In Yu-Gi-Oh! terms, to mill is to have cards sent from your Deck to the graveyard. You lose if you must draw a card and you have no cards left to draw, so mill decks work on this principle by making opposing players draw cards repeatedly from their deck, hence decking them out. Mill is considered a rogue strategy in that it is neither reliable nor competitive enough to compete with the top level decks, though unprepared Duelists will find themselves out of cards to draw, and as such, Mill is a strategy that must be understood. It is also cheap, and relatively easy to play, so for the beginner interested in Mill, the following deck is great.
Empty Jar
Monsters - 11
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
3 A/D Changer
3 Deep Diver
3 Swift Scarecrow
Spells - 29
3 Book of Eclipse
3 Book of Taiyou
1 Book of Moon
3 Pot of Duality
3 One Day of Peace
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Magical Mallet
1 Card Destruction
3 A Feather of the Phoenix
2 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Heavy Storm
3 Gold Sarcophagus
The lack of Traps in this lineup emphasises the amount of speed in this deck. It is entirely possible to perform an FTK with this deck, that is, winning on the first turn of the Duel. The deck abuses Morphing Jar's Flip Effect, making opponents continuously draw five cards from their deck while sending all cards from their hand to the graveyard in order to stop potential plays. Morphing Jar replenishes the player's hand, due to all the minuses caused from playing deck thinners.
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| The key card of Empty Jar |
A/D Changer, Book of Eclipse, Book of Taiyou and Book of Moon all serve to repeatedly flip Morphing Jar over and over, forcing its effect. The Spell lineup is dedicated to draw power, as well as searching key cards like Heavy Storm to prepare for a mill.
Decks with alternate win conditions often involve getting the correct pieces of a combo to the hand. For this reason, cards like Magical Stone Excavation and Gold Sarcophagus, usually slow cards, are used.
Swift Scarecrow is used because it activates from the hand (this card is known as a hand trap) and protects your Life Points while you stall for cards. It's pretty easy to understand - the main problem with this deck is the risk of decking yourself out before your opponent, but intelligent use of A Feather of the Phoenix and Card Destruction should save you.
Conclusion
Mill is an underlooked, strong strategy and a fun, budget way to win duels. It is a bit all-or-nothing though, so it isn't the most reliable way to win. However, don't let this stop you from trying this alternate win strategy. The most important thing to take from this post is that there are alternate ways of winning other than reducing your opponent's life points to 0.
Do you mind explaining how this deck works?
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