Much Abrew: Wall Mill (Modern)

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Apr 03, 2017

video modern Much Abrew About Nothing

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week, we had a super-close battle between two Instant Deck Techs—Modern Smallpox and Modern Wall Mill—but in the end, it was the deck filled with zero-powered creatures that came out on top. As such, this week, we are heading to Modern to see if we can make a bunch of mana with Overgrown Battlement and friends, tutor up a Phenax, God of Deception with the help of Drift of Phantasms and Chord of Calling, and then mill our opponent's entire library in one or two turns! Will it work? Let's find out!

Just a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Much Abrew About Nothing series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube Channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest.

Wall Mill: Instant Deck Tech

Wall Mill vs. Tron (Match 1)

Wall Mill vs. Eldrazi & Taxes (Match 2)

Wall Mill vs. Treefolk (Match 3)

Wall Mill vs. Naya Burn (Match 4)

Wall Mill vs. Baral Storm (Match 5)

Wall Mill: Wrap-Up

Discussion:

Heading into the matches, I expected Wall Mill to be somewhere between okay and bad, so I was pleasantly surprised when it ended up somewhere between okay and good. All in all, we finished our matches 3-2, which isn't world-shattering, but it's pretty good for a really unique deck.

This said, it seems like Wall Mill is extremely matchup dependent. It feels like it's super hard to lose against creature-based aggro and midrange decks, while it's super hard to win against spell-based combo decks.

Maybe the most surprising aspect of the deck is its consistency. Drift of Phantasms is amazing, and it always felt like we could find our Staff of Domination, Chord of Calling, or Ensnaring Bridge when we needed one.

We also benefited from our opponent not knowing what was happening. Our deck looks really bad, so as we flood the board with Walls, our opponent doesn't really expect anything scary to happen. Then, out of nowhere, we tutor up a Staff of Domination or Phenax, God of Deception and win on the spot.

As far as upgrades, I don't really think we need to change much in the main deck. While the idea is a bit janky, it does work and all of the cards are good at their job. On the other hand, the sideboard could be improved to help out against combo. Since we have access to blue mana, I could imagine running some counters like Negate, and Leyline of Sanctity could help in some matchups as well.

All in all, the deck was a ton of fun to play and was more competitive than it looks on paper. While it sounds odd, this very well might be the best Mill deck in Modern (not that the bar is all that high).

So, should you play Wall Mill? If you want a mill deck or just want to play something different, fun, and semi-competitive, then yes! That said, it really depends on your local metagame. If lots of people are playing fast spell-based combo decks, you'll likely struggle (although updating the sideboard could help, to some extent), but if everyone is playing Zoo, Abzan, and other creature-based aggro and midrange decks, you should be able to pick up quite a few wins.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.