pie chart

Phenax of the Many Mills

Commander / EDH Combo Mill UB (Dimir)

TheoryCrafter

Upvote 0
0

Creature (33)

Land (36)

Sorcery (8)

Artifact (5)

Planeswalker (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: Phenax, God of Deception

Enchantment (11)

Instant (5)

Maybeboard

Creature (6)

Land (2)

Planeswalker (1)

Enchantment (1)

Sorcery (2)

Artifact (1)

Hi there! This Deck's objective is to mill out the opponent by any means available. Normally, I'd be building a mill deck based on at least one card milled for every one mana spent, but the triggered abilities in the permanents I own allow for reusable mill that can eventually pay for itself. This deck has fifteen 2-card combos, twelve cards which trigger mill, and a Etrata, the Silencer in the event someone can get around the milling.

Altar of the Brood- Permanent enters the battlefield under your control

Consuming Aberration- Cast any Spell.

Deepmuck Desperado- Anything that is targeted.

Drowned Secrets- Cast Blue Spells.

Fraying Sanity- Cards entering the Graveyard.

Hedron Crab & Ruin Crab- Landfall.

Jace's Erasure & Sphinx's Tutelage- Card Draw.

Mindcrank- Life loss.

Sage of Mysteries & Thassa's Devourer- Enchantments.

Sage's Row Denizen- Blue Creatures.

Outside of Altar of the Brood and the mono-Black instants and sorceries(except for Peer Into The Abyss) every card in this deck can activate the trigger ability in a minimum of two of the listed permanents. The cards were chosen this way to maximize the milling potential without over relying on Phenax.

For opponents with hexproof, I added Consuming Aberration, Deepmuck Desperado, Maddening Cacophony, Mind Grind, and Ruin Crab.

For opponents with good graveyard interaction I have Bojuka Bog, Crypt Incursion(in part as a means to gain life if I'm otherwise done for), and Planar Void(as a stopgap to allow graveyards with controlled sizes and to support Syr Conrad, The Grim's triggered ability).

Diabolic Tutor and Mastermind's Acquisition allow me to tutor up any of the combo pieces if I already have one in my hand. Deck manipulation, another method to get the cards I need, is done through card draw(Eidolon of Philosphy, Fascination, Finale of Revelation, Sphinx's Tutelage), scry(Acqueous Form, Medomai's Prophecy, Sigiled Starfish, Wall of Runes.), and even exile(Rona, Disciple of Gix).

Ashiok, Nightmare Muse, Omen of the Sea, and Soul-Guide Lantern all serve multiple functions in these instances.

Ashiok, Dream Render didn't make the cut simply because I ran out of copies. That, and my biggest deckbuilding weakness is an inability to "kill my darlings" unless a stronger card comes around.

At this stage now, unless the card has great synergy with one or more of the permanents, any new cards I add will require blue in its casting cost.

That concludes this deck for now. I'll post updates when I make them. If you have any ideas to improve the deck, don't hesitate to post a comment.

God Bless!

Suggestions

Updates Add

Just a small one... — Oct. 28, 2025
Edit

Back for Christmas of last year I got several copies of Deepmuck Desperado and finally got around to replacing my copy of Parasitic Strix with it. This not only adds another hex proof resistant card, but allows me to mill all my opponents just by activating Phenax's ability.

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

91% Casual

Competitive