Standard: Golgari Mill - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Among the various decks that have gained new tools with Final Fantasy, Golgari Mill is one that remains a relevant option, especially for budget players who don't want to invest too much in a deck outside the manabase.

Despite facing challenges in the current Metagame, where many players have answers against graveyards due to the popularity of Jeskai Oculus and Omniscience lists, Golgari Mill is still a valid option for ranked matches, and in this article, we present the most recent version of the archetype, with a Sideboard guide for the main Standard matchups.

This is the list I've been using in Magic Arena ranked matches over the past weeks. Golgari Self-Mill has been one of my favorite Standard archetypes ever since Zevin Faust made it to the Top 8 of Pro Tour Aetherdrift with it: the deck is cheap in terms of wildcards, cheap to build on paper, and its game plan is both intuitive and fun — few things feel as empowering in Magic as casting a giant creature for the lowest possible mana cost, and Golgari Mill offers plenty of that.

Final Fantasy brought to the deck one of the most epic creatures in the series: Diamond Weapon, but we also have Exdeath, Void Warlock, which in addition to the very welcome life gain in ETB, has a backside that cares about permanents in the graveyard and Trample, allowing for some hit-kills and/or ending the game in two turns.

There is, however, a dilemma with Golgari Mill in the coming weeks: Up the Beanstalk may be banned on June 30, and it relies heavily on this card to function. A viable replacement for the list that still solves one of Diamond Weapon's problems — lack of evasion — is Garruk's Uprising, but costing instead of could make a major difference.

On the other hand, Overwhelming Remorse will rotate out of Standard soon, and if there are no viable replacements, the deck may become even more focused on high-power creatures, which could improve Uprising's viability in the future.

Maindeck

The Mill.

Gnawing Vermin and Rubblebelt Maverick put two cards in the graveyard for one mana and have effects after they are destroyed that matter in specific games. Since we want the most creatures in the list, we avoid cards like Seed of Hope.

Town Greeter, another new card from Final Fantasy, offers an efficient mill and guarantees the next turn's land drop if a land is among the cards that reached the graveyard. Remember that its trigger is a “may”, so we can choose not to return any cards and guarantee a more explosive third turn, or an optimized sequencing in longer games.

Overlord of the Balemurk is the best card in the deck. It puts four cards in the graveyard for a low cost, triggers Up the Beanstalk, and we can use it in the late game as a threat and resource tool to bring back our creatures from the graveyard.

The payoffs.

Hollow Marauder is the cheapest of the threats, has evasion and its ETB can guarantee more draws in a turn, especially when combined with Up the Beanstalk.

Huskburster Swarm offers a large body that requires more than one blocker to be stopped, plus Deathtouch guarantees that any blockers are destroyed in combat.

Diamond Weapon is the main new addition to Final Fantasy. While having the largest body of any creature, it also counts the number of permanents in the graveyard, which includes the lands and copies of Up the Beanstalk that we end up playing there. Its Reach ensures that it can block even Slickshot Show-Off or Shiko, Paragon of the Way, and its ability prevents combat damage from destroying it.

Exdeath, Void Warlock is a personal test in the slot that would normally belong to Souls of the Lost. In addition to the ETB of gaining life, it also counts the number of permanents on the graveyard, and when transformed, it has Trample to run over blockers.

Overwhelming Remorse is a removal that usually costs two mana, or even one, when we use it. It also triggers Up the Beanstalk and the fact that it exiles creatures matters in a format with Heartfire Hero and the recent Summon: Knights of Round's hype.

Harvester of Misery can be discarded early in the game to hold a small creature, while offering, in the late game, a sweeper that, normally, deals with the tokens of Cori-Steel Cutter and Stormchaser’s Talent.

Qarsi Revenant is a powerful threat against Aggro, and we can take advantage of its counters with other creatures to give them various abilities. If you don’t want to use Exdeath, this slot can be replaced by more copies of it, or Harvester of Misery in the current Metagame.

Up the Beanstalk is the main tool that makes this deck viable. Guaranteeing an extra draw every time we cast one of our larger creatures usually leads to snowballs, where we keep the threats running even in the face of removal.

Underground Mortuary puts cards into your graveyard from turn one, while interacting with Wastewood Verge to generate both colors of mana more efficiently. Blooming Marsh and Llanowar Wastes complement lands and help with consistency.

Sideboard

Tranquil Frillback is a multimodal creature and works against many game in the current Metagame: it destroys Cori-Steel Cutter and Stormchaser’s Talent, gains life against Aggro, is a good blocker, and also exiles graveyards against Abuelo’s Awakening and Yuna, Hope of Spira.

Scavenging Ooze complements graveyard hate by exiling cards for cheap. Remember that we can exile our creatures to gain life and put more counters on them, which is a viable plan against certain archetypes.

Haywire Mite deals with Cori-Steel Cutter and Astrologian’s Planisphere for the lowest possible cost, while also providing a small life gain in the process. We can also use it at instant speed to exile the second Omniscience that the Abuelo’s Awakening player usually uses as a safety after returning the first one from the graveyard as a creature. Just remember that you need a way to destroy the reanimated card as well.

The extra copies of Qarsi Revenant and Harvester of Misery in the Sideboard are mainly run in games against Aggro, whether they are the red decks that dominate the current Metagame, or the Convoke variants which show up occasionally.

Deep-Cavern Bat works mainly in games against Combo and Control, where we need information about the opponent's resources and the possibility of removing an important piece from their hand for a few turns.

Izzet Prowess

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Azorius Omniscience

IN

OUT

Exper Bounce

IN

OUT

Jeskai Control

IN

OUT

Yuna Enchantments

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!