(I was going to make a video, but my saved games were against CFA randos playing bad decks like DRobos and Deletors, so I opted to not include them. I was able to get a very solid feel for the deck and I can conclude, as many already have, how it will perform in the meta. I was going to see if I could get better videos, but then someone guessed the deck based on vague clues, so since the cat's out of the bag, here we are.)
So, in my previous perceptions of milling viability, I never gave it particularly high ratings for two specific reasons:
1. With two of the better mill cards being Killerleaf and Cyclomatooth, a zero damage strategy wasn't in my field of vision.
2. The game has become disgustingly fast, with DOtX ending games on turn 3 with moderate consistency.
Those were my big reasons for believing that mill Colon was not viable. I was wrong (although I made my judgment before the set was entirely revealed). It turns out that one of the two cards (the other being Scatterhorn) that I originally said were the "Game changers" of the set in my Vanguard inner circle chats happened to be the card that made Mill Colon viable.
The card in question is Turbulent Signal. Turbulent Signal is CB1, retire Turbulent Signal, your opponent mills 1, and you Cradle one RG for each grade of the milled unit. A CB1 -1 Cradle is honestly pretty viable. This averages out (assuming a 14/11/8 ratio, which is a conservative ratio) to 1.22 cradles per use of the skill, which is pretty awesome.
The low roll is very bad, at CB1 -1 to mill a trigger. The high roll is amazingly good. Each time they call over or retire a rear guard to get rid of the 0 power body, you get a free card. They make excellent targets to swing into with Hercules to either force out two cards (which they should probably do) or you get to countercharge and pick the same grade unit from your deck.
Before getting too crazy with specifics, let's post the list:
1x Starter - Young Mutant, Worectus
4x Critical 1 - Sharp Nail Scorpio
4x Critical 2 - Shelter Beetle
4x Sentinel Crit - Scissor-shot Mutant, Bombscissor
4x Heal - Large Snowflake Mutant, Snow Trick
4x Grade 3 Searcher - New Face Mutant Little Dorcas
4x Countercharger - Small Captain, Butterfly Officer
4x Mill 1 Cradler/MVP - Turbulent Signal
3x Mill 1 - Brawny Jerk
4x Grade 3 Searcher - Machining Mantis
4x Countercharger - Bloody Hercules
2x Tech Choice - Nasty Smog
4x Lead boss, mills 1-2 cards per turn, extra drive check - True Demonic Rifle Rogue, Gunningcoleo
4x Mill 2 - Destruction Spear Mutant, Dovaspeed
The list is pretty basic. We're running all of the good mill cards that don't require attacking Vanguard. The general strategy is to not attack turn 1 unless you ride Butterfly Officer and can guarantee you won't hit with a grade 1 booster in the back to pass triggers to. Each turn, you swing into a RG, or if your VG has lower power than theirs, swing at VG and pass triggers to a back row unit. Naturally, there is an advantage against force decks in never being unable to swing with your VG.
Typically, you just mill whenever you're able. The only exception is waiting for the opponent to have a board to use Turbulent Signal. Cradling anything spirals the game wildly into your favor as they have few outs to do anything with the unit without counterblasts that don't involve giving you a card back. If you cradle a grade 1, you either nullify a back row slot the entire game or get another free Turbulent Signal, which is mega memes. Cradling 3s is also a priority to fish out Dovaspeeds.
You'll find yourself opting not to use your non-mill cards' effects a large chunk of the time. This is fine. You don't want to be spamming counterblasts to get 3s once you've seen your first few, as your odds of hitting get progressively worse. Butterfly should be played strictly as a countercharge 1 or to shove a RG Dovaspeed to soul for an additional mill.
If your opponent attempts to damage deny you, you can't mill as effectively, but if they don't deal any damage, you will win by decking them out. If they don't call front row RGs, you can easily get away with not attacking with your VG, especially with getting Protect 1s each turn. If they're Force, then you can attack with VG and still damage deny them. If they attempt to bash your face in, other than your first damage check, ALL of your heals are ALWAYS live. Finally, if they're low on cards in deck, keep in mind that each damage you deal is also a card from deck (two if they hit a draw). It may be worth going in later in the game to ping them for one or two damage as they reach single digits. Other than this, there aren't many strategies, it's just rock, paper, scissors.
This deck beats any deck that relies heavily on counterblasts to do anything. This includes DOtX, Sharhrot, Nightrose, and many other such decks. This deck loses severely to no counterblast aggro decks such as Blaus or Thavas. The big question (which I haven't done enough testing on) is "does it beat Luard?" I'm not 100% sure. Luard can still superior ride and get Force 1 spam and grade 1s with bonus crit super easily, especially with you shoving the 1s into their drop. However, Luard cannot superior call 1s with Nemain gone and his calling being CB locked. I think it's a coinflip on whether or not Turbelent Signal hits. Which is a coinflip that the Megacolony player should win more often than not in theory.
Since most of the decks that would cause potential issues for the deck are either non-meta or not out yet, I think there's a LOT of potential for this deck to see real play. Potentially tier 1.5. Maybe even tier 1 with such a dominantly favorable matchup to Scharhrot. I will leave it for the community to decide before this deck gets bonked by robits and saylers.
