Happy Holidays everyone!

As I write this, Christmas has just passed and New Year's Eve is looming. In all of the preparation for the holidays I've managed to no longer be ahead of my writing schedule, but I'm happy to be able to share a decklist with you today that was something of a surprise to me.

For much of the last year I've been turning over a Blue deck every few months. Most recently it was The Blue Spirit, and before that it was Hraesvelgr of the First Brood, and before that it was Renari, Merchant of Marvels, with Feywild Visitor as the deck's background enchantment.

This all goes back to over a year ago when I picked up a stack of full art islands that were more than I'd ever need for deckbuilding. At the time I picked up an extra set of Blue sleeves and I've been churning through Blue decks ever since. It's been fun, and through much of the past year I've kept my "main" mono-Blue deck as Siani, Eye of the Storm / Eligeth, Crossroads Augur partners, aptly named "flying and scrying."

A few weekends ago I was jamming games with the Saturday crew I've playing with for over a year, and one of my buddies gave out some random legendary creatures as gifts. As it happened, the card I pulled was a mono-Blue legend that I had never seriously considered building around... until now.

My very first EDH deck was a mill deck built around Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, so I've got some familiarity with playing mill. The Mindskinner takes a different and surprisingly effective approach to mill, pushing you into a voltron strategy without any chance of ever killing a player with commander damage.

This nightmare can't be blocked and has 10 power, but if a source I control would do damage to an opponent, it will prevent that damage and each opponent will mill that many cards. It's worth mentioning that fellow CSI writer Mark Wischkaemper tackled this commander when it first came out in Duskmourn. You can read his take on the card here.

I put my list together with cards I had lying around, so there are glaring omissions from my list. I need to get my hands on another Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Counterspell, and Swan Song at the minimum, but I'm OK with running a Blue deck without the staples I normally run. I play casually and I don't feel like every deck has to be optimized. Also, this gives you, dear reader, the opportunity to take this list, Mark's list, or an amalgam of both lists as a starting point and upgrade it as much as you like.

The Voltron Mill Plan

It's not surprising that we have a few cards in common between our lists, but I'd like to dive into some of the cards that Mark didn't, or couldn't (as they weren't out yet) run in his list.

The first thing to know is that I'm leaning into the mill theme pretty heavily. The Water Crystal fits into this list perfectly as a cost reducer akin to Sapphire Medallion which also gives me a little help with my mill theme. It will only add four cards to any instance of mill I control that makes an opponent mill cards.

Mark is smartly running Fireshrieker, but I decided to double down on my equipment package. Fireshrieker, Grappling Hook, and Genji Glove can each give double strike, but Glove essentially gives quadruple strike by giving me an extra combat step. What would have been an attack that would have each opponent mill 10 cards, becomes a whopping forty cards with double strike and that extra combat step.

We are both running Sword of the Animist and Blackblade Reforged, but I'm leaning even more heavily into the voltron theme with Adaptive Omnitool, Strata Scythe, and Eldrazi Conscription. Adaptive Omnitool will give equipped creature +1/+1 for each artifact I control, which should be a lot given how many mana rocks and equipment I'm running. Strata Scythe is like Blackblade Reforged but for one land type - in this case Islands - and it will count every Island in play, not just my own. Eldrazi Conscription gives a cool +1/+1 and annihilator 2. Colossus Hammer would be a decent replacement for that aura if you don't feel comfortable with annihilator.

I thought about running a clone theme, but I didn't want to feel like I had to dig for ways to make a nonlegendary token copy of The Mindskinner. Helm of the Host is still perfect for this list. I won't double my combat damage replacement effect, but I will double my damage output with an extra copy of my commander in play. If left uninterrupted, I should have a decent shot at milling my tablemates out over a few turns.

My secret sauce for this list is another idea that might be too cute by half. I'm running unblockable creatures like Slither Blade and Gudul Lurker, along with Dragon Throne of Tarkir. The former are just little guys that can't be blocked. The Throne is an equipment that can let me tap to give other creatures I control trample and +X/+X where X is the equipped creature's power. With a modest board of a few unblockable creatures, and maybe a Pilgrim's Eye or Ornithopter of Paradise, instead of attacking and having each opponent mill 10 cards, I could be looking at having each of them mill a third or more of their library.

Mark and I are both running a bunch of Mill staples including Bruvac, the Grandiloquent, Maddening Cacophony, and Ruin Crab. I decided to throw in Traumatize as a little extra mill threat. This old sorcery will have target player mill half of their library, rounded down. If Bruvac, the Grandiloquent is out, that instance of mill will be doubled.

Terisian Mindbreaker is also in the list as a mill threat I can get back from the graveyard if it gets milled or destroyed. This juggernaut has an attack trigger that will have the defending player mill half of their library rounded up. It can also be unearthed for four mana.

All this mill makes Diluvian Primordial an auto-include for me. This seven-mana avatar is a 5/5 with flying and a great enter the battlefield trigger. When it enters I may cast up to one target instant or sorcery from that player's graveyard without paying its mana cost. At worst it'll probably be a little extra value, and at best it could be game winning depending upon how juicy my opponents' graveyards are.

Performing Without a Net

One of the many good things about Mark's list is the amount of interaction he is running. In comparison, my list is like doing trapeze or walking the high wire without a net. If something goes wrong, I'm much less likely to be able to stop a tablemate from stopping me. On the other hand, I'm running more ways to turn The Mindskinner into a bigger combat threat.

I'm also running a convoluted way to present a combat based wincon. My alternative wincon involves pump and unblockable creatures. It's not the best plan, but my dream scenario for a non-mill win is pretty fun. It involves getting a bunch of unblockable creatures into play, equipping The Mindskinner with something like Blackblade Reforged and Dragon Throne of Tarkir. The idea is that I use Dragon Throne to pump my team, I attack, and before damage I use High Market or a removal spell to get rid of my combat damage replacement effect. I should be running more removal spells, but this is meant for more casual play. It's a bit of a glass cannon, though I could see myself tuning the list up if it proves to be fun to play.

The Mindskinner | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Mindskinner

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Bruvac the Grandiloquent
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Fog Bank
• 1 Gudul Lurker
• 1 Loyal Drake
• 1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Ruin Crab
• 1 Shimmer Dragon
• 1 Shoreline Looter
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Slippery Scoundrel
• 1 Slither Blade
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Terisian Mindbreaker
• 1 Tome Raider
• 1 Walking Atlas

• Instants (3)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Reality Shift

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Maddening Cacophony
• 1 Temporal Mastery
• 1 Traumatize
• 1 Windfall

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Court of Cunning
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Unstoppable Plan
• 1 Vow of Flight
• 1 Wiretapping

• Artifacts (28)
• 1 Adaptive Omnitool
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Coveted Jewel
• 1 Crawlspace
• 1 Dragon Throne of Tarkir
• 1 Dragonfire Blade
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Genji Glove
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Grappling Hook
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Magebane Armor
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Thaumatic Compass
• 1 The Water Crystal
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (37)
• 33 Island
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 High Market
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Reliquary Tower

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It's worth noting that I am not thinking of this deck as something I plan to play to seriously try to win games. I've played enough mill to know how hard it is, and how often you end up with someone on a "shuffle titan" that prevents you from easily milling them out. I think it's got a shot at winning some games, but I'm also aware that some players react very negatively to mill. There's a decent chance I'll be targeted heavily at some tables.

I'm a tempted to intentionally play this list against graveyard decks as a weird form of "hug" EDH. Hug players can delight in watching their tablemates light up with joy when they see their decks get supercharged with extra card draw and mana. Seeing graveyard decks get supercharged with a ton of extra mill might be fun as well.

Final Thoughts

If you wanted to tune today's list up, you'd probably want to run a much more robust interaction package, and you might swap out some equipment for a Fabricate so you can get exactly the artifact you want whether it's Dragon Throne of Tarkir, or Genji Glove. I've been trying to run fewer game changers, but in this list I'm not even running Aetherspouts or Aetherize, much less Cyclonic Rift.

It might seem weird, but given that many players hate mill, I may play this list as something of an archenemy deck. To some extent I hope I'll be able to find myself rooting for my tablemates rather than rooting against them. I also hope at some point I'll be able to play the hug role at a table full of graveyard decks.

As for the friend that gifted me the copy of The Mindskinner in the run-up to Christmas, I hope he'll get a laugh out of having to play against it. I was tempted to throw in Harbinger of the Seas, as he just hates cards like that, but in the spirit of the holidays I decided not to. I was also tempted to run the half dozen Persistent Petitioners I have in a binder, but chose to aim for a voltron strategy instead.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next year!