This deck is one of the many brews brought to you by the team at Mull to 3.
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 (see Archive Trap). 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, relying heavily on gradual mill cards like Mesmeric Orb. 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 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, and the release of Ixalan has provided us with an extremely powerful synergy card - Field of Ruin. Could this be mill's time to shine?
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?
I originally built a burn-style mill deck and then moved onto a more combo-style build. This final take is a hybrid of the two, with a spicy splash of green to give us access to fast mana in the form of Birds of Paradise, which allows for a rare but exciting turn 3 win.
The Plan
'Mill to 3 - Sultai Style' will aim to mill out your opponent's library by functioning along two main lines of attack, the first focussing on leveraging the raw mill-burn power of Fraying Sanity, and the second using the unique synergy between Field of Ruin and Archive Trap to end the game with a combo-mill finisher. Underpinning this will be the mana acceleration of Birds of Paradise to speed things up a turn or two.
The Arsenal
The mill weapons of this deck have been divided into mana-cost categories.
0 Mana Cards
Archive Trap is a card that can be used during your opponent's first turn before you even play a land. 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 isn't always such a straight forward decision however. If you are playing against dredge, reanimator, or death's shadow, you might want to hold back an early Archive Trap and use this on a later turn, or risk giving them tonnes of dredge, reanimation, or delve fodder. Remember that the activated ability of Field of Ruin forces your opponent to search their library, so an Archive Trap not used on turn 0 can still be used later on in the game.
1 Mana Cards
The most important turn 1 play is Birds of Paradise, and if this is in your opening hand you should always play it turn 1, and yes with the mana base that will mean fetching for a shock land. A turn 1 Birds of Paradise can set you up for a potential turn 3 win (if followed by a turn 2 Fraying Sanity), but it also makes winning on turn 4 much more likely. Mill is a very mana hungry deck, and Birds of Paradise provides you with 3 mana on turns 2-4 that you wouldn't have access to otherwise which can make a massive difference.
The all time all star Hedron Crab can be played on turns 1 or 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 this 1 cost creature can each mill up to 33 cards by turn 4.
The single copy of Halimar Depths (listed in the 1 mana card section as it comes into play tapped) is a handy land that lets you dig three cards deep, avoiding any unwanted cards 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 or Trapmaker's Snare to shuffle your library. Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand let you get the cards you need while avoiding the cards you don't (a late game birds of paradise for example) - a pro tip would be to almost always use Serum Visions first, as this is much better in the early game while Sleight of Hand is much better in the later game.
2 Mana Cards
Glimpse the Unthinkable and it's smaller (but still helpful!) brother Breaking / Entering sit in a very important 2 mana mill slot. They can be used on any turn from turn 2 to get some milling in, but they really shine when you have access to 4 mana (lands or birds) and you can play two of these on the one turn - particularly significant if you have just laid down a Fraying Sanity. In addition if you crack a Field of Ruin with access to 4 mana, the extra land you get from the field's effect means you end up with 2 leftover mana - perfect for one of these cards.
Trapmaker's Snare is a very versatile card. This tricky little number requires thought to be played correctly. If you are playing against a deck that will almost certainly search on turn 2 (either Tron using Expedition Map, or one of the many other decks that almost always use fetchlands) then it can be worth holding up your mana and playing the snare on their turn after they search so that you can find an Archive Trap and mill them for 13. Sometimes however you are smartest to hold onto your snares. This is particularly important if you have a Field of Ruin in your hand and plan to slam down a Fraying Sanity before cracking the field on turn 4. In this circumstance you'll end up milling 26 cards, so the bottom line is: use your snares wisely.
3 Mana Cards
Fraying Sanity is the real workhorse of this deck. If you resolve this curse then there is a very high chance that you will win the game the next turn. With a Birds of Paradise in play you can get this bad boy down as early as turn 2. Remember when using this card not only are the cards you mill doubled, any other spells or fetch lands that your opponent plays that go into their graveyard also count towards the end of turn mill count.
If you don't get our signature card don't fear, often you can fairly successfully replace this 3 mana card with a Mind Funeral. This is a beautiful card in that it mills more cards against aggro decks with low land counts (ie the decks we need to be faster against), and mills fewer cards against controlling decks with higher land counts (ie the decks that tend to cantrip and draw a lot of cards and do a lot of our work for us).
Field of Ruin is also listed under the 3 mana card section as it costs 3 mana to activate, although in practice this can often be considered as 2 mana due to the land it nets you. This is an amazing card, and is one of only three cards in Modern that force your opponent to search their library (the other two being Fertilid and Malaren the Mornsong for any trivia buffs out there). This forced search trigger can be done on turn 3 or 4, and lets you unleash any Archive Traps that you have sitting in your hand, and if done with 4 mana available you can also whip out a Trapmaker's Snare to get another trap before the end of the turn. Of course this ability is also extremely useful to get rid of any troublesome nonbasic lands your opponent is playing (particularly good against Tron!).
Caveats
Now you could argue this is goldfishing and that magic never works like this - and you would be right. In reality the turn 3 win is rare, and the turn 4 win is not common, due to your opponents deck interacting with you through either counterspells 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 3 or 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.
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 1-3 this card will almost always just be a cantrip which is not helpful and reduces tempo. On turn 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 3 or 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 - Sultai Style' has a sideboard answers, which can be easily found by our maindeck tutor. Trapmaker's Snare can 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. Three copies of Bontu's Last Reckoning are additional cards to side in against these decks, as drawing into multiple Crypt Incursions generally isn't the best thing.
The three copies of Devour Flesh are sideboard tech mainly focussing on dealing with Death's Shadow, but that can also be useful against Bogles or Infect. In the Death's Shadow matchup playing a Devour Flesh at the right time can eliminate a threat and also place a considerable dent in their attempts to lower their life, rendering Death's Shadow unplayable.
Maelstrom Pulse is a versatile removal card that can be used to destroy one of our greatest weak spots Leyline of Sanctity - but also troublesome planeswalkers (i.e. Gideon of the Trials, Platinum Angels or Blood Moons in a pinch. A nice feature of Maelstrom Pulse is that even if your opponent has two copies of Sanctity in play, you can net them both with this one card.
Advanced Tips
Don't fetch all of your basics out! You need at least one (generally preferably an island) still in your library for you to benefit from the land searching effect of Field of Ruin. Also on that note try to avoid playing Field of Ruin until the turn you plan to activate it - playing it early leaves it open to removal from natural enemy cards like Ghost Quarter.
Use your Hedron Crab 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. In saying that however always be careful and try to use Hedron Crab's landfall triggers in your turn - as your opponent can use removal in response to the fetch trigger, meaning you miss out on a potentially crucial chance to mill.
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.
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, adding insult to injury to Tron decks by destroying the key component of their tron mana, and most importantly - slamming down a turn 2 Fraying Sanity.
With 'Mill to 3 - Sultai Style' we may still not have quite yet found a tier one Modern deck, but the printing of Fraying Sanity and Field of Ruin, coupled with this new sultai angle leveraging the mana acceleration of Birds of Paradise, opens 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!
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