Glimpse the Unthinkable

Sorcery

Target player puts the top ten cards of their library into their graveyard.

Discussion (44)

wallisface on Crab Crushers

3 weeks ago

Ok so it sounds like you want to build a mill deck. This is an archtype I know really well (competitive deck here)

For what you’re starting with (i’m not sure what your budget is so i’m guessing) I would suggest:

• Modern is a fast format. It’s uncommon for a deck without ramp to run more than 4ish cards costing 4 mana, and usually nothing higher than this cost gets played. Lowering your mana curve will also let you run less lands (around 22-23)

• if you’re planning to win by milling out the opponent, then ignore running any cards that don’t help you with your cause. Namely, this means probably just running Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab as creatures. The other creatures are quite slow and don’t particularly help you complete your plan.

• as the cheaper option to Surgical Extraction, I would recommend running a playset of Extirpate in the mainboard. A big strength of Mill is being able to remove an opponents key-card they need to be able to perform optimally. Removing something important can often mean giving yourself an extra 2-3 turns, or just winning the game on the spot.

• Get a playset of Field of Ruin into your landbase. It’s cheap, but it’s great for helping fix your colours, as well as triggering the crabs an additional time, and messing with your opponent.

• I would recommend 3 playsets of “heavy milling” spells. You’ve already got Maddening Cacophony which is great, and i’d suggest getting the playset of that. After that, the most accessible cards are Fractured Sanity, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Glimpse the Unthinkable - so i’d suggest picking two of those spells to get playsets of also (or, in any case, just aim for 12 “heavy milling” spells total).

• To keep you alive long enough to mill out the opponent, you’ll need some good board control. I see you have Murder, but this is very slow at 3cmc. I can recommend Crypt Incursion for giving you crazy amounts of life, and Drown in the Loch is great also. Outside of this, consider Fatal Push and/or Infernal Grasp as the best killspell options.

• I you’re looking for cards to help you reach the 60, Thought Scour is great.

I hope this helps- not sure if this is the direction you want to take the deck, or if i’ve just veered off into some insane rambling :)

Icaruskid on

1 month ago

Nekraphobia yes this did start as a budget list but I'm open to taking it to 80% tuned. I like Entomb, Buried Alive, Glimpse the Unthinkable, etc. I would be tempted to put in bigger impact creatures though. What do you think?

I also could really use a Mystical Tutor to grab Quicken or Burst of Speed so I can attack right away. Maybe I have to drop some of the cycling cards.

RyuSama420 on milltesttesz

1 month ago

you have too many counter spells and not enough mill spells. mill isn't a control deck, it's meant to be fast like aggro. you don't want to waste turn 3 tapping out for Fraying Sanity or Sphinx's Tutelage. you're missing things like Glimpse the Unthinkable, Hedron Crab, fetch lands for the crabs (so you can get 2 triggers per turn) and the most important piece by far is Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 7: Dimir …

2 months ago

Ah, Dimir. Blue-black is where you come to turn an opponent’s soul these exact colors, sidestepping their defenses in order to slip a scalpel right in their feels. Combining the thematic terror of black with all the manipulations of blue, if you think about it, is one of the most disturbing, creepy tactics in magic. Forget psychological warfare: blue-black is about marinating the psyche of your opponent in anxiety, slow-roasting it over the fires of depression, lathering it in the sauce of their own inadequacy, and finally feeding them their own deliciously barbecued will to live. Think I'm exaggerating? Consider these titles. Glimpse the Unthinkable. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Freaking Brainbite!!!

If you think this comes from a place of dislike, think again. I have a deep affection for this nasty little mix. Making opponents flip their collective gourds in a sporting way makes me very, very happy. Today, we’ll be going over three primary themes of commanders who embody Dimir chicanery: Mill, Rogues, and Theft. As always, please bear in mind the point isn’t to discuss the competitive but rather to celebrate the thematic.

Mill

The magic equivalent of memory loss, mill suffers in commander: eating through 99 cards is a tall order, and opponents with an original eldrazi titan somewhere in there may well fetch you the worst insult of all and ignore you. There are ways around that, of course, but this is an inarguably uphill climb. Which, of course, makes for a delightful challenge the Dimir will gleefully help you meet. Just ask Nemesis of Reason. It’s very, very hard to protect one’s library, and there’s something truly horrible in watching all your goodies piff away without even hitting your hand.

If you’ve read this series through, you might remember that my oldest deck is mono-green. It’ll be no surprise to you, then, that when I was learning commander I lived in abject horror of Oona. Anyone running a mono-colored deck is going to feel targeted by this hideously nasty commander. Do you even need a strategy to play her, beyond ramp? Honestly, she rather plays herself: even outside her chosen prey, “Exile X” on a stick is very, very spicy, and when you’ve got your chosen prey they may well scoop when you play Kindred Discovery. Remember those eldrazi? Screw those eldrazi.

Hail the mighty poo beetle. No, it doesn’t actively mill, but HOLY BALLS OF ROLLING SHIT does it reward milling! There is a fine, fine pool of zombies in dimir colors, and when that palls you can make your own. I’ve never seen this played, but to be honest I don’t want to, especially since the mighty poo beetle will always be five mana… maybe I want to see this played. By me. Scry X? Bleed X? Army of the Damned, anyone?

Now this is general damage. This is also, in my opinion, a genuinely bad idea for those who aim for winning rather than fun. Seven mana for a 5/5 flyer who doesn’t actually do damage to opponents? Less than competitive, shall we say, but certainly neat and themey. Stuff like Dauthi Voidwalker or Leyline of the Void do nothing to undermine Szadek’s growing spree, and embiggening this already self-embiggening boi could make for a very, very scary board presence. And seeing this work, making this work, would be undeniably fun.

Rogues

I say ‘rogues’ not as the creature type, but as the overall concept of sneaky sneaks sneaking off to perpetrate sneakiness. See Rogue Class or Dimir Cutpurse and you’ll get where I’m coming from. Dimir is the guild of spies and intrigue, so it’s no surprise that blue-black rewards the “Doink! Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk” playstyle. If your passion drives you toward little bodies that pilfer, plunder, or otherwise profit on the swing, look no further.

Zareth is an odd choice to be commander. He functionally has Ninjutsu, but unlike a certain upcoming favorite has no provision for command zones. If you like thinking around corners, there is actually a fair bit of support to be found. Run an aura theme, for instance, and stick Necromancer's Magemark on a spare dude. Or Phantom Wings on the man himself. Zareth will reward you, and as for the second half of his text, it’s a doozy. Mill/kill your opponent’s stuff, then steal it. Good times.

This is a heavily themed card, combining tribal, milling, and draw elements in a nice little vampiric package. Not quite the unpleasant beast that the original Anowon is, but still nice. Be sure to include Notorious Throng.

Instead of a profitable army of petty thugs, you may prefer just the one guy. For actual command damage, Szadek’s replacement has an inarguably better grasp of the job. Mill yourself. You know you can. Clone yourself an unblockable midget, then switch into a Phyrexian Dreadnought (or something similarly large but more affordable) before you tag them. This guy is an absurdly versatile toolkit. Just avoid jerks with Lignify. Hehehe…

Theft

We’ve talked thieves, now let’s talk actual yoink. Blue and black are the only colors with access to consistent, long-term swipage, and combining them inevitably brings you to a natural conclusion: why make a plan when you can steal someone else’s?

Keiga, the Tide Star called. She’s pressing charges on the grounds of copyright infringement. Dragon? Check. Six mana? Check. Theft? Big ol’ check. When combined with blink and a sac outlet, this big and greedy cheese can steal an army. And, if you do this to a super-friends player, maybe lose you a friendship.

This guy’s just neat, especially if there’s some cocky twit in your local meta who likes taking extra turns. Mill him a bit, then tag him. He’ll stop that right quick. Bonus points if you get somebody to make a custom version of this guy as a certain cosmic entity. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh, Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Do you like Sen Triplets, but not artifacts, white, or being thrown out of playgroups? Xanathar doesn’t pilfer hands, but libraries are fair game. The utility of certain tutors is suddenly very, very much in the eye of the beholder (sorry, I had to). Run stuff like Thoughtpicker Witch, Painful Memories, or Sealed Fate, and enjoy your monopoly on topdecks… I kind of want this one too.

And, for my personal favorite...

My darling, dearest Yuriko. Readers know my love for Kamigawa, so imagine my roaring delight when this beauty was released. There are 346 rogues currently in print. There are only 22 ninjas, and not all of them are good, but even the piddliest ninja becomes horrifying when Yuriko is out (and thanks to ninjutsu, she’s ALWAYS out). There’s a weird imbalance encouraged here: lots of inexpensive bodies digging for absurdly expensive spells. At the worst, you draw some cards. At absolute best, you smack the table for eleven damage by revealing Temporal Trespass… which you then cast for three mana, you magnificent bastard.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Rakdos!

Prior Articles:

Green, with links to the other mono-colors

Azorius

Caerwyn on Modern Dimir Mill & Dauthi …

2 months ago

I have not play tested mono-blue mill, but my gut tells me it is going to be both slower and more fragile than Dimir mill. For speed, you lose out on Glimpse the Unthinkable - Glimpse is a hyper-efficient card that is super easy to pop off. Might some of the three mana spells hit for more mill, particularly the unique-to-mono-Blue Sanity Grinding? Yes. But that consistent ten at two mana is utterly fantastic - the difference between two and three mana is pretty big in Mill. A two mana spell on turn 4 is often going to mean you get to both mill your opponent and have mana for another mill spell or interaction. That can be pretty big and swing entire games.

With regards to fragility, Drown in the Loch is just such a good card, and is better than Counterspell in all but the second turn.

StoryArcher on Modern Dimir Mill & Dauthi …

2 months ago

Morning, all :)

I've been playing around with Dimir mill in the Modern format, buoyed in part by the excellent Drown in the Loch. At the moment I'm looking at two approaches; the first is a sort of 'suicide mill' where the focus is less on interaction and more on running them out at all costs. At the moment I just can't seem to get it fast enough, so it's the weaker option.

The second, and the one I'm asking for help with, is a more meta-mill sort of deck, leaning on tempo and control while gradually milling. This deck will have a lot more interaction, including a number of creatures and would be as likely to win through damage as forcing the last draw.

For this deck concept I can't get it out of my head that Dauthi Voidwalker doesn't present a load of interesting opportunities, with cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable and Maddening Cacophony dumping tons of cards into what would be the graveyard. The Voidwalker is actually massively problematic in its synergy (or lack thereof) with many traditional mill cards as it keeps those cards from going into the graveyard and therefor often leaving options like Jace's Phantasm and Visions of Beyond depowered. Still, I can't help but think it has some potential, and there are plenty of match-ups where exiling cards is preferred to sending them into the graveyard.

Has anyone tried to used the Voidwalker in this way? Is it a fool's errand to even try in a competitive deck? Are there any good examples of a more controller-y Dimir mill deck that anyone would like to offer? I'd really like to try to make this competitive and most of my past experience with milling is mono-red land destruction that denies land draws via Grindclock or Codex Shredder + Lantern of Insight.

I did play an earlier version of this deck once in a local tournament and have one of my favorite 'Magic moments' ever - watching my opponent sac a fetch land on the opening play and in response popping an Archive Trap and then a Surgical Extraction, absolutely wrecking his combo deck and watching him scoop before I had even gotten a chance to play my turn. Ever since then I've wanted to make a serious go at this.

Thanks in advance.

Daveslab2022 on

3 months ago

I think the idea of the deck has some serious potential.

There are some cards I see here that seem a little too cute for the deck. Glimpse the Unthinkable milling 10 is pretty good considering what the deck is trying to do, it just doesn’t do enough by itself. I think adding green for a card like Grisly Salvage, that mills but also doesn’t put you behind in card advantage, would help the decks longevity.

I just think that Glimpse throwing all the cards to the graveyard doesn’t really do much for you unless you hit the right cards or have the right ones in hand already. Salvage would solve half of these two problems.

wallisface on No Souls, Only Shadows

3 months ago

You don’t appear to have many self-mill effects, which’ll make getting both those cards in the grave awkward.

• have you considered Glimpse the Unthinkable as a better way to mill?

• sorcery speed stuff is generally risky for control decks, as early game it’ll often leave you unable to represent a response. I’d swap Chart a Course for Opt (or better yet the new spell from the upcoming set, “Consider”).

• running full playsets of the creatures you need to get into the grave seems good to give you better odds. You can minimise the downside of that by playing Bone Shards and/or Collective Brutality

• everything you cast in this deck is 1-2cmc, you can probs go down to 20 lands, possibly even less given your card draw options.