What is the Best Color for a Mill Deck?
The straightforward answer is: Blue is traditionally and consistently the best color for a mill deck in Magic: The Gathering. While other colors like black have some access to milling effects, blue possesses the most efficient and versatile tools for this strategy. Blue’s strengths in card manipulation, counterspells, and, most importantly, direct milling cards make it the go-to color for anyone looking to empty their opponent’s library.
Why Blue Reigns Supreme in Mill
Blue’s dominance in mill strategies stems from its core mechanics and card design. Here’s a breakdown of why it excels:
Direct Milling Power
Blue has the most consistent access to cards that directly put cards from an opponent’s library into their graveyard. This direct approach, known as milling, is the core mechanic of the strategy. Unlike black, which often relies on forced discards (which target the hand, not the library), blue gets to bypass the hand entirely and directly deplete the opponent’s library. Cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable, Mind Funeral, and Fraying Sanity are clear examples of blue’s direct mill capabilities, often milling in large quantities or enhancing the efficiency of other mill cards.
Card Draw and Selection
Blue is known for its expertise in card draw and filtering. This is crucial for a mill deck because it allows you to consistently find and play your milling cards. This helps keep the pressure on the opponent’s library without running out of steam. Abilities to dig deep into your library with cards like Brainstorm and Ponder ensure that you hit your key mill cards consistently.
Counterspells and Control
Blue is also the master of control and counterspells, allowing you to protect your milling strategy from being disrupted. By neutralizing threats and slowing down your opponent’s plans, you can give your milling strategy time to work. Countermagic buys you crucial turns needed to fully execute your mill strategy. Cards like Counterspell and Force of Negation are critical in any blue control deck and vital for a successful blue mill strategy.
Synergistic Creatures
Blue also features creatures that benefit from or contribute to the mill strategy. Examples include Bruvac the Grandiloquent, a powerful mill-centric commander, which doubles the number of cards milled. These synergistically powerful creatures offer a constant mill threat.
How Other Colors Play a Role (or Don’t)
While blue is the cornerstone of milling, other colors sometimes contribute, although their impact is usually secondary.
Black
Black can mill, but it’s not its primary focus. It has more emphasis on forced discard, which targets an opponent’s hand and not their library, and reanimation strategies. Though it also includes mill effects, they are often tied to creature combat or other resources. Black’s milling abilities can be useful to pair with Blue in Dimir (Blue/Black) strategies, giving a variety of control and mill cards.
Other Colors
Other colors like red, green, and white have a very limited role in milling, their contribution often is limited to card draw or other support cards rather than direct mill.
Conclusion
When it comes to milling, blue remains the undisputed king. Its potent mix of direct milling effects, card draw, and control elements makes it the best color to build a consistently successful mill deck. While other colors can play a supporting role, blue’s core abilities are what allow mill decks to thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is a mill deck in Magic: The Gathering?
A mill deck is a strategy focused on emptying an opponent’s library by directly putting cards from it into their graveyard. The ultimate goal is to have the opponent draw a card from an empty library, which results in their loss. The term “mill” came from the card Millstone, which was one of the early cards that introduced milling as a strategy.
2. Why is milling called “milling”?
The term “mill” comes from the card Millstone, an artifact introduced in the Third Edition of Magic: The Gathering. It has become the common slang term among players for moving cards from the library to the graveyard.
3. What beats a mill deck?
Aggro and Midrange decks, which focus on faster, shorter games, tend to do well against mill decks. Control decks can also be effective depending on their counterspells. Mill decks struggle against fast aggression and decks that can recover cards from the graveyard to prevent loss by milling.
4. Is discard the same as mill?
No, discard and mill are not the same. Milling moves cards from a player’s library to their graveyard, while discard forces a player to move cards from their hand to their graveyard. They attack different resources and are separate strategies.
5. What are some of the best blue mill cards?
Some of the best blue mill cards include Glimpse the Unthinkable, Mind Funeral, Fraying Sanity, Traumatize, and Archive Trap. These cards can mill large numbers of cards at once and can often be the main source of milling for a deck.
6. How many cards should I have in a mill deck?
While most constructed formats require a 60-card minimum, it’s important to balance your mill cards with protection, card draw, and mana sources. There’s no one number for mill decks since it varies between formats such as 60 card decks and Commander where decks are 100 cards.
7. What is the best mill deck commander in MTG?
Some of the top mill commanders include Captain N’ghathrod, Saruman of Many Colors, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Phenax, God of Deception, Araumi of the Dead Tide, Bruvac the Grandiloquent, and Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. These commanders give you access to mill strategies along with unique abilities and synergies.
8. What is a good number of lands for a mill deck in commander?
A typical commander deck will run around 36 lands for 100 card decks. For 60 card formats, 22-24 lands is typical. However, for mill, you should adjust as needed depending on your deck’s mana curve.
9. What is the difference between discard and milling flavor-wise?
Milling is often associated with a mental attack, attempting to erode a person’s thoughts, while discard is often seen as a more immediate attack, attacking the opponent’s current plans. In flavor, black discard cards often cause the target to go insane, while blue is stealing the thoughts.
10. Can you use mill to win in other ways?
Yes, some mill decks utilize the graveyard as a resource, reanimating strong creatures or using spells that benefit from cards being in the graveyard. Milling in this context isn’t the only win condition.
11. How do I protect my mill strategy?
Use counterspells to stop threats, defensive creatures that hinder the opponent’s attacks, and card draw to find the answers you need quickly. Blue is the best color for these types of effects.
12. What is the most aggressive Magic deck?
While many color combinations work well together, Red/Green Aggro is often regarded as the most aggressive. This combination focuses on quickly overwhelming the opponent with powerful and fast creatures.
13. What is the weakest color in commander?
White is generally considered the weakest color in Commander because it lacks card advantage, card selection, and mana ramp compared to other colors.
14. What is the best color combination for a mill deck?
The strongest color combination for a mill deck is Dimir (Blue/Black). This pairing provides both efficient direct milling and potent control elements, along with the ability to discard cards and interact with the graveyard.
15. What is the most common win condition for a mill deck?
The most common win condition for a mill deck is to reduce an opponent’s library to zero cards, causing them to lose the game the next time they attempt to draw a card. However, other win conditions, such as reanimating powerful threats from the graveyard are often used as well.