Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Let me try to convince you. We are 4 Opus’s in and there has only been 1 major tournament won by a Mill deck and that was an Earth/Wind mill deck. But, what if I told you that Mill can be a thing here in Opus 4. There have been a number of new cards that have the Mill effect on them. Most notably the new Thief (4-059C) that has the effect “When Thief leaves the field, your opponent removes the top card of the deck and puts it into the break zone”. Now, what makes this card so great is that it doesn’t have to be broken, it can be returned to your hand and your opponent will be milled 1 card. Tie that card in with the Opus 1 Valefor (1-062L) and you now have Mill on a stick. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Mill still isn’t viable” “There isn’t enough to win games” “Once my opponent realizes that I’m playing Mill they are just going to flood the board and I won’t be able to keep up.”
I have asked my team a number of times: “Guys, how can we make Mill great again?” The usual response to that is, “you cant, don’t try, lol free win for me.” But, you don’t need an entire deck based around Mill. You need to hit a certain amount of cards to have Mill be effective and the general consensus I got was that if you milled out anywhere between 10-15 cards a game, you are going to put in work. Each turn your opponent draws 2 cards (if they search, than better for you. And if you squeak in some damage, even better) and you Mill out 10. After 10 turns, your opponent has now gone through 60% of their deck and have probably lost some key cards.
Now, there would be issues if you were building a straight Mill deck. But Wind has so much synergy right now with other elements you can build Mill a number of different ways. The most popular way would be Wind/Earth with Cid Highwind (1-072R) and Kefka backup (1-104H) to win any combat and Mill your opponent. Another neat trick with Wind/Earth is using Raubahn(2-093H) on Cid Highwind as well as the O4 Hecatonchier(4-093R) as it would be Cid dealing damage to the opponents forward. And you also get Jessie backup (1-204S) to search out a Cid Highwind to help you out.
Wind/Water is another viable strategy as you now have access to to the O4 Leviathan (4-143). Choosing your new O4 Thief and any forward your opponent controls just feels great as you remove a threat and then mill your opponent 1 card. You also gain access to your own draw and filter effects and the uncanny synergy that comes with playing Wind/Water.
So, how do you plan on making Mill great again?
- Phillip Marciano
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