Diilari

Well, I was looking for turn one easy removal, that kills delvers, stormchasers, goblin guides and perhaps big guys like Tasigurs. The cost of that was 4 life. If there would be anything cheap and effective after Paths and Bolts, for Boros colors, please let me know. Condemn was on my list, but I wanted something I could play on turn one, when on draw, before opponent can load their manas up for counters.

After some testing I added the bolts and paths to the main, along with some Helixes and Dismembers. Took out Ghostly Prisons, because they were too slow and unreliable against fast decks, like UR Delver. Moved Oblivion Rings to the side, with some white hate-cards.

And splashing black is not far-fetched, but it would require more fetches and shocklands, and the firsthand goal is to keep them at minimum, because you'll otherwise hurt yourself too with Blood Moon strategy. But sure, you can replace Blood moons with reanimation, and you'll have good start for Mardu-Nahiri setup.

I disagree, if Mr. Emra comes out of Nahiri's ultimate. It says: "It gains haste". So 15 damage with Annihilation 6. Unless they can instant force-sac him, it's like a kick to the groin. Or 15 kicks to the groin ...

I hear you. Paths I add to most of my white decks, but bolts don't come very handy so often in my local meta, so I normally skip them or add them to the side.

Paths and Bolts are waiting in the sideboard. If Helixes and Oblivion Rings can't hold opponent's creatures down, they will be switched into the deck. The principal idea was not to give any free basic land fetches to them, but let them stick to their "mountains" as long as possible. With Spirit Guide, Blood Moon is playable T2, with Helix or Ring on T3 for something that has gone through. But there is a possible variation of switching Helixes<->Paths for the Main, and have Helixes on side against burn/aggro. It's really based on the meta, so switches are possible and encouraged.

Black Sun Zenith seems to be something I could use in a lot of variations. Drown in Sorrow is good, but there are times where the -1/-1 counters might be even more effective - for example, 3 mana cost Zenith against goblins, affinity, infect... The biggest threat you remove at turn 2 separately, and Zenith/Drown/Damnation takes out all the rest.

It's true that in order to do well in tournaments, you have to plan the deck and sideboard towards the fastest aggro you think you can face. There are decks that can maim you down by turn 4, or even 3 if it's Infect, unless you can slow them down. Luckily most of the creature based aggros don't have that much removal, so you are good to go with either creatures, removal or a bit of both. There isn't much room for utility cards or "fun to play"-cards, except for drawing cards or otherwise disrupting opponent's plans. I guess the usual tournament opponents and their decks define the right cards for the job, where there might be several options for each slot for each turn.

I was thinking about a mill deck that could use Mimic Vats and creatures that mill opponent's deck when coming into play, like Returned Centaur or Balustrade Spy. Ofc artifacts might not be so safe these days, but against some decks it would be fun to pop out a defender from the Vat each turn, and mill a bit in the process. ;)

I have Infect deck myself, but haven't seen any in my local group - so considering myself lucky. :) Sudden Shock is very efficient against it. For black, I would try out Dismember (with life cost) for turn 1 and Devour Flesh or similar sac effect for turn 2. By the time they have green mana available, Vines of Vastwood is a possibility. But Fume Spitter and Scar would work, too. Have to think about getting some.

I modified the deck setup by splashing in white and Mortifies. It is mainly against Leyline of Sanctities, which I have seen to be played in the local group, and I really wouldn't want to get stuck with those. And when not needed against player hexproofs, they offer decent creature removal as well.

The local players I normally play against are favoring aggro and zoo, some affinity and a few goblins. Against those, I had to modify a creature-less mill variant, where most of the deck is holded by cheap creature removal and quite a lot of mass removal. I have the deck listed here: http://www.mtgvault.com/diilari/decks/dimir-murder-mill/. I plan to run both this and the new state of the murder-mill against my normal group. Last time I went with removals, and it worked to the point where I just should have had more and better removals. :) Unfortunately I haven't come up with a mill that could win by turn 3 or 4, unless you get lucky and devastate 2-4 Archive traps on an unexpected opponent on his turn 1 fetch-land. ;D So, going with Control-approach for now and trying to mill whenever the situation allows it. Could really love Charm-type spell where you could choose between creature removal and milling x... hopefully they make such a card some day. :)

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. The deck is just starting to find it's form, slowly. This first version here I have tested against my own aggro decks and it did have a win ratio of somewhere near 50-50. It feels balanced, but still didn't feel strong enough. So I made another variant, where I replaced all creatures with removal / mass removel spells. And I mean a LOT of them. I tested it today, and otherwise it seemed ok but I still kept being overrun by small aggro decks left and right. So, the adjustment work continues ...

For now I have two other variants based on this base structure: 1.) The Mill/Kill deck with just mill- and removal-spells. It works quite well against Zoo, Abzan and Jund, but not so much against aggro. And second 2.) Self-mill with Tome Scours and Gurmag Anglers to get them out on turn 2. Oh, plus Maniacs for secondary win con by selfmilling all the way.

That Chancellor seems rather good. Still would rather not draw it between 1-5 lands, but against Jund's Lilli forced discard effects, you can always throw it away and keep better cards in hand.

I haven't played this deck in a tournament yet, but I aim to test it out, once I can get it into shape. What I keep thinking about Mill-deck is that you have two main lines to go for: 1.) Mill-spells and Creatures, with some extra utility and maybe mass removal, like this one here. Or 2.) Mill-spells and heavy mass removal / counterspells, where you aim to keep opponent's table empty of creatures as you mill.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me about Shelldock Isle, because I have some of those, and I meant to add some, but forgot to add it here! I have to think about splashing red into there, for now I had been thinking about having white for extra removal and possibility to get rid of Player Hexproofs.

And btw, I checked your Grixis Burn&Mill, which seemed very nice. Spellskites would really fit into my deck as well, unfortunately I don't have any and I still can't overcome their price. :) Mesmeric Orb and Hedron Crabs actually are a lot better than I had thought - the mills they do are not much, but from small drops comes the ocean. And with the Orb you could add in some Delve-creatures for yourself. Also 2 x Surgical Extractions is a must, they are just so good. And today I learned that against heavy creature decks, Crypt Incursion is THE thing - it gives you tons of life, buying you more time to keep milling.

What I would like to think about fitting into the Mill structure, would be a.) Sphinx's Tutelage. It's bit expensive and very slow mill, but for long games could really shine. 2.) Bloodchief ascension. It only I could do 3 x 2 points of damage to opponent, any mill is turned into life leecher! Or you could try Duskmantle Guildmage, but keeping him alive would be a trick. Still a nice threat, if you get to 5 lands, then throw in a Glimpse... ;)

Very good point. Have to add some then, because Scepters are needed for quick wins.

Thank you for the suggestions. I was planning to get some Lightning Helixes next, maybe with better lands - for now the deck is about cards I remember I have already in my collection. I did consider Boros Charm, which is good for burning players and protecting my creatures, but decided to drop it out at the last minute for some mass removal.

Actually now that you mentioned it, I could change Guildgates for evolving wilds. Getting one land out of the deck will bring me more spells, where the result of one tapped land still remains the same.