Vedalken Entrancer

Creature — Vedalken Wizard

{U}, {T}: Target player mills two cards. (They put the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.)

Legality

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

Discussion (6)

RDWDTR on General Mills

2 years ago

• Ruin Crab loses a lot of its punch without Hedron Crab and fetch lands backing it up. It's still worth the playset but I just thought I'd let you in on this since the other guy didn't. The optimal version of this deck is heavily based around running both crabs with fetches (it also typically runs a second color, either white or black). You could try Evolving Wilds and/or Terramorphic Expanse to mimic this, but you're going to really slow the deck down. The optimal version is also heavily based around an expensive card called Archive Trap. Something like Sphinx's Tutelage could help fill this void.

• Glacial Grasp, Thought Collapse and Vedalken Entrancer are terrible cards, you don't want them in your deck, trust me. I'd mainboard Dismembers for removal, use plain ol' Counterspells, and play literally any other blue creature respectively.

• You could play the full 4 of Sanity Grinding.

• Very spicy Sword of Body and Mind, but I really think this slot could be put to better use, especially given the $ value of the card. You don't have many good creatures to even equip it to. Now, if you had a few Jace's Phantasms, that might be a different story. A 5/5 flyer for 1 mana is already nuts, but now it's a 7/7 that mills for 10 and makes wolves.

• You need some stronger control elements. I'd play more counterspells in the sideboard... Mana Leak, Negate, and Essence Scatter are all worth experimenting with. You'll get way more mileage out of those cards than something like Thought Scour or Jace Beleren. You could experiment with Unsummon effects too, they pair nicely with counters.

• You should consider an alternate win condition. I know this is supposed to be a mill deck, but there are going to be matchups where this won't work (at least not in the budget version). You could accept that and not care, or you could make some concessions. To that end, I would propose just playing like an honest control deck and running 1-2 Prognostic Sphinx or Sphinx of the Final Word. It doesn't have to be mainboard.

• Manic Scribe, Overwhelmed Apprentice and Wall of Lost Thoughts are low quality cards that happen to fit your theme. They're not as bad as the other three I singled out, but these would still be among the first places I made cuts.

ThallionDarkshine on

6 years ago

This is a big change to the deck, but I like the idea of switching the deck to be more focused on repeatable sources of mill, namely Sphinx's Tutelage, Jace's Erasure, and Consuming Aberration. With this change, cantrips like Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm would be more powerful for their low cmc, allowing you to cast lots of spells in a turn, cycling through your deck and milling people out quickly. Your current game plan of pairing utility creatures with mill seems a bit weak, since the ingest plan is very slow, as are Stern Mentor and Vedalken Entrancer.

Whether you stick to your current game plan or decide to switch it up, there are some cards that I believe feel out of place. The x-costing damage-based removal spells (Heat Ray and Fanning the Flames) are incredibly slow, especially with how little ramp in your list. Thunderous Wrath is another very low-impact card I see here.

I believe your removal package is very strong already, you just need to add more instant/sorcery-based draw/cycle, which synergizes with Kess for lots of draw power. I mentioned the cantrips earlier, another great option is Impulse, while Fact or Fiction is an incredibly powerful draw spell that also fills your graveyard with spells to flashback. Forbidden Alchemy is another great spell that cantrips while filling your yard, and has flashback in case you don't have access to Kess. Mind Grind is a great mill finisher, and can be reused with Kess for incredible amounts of mill.

I would suggest adding a little more ramp to your list as well. Izzet Signet, Dimir Signet, and Rakdos Signet are some of the best mana rocks, and I try to fit signets into every multicolored deck I play.

Finally, there's a very powerful combo you can run in mill decks that I think would fit in well here with Kess's ability to recur instants/sorceries. Using a counterspell that puts the countered spell on the bottom of its owner's library (Hinder or Spell Crumple), then casting Tunnel Vision naming the countered card, you can mill a player out completely.

Force_of_Willb on

6 years ago

Are only two curses enough to win? I think you might need more mill support:

How about Psychic Strike, Broken Ambitions, Countermand, Induce Paranoia as counter spells that also mill

Grisly Spectacle as a kill mill spell

Pilfered Plans, Thought Scour as draw and mill

Returned Reveler, Returned Centaur, Vedalken Entrancer as mill creatures with larger toughnesses

TheSurgeon on

6 years ago

You need a solid mill base before you add any control.
4x Shriekhorn- You can use this right away,Or wait to use it with Fraying Sanity for better results.
4x Mind Sculpt
4x Tome Scour
3x Archive Trap + 3x Ghost Quarter
3x Fraying Sanity

Then you add your control cards. The counters and bounces you've chosen, have better alternatives. I suggest 4x Unsummon. It's more aggro brother, Vapor Snag's lifeloss ability doesn't do you much good for this deck. And I would cut down to 2x Winds of Rebuke.

Remands in place of Cancels, it buys the necessary time, and replaces itself.

Take out the AEther Adepts. Also, Vedalken Entrancer and Jace's Sanctum- these are too expensive. Put in another Jace's Phantasm and Thought Scour, and get your hands on 4x Hedron Crab.

Start there, I think you'll find this will speed up the deck a helluvalot.

Cheers!

QuantumSkies on License to Mill!

7 years ago

Your Vedalken Entrancer could be replaced by Merfolk Mesmerist. It is essentially the same but you can get Merfolk Mesmerist out two turns earlier for some more mill. Perhaps removing Altar of the Brood for Sands of Delirium because I think Sands of Delirium would be faster. Your Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is good but if you really want to stick to the theme, Jace, Memory Adept would be better because of his boss second ability. Flame Slash can replace your Bathe in Dragonfire. I see that this is budget and Visions of Beyond is a little pricey but it could replace some of your investigate mechanics, I don't think you will do that though. Dream Twist could be replaced with Startled Awake  ^Flip, and Traumatize is a really good card so any could go. All the suggestions require more land however...

Lord_Rakdos73 on Undead Llamas

8 years ago

Drop confiscate, mind control, volition reins, and take out some "tap" cards. Add Merfolk Mesmerist and Vedalken Entrancer and Jace's Erasure. For mill.