Self-Mill

Self-mill is a strategy that focuses on placing as much of one’s own library into the graveyard as quickly as possible, most commonly for the purposes of using cards in that graveyard for additional resources, recursion, and/or reanimation. This is contrasted to the mill archetype, which puts cards from opponents' libraries into the graveyard, though both archetypes may use similar cards to achieve these goals.

Self-mill is most commonly found in decks that include the colors black, green, and/or blue.

## **Popular Cards & Commanders**

**Hallmark self-mill cards include:**

* Altar of Dementia
* Hermit Druid
* Grisly Salvage
* Underrealm Lich
* Perpetual Timepiece
* Life from the Loam

**Common self-mill commanders include:**

* Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
* Muldrotha, the Gravetide
* Kess, Dissident Mage
* Karador, Ghost Chieftain
* Tasigur, the Golden Fang
* Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

## **Strategy**

Self-mill decks seek to fill their graveyard as a means of accruing advantages over their enemies, and often make use of a combination of the following components in their decks:

### **Filling the Graveyard**

Self-mill may also use more incremental effects to fill their graveyards over time, such as with cards like Perpetual Timepiece, Mesmeric Orb, Underrealm Lich, Stitcher's Supplier, and Nyx Weaver. Dredge cards are particularly useful to self-mill as a repeatable way to get cards into the graveyard quickly, such as Stinkweed Imp, Dakmor Salvage, and Life from the Loam.
Effects that allow a self-mill player to simultaneously fill their hand as well as their graveyard can also be highly desirable for self-mill decks. This may include cards such as Fact or Fiction or even wheel spells such as Windfall.
### **Related Abilities**

* Delve
* Flashback
* Dredge
* Undergrowth
* Unearth
* Surveil

### **Graveyard as a Resource**

Self-mill decks will commonly fill their graveyard for the express purpose of using those cards as an additional resource. This may include using those cards to provide additional mana, or for the purposes of recursion and/or reanimation. They may also use effects that are only active while a card is in the graveyard, such as Flashback spells or creatures like Wonder and Anger.
A large number of cards in the graveyard allows self-mill players to treat that graveyard as a 'second hand' from which to play cards, giving them significant card advantage over their opponents.
Self-mill decks may also use a large graveyard as a means of increasing the power level of the cards they play, such as Lord of Extinction, Izoni, Thousand-Eyed, and Worm Harvest.
### **Self-Mill as a Win Condition**

Rather than using a large graveyard as a means of victory, self-mill decks may instead use a decreased library as their Win Condition. This is most commonly achieved with cards such as Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle, which allow a player to win the game when they have few or no cards remaining in their library.
## **Common Deck Categories**

* Self-Mill Cards / Mill Cards
* Graveyard Payoffs
* Graveyard Hate
* Pillowfort Effects / Token Makers
* Reanimation Effects / Recursion
* Wheels
* Card Draw
* Ramp
* Removal
* Board Wipe Cards

**10 cards** will probably give you **2 cards in a given game** from that category, and a good chance to **start with 1** in your opening hand. Critical categories for your deck may require a similar or larger number than this, depending on expected levels of Counterspells or Removal.
**5 cards** will probably give you **1 card per game** of that category. Cards you don't want to overload on but still want access to (*board wipes in a tokens deck for instance*) may want a similar figure to this... Going smaller than this number makes receiving a card of this category very unlikely without Tutors or some other Toolbox approach.

## **Strengths and Weaknesses**

### **Strengths**

* Self-mill players that utilize the cards in their graveyard are able to accrue massive card advantage against their opponents, giving them a high number of options and a high degree of flexibility during gameplay.

* In contrast to mill strategies, which must eliminate all cards from multiple opponents' libraries, self-mill decks only need to focus on one library - their own - to achieve their plans, which therefore requires them to expend far fewer resources.

### **Weaknesses**

* Self-mill decks are excpetionally vulnerable to effects that exile cards from graveyards, such as Relic of Progenitus. Such effects can wholly undo an entire game's worth of work from a self-mill deck and significantly hamper their strategy by eliminating an enormous pool of card advantage.

* Self-mill decks that focus on eliminating their entire library run the risk of losing the game when they attempt to draw a card from an empty library if they do not locate a game-winning card such as Laboratory Maniac. This can make the self-mill deck hyper-reliant on a few key cards, which allows opponents to vastly incapacitate their strategy if those linchpin cards are removed.

## *Mill in non-standard colors*

EDH is known for unusual deckbrewing, for instance taking a mechanic and using magic's long history to demonstrate ways of doing it in a highly unusual color combination.

Since Blue and Black both do Mill, and Green adds Self-Mill, the only colors not represented are Red and White. For an article about Self Mill in these colors see {https://edhrec.com/articles/mind-bend-boros-self-mill/ Mind Bend - Boros Self Mill}, or alternatively see {https://edhwiki.com/wiki/Mill#Mill\_in\_non-standard\_colors Mill in non-standard colors} for advice on replicating Mill with Red's Wheel effects.

### **Pillowfort**

If you are using self-mill to assemble an alternate win condition you may not be contributing creatures to the board to hold back your opponents. If this is a weakness it can often be remedied with some Pillowfort effects to negate your opponent's advantage
**Example Cards:**Dawnstrider, Propaganda, No Mercy
### **Mill**

Since you want to fill your graveyard, why not consider taking an extra step with symmetrical mill effects and also potentially empty your opponent's libraries?
### **Reanimator**

Since self mill effects put cards in your graveyard, why not use that as an opening to bring some creature cards directly onto the battlefield, far earlier than you normally should be able to? This also gives you another angle to be able to protect certain key components (at least those that are creatures)
### **Wheels**

Since you are looking to put cards in your graveyard from your library, why not consider having them come via your hand first? wheel spells allow you to exchange cards you don't need right now for cards you may want later while also filling your graveyard
**References:**

* EDHREC Self Mill theme
* Self Mill tagged articles on EDHRec
* {https://edhrec.com/articles/mind-bend-boros-self-mill/ Mind Bend - Boros Self Mill}