wickeddarkman

THE "SHRIEKHORN IS BETTER THAN TOME SCOUR" CAMPAIGN:

First of all, it's colorless, so if you are stranded with a swamp at turn 1, you can get going with shriekhorn already that turn.

I've been playing with both tomescour and shriekhorn in my modernmill, and for more than 200 games I have been registering how much shriekhorn mills on an average. The basis is that I play 4 and play them within a priority to keep track of what happens to lategame shriekhorns, so the first numeric results are always for the most played shriekhorn, while the last is for the least played shriekhorn (which sometimes doesn't get played)

I've tested against the fastest decks on the field (Well elves are not that fast, but I tested it anyways)

SHRIEKHORN VS MERFOLK:
5.571, 5.333, 5.142, 5.037
At no point it drops below 5, so it is statistically better than tomescour.

SHRIEKHORN VS AFFINITY:
5.538, 5.2, 4.888, 4.5
Half of the shriekhorns drop below 5 so two could be replaced with tomescour.
SHRIEKHORN VS INFECT:
5.111, 5, 5, 4.5
They still stay above 4 so no exchanges.

SHRIEKHORN VS ELVES:
5.5, 5.5, 5, 4.888
One drops below 5 and could be replaced.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DECKS WITH ARTIFACT HATRED ???
First of all, only a few nuts persons would target a shriekhorn to destroy it, and in general if they really really want to target your horn, then let them and play mesmeric orb or other superior artifact mill.

SHRIEKHORN HAS OTHER USES:
In legacy I've often used shriekhorn to disrupt cards set for counterbalance, but there must be modern decks where instantly disrupting the top of a library counts for something.
Also, a lot of players favor echoing truth as a sideboard card in modern, and by echoing shriekhorn you gain a fresh mill-clock.

THE "SHRIEKHORN IS BETTER THAN TOME SCOUR" CAMPAIGN:

First of all, it's colorless, so if you are stranded with a swamp at turn 1, you can get going with shriekhorn already that turn.

I've been playing with both tomescour and shriekhorn in my modernmill, and for more than 200 games I have been registering how much shriekhorn mills on an average. The basis is that I play 4 and play them within a priority to keep track of what happens to lategame shriekhorns, so the first numeric results are always for the most played shriekhorn, while the last is for the least played shriekhorn (which sometimes doesn't get played)

I've tested against the fastest decks on the field (Well elves are not that fast, but I tested it anyways)

SHRIEKHORN VS MERFOLK:
5.571, 5.333, 5.142, 5.037
At no point it drops below 5, so it is statistically better than tomescour.

SHRIEKHORN VS AFFINITY:
5.538, 5.2, 4.888, 4.5
Half of the shriekhorns drop below 5 so two could be replaced with tomescour.
SHRIEKHORN VS INFECT:
5.111, 5, 5, 4.5
They still stay above 4 so no exchanges.

SHRIEKHORN VS ELVES:
5.5, 5.5, 5, 4.888
One drops below 5 and could be replaced.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DECKS WITH ARTIFACT HATRED ???
First of all, only a few nuts persons would target a shriekhorn to destroy it, and in general if they really really want to target your horn, then let them and play mesmeric orb or other superior artifact mill.

SHRIEKHORN HAS OTHER USES:
In legacy I've often used shriekhorn to disrupt cards set for counterbalance, but there must be modern decks where instantly disrupting the top of a library counts for something.
Also, a lot of players favor echoing truth as a sideboard card in modern, and by echoing shriekhorn you gain a fresh mill-clock.

THE "SHRIEKHORN IS BETTER THAN TOME SCOUR" CAMPAIGN:

First of all, it's colorless, so if you are stranded with a swamp at turn 1, you can get going with shriekhorn already that turn.

I've been playing with both tomescour and shriekhorn in my modernmill, and for more than 200 games I have been registering how much shriekhorn mills on an average. The basis is that I play 4 and play them within a priority to keep track of what happens to lategame shriekhorns, so the first numeric results are always for the most played shriekhorn, while the last is for the least played shriekhorn (which sometimes doesn't get played)

I've tested against the fastest decks on the field (Well elves are not that fast, but I tested it anyways)

SHRIEKHORN VS MERFOLK:
5.571, 5.333, 5.142, 5.037
At no point it drops below 5, so it is statistically better than tomescour.

SHRIEKHORN VS AFFINITY:
5.538, 5.2, 4.888, 4.5
Half of the shriekhorns drop below 5 so two could be replaced with tomescour.
SHRIEKHORN VS INFECT:
5.111, 5, 5, 4.5
They still stay above 4 so no exchanges.

SHRIEKHORN VS ELVES:
5.5, 5.5, 5, 4.888
One drops below 5 and could be replaced.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DECKS WITH ARTIFACT HATRED ???
First of all, only a few nuts persons would target a shriekhorn to destroy it, and in general if they really really want to target your horn, then let them and play mesmeric orb or other superior artifact mill.

SHRIEKHORN HAS OTHER USES:
In legacy I've often used shriekhorn to disrupt cards set for counterbalance, but there must be modern decks where instantly disrupting the top of a library counts for something.
Also, a lot of players favor echoing truth as a sideboard card in modern, and by echoing shriekhorn you gain a fresh mill-clock.

THE "SHRIEKHORN IS BETTER THAN TOME SCOUR" CAMPAIGN:

I've been playing with both tomescour and shriekhorn in my modernmill, and for more than 200 games I have been registering how much shriekhorn mills on an average. The basis is that I play 4 and play them within a priority to keep track of what happens to lategame shriekhorns, so the first numeric results are always for the most played shriekhorn, while the last is for the least played shriekhorn (which sometimes doesn't get played)

I've tested against the fastest decks on the field (Well elves are not that fast, but I tested it anyways)

SHRIEKHORN VS MERFOLK:
5.571, 5.333, 5.142, 5.037
At no point it drops below 5, so it is statistically better than tomescour.

SHRIEKHORN VS AFFINITY:
5.538, 5.2, 4.888, 4.5
Half of the shriekhorns drop below 5 so two could be replaced with tomescour.
SHRIEKHORN VS INFECT:
5.111, 5, 5, 4.5
They still stay above 4 so no exchanges.

SHRIEKHORN VS ELVES:
5.5, 5.5, 5, 4.888
One drops below 5 and could be replaced.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DECKS WITH ARTIFACT HATRED ???
First of all, only a few nuts persons would target a shriekhorn to destroy it, and in general if they really really want to target your horn, then let them and play mesmeric orb or other superior artifact mill.

SHRIEKHORN HAS OTHER USES:
In legacy I've often used shriekhorn to disrupt cards set for counterbalance, but there must be modern decks where instantly disrupting the top of a library counts for something.
Also, a lot of players favor echoing truth as a sideboard card in modern, and by echoing shriekhorn you gain a fresh mill-clock.

You have listed both dream twist, memory sluice, tome scour and vision charm, BUT HAVE FORGOTTEN SHRIEKHORN!!!

THE "SHRIEKHORN IS BETTER THAN TOME SCOUR" CAMPAIGN:

I've been playing with both tomescour and shriekhorn in my modernmill, and for more than 200 games I have been registering how much shriekhorn mills on an average. The basis is that I play 4 and play them within a priority to keep track of what happens to lategame shriekhorns, so the first numeric results are always for the most played shriekhorn, while the last is for the least played shriekhorn (which sometimes doesn't get played)

I've tested against the fastest decks on the field (Well elves are not that fast, but I tested it anyways)

SHRIEKHORN VS MERFOLK:
5.571, 5.333, 5.142, 5.037
At no point it drops below 5, so it is statistically better than tomescour.

SHRIEKHORN VS AFFINITY:
5.538, 5.2, 4.888, 4.5
Half of the shriekhorns drop below 5 so two could be replaced with tomescour.
SHRIEKHORN VS INFECT:
5.111, 5, 5, 4.5
They still stay above 4 so no exchanges.

SHRIEKHORN VS ELVES:
5.5, 5.5, 5, 4.888
One drops below 5 and could be replaced.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DECKS WITH ARTIFACT HATRED ???
First of all, only a few nuts persons would target a shriekhorn to destroy it, and in general if they really really want to target your horn, then let them and play mesmeric orb or other superior artifact mill.

SHRIEKHORN HAS OTHER USES:
In legacy I've often used shriekhorn to disrupt cards set for counterbalance, but there must be modern decks where instantly disrupting the top of a library counts for something.
Also, a lot of players favor echoing truth as a sideboard card in modern, and by echoing shriekhorn you gain a fresh mill-clock.

Yup. It was in lyngby.
My "handle" wickeddarkman is wellknown in kbh which is why some call me wicked.
The time fits close to a point where I stopped playing at lyngby because a friend of mine needed to test against legacy. From there we went to test against modern, so I now have an array of testdecks to attack my mill with.
At that time my best milldeck was at it's peak. (It had no hedrons and no archive traps in main)
It's been a long travel before I started up on serious tests against my mill, but at a time I took it to a fanatic and went top 4 with it. Then I went to lyngby and got beaten because everyone knew how to play against it, so I decided to refine it in ways that would make it work even if an opponent knows the entire decklist by heart.

Here's a link to what it looks like at the moment:
http://www.mtgvault.com/wickeddarkman/decks/the-story-so-far/

Yup. It was in lyngby.
My "handle" wickeddarkman is wellknown in kbh which is why some call me wicked.
The time fits close to a point where I stopped playing at lyngby because a friend of mine needed to test against legacy. From there we went to test against modern, so I now have an array of testdecks to attack my mill with.
At that time my best milldeck was at it's peak. (It had no hedrons and no archive traps in main)
It's been a long travel before I started up on serious tests against my mill, but at a time I took it to a fanatic and went top 4 with it. Then I went to lyngby and got beaten because everyone knew how to play against it, so I decided to refine it in ways that would make it work even if an opponent knows the entire decklist by heart.

Here's a link to what it looks like at the moment:

I only play in denmark, so if you played there odds are good enough for us to have met :D
The only person I remember recently playing mbc-mill was about a year or more ago, with 4 extirpate, 4 surgical extraction, 4 sadistic sacrament and a death's shadow combo within the deck.

SHHH! Our tests are sort of secret, so don't mention them!

I can offer a lot of advice, but need to know the intended format and how serious juicy wants to play mill!

If it's truly casual, then I can recommend that the counterspells are exchanged with flusterstorm, and if you want to work without surgical extraction which is black, then extract is your only way to get rid of troublesome cards.

And as always, the best milling artisfact card is mesmeric orb. Mesmeric orb will work very well with dream twist and increasing confusion.

I currently use 3 chancellor of the spires, 4 mind sculpt, 4 tome scour, 2 memory sluice, 1 mesmeric orb, 2 archive trap, 4 shriekhorn and 3 hedron crab (+1 shelldock isle) + a lot of other millcards that are black. My main strategy is to mill as much as possible, using the cards in magic that mills most of all, and the numbers are pretty specialized towards not being obstructive at any part of the game.

23 millcards is an acceptable amount for a deck with stuff other than mill, so try these above cards as a starting core for your deck, then experiment as much as possible.

SHHH! Our tests are secret!

I can offer a lot of advice, but need to know the intended format and how serious juicy wants to play mill!

If it's truly casual, then I can recommend that the counterspells are exchanged with flusterstorm, and if you want to work without surgical extraction which is black, then extract is your only way to get rid of troublesome cards.

I also saw the tutelage and thought "wotc want's grinding painter to live?"
It's a lot cheaper than helm of obediance and has no activation so is a lot less vulnerable to needle/revoker.

It will take some work with this to fit in modern, and should stay as close to the legacydesigns as possible to work.

I completely agree with KJSJ3 on the mana.
To reliably play ensnaring bridge you need a minimum of 21 lands so only 18 lands will slow down the bridge.
Also, since most decks like burn, affinity, infect and other fast beats can kill at turn 3-4 most of the time you also want to be able to empty your hand down to 0 fast enough so that they wont hit you. (Infect goes as fast as turn 2-3)
Archive trap will lock down your ensnaring bridge unless you play against someone really dumb.

Lanternmill evolves around being able to avoid being beaten to death, so focus on making the bridge count.
Since most of your deck involves artisfacts you might play simian spiritguide which both empties your hand and generates mana to play stuff faster, especially the bridge.

Protecting the bridge will also be an issue. Apostle's blessing is one way to do that, and it will play well with simian spirit guide.

Surgical extraction will also thin out your hand faster, and will help you remove stuff that tries to take out you or your bridge.

This strategy leaves 3 cards as unplayable. hedron, trap and path.
Try out replacing them with 4 simian spirit guide, 4 surgical extraction and 4 dismember and see how the deck behaves.

Also ditch out codex shredder and use pyxis of pandemonium to remove those pesky emrakul's...

Use thoughtseize instead. You have 2 lands that gives you 2 damage, I have 4. You have 8 fetches I have 4. You play 2 surgical, I play 3. You should be able to play with 3 thoughtseize based on that. Remember that I have just played around 60 games against affinity which kills between turn 3 to 4 and I found my lifeuse to be good enough to dare playing stuff like fetching into a watery grave and then play a surgical for 2 life.

As a general rule, don't use more than 4 life on any stuff unless you can secure a win by doing it.

So when's your next tourney :D

There is one miller in modern that used to advocate the esperbuild, and historically he's been the one to win the most with espermill. I have gathered all of his versions into one build by using statistics.
Steal his mana, and you should be able to prosper.

http://www.mtgvault.com/wickeddarkman/decks/godica-king-of-modern-mill/

There is one miller in modern that used to advocate the esperbuild, and historically he's been the one to win the most with espermill. I have gathered all of his versions into one build by using statistics.
Steal his mana, and you should be able to prosper.

http://www.mtgvault.com/wickeddarkman/decks/godica-king-of-modern-mill/

By the way, a lot of millers seem to adapt spellskite into their mill these days, so I'm adding it as a possible sideboard. It might also be your way out of wur/UR

My own strategy has always been to have so much mill that countering it doesn't help. I usually defeat WUR by first extracting snapcaster mage which will cripple them. Next target is any spell that burns and draw or counter and draw.

My brute force strategy always center on milling fast and locking down the keycards at first opportunity, which has proven a solid strategy in all my years with mill. It's also why I prefer to have nothing but mill in the deck.

To know what you want to keep/remove you have to have a gameplan on what you want to beat, what you sideboard against and what you just fold in on. Compile yourself a gauntlet of testdecks!

What is the main "gauntlet" in magic ?
So far most modern guides will tell you that a deck must be fast (And flexible) enough to beat infect, affinity and burn. Would you agree on that? (I certainly do)

My current goal are these three + elfball as I was humiliated by an elfball player at the gp.
If you can gear towards beating the trinity then your deck should be fast enough to deal with almost anything else due to speed alone.

So far I'm testing against these decks, and the ones that I do worst against will be the ones I sb against. It's a good thing the sb will be similar in all three cases :D

I can understand the tradeoff with drowners vs hedrons. Drowners mill less but beats for more.
I also like the "cheap critters + memory sluice" which allows you to sometimes conspire it.

I'll also claim that with thoughscour and visions you can toy with a much lower mana.
Try out playing your deck with 18 islands and increase it slowly from there. After all your stuff costs 2 at the most.
18 lands support 12 2cc's and 30 1cc's.

Sanity grind is an interresting choice, but with 1 third lands it will probably hit 1 third lands so you reveal 5-6 cards with a cost of U which mills a total of 5-6 cards. Not valid enough for 3 mana. Shriekhorn would probably mill more with an average of 5.xx (Can't remember the xx part, but it's around 55-77 depending on how many turns you have left to live)

Try out your current deck but remove the mind/body and 3 islands and insert 4 surgical extractions. Surgical extraction is your best strategy against anything you know well enough.
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WIDEk ??!!
I'm "WICKED" (Meaning nasty/naugthy) "DARK" (at least mentally) "MAN". WDM in short.
WDM stands for wicked dark man
MDW stands for mill deck wins ;D

Hmm! must have misread blight at a time, thought of it as -3/-3 to everything :C It may still have some use against tokens, but should perhaps become sb.

As for mesmeric orb I have just been testing it against affinity. And in my own setup I will cut down to 1 mesmeric. (Had 3 against merfolk) and those replaced were replaced with mind sculpt. Affinity has too many ways around the orb. In all cases I've tested within you draw an amount of cards, and the times where you draw more than one mesmeric orb it will mill less than those played first. Enough of these incidences and it becomes measurable. Having 4 mesmeric orbs will statistically degrade one of them to work less like a mesmeric orb and more like a mind sculpt, so a full transformation is justifyable. Consider them as a package where you have 3 mesmeric orb and 1 mind sculpt.

When I test I use paperstrips inside sleeves to keep track of each individual millcard and how it performs. I always play out the highperformance cards first so when I draw multiples I can see the effect of a card being played later than the others, which is why I claim 4 mesmeric is 1 too many if you meet merfolk, while 1 is the best number against affinity.

Using the same arguments I have some preset numbers you might use:
3 hedron crab (When using 4, one performs more like a tome scour)
3 mesmeric orb (When using 4 one performs like a mind sculpt)
3 archive trap (The pro's never activate the trap, so 4 dead cards as you die a lot around turn 4)
4 tome scour (optimize those surgical extractions)

Using my knowledge on topdecks:
2 damnation in main
2-4 mind funeral. The longer your game takes the more lethal it becomes, but the longer you play the more you draw, so a more controllike deck will use 2-3 of these.
a lot of designs exclude breaking//entering for more space. use 0 or 3.

Alternately you may use blinkmoth nexus instead of tarpit if you really want to use sword of mind and body.

What decktypes do you defeat the most, and which do you lose to more often?