The Best MTG Mill Commanders

Among the many different archetypes in MTG, Mill has always stood out as a bit of an oddball. Winning by putting your opponent’s whole deck into the graveyard is simultaneously more psychologically salt-inducing, and much, much harder, than just winning through damage. These both go double in Commander, too, where there’s more of a focus on fun and 300 cards to get through rather than 60.

That said, Mill is still very much a viable deck type in Commander, which can often catch pods out due to its relative rarity. If you want to get in on the action yourself, then these are our picks for the best Mill Commanders in all of MTG.

Honorable Mention | Captain N’ghathrod

Captain N’ghathrod is doubly niche, representing both the Mill archetype and Horror Typal in one curious Commander. Interestingly, the two overlap a lot, with notable Horrors like Consuming Aberration Consuming Aberration Consuming Aberration's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your opponents' graveyards.
Whenever you cast a spell, each opponent reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a land card, then puts those cards into their graveyard. and Zellix, Sanity Flayer Zellix, Sanity Flayer Hive Mind — Whenever a player mills one or more creature cards, you create a 1/1 black Horror creature token.
{1}, {T}: Target player mills three cards.
Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.) also being great Mill cards. Even with more standard Horrors, like Uchuulon Uchuulon Uchuulon's power is equal to the number of Crabs, Oozes, and/or Horrors you control.
Horrific Symbiosis — At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one target creature card from an opponent's graveyard. If you do, create a token that's a copy of this creature. , adding mill to damage dealt will whittle those decks down fast.

While you’ll get faster mill elsewhere, N’ghathrod’s reanimation ability gives this Commander a powerful edge. This works with any kind of mill, not just that from N’ghathrod itself, so cards like Altar of Dementia Altar of Dementia Sacrifice a creature: Target player mills cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power. and Ruin Crab Ruin Crab Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, each opponent mills three cards. (To mill a card, a player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.) can massively open up your options. Bagging free creatures is great, especially against chunky decks like ramp, but the artifact option usually means you’ll get at least a mana rock each turn.

Though Captain N’ghathrod is definitely powerful, its split focus between Horrors and Mill makes it a bit less consistent than many of its peers. For this reason, it’s only an honorable mention here, but it’s still a fantastic choice for a Mill Commander if you don’t want to go all-in.

5 | Bruvac the Grandiloquent

Sometimes the simplest Commanders are the most effective, and that’s definitely true of Bruvac the Grandiloquent. For three mana, this is a 1/4 that doubles all of your mill: no more, no less. This makes achieving a total mill victory literally twice as easy, making grindy pieces like Ruin Crab Ruin Crab Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, each opponent mills three cards. (To mill a card, a player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.) and Psychic Corrosion Psychic Corrosion Whenever you draw a card, each opponent mills two cards. much harder to ignore.

Things get even better when you add in other mill-boosting effects, like The Water Crystal The Water Crystal Blue spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
If an opponent would mill one or more cards, they mill that many cards plus four instead.
{4}{U}{U}, {T}: Each opponent mills cards equal to the number of cards in your hand. and Fraying Sanity Fraying Sanity Enchant player
At the beginning of each end step, enchanted player mills X cards, where X is the number of cards put into their graveyard from anywhere this turn. , for big bursts of mill. Heck, with cards that mill half of an opponent’s deck at once, like Maddening Cacophony Maddening Cacophony Kicker {3}{U}
Each opponent mills eight cards. If this spell was kicked, instead each opponent mills half their library, rounded up. and Traumatize Traumatize Target player mills half their library, rounded down. , Bruvac essentially lets you take players out in one turn. Having a combo piece in the command zone is always excellent, as cEDH players will attest, and Bruvac gives you exactly that in the right build.

Bruvac is also notable for being the best possible Commander for a Persistent Petitioners Persistent Petitioners {1}, {T}: Target player mills a card. (They put the top card of their library into their graveyard.)
Tap four untapped Advisors you control: Target player mills twelve cards.
A deck can have any number of cards named Persistent Petitioners. Mill deck, being an Advisor itself and letting you mill 24 cards at a time. This gives it a funky edge that balances out its seeming simplicity, making it one of the best Mill Commanders in MTG overall.

4 | The Mindskinner

Mill decks don’t typically care about damage at all, but The Mindskinner flips that idea on its head by delivering mass mill based on your damage. This sounds unintuitive for a Mono-Blue Commander at first, but The Mindskinner itself is a 10/1 with unblockable, which immediately makes a Voltron playstyle possible. Add in some protection like Mithril Coat Mithril Coat Flash
Indestructible
When Mithril Coat enters, attach it to target legendary creature you control.
Equipped creature has indestructible.
Equip {3} , and Equipment like Genji Glove Genji Glove Equipped creature has double strike.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap it. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
Equip {3} , and your Commander can do a ton of milling itself here.

To support The Mindskinner, you can tap into a surprisingly deep pool of colorless damage options to stack up a ton of mill each turn. Cards like Giggling Skitterspike Giggling Skitterspike Indestructible
Whenever this creature attacks, blocks, or becomes the target of a spell, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
{5}: Monstrosity 5. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put five +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.) and Stuffy Doll Stuffy Doll Indestructible
As this creature enters, choose a player.
Whenever this creature is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to the chosen player.
{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to itself. are great picks here, since they help hold down the fort as well. You can also run evasive creatures like Silent Hallcreeper Silent Hallcreeper This creature can't be blocked.
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• Put two +1/+1 counters on this creature.
• Draw a card.
• This creature becomes a copy of another target creature you control. , and evasion granters like Wonder Wonder Flying
As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control an Island, creatures you control have flying. , to sneak through your other troops for extra mill.

Though it looks linear at first, there are actually lots of ways to build The Mindskinner as a Mill deck. You can go full Voltron, you can copy it with legendary rule-dodging Clone Clone You may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield. s like Spark Double Spark Double You may have this creature enter as a copy of a creature or planeswalker you control, except it enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it if it's a creature, it enters with an additional loyalty counter on it if it's a planeswalker, and it isn't legendary. , or you can go down the damage route. Whichever path you take, this is a powerful and terrifying Mill Commander that can easily win games.

3 | Hope Estheim

Hope Estheim is one of the newest Mill Commanders in MTG, but it’s also one of the best. Tying mill to lifegain actually makes a ton of sense, since milling the table out can take a while, so the extra life cushion helps you get there. This also opens up a ton of new avenues for mill, letting cards like Soul Warden Soul Warden Whenever another creature enters, you gain 1 life. and The Wind Crystal The Wind Crystal White spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.
{4}{W}{W}, {T}: Creatures you control gain flying and lifelink until end of turn. function as powerful grindy mill engines over time.

Hope Estheim is also notable for turning any infinite lifegain combo into an instant win, serving as a two-mana combo piece out of the command zone. You can pop off with Famished Paladin Famished Paladin This creature doesn't untap during your untap step.
Whenever you gain life, untap this creature. and Resplendent Mentor Resplendent Mentor White creatures you control have "{T}: You gain 1 life." , for instance, or with Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset +1: Choose up to one target artifact, up to one target creature, and up to one target land. Untap the chosen permanents you control. Tap the chosen permanents you don't control. You gain 2 life.
−2: Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
−7: You get an emblem with "Untap all permanents you control during each opponent's untap step" and "You draw a card during each opponent's draw step." and Peregrine Dynamo.

Throw in some classic Mill pieces, and some cross-synergistic cards like Space-Time Anomaly Space-Time Anomaly Target player mills cards equal to your life total. , and Hope Estheim is a real force to be reckoned with. The fact that it costs just two mana is well worth noting, too, since it makes it easy to get going early and easy to recover later after removal.

2 | Phenax, God of Deception

Released as part of Magic’s original God cycle back in Born of the Gods, Phenax, God of Deception remains a Mill powerhouse to this day. Tapping your creatures to mill is a huge ability, especially when paired with massive creatures like The Walls of Ba Sing Se The Walls of Ba Sing Se Defender
Other permanents you control have indestructible. and Charix, the Raging Isle Charix, the Raging Isle Spells your opponents cast that target Charix cost {2} more to cast.
{3}: Charix gets +X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of Islands you control. . Graveyard scaling creatures, like Consuming Aberration Consuming Aberration Consuming Aberration's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your opponents' graveyards.
Whenever you cast a spell, each opponent reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a land card, then puts those cards into their graveyard. and Cruel Somnophage Cruel Somnophage Cruel Somnophage's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards. , work beautifully here too.

Tapping down creatures like these is great for rushing a mill win, but this ability also offers surprising utility. You can use it to tap down creatures like King Macar, the Gold-Cursed King Macar, the Gold-Cursed Inspired — Whenever King Macar becomes untapped, you may exile target creature. If you do, create a Gold token. (It's an artifact with "Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") or Cynical Loner Cynical Loner This creature can't be blocked by Glimmers.
Survival — At the beginning of your second main phase, if this creature is tapped, you may search your library for a card, put it into your graveyard, then shuffle. , for example, to get maximum value without risking them in combat.

Phenax also enables a range of combo lines, some deterministic and some not so much. With Maddening Cacophony Maddening Cacophony Kicker {3}{U}
Each opponent mills eight cards. If this spell was kicked, instead each opponent mills half their library, rounded up. , and a graveyard scaler like Sewer Nemesis Sewer Nemesis As this creature enters, choose a player.
Sewer Nemesis's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in the chosen player's graveyard.
Whenever the chosen player casts a spell, that player mills a card. , Phenax lets you deck a player out completely with a single tap. It can also go pseudo-infinite with Eater of the dead Eater of the dead {0}: If this creature is tapped, exile target creature card from a graveyard and untap this creature. , or Zellix, Sanity Flayer Zellix, Sanity Flayer Hive Mind — Whenever a player mills one or more creature cards, you create a 1/1 black Horror creature token.
{1}, {T}: Target player mills three cards.
Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.) and Intruder Alarm Intruder Alarm Creatures don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.
Whenever a creature enters, untap all creatures. , though you need to get lucky and hit creatures in every mill batch.

Add in Phenax’s innate Indestructibility, which makes it a nightmare to deal with even today, and it’s a stellar all-round package. You don’t hear that about a Commander from 2014 very often, but we’re happy to report that Phenax can still mill it up with the best of them.

1 | The Wise Mothman

As the 15th most popular Commander in the entire format, by EDHREC numbers, The Wise Mothman certainly gets around. While there are a few different ways to build this irradiated Insect, however, the Mill plan is a clear standout.

This is partly because Mothman offers easy rad counter generation, which improves when paired with Proliferate cards like Thrummingbird Thrummingbird Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) . Other generators, like Nuclear Fallout Nuclear Fallout Each creature gets twice -X/-X until end of turn. Each player gets X rad counters. and Glowing One Glowing One Deathtouch
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, they get four rad counters.
Whenever a player mills a nonland card, you gain 1 life. support this plan as well, leading to potentially massive mill numbers each turn.

What really pushes The Wise Mothman over the edge, however, is the payoff provided by that second ability. This triggers off of all mill, not just rad counter-related mill, so all the usual mill staples like Mesmeric Orb Mesmeric Orb Whenever a permanent becomes untapped, that permanent's controller mills a card. can buff your board up, too. This is great for enabling triggers on creatures like Benthic Biomancer Benthic Biomancer {1}{U}: Adapt 1. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, draw a card, then discard a card. , and even some infinite combos with setups like Herd Baloth Herd Baloth Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may create a 4/4 green Beast creature token. , Moss-Pit Skeleton Moss-Pit Skeleton Kicker {3} (You may pay an additional {3} as you cast this spell.)
If this creature was kicked, it enters with three +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on a creature you control, if this card is in your graveyard, you may put this card on top of your library. , and Altar of Dementia Altar of Dementia Sacrifice a creature: Target player mills cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power. .

With so much power and versatility, not to mention a stellar color identity, The Wise Mothman is a deep Commander that offers plenty of options. Given this, it’s not surprising that it’s also the best of the current Mill Commanders in MTG, by a fairly significant margin.

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