U/G Self-mill Aggro, possibly competitive worthy?

LonelyPeng · Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 6

So, when I saw a bunch of cards dedicated to self-milling, most notably Skaab Ruinator, I just had to make a deck out of it, casual or not. All of the decks I have seen online run stuff like Ghoultree, Kessig Cagebreakers, Mulch, Thought Scour, and various counterspells though. It just doesn't make much sense to me and feels lackluster efficiency wise...while these spells are good, won't they just get milled and be wasted?

Instead, I wanted the deck to focus almost solely on Skaab Ruinator, as he is the only card that makes the self-milling thing not waste any resources when all of my other spells have flashback. The deck can be a little slow sometimes if I hit a patch of land milling, but let's have a crack at it!

Creatures: 27
x4 Deranged Assistant
x3 Mindshrieker
x4 Screeching Skaab
x4 Armored Skaab
x1 Laboratory Maniac
x4 Skaab Ruinator
x3 Splinterfright
x4 Misthollow Griffin

Instant: 5
x4 Dream Twist
x1 Memory's Journey

Sorcery: 5
x3 Tracker's Instincts
x2 Increasing Confusion

Lands: 23
x3 Forest
x12 Island
x4 Evolving Wilds
x4 Hinterland Harbor

Sideboard: 15
x4 Ancient Grudge (just realized I can't flash this back when a Grafdigger's cage is out...which is the reason I put it in here! Doh. Anyone have a solution?)
x2 Gnaw to the Bone
x1 Cackling Counterpart
x4 Artful Dodge
x2 Grasping Phantasm
x2 Increasing Savagery

Basically everything fuels Skaab Ruinator somehow. Dream Twist is essentially draw three cards for U with 1U flashback. Similar goes for Tracker's Instincts. Flashback makes these infinitely more useful than Thought Scour or Mulch. Increasing Confusion can also get huge milling me for 8 for just 5 mana.

All of my creatures mill myself except for the Griffin, and if they get milled it is not a waste because they fuel the Ruinator. Misthollow Griffin combos very nicely with the Ruinator giving me plenty of casts vs. control decks. Splinterfright is good because he can mill me or be a back up killer if no Ruinators show up (unlikely, this deck mills pretty fast). Finally, 1 Memory's Journey + 1 Laboratory Assistant can give me the win even if I mill myself out.

The sideboard might be a little shoddy. I put Ancient Grudge in there thinking I could use it vs. Grafdigger's Cage, but doh, I'm dumb. That doesn't really work. Now I'm stumped. Gnaw to the Bone can give me tons of life if I ever need it, while Artful Dodge, Grasping Phantasms, and Increasing Savagery can all help me if my attackers are having trouble getting through. Cackling Counterpart is just fun and can give me a Ruinator without exiling.

This deck is so fun to play, I just love it, and it feels like it has the potential to be very strong, almost broken sometimes. I'm surprised I've not seen this list before. Or am I missing something? Too slow? Too much hoping I can just simply beat down my opponents? I don't have much competitive experience. Any advice or comments would be very helpful and much appreciated. Thanks! Smile

edit. wat do vs. grafdigger

aqualad33 · Level 1 Judge Joined: 18 Jan 2010 Posts: 252

well, the reason you haven't seen any decks like this is because it's pretty much just worse then frites. While your bringing back your ruinators, they are bringing back grisslebrands, elesh norns, and other big evil things. Also your deck is very vulnerable to delver's preferred method of graveyard hate surgical extraction. Also ruinator gets set back a lot if your opponent has a vapor snag. Also right now being slow is a major liability as most of the decks these days are quite quick and consistent. Keep an eye on this one though after rotation, i've got a feeling this might get better when delver losses all its cantrips and the golgari guild is in the format

LonelyPeng · Joined: 07 Aug 2011 Posts: 6

ah very true. I was making this deck not looking at mirrodin stuff so I wasn't thinking about the meta atm.

but anyway I took out x1 mindshrieker, x1 misthollow griffin, x1 increasing confusion, and moved the lab maniac and memory's journey to the sideboard (for cackling/x1 inc. savagery) as all of these cards were not necessary. added x1 splinterfright (it's sometimes better to put out these instead of the ruinator and they mill wonderfully). now 4 slots open not sure what to put in. thinkin' silent departure or boneyard wurms. going with x3 silent departures in the sideboard instead of grasp/savagery.

zerolimiti · Joined: 10 Aug 2012 Posts: 11

the list is not aggro at all.
Aqualad's point is correct, also i say that no removals and no draw do not let your sinergy idea work propely, and if it does, it may be too late. btw the self mill aggro intuition was nice, i play it since innistrad release, in these months i changed the list many and many times till a semi-competitive last one.
in my first list there was 4 ruinators... and many self millers.

my last one:

4 Splinterfright
4 Boneyard Wurm
4 Garruk's companion
2 Invisible stalker
3 Armored Skaab
2 Llanowar elves
2 Dawntreader elk
1 Screeching skaab

4 Dream twist
4 Wrath of Geists
2 Gnaw to the bone
3 Traker's instincts
1 Thought Scour

SB
1 Invisible stalker
2 Gnaw to the bone
1 Bonehoard
3 Naturalize
2 Silent departure
2 Sword of war and peace
...and obviously 4 negate for nihil, tormod's, surgical extr.

the basic mech is to pump up first 4 creatures of the list with graveyard and wrath. 8 trample 2 unblockable hexproof... easy to have a 10/10 turn 5. best match up vs other aggros, gnaw bone wins. some control is a hard opponent but it is competitive, or semi-competitive cause just a single nihil spellbomb may beat us. very very funny