Dimir - God of Milling (Modern)

An attempt at a standard format (Feb 2014) mill deck for competitive play. Semi-budget oriented.

== Mill Sources ==

You have three main sources of mill:

• Phenax, God of Deception -
  The titular God of Milling. The deck is heavy with blockers to use with this guy's last ability and he quickly becomes able to tap for mill as well. Every other permanent you play, with the exception of Jace, makes this one stronger.

• Jace, Memory Adept -
  Alternative primary mill source. Advantages over Phenax is that Jace can mill without the assistance of other permanents and is better at doing so when less than two blockers are available for Phenax's purposes. Disadvantage is that he cannot mill on opponent's turn. Plus he is an obvious target for burn decks or aggro decks that can out produce you on creatures... and they will be trying to kill him once Duskmantle Guildmage hits the board.

• Consuming Aberration -
  Secondary mill source. Works best in tandem with the Phenax (preferably) or Jace but quickly capable of winning the game by itself. With Phenax out, tapping Consuming Aberration will double the size of their graveyard every turn. The Phenax+Aberration combo is probably the only way to reliably deck an opponent in competitive play. Jace increases Aberration's power and toughness by 10 per round quickly turning it into massive fatty... but it's up to you to get him through your opponent's blockers. Apply Dimir Charm and Disperse liberally to the affected area.

== Duskmantle Guildmage ==

The main problem with mill has always been that (despite the larger absolute numbers involved in mill compared to life loss) making an opponent lose life is a considerably more efficient way to kill then than decking them. For this reason, Duskmantle Guildmage is easily the most important card in the deck. Duskmantle Guildmage enables you to turn those higher absolute mill numbers into a massive loss of life for your opponent. Two turns with Duskmantle and either Jace or Phenax+Blockers out will win most games. One turn with Duskmantle and Phenax+Aberration out can likewise end a game. And with just Duskmantle and one Aberration out you can still smack an opponent for respectable amounts of damage every turn so long as you keep slinging spells.

Against Control and Combo decks try to do most of your work with Duskmantle's first ability on your opponent's turn. That way every instant and sorcery your opponent plays, every sacrifice he makes, every card he discards, and every card he puts to the graveyard form his library does damage to him in addition to your mill. Against Aggro and Midrange decks (and assuming you have any Aberrations out and lots of cheap spells in hand) consider activating Duskmantle on your turn instead. Don't activate Duskmantle on both turns. If you have enough mana to activate on both turns double activate Duskmantle's first ability on one turn or the other instead. It tends to be more effective that way.

== Pure Mill Tactics ==

If for any reason you can't get Duskmantle out, you can put together a 4/4 Aberration and Phenax for 60+ mill by using Triton Tactics on the Aberration. It works like this:

Turn-A
(4 in the graveyard) Tap Aberration via Phenax... in response to the Aberration+Phenax ability hitting the stack, cast Triton Tactics to untap Aberration, give it +3 toughness, and trigger the Aberration's ability to mill ~4
(~8 in the graveyard) When the Aberration+Phenax combo ability resolves Aberration is a 8/11... mill for 11
(~19 in the graveyard) Tap Aberration via Phenax to mill ~22

Turn-B
(~41 in the graveyard) Tap Aberration via Phenax to mill ~41

That's an average of 41 cards milled per turn for two turns. If you can get two Aberrations out and follow the order (using the second aberration to replace Turn-B) then you can do it in one turn. You could also use two Triton Tactics on the same Aberration in a single turn for a significantly improved effect.

== General Strategy ==

This deck needs five mana to hit its stride and has no mana acceleration beyond multicolored lands. You will not be a viable threat till turn five. Use defenders and control spells to keep as much board advantage as possible until then and the rest should take care of itself.