Modern UB Mill by salvagers

by DedWards on 18 May 2016

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Sorceries (2)


Artifacts (6)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

UB Mill deck in Modern that is supposedly the "best" version yet.

I do not take credit for this deck. Credit goes to salvages:

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=12290&d=270848&f=MO

The sideboard can probably be altered depending on your meta.

How to Play

First and foremost (and strangely), this is an "Aggro" deck, but not Aggro in the traditional way. "Spell-Aggro" is what you could probably call this. Just like a "normal" Aggro deck isn't doing its job if it isn't attacking, this deck isn't doing its job if it hasn't milled the opponent every turn. So, play your spells, don't hold onto them (unless specific requirements are needed, like Archive Trap's {0} cost trigger).


Now for a rundown of the cards and their interactions:

Creatures:

Hedron Crab - Mills for each land. Works well with the 8 fetch lands. You could even use Ghost Quarter on your own land in a pinch.

Jace's Phantasm - {U} for a 1/1 flier isn't great, but 99% of the time, this is {U} for a 5/5 flier, making it an awesome defender of your life total and a possible alternative win condition.

Manic Scribe - Delirium is easy to aquire. Fact: you creatures will die. Fact: you're playing fetch lands. Fact: you're playing ever instant and sorcery you draw. I'll say it again, getting Delirium is easy.


Instants and Sorceries:

Glimpse the Unthinkable - THE BEST mill card for its cost, and arguably the best mill card overall. You will play this every opportunity you get.

Mind Funeral - Not as great as Glimpse, but a strong contender for second best mill card. Remember, each fetch land the opponent uses reduces the number of lands they have in their library, making this better each fetch land used.

Archive Trap - About 90+% of Modern decks use fetch lands, which means 90+% of the time this is a free mill card. If you have multiple in hand when the opponent uses a fetch land, play all of them. Additionally, anyone foolish enough to fetch a land off Ghost Quarter also allows you to cast this for free.

Crypt Incursion - This deck wins off the inevitability off milling the opponent, but sadly until you do mill the last card, the opponent can still win. This helps you last a little longer. Additionally, this is an instant, so you can hose any graveyard strategies too.

Visions of Beyond - Sad truth, you'll run out of spells to cast very quickly. In this deck, this is an Ancestral Visions without the Suspend, making it a great way to refuel and allowing you to continue milling.


Artifacts:

Ensnaring Bridge - You should have an empty / near empty hand 90+% of the time, making this the best defence you have against creatures.

Mesmeric Orb - Do not be afraid to play this. Remember, because you almost never attack with the few creatures you do have, the only thing ever untapping on your side of the battlefield are lands. Your opponents on the other hand have all sorts of stuff untapping (including their lands). If not, that means you win more as everything else you play does mill them more than this will mill you.


Lands:

Flooded Strand; Marsh Flats; and Polluted Delta - In addition to the usual mana fixing, these also make Hedron Crab awesome and reduce the chances of drawing lands, allowing you to draw more mill effects.

Ghost Quarter - This combo'd with Archive Trap makes most opponents opt to not fetch a land, turning this into a Strip Mine.

Shelldock Isle - Getting this online is easy, so it basically says {U}: Play the Exiled card. Tip: always "Hide" a mill card.


Sideboard:

Set Adrift - "Removal" for any nonland permanent. Remember to do this before milling.

Crypt Incursion and Profane Memento - More defence against creature strategies.

Extirpate and Surgical Extraction - Sometimes you need something gone, permanently. Note, these are Instants, so you can exile anything that causes a shuffle back (*cough*Tentacruel*cough*)

Ratchet Bomb - Destroys a wide variety of things, sometimes all at once. Note that with the revision of the rules for double faced cards, this no longer kills Werewolves (or other double faced cards) as easily. Still hoses token though.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Mill
  • UB

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

2
Likes

This deck has been viewed 2,229 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

0311000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Modern UB Mill by salvagers

If only scribe had 4 toughness.
Cards good and at least has an etb trigger to make it not useless.

Deck looks good overall, only complaint is having 0 interaction with what your opponent is doing.
Murderous cut, remand and even dismember would be more than enough.

Clearly with the cost of this deck you want it to be competitive, so why not have any interaction?

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 08:50

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Also 1-2 copies of oboro never hurts when playing crab.

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 08:52

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Remember, I didn't design this.

That said, each "interaction" card added is a mill card removed, significantly reducing the deck's win factor. I'm sure you could probably include those "interaction" cards to the sideboard, but majority of the time you'll be winning before reaching 0 life. Remember, this is effectively an Aggro deck, so "interaction" isn't really necessary.

Oboro?

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 09:05

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Oboro is a legendary lamd you can return to your hand.
Basically free landfall triggers of you don't have a land to play that turn.

Honestly if this were true about killing them more times than not before you mill them you would see mill a lot more often.

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 17:14

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Oh, that land. Seems a little gimmicky, considering the deck only has one landfall card that will die more often than not.

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 18:28

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It comes into play untapped and only has to take up one slot.
Also with how much nahiri is floating around doesn't that just put mill in an awkward spot?
Don't get me wrong i have ran mill multiple times and still have the manabase and most of the cards in paper.
I just feel it's at the worst its been in a while.

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Posted 19 May 2016 at 11:58

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Nice to see that mill is active again in modern.
Having followed several designs over the years I can say that this version is not that "perfect".
I know that you didn't design it, but I'll take a potshot at it to enlighten those who will follow.

23 lands is just above the cut when playing ensnaring bridge. Modern is a very fast format, and the fact that you can only play 1 land at a time will make it difficult to empty the hand in time (Many decks can kill at turn 3-4 quite often). This isn't helped by 3 shelldock isle's which I over the years have campaigned never to be played more than 2 of (I prefer to play 1). At highlevel tournaments your opponents will play around using fetchlands, which will also disable the bridge, and any hand with 3 bridges will also take time to empty, so all in all the design is working against itself when it comes to ensnaring bridge.

Manic scribe is a nice new addition to the theme, but with only mesmeric orb as a means to fill the graveyard to enable delirium, it lacks some other cards that builds towards delirium. Betting on creature, instant, land and sorcery as an enabler is not enough, so expect the millers to experiment with this.

The rest of the deck is more or less classic, but could frankly have a better designed sideboard. (The clasic sideboard would do a lot for it) Most of all I am saddened by the lack of even a single "invasive surgery" in the sideboard.

Also, the way I see it, the mill-version with most success (Especially online) has always been the esper-version, and I really think that manic scribe would be better of in that.

All said and done I still "liked" the post :D Good job on spotting it!

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Posted 18 May 2016 at 11:08

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Dedwards, Pay attention to this man! Its some very good info,

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Posted 19 May 2016 at 13:23

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He "knows" me from past posts :D

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Posted 20 May 2016 at 03:57

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Manic Scribe is still a new kid on the block (kinda), so I think it's still worth testing.

I personally don't play mill, that's my friend's thing. But I do play against mill a lot. I mostly post these mill decks to see what you all think and to show my friend, so thanks for such in depth comments :D

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Posted 20 May 2016 at 05:51

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The only thing about scribe is that it eats up snapcasters slot.
Which in the short game is comparing 3 cards to an extra 8-10 cards milled.
Or like 3 cards drawn etc.

I also don't think bridge is needed if you remove scribe which would open slots for counter magic, removal etc.
Crypt incursion also just may be too slow, creature heavy decks arent really common in modern.
2x surgical may be better to deal with emrakul in jeskhiri control. And the extra spot could be discard? Thoughtseize or iok?

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Posted 20 May 2016 at 16:57

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Snappy is for the "private" meta. Tournament meta you use augur of bolas!
I'd say most play 2 of these, and both are important to the deck, so cut out on other mill.

Think about manic scribe in three ways.

1: how much will it mill, and how often in terms of turns. Can it outperform a glimpse if it was cast the same turn?
(This has to be viewed on full timescale, so always assume you live for 4 turns)

2: Will it burn out any of the opponent's resources?
(Will he have to bolt/bounce it in order to survive or can he just ignore it and win)

3: Will it save you from the particular aggro you face.

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Posted 23 May 2016 at 04:04

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http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1265997&utm_source=tcg-fb-post&utm_medium=tcg-fb-post&utm_term&utm_content=magic&utm_campaign=tcg-fb-post-magic-modern-weekend-2016-decklists

this deck which is almost identical when flawless day one at the gp this weekend...
I feel scribe must be okay at the very least.

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Posted 23 May 2016 at 04:19

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Their sideboard is different.
I like the sideboard from your link, though I'd exchange extirpates with surgical extractions any day :D

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Posted 23 May 2016 at 13:11

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Yeah i'm also on the extraction train.
You use extirpate so people can't instant speed combo in response most of the time.
(or counter, but its more so the above)

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Posted 23 May 2016 at 15:05

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http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1265997&utm_source=tcg-fb-post&utm_medium=tcg-fb-post&utm_term&utm_content=magic&utm_campaign=tcg-fb-post-magic-modern-weekend-2016-decklists

is this you?:P

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Posted 22 May 2016 at 05:10

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No, it's not. I found this deck watching YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNj1w6aaenw

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Posted 23 May 2016 at 17:36

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