Mesmeric Orb, Love it or Hate It?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 16, 2017, 12:24 p.m. by antacidbrn
I am a mill player who is excited to see that an Esper Deck performed well recently. One side effect, the card Mesmeric Orb jumped in price.
I have been told this card is extremely important to a mill deck. But, I have not been able to use it effectively, it usually ends up milling me instead of my opponent. It is nice in EDH, but I haven't been able to make it work well. I prefer mill spells such as Archive Trap, glimpse of the unthinkable, Hedron Crab and Mind Funeral in Modern format. Am I missing out on a huge opportunity here?
I do believe there are a few different mill archetypes. My version is an up tempo bounce and mill deck. It seems like the Orb fits into a control shell, with Ensnaring Bridges. Is that the only way to use it?
So, OP, you are looking at mill wrong. From what I can tell, your mill decks seem sudden, attempting to win quickly.
Mill however, generally works differently. Instead of racing your opponent to kill them, you want to win via attrition. Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Surgical Extraction are amazing tools for denying your opponent resources. Instead of winning quickly, you want to get rid of their answers permanently, and then slowly beat them. Unfortunately, mill simply doesn't have the card pool to be fast enough to straight up compete via speed, but it does have the ability to lock the opponent out (t1 IOK, after their draw step Surgical Extraction wreaks havoc against plenty of decks)
TL;DR: mill works when used in a slower, grindy deck
December 16, 2017 2:16 p.m.
antacidbrn says... #4
Does Fraying Sanity have to be out with Mesmeric Orb to make it effective in an up tempo list?
Hypothetical Example of Sequence with Mesmeric Orb and Fraying Sanity
T1 - Hedron CrabT2 - Mesmeric OrbT3 - Fraying SanityT4 - The milling begins...
Net total of cards milled if not missing a land drop: 6 cards by T4 or 12 with fetch lands. Because you don't want to pop Archive Trap before Fraying Sanity is down. Field of Ruin helps force the search of the Library at this point.
Hypothetical Up Tempo Mill:T0 - Archive TrapT1 - Tome Scour/Hedron Crab/Fatal Push/or Surgical ExtractionT2 - Glimpse Breaking/Entering or Any spell previously mentioned..T3 - Crypt Incursion or Mind Funeral.
Net Cards: 25-40 cards milled by T4.
The Orb and Sanity seem built for a slower pace, more control oriented Mill. Am I right or wrong?
December 16, 2017 2:33 p.m.
Problem is that using mill in a more aggressive manner just fuels storm and dredge. Control, while slower, lets you grind out the game so they can't whip out a suprise 7/8 goyf t2
flluid says... #2
In my opinion Mesmeric Orb is fantastic! It acts as a continuous mill spell if not delt with that also puts your opponent into an awkward situation where they have to debate on tapping there mana to play spells or attacking with creatures. With the addition of Fraying Sanity I feel mill has bumped back to a fringe tier 1.5/2 deck, but still lacks the overall speed to make it a staple in tier 1 tournament play.
December 16, 2017 2:11 p.m.