INTRO
I've always wanted to create a good mill deck but I always ended up with a quite slow deck, especially because of the need of two colours (namely blue & black).
Yet, with the release of strong new mill cards such as Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter, black colour became unnecessary IMHO. This deck is in fact a mono blue deck except for Surgical Extraction (I play it with my life points, there are no Swamps in the deck) and Ashiok, Dream Render (can be played either with blue mana or black mana, thus no probs even if it is a multi-coloured spell).
Having said this, I think to have reached a quite fast Modern mill deck. Let's get to the actual play.
FIRST TURN
Generally, I start by playing a crab (Hedron Crab or Ruin Crab); since I have 8 crabs in the deck, I quite always have at least one in the first hand.
SECOND TURN
It is a quite "dead" turn in the sense that I still have to prepare my game for the following turns and there are multiple possibilities. I just show some of them:
- Play another crab and then play the land so you can mill 6 cards in total with the two crabs in play. Then, I use the free island to play either a Merfolk Secretkeeper (that way you have a quite strong defense of "walls" against small creatures) or a Thought Scour to draw.
- I play Founding the Third Path --> chapter one if you have a spell to play (Thought Scour or Merfolk the Secretkeeper) or chapter two for milling 4 cards.
- I take this "dead" turn to play Shelldock Isle instead of a standard Island; I generally find always something interesting to play adn which turns to be very useful in the following turns.
The opposite has now about 45 card in the deck (if he/she starts with a 60 cards deck)
THIRD TURN
This is a good turn as you can play one of the strongest spells of the deck i.e. Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Tasha's damage depends on the deck: if it is a low mana cost deck the damage is huge and up to 20 cards (or even more rarely) can be exiled! If you have chapter three with Founding the Third Path (played on 2nd turn) you can play the spell again doubling the milled cards. Generally, the opposite has about 25-30 cards in the deck at the end of the 3rd turn.
Another possible move that can be played if you are playing against a slower deck, is to play Fraying Sanity. This is an enchantment which is simply devastating in the following turns. Thus, depending on the situation even this possibility is assessable and it is not a "dead" turn at all.
FOURTH TURN
Now, it is the beginning of the end. Depending on what you played in the second turn there are several possible scenaries.
You can play another big mill spell such as Fractured Sanity or Tasha's Hideous Laughter.
Or you can add crabs.
Or you can play Ashiok, Dream Render and other 1 mana spells.
If you played Fraying Sanity the turn before now you can mill more than 28 cards in one turn. It's not impossible to win the game at 4th turn so.
Another option I use if I have to draw is to use 2 mana for cycling Fractured Sanity and 2 mana for Founding the Third Path (then you choose how many chapters --> this ability is extremely powerful!).
Number of assumed cards in the opposite's deck at the end of 4th turn: 10 cards.
FIFTH TURN
Even playing a land can be deadly for the opponent at this point...
ADDITIONAL NOTES
- 4x Fetch Lands such as Misty Rainforest are the icing on the cake. If you have 2 crabs in play you can mill 12 cards only by playing one land!
- Field of Ruin is another interesting land. You destroy a non-basic land useful for the opposite and you play another land activating the crabs' ability.
- Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is the icing on the cake. If you are stucked and you have some crabs in play you can spend your turns by playing it and every time milling cards with the crabs.
- Ashiok, Dream Render is one of the best cards for those hateful reanimate decks.
- Surgical Extraction is sooo perfect: especially against combo decks but, anyway, there is always an important card you want to eliminate for good from the opposite deck. I would put Surgical Extraction in every deck! XD
WEAKNESSES
Let's don't beat around the bush: every deck has weaknesses and even this one does.
- Non-flying creatures have no easy life against the crabs and Merfolk Secretkeepers. The problems are flying creatures. If the opposite have the opportunity to play strong and more flying creatures, this deck has no way to contrast them. You can probably put Jace's Phantasm in the side.
- Too control deck are also dangerous for this deck. If you kill immediately the crabs and counter some strong spells such as Tasha's Hideous Laughter you still can win but it will take much longer.
- I believe that one of the most dangerous decks for this deck is black-blue Fairie deck: it has counter spells, it has flying creatures, all the ingredients to win. It's not win by forfeit at all but they surely have higher possibilities to win.
HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!!
