[Magic] Deck Help - U/B Mill

[Strormer]

Alright, I haven't played magic since kamigawa, but some friends wanted to try playing again so I started building a deck. I'm running a blue/black mill deck based around the Raven Guild Master and I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions on my build. Here's what I've got planned:

Raven Guild Master Mill Deck

Spoiler

Show

Blue:
x4 Raven Guild Master
x4 Crafty Pathmage
x1 Traumatize
x2 Distortion Strike
x1 Shadow Rift

Black:
x1 Demonic Tutor
x2 Abyssal Specter
x2 Hypnotic Specter
x1 Avatar of Woe
x2 Sadistic Sacrament
x1 Dark Ritual
x1 Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker

Blue/Black:
x1 Mind Funeral
x1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
x1 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist

Artifact:
x4 Whispersilk Cloak
x2 Specter’s Shroud
x1 Fireshrieker
x1 Sword of Body and Mind
x1 Soul Foundry

Lands:
x15 Island
x8 Swamp
x1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
x4 Underground River
x4 Watery Grave
x1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
x1 Jwar Isle Refuge
x1 Dimir Aqueduct
x1 River of Tears

I haven't purchased all of these cards yet as I'm not sure about the build yet so any and all suggestions are more that welcome. Thanks!

[Brother Oni]

You may want to repost in the main MtG thread.

Is this deck intended for multiplayer or for dueling?

Mill decks tend not to work too well multiplayer and you would need to change the composition of your deck significantly to get it to work.

With regards to duelling, a quick eyeball of your deck indicates it has far too many cards at 70 and no removal, thus if I play something, you have no way of getting rid of it.

There are a couple too many 1 of cards that hurt the consistency of your deck (Sword of Body and Mind for example) or appear to be thrown in at random because it 'might be useful' (that single copy of Shadowrift and the Dark Ritual for example). May I suggest being more ruthless and cutting anything that even remotely resembles dead weight and picking up more duplicates of your key cards.

You also have far too many land at 36 - you should go down to 23 or 24 ideally.

[Lea Plath]

What format is this for? Standard? Legacy? Fun? Modern?

Raven Guild Master isn't actually that good. At best, a 2UU combat trick, at worse he is chump blocked by everything.

Mill is also pretty unviable due to lack of mill cards and the slowness of it.

If you really want to mill, I would suggest using a Brain Freeze Storm combo deck, or Oona combo using Rings of Brightheart and Basalt Monolith.

Or pack a deck with Invisiable Stalkers (hexproof and unblockable), swords of body and mind, glimse the unthinkable and mill utility lands. Hedron Crabs and fetch lands too. Cap the mana at 3 for Mind Funeral and sword. Should be doable.

[Sith_Happens]

I find your lack of Glimpse the Unthinkable disturbing. GtU is UB mill.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Glimpse the Unthinkable, Psychic Drain, Circu, Dimir Lobtomist, and Szadek, Lord of secrets are all pretty awesome in U/B mill.

[Lord Seth]

There is a main MTG topic. However...

Jace's Phantasm seems a good card for mill, as it either gives you a good blocker or an alternate win condition.

However, mill--straight mill, anyway, which is the kind you're proposing--isn't used that much because at its heart it's really just a slower version of Burn.

Combo mill, on the other hand, can be decent. My Legacy deck of choice, High Tide, wins by building up enough mana and storm to kill the opponent with a Brain Freeze and/or Blue Sun's Zenith. Another combo mill deck uses the combination of Painter's Servant and Grindstone to put the opponent's entire library into their graveyard. A new possible combo is Rest In Peace with Helm of Obedience, but it seems a little tenuous right now.

[Thanatos 51-50]

I just remembered: Lurking Informant and Dimir Doppleganger, both go well with mill-tastic U/B decks.

Basically: if you want U/B Mill cards, Ravnica: City of guilds is the set you're looking for. Practically anything with a dimir watermark.

Oh, and then there's Painful Quandary

[Strormer]

First off, sorry about not posting in the main thread. This is the first time I've posted for MtG.

Second, thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll post in the proper thread once I've reworked the deck. ^_^