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[u]Basic Idea[/u]I've played some testgames, using my dimir mill deck (which isn't really good or balanced to be honest), and the most serious problem I had there was, that the deck was far to heavy into mill and lacked options to stop an opponent from attacking. So I decided to make a different approach and use defenders in combination with [[Doorkeeper]] and some slower mill-cards that I felt where good and powerful enough. This didn't work out really well, as I had to few defenders and they weren't able to stop an aggressive deck from overrunning me. So I did some changes and added [[Dimir Infiltrator]] to be able to tutor for [[Jace's Erasure]][u]Tests[/u]This is one of the decks I'm using as benchmark, to test my other Pauper decks against, the result for each test are recorded in a google-document spreadsheet and added to the description of each of my pauper decks. If you're interested in details from the spreadsheet, feel free to ask. I'm open to all suggestions and ideas that may help to improve this deck.
The most important cards of this mill deck are the enchantments: [[Curse of the Bloody Tome]], [[Jace's Erasure]] and [[Pestilence]]. The first two allow you to mill, even if you have no cards left in your hand, while the last one is crucial for gaining board control. [[Iceberg Cancrix]] and [[Merfolk Secretkeeper]] have a toughnes of 4, so you can safely use [[Pestilence]] to remove anything up to power 3, and still have some blockers for things to come. If you need to remove something stringer, don't hesitate, as you'll still have the enchantments and can mill, while your opponent will struggle to come back into the game. [[Dimir Infiltrator]] should always be used to search for [[Jace's Erasure]] or [[Iceberg Cancrix]], unless you're in trouble and need another defender.
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NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.
Hmm.My usual advice to millers is to add more mill :)The base of the logic is that the more mill you have, the faster you will mill them to death.Usually when people have a mill deck they add more and more defences and the deck gets less and less mill.It's a sort of gut instinct and I've trapped myself with it a couple of times See decktag: wdm shrieker Where mindshrieker is my own last mill card.Over the years my best solution has become to add "flexible mill"This means mill-cards that perform several tasks and one of them is mill.Merfolk secretkeeper // venture deeper is a nice example of taking that direction, it adds to both mill and defence.Second, there is the quality of the mill.When I pick mill cards I aim for cards that mill as much as possible whenever I can.Let's use Jace's erasure as an example. Let's say you search for it with some search cards, it hits play at turn 2. Let's say you are able to play for 6 turns because you are facing a flying weenie deck :)If you manage to draw 4 cards and cast 4 brainstorms you will mill 16 cards.Let's say you are lucky and get to cast one more erasure, then your mill is 32 cards which is close.It seems like you need 3 measures and 4 brainstorms and 6 turns to mill 48 cards which is much closer but just not realistic.Let's say you try out hedron crab, with 6 turns you draw about 4 lands, so you will mill for 9 with a crab. If you manage to cast 2 crabs early, you will mill 18 cards, and compared to 1 jace's erasure and 4 brainstorms it is both a faster way to mill, and more realistic.If you argue that hedron crab will be bolted, then remember that all of your walls will likely suffer that fate as well.Minister of inquiry is another little gem.Try out ditching 12 of your walls for 4 merfolk secretkeeper// venture deeper, 4 hedron crab and 4 minister of inquiry.Don't let go of the erasure yet, try to see how these cards compliment it first, then start looking for something better.One card to experiment with here, would be compelling argument, which can draw cards, and become a mill kill card. You simply cycle it to boost the erasure, and if they lose cards enough you simply pay to mill the last 5. Compelling argument is also "flexible mill"The more mill cards you can get that serves several purposes will forward your gameplan in two ways :)I'll scour scryfall for some more cards...
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The last mill deck I've tried to build in pauper used the following mill cards:4 Mind Sculpt, 4 Tome Scour, 4 Dream Twist, 4 Thought Scour, 4 Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper, and 4 [[Jace's Erasure]]. The rest was either draw or removal. Against mono black control the deck did OK, as my MBC-testdeck is more focused on creature-removal than discard and not really fast. The problems where the aggro decks: mono green Stompy, mono white heroic, W/R humans, and so on...they all are simply to fast before the deck runs out of power (aka mill-cards). This time I wanted to focus on defence and mill more slowly, but with [[Jace's Erasure]] being my only mill-option this is very fragile. I really would like to get a mill-deck working that is playable, but in pauper this seems to be very hard.
Here's a possible alternate list:44 excavated wall (replacing the scorpion, migh be good with doorkeeper)4 merfolk secretkeeper 4 iceberg cancrix (replaces phalanx, add lots snow) or mindwrack harpy.4 koma's faithful (replacing thorn) or nimana skydancer4 broken ambitions (replacing confound)Use the search engine scryfallPut mill in the text and search for commons that are pauper legal
I've done 150+ testgames until now, and one thing I noticed is that Crypt Incursion can win you games. Even aggressive decks can have a problem dealing with a a sudden lifegain of 30+...which isn't uncommon against creature based decks. [[Witch's Cottage]] and Dimir Infiltrator work well together tutoring [[Jace's Erasure]], which works like a charm in combination with Pilfered PlansI really wish there would be more cards like Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper or Iceberg Cancrix. The biggest problem here is is that a 0/4 can slow down aggressive decks, but it cannot stop, or deal, with the threats.
The latest addition to the deck where 3 Pestilence, 4 Curse of the Bloody Tome and 4 Evolving Wilds to help activate the Crab. This helps to keep many but the most aggressive decks at bay, and really increases chances. Yes, the mill is slow, but nevertheless, it's able to do it's work more often now.
Try out glacial grasp compared with pilfered plans.It draws 1 less card but stops an attacker several turns.
I'm not really convinced on Glacial Grasp. Stopping a single creature for 2 turns sound OK, but what do you do about the other creatures? I would rather use some additional removal instead because why stop it temporally when you can kill it permanently?The main problem I'm having with this deck are attacks or damage that can bypass my defence, this can happen in some ways: Direct damage, removal, evasion, swarm or overpower. Or attacks I'm to slow to build up some defence against. Swarm is the least problem, because sooner or later Pestilence will deal with swarms and the blockers can still hold of some damage. The problem with evasive creatures usually also can be solved by Pestilence, because they are normally rather weak. Which lefts us with removal, overpower and direct damage. Direct damage obviously is a very large problem, because before using the sideboard I can't do anything against these decks. Removal and overpower deal permanently with my defence, and the itself deck has too little removal to deal with all the threats a deck specialised in larger creatures can put in the field. When playing I found [[Koma's Faithful]] a useful creature, the mill is rather irrelevant, but the life gain proofed to be useful. Its able to deal with medium creatures and gain some life, at the costs of it's own life. I would rather be looking for something without mill, but low power/ high toughness and lifelink and/ or deathtouch... dream would be a 1/4+ with lifelink (and flying, one still can dream of).I was also toying around with the idea of using Pristine Talisman to gain some life, but I don't have anything I can sink a lot of colourless mana into, and the lifegain is too weak. [[Kraken's Eye]] (Not pauper legal, so no option for this deck) would also be ineffective, because getting 1-2 life per turn (More if you're playing against a blue deck) will normally not be enough to balance the damage dealt by your opponents creatures.
I think one of the real reasons why rogue mill became such a success is because of the deathtouch on thieves' guild enforcer. It sits there, mills and deals with the large attackers.In the case of glacial grasp it's meant to take out the big creature for a while. It needs to be in a mill that can also deal with the weenie and that can draw more glacial grasps.I tested it against merfolk together with echoing truth and winds of rebuke.
One of the more interesting cards I've added to my mill halfdeck is zulaport duelist.In games against merfolk I have been lucky to take out an early cursecatcher whenever merfolk got manascrewed or wanted to play spreading seas or silvergil adept as the second card. In few cases I've had two zulaport to take out an attacking lord. Overall, merfolk just walks through my islands, but by bouncing the lords that provide islandwalk, I have played zulaport to reduce the smaller attacker and block the bigger attacker.Among modern cards I've only found 1 permanent that can bounce zulaport, but if you can find one in pauper you will be able to have a small mill engine that produces miniature fog effects.But I think that in pauper, zulaport duelist will shine at taking out the first 1/1 to cross the board.