Final Fantasy MTG brought a multitude of unique cards to Constructed that make for sweet build-arounds. Powerhouses like Vivi Ornitier have helped give rise to potent combo decks.
Well, yesterday, an innovative Dimir Mill combo shell made a surprise appearance in Pioneer abusing the power of a blue Mill engine from Final Fantasy MTG. This archetype is as off-the-wall as it gets, but following a strong performance in a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, could there be hope for this strategy moving forward? Let’s take a look at what the deck has going for it.
Mill Combo
At its core, this Dimir Mill deck relies on two key cards as primary win conditions. The first is the Final Fantasy artifact, The Water Crystal. The Water Crystal is a bit clunky, and its activated ability costs a lot of mana to use. However, it does come with two useful static abilities.
Reducing the cost of your other blue spells is nice, given the range of card selection spells present that cost more than one mana, which we’ll discuss more in the next section. From there, ensuring that other Mill effects are turbocharged makes it much easier to close games.
This is especially true when you factor in the deck’s primary Mill machine: Sphinx’s Tutelage. Sphinx’s Tutelage is slow on its own. When paired with The Water Crystal, though, it becomes trivial to close games.
When you draw a card with both Sphinx’s Tutelage and The Water Crystal in play, your opponent will Mill six cards. All you need is for two of those cards to share a color and this process will repeat. Against mono-colored decks like mono-red aggro, if you can avoid Milling a big clump of lands, you have a good shot to Mill your opponent out in one shot!
On top of that, you also have access to plenty of card draw effects should you need to trigger Sphinx’s Tutelage again. Cantrips like Consider and Opt play an important role, digging for your win conditions and maximizing Sphinx’s Tutelage once it’s in play.
These cantrips then fuel Treasure Cruise, one of your best ways to pull ahead on resources. The combination of The Water Crystal and Sphinx’s Tutelage is quite scary. You just need ways to find them and buy time to utilize them.
Support Cards
Well, nearly every other card in this deck either interacts with the opponent or provides immense card selection. In the disruption category, Fatal Push and Thoughtseize are your best options.
Fatal Push is as efficient a removal spell as you’ll find in Pioneer, helping you stave off early pressure from the dominant red aggro shells in the format. Meanwhile, Thoughtseize can clear a path for The Water Crystal and Sphinx’s Tutelage in the face of Counterspells while also messing with opposing combos.
With regards to digging for The Water Crystal and Sphinx’s Tutelage, both Thundertrap Trainer and Stock Up are elite options. These cards churn through your library in no time. Once you land The Water Crystal, you can cast both of these cards and Sphinx’s Tutelage at a discount, which is essential when it comes to advancing your gameplan and interacting with the opponent on the same turn.
A Cool Strategy
As long as you can keep your head above water, The Water Crystal and Sphinx’s Tutelage will Mill the opponent out in short order. Many of the top archetypes in Pioneer, such as mono-red aggro, Izzet Phoenix, mono-black midrange, and Rakdos midrange have limited ways to get Sphinx’s tutelage off the board.
In this sense, your gameplan lines up relatively well in the current metagame. That is, assuming you don’t get beaten down too quickly.
Fatal Push and Go for the Throat only do so much when it comes to halting mono-red’s pressure. Finding a window to actually slam The Water Crystal, Sphinx’s Tutelage, or Stock Up is very difficult. Even if the board looks relatively stable, all it takes is a Monstrous Rage or Manifold Mouse giving a creature Double Strike before you’re taking a huge chunk of damage out of nowhere.
Your sideboard does come in handy at least, as it features an array of board wipes and removal spells. Still, you don’t have much time to spin your wheels.
Regardless, this deck’s impressive performance is nothing to scoff at. Seeing a cool, brand-new strategy make waves is awesome. It’s unlikely Dimir Mill will emerge as a top tier deck, but if you’re looking for something unique to play at your next Pioneer event, consider giving Dimir Mill a whirl.
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