U/B: Infectious Mill

by Muktol on 04 August 2015

Main Deck (62 cards)

Sideboard (5 cards)

Instants (1)


Artifacts (1)

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Deck Description

Inspired by paladin528491's http://www.mtgvault.com/paladin528491/decks/millinfect-2/

I really liked the idea and wanted to see what I could come up with. The first idea was to use spells to mill but staying alive against more aggressive deck can be difficult then. So I got to the defender mill plan rather fast.
I'm not entirely sure if splashing white would help the deck. On the one hand white has some impressive defenders and protection spells, on the other hand the mana base will get more difficult. (And personally I dislike 3-coloured decks because of the difficult mana situation)

After doing some testgames I had to make some adaptions. I lowered the number of [[Nighthowler]] and added [[Runechanter's Pike]] . I also removed most of the defenders and added [[Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper]] and [[Sphinx's Tutelage]]

The sideboard functions as a maybe-board in this case.

I have tested this deck, using proxis, against some (few) other decks. I'm open to all suggestions and ideas that may help to improve this deck.

How to Play

This deck tries to combine mill with beatdown and infect.
Mill is done using [[Startled Awake]], [[Sphinx's Tutelage]] and [[Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper]].
[[Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch]], [[Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper]] and [[Dimir Infiltrator]] help you to stay alive tough [[Dimir Infiltrator]] can also be used to search for 2-mana components you will need to beat your opponent.
The last pieces in this puzzle are [[Nighthowler]], [[Trepanation Blade]] and [[Phyresis]]. Enchant a creature you control with [[Nighthowler]] (or cast him for his normal costs if you don't have a good creature to enchant it to) and attack your opponent. [[Phyresis]] (or using [[Blighted Agent]]) will half the amount of damage you have to deal.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Dimir
  • Infect
  • Mill
  • Tested

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

1
Like

This deck has been viewed 2,391 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

0351600

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

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

Deck discussion for U/B: Infectious Mill

Mill and infect in the same deck, you are an EVIL individual!! haha jk. I love to see any deck that has the hedron crab in it, I think it is one of the most adorable little creatures in the game. I'm not sure the doorkeepers would end up being too useful here, I feel like you might only be milling 2-3 cards each turn with them. Another idea that I have been working with is an unblockable mill-ish type deck which could also work with phyresis. I'll put up a deck list of what I have sometime, if you want to check out my version. I know it might move away from your defender theme, but the more ideas the better!!

1
Posted 06 August 2015 at 00:54

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After I had the idea lying around for a long time I was able to do some testgames. Doorkeeper mills continuously...but not enough. So removed most of the defenders and added some mill-spells instead. "Runechanter's Pike" was added as backup to "Nighthowler". I'm still looking for a good way to continuously mill some cards. Only thing that comes into my mind would be things like "Millstone".

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Posted 13 January 2016 at 19:26

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After a rather long hiatus from MTG, I am rather surprised to see someone found my random deck idea to be worthy of inspiring another. Definitely seems a bit more thought out than mine.

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Posted 08 July 2017 at 01:02

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Got bored and wandered around a but.
Mill + infect is unusual, and I like the idea of defensive creatures to support mill.

So have you ever seen someone give it a try with deathtouch + mill ?
I think deathtouch is capeable of being much more defensive.

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Posted 19 April 2021 at 19:58

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Wandered around a bit... damn autocorrect :)

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Posted 19 April 2021 at 23:57

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The basic idea of this deck was to mill my opponent a little bit, just enough so that Nighthowler becomes effective... and then beat the heck out of him using something unblockable, preferable enchanted with Phyresis.
I haven't taken a look at this deck in a long time and, who would have guessed, there are new cards that would fit here very well, like Shadow Stinger or [[Sphinx's Tutelage]]. Drawback on Sphinx's Tutelage is that you cant search for it using Dimir Infiltrator.

The problem I see with all decks that use a split strategy, like mill+infect, is that you can't focus on a single strategy and thus weaken your own deck. The question is how good the second strategy can overcome those weakening and thus make the deck good enough to be played.
For example (in my opinion) mill+beatdown normally is a horrible combination. Mill needs to remove 60+ cards from a library to win while beatdown "only" needs 20 lifepoints. If you can't focus on a single strategy then you will mill some cards, remove some of your opponents life, but not enough of both to secure you a win. If you use mill to increase the power of your beaters then this strategy-split can become viable.
So the real question is, how can deathtouch help mill to become more powerful? It can buy you some time and perhaps some dead creatures in graveyard, if your opponent is willing to attack when you have a deathtouch-creature on the battlefield...which most opponents I know wont.

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Posted 20 April 2021 at 06:49

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I think part of the balance will be how to protect the deathtouchers enough to have them wall out aggro.
Mill will always be capeable of handling combo and control by default.

At the moment I'm exploring ingest creatures from the eldrazi, and fathom feeder is a deathtouch that needs to be protected, while it also invests.

I guess I could try out a deathtouch mill approach with it :)

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Posted 20 April 2021 at 21:59

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Rogue beatdown+mill also seems plausible from what I've seen.

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Posted 21 April 2021 at 06:22

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Only in historic/arena.
I've yet to see it in modern.
In modern uro-mill was more of a thing, and later some dredge mill variants became interesting
A few of them could change from being selfmill to milling the opponent instead.

In the past mill almost broke through with some aggro mill, so I've found it strange that cards like relic golem and vantress gargoyle haven't fuelled a revolution there, the "new" nighthawk also seems made for that.

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Posted 21 April 2021 at 16:00

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I would suggest blighted agent and archive trap. For Modern.

2
Posted 19 April 2021 at 20:20

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Thank you for the suggestion.
Back then I did use Invisible Stalker instead of Blighted Agent because I felt that the protection would be more viable than having infect directly on a creature: Nowadays I would feel that the Agent would be more useful as he doesn't need Phyresis to be a threat and I have enough protection in the deck so that he should survive.
The problem with Archive Trap is that it's expensive ($-wise. I know that I didn't tag the deck to be budget. )

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Posted 20 April 2021 at 06:54

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Your right about the archive trap. I played modern like 5 years ago and it was not the case then. LOL its $20+ now is kind of insane.

1
Posted 20 April 2021 at 20:30

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Archive Trap was never reprinted, and cards that are available in a single expansion only get more and more expensive over time. You have a demand for such cards, but not enough to meet this demand. High demand, low availability = High prices.

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Posted 21 April 2021 at 06:24

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