Mill


Info

Milling is a term used in Hearthstone The Hearthstone icon Hearthstone (formerly known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 1] 2]) is a free-to-play digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment. It was first announced in a presentation by Rob Pardo at the hearthstone to refer to a range of phenomena related to card draw For the game conclusion where neither player wins, see Draw Card draw is a term used to refer the process or mechanic of drawing additional cards from the top of the deck, and adding them hearthstone . The term may refer to the rapid drawing of cards from a player`s deck A deck is a collection of exactly 30 cards. All cards drawn by the player during a game come from their deck. Each deck is tied to a specific class. Decks can be created and hearthstone ; the burning of cards, usually due to drawing a card while already having a full hand A typical hand. The green highlighted cards can be played, while the yellow highlighted card has a special effect enabled by the current state of the game. The hand is where each player keeps the hearthstone ; or the premature exhaustion of a player`s deck and/or acceleration of fatigue The message displayed upon attempting to draw a card after reaching Fatigue. Fatigue is a game mechanic that deals increasing damage to players who have already drawn all of the cards in their deck, whenever hearthstone damage.

The most common use of milling is in forcing the opponent to draw cards, with the goal the premature exhaustion of their deck, and consequent death to fatigue damage. A secondary goal is overdraw For the game conclusion where neither player wins, see Draw Card draw is a term used to refer the process or mechanic of drawing additional cards from the top of the deck, and adding them hearthstone , where the drawn cards are destroyed due to the player`s hand already being full, preventing the player from making use of those cards in that match. Once the player`s deck has been exhausted, continued milling can be used to further accelerate fatigue damage.

Mill decks are decks which use milling to defeat the opponent. Control-type mill decks focus on forcing the opponent to draw a large number of cards, in order to accelerate the exhaustion of their deck, using premature fatigue damage as a direct means of defeating the opponent. These decks use healing and removal Removal is the term used to refer to the elimination of minions from the battlefield. Hard removal describes cards and effects that can neutralize minions regardless of most defenses, such as high Health or Divine hearthstone to slow the opponent`s attack, and prolong the match for long enough for fatigue to wear the opponent down.

Strategy

The broader definition of milling includes any rapid drawing of cards from the deck. Be that as it may, the term most commonly refers to the use of milling to force the opponent to prematurely exhaust their deck, for the purpose of causing them to suffer fatigue The message displayed upon attempting to draw a card after reaching Fatigue. Fatigue is a game mechanic that deals increasing damage to players who have already drawn all of the cards in their deck, whenever hearthstone damage.

Decks which centre around building and maintaining large hands, such as Handlock, are especially vulnerable to milling, since in many cases the player will already have a full hand before milling commences. This often allows overdraw to be achieved immediately. Milling is also especially effective against decks which themselves contain a substantial amount of card draw, or warlocks who have already used Life Tap Life Tap Type: Hero Power Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Hero PowerDraw a card and take 2 damage.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Life Tap is the warlock s basic Hero hearthstone several times that match; in both cases the player will already have progressed significantly toward fatigue, allowing milling to exhaust the deck several turns Hearthstone takes place in turns. Each turn gives a player the opportunity to act. At the end of each turn, play is passed back to the other player. A round describes one turn for each earlier than usual. Decks featuring multiple card draw effects are especially vulnerable, as this may cause playing cards such as Acolyte of Pain Acolyte of Pain Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 1 Health: 3 Abilities: Draw cards Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Whenever this minion takes damage, draw a card.He trained when he was younger hearthstone or Power Word: Shield highly undesirable, further filling the hand and restricting play options.

Side benefits of milling include making use of cards like Clockwork Giant Clockwork Giant Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Epic Cost: 12 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Hand-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each card in your hearthstone and Goblin Sapper Goblin Sapper Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 4 Tags: Hand-related, Ongoing effect Has +4 Attack while your opponent has 6 or more cards in hand.He’s not such hearthstone . These synergies are identical to those found when playing against decks which intentionally build a large hand.

Milling aims to cause cards to be burnt through overdraw, but can also allow cards to be burnt through using Return A return to hand or return effect is a card effect whereby a minion, or more rarely a weapon or spell, is returned to the controlling player s hand. The target returns to its original card hearthstone effects on an enemy minion while they have a full hand; the minion will instead be destroyed. Mill rogue decks use cards like Coldlight Oracle Coldlight Oracle Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Murloc Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 2 Abilities: Battlecry, Draw cards Battlecry: Each player draws 2 cards.They can see the future. In that future both players hearthstone and King Mukla King Mukla Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Beast Rarity: Legendary Cost: 3 Attack: 5 Health: 5 Abilities: Battlecry, Generate Tags: Spell-generating Battlecry: Give your opponent 2 Bananas.King Mukla wanders Jaguero Isle, searching for love.See this hearthstone to fill the opponent`s hand, followed by cards like Sap Sap Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Rogue Cost: 2 Abilities: Return to hand Return an enemy minion to your opponent s hand.Rogues love sappy movies.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Sap is a rogue spell hearthstone to destroy valuable targets.

It is important to understand that as a rule overdraw does not in itself provide advantage, until the opponent reaches fatigue. The reason for this is that since each deck is randomly ordered, if the game ends before the deck is exhausted, there is no practical difference between burning the top 5 cards of a player`s deck, and simply shuffling them to the bottom; in either case those cards will not be drawn. Additionally, since the order is random, there is no way of knowing which cards are about to be drawn, thus providing no advantage or disadvantage from rearranging the order of the deck. For a fuller explanation, see Fel Reaver Fel Reaver Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Epic Cost: 5 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Remove from deck Tags: Triggered effect Whenever your opponent plays a card, remove the top 3 hearthstone .

Be that as it may, overdraw does have one strategic benefit: it allows the opponent to see which card has been discarded. In constructed Constructed is a term used to refer to decks which have been created using cards from the player s collection. Constructed play is play in either Play mode, Practice mode or Friendly Challenge. Some Tavern Brawls play, discarding a legendary Rarity is a rough measure of the quality and scarcity of a card. Cards of higher rarity are typically more powerful and more useful, but are harder to find and more expensive to craft. There hearthstone or the second copy of a non-legendary card will confirm that the player does not have any copies of that card remaining in their deck (or hand). This can be very valuable strategically, especially if the player knows that card to be critical to the function of the opponent`s deck (eg Alexstrasza Alexstrasza Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Dragon Rarity: Legendary Cost: 9 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Battlecry Battlecry: Set a hero s remaining Health to 15.Alexstrasza the Life-Binder brings life and hope to everyone. Except Deathwing. hearthstone in a Freeze Mage deck). In addition, overdraw can have the important effect of demoralising the opponent, especially if they do not understand the above points regarding the difference between overdraw and deck exhaustion. The counterpoint to this is that the player can plan around the loss of their cards, since they can be certain which options are no longer available to them.

Note that milling can be a welcome effect if the milled player gets to choose which cards to remove (see Tracking Tracking Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Hunter Cost: 1 Abilities: Draw cards Look at the top three cards of your deck. Draw one and discard the others.For the person who just cannot decide what card hearthstone ).

Related card phenomena include (in order of strictness):

Anti-mill concepts include:

Videos

Mill decks

Mill decks can be either aggression or control oriented. Control mill decks use milling as a primary win condition, seeking to cause the opponent to die to fatigue damage, while using healing removal to stay alive; while aggressive mill decks tend to featureSpecial attraction milling as an occasional deck mechanic, complementing a more conventional aggressive deck.

Mill decks generally struggle against aggressive decks while having an advantage against control and draw heavy decks.

Aggressive mill

Aggressive mill decks are primarily aggressive decks of other types, with some elements of milling included. These decks seek to kill the opponent by means of minions, spells or weapons, while using mill effects to confound, disrupt otherwise weaken the opponent. These kinds of decks usually featuresSpecial attraction cheap symmetrical card draw, cost effective cards and heavy face damage, and do not expect to reach fatigue, making overdraw only of strategic significance. Rogue is the most common class for an aggressive mill deck.

Milling in aggressive mill decks features in a minor capacity, filling the hand through cards like King Mukla King Mukla Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Beast Rarity: Legendary Cost: 3 Attack: 5 Health: 5 Abilities: Battlecry, Generate Tags: Spell-generating Battlecry: Give your opponent 2 Bananas.King Mukla wanders Jaguero Isle, searching for love.See this hearthstone or Lorewalker Cho Lorewalker Cho Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 2 Attack: 0 Health: 4 Abilities: Copy, Generate Tags: Spell-generating, Spell-related, Triggered effect Whenever a player casts a spell, put a copy into the other player s hearthstone , and then destroying minions using Return A return to hand or return effect is a card effect whereby a minion, or more rarely a weapon or spell, is returned to the controlling player s hand. The target returns to its original card hearthstone effects like Sap Sap Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Rogue Cost: 2 Abilities: Return to hand Return an enemy minion to your opponent s hand.Rogues love sappy movies.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Sap is a rogue spell hearthstone . Coldlight Oracle Coldlight Oracle Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Murloc Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 2 Abilities: Battlecry, Draw cards Battlecry: Each player draws 2 cards.They can see the future. In that future both players hearthstone is also common, ideally causing the opponent to burn cards. Fatigue is at best a backup win condition, since these decks seek to defeat the opponent relatively quickly.

Control mill

Control oriented mill decks also seek to fill the opposing hand, but usually at timed intervals and with less useful cards (Spare Parts, Bananas). This is then abused through cards benefiting from the opponents hand size and selective card burning. Control mill decks are almost always druid decks.

Control-type mill decks seek to outlast the opponent, by causing the opponent to reach fatigue several turns early, and by using Taunts, removal Removal is the term used to refer to the elimination of minions from the battlefield. Hard removal describes cards and effects that can neutralize minions regardless of most defenses, such as high Health or Divine hearthstone and healing Healing is the restoration of Health to a damaged character. Healing a character will increase their Health by the stated amount, up to but not beyond their current maximum Health. Healing effects or Restore Health hearthstone to prolong their own survival. Cards like Antique Healbot Antique Healbot Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Common Cost: 5 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 8 Health to your hero.They don t make em like they used hearthstone and Healing Touch can be used to counter damage suffered while focusing on milling, and to compensate for an otherwise weak and ineffective deck.

Mill druid decks may use Tree of Life Tree of Life Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Spell Class: Druid Rarity: Epic Cost: 9 Abilities: Restore Health Tags: Area of effect, Health-related Restore all characters to full Health.Healing: It grows on trees!See this card hearthstone to reset both players` Health partway through a match, thus prolonging affairs for long enough for fatigue to become a pressing concern. Poison Seeds and Starfall (second Choose One option) is a common combo to allow a full board clear, making up for some of the deck`s lack of presence in earlier rounds, and allowing time to push for further milling.

Control-type mill decks are very slow to play, with long matches required in order to achieve victory, due to lacking means of defeating the opponent aside from fatigue.

Cards played in mill decks

Below are some examples of key cards for mill decks.

Milling

Many of these are core parts of the mill archetype.

Opponent card draw

These cards force the opponent to draw cards, depleting their deck and possibly forcing overdraw For the game conclusion where neither player wins, see Draw Card draw is a term used to refer the process or mechanic of drawing additional cards from the top of the deck, and adding them hearthstone , destroying the drawn card/s.

Naturalize(154).png
Coldlight Oracle(88).png
Dancing Swords(7736).png
Deathlord(7753).png
Desert Camel(27251).png
Grove Tender(12273).png

Return effects

These cards return minions to the opponent`s hand. This can result in minions being destroyed due to the opponent`s hand being too full, and/or overdraw next turn.

Freezing Trap(99).png
Sap(385).png
Mulch(22383).png
Kidnapper(562).png
Vanish(658).png

Generating cards for the opponent

These cards generate new cards for the opponent, adding them to their hand, making overdraw more likely.

Curse of Rafaam(27232).png
Lorewalker Cho(456).png
King Mukla(373).png
Spellslinger(22299).png
Mechanical Yeti(12253).png
Elite Tauren Chieftain(682).png

Cards supporting the mill archetype

The following cards are often played in mill decks to shore up perceived weaknesses in the mill archetype. These are primarily comboing cards (used to increase symmetrical card draw), healing abilities and cards gaining tempo.

Comboing cards

Shadowstep(550).png
Gang Up(14462).png
Youthful Brewmaster(247).png
Gadgetzan Ferryman(49722).png
Brann Bronzebeard(27214).png
Shadowcaster(33180).png

Healing

Healing Touch(258).png
Refreshment Vendor(22374).png
Antique Healbot(12227).png
Reno Jackson(27228).png
Tree of Life(12270).png

Tempo

Innervate(548).png
Preparation(364).png

Exploiting opponent hand size

Divine Favor(581).png
Goblin Sapper(12213).png
Clockwork Giant(12201).png

Exploiting opponent card draw

These cards shuffle into the opponent`s deck cards that cause negative effects when drawn. Be that as it may, they do not delay fatigue as the new cards will draw another card when drawn, except that overdraw will destroy Ambush! and Burrowing Mine rather than triggering card draw and their effects.

Beneath the Grounds(22397).png
Ambush!(22435).png
Iron Juggernaut(12295).png
Burrowing Mine(12345).png

Obstructive cards

By preventing the opponent from playing cards, these cards can be useful for forcing overdraw, as well as generally providing a tactical advantage.

Mana Wraith(197).png
Loatheb(7746).png

Deterring card-playing

Lorewalker Cho(456).png
Trade Prince Gallywix(12291).png
Troggzor the Earthinator(12272).png

Situationally obstructive cards

These cards are usually too situational and/or cheesy to use in competitive play.

Nerub`ar Weblord(7755).png
Nozdormu(285).png
Weasel Tunneler(49758).png
Madam Goya(49684).png

Other mill-related cards

Dream(561).png
Tracking(163).png
Jeeves(12216).png
Fel Reaver(12264).png

Shuffle into deck

Gang Up(14462).png
Forgotten Torch(27216).png
Elise Starseeker(27210).png
Prince Malchezaar(42031).png
Entomb(27238).png
Malorne(12293).png
Jade Idol(49714).png

Tempo gain

Astral Communion(22334).png

History

Milling in Hearthstone was something that players had attempted to make viable since the game`s beta. Be that as it may, a lack of the proper cards made it hard to make an effective deck of this type, beyond the occasional burning of enemy cards through overdraw or returning a minion to a full hand. `Mill rogue` decks were the primary mill decks, using Coldlight Oracle Coldlight Oracle Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Murloc Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 2 Abilities: Battlecry, Draw cards Battlecry: Each player draws 2 cards.They can see the future. In that future both players hearthstone , King Mukla King Mukla Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Beast Rarity: Legendary Cost: 3 Attack: 5 Health: 5 Abilities: Battlecry, Generate Tags: Spell-generating Battlecry: Give your opponent 2 Bananas.King Mukla wanders Jaguero Isle, searching for love.See this hearthstone and Sap Sap Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Rogue Cost: 2 Abilities: Return to hand Return an enemy minion to your opponent s hand.Rogues love sappy movies.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Sap is a rogue spell hearthstone to burn the opponent`s cards, but did not have any relationship to fatigue damage. Such decks used milling as a fun gimmick or occasional side-effect, but without any expectation of actually exhausting the opponent`s deck, and the archetype was not considered competitive. Most mill decks were aggressive mill decks.

Curse of Naxxramas introduced a few mill-related cards such as Dancing Swords and Deathlord Deathlord Set: Naxxramas Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 8 Abilities: Deathrattle, Put into battlefield, Taunt Tags: Random Taunt. Deathrattle: Your opponent puts a minion from their deck into the battlefield."Rise from hearthstone , making the mill concept more desirable, especially for druids, but the concept remained largely unimplemented. The adventure did however see milling used against bosses such as Patchwerk, where the forced drawing of the enemy`s deck could be used to quickly defeat him.

It was not until Goblins vs Gnomes that the concept of milling was made viable in Hearthstone as a main deck focus. The introduction of powerful healing effects like Tree of Life Tree of Life Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Spell Class: Druid Rarity: Epic Cost: 9 Abilities: Restore Health Tags: Area of effect, Health-related Restore all characters to full Health.Healing: It grows on trees!See this card hearthstone and Antique Healbot Antique Healbot Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Common Cost: 5 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 8 Health to your hero.They don t make em like they used hearthstone allowed for extremely long-lasting mill druid decks, allowing room for underused cards like Naturalize Naturalize Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Druid Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Abilities: Destroy, Draw cards Destroy a minion. Your opponent draws 2 cards.Another one bites the dust.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Naturalize is hearthstone and Dancing Swords to shine. The expansion also brought mill-synergy with Clockwork Giant Clockwork Giant Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Epic Cost: 12 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Hand-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each card in your hearthstone and Goblin Sapper Goblin Sapper Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 4 Tags: Hand-related, Ongoing effect Has +4 Attack while your opponent has 6 or more cards in hand.He’s not such hearthstone , as well as negative self-mill in the form of Fel Reaver Fel Reaver Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Epic Cost: 5 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Remove from deck Tags: Triggered effect Whenever your opponent plays a card, remove the top 3 hearthstone , allowing players to gain a powerful minion in exchange for giving the opponent the opportunity to mill their deck.

Shortly after the releaseAnnounce of Goblins vs Gnomes, for the first time in the game`s history true mill decks became commonplace - and relatively competitive - in the form of mill druid. These control mill decks used multiple healing and removal options to outlast the opponent, while using a range of card draw effects to push them into fatigue several turns early. Mill druid decks quickly became infamous for their extremely long matches, drawing out games and in many ways epitomising the control deck type, having few means of defeating the opponent aside from allow the player`s own fatigue to put an end to them.

Pre-Hearthstone

Milling itself is a trope imported from Magic the Gathering (MTG) to Hearthstone (HS) vocabulary. The trope namer, Millstone, was the first card in MTG to feature the mechanic of directly removing cards from decks. The card gained notoriety for introducing a new feasible way of meeting an otherwise elusive win condition, specifically winning through the opponent not being able to draw anymore cards. HS features a similar win condition with players starting to take fatigue The message displayed upon attempting to draw a card after reaching Fatigue. Fatigue is a game mechanic that deals increasing damage to players who have already drawn all of the cards in their deck, whenever hearthstone damage when running out of cards.

Without the Graveyard-concept present in MTG, the strictest interpretation of Mill in Hearthstone only includes effects directly removing cards from a player`s library out of the game. Be that as it may, since true milling sees little occurrence in HS, the concept has been expanded to include any means of removing cards from the opponent deck. This is most commonly done through forced card draws. Mill decks then seeks to minimize the usefulness of cards in the opponent`s hand.