good mana source + traumatize + keening stone = win
flipsyalec
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
thankyou wizards for giving me mill victories on pre-release night.
TheMoustacheCame
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(14 votes)
hope the restrict/ban this kinda things
DarkerRarechild
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(10 votes)
Why is Snoop-Dogg on this card? Did he win an invitational? lol
storophanthus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.6/5.0)(8 votes)
i played against jace in the xbox360 games, he gave me this.. now i'm still wondering, what are those cards faced up yesterday.. no one knows.. quite a punch..
Falos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Won't help in sanctioned/MTGO but what works among friends/casual is simply cutting "half" by eye and letting the victim decide which to keep. Unless you ENJOY counting libraries one by one‚ idk.
donjohnson
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(3 votes)
With cards like Elixir of Immortality out now, whats the point ?
VoidedNote
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I played this on a landfall deck. I got all but 3 of his lands on turn 8. He was pretty angry.
Cheza
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(11 votes)
To repeat myself, I believe fast milling should be red. Blue should concentrate on specific card Extraction and protection against mill effects by using buyback, counterspells and effects that can be played if put into graveyard from your library. Red could also use the effect in a multiplayer mode, stating "each player" instead. This could support flashback, dredge, unearth, threshold as well.
Hey Cheza, I think your just tired of losing to Mill decks. I don't think Red would be a good color for fast milling because Red is all about fast damage. Blue and Black are great for milling because both those colors deal with removing memories and such (I'm talking about the flavour) I do dislike decks that run 4 of every mill card made though. I feel milling should be a mixture of presision and subtlety, with decks that use cards like Wrexial to win, not just relying on decking the oppoment.
fateprince
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
lol... yeah cheza i think your wrong.. red is not for milling now a days... and if you are talking about specific milling then that would be black and blue would be num... hmm... oh any thing that mills could be blue.. either quality(specified) or quantity(numbers) ;))
Telltalereaper
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cheza...red mill? okaaay...DonJonson...you have a 50% starting (decreases as the game goes on) chance of getting rid of thier elixer's. There's always a reason for traumatize.
Critiquer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Holy lord of mill.......
Stray_Dog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I dont like to rely on mill too much as a win condition (doesn't feel right to me), but being able to sabotage my opponent's library like this in addition to countering spells and knocking cards out of their hands with black sorceries makes me feel good. At the end of the day I still want plenty of creatures in my deck, but with mill I can remove a significant number of threats -possibly even the biggest ones- and I can also use things like Rise From The Grave to snatch up a useful creature from my opponent. Haunting Echoes is also in the deck of course, so milling for the win is indeed possible and very fun on occasion.
Sironos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
4 of this, keening stone and haunting echoes, nemesis of reason and maybe some tutors to find them... milling is such a different way to play, I love it.
Another tactic, use this with living death or liliana Vess... oh yeah!
keeds4
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
An awesome decking card. Ten years ago, this card was probably overpowered and overused. Now, with a lot of graveyard recursion options, this card is reasonable. Plus, Tarmogoyf/Knight of the Reliquary decks could use this card as a self-decking option to blow it up.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I feel like this card is helpful but that it's far better (and easier) to mill with other strategies. I keep one of these and some tutors around for huge decks or that odd point where I have too much mana, but frankly I've pulled off MASSIVE Brain Freezes and such by T4 with nothing but commons/uncommons. No need for this other than a safety or convenience.
In standard mill decks (maybe with creatures) I recommend 2 and only 2. Getting 2-3 of these in your hand is GG, but not for you...
This card has always been kind of awkward, since if you want to play this before all the Tome Scours because that's when the "one half" comes to the most cards. But if it weren't for this awkwardness (weakening straight mill decks), this probably would have frustrated many players.
Nayban
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Traumatize+Haunting Echoes= A deck with nothing left but a few creatures and lands in most cases. I love this card, and use it in this combo to beat both my opponents in a 3 person game earlier.
AvatarOfHOE
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's one of those cards that looks amazing when you first read it, but it takes a while to realize that it's just a little bit above average. For starters, running a playset of them even in a mill deck would be foolish, as you definitely don't want more than one of such an expensive spell in your opening hand. All in all, it can be a big hit to your opponent, but it's far from a game-winner. 4/5
For 5 mana, this isnt a bad sorcery at all. I mean, it's half of their freakin library gone, and if you happen to play this with a UB deck and have Leyline of the Void out, then thats half of their cards exiled.
Or if you dont want that, then just play Bonehoard and there you go.
cathode01
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Probably already mentioned but this plus a "ready" Bloodchief Ascension is pretty much a win.
Tetsu_tora
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Run it in a black blue deck with other trash like lobotomies, cranial extractions, etc. Heck with a dark rit you could be casting this 3rd turn and animating dead something cool out of their graveyard... oh might as well throw in grindclock too. Man I hate people like this.
001011010
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(4 votes)
people thought my deck was gay with 4 jace erasures in it with those my mill deck would be insane!!!!
thisisnotmyname
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(6 votes)
By the time you can play this, the opponent has 48 cards in their library, so this mills 24. In a dedicated mill deck, by the time you play this, the opponent has 26 cards, so this mills 13. This is one of the worst mill cards in the game, except in limited and that 500 card format. I have a whetwheel deck that laughs at this card.
I swear, whenever I use this card, it stalls the game for 5 minutes
jfre81
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@thisisnotmyname: You have a good point, but if you don't look at this in the context of a mill-based deck then it is very good.
Definitely goes with U/B so, if not going the mill route, you do this not to deck your opponent but stealing creatures with stuff like Rise From The Grave or running lhurgoyfs (how about Mortivore or Cognivore?) I don't have this card but I run Mortivore in my mill deck which uses a strategy along these lines. This would be a great add to it, and I'd probably actually end up taking the Grindstones and stuff out of it and maybe throwing more reanimate into there.
Blue also got a bunch of things that bring sorceries back so you could hit them with this again without putting two of these in the deck. Going on a limb here, you could also combo with Distant Memories and tutor for this with it just to scare everyone into letting you draw three cards for 4 CMC instead of getting their library dissected. Then you draw three cards and beat them with something else. This, my friends, is what blue is all about.
Jaceevoke
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Wow I just thought of an amazing late game combo for this in a blue-green deck. You play this on yourself, and next turn you play preators council and you have a huge ass hand. Also because you are running green, you will be able to get alot more lands to play stuff with cards like rampant growth.
DarthParallax
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
anybody that says this card is bad is a r-tard. before Glimpse the Unthinkable, this was pretty much the only to aggro mill. since Glimpse is being reprinted someday when hell freezes over thanks to the printing of all three Jaces, then unless you want to really make people mad with COMBO milling, this pretty much has to be in your deck. the only thing you can substitute for it is Archive Trap.
Redeemer707
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Great card! Especially for milling. It usually just takes 2 archive trap's to finish them off.
It takes a while to process the actual effect, but it's not as bad as Haunting Echoes. Many times have I seen people take a break to get a beer or go to the bathroom once either one of those cards were played. That seems to be too much work at certain points :-/
Blackman33
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
undead alcemist.. gg
xRegent
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Kind of naughty when paired with Haunting Echoes from the 2011 set.
Areps
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
ECHO MAGE
OmegaSerris
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Easy method for counting: Sort your deck into two piles, one card at a time while alternating piles. Keep track of the pile you started on, this one will be your new deck. If you have an even deck size, it doesn't matter. If you have an odd deck size, the second pile has the "rounded down" size. If you really want to be fair, you can shuffle before and/or after.
I'm not sure if it is tournament legal, or how you would want to deal with having a 'stacked' deck (like with Ponder and friends) But it works well in casual. You can sort an EDH deck in like 30 seconds like this. If your opponent that played this on you is anal retentive and has to know the count, let them count the second pile before you put it in the graveyard. :-P
iUseBreakOpen
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I've faced this card many times in my friend's U/B mill deck. It's a decent card for dedicated mill decks, but it doesn't usually mill for all that much after the target has already been hit by Hedron Crab, Tome Scour(s), Glimpse the Unthinkable(s), Mind Funeral(s), and/or Archive Trap(s). It also has to compete with Haunting Echoes, Nemesis of Reason, and hardcast Archive Trap for 5 mana drops. The best use I've ever seen for this card is using it on yourself in a graveyard based deck. However, there are easier ways to mill yourself, such as Cephalid Illusionist + Nomads En-Kor, which was common in legacy back in 2007.
igniteice
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Milling is fun, but some cards and combos make it too easy to mill -- Traumatize isn't as bad as Painter's Servant + Grindstone, but it will destroy your library no matter what size it is, and for that reason, it's a very silly card that shouldn't scale the way it does.
Salient
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Play this card against a new player, and then hand them a nail file.
"You have to round the corners of half your library down, and then put those cards in the graveyard."
Opponent: "...but won't that ruin the value of my cards?"
"Of course! Why do you think they call it Traumatize?"
Opponent: ._.
JimmyNoobPlayer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cheza, you need to learn a legal term: precedent. You seem to think it's worthless, but it's a very important factor in card design.
Enelysios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I agree with iUseBreakOpen here, by the time I have five mana I am looking for a mill card to actually kill my opponent. For five mana this can never (Excepting some out there situations) kill your opponent. If I made it to turn five and my opponent has more than the 28 cards in deck required for this to beat out Archive trap then I am really having a bad day anyway. For most of the time you can cast this, it is a dead draw.
Oh, it also loses points for being among the least fun spells in the game. Mill like Mind Funeral is suspenseful and fun as well as good. Archive trap can cause some big "woah"-ments when it triggers, but Traumatize will always be a counting game.
That said, it is decent self-mill and useful in Commander Mill (Say, Ambassador Laquatus?) so I'll give her 2/5
lukemol
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@OmegaSerris:
That wouldn't fly in a tournament at all. Or in a lot of play groups.
It doesn't say "half of their library", it says "the TOP half of their library". That's very important due to topdeck manipulation effects, and spells/effects that put cards on the bottom of libraries. If you played something like Long-Term Plans, Enigma Sphinx or Worldly Tutor, I want to be damn sure that card is in your graveyard. Your method gives a 50/50 chance of it still being in the library. Same applies to if I played Condemn on your Anger or Brawn. I want to make sure that card is on the bottom of your library, not in your graveyard.
i like to sideboard this for multi player use your target mill spells on one player then traumatize the other
zenitramleirdag
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i wonder why i havent seen this in EDH?
T20Mad
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I have a question on this card, any help appreciated:
Say I have a Consuming Aberration out and play this. The Aberration's ability takes effect before the spell resolves; does the Traumatize's ability then check the number of cards in the opponent's library? Or is it the other way round? (This question could apply to other cards..Mind Sculpt etc?)
senken12
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@T20Mad
If you play this card with Consuming Aberration out, then they will mill until they find a land, and then this effect happens, which is when the deck will be counted and halved.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Very powerful card, surprisingly not good in a mill deck.
Comments (61)
Another tactic, use this with living death or liliana Vess... oh yeah!
In standard mill decks (maybe with creatures) I recommend 2 and only 2. Getting 2-3 of these in your hand is GG, but not for you...
Two cards, 3/4 of their library gone.
For 5 mana, this isnt a bad sorcery at all. I mean, it's half of their freakin library gone, and if you happen to play this with a UB deck and have Leyline of the Void out, then thats half of their cards exiled.
Or if you dont want that, then just play Bonehoard and there you go.
Definitely goes with U/B so, if not going the mill route, you do this not to deck your opponent but stealing creatures with stuff like Rise From The Grave or running lhurgoyfs (how about Mortivore or Cognivore?) I don't have this card but I run Mortivore in my mill deck which uses a strategy along these lines. This would be a great add to it, and I'd probably actually end up taking the Grindstones and stuff out of it and maybe throwing more reanimate into there.
Blue also got a bunch of things that bring sorceries back so you could hit them with this again without putting two of these in the deck. Going on a limb here, you could also combo with Distant Memories and tutor for this with it just to scare everyone into letting you draw three cards for 4 CMC instead of getting their library dissected. Then you draw three cards and beat them with something else. This, my friends, is what blue is all about.
It takes a while to process the actual effect, but it's not as bad as Haunting Echoes. Many times have I seen people take a break to get a beer or go to the bathroom once either one of those cards were played. That seems to be too much work at certain points :-/
Sort your deck into two piles, one card at a time while alternating piles. Keep track of the pile you started on, this one will be your new deck. If you have an even deck size, it doesn't matter. If you have an odd deck size, the second pile has the "rounded down" size. If you really want to be fair, you can shuffle before and/or after.
I'm not sure if it is tournament legal, or how you would want to deal with having a 'stacked' deck (like with Ponder and friends) But it works well in casual. You can sort an EDH deck in like 30 seconds like this. If your opponent that played this on you is anal retentive and has to know the count, let them count the second pile before you put it in the graveyard. :-P
"You have to round the corners of half your library down, and then put those cards in the graveyard."
Opponent: "...but won't that ruin the value of my cards?"
"Of course! Why do you think they call it Traumatize?"
Opponent: ._.
Oh, it also loses points for being among the least fun spells in the game. Mill like Mind Funeral is suspenseful and fun as well as good. Archive trap can cause some big "woah"-ments when it triggers, but Traumatize will always be a counting game.
That said, it is decent self-mill and useful in Commander Mill (Say, Ambassador Laquatus?) so I'll give her 2/5
That wouldn't fly in a tournament at all. Or in a lot of play groups.
It doesn't say "half of their library", it says "the TOP half of their library". That's very important due to topdeck manipulation effects, and spells/effects that put cards on the bottom of libraries. If you played something like Long-Term Plans, Enigma Sphinx or Worldly Tutor, I want to be damn sure that card is in your graveyard. Your method gives a 50/50 chance of it still being in the library. Same applies to if I played Condemn on your Anger or Brawn. I want to make sure that card is on the bottom of your library, not in your graveyard.
Say I have a Consuming Aberration out and play this. The Aberration's ability takes effect before the spell resolves; does the Traumatize's ability then check the number of cards in the opponent's library? Or is it the other way round? (This question could apply to other cards..Mind Sculpt etc?)
If you play this card with Consuming Aberration out, then they will mill until they find a land, and then this effect happens, which is when the deck will be counted and halved.