Zero Crab - The Old UW Mill Control

[FTW]

With the large prevalence of graveyard-dependent engines in the current meta and the success of decks like Curse Stompy with MD Leyline, I started wondering about reviving UW CounterTop RipHelm to get free wins from MD grave hate and Counterbalance.


Card Choices:
The deck is a typical UW control shell with a curve around 1-3 to optimize Counterbalance.
Without Top, it needs cheap ways to manipulate the top deck at instant speed (Brainstorm, Enlightened Tutor)
ETutor can also assemble the Rest in Peace+Helm of Obedience combo for an instant kill
Energy Field also makes a soft lock with RiP vs many decks.


Advantages of this strategy:
- Enchantments can't be Elked or Coatled. Snowko is much better at fighting creatures, artifacts and planeswalkers.
- Preys on all the graveyard engines in game 1, when they don't have answers boarded in, leading to free wins
- Counterbalance is major card advantage against most low-curve decks, especially when BG is less popular meaning less Abrupt Decay
- Nullify their creature removal in game 1
- Mill opponent using fewer cards than other mill strategies


Updated List


//Spells: 25
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Predict
1 Unexpectedly Absent
2 Force of Negation
1 Terminus

//Enchantments: 12
1 Porphyry Nodes
4 Rest in Peace
3 Counterbalance
2 Energy Field
1 Detention Sphere
1 Shark Typhoon

//Planeswalkers: 1
1 Teferi, Time Raveler

//Artifacts: 2
1 Arcum's Astrolabe
1 Helm of Obedience

//Lands: 21
4 Flooded Strand
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
4 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Karakas

//Sideboard: 15
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Web of Inertia
1 Blood Moon
1 Suppression Field
1 Deafening Silence
1 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Pyroclasm
1 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Wear // Tear


Curve:
1 - 16
2 - 12
3 - 4
4 - 1
5 - 4
6 - 2

So far I like the viability of this over any other mill deck I have tried to brew.

Most cards are already self-explanatory in UWr control.
Unexpectedly Absent is there as a multi-modal tool to remove problems, protect combo pieces (X=0 on yourself), or set up CB (X=0 on yourself).
Terminus is down to a 1-of without Portent and with other anti-aggro tools, but the deck might still benefit from more copies. Porphyry Nodes has been too slow regularly.


ETutor Targets:
Rest in Peace - Grave hate and combo piece

Helm of Obedience - "5, T: win the game" once RiP is in play. Wins through Progenitus replacement effect. Best mill card in Magic.

Counterbalance - Broken card that provides insane virtual card advantage by nullifying cards in their hand. Top of deck can be manipulated at instant speed via Brainstorm, ETutor, Predict, Unexpectedly Absent, & 3feri+Ponder.

Energy Field - You can't receive damage as long as RiP is in play. This is a low-curve solution to fast aggro that doesn't lose to mana denial (like Verdict) and doesn't need cards like Portent to enable (Terminus got weaker since Top was banned)

Porphyry Nodes - efficient anti-aggro, 1 cmc ETutor target for CB

Arcum's Astrolabe - color fixing, 1 cmc ETutor target for CB

Detention Sphere - removal, kills multiple copies, pitches to FoW, 3 cmc ETutor target for CB

Shark Typhoon - Alternate win condition, either by cycling or casting

Blood Moon - Wrecks many decks that don't have 7 basics main. Backup 3cmc ETutor target for CB

Deafening Silence - Kills storm and slows down tempo decks. In fair mirrors, it makes it harder for the opponent to overwhelm your Counterbalance. Backup 1cmc ETutor target for CB

Pithing Needle - Hits many important targets like Karn, Thespian's Stage, Wishclaw Talisman, Misty Rainforest.. Backup 1cmc ETutor target for CB

Engineered Explosives - Board wipe vs low curve decks, even kills Chalice. Can be cast X=0, 1, 2, or 3. 0 cmc ETutor target for CB

Suppression Field - Slows down many popular engines dependent on activated abilities, giving you time to control the game. OTP T1 EOT ETutor into T2 Suppression Field is GG against many manabases.

Web of Inertia - Locks out creatures with RiP. Better than Energy Field vs "attack" triggers like Uro, Emrakul and Prime Time. Backup 3cmc ETutor target for CB



Other potential targets:
Leyline of Sanctity - Stops burn, Tendrils and discard

Humility - Shuts down creature-based decks

Scroll Rack - Enables better Counterbalance lock, but slow


Enlightened Tutor is card disadvantage but that is made up for by the advantage generated by Counterbalance and being able to tutor a 1-shot kill.




Background of the deck:
Much of the inspiration for playing this comes from seeing Reeplcheep's recent success with Curse Stompy. After watching some matches and playing a bit of black stompy myself, I realized the meta is soft to maindeck gravehate and enchantment-based control (Curses even moreso because they dodge Decay and Skyclave Apparation). RipField exploits some of the same angles.

I started thinking about this as we were discussing Ux mill control in a different thread. Unlike Turbo Mill, which doesn't mind expending resources as long as it eventually leads to the opponent losing their library before you lose the game, mill control doesn't try to race. Instead it tries to control the game and then eventually win with mill. There are two fundamental barriers with that strategy:

1) Even the most efficient mill effects are card disadvantage and don't affect the game state, so they are at odds with a control strategy. There's a tension between mill slots and control slots. You need enough mill slots to win the game, but each mill spot reduces the amount of control slots you can run, which reduces your ability to play an effective control game.

2) Over a slower control game, opponent has greater opportunity to get value from resources you have milled into their graveyard. Milling them, without killing them quickly, could actually HELP advance their game plan. To counteract this, maindeck graveyard hate seems important to prevent the opponent gaining resources while you mill them.

A card like Rest In Peace solves problem #2. Total graveyard annihilation means any milling does not profit them anymore. It's also strong when most decks already rely on the graveyard as a resource, since the banning of DRS and with the printing of some newer cards, which has made RiP stronger.

However once RiP is in the deck, every mill spell is worse than Helm of Obedience. Helm solves problem #1. With the ETutor package, Helm takes exactly 1 slot, which means the entire rest of the deck can be dedicated to control. This reduces the tension between milling and control better than a typical "Mill Control" deck could do, which is how I settled on going back to this combo.

Once I arrived at that, it was hard for me to justify any other mill control shell I was trying to brew when this just does both better. I can basically play Miracles with random Energy Field lock and fast wincon that ignores Oko.