NG Mill Redux Took a Turn for the Worst
"Mill will no longer be an issue" - Burza46 2017. Heh, well that what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger. And so we have Hybrid Mill in the flavors of Alchemy, Soldiers and Reveal. Now, I have always been a supporter of Mill because it was a gimmicky deck with an alternative win condition that appeared every now and then, in the same way that NR hand buff is an one-trick-pony. However, that's all in the past, now that Mill has become far more consistent and, partly because of that, has become competitively viable. The reason is that you no longer need to dedicate your whole deck towards it. With Alchemy you've got Ale for buffs and Viper Witchers for control. Next, with Soldiers you've got a powerful finisher using Sentry. And finally, Reveal just out-tempos everything. I would go as far as to say that the new Mill is inherently even more problematic than Dwarfs or Consume. With more cards being introduced, Mill will probably get even stronger over time as more tools are made available to (indirectly) mill your opponent (e.g. Stregobor).
This is one of the things that needs to change and there are various ways to solve the problem. The easiest way is to prevent card draws when either player is out of cards, effectively killing Mill. I rather not take it to this extreme, but it's a possibility, nonetheless. A variation on that is that the restriction only applies to silver cards, not gold (e.g. Avallac'h). Alternatively, individual cards could to be tweaked; mostly making cards like Albrich doomed/stubborn. Instead of nerfing Mill, another possibility is to make more tools available to counter it. You cannot not thin in every case, so having cards like Nenneke does help. However, it is limited to NR with limited usage (not counting Assire, who is ironically used in Mill). The only "real" counter, at the moment, is using Summoning Circle on Assire, which is too situational.
In the end, it's tricky to solve this archetype without killing it. Having more tools available to counter it is definitely a step in the right direction; maybe combined with a slight nerf to Mill.
"Mill will no longer be an issue" - Burza46 2017. Heh, well that what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger. And so we have Hybrid Mill in the flavors of Alchemy, Soldiers and Reveal. Now, I have always been a supporter of Mill because it was a gimmicky deck with an alternative win condition that appeared every now and then, in the same way that NR hand buff is an one-trick-pony. However, that's all in the past, now that Mill has become far more consistent and, partly because of that, has become competitively viable. The reason is that you no longer need to dedicate your whole deck towards it. With Alchemy you've got Ale for buffs and Viper Witchers for control. Next, with Soldiers you've got a powerful finisher using Sentry. And finally, Reveal just out-tempos everything. I would go as far as to say that the new Mill is inherently even more problematic than Dwarfs or Consume. With more cards being introduced, Mill will probably get even stronger over time as more tools are made available to (indirectly) mill your opponent (e.g. Stregobor).
This is one of the things that needs to change and there are various ways to solve the problem. The easiest way is to prevent card draws when either player is out of cards, effectively killing Mill. I rather not take it to this extreme, but it's a possibility, nonetheless. A variation on that is that the restriction only applies to silver cards, not gold (e.g. Avallac'h). Alternatively, individual cards could to be tweaked; mostly making cards like Albrich doomed/stubborn. Instead of nerfing Mill, another possibility is to make more tools available to counter it. You cannot not thin in every case, so having cards like Nenneke does help. However, it is limited to NR with limited usage (not counting Assire, who is ironically used in Mill). The only "real" counter, at the moment, is using Summoning Circle on Assire, which is too situational.
In the end, it's tricky to solve this archetype without killing it. Having more tools available to counter it is definitely a step in the right direction; maybe combined with a slight nerf to Mill.
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