AK Miracles at CFB gamecenter Legacy 3K Jan. 2020 - Top 4

Hi! I’m Spencer, living in the SF Bay area, where I kept getting my rear kicked by Cyrus and Cliffy ever since the SDT ban.

top 8 deck lists https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=24290&f=LE

Here’s the list I ran for CFB 3K on Jan. 12th, 2020.
3 Arcum’s Astrolabe
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Dovin’s Veto
1 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
1 Kozilek’s Return
1 Pyroblast
2 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Oko,Thief of Crowns
1 Council’s Judgement
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Ponder
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Terminus
4 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystic Sanctuary
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
SB:
1 Containment Priest
1 Monastery Mentor
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Rest in Peace
2 Disenchant
1 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
2 Veil of Summer
1 Karakas
1 From the Ashes

Some choices might look very odd on the surface.

Why are you running only 3 Accumulated Knowledge (AK)? Why AK over Coatl?
I cannot understand why l need Green to draw a card. I want to get a White source to cast removal without being exposed to Wasteland. Yes we have Astrolabe (Labe), but why do we even want to lean on that card to begin with? Also, l don’t need the AK train. The draw-3 AK appears to be a win-more. The game ought to be at parity or winning if we get to resolve AK for 2. This competition between White spells and Green spells in Miracles is making Mystic sanctuary trigger more difficult than it needs to be.

Why are you running only 3 Astrolabe?
Labe is a low ceiling card. First Labe fixes all your mana-color problems, the subsequent ones don’t do much more than cycling. Preordain or Portent would have given you a better dig than this card. To be able to operate on 4c, you have to run Labe; but you really just need one in play. The deck should be able to operate and navigate through all the Delver and DnT match-ups without being tripped on Mana, whether it’s with or without finding Labe.

Why MD Clique?
I don’t want to MD Clique, but l need to make space for the SB. Its floor is to trade a bolt or delver, which is ok. Flashing it in to trade against an Arcanist would be great.

Why K-Return?
Supreme Verdict cost too much at Sorcery speed. Terminus needs setup. K-return is known to be The choice against DnT, but it’s also surprisingly decent against Empty Warren, Bitterblossom, and Young Pyromancer. I’m also sick and tired of Vial players sandbagging a Goblin Matron or Recruiter, just so they can rebuild their board post Terminus. K-Return at instant speed gives you great flexibility in response to maybe a Vial activation or a Port activation. Again, I don’t want to bring this in from the SB, just assume we will play against a fair deck game 1.

Overall l just want a classic, solid, 4-island 2-plains Mana base. l care very little about Green mana source because l don’t need it against fair deck until mid-game. In match-ups against Delver, you only need Green when you want to cast Oko, and that’s after you have developed your Mana base. In a match-up against unfair decks or Miracles mirror, I don’t think you need to be concerned about Wasteland or Back to Basics, fetch for Tropical Island to enable Veil should not be a problem.

Why Karakas SB?
For some reason, every time l cut it, l die to Griselbrand, it’s also extra insurance against Turbo-Depth’s Crop rotation into Sejiri steppe, extra interaction against Stage-Depth and Thalia.

Why Revoker SB?
I Hate LED! Hate it with a passion. It turns out that Revoker is also good against Wishclaw, DnT stuff, Sneak attack… etc etc.

7 rounds, about 100 players
Round one: Samson on Turbo Depth 2-0
This is the match-up where Karakas and Revoker would help. Karakas still work when Crop rotation into Sejiri steppe. Revoker stops Hexmage/Safekeeper. I did not see Safekeeper in both games, but I did see Sylvan Library.

Round two: Kris on Sneak and Show 2-1
Game 1 went terribly for me. I actually brought-in 11 SB cards for this match-up. Revoker is great again in shutting down Sneak Attack. Containment Priest is also great.

Round three: Nathan on Bant Miracles 1-1-1 Unintentional Draw
Game 1 my opponent tried the jam-as-many-planeswalkers-as-possible strategy and failed. Game 2 and 3 were back and forth. I might have tried to deploy Mentor too early.

Round four: Brian on RG Lands 2-1
Game 1 went terribly for me. In Game 2 or 3, as soon as I saw him putting Grove into play, I played From the Ashes to nuke his board, then followed up with a Mentor.

Round five: Nick on LED Dredge 2-1
On camera, you can watch the unbiased commentary here.
https://youtu.be/AqdNkwYvAiQ

Round six: Daniel on Grixis Delver 2-1
This was actually much much closer, too close for comfort. Yeah we SB-in Veil, but it often doesn’t work the way you want it to. Either they played Thoughtseize when I couldn’t produce Green mana, or they tried to target my permanents with Decay when I couldn’t find Veil to save my Oko. Ultimately, I entreated for 3 angels with 2 Mana open and resolved. Then at the critical turn, I had a StP and a Veil to ensure that I could block with an angel, and then StP that angel to gain some life, with Veil to make sure that my sequence would resolve. That didn’t happen but I was covered.

Round seven: Zack on RUG Land with Oko Intentional Draw

Quarterfinal: James on UR Delver 2-0
The game basically was to trade resources aggressively. I actually used Sanctuary as my 4th land, just to pick up StP to kill another Arcanist. This deck runs too many direct damage spells, you want to keep your life total relatively higher than other Delver variants if possible. There was one critical turn in which I baited him into tapping out, spent all his resources to fight my Terminus; I then proceeded to blow him out with K-Return to clean up YP and company. He had no resources left after K-Return resolved. For whatever reason, he did SB-in Eidolon of the Great Revel against me, my eyes rolled.

Top-4 split

Overall match record in the swiss: 5-0-2
Overall: 6-0-2

About the community
Thank Anuraag Das (AnziD) and David for doing the commentating for the tournament. Some local friends who could not attend the event dropped by and said hi. The Legacy scene in the SF Bay area can be difficult. Other than the aforementioned storm experts, Zack (Sparki) the GP Seattle 9th finisher with his RUG lands has had a lot of success in recent years (excluding the W6 period). Allen Wu punished me severely with his Mystical dispute in the last CFB Legacy event. Last year Matt Sperling ran me over with Ninjas once. Congrats to Rosemary who also Top-4 at this event.

About Miracles and the meta
The format is getting more Red. Red spells are great against Veil, great at blowing up Oko. However, if you get to trade efficiently, maybe you just need a couple food token to escape the lethal burn spell range. I don’t think Counterbalance is the direction unless your list is committed to blue-white. Running blue-white when you lack the red blast effect to kill Oko doesn’t have me convinced. After W6, the Lands players finally came out of the woods. As seen in this event’s stream, RUG Lands with Oko might be the new trend.

vs Wishclaw TES
If you are still Not convinced about Revoker and/or this 3-Labe 3-AK Miracles, here’s how I defeated Wishclaw TES; the story checked out, my opponent appeared to know his storm lines.
https://youtu.be/WgUEXPmS84Y

Nice report, thanks! Quite enjoyed reading it, very nice reasoning about controversial, I would think, card choices.