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Trigger Blue

Pioneer Mill Mono-Blue

TheoryCrafter

Upvote 1
1

Enchantment (15)

Instant (6)

Creature (16)

Planeswalker (2)

Sorcery (3)

Land (21)

Maybeboard

Land (4)

Enchantment (2)

Creature (1)

Greetings fellow Planeswalkers!

Trigger Blue is a Mono-Blue Pioneer Mill deck where the objective of this deck is to mill out your opponent primarily using Fraying Sanity to double the mill from Maddening Cacophony. Supporting this strategy is a mill through casting blue spells and getting enchantments on the battlefield using Drowned Secrets and Sage of Mysteries, respectively. This deck was built with the cards available.

Turn 1: Play Sage of Mysteries to mill your opponent through putting enchantments on the battlefield.

Turn 2: Play Drowned Secrets to mill your opponent just by casting blue spells

Turn 3: Play Fraying Sanity

Turns 4 & 5: Play anything that can mill or triggers milling.

Turn 6: Play a kicked Maddening Cacophony if you have Fraying Sanity on the battlefieled. If not, repeat Turns 3-5.

I don't like depending on a single strategy to win. The variety in strategy here is more what is causing mill than the different ways to win. If a spell causes one set of cards to be removed from the deck, its not an immediate disaster. The five trigger cards are Deepmuck Desperado, Drowned Secrets, Fraying Sanity, Rune Crab and Sage of Mysteries.

Big creatures are dealt with through So Tiny, Stasis Field, and blockers(Deepmuck Desperado, Merfolk Secretkeeper, Ruin Crab and Sage of Mysteries) to slow them down. Even though only Deepmuck Desperado has any power, the important thing is to buy time.

Graveyard hate, as a means to reduce graveyard interaction, is provided through the two copies of Ashiok, Dream Render.

Cards giving hexproof to opponents are outmaneuvered through Deepmuck Desperado, Maddening Cacophony and Rune Crab because they don't target.

Everything else that can be thrown at me are dealt with using Didn't Say Please and Thought Collapse. Whatever can't be countered I'll have to depend on copies of it getting milled. Remember targeting a spell that can't be countered with a counter spell does not prevent targeting unless the uncounterable spell says otherwise, so the spell's controller will still have to mill. First by the counter spell, then by Deepmuck Desperado. Since they're functional reprints its like having six copies of the same card.

Scrabbling Skullcrab is a matter of if, not when I replace Sage of Mysteries with it. While I have no plans to add room cards to this deck, the 3 toughness makes it a slightly more helpful blocker than SoM.

While I'm satisfied with Stasis Field for now, I may replace them with Agoraphobia due to their recast ability.

Well, that's it for this deck for now. I will post updates if and when they happen. If you have any thoughts or ideas about the deck don't be afraid to comment. In the mean time I hope this deck inspires you in some capacity.

God Bless!

Suggestions

Updates Add

The Christmas Changes — March 7, 2025
Edit

Thanks to the many cards I got for Christmas, I removed all my one ofs and added in Deepmuck Desperado and the Auras So Tiny and Stasis Field to deal with creatures and take advantage of DD's ability. I also changed out some lands to add in a few copies of Terramorphic Expanse.

Comments

Ninjew42 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #1

Very nice.

June 14, 2021 1:37 p.m.

ScryLord says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #2

Death's Approach?

August 21, 2021 10:40 p.m.

TheoryCrafter says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #3

ScryLord, thank you very much for the suggestion. You gave me something to think about in terms of graveyards. I've decided not to go with your suggestion because while using opponents' graveyards against themselves is fun, I'm not sure it is as doable in a mono-blue pioneer deck. Ashiok, Dream Render does go black, but all black mana costs are hybrid so it makes it more doable for Drowned Secrets and keeps the deck mono-blue. That and milling tends to fuel graveyard strategies which involve including, but not limited to, Crucible of Worlds, Delve and Escape.

Your suggestion, was good, just not what I was looking for in this deck. Death's Approach, however, is a card I see working well in Phenax of the Many Mills. Thank you very much for the suggestion and I hope this won't sour you on sharing ideas with me in the future.

Happy Hunting!

August 28, 2021 7:04 a.m.

Kazierts says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #4

I'm not very well versed in Pioneer and haven't played mill in a while, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

First things first, going over 60 cards is almost never a good thing.

About the cards themselves, here's a few things:

  • I would suggest Fabled Passage but I'm not entirely sure that would be within you budget. The more fetchlands the better. Ruin Crab is a house.

  • I really, really don't like Riddleform. It's very conditional and you kinda don't want to even consider winning with combat damage when playing mill. However, as I did in your other deck, I'll try to suggest things that work with your playstyle, even if I disagree. In this case, I have to say Riptide Chimera is better in every aspect. It's always a creature, has a bigger body and synergizes better with the constellation theme, since you can bounce things to redraw and remill every turn.

  • I'm not a huge fan of the cards you added for card draw. I see them as a bit too slow and innefective. From a quick search on Scryfall I have a few cards I believe you should consider. Wizard Class does basically the same as Font of Fortunes, but has better late game potential, especially considering you like having an alternative wincondition. Another thing I'd consider is Hard Cover. I know this seems very suspect, but hear me out. You want cheap enchantments to trigger constelation, which this is. You want card draw to see more cards in your deck, which this does. Additionaly, it increases the toughness of your creatures, enabling better blocks against more aggressive decks. Maybe The Modern Age  Flip would be good, as it draws you cards and blinks itself, triggering constellation again. There are also enchantments that mill your opponents as you draw cards, such as Psychic Corrosion, Sphinx's Tutelage and Teferi's Tutelage, though I don't think that's the route you want to take with this deck. I know this paragraph is huge enough already, but I just have one more suggestion that's not already in the deck, which is Inventive Iteration  Flip. It's interactions against the opponent and, when it flips, can prevent your opponent from casting certain spells.

  • I honestly think you should just max out on Mirrormade given you can use it to copy Drowned Secrets and Fraying Sanity.

  • Lastly, because I'm aware I write things almost the size of an article, Into the Story could be something to have in your mind, but not necessarily run.

To reiterate, I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to Pioneer, so a lot of the things I've said can be wrong. This is just my opinion based on a little bit of mill I've played on some quick searches on Scryfall. Hope this proves useful to you.

April 10, 2022 8:38 p.m.

TheoryCrafter says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #5

You definitely go all in on your deck suggestions. Not necessarily anything wrong with that.

With 2 spells for each land in my deck I'm reluctant to have more than 4 fetchlands in my deck. Especially if I end up with more fetchlands than Islands to fetch. Though I'm not above replacing a couple of Evolving Wilds with a couple of Fabled Passage.

Remember that I build with what I have. So I wouldn't just put a card like Riddleform in without a reason. Or in this case a bunch of little reasons. It triggers both Drowned Secrets and Sage of Mysteries, turns into a blocker when I counter a spell on an opponent's turn and is a late game mana sink for scry- which helps getting to one of my pieces. It's not a card I want to permanently leave in my deck but it works for now.

I try to keep my decks as close to 60 cards as possible. Though Pshychic Corrosion and Riptide Chimera each invite a different strategy so I'm gonna have to think on them. Thank you for the ideas!

April 11, 2022 9:35 p.m.

Kazierts says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #6

My apologies for not reading and realizing you built this with just the cards you have available.

April 12, 2022 10:03 a.m.

TheoryCrafter says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #7

It's okay. I forgive you.

I chose Psychic Corrosion because it gets around hexproof.

Of the others, Inventive Iteration was the hardest to say no to. The extra enchantment triggers and card draw would be great, but I'm going to go with your idea of maxing out Mirrormade. Since I'll need as many blue spells to cast as possible to trigger Drowned Secrets will require as many blue spells 3 or less I can fit.

Thank you again for all your help!

April 13, 2022 7:05 p.m.

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Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Card costs (outer) ​Land mana (inner)
Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Creature​CreaturePlaneswalker​PlaneswalkerLand​LandEnchantment​EnchantmentInstant​InstantSorcery​Sorcery
Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Converted mana costMana-curve​35.7%​35.7%31.0%​31.0%28.6%​28.6%​​​4.8%​4.8%012305101520

Casual

98% Competitive