Extirpate

Instant

Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activated abilities that aren't mana abilities.)

Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land card. Search its owner's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and exile them. Then that player shuffles their library.

Discussion (48)

wallisface on Mill and Spill

1 month ago

Some thoughts:

• you should always aim to get a deck down to 60 cards, anything above this leads to worse hands & draws. Playing with 75 cards is going to make your deck very inconsistent.

• modern decks generally struggle to justify running more than 3-4 cards costing 4-mana, and generally run nothing above that. You’ve got 17 cards costing 4-or-more, which is waaaay too much, and will lead you to having very slow/clunky hands. In particular, you have no reasonable chance of casting those 6-8 mana spells.

• Mill decks don’t want to run any creatures other than Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab - everything else just slows them down. The creatures you’re running here don’t appear to be helping your mill strategy at all.

• a lot of your current mill spells are super underwhelming, and are going to lead to you being unable to successfully mill out the opponent. I would suggest considering the likes of Maddening Cacophony, Fractured Sanity, and Glimpse the Unthinkable.

• you currently are severely lacking any real way to disrupt your opponents gameplan. Some killspells, as well as Extirpate, would go a long way towards fixing that.

GoldenAgeBatman on Trouble at the Old Mill! (UPDATED)

1 month ago

Balaam__ Tasha's is worth it. I've seen it destroy whole deck types. If you get lucky you can mill higher CMC cards earlier and then use Extirpate/Surgical Extraction to remove them permanently, thus allowing Tasha's to do it's thing.

(Thanks! I grew up reading the Golden Age comics and love how Batman has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end as that Batman died in 1979. I own mostly reprints in hardcover to save cost because let's face it, it gets expensive otherwise.)

wallisface on say bye to your deck

1 month 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

1 month 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

2 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

wallisface on rats v1

3 months ago

As an example list that feels a lot more dangerous, while still being fairly “ratty” (and not too expensive):

• 4x Pack Rat
• 4x Piper of the Swarm
• 4x Young Pyromancer
• 3x Dreadhorde Arcanist
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 4x Fatal Push
• 4x Infernal Grasp
• 4x Unearth
• 3x Extirpate
• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 22x Lands

(This also means you can run Lurrus of the Dream-Den sideboard).

^ upgrading that list, you’d want to include Thoughtseize, swap Extirpate with Surgical Extraction, and upgrading whatever duel-land choices you made.

wallisface on Countermill (Counter + Mill)

3 months ago

Your strategy feels a little too convoluted here… you’re starting the game with a mill strategy, and then half-way through pivoting into trying to attack the opponents life total. This is going to lead to your deck becoming fairly clumsy/unwieldy, and it feels like you’re making this unnecessarily hard for yourself.

My suggestions would be:

• pick a path - either build the deck to win through milling, or win through just-damage. Trying to do a mix of both will make you worse at achieving either.

• For a mill strategy, the only creatures you actually want are Ruin Crab and Hedron Crab. Everything else just “gets in the way”.

• Mill spells like Mind Funeral are super sub-optimal. There are far stronger options, like Glimpse the Unthinkable, Maddening Cacophony, Tasha's Hideous Laughter. The problem with Mind Funeral is that its a LOT of mana for what usually amounts to not-many-cards (but in any case, its super unreliable).

• any deck aiming to mill should be mainboarding Surgical Extraction (or on a budget, Extirpate). Mill gets a lot of power from being able to remove key threats entirely (especially versus combo & control)

wallisface on MegaMill

4 months ago

Some thoughts

• mill doesn’t want to be running any creatures other than the crabs. Undead Alchemist is very slow and very clumsy. By the time he can attack (turn 5 at the earliest) the game’s usually already pretty-much over anyway… so at-best he’s a 4-mana mill 4. That’s a terrible deal.

• I would also say generally, Cryptic Command is a bit too slow for mill. Mill decks want to control the game early, to set up for a win when the opponent stumbles. By the time you’ve reached 4 mana, you want to be looking to close the game out. Cryptic won’t help you at the times you need it (i.e turns 1-3).

• Every mill deck wants to be running 3-4 Surgical Extraction mainboard (or, on a budget, Extirpate). Being able to strip a key card from your opponents deck early-on is how mill can gain a winning advantage in a huge range of matchups. Not being able to do this makes the deck far weaker.

• i’d recommend 2 copies of Crypt Incursion to help outlast creature-heavy builds.

• your mill-card count feels pretty low. Consider at least running the full playset of Maddening Cacophony