Hi Mattedesa! My deck I built my self a cool mill deck. It's pretty cool, but I think that it needs a lot of work. My deck is sometimes destroyed by Red and black hellbent decks, but it eats graft alive. Can you give suggestions to make the deck better?

 

Lands

8 Island

8 Swamp

3 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Duskmatle, House of Shadow

 

Creatures

2 Dimir Doppleganger

1 Dimir Infiltrator

1 Clone

1 Dralnu, Lich Lord

2 Belltower Sphinx

2 Dimir Cutpurse

1 Mirri the Cursed

1 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist

2 Vedalken Entrancer

1 Stormscape Familiar

1 Dimir Guildmage

1 Lore Broker

1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets

1 Avatar of Woe

 

Instants/ Sorceries

2 Ovinize

4 Last Gasp

1 Clutch of the Undercity

2 Psychic Drain

1 Darkness

1 Cancel

2 Rise // Fall

1 Tunnel Vision

1 Damnation

1 Ribbons of Night

1 Perplex

1 Induce Paranoia

1 Dark Banishing

1 Dimir Machinations

 

Artifacts/ Enchantments

1 Confiscate

1 Dimir Signet

1 Millstone

                         

 

Hey there, and thanks for sending in your deck. This deck reminds me a lot of a draft deck with which I won a small local tournament back when Ravnica came out. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The good part is that your deck is like a winning deck, but the bad part is that your deck is like a limited deck - with a lot of 1 and 2-ofs. We're going to spend today examining the individual cards you are playing and determine which are good enough to run multiples, and which should find their way out of your deck.

 

As you said from your e-mail, this is a mill deck. In other words, you need to get rid of your opponent's library, meaning you don't care a bit about their life total. To get rid of their library, you need to last until that happens. So the main things we need in this deck are cards that:

- Remove cards from your opponent's library

- Help you stay alive until you can deck your opponent

- Help you find the cards that you need to win

 

This said, we can remove Mirri the Cursed, because she doesn't help your strategy. This puts us at 60 cards - a good place to start! All of the other cards, to some degree, help you, so now we'll just look through to make sure we have the BEST cards you can have.

 

Cards to mill with: 

Duskmantle, House of Shadow - Good to have 1 of. When you've got extra mana, might as well make them lose a card, but you don't want a bunch of colorless mana in your deck.

 

Belltower Sphinx - Rarely are they going to attack into this and it's expensive to play, so I think we can lose these guys.

 

Circu, Dimir Lobotomist - I love this guy! Not only does he remove cards from their library, he hinders their playing from that point on! Unfortunately, he's legendary, so we don't want 4, but I think 1 more would make it more likely that you would draw one.

 

Vedalken Entrancer - A good blocker and takes away your opponent's library. Run 4.

 

Szadek, Lord of Secrets - In theory, this seems to be the ultimate mill card. But in my experience, it never works that way. It's very expensive, and it comes into play with the biggest bullseye on it's head. I would recommend leaving him out.

 

Psychic Drain - Not terribly efficient, and with all the other good cards in your deck, it's just not worth the slot.

 

Induce Paranoia - Unlike a lot of people I know, I'm a fan of this card. I wish it were cheaper, but it fits your theme perfectly. Get 2 more of these. I would say run 4, but 4 mana is a lot to be keeping open just in case you need to counter something, so we'll keep it at a total of 3.

 

Millstone - The deck's namesake. Running 4 is a must.

 

Lore Broker - Getting rid of one card isn't wort helping them draw more. Drop the Broker.

Tunnel Vision - This is too unpredictable. If I'm going to spend 6 mana, I want to know it's going to be effective.

 

Additional mill cards:

 

Glimpse the Unthinkable - The ultimate mill card. They are expensive, but are more effective than any other card you could run. Run as many as you can get.

 

Traumatize - Also, an extremely powerful card. However, this is less powerful in multiples and it does cost 5 mana, so 2 should be enough.

 

Now for cards to stay alive with. These include defense cards and cards that hinder your opponent.

 

Avatar of Woe - I like this! You will often be able to get the ten creatures in the graveyard so you can afford playing it. It's still expensive, so I'd just keep the one.

 

Ovinize - This is best played in a mostly blue deck that has trouble getting rid of creatures. Black can do better - let's leave the creature kill to black.

 

Clutch of the Undercity - Too overcosted for the effect. We can do better. There aren't enough crucial cards to make this worth it either.

 

Last Gasp - You've got it right. Keep all 4.

 

Darkness - Just a one turn solution. Let's stick with stuff that has more staying power.

 

Cancel - Good card, but it doesn't mill, and you've got to keep mana open for it. We just don't have room.

 

Rise // Fall - Even though you can only use the Rise part, I like this card. Bringing back one of your own creatures and bouncing one of theirs sounds like a good plan. Go up to 4 of these.

 

Damnation - Top notch. Too bad they cost at least $20 a pop! If you can come up with these, go for it, but for budget sake, I'll just leave you with the one you have.

 

Ribbons of Night - Removal and card draw. I like it, but it does cost a lot of mana. A total of 2 should do you.

 

Perplex - We need something more predictable. If they've got no hand, this card is useless. No thanks. The transmute won't be helpful either with our final build.

 

Dark Banishing - With as many good black creatures as there are out there, you're often going to wish this was something else.

 

Dimir Machinations - Main ability is nearly useless and we don't need the transmute.

 

Confiscate - A nice card, but I don't think it really fits here. Besides, we've got too many cards already!

 

Dimir Doppleganger - With all the cards you will be putting into graveyards, I like him. He's mainly a defense card, really, so not as important as some others. I think the 2 you currently have is enough of him.

 

Cards to help you find your win cards:

 

Dimir Infiltrator - You don't need the unblockable guy or the transmute card.

 

Clone - Not really on theme. Your best cards to copy should be in the graveyard for the Doppleganger.

 

Dralnu - Good possibility to re-use strong cards, but I'm afraid his downside is just too strong.

 

Stormscape Familiar - Not helpful enough to warrant the spot.

 

Dimir Guildmage - I like this guildmage, but I just don't think he quite fits.

 

Dimir Cutpurse - Since we dropped the guildmage, the Cutpurse is quite important to help you get more cards. Keep him.

 

Dimir Signet - You've got some expensive cards in here, so I like the signet to help you get them out. A total of 3 should give you what you need.

 

Whew! That was quite a list. Hopefully it helps you see what your deck needs and which cards will do it the best. As a final touch, I think we need to add one more Island and one more Swamp to give us 22 lands. With the three signets, that should give us enough mana.

 

So, with all that said, here's how the deck would stand with these changes:

 

Lands

9 Island

9 Swamp

3 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Duskmatle, House of Shadow

 

Creatures

2 Dimir Doppleganger

2 Dimir Cutpurse

2 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist

4 Vedalken Entrancer

1 Avatar of Woe

 

Instants/ Sorceries

4 Last Gasp

4 Rise // Fall

1 Damnation

2 Ribbons of Night

3 Induce Paranoia

4 Glimpse the Unthinkable

2 Traumatize

 

Artifacts/ Enchantments

3 Dimir Signet

4 Millstone

 

The trick, as with any deck, is to balance your defense with your offense. If you find that people are still running you over before you can finish off their library, you might need to reinsert a few more defensive cards.

 

Have fun trashing people's libraries!