Anything But: Pauper Mill

Posted on July 18, 2013 by JustSin

You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Anything But: Pauper Mill”.

 

  1. Hey, great article per usual. Just wanted to say I think the mill strategy is intriguing in the current meta, but I worry about two issues. Before I start I just want to say feel free to disagree, know that I am aware that it is a list you are suggesting in your casual section so I am taking the lists with a grain of salt, and I am writing to only to encourage discussion in the pauper community.

    My first issue with the milling + fog approach is the viablity of it with the m14 rules changes. In a couple of weeks people will be able to board in 15 extra cards against the turbofog player. I don’t think it will cripple the strategy, and im not sure it is even a good choice to do that, but I felt it should be mentioned. It’s like if you’re playing a burn deck and you are giving your opponent the option of starting at 20-25 life games two and three. So if I was going to try this list, I would do it in the next few days. Second is the recent adoption of flaring pain to Eyecandy. On paper the cyclops matchup is nearly unwinable postboard because of this lone card. The milling also aids them, allowing them to find the flaring pain earlier due to the flashback. So i guess, if I was going to play this list I would add some additional countermagic in the sideboard.

    Anyway, that’s all I have. Thanks again for all your hard work in the pauper community, and I write for mtgostrat if you want to get me back ;-p

  2. Perhaps the new sideboard rules will lead to stronger mill cards! However, I doubt it very much :-(

  3. Everyone should feel free to leave their thoughts :) The first was casual, but what I was getting at was the two fog lists were actually lists that have shown in past Daily Events, once for the UW and twice for the UG.

    That’s a great idea about the sideboard change, though I do wonder if that would really be a worth while strategy for playing mill because you consider of those 15 cards in your sideboard you usually have say 4 cards that are relevant against a specific matchup so I’d imagine it’d be like bringing in say even eight dead cards so while you wouldn’t mill as fast you’d run a chance of drawing much slower and hitting lots of dead cards perhaps making the fog player not need to fog

  4. I’ve tested both the bottom mill decks, with pretty limited success. Using UW I kept going up against Affinity, who ignored ALL my protection and fog effects and simply killed my with his Disciples of the Vault. I also agree that Flaring Pain is a pretty big issue, especially since we’re milling our opponents and the card has Flashback, so they’re that much more likely to see it in any given game.

  5. Great Content, man!!!

    When you said about “Wizards would have to step in soon”, you mean that Wizards should review the ban list bcus the FissurePost deck ??? I mean, and if “yes”, which card you’d think that deserves a ban ??? My opinion…Ghostly Flicker ;)

    Oh, i cant forget that…sorry about my ignorance…but, which deck is called “Eye Candy” ??? I didn’t see the URCyclops/URFiend/URdelvercyclopsfiendcombo( :P ) here, you know, that “combo” deck using Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops, so i think you’re calling it “Eye Candy”, right ???

    Anyway i enjoyed this, keep doing man, cya!

    Fred

  7. Not to be a buzz kill, but what in the world would these mill decks do against a temporal fissure deck? Allowing them to have even 4 or 5 turns to assemble their combo with no pressure on board is already asking for trouble… I shudder to think how many turns they will have against a mill deck to assemble the perfect storm and lock you out of the game.

  8. @ Fred – the current BnR list is a whole can of worms too large for comments :P things are O-K currently I think, but not good, I’m curious to see what the downturn in FissurePost brings about and yes the deck referred to as “Eye Candy” is the clops fiend deck, it was suggested I switch the name

    @ Michael – yea I imagine the fissure decks would be an awkward game, but the idea was based on the slip in the past week and increase in stompy

  9. I have had the most luck using mill as a concurrent win condition. I hate playing turbo fog almost as much as everyone else hates playing against it…just boring. this list lets you play a real game of magic and mill at the same time.
    2 Azorius Chancery
    2 Kabira Crossroads
    3 Quicksand
    4 Evolving wilds
    3 Plains
    8 Island
    22 lands

    2 Standard Bearer
    4 Lone Missionary
    4 Kor Skyfisher
    4 Fathom Seer
    4 Squadron Hawk
    4 Whirlpool Rider
    22 creatures

    2 Momentary blink
    4 Journey to Nowhere
    4 Jace’s Erasure
    3 Muddle the Mixture
    3 Oblivion Ring
    16 spells

    2 Mizzium skin
    2 Circle of protection: Green
    2 Circle of protection: Red
    2 Standard Bearer
    3 Reprisal
    4 Deprive
    15 Sideboard

    The blinks should probably be Gush, but I’m not made of money :-) The deprives in the board should maybe be counterspells, but they help fill your hand for the riders.
    Admittedly, I haven’t been able to test this in tourneys, but it has held its own against several good decks in single duels. it may or may not be competitive, but it is more fun to play than your average mill deck and the creatures give you another tactic if the mill isn’t working. Give it a try and see what you think!

  10. Great article, thanks for continuing this stream of good content!

    On a completely different note:

    I think the majority of the Pauper community has really gotten the taste for bannings after Grapeshot and Empty got the axe. I think it’s a really hot topic and I would love to see some more spotlight thrown in its direction such that we can discuss it properly!

  11. Only problem I see with turbo fog decks is if they’re going to face a post deck with Ulamog’s Crusher. they still have to sac 2 permanents when it attacks. Of course you can get lucky enough to mill them out :(. Funny deck idea though.