Mono-Blue Mill

Today's deck archetype: Mono-blue mill.

In Magic, you lose if your deck runs out of cards (more precisely, you lose when you must draw a card from your deck and cannot). This is called "milling" or "decking" your opponent and is the most common alternate win condition in Magic. (The most common is reducing all opponents' life total to zero, of course.)  Milling is so common that Wizards just granted 'mill' as a keyword with Core 2021's release. (Here is the history on why they call it mill.)Mill cards are almost always blue, though it's possible to build an effective deck in blue-black. Here are some examples of decks I've built recently. Though five are shown, it's really a variation on two.

1) Control

Blue is the domain of control spells, too, so it's not surprising to see mill decks have a 'control'-type element- namely, slower decks that counter your opponent's spells or return permanents to their hand to slow their progress.  In this control-mill deck, eight counterspells (four each of Didn't Say Please and Thought Collapse) plus three Callous Dismissal cards annoy opponents while you play milling cards like Merfolk Secretkeeper, Wall of Lost Thoughts, and Drowned Secrets. Note that including Vantress Gargoyle gives you the option of winning 'normally.' This deck worked okay, but was quite slow.

4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53

21 Island (ANA) 4

1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242

4 Overwhelmed Apprentice (ELD) 60

4 Witching Well (ELD) 74

4 Drowned Secrets (GRN) 39

3 Callous Dismissal (WAR) 44

4 Wall of Lost Thoughts (RNA) 59

4 Vantress Gargoyle (ELD) 71

4 Didn't Say Please (ELD) 42

4 Thought Collapse (RNA) 57

3 Into the Story (ELD) 50

2) Control v2

The downside of Drowned Secrets is that you need blue spells [cards] to cast. Late in the game, that can become a problem. Enter a key card from Core 2021: Teferi's Tutelage. This milling beauty gives you a guaranteed mill per turn, and when paired with Into the Story, it gets powerful.

4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53

21 Island (ANA) 4

1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242

4 Overwhelmed Apprentice (ELD) 60

4 Witching Well (ELD) 74

4 Drowned Secrets (GRN) 39

4 Callous Dismissal (WAR) 44

2 Wall of Lost Thoughts (RNA) 59

4 Didn't Say Please (ELD) 42

4 Thought Collapse (RNA) 57

4 Into the Story (ELD) 50

4 Teferi's Tutelage (M21) 78

3) Control/Draw

As Standard rotation neared, I tweaked the deck to remove the cards rotating (from GRN and RNA). Realizing that card draw was the key to the deck at this point, I put in Gadwick, Frantic Inventory, and Opt.

4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53

21 Island (ANA) 4

1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242

4 Overwhelmed Apprentice (ELD) 60

4 Witching Well (ELD) 74

2 Brazen Borrower (ELD) 39

2 Gadwick, the Wizened (ELD) 48

4 Frantic Inventory (M21) 50

4 Didn't Say Please (ELD) 42

4 Opt (ELD) 59

4 Into the Story (ELD) 50

4 Teferi's Tutelage (M21) 78

2 Vantress Gargoyle (ELD) 71

4) Draw

When Zendikar Rising was released, it was clear that mill was the cool kid. Ruin Crab was an obvious inclusion- it + Tutelage = at least 5 cards milled on most turns. Maddening Cacophony, Merfolk Windrobber, and Lullmage's Domination were also helpful. Note that control is largely gone at this point- nothing outside of tapping (with Gadwick) and seizing creatures (with Domination).

21 Island (ANA) 4

1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242

4 Overwhelmed Apprentice (ELD) 60

2 Witching Well (ELD) 74

2 Gadwick, the Wizened (ELD) 48

4 Frantic Inventory (M21) 50

4 Opt (ELD) 59

4 Into the Story (ELD) 50

4 Teferi's Tutelage (M21) 78

2 Merfolk Windrobber (ZNR) 70

4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53

2 Lullmage's Domination (ZNR) 66

4 Ruin Crab (ZNR) 75

2 Maddening Cacophony (ZNR) 67

5) Draw v2

My current deck is a tweak of the former. Still heavy on draw, but I adjusted copies to give more Gadwick (experiencing her value over several games), less Into the Story, and more Domination/Cacophony. 

21 Island (ANA) 4

1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242

4 Overwhelmed Apprentice (ELD) 60

2 Witching Well (ELD) 74

3 Gadwick, the Wizened (ELD) 48

4 Frantic Inventory (M21) 50

4 Opt (ELD) 59

2 Into the Story (ELD) 50

4 Teferi's Tutelage (M21) 78

4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53

3 Lullmage's Domination (ZNR) 66

4 Ruin Crab (ZNR) 75

4 Maddening Cacophony (ZNR) 67

Concluding Thoughts
I've never thought of mill as competitive- it was more a gimmick that rarely worked but was fun to attempt. But the last two releases (Core 2021 and Zendikar Rising) have showcased the new 'mill' keyword, offering powerful options that make mill decks an increasingly viable and competitive strategy. I've milled opponents as quickly as turn 5 or 6, which I'd never have imagined before the latest two releases.