The list below is basically the list that I played at the last FNM I have changed a few cards to make the deck better then what I actually played. I went 3-2 and should have been 4-1 except a mull to a bad 5 in game 3 of one of my matches. At my shop this list could go 4-1 or 5-0 with a little tweak to add a bit of life gain to beat RxDW.4 x Watery Grave
4 x Godless Shrine
5 x Swamp
4 x Island
2 x Temple of Deceipt
2 x Temple of Silence
3 x Mutavault
3 x Duress
3 x Thoughtseize
3 x Negate
4 x Doomblade
3 x Psychic Strike
4 x Far / Away
2 x Ashiok, nightmare Weaver
4 x Hero's Demise
2 x Liliana of the Dark Realm
3 x Jace, Memory Adept
2 x Merciless Eviction
1 x Sphinx's Revelation
2 x Mirko Vosh, Mind Drinker
Maybe you might not be as competitive player as I am but if you are trying to win your FNM or tournaments then pure Mill is not going to get there. If you are playing just for the sake of playing then expect to lose a lot of games if you play pure mill. That is why I put mill as a win condition inside of a control framework.
Is this a pure mill deck ... no. This is a control deck that wins by decking your opponent and occasionally beating them with a creature that Ashiok steals from them or on very rare (and painfully slow) occasion beating them with Mutavaults. I didn't actually play with Mirko Vosk but that is because I couldn't find any to trade for before the tournament started.
The reason that using cards like Tomb Scour or Traumatize don't work is that all your opponent has to do is resolve a couple of creatures and you can't race them. RDW can beat you by turn 4 or 5. Mono-Blue can beat you by turn 5. The pure mill cards do not interact with the board and they don't mill enough cards to race the aggro decks. Without interacting with the board you don't protect yourself long enough to mill them out of cards for the win.
If you do not want to trade/buy the planeswalkers then instead of playing Tomb Scour or Traumatize I would load up the deck with creatures that mill: Nightveil Spectre, Mirko Vosh, Balustrade Spy, Crosstown Courier, Doorkeeper, etc and play them in a tempo deck that uses bounce effects to return creatures or permanents back to your opponents hand.
Yes these creatures are not great but they mill your opponent and they clutter the board so that you can play some lands and play Mind Grind
for 5 or 6. Mind Grind in my opinion is way better then Traumatize. Traumatize is a progressively worse card to play the more you play. After turn 9 or 10 a Mind Grind for 8 or 9 can end the game on the spot if you are playing against aggro or mid-range. Against control they play a lot of lands so Mind Grind is less optimal.
[Edited 2 times, lastly by sys41o on October 16, 2013]
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