Aggro-Mill

[HPB_Eggo]

I'm sure this is going to seem like a completely off-the-wall idea, but I'm fairly sure it will work, although I've only just now begun testing the decklist below. First, before any explanations, the list...

Aggro-Mill
by Bryan Endres

Main
4x Underground Sea
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Flooded Strand
4x Underground Sea
2x Swamp
2x Island
2x Volrath's Stronghold

4x Guiltfeeder
4x Tombstalker
3x Nihilith
2x Dimir Doppleganger

4x Tome Scour
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
4x Mind Funeral
4x Psychic Drain

4x Spoils of Evil
4x Dark Ritual

4x Snuff Out
4x Force of Will

Sideboard
4x Engineered Plague
4x Extirpate
4x Pithing Needle
3x Umezawa's Jitte

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I'll go through the various divided sections of the decklist with explanations and follow up with some overall strategy, synergy, etc. explanation.

Mana Base: I like it the way it is. Volrath's Stronghold is very strong if you end up having to mill yourself.

Creatures: Tombstalker is large, he has evasion, and he can come out on turn 2 or 3 somewhat reliably, generally through playing Tome Scour on yourself.

Guiltfeeder has evasion and completely ends games all by himself, mostly because you can easily get 20 cards in an opponent's graveyard.

Nihilith has evasion and is a 4/4 that can come in for one and a black if you play him right, as you get to remove a time counter from him whenever you mill an opponent's library.

Dimir Doppleganger comes out and copies big creatures in other player's graveyards, where they should be.

I seriously considered putting Psychatog in place of Nihilith or Dimir Doppleganger, but I'm not sure I want to go all in on the milling myself strategy. That should generally be reserved for playing quick Tombstalkers with him in your opening hand.

Mill Cards: This consists of, more or less, the most efficient one use milling cards in the game. You can use them to mill yourself or your opponent, generally. Great synergy with every creature being played, as well as being a possible win condition with the right hand.

Acceleration: Spoils of Evil is probably the single greatest acceleration card in this deck, as your opponent will, hopefully, have a few creatures and artifacts in his/her graveyard. Dark Ritual really helps to speed out Guiltfeeder or Tombstalker for the quick win.

Permission/Removal: Force of Will, cause I have blue cards. Snuff Out, cause I have to deal with creatures, generally first turn Goblin Lackey.

Sideboard: Engineered Plague for those pesky tribal matchups. Jitte for aggro. Pithing Needle is all-around good in a large number of matchups, and Extirpate helps against combo and any deck that only runs a few win conditions.

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The overall job of the deck is to mill, play a huge guy with evasion, and swing for the win. Alternatively, it can gain tons of life or simply mill for the win. Here are a few synergies that might not be readily apparent...

Tombstalker + Mill: To demonstrate, a possible scenario. Say you have an Underground Sea, a Swamp, a Tome Scour, and a Tombstalker in your opening hand. First turn, you play Underground Sea and mill yourself for 5, leaving 6 total cards in your graveyard. Second turn, you play the Swamp and play Tombstalker, removing your entire graveyard from the game. Awesome, huh?

Psychic Drain + Spoils of Evil: If your opponent has a few creatures or artifacts in his/her graveyard from previous turns, you can play Spoils of Evil for some life and colorless mana and follow it up with Psychic Drain for additional mill and lifegain. Works quite well against most decks.

And that's just about all I can think of. This is still in the very early stages, so I need suggestions on improvements, and I would highly appreciate it if anyone could find time to put it together and try it out, as the additional testing data would be invaluable.

Thanks in advance for the help. :smile:

[ClearSkies]

It doesn't look like 10 other cards that isn't FoW is enough to support the FoW.
Also, by doing Aggro and Mill, you are actually weakening both strategies.

The problem with Milling is that it doesn't solve the problem on the board or in your opponent's board. Besides Tombstalker, your other creatures are all either trash or too slow. The Dimir Doppleganger is always a 0/2 if opponent has no board. Guilt Feeder cost 5 to bring out while Tombstalker, at best, cost only 2 mana to bring out.

You should probably stay away from Milling to strengthen your Aggro.

Seems like if you face any deck that has Tarmogoyfs, your milling only makes the situation worse very fast.

[HPB_Eggo]

It doesn't look like 10 other cards that isn't FoW is enough to support the FoW.

I count 14 non-FOW blue cards, which is a little low, yes.

Edit: Squelch that, it's actually 18. That seems about right to me, even if I decide to drop the Doppleganger.


Also, by doing Aggro and Mill, you are actually weakening both strategies.

Quite possibly.


Besides Tombstalker, your other creatures are all either trash or too slow. The Dimir Doppleganger is always a 0/2 if opponent has no board. Guilt Feeder cost 5 to bring out while Tombstalker, at best, cost only 2 mana to bring out.

I disagree. Guiltfeeder will almost always swing for the win, and Nihilith is practically a mini-Tombstalker in the deck, being a 4/4 with evasion that comes in for a black and a colorless, albeit mostly on turn three or four.

I can almost agree with the Dimir Doppleganger, as it is the least optimal of the choices right now. It still steals creatures that I mill, though, which gives it decent synergy.


Seems like if you face any deck that has Tarmogoyfs, your milling only makes the situation worse very fast.

Absolutely, 100% correct! Tarmogoyf will hose this deck unless I play more beaters or kill it. Luckily, I can often do both.


You should probably stay away from Milling to strengthen your Aggro.

Then I would have Suicide Black, and that's not very fun, now is it? Then again, I play Suicide Black, and I like it. This is just a foray into something more interesting.

As a standing question, what do people think about a green splash? It opens up some interesting sideboard cards, as well as some additional graveyard manipulation and Pernicious Deed, which is generally my boardwipe of choice.

[Koby]

Mesmeric Orb.
Crumbling Sanctuary.

This way your life buffer is ~40 cards. Mostly for yourself and less for your opponent.

Then you can focus more on using efficient mill (Tome Scour, Vision Charm, Glimpse, Funeral) to kill them.

[HPB_Eggo]

Mesmeric Orb.

It's a possibility. Not sure if I like it auto-milling me, though.


Crumbling Sanctuary.

It costs 5. While it's true that I can play 5, especially since it's colorless, anything that I play for 5 should win me the game the next turn. This probably won't.

I'm still going to test both of them. Good suggestions are good. :cool:

Also testing some Jace for CA and, hopefully, it will work.

[K_Rot_T]

Whats with Demigod of Revenge? Specially when you go on the selfmill part.
And is there a way to abuse Chains of Mephistopheles for this deck (like Howling Mine, Jace, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Prosperity or Urza's Guilt)
Extractor Demon Mills and Kills, but probably most of the time only his unearth if you get him in the grave.
Whats with Helm of Obedience and Leyline as Kill conition instead of Gultfeeder?
And isnt Nemesis of Reason better than feeder?
Lich Lord of Unx? Well porbably far too slooooooooooooooooooooooooow

Whats with Telemin Performance for Sideboard? It might hurt the most Control Decks quite bad and you have good chance to get a goyf, or nowadays a Progenitus :D

[HPB_Eggo]

On testing, Mesmeric Orb and a lot of other continuous milling strategies, i.e. Worry Beads, Crumbling Sanctuary, etc., are not very good with this deck, as it really lacks the control element to stay alive for them to be used properly. More or less what I expected.

Also, Nihilith is amazing, Dimir Doppleganger less than stellar. Even when I put Psychatog in his place, it didn't really work all that well, as the lack of evasion made it really hard to connect with a deck that lacks in spot removal.

Jace does not really work all that well. I'll have to find some other solution to the drawing problem here, although I doubt it will be one associated with milling, which is unfortunate.


Whats with Demigod of Revenge? Specially when you go on the selfmill part.

I could almost see that working, although it's very predicated on the self-milling. I'll definitely have to give it a try.


Extractor Demon Mills and Kills, but probably most of the time only his unearth if you get him in the grave.

He costs way too much to play, and isn't worth the slot just to unearth.


Whats with Helm of Obedience and Leyline as Kill conition instead of Gultfeeder?

I often kill without Guiltfeeder. Having Tombstalker and Nihilith on the board by turn four or five will generally finish the game very quickly. Or just double Tombstalkers. Guiltfeeder is more along the lines of "counter this or you lose next turn" than a really viable win condition.


And isnt Nemesis of Reason better than feeder?

I would rather pay 5 to win the game than to mill 10 cards every turn. How about you?


Lich Lord of Unx? Well porbably far too slooooooooooooooooooooooooow

Maybe if there were a lot more zombies. As the deck is, he's far, far too slow.


Whats with Telemin Performance for Sideboard? It might hurt the most Control Decks quite bad and you have good chance to get a goyf, or nowadays a Progenitus :D

It's a possibility, although I probably won't do it, as Natural Order and the like really isn't present in my meta, and most of the control decks around here run a number of small creatures in lieu of a single huge one.

I guess today I'll start testing the green splash, mostly for Krosan Grip and Pernicious Deeds, with the first one side and the second one main. Any unusual suggestions as to ways to generate CA in the deck would be much appreciated.

[K_Rot_T]

Well with Green as additional Colour Compost should rock the house (in Sideboard). What sounds nice os ofcourse Painter's Servant+Compost, but as we all know Painter's Servant+Grindstone is much mire efficient for that :D

Don't know how hard it is for your Deck to survive vs. Aggro, but Constant Mists, Tangle and Moment's Peace (specially Peace for the Selfmill part) each give some time to survive. But i guess you dont have the slots, so Deed is ofcourse the better option.


Vulturous Zombie and Lord of Extinction are in the same categorie like Guiltfeeder, but with the extrem downside, that the Lord has no evasion, but it gives you hell of a lot life if they want to remove it with sowrds :D.
Worm Harvest also for the self mill part as alternative Wincondition.
Or Svogthos, the Restless Tomb, because as a Land you might want to play it as a 1-off

If you really play the Demigod, you should think about Songs of the Damned, it provieds the Mana or can be used for your X-miller.

About the Deck itself: Why dont you play Brain Freeze? Isnt it much stronger than Tome Scour? And whats with Twincast? It seems really strong copying a Glimpse the Unthinkable, a Psychic Drain or even a Snuff out.


I would rather pay 5 to win the game than to mill 10 cards every turn. How about you?
Well the Nemesis is pitchable to Force, it can deal Damage AND mill the opponent for sure (10 Cards is a Glimps, dont forget that), so it doesnt need Evasion. And with 7 Defense, it Cant die to Burn and block even the strongest Tramogoyf.
Guiltfeeder on the other Cand gets blocked by a Factory or a Dark Confident and with Snuff out being the only removel, you cant even kill the Confident, so i wouldn't be that sure, that he wins the game by itself.

[Darkenslight]

My suggestion would be to drop the Doppelganger and Guiltfeeders for Grimoire Thief and Memory Sluice, if your route is simply UB; after all milling 14 cards for U and one card is apprently a bit good. :p

Like the possible G route for Fogs, too, thought that makes the manabase a nightmare.

[Koby]

Darkness = Fog

[DrJones]

I think your deck has too many Underground Sea in there.