This is the final in my series of catching up on the backlog of decks sent in to be fixed. So guess what? The bay is clear and there is no line to get your deck looked at! Drive on up (send in your deck to mattedesa@gmail.com), let me know what seems to be the problem, and I'll have you fixed up in no time! 

 

By the way, the sale price of FREE is still in effect, so what are you waiting for?

 

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Hey BMoor, my name is Tristyn. I like to play Magic, but I am absolutely horrible at constructed a deck. I like to play U/B mill, however often I crash and burn with my own U/B deck. But I don't want to netdeck or anything, I tried that once, even though I actually won a game, it wasn't fun, someone else's deck didn't feel right. So I would like to ask you, if it's not too much trouble, to tell me what's wrong with my deck, why it doesn't work, and how to fix it.

 

2x Triton Shorethief

2x Drainpipe Vermin

2x Duskmantle Guildmage

3x Merfolk Mesmerist

2x Crosstown Courier

2x Wight of Precinct Six

2x Nighthowler

1x Lazav, Dimir Mastermind

1x Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

3x Consuming Aberration

2x Jace's Mindseeker

 

22 Creatures

 

1x Thought Scour

2x Dream Twist

1x Dimir Charm

 

4 Instants

 

1x Mind Grind

2x Pilfered Plans

3x Diabolic Tutor

 

6 Sorceries

 

3x Curse of the Bloody Tome

 

3 Enchantments

 

9x Island

9x Swamp

4x Dimir Guildgate

3x Temple of Deceit

 

25 Lands

 

Thanks in advance, Tristyn

 

 

Also, if it helps, I lose to pretty much every kind of deck, except for decks that do nothing but gain life and defend themselves. I would like to keep Lazav and a couple Consuming Aberrations in, maybe Mirko Vosk if you think he would work well. I don't have a very big collection of cards, almost nothing from before Innistrad (that's when I started playing) and most are Gatecrash. So if you would be nice enough to do a deck fix for me, please don't include any cards I probably don't have.

 

 

Thanks again, Tristyn

 

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Well, Tristyn, I can appreciate your desire to not netdeck. Piloting a creation that is your own is one of the most fun parts of magic in my opinion. I think we can make a few adjustments to this deck, so it still feels like YOUR deck, but works a little more smoothly.

 

Part of the tension in standard milling decks is that they are splitting their energies between milling someone away and dealing damage. You don't win the game by getting someone down to 1 card or 1 life, you win by running them completely out of cards or completely out of life. The point is, you want to pick a direction and fully commit to it.

 

It really seems like your deck is leaning more towards the "empty someone's library" strategy, so we're going to focus there. The biggest difficulty of these type of decks is that running someone out of cards takes a while. All your cards need to do one of two things: 1) Empty someone's library or 2) protect you until your other cards can empty their library.

 

First, let's drop a few cards that don't do a very good job of either. Triton Shorethief is too small to do much defense and doesn't do anything to their library. He can go. You're not in the business of dealing damage to your opponent (without some help how often is he getting through, anyway?), so Crosstown Courier gets the axe as well. While the discard is nice, Drainpipe Vermin doesn't really fit the theme either, and we need the spot for something else, so down the drain he goes. Also, while versatile, Dimir Charm isn't the best fit.

 

-2 Triton Shorethief

-2 Crosstown Courier

-2 Drainpipe Vermin

-1 Dimir Charm

 

Now, it just so happens that the things I took out were all early game plays. Let's put in a couple of things that you can use early on, but will better help your strategy. Dakra Mystic is an interesting card. For one mana every turn, you can look at everyone's top card. If your top card is better than the opponent's, you can both draw them. If not, they go to the graveyard. Either way, you're one card closer to emptying their library, and when it's beneficial to you, you're getting an additional card. On the pure defensive side, I'd suggest some Hover Barriers. Once the barrier comes down on turn 3, not much is getting through it, buying you much needed time.

 

+3 Dakra Mystic

+4 Hover Barrier

 

Next out are a few cards that are decent, but ones for which I think we can find more useful replacements. Duskmantle Guildmage, while on theme, is pretty slow at what he does. Jace's Mindseeker is pretty mana intensive, and for the mana you're spending, we can find better ways to mill the opponent away. Diabolic Tutor, while useful in finding a key card, takes your whole turn to find one card without protecting you or milling your opponent, so I think we can do better than that.

 

-2 Duskmantle Guildmage

-2 Jace's Mindseeker

-3 Diabolic Tutor

 

In the place of these cards, I'd like to add the single most efficient milling sorcery out there: Breaking...as in Breaking // Entering. While you won't use the Entering half of the card, removing 8 cards for 2 mana is excellent. The other 4 spots we will use to help get rid of opposing threats while we also take a step closer to our goal. Grisly Spectacle gets rid of a troublesome creature once it's on the battlefield, and Psychic Strike counters the troublesome spell before it ever happens.

 

+3 Breaking // Entering

+2 Grisly Spectacle

+2 Psychic Strike

 

Finally, if you can come up with one, I'd suggest you get at least one copy of Phenax, God of Deception. He turns all your creatures into big milling machines, and can end the game pretty quickly in your favor. You don't really care if he gets turned into a creature or not. If you can get a hold of a couple, I might take out one swamp and one other card of your choice. I'll leave him of the list for now, but keep your eye out for him.

 

See if a list like this would work better for you:

 

 

3x Merfolk Mesmerist

3x Dakra Mystic

4x Hover Barrier

2x Wight of Precinct Six

2x Nighthowler

1x Lazav, Dimir Mastermind

1x Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

3x Consuming Aberration

 

19 Creatures 

 

1x Thought Scour

2x Dream Twist

2x Grisly Spectacle

2x Psychic Strike

 

7 Instants 

 

1x Mind Grind

2x Pilfered Plans

3x Breaking // Entering

 

6 Sorceries 

 

3x Curse of the Bloody Tome

 

3 Enchantments 

 

9x Island

9x Swamp

4x Dimir Guildgate

3x Temple of Deceit

 

25 Lands 

 

Usually, I'd suggest cutting a few more cards and getting more 4-of's on the most important cards, but I want to let you play with it a little bit in your play group. See which cards are most often useful and which ones seem to be dead weight more than often. Mind Grind might be a good one to look out for more copies of.

 

Until next time,

 

mattedesa