Magic the Gathering - Sphinx's Tutelage: Not Quite Grindstone - Esper Mill in Modern

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

For fans of mill decks in Magic the Gathering, it's hard to not like Sphinx's Tutelage. While it isn't quite as nuts as Grindstone, the card that made mill decks a strong strategy in Legacy in the first place,  it does have its similarities.

The major difference between Sphinx's Tutelage and Grindstone is that with the stone, it didn't care if they were non-land cards, only if they shared a color. What makes Grindstone so powerful in Legacy is its combination with a card from Shadowmoor called Painter's Servant.

Painter's Servant is a two-drop artifact creature that makes you choose a color when it comes into play. Any cards that aren't in play, spells, and permanents all become that color in addition to their other colors. When it comes to Grindstone, barring a shuffle effect from a card like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, it would put all of your opponent's library into the graveyard.

Sphinx's Tutelage. has a bit of a drawback in that it will stop at lands. But it's still pretty powerful, and it activates each time that you draw a card. Two cards doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, especially if you're playing a dedicated mill deck that plays cards like Visions of Beyond (which will often draw you 3 cards and mill your opponent a minimum  of 6 cards). The ability for 5U to draw a card and discard a card is probably rarely going to be used. But it is there if you need it

As Painter's Servant is legal in Modern, it may be an interesting idea to build a Servant/Tutelage combo around what is already an effective Esper Mill shell in Modern. Esper Mill has won a number of Modern Daily events on Magic Online. This Esper Mill list went 4-0. It's just a matter of figuring out what comes out for the Servants and Tutelages.

The main issue with this combo, while it's pretty sweet and can mill a whole bunch of cards, you can end up with dead copies of Painter's Servant in your hand. The good news is having multiple copies of Sphinx's Tutelage in play is absolutely fine, as it just offers you additional triggers. Therefore, the Servant should only be in there as a back-up plan. Unlike in Legacy, the combo is not necessarily game-winning, but it doesn't need to be.

What would probably happen is that you would cut the 3 Crypt Incursion and 2 Lingering Souls from the winning Esper Mill list mentioned earlier and replace them with 3 Sphinx's Tutelage and 2 Painter's Servant.

The list would look something like this:

CREATURES (10)

4 Hedron Crab
4 Jace's Phantasm
2 Painter's Servant

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (28)

4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Archive Trap
4 Path to Exile
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Mesmeric Orb
3 Mind Funeral
3 Sphinx's Tutelage
2 Trapmaker's Snare

LANDS (22)

4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Shelldock Isle
2 Marsh Flats
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain

SIDEBOARD (15)

4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Leave No Trace
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Extirpate

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While Esper Mill isn't a particularly cheap deck, it's become a consistent performer in the Modern format. Glimpse the Unthinkable is the most expensive card in the deck, and can be replaced with Mind Sculpt. The latter card mills 7 whereas the former mills 10, but it will save you quite a few bucks.

The rest of the cards, outside of the mana fixing, pretty much need to be there for the deck to work. It's not a given that the Servant/Tutelage combo actually makes the deck better. Crypt Incursion was the most removable card in the deck, and that card can gain you life that you could need later

Mesmeric Orb is probably the other card that could be dropped in favor of the combo, as it mills you as well as your opponent, but it quickens the clock and should usually hurt your opponent far more than it ever hurts you. Lingering Souls is a tough drop, as it can be cast from the graveyard. But if Sphinx's Tutelage and Painter's Servant works as well together as they seem to on paper, you won't need the extra creatures, as the Servant gives you a 1/3 blocker as it is.

Does a Modern Esper Mill deck armed with this combo seem like something you would like to try?

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