Crypt Incursion

Instant

Exile all creature cards from target player's graveyard. You gain 3 life for each card exiled this way.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

wallisface on I have created a deck …

1 month ago

Mill is already a really well-known archetype. The current MtgGoldfish Meta deck is here. My own competitive build is here.

I see Caerwyn has already left you some really good advise on deck suggestions, but I'll list below some general good mill-ethos:

• It's good to treat mill cards as if they are burn cards. In the same way that Shock is unplayable in Burn decks, and card that mills ~7 or less cards is pretty unplayable in mill (I'm looking at Tome Scour specifically as being too weak). The problem is that if your mill cards aren't efficient enough, then you just end up empty-handed, and with your opponent still having a deck (in the same way that if Burn decks only play Shock, they run out of cards before they can kill the opponent).

• It's good to try and assume the game will be over within 5 turns. In that way, cards like Traumatize are pointless - either the game is already over before you get to cast it, or your opponent has soo few cards left in their deck that you're effectively paying 5 mana to mill ~6ish cards. As a rule of thumb, these cards that mill variable quantities of cards for excessive quantities of mana, aren't worth it. I would put Fraying Sanity in the same boat of "just not being useful" - by the time you could cast it you could just be casting a mill spell instead and getting equal-or-better results.

• Mill decks just aren't good at winning races. They generally need some way to disrupt the opponents plans (with stuff like Drown in the Loch, Fatal Push, Surgical Extraction). Just letting your opponent do what they want will almost always end in failure, so ensure your deck has a good-quantity of disruption, to make sure you can secure the win. Cards like Surgical Extraction and/or Extirpate are particularly good, because you can turn-off many decks completely, giving you a LOT more time to enact your plan. And those decks that aren't shut down so easily, will usually suffer to cards like Crypt Incursion, Ensnaring Bridge, or Profane Memento. The general gameplan approach for mill is to let the opponent taste it, then disrupt their tempo so they can't do much-of-anything useful, and then finish them off.

wallisface on Venture Deeper

1 month ago

Blue has pretty much no good options for removal unfortunately, so you’d probably need to splash into black or white.

I suspect you “haven't had a problem with three costs” only because your playgroup are also playing mostly slow/clumsy spells… anything 3-mana or above is generally slow to play regardless of the decks land count (because playing such a card usually means that’s your only spell for the turn).

If i were making a mill deck on an ultra-budget, as you are, it’ll probably look something like this:

• 15x Island
• 8x Swamp
• 4x Ruin Crab
• 4x Fractured Sanity
• 4x Mind Sculpt
• 4x Thought Scour
• 2x Startled Awake  ^Flip
• 4x Mana Leak
• 4x Infernal Grasp
• 4x Cast Down
• 3x Extirpate
• 2x Crypt Incursion
• 2x Ashiok, Dream Render

wallisface on Modern Mill-Castic

5 months ago

Some thoughts:

• the bare minimum you want a mill-card to mill is 8 cards. Any lower and it starts becoming not-worth the resource (card) loss. I’d suggest ditching all of Mind Funeral, Mind Sculpt, and Tome Scour. There are much better options in Maddening Cacophony, Fractured Sanity, and either Archive Trap, Mesmeric Orb or Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

• Mill decks typically only want to run Ruin Crab and Hedron Crab as their creatures. Other creatures often slow them down more than help them. I would also suggest investing in some fetchlands to double the crab-triggers.

• your land count feels really low and i personally think 22 might be a better number.

• Fraying Sanity is a bit of a trap card, in that the first copy is usually only as-good as drawing a single mill spell, and drawing a second copy is usually disastrous - because they do nothing on their own. I could see justifying running a single copy of this card, but never more than that (and really, i’d suggest ditching it).

• if you end up using Archive Trap, then you’ll want to run Mission Briefing instead of Snapcaster. I’d also suggest running Field of Ruin to both force a search, and help your crabs.

• I think you need some more interaction, namely Fatal Push and/or Drown in the Loch to help keep the board safe. A few copies of Crypt Incursion would do wonders also

wallisface on Mill fun

6 months ago

Some thoughts:

• Mill spells typically need to get at least 8 cards to be worth it, otherwise losing the card from your hand/resources just isn’t worth it. I would suggest ditching both of Dream Twist and Compelling Argument.

• Mill decks typically only want the crabs as their creatures. Phyrexian Metamorph feels weak just because it’s going to be coming down sooo late in the game, and so unlikely to provide much value. While Snapcaster Mage is good in a lot of blue decks, it really has no place in Mill… i’d suggest ditch both.

• You currently have no interaction. Letting your opponent do what they want is going to cause you major problems - a mill-decks strategy should always be to find a way to prevent the opponent getting a quick win, and milling them thereafter… we’re terrible at winning “races”. Stuff like Fatal Push and Inquisition of Kozilek would go a long way here, as well as a playset of either Surgical Extraction or Extirpate.

• Your sideboard looks really un-optimal at the moment. 16 is too many sideboard cards (limit is 15). The two Crypt Incursion should be mainboard. The creatures are all really bad sideboard choices. I think you should focus your sideboard in dealing with problem matchups/cards instead of trying to do some kind of transformative creatute-thing

wallisface on

6 months ago

Some thoughts:

• your land count is waaay too low, especially as you have some high mana cards, but also need to enable the crabs. For a mill deck i’d suggest 22-23 minimum (leaning towards more lands if you don’t have fetches).

• Compelling Argument, Dream Twist and Tome Scour don’t even get close to milling enough to be worth it. Mill decks need to be very efficient, as even top-tier builds are likely to run out of hand resources before delivering the final blow, if they’re not careful. A mill card needs to mill at least 8 cards, bare minimum, to be worth it. Anything lower, and its hurting you more than helping you (you just end up empty handed while your opponents deck is still full)

• I’d also ditch Traumatize. By the time you have 5 lands, your opponent should have <15 cards in their deck, if the game isn’t already over by then. 5 mana for at-best 7 cards isn’t worth it.

• Fraying Sanity is a bit if a trap card. Drawing one is usually ok, but drawing two of these in a game, will often cost you the game. The card does nothing by itself, and it’s often better just to be running a solid mill-spell in its place. I would say to not run more than a single copy of this in your deck.

• you need more interaction. Mill decks generally want some way to slow an opponents tempo. Just trying to win-the-race is often a bad idea. Both Fatal Push and Extirpate would work wonders here. Stuff like Crypt Incursion can also buy you massive amounts of time.

• other cheap mill cards I can suggest are Fractured Sanity, Maddening Cacophony, and Ruin Crab

wallisface on say bye to your deck

8 months ago

I think you've kindof muddled up your plans here, you've got a deck that's both trying to mill out, while also trying to win through Duskmantle Guildmage/Mindcrank combo. I think you need to focus on one gameplan, instead of trying to do both (and so making a weaker variant of either)

• If you're trying to win through conventional mill, you're a long way from it. All the cards you're currently running are super sub-optimal, and will lead you to not completing your mission. So i'd say, if you wanted to go down this route, you probably need to rebuild your deck from scratch. Cards you should be considering on a budget are Ruin Crab, Fractured Sanity, Maddening Cacophony, Extirpate, Drown in the Loch, Crypt Incursion, Fatal Push. Depending how high your budget is, some mid-range-costing cards to also consider are Glimpse the Unthinkable, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Hedron Crab and Visions of Beyond. It should be evident from this list, that what you're running at the moment, is comparably waay too slow, and won't get the job done.

• Personally I think the Duskmantle Guildmage/Mindcrank combo variant of the deck might be a better budget-friendly option for you to consider. For that deck, you don't need any mill cards at all, because that's not your goal - you just want to get your combo online asap and then win the game. You'll want full-playsets of both Duskmantle and Mindcrank, and then ways to fetch them both up - so cards like Muddle the Mixture and maybe even Dimir Infiltrator (though normally Muddle is enough). Other than that, the deck is full of countermagic and stall (like Counterspell, Remand, Vapor Snag, Mana Leak), and a few ways to dig for cards (like Serum Visions, Consider, Opt). Vapor Snag is particularly important as it can act as a way to start the combo once you have the pieces online (by losing the opponent 1 life). Seth did a deck-tech on this a long while back (2016), so there's lots to be improved from this list, but this link might give you an indicator of how the more expensive version of the deck functions.

wallisface on A Modern Mono Mill of Maddening Magnitude

8 months ago

Some thoughts, keeping in mind your budget:

• You claim your “fastest win” was turn 7… that’s waaay too slow, and i’m very surprised you weren’t killed before that turn- even the slowest of decks should be able to close-out a game before then. As a mill deck, you should be aiming to win by turn 5 at the very latest.

• it’s good to compare mill cards to their burn-equvalents, as this can be a good gauge of whether they’re worth running. For example Tome Scour almost directly matches Shock, and we all know Shock is an unplayable card in Burn due to just providing too little for a card. Similarly, Tome Scour isn’t worth it, as it expends a card from your hand for very, very low value - it’s simply not going to get the job done, and it’ll leave you with too few resources.

• on the same vein as above, boh of Overwhelmed Apprentice and Wall of Lost Thoughts aren’t worth running either (equating to around 0.8 and 1.6 “damage”, they make Shock look fantastic by comparison). The only creatures ever worth running in a mill deck are Ruin Crab and Hedron Crab… if Hedron is out of your budget, then just stick with Ruin, but don’t add in this other junk.

• Following on from this, Didn't Say Please and Thought Collapse don’t mill enough to warrant paying 3 mana for. If you want countermagic, run Mana Leak and/or Counterspell you don’t need the extra 3-card-mill, but you will need the option to counter stuff starting turn-2.

• All 4 of the enchantment choices here are super weak, and more likely to lose you the game to help you. Most of them require you play them asap, and then work very hard towards making them profitable - meaning they become effectively dead-draws mid-late game, and not-exactly-great early game. I could see a single copy of Fraying Sanity working, but 2 copies is too risky (the card isn’t great, and drawing the second copy will be effectively the same as not drawing at all, costing you the game).

• Traumatize is never worth it. The game should be ending turn 5. This card just doesn’t get you there. Often its just a 5-mana “mill 5-10” cards, depending on the opponents remaining deck so late into the game.

• You should be running playsets of both Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony. They’re both cheap cards, and tbh your deck isn’t going to work without them.

• I would suggest going up to 22 lands, your current count feels quite low.

• I’d suggest running Field of Ruin, as a way to trigger Ruin Crab more often.

• it feels like you really want to be playing 2-colors. Adding black gives you access to both Fatal Push and Crypt Incursion, which both buy you time. It also lets you play Extirpate, to strip the most important cards from your opponents deck

wallisface on

8 months ago

Some thoughts:

• Merfolk Secretkeeper and Wall of Lost Thoughts aren't worth running. If you compare mill to a burn deck, they're the equivalent of running a worse Shock (doing the equivalent of around 1.6 damage). That's a pretty awful return as far as milling, regardless of mana cost.

• Similarly to the above Balustrade Spy is awful, it's only going to get somewhere between 1-3 cards on average, for 4 mana. In all honesty, there's a good reason why mill decks don't run any creatures outside of Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab - it's because everything else just isn't worth it.

• I get you want fetches for the crabs, and that's probably outside of your budget - but Evolving Wilds is not an alternative. Having lands enter tapped is disastrous, as it will slow down your tempo faaaar too much, and give your opponent too much of a chance to win. If you want ways to trigger crabs multiple times, i'd suggest Field of Ruin.

• You have enough lands, you have absolutely no reason to run Dimir Signet

• Mind Funeral gives terrible returns for its mana value, and will often cause the deck to lose to itself by not getting enough cards milled. Focus on running full playsets of the better mill cards (Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony) instead

• Both Crypt Incursion and Archive Trap should be mainboard, not sideboard.

• Jace Beleren has no place in this deck. 3 mana is slow, and he doesn't do anything for you. You can't reasonably expect him to ever be able to ultimate, so often he's just going to draw a single card then die.

• I would also ditch Drowned Secrets, because its return is just soo low - you have to play 4 blue spells after this card just to mill 8 cards. Many mill-specific cards (i.e. Maddening Cacophony) can just do that on their own. Drowned Secrets is unlikely to give you enough benefit during a game even if its played early, but becomes a terrible late-game draw.

• Your deck currently has no interaction at all, which is going to put you in a really rough spot as most decks will be able to out-race you. Mill needs to throw the opponents plans off-track to get enough time to secure the win. I would have expected to see playsets of both Drown in the Loch and Fatal Push here, as well as a 3-4 copies of Extirpate to remove your opponents best cards from their deck.

• While being at 65 cards might not seem much above 60, its going to lead to you having overall worse hands and draws, in both strength and consistency. You should always be aiming to cut a deck back to 60 cards.

This link here is a good example of a competitive mill deck - I think you should be aiming towards something like this, just accommodating for your particular budget