It's Miller time.

So, one of my favourite aspects of MtG is deck building. A friend of mine was very kind when they described me as having the potential to be an excellent player because I am willing to experiment with different play styles and different decks, rather than focusing on one. I spend quite a lot of my time that I dedicate to Magic building new decks, trying to combine the cards I have in a way to build a decent deck. One of my more successful home-brewed decks is one  call Mirkov Miller, a blue-black deck that is currently Standard legal and is built for a more casual style of play than Hellcow's Hammer. I have played it in some single and multi-player games, against a variety of opponents, and its a fun deck to play (perhaps not so much to play against). It isn't really competitive, but its not built as an ultra-competitive deck, due to its aim of going for an alternative win condition (milling my opponent until they deck and lose).

Mirko Vosk, the inspiration for this deck.

So, this is what the deck list looks like:

Lands:

9 x Island
8 x Swamp
4 x Dimir Guildgate
2 x Temple of Deceit

Creatures:

1 x Consuming Aberration
1 x Phenax, God of Deception
1 x Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
2 x Balustrade Spy
4 x Wall of Frost
2 x Duskmantle Guildmage
2 x Murmuring Phantasm
2 x Phantom Warrior
2 x Doorkeeper

Spells:

4 x Mind Grind
2 x Grisly Spectacle
2 x Doom Blade
4 x Tome Scour
3 x Paranoid Delusions

Other Cards:

1 x Jace, Memory Adept
1 x Elixir of Immortality
2 x Ring of Three Wishes
2 x Chromatic Lantern

Sideboard:

4 x Jace's Mindseeker
2 x Tormented Thoughts
2 x Cremate
2 x Destroy the Evidence
2 x Chronic Flooding

As can be seen from the deck list, this isn't necessarily built around play sets of 4 cards. In fact, four of the best cards are only present as solo cards. However there are some which have 4 cards and those are fantastic for the deck's intended purpose of making you burn through your library: Mind Grind & Tome Scour.

Mind Grind: how to make enemies in multiplayer.

Mind Grind is a great spell for mid game, when it can start to burn through large amounts of your opponent's library, as you can really start to make use of excess mana with it. What's more, in multiplayer, it hits all opponents. Be careful when you reveal you have it as it tends to provoke a strong reaction from all players! Tome Scour is the cheap, early mill card that gets the deck started. If you get it in your opening hand, then you can mill from turn one. It has the added advantage that if you have played it early, and you have got Consuming Aberration early on, you have already fuelled it when it comes into play.

Consuming Aberration: its one nasty piece of work.

The real engine of this deck is the god, Phenax. He turns all of your creatures into mill engines by allowing them to tap and make your opponent discard the creature's toughness in cards (for example Wall of Frost would hit your opponent for 7, hence the inclusion of 4 of them). Once Phenax gets on line, especially with a few creatures it can be game over the turn he arrives. If you have Consuming Aberration on the board, then this really can be a devastating combination.

Phenax, God of Deception: the real engine in this deck and one cool looking god too, I think.

All in all this is a fun deck for me to play. Sure it's never going to win any tournament but then again, it's not supposed to. I quite enjoy making use of MtG's alternative win conditions with some decks and this is one of those decks. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it.