[Modern] infinite mill

[illmryr]

infinite mill

Get a ruin ghost, a hedron crab, and a retreat to coralhelm out. Then start the infinite landfall loop using Hedron Crab's mill ability.

Mill possibility on turn 4:
1) Island (tap)/Hedron Crab
2) Plains (tap with Island) (mill 3)/Ruin Ghost
3) Mana (whatever-tap with Plains and Island) (Mill 3)/Retreat to Coralhelm
4) Tap Plains to Tap Ruin Ghost to Exile Plains/Return Plains untapped (mill 3)/Use Retreat to Coralhelm ability to untap Ruin Ghost/Repeat until all cards are milled.

Altar of the Brood can be utilized instead of hedron crab in the same way.

If you only have the Ruin Ghost and Retreat to Coralhelm out, you can infinitely scry until you get the Hedron Crab our the Altar of the Brood. Next turn would be the win.

Alternate win condition- Retreat to Emeria instead of Hedron Crab/Altar of the Brood. Create infinite 1/1 Kor Allies that you can grow infinitely until end of turn.

The Judge Unworthy and Sigiled Starfish are in there for both their defensive capabilities and their ability to scry.

Drift of Phantasms and Idyllic Tutor are for searches, and Drift of Phantasms could also be a good blocker if that is needed.

Weaknesses- Swarm and Trample. Possibly Burn as well.

Ghost draws have the players out and ready between 5 and 8 turns regularly (in my testing)

I have played the proxied deck once, and it lost to a green elf mana ramp/eldrazi deck. I was not able to get Retreat to Coralhelm out before the eldrazi were up and running. It played well though.

[RockSurname]

I think I created a interesting deck list. Let me know what you think.

[illmryr]

That is an intetesting take on it. Dropping the evolving wilds and azorius signet in favor of split lands seems like a good move. It opens up more cards for the meat of the deck.

I see you're going a bit controlly there with counterspells and the like. That's definitely a worthy endeavor as one of the biggest weaknesses of this deck is creature kill. That could mitigate that to a degree.

My tactic was speed. At least in the casual setting I play with, it usually takes at least 6-10 turns for my opponents to have their deck hook up. If I can consistently get mine running between 5-8, that gives me an edge. I tried to make eveeything about this deck ensure the landfall loop as well as the 2 win conditions. I tries to do this in such a way that multitasked (sigiled starfish and draft of phantasms are both moderately high end blockers and judge unworthy could hurt or kill an attacking or blocking threat).

Ultimately though it seems to be two different philosophies, but I know i would be intimidated playing against that deck.

[RockSurname]

I really like your idea and even may take it into a tournament to see how it does. I went more with a price-y route to make sure it fires properly consistently. The one problem I saw with it however was that it did not do well against removal, like you said. The counterspell's are my answers to that, however it makes arcane denial makes them draw extra cards so I'm eh about it.

[illmryr]

I'm a casual player, but please let me know how it does at a tourny if you do use it. I tried it out twice tonight, and the first game I was literally one turn from winning. The second game was a bit slower, I wasn't getting the ruin ghost out...

[RockSurname]

I've been running it a few times, and I run into the same problem, I am thinking of putting green into the deck so I can tutor for creatures. Keeping with the speed with the deck, I put in Congregation at dawn which seems to work. You like it?

[RockSurname]

here is the deck list

[illmryr]

This was my first attempt at a bi-colored deck... that third would be more complex. I'd consider that card but would probably drop the split lands (blue/green)(white/green). Maybe replace 2 or three of each the island and plains respectively.

What do you think?

[illmryr]

I have since tweaked it by adding black in.

4 Ruin Ghost
4 Hedron Crab
4 Retreat to Corelheim
4 Retreat to Emeria
4 Dark Ritual
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Sigiled Starfish
4 Azorius Signet
4 Adakar Wastes
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Underground River
2 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Island

The bonus on this is the possibility for a turn 3 mill win.

Turn one- Drop a Swamp (or other source of Black Mana)- tap that to cast Dark Ritual. Use that three mana to cast Azorius Signet (2 mana) and activate it (1 mana) thereby producing a White and a Blue. Use that to cast Ruin Ghost.

Turn two- Drop a land (Preferably turn one Swamp, turn two Island, turn three Plains... but I added the pain lands in to create more of a realistic possibility to have the proper mana available when needed... This way I have 13 sources of both black and blue mana... 10 sources of black. Odds are I should have at least one source of each in my oppening hand. Obviously this is vital for the win) If the land is not an Island, tap one of the lands into the Signet to gain White and Blue. Tap the other to gain whatever you can get, thereby gaining 2U. Cast Retreat to Corelheim.

Turn three- Drop a land. Use the blue from the signet or an island to cast Hedron Crab. Hopefully you have a plains in your hand as a pain land would be... painful... haha. If you have to use the pain land, that should be fine depending on the health totals to the point. If you had a plains, start your mill cycle. If you have a pain land that produces White, start the mill cycle. This is turn three, so depending on who drew first, your opponent should be 9 or 10 cards down from the expected 60 cards... 50 or 51 in their library. That is 17 cycles of the mill 3... which would do 17 points of damage to you if you needed to use the pain lands. You can mitigate one point of that by using the signet for one of the white production. If you needed to use a pain land for the dark ritual, that would be an additional one. No matter what, you should have 3 life remaining. Hopefully you aren't against a good burn deck.

I have idyllic tutor in order to search for the Retreat to Corelheim. The Muddle the Mixture is in there to hopefully avoid someone killing the Ruin Ghost (the weakest part of the mill machine) or if needed can be transmuted to tutor for the Ruin Ghost. I do not have a way of directly tutoring for the Hedron Crab, which is a limitation, but if we have the Starfish out, you can scry each turn (wait until opponent's end step to do so) to help search for the Crab (or any other missing pieces). If you get 2 Retreat to Corelheim out with the Ruin Ghost, you can infinite scry (1-Ruin Ghost taps and causes the landfall, 2-First Retreat untaps the Ruin Ghost, 3- Second Retreat Scrys one). This obviously should be done with a plains only. I could remove the Retreat to Emeria in favor of a Black Tutor card, but the truth is, this tends to do well. I can usually get the machine off by turn 8 at latest.