We’re talking about mill again. You literally can’t stop us doing this. All hail mill and death to all other forms of MTG. Mill is the one true path to victory, especially because it’s so much harder than just dealing damage in Commander. That becomes even braver when facing multiple opponents, and so, it’s impossible to deny the greatness of mill.
Alright, maybe we’re not that fanatical about it, but we do have an interesting card to talk about for this week’s commander challenge. It’s not like there are many unknown mill cards, but that doesn’t mean we can’t plumb the depths a little bit to really get into the cards that don’t often see play. So, let’s get onto that grind, eh?
What is Sanity Grinding?
While this may not be the rise and grind people are talking about, there’s no denying the appeal of Sanity Grinding. Sanity Grinding is a three-mana blue sorcery that reads, “Reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each blue mana symbol in the mana costs of the revealed cards, target opponent mills a card. Then put the cards you revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.”
The aim here, then, is to simply aim for mill. However, it’s also worth making sure we’re doing mill with a lot of blue cards, and ideally blue mana symbols on those cards. This means we don’t just have to focus on pure mill power, but can also look at filling the deck with fun blue cards in general.
As ever, we’ve got two options for you to choose from here, though you can always just go away and make your own decks too. We’re not in charge of you.
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Lazav, Mastermind of Sanity
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
Hexproof
Whenever a creature card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, you may have Lazav become a copy of that card, except its name is Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, it's legendary in addition to its other types, and it has hexproof and this ability.
is a four-mana blue and black 3/3 with hexproof that reads, “Whenever a creature card is put into an opponent’s graveyard from anywhere, you may have Lazav, Dimir Mastermind become a copy of that card, except its name is Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, it’s legendary in addition to its other types, and it has hexproof and this ability.”
Our aim here is slightly different to traditional mill, because Lazav offers a chance to go for beatdowns instead of just waiting to reduce the library to zero. The plan is still mill, but it offers a nice little wrinkle. It means we can rely on classics 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
Mind Grind
Mind Grind
Each opponent reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal X land cards, then puts all cards revealed this way into their graveyard. X can't be 0.
as we’ve got access to black. However, we’re not able to rely on the second color here, so the rest of the cards we’ll be using are still mono-blue.
That means
Jace’s Archivist
Jace’s Archivist
{U}, {T}: Each player discards their hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way.
,
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
Spells can't be countered.
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. The flashback cost is equal to that card's mana cost.
,
Jace’s Mindseeker
Jace’s Mindseeker
Flying
When this creature enters, target opponent mills five cards. You may cast an instant or sorcery spell from among them without paying its mana cost.
,
Fleet Swallower
Fleet Swallower
Whenever this creature attacks, target player mills half their library, rounded up.
,
Traumatize
Traumatize
Target player mills half their library, rounded down.
,
Hedron Crab
Hedron Crab
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, target player mills three cards. (They put the top three cards of their library into their graveyard.)
,
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 even
Gadwick, the Wizened
Gadwick, the Wizened
When Gadwick enters, draw X cards.
Whenever you cast a blue spell, tap target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
are all excellent choices. Plus, because we want to make sure we’re getting the best value out of Lazav, we’re going to be using Manic Scribe to get regular triggers off of their ability.
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The Grinding Grandiloquent
The other option includes all of the cards that we mentioned above, but it’s also all-in on mill alone. We are, of course, talking about Brulag the Grandiloquent. Bruvac is a three-mana 1 that reads, “If an opponent would mill one or more cards, they mill twice that many cards instead.”
That’s pretty simple. Plus, being mono-blue means we’ll be getting more consistency from our mana base and
Sanity Grinding
Sanity Grinding
Chroma — Reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each blue mana symbol in the mana costs of the revealed cards, target opponent mills a card. Then put the cards you revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.
itself without having to exclude other fun cards. Honestly, while we’ve given you two options here, it’s very hard to wholeheartedly recommend any card that isn’t Bruvac to lead Sanity Grinding into a win.
We tried though. How would you use
Sanity Grinding
Sanity Grinding
Chroma — Reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each blue mana symbol in the mana costs of the revealed cards, target opponent mills a card. Then put the cards you revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.
, or do you think its strange nature simply isn’t worth including? Do you already use it? Let us know in the comments.
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