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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage
Deck
Garage
articles
aren't
just
about
helping
one
guy
fix
his
deck.
The
reason
they're
posted
here
on
Pojo
is
that
they
act
as a
learning
aid
to
other
deckbuilders.
If
you
have
a
deck
similar
to
one
I've
already
fixed,
you
could
get
some
good
ideas
from
the
previous
fix,
even
if
there
are
differences.
But
sometimes
reading
a
previous
article
isn't
enough,
and
in
those
cases
I
don't
mind
repeating
myself--
especially
if
the
original
article
was
a
while
back.
I've recently gotten back into Magic after almost two years of not Well, Eric, this is the classic problem beseiging mill decks: what you're doing isn't interacting at all with what your opponent is doing. For a mill deck, each card the opponent draws/gets milled is like a point of damage. Think of Duskmantle as saying "UB, Tap: Deal 1 damage to target player." The trouble is, your opponent starts with 60 life (minus 7 for the opening hand, minus 1 drawn each turn) while you start with 20. So of course you need defense and life pads to even things out. The Dampen Thought decks of Kamigawa block used Kami of Old Stone and Blessed Breath for their defenses. You have Drift of Phantasms. Who has the better deal?
Honestly, Kamigawa mill decks were simply more succesful becasue they were typically Blue/White decks, and were adept at staying alive. Ravnica mill decks are invariably Blue/Black, and suffer from Black's tendency to be willing to sacrifice anything. But Black can gain life, too, as Psychic Drain proves, so there is still hope.
We'll start with the creatures. As you say, A
 zorius Guildmage's Blue ability isn't useful often enough, and costs too much mana. What you need is Dimir Guildmage. He has two abilities you can use and both are almost always useful. A bit more mana though, but don't forget: he's also a 2/2 for two. If aggresive decks start pushing you around, it's fine if you use Guildmages to block with if you need to. Junktroller and Drift are good choices too; they hold off a lot of attackers and also have useful abilities. But here's wher your milling potential reaches a new level: replace Circu with Vedalken Entrancer. I know, Circu is cool, and he stops your opponent from playing spells, but that isn't relevant often enough. You have to play a spell to get him to mill, and that's only one card, or two if it's a multicolored spell. Vedalken Entrancer mills for 2 every time, and for only one blue mana. And he can do it at instant speed, too, so if your opponent tries any Divining Top shenanigans, you can mill away the top of the library with or without the Top in it as you see fit. And let's not forget the Entrancer's stats either-- a 1/4 versus a 2/3. Entrancer survives Lightning Helix, Galvanic Arc, and many 3/x beaters while Circu won't. That's how the Kamigawa mill decks got so much mileage out of Soratami Mindsweeper. I'd suggest adding in a Mindsweeper, but you've already made it clear how you feel about Kamigawa card about to rotate out. Just FYI, Kamigawa rotates out in October when Time Spiral is released, so even Kamigawa cards have a few months left on the shelf.
Now, your spells. For milling, you've got Traumatize, Glimpse the Unthinkable, and Tunnel Vision. And Psychic Drain. And Dimir Machinations. That's a little much, especially when it's all at sorcery speed. This is why you're so hard up for mana. Most successful mill decks do all their milling through activated abilities, like Millstone, the Entrancer, a
 nd Duskmantle. That way, you can do it at your opponent's end of turn step and hold mana open for counters if need be. Let's drop Dimir Machinations and Psychic Drain in exchange for 4 Mana Leak and 4 Ribbons of Night. I know RIbbons of Night is a sorcery too, but it gains you one more life than Psychic Drain for the same cost, it can take out a creature on the board, and it draws you a card. Also if you have more than 5 mana, you don't tap out for it like the Drain wants you to do. And Mana Leak is there to be your "catch-all" answer to whatever nothing else in your deck can't stop. Once you play one and your opponent knows you've got them, it really changes how they play. They start second-guessing their own plays, and even if you don't have a Mana Leak in hand, you should be leaving mana open anyway, for the Entrancer or Duskmantle. You could probably take out Tunnel Vision too for Millstone or more board control, but the Junktroller combo is a lot of fun, so I wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't.
That ought to cover it. Dimir Mill can be a tricky deck to figure out, but I'd expect no less from the guild that convinced a plane it didn't exist. Here's hoping Szadek doesn't cover this up too, or els--
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