This is a deck I'd like to fine-tune before I go out buying cards for it. It's current phase is "Early Concept" and I'd like the Forums' help in working out any obvious mistakes before I move to playtesting, even with proxies.
So, I wanted to build a deck that would run on nothing but colorless mana, at least potentially. "Mono-Brown" (All artifact) seemed like one way to go, but the Eldrazi seemed infinitley cooler.
Possibilities: Land: I happen to own 2 Ancient Tomb that aren't in any other decks at the moment, but 8-post/Tron seems faster (and less likely to make me an early target due to lower life), and Eldrazi Temple is strictly better when every spell in the deck is a colorless Eldrazi. Thespian's Stage , coming in Gatecrash, seems like an interesting way to ratchet up to 12-post, but I'm wondering if it would be worth it to include them at the cost of Tron pieces or the other land. Creatures: The Legendary Eldrazi seem obligatory, but they're also hard to get ahold of. Spawnsire is... debatable. Its stats aren't as good as other eldrazi (especially its Annihilator value), but the idea of firing off that ability and dropping a fistfull of Crushers and hands into the battlefield is hillarious... especially when it COULD be done turn 5 with posts (and at least 1 copy), or realistically at around eight land. Spells: I don't see much I can do differently with the spells: Not Of This World will always be free, and resolving All Is Dust will be great enough on its own... It That Betrays would be glorious icing on the cake. I guess I could drop some of those cards, (the conscriptions, especially) for useful artifacts, but what?
"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice." THE COALITION WAR GAME -Phyrexian Praetor Round 1: (4-1-2, 1 kill) Round 2: (16-8-2, 4 kills) Round 3: (18-9-2, 1 kill) Round 4: (22-10-0, 2 kills) Round 5: (56-16-3, 9 kills) Round 6: (8-7-1) [current round]
You're probably right on Thespian's Stage . It would be good for copying the Post s, but pointless for Urzatron (as it's only ever copying one of the pieces you've already got out, not the one you need). One thing I would be putting in here is Expedition Map , especially if you can find a way of recurring it (Buried Ruin at least... Academy Ruins is the classic, but it needs blue mana). It'll fetch the missing Posts or Urzatron pieces for you and help you to ramp faster. Also, don't forget that changelings count as Eldrazi when you're off scuffing through your boxes with Spawnsire ... make sure you've got a Mirror Entity or two sitting around!
I don't know if running both the Cloudpost and Tron lands are a good idea. Without card draw or tutoring, you could end up almost able to play your spells for a lot of games. I think post is probably better here, consider Glimmerpost too.
What about some card drawing artifacts? Urza's Blueprints are really cheap (money-wise not mana), Staff of Nin is better. Mind Stone can ramp and cash in for cards, Dreamstone Hedron can help you get to Eldrazi mana if the lands are struggling then become a bunch of cards later.
The other issue I see is not having enough to play. You should consider adding some draw and maybe more big-n'-fat eldrazi to use that mana on. If you want to make the deck meta dependant, then some form of control should be implemented to counter the alt-wins. Green would actually be able to deal with some of your opponents' favorite decks. Asceticism would be able to deal with removal, hunter's insight or harmonize can add to your hand, and prey upon or lure (nemesis mask ) effects can control creatures pretty well.
Personally, I would stick with colorless and just try to get as many creatures out as quickly as possible through mana ramp. Y'know, just to maintain the flavor aspect.
HOW TO AUTOCARD! When posting in a text box, type [c]Plains[/c] to make your post showPlains . Are you making a casual mill deck? Please read.Show
Control is the key of a mill deck. You should free up your mana as much as possible so that you can respond to whatever your opponent is doing. Having some way to remove threats, both real and percieved, is necessary to survival. Real threats are those that are already on the field, and are something a simple unsummon or doom blade can remove. Percieved threats are those that aren't on the field, something a simple duress or counterspell can deal with. Controlling the board will allow your mill deck to continuously perform, if you use permanent style mill, that is.
One-Shot Mill spells are something you should avoid. You can toss tome scour s at your opponent until your hand runs out, but that isn't going to be enough to mill them to death. With 1-shot mill spells, like tome scour , you have to treat them like burn spells. Therefore, the only "good" 1-shot mill spells are sanity grinding (in the right deck) and mind funeral . Try to find more permanent styles of milling, like memory erosion , hedron crab , and curse of the bloody tome , so that you don't have to waste your mana each turn doing something that those permanents can do with a single mana/turn investment. Keeping your mana open allows you to respond with control elements.
Traumatize Rant. Traumatize is a terrible card for a multitude of reasons. First, it costs 5 to cast, which is a large investment for a mill deck. Milling half a library sounds neat, but if you do the math, it really isn't that much. An average 60 card deck starts with drawing 7 cards. Then, barring any draw spells on their end, or ramp on yours, 5 turns will go by, where they draw 5 more cards, leaving 48 in the deck. Unless they had a deck with more than 60 cards, or you ramped it out, the most you'll ever mill with a single Traumatize on turn 5 is 24 cards. That's not too shabby, but hang on, there's more! If they drew any additional cards or if they were milled before turn 5, that number will be much lower. In addition, any more Traumatize's you draw will only mill less and less as the game goes on...which is the point of a mill deck. My whole point on Traumatize is the it is NOT worth the 5 mana investment, not even with haunting echoes . You can mill more than 24 before turn 5...which you can then cast the echoes.
If you look at a mill deck like a burn deck, you'll notice that it takes longer to win with mill than with burn. For example, lightning bolt costs 1 and does 3 out of the 20 damage needed to win (barring any lifegain or damage prevention). For mill, that same investment of 1 would have to mill 9 cards out of an average 60 card deck to be the equivilent of lightning bolt . The problem is that there is no mill card that can do that...except hedron crab , over a period of time. The initial investment of 1 will pay off in 3 more land drops to make the crab equal to a bolt. However, the crab nets you more mill beyond those 3 land drops, making it better as the game draws on. Other cards, like curse of the bloody tome , are excellent ways of milling an opponent because the initial investment of is all you have to pay in order to put your opponent on a clock. All you have to do is stay alive, which is the true goal of a mill strategy.
There are other ideas for mill decks that are specific to certain types of strategies. Combo mill decks can mill an entire player's library out from under them. Secondary mill strategies are usually tied to another strategy, like drowner of secrets in a merfolk deck, or halimar excavator in an ally deck. Milling can be done in certain decks that are able to ramp out enough mana to make use of the higher costing mill spells, like using 16 x post to pay for X on sands of delirium or for ambassador laquatus . Multiplayer mill decks are even tougher to build, but can be done. Being a slower environment[/c], it is easier to ramp in multiplayer, allowing for big X spells, like mind grind , to be useful. Consuming aberration is another star player. The more straightforward strategy is to use mesmeric orb and dreamborn muse while being the only deck at the table that can deal with it . There are always new strategies coming out with each new set, so check gatherer for any new mill cards that you find to be the most fun for you!
Now you can say that you haven't fallen into the trap that most new players fall into when they build their first mill deck!
: Order, Law, Faith. : Knowledge, Artifice, Control. : Corruption, Death, Self-Interest. : Freedom, Destruction, Victory. : Nature, Growth, Life. : Progressive, but too controlling. : Focused, but short sighted. : Skilled, but hypocritical. : Unified, but without a sense of self. : Cunning, but devious. : Inquisitive, but incautious. : Rational, but impulsive. : Powerful, but spiteful. : Instinctive, but selfish. : Fearless, but reckless.
-2 Eldrazi Conscription (Good Aura though it is, none of my creatures need to be conscripted. Plus, it's surprisingly spendy.) +2 Mind Stone (Seems like the best option. Running primarily posts and cloners, if I can get to 6 I can get to 7, which pulls All is Dust and Skittering Invasion to either give me more time or ramp me.)
Yeah, I've gone down by overall land, but the maps should be worth it, as they get that critical first cloudpost to let Vesuva and Stage achieve greatness. Also, if I'm strapped for mana RIGHT NOW, Vesuva can copy stage to tap for and still be a cloudpost later
"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice." THE COALITION WAR GAME -Phyrexian Praetor Round 1: (4-1-2, 1 kill) Round 2: (16-8-2, 4 kills) Round 3: (18-9-2, 1 kill) Round 4: (22-10-0, 2 kills) Round 5: (56-16-3, 9 kills) Round 6: (8-7-1) [current round]
Know what's really funny in the green build? Ritual of Subdual . Fetch all your land, drop this, and then shut everyone else out of the game while you annihilate.
If you're looking to spend a bit of cash, one option to consider going would be the full 12-post, dropping the Urztron aspect, and include some green (& maybe blue). They would give you access to Primeval Titan , Crop Rotation , Awakening Zone (for early defence) & maybe blue filter, counter, or possibly something like Tolaria West to find land you might want. These options may give you the flexibility to play something like Glacial Chasm , Bojuka Bog or your Eye of Ugin whenever you want, not just if you draw them.
If you do go the "find a land" line-of-play, considering how you're able to manufacture a massive amount of mana; Play Glacial Chasm. Then play a massive Hurricane as an alternate win-con.
Know what's really funny in the green build? Ritual of Subdual . Fetch all your land, drop this, and then shut everyone else out of the game while you annihilate.
This is worth playing green on its own. Forget Prime Time- run the ritual!
Face it, you're pretty much here as a meat shield.
If you are at York College and need a play group, PM me. We mostly do MP and casual.
4 Heartstone s if you can get 3 out then you can go infinite tokens with spawnsire of Ulamog , and Planar portal for tutoring. Keeping you completely colorless on mana requirements.
Proliferate w/ 
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Keino
=100 Class: 
x 236 Diety: 
125/200 
=2x
dmg/
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and still be a cloudpost later
