DedWards

What are your thoughts on Thing in the Ice?

As a guy who has played against a LOT of mill decks, I'll try give some advice.

Of the many variations of mill I've faced, this definitely falls in the spell based variety. Experience has taught me that when it comes to mana spent to effect of card, Mind Grind isn't that great. Mind Grind is mill up to X lands for X+2 mana. Mind Funeral is mill up to 4 lands for 3 mana. To get Mind Funeral's effect off Mind Grind, you'll need to pay a total of 6 mana, which is 3 mana you could have been spending on a second mill spell (like Glimpse the Unthinkable or Breaking).

Similarly, Sands of Delirium is often a waste of mana that could have been spent on mill spells.

Jace and Liliana are great cards, but can you really afford to wait for 5 mana to get their effects? Remember, you have little or no defence against the creatures that do see play. That said, Jace's [0] is great, but in terms of mana, 4x Jace is pushing it. I'd take Jace down to 2 and drop Liliana all together.

And talking about creatures, while your creature choices are nice, we can do better. Nemesis of Reason runs into the same problem as the Planeswalkers, it costs a lot of mana. It's OK as a one of, but I don't know if it's necessary. Nighthowler and Wight of Precinct Six are EXTREMELY RELIANT on the opponent playing creatures. Against a good number of decks, these two will be too small to be useful. Now, Hedron Crab, like Zaklax13 suggested, is a very strong mill engine. Jace's Phantasm is another great creature for mill decks as more often than not, it's a one mana 5/5 with flying.

Now on to the lands. Not that there's anything wrong with the lands, but you're missing out on some interesting interactions. Archive Trap works wonders after killing one of their lands with Ghost Quarter. It also reduces the number of lands they have in their library, making Mind Funeral that much better. Even if they don't fetch a land off Ghost Quarter, then you just lowered the number of lands they have.

Another great land is Shelldock Isle. It hides away (<-see what I did there) a spell for later use, and getting the opponent's library to 20 or fewer is the whole point of this type of deck.

Last land I'm going to suggest is Nephalia Drownyard. Now this is a great source to put any left over mana into. Best part is it can't be countered :P

Crop Rotation - fetches any land
Expedition Map and Sylvan Scrying - searches for any land, including nonbasic.
Solemn Simulacrum - searches for a basic and draws you a card later.
Wayfarer's Bauble - searches for a basic an puts it onto the battlefield tapped.
Cultivate - another Kodama's Reach
Search for Tomorrow - suspendes for one.
Pulse of Murasa - awesome for retuning a fetch land, but also helpful retuning a creature.

Chandra, Flamecaller - her +1 makes 2 Elementals that work nicely with Omnath's second ability)

Sylvan Advocate - becomes a 4/5 with vigilance very quickly. Also gives animated lands +2/+2.
Grove Rumbler - with all the landfall, and having built in trample, this is an awesome creature)

Kessig Wolf Run and Skarrg, the Rage Pits - grants trample.
Rogue's Passage - makes a creature unblockable.
Raging Ravine - animates into an Elemental

My guess is mill through Extraction

That's actually quite evil :P

Can you play Entwine for a card cast off the Scepter?

The only deck I know the Kami being good in is a Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck as Shirei can bring it back EVERY turn

Players that have played against the Kami often enough know to either kill it, or attack to force the opponent to sacrifice it. Still a good creature, but it's just another fog.

While all the cards you listed have their uses, Unsummon seems to be the one that sticks out as a possible thing to take out. You're unblockable and with 8 Auras granting +2/+0, I don't see a need for the Unsummon.

-4 Unsummon
+3 Latchkey Faerie
+1 Dismal Backwater (I feel you need one more land)

The Knight not having a built in form of evasion makes chump blocking it easy (even with the Retreat being able to tap stuff), so I suggest including a land that grants the evasion. Kessig Wolf Run isn't difficult to add as a one of, but that requires adding a land that can produce red (Stomping Ground or Sacred Foundry will do the job), but another option is Rogue's Passage. A guy in my club plays a Knightfall deck and the Rogue's Passage is killer.

Now to talk about stopping the combo as the opponent. Your best bet is a well timed removal:
Blue must counter either part of the combo, or 'Unsummon' the creature before Retreat's untap effect resolves.
Black and White can kill or exile the Knight either while it has Summoning sickness or before the Retreat's untap effect resolves.
Green can 'fight' the Knight or destroy the Retreat before the Retreat's untap effect resolves. White can also destroy the Retreat before its untap effect resolves.
Red can burn the Knight in the same time frame that Black and White can kill it.

Here's my take on WB Tokens:

http://www.mtgvault.com/dedwards/decks/white-tokens-modern/

The missing 3 spots is for Not Forgotten from SOI. While it does make a Spirit token and let's me reuse more of my instants and Sorceries for more tokens, the part of the card that concerns me is that it's a sorcery.

Iona is a brilliant card. There's awesome interaction between her and Painter's Servant :P

I do like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. A permanent -2/-2 to their creatures either leaves them without creatures or makes those that do survive much smaller.

I personally want to try Gideon, Champion of Justice in a fog deck. That -15 of his is quite scary, especially if they can't lower his loyalty as easily.

:D

Glad you like it. I'm looking at making another version that Replicates Kokusho, the Evening Star for 20 life drain.

Batwing Brume

Solidarity of Heroes
Hardened Scales

What about it? Two of the creature have evasion and Centre Soul gives protection, which is effectively unblockable. Plus, in current Standard, most people play one of their dual lands tapped on turn one.

Triton Tactics is a must. {U} to give 2 creatures +0/+3 and untap both mean you get to tap mill twice with both creatures you target with the second tap milling for 3 more per creature. That's 6+the toughness of two creatures in cards milled for one mana.

I have an idea for Nahiri, the Harbinger in Modern that I'd like someone to take a look at:

http://www.mtgvault.com/dedwards/decks/nayahirikul/

I think you have too few creatures for this to work reliabley. 18 creatures should be a good amount. Here's a few suggestions:

Triton Shorestalker is a 1 drop unblockable.
Looter il-Kor is a 2 drop with Shadow (basically unblockable) that 'loots' when it deals damage to the opponent.
Latchkey Faerie may cost 3 on its Prowl (only ever play it for its Prowl), but it does draw you a card and is a 3/1 flyer.
Oona's Blackguard is an awesome 'lord' for Rogue decks. Plus it has flying.

Not really. Elvish Archdruid still adds a sizable amount of mana without Umbral Mantle and there's 12 other creatures that add mana too.