I have been a collector and a player of Magic the Gathering trading card
game since 1994. I am no Grand Prix or Pro Tour champion, nor am I an expert of
the game, but I simply love the concept and the challenge it offers. I've been
brainstorming on the best combos in a particular deck for years, and my DeckLab
posts are simply to share what cards I own and what I believe is a fun,
affordable and effective combination of MTG cards.
Consuming Nightmill
Format: Modern
Color/s: Blue and Black
Decklist:
Creatures: 18
4x Hedron Crab
4x Mindshrieker
Spells: 17
2x Dimir Charm
2x Mindcrank
1x Traumatize
2x Mind Funeral
3x Dream Twist
Planeswalker: 1
Lands: 24
7x Swamp
3x Island
Sideboard: 15
2x Rewind
3x Dissolve
4x Distress
In most MTG games, the player’s primary
goal is to lower the opponent’s life to zero. Another win condition is if the
player is unable to draw a card from his/her library during his/her turn’s draw
phase, because the library has no more cards. Thus, “milling” your opponent’s
deck to nothing. (The term “Milling” was derived from the MTG card Millstone.)
The deck contains 17 spells that mills
your opponent’s library. Blue actually has a variety of mill spells that you
can utilize, I went with the one-drop Thought Scour and Dream Twist for their
second card ability. The Scour mills two cards and you get to draw a card, and
the Twist has the flashback ability. I only put in 3 of each since I would
expect my other mill spells and creatures to get the job done at the latest by
turn six. The Curse mills two cards every time your opponent starts his turn,
during upkeep. You have Traumatize that’s cuts the top half of your opponent’s
library, your opponent will be milling his library till 4 lands are revealed by
virtue of Mind Funeral, and late in the game you can use the flashback ability
of Increasing Confusion to mill that library down to nothing.
I put in Dimir Charm for early control,
still contemplating if I will add two more. Being able to look at the top 3
cards of your opponent’s library and milling two cards at the same time is
crucial at turn 2. Charms are really useful because of their flexibility in
situations. For the Dimir, you can also use it counter a sorcery or destroy a creature
with power 2 or less.
The early turn creatures are no pushover. The Crab mills your opponent’s library for 3 each time you play a
land. If you have two of these in play by turn 2, you mill for 6. The
Mindshrieker is a bit of a gamble, but imagine being able to mill any of your
opponent’s high casting cost spells, you can easily have no less than a 6/6
flier for one turn.
Next you have the Specter. For 3 mana
(blue or black), you have a flying backstabber, because its ability will use
your opponent’s own spells against him/her. Afraid that you will just get a
land from that library, doesn’t matter, if you have the Crab in play, and you
haven’t played a land yet, play it and that’s another 3 cards you mill from
your opponent’s library.
Ashiok is great to use if I get it early
in the game. (I only have one copy and it’s quite expensive to run a set of
4.) It’s casting cost is cheap, the abilities are
effective, so if I have the budget for it I will probably
get at least 2 on deck.
And then you have the Consuming
Aberration, a merciless horror for your opponent by turn six. Here is just one
of the many win scenarios:
Turn 1: play an Island, cast Dream Twist
– 3 cards in the graveyard
Turn 2: cast Hedron Crab, play a Swamp –
3 more cards in the GY
Turn 3: play an Island, (Crab triggers),
cast Thought Scour, flashback the Twist – 7 cards in the graveyard
Turn 4: play a Swamp, (Crab triggers),
cast another Dream Twist, flashback the same Twist, - 8 in the GY.
Turn 5: play an Island, (Crab triggers),
play the Aberration – another 2 cards in the GY. By this time, a total of 23 cards are
already in the GY.
Turn 6: you can attack the Aberration
for 23 damage already.
Well, this is assuming that your
opponent’s good cards were all milled and he had nothing good to really cast.
But having to put 21 cards in the graveyard by turn 4, which is 30% of your
opponent’s deck already, is just plain evil.
The sideboard comes with 4 Jace’s
Phantasm in case you feel that casting the Aberration takes too long. By turn
3, you already have a 5/5 flier. You can switch for the counterspells and
Distress if your opponent is running some creature removal or counterspells
themselves. Although I would expect that a substantial number of the good cards have
actually been milled already in the first few turns. And the crypt is there
when your opponent would have cards that can be played from the graveyard.
Finally, here is a combo with an
infinite loop for the win. The Guildmage and Mindcrank. Activate the
Guildmage’s 1st ability when you have the Crank out, then cast
either just a Scour or Twist, and its goodnight.
