 mill win! Watch your opponent shake their head in disbelief.
Caveats
Now you could argue this is goldfishing and that magic never works like this - and you would be right. In reality the turn 4 win is not common, due to your opponents deck interacting with you through either removal or disruption. However if your opponent's deck is interacting with you - this is probably slowing them down, which means that you can probably afford to win by turn 5 anyway. The turn 4 win is most important against extremely fast decks that have little interaction - against slower decks you can afford to wait, in fact them drawing more cards and drawing the game out suits you fine.
You could also argue that drawing into, let alone resolving Fraying Sanity, is not going to be something that happens consistently, and again you would be right. Luckily this deck can generate a fair bit of redundancy provided by both the turn zero cards and Hedron Crab that can well and truly make up for not getting a Fraying Sanity active on the board.
In addition mill is also classically a very fragile deck, which struggles with specific hate cards. It is also a deck that fuels certain strategies like dredge and reanimator. This build has a sideboard arsenal of cards built to deal with these circumstances which will be discussed below.
Something else that you would likely be thinking is where is Visions of Beyond? Not using one of the most viable ways of playing Ancestral Recall would seem crazy to many. The reason for this is that this card detracts from the goal of a turn 4 win. On turns 1-2 this card will almost always just be a cantrip which is not helpful and reduces tempo. On turns 3-4 when this card is most likely to be at it's full potential, you don't want to spend 1 mana drawing additional cards, you want to use all of your available mana to mill your opponent. Visions of Beyond is a great card in a slower more grindy mill build, but doesn't work well in this build. You could also ask why Crypt Incursion isn't a mainboard card - and this is for the same reasons, it slows the deck down too much and interferes with the plan for a turn 4 win.
The Sideboard
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn shuffling away your opponents graveyard can be an issue for mill decks, however to be fair not many decks and rocking the big boss eldrazi these days. Regardless Mill to 3 has 9 sideboard answers, all of which are very effective. Trapmaker's Snare is not only a good card to board in against decks with a high fetch/search requirement (Tron, Death's Shadow), it can also be used to search for one of the best Emrakul anti-hate cards in the game, Ravenous Trap. If you have one of these bad boys in your hand you can watch an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn enter your opponent's graveyard with glee, and then exile it and the entire graveyard once the ability goes on the stack. Mindbreak Trap is another card that can be tutored by the snare, and this one-off is a bit of a fun card that I put in to make the match up against Storm a bit more interesting.
The Ravenous Traps are not the only graveyard hate. Milling a Dredge or Reanimator opponent can cause issues, so we also have three copies of Crypt Incursion to provide extra coverage while also extending out the time you have to mill with life gain. This card also works really well on creature dense decks like Affinity, any form of Hate bear deck, or Eldrazi and Taxes. The single copy of Bontu's Last Reckoning is a fourth card to side in against these decks, as drawing into multiple Crypt Incursions generally isn't the best thing.
Set Adrift is a versatile removal card that can be used to destroy one of our greatest weak spots Leyline of Sanctity - but also troublesome planeswalkers or Blood Moons in a pinch. The beauty of Set Adrift is that once you put the permanent onto the top of their library you can mill it away with another card - effectively destroying it. Another bonus is that even if your opponent has a Leyline in play, you can still mill yourself to provide delve fodder so that Set Adrift becomes more affordable.
Advanced Tips
Use your Shriekhorn, Hedron Crab, and Minister of Inquiries activations wisely. There is little more satisfying than watching your opponent use Serum Visions, scry a card or two to the top, only to watch them get milled into their graveyard.
Be careful with boarding in the Trapmaker's Snares. These are only really a safe way to activate Archive Trap if you are on the play, as otherwise you can't play them until your opponent's turn 3 and by this point they will likely have fetched as much as they need to.
When sideboarding choose the mill cards that you board out wisely. Chancellor of the Spires is a dangerous card to use against Death's Shadow due to it enabling them to delve out a Gurmag Angler as early as turn 1. Likewise Archive Trap is almost a dead card against decks that don't run any fetch-lands, so board these out for other sideboard hate where possible.
Hedron Crab seems like a great turn 1 play, but from experience it is often much better when played on turn 2. When played on turn 1 it can get Fatal Pushed without causing any mill, however on turn 2 you can usually get 3-6 cards milled with a fetch-land before your opponent is able to remove it. I tend to play Minister of inquires first to draw any removal, hopefully paving the way for the Crab to tear up the game.
Get those Halimar Depths out early, playing a land that enters the battlefield tapped on turn 3 or 4 can be very painful and foil your otherwise perfect plan for the turn 4 win.
Conclusion
I've had a blast with this deck, from exiling graveyards as your opponent attempts to reanimate, milling cards they have just scried to the top, playing four Archive Traps as your opponent cracks their second fetch, and cheating a Chancellor of the Spires into play to steal a Path to Exile.
With 'Mill to 3 - Burn Style' we may still not have quite yet found a tier one Modern deck, but Fraying Sanity has opened up a whole new world that is waiting to be taken advantage of!
Have fun decking your opponents, and remember - where there is a mill there is a way!
If you liked this deck make sure you check out my other fun and effective take on the mill theme: 'Mill to 3 - Combo Style'.
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