Archive Trap

Instant — Trap

If an opponent searched their library this turn, you may pay {0} rather than pay Archive Trap's mana cost.

Target opponent mills thirteen cards. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (44)

runester7979 on Mindskinner Mill Voltron copy

2 months ago

Slip Out the Back Didn't Say Please/Thought Collapse Archive Trap

Balaam__ on Elegy in B Minor

3 months ago

@kamarupa I think there’s a variation of this deck where Archive Trap would be awesome, but not so much with what’s here. The Maralen of the Mornsong + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled combo is geared toward life loss, and so is all the supporting ligature. The aim is to kill not mill, so while Archive Trap would see use with all the guaranteed searches occurring, I don’t think it’s the best fit. A {UB} mill version would be great though.

kamarupa on Elegy in B Minor

3 months ago

Seems like Archive Trap is a lot cheaper to cast than Ob Nixilis, Unshackled...

wallisface on U/B Mill

5 months ago

Mill decks only ever want to be running Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab as creatures. Any other options are just not helpful or conductive towards winning. Specifically:

• both Consuming Aberration and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker cost such a high amount of mana that the game should already be over (mill decks should be aiming to win by turn 4). and both barely does any amount of actual milling for their egregious costs.

• Duskmantle Guildmage is only useful as a combo card with Mindcrank. On its own it's basically useless. If you are doing the Mindcrank combo then there's no real reason to run any other mill cards.

• Fog Bank does nothing and gives your opponent more time to overwhelm you or assemble their combo.

Other cards that i'd suggest are bad choices:

• Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver does very little for its cost. milling 3 cards for 3 mana is a very slow rate.

• Fraying Sanity is a massive trap card that a lot of casual mill players fall into. In almost all cases it doesn't speed up the clock for you beating your opponent.

• All of Mind Grind, Increasing Confusion, Mind Funeral, and Pilfered Plans just do faar too little for their mana cost. Memory Sluice is also a really bad return unless you can really reliably trigger it's Conspire ability.

I would suggest looking at cards like Fractured Sanity, Maddening Cacophony, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter *list*. Archive Trap is also a mill-must-have, but may be less-useful if your playgroup isn't using fetchlands. Jace, the Perfected Mind is also serviceable as a planeswalker.

Your deck also really needs some interaction - mill decks are typically too slow to out-race aggro and combo, so you need options to make sure you slow those decks down enough to win the race. Options normally include Drown in the Loch, Fatal Push, and Surgical Extraction

wallisface on Jace, the Fox Cutie Mill

9 months ago

Some thoughts:

• the only creatures ever worth running in a mill deck are Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab. The current selection of creatures you’re running are all extremely slow, durdly, and low-impact - i’d suggest ditching them.

• a bunch of your mill spells are extremely weak and/or resource inefficient. Specifically Mind Grind, Tome Scour and Traumatize shouldn’t really be played. I’d suggest more powerful options such as Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Archive Trap.

• Similarly, a lot of your other cards are just really suboptimal. I’ll list these and potential replacements below.

• Brainsurge is just worse than Visions of Beyond or Preordain. 3 mana for this kind of effect is just too slow/weak.

• Psychic Strike is just a worse Counterspell or Drown in the Loch. Milling a lowly 2 cards will never be worth spending an extra mana.

• Sleep is just a worse Ensnaring Bridge or Crypt Incursion. Its effect being only one turn makes it too limiting to be useful.

• I know you built the deck around Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but he doesn’t do anything useful for mill. You’d be much-better off running Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Hurkyl's Recall is a sideboard card at-best.

• Part the Waterveil is just too mana expensive to ever actually get cast. There’s zero reason to run this.

• I have no idea why you have Talent of the Telepath, in the deck.

• Mill is supposed to be fast and efficient, so there is no room for Chromatic Lantern, or Manalith in the deck. You need to lower your mana curve drastically, instead of trying to accomodate all these high-mana cards.

If you’re looking for an example competitive mill deck, this one here is a good baseline to build from.

fluffyeel on Bruvac's Millibuster

1 year ago

I just thought of a few other useful tools:

• Commandeer is another good zero-mana... not counter, but disruptor. It's become more popular, I've noticed, but it's still not something a lot of people see coming. Similarly, Misdirection is another handy tool for disruption, but it's more limited than Commandeer (though it's one less card to exile...).
• Teferi's Tutelage is another fun mill toy. It's a bit more limited than Sphinx's Tutelage, but why not double up the fun! Similarly, you can use Teferi's Puzzle Box to mill your opponents even faster while also disrupting their game play.
• Capsize is another all-purpose bounce, and reusable as well. Sunder is another great way to lose friends at instant speed. You could also consider Mystical Tutor to help dig for things you need.
• Clever Impersonator is more versatile than Copy Enchantment for one more mana, but it may not be extremely necessary.
• There are some lands that might be handy for your strategy. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds gives you reusable landfall; Boseiju, Who Shelters All makes sure your essential Instant and Sorcery spells don't get countered (e.g. Cyclonic Rift); Field of Ruin kills troublesome lands and gives mandatory search (and landfall), which is relevant for Archive Trap; and Academy Ruins is a more reusable Buried Ruin.
• Cyclonic Rift pairs very well with Memory Jar. Just saying. :P

wallisface on U/G Mill

1 year ago

Some thoughts:

• Evolving Wilds is a really bad card - i’d recommend Prismatic Vista instead.

• you need more crabs to make this plan more reliable. Where’s the playset of Ruin Crab?

• I wouldn’t bother with Primordial Hydra, it detracts from the mill plan. Your deck’s never winning through damage.

• Memory's Journey serves no purpose and i’m not sure why it’s here.

• Jace, the Perfected Mind is miles better than Jace, Memory Adept

• Ghost Quarter isn’t great in mill because it doesn’t force your opponent to search, which means they can avoid being hit by Archive Trap. You want to be running Field of Ruin (field has the added bonus of letting you trigger your crabs again).

UltimateRoxas40 on Eldritch Captain of the Deep [Lovecraftian Primer]

1 year ago

MistaMint

That's normally the case, but a bunch of cards from this Ravnica Block say 'Reveal X cards from the top of your Library until...'. That reveal condition makes it not technically Mill, which is just put cards from your library into the graveyard.

So it doesn't trigger Zellix, who cares about the Mill Keyword, but it does work for Captain N'ghathrod, who cares about any cards that enter the graveyard from the library (regardless if they pass that 'reveal' zone).

A good rule of thumb if you aren't sure if it's officially Mill or not is to check the Gatherer page. https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

That will have all the updated/errated cards with their official oracle text. Like Archive Trap was errated to say '...Mill 13 cards', but Consuming Aberration doesn't have that change.

I had to change out a bunch of cards that have the Reveal Mill effect when I switched this deck over from Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. It's such a small distinction haha. But I kept Consuming Aberration in this deck because it's still really effective, and it's flavor is on point with my Lovecraftian theme.