I've been working with some of the new Gatecrash cards to try to build a mill deck. The decklist is here.
As a strategy, milling is one of the harder ones because it sets the bar higher than others. Still, a lot of milling tech came out in the new release and that gives me an excuse to use my favorite zombie, The Undead Alchemist in another fashion.
The case against milling is simple: most people run at least 60 cards, which means the win-con is higher. Many players self-mill. Recursion is everywhere.
The case for milling is different. Milling is more of a recon activity. Milling allows you to quickly figure out what kind of deck your opponent is playing.
Building budget decks allows one to build more decks which prevents the formats from becoming stale. It does expose pay to win fault lines as building a budget deck is more challenging and requires careful game play.
This mill deck, however, is more of a tool designed to ascertain what players are running. With it, you could quickly identify a players deck, make a note of what they are running, and pick a more suitable deck for your next match up- unless they are running a diverse deck base. However, as many players over-invest in one expensive deck, it is hard for them to quickly change their decks unless they are willing to spend a lot more money or adopt budget play styles.
I was recently muted for 30 minutes from MTGO chat for disclosing the playing styles of players. According to the moderators, I am not allowed to disclose the names of players and call them out for their deck styles.
I have suggested the muting of players for discussions of what type of deck they might be running is pointless in an age where the matches can be recorded and uploaded and decklists can be quickly ascertained.
In this round, my opponent, Darth1067 is running a deck with the following notable cards:
Stolen Identity, Magma Quake, Mizzium Mortars, Slumbering Dragon, Nicol Bolas, Obszedat Ghost Council, Merciless Eviction, Evil Twin, Chromatic Lantern, Rise from the Grave, Treasury Thrull, Consuming Aberration, Lasav Dmir Mastermind.
The gameplay footage of the round is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz7_BWkWEQY&feature=youtu.be
Posting this information in the chat of MTGO for others to see would not seem inappropriate. Players often discuss what decks other players are running. A discussion of my muting on the Wizards of the Coast MTGO General forum category ended up with a thread closing .
I feel these policies are pointless in light of the current state of play and technology. Most players understand their opponents can and will discover what they are running- especially in casual play where many games are single matches.
Many players want people to know what cards they own and what kinds of decks they are building. Players who run foil cards are engaged in a bit of Peacocking and probably don't mind it when other players notice their cards and decks. Many players enjoy sharing their brews with others. I sometimes ask my opponents what they have in their deck and they openly tell me.
The fact that the internet allows for the rapid dissemination of the information makes the policy of muting players for discussing other players builds senseless irrespective of the reasons for doing so.
I have suggested in the beta, players should be able to record notes about their opponents to prevent deck monotany from setting in- especially in the casual play sections- and counteract the expensive win cons with the appropriate deck builds. This would reduce the expensive ambush play that is so common in the casual play section of MTGO.
I myself have built a list of players I commonly encounter to determine which players are not playing casual decks in the just for fun section. At times, I feel players are playing expensive decks in casual play to try to pressure others to adopt expensive cards.
In any event, if you are interested in discovering an opponent's deck list quickly, a mill deck is probably one of the better tools for doing so.
I remain committed to my budget practices. I have long been critical of the less than balanced playing field created by the volatile MTG market. I feel players are unwise to adopt new cards early as that tends to put them at risk of investing a lot of money in a card that probably won't live up to the hype and will lose value in most cases. Budget purchases also allow me to build more decks and creatively brew. I myself was overjoyed to pick up Glaring Spotlights at a mere 12 cents on MTGO, but they are now down to 6 cents. I'm glad the price went down as more people can now afford them. Given the few times I've actually used them, the price drop seems appropriate.
Not every Magic card works out, so buying cheap cards is a way to minimize your exposure to those risks as well.
Update: So the closed thread on the MTGO forums has been re-opened.