Miracle Control

[Ancestral]

True, Mesa is "unPortable", but Lands (the matchup I'm most afraid of) has expendable Wastelands, and in that situation Mesa becomes vulnerable to the Port + Waste combo.

I think 2 plains is enough, in most games already cost turn2 balance or counterspell up, so 3 one its bad because you often want to open with pomder too!

And why are you afraid of lands? The matchup ita pretty good

[exallium]

I think I'd run Blood Moon vs. the third plains. That effectively shuts down port, as well as most of their deck, and still has great utility vs other decks. You can still get nailed if you deploy your red too early, of course.

[AnziD]

I think 2 plains is enough, in most games already cost turn2 balance or counterspell up, so 3 one its bad because you often want to open with pomder too!

And why are you afraid of lands? The matchup ita pretty good

I feel like Lands has inevitability. CounterTop on 2 slows them down, but then they just amass a bunch of Ports, lock out your white, and kill you with a 20/20. The game boils down to "Can I find Entreat before they assemble 2 or 3 Ports", and I somehow am always on the losing proposition of that bet. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

[twndomn]

I feel like Lands has inevitability. CounterTop on 2 slows them down, but then they just amass a bunch of Ports, lock out your white, and kill you with a 20/20. The game boils down to "Can I find Entreat before they assemble 2 or 3 Ports", and I somehow am always on the losing proposition of that bet. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

The Land MU boils down to two stages: the stage of landing CB and the stage of fighting for W Mana source. If you fail to land CB early enough before Port lockdown, then there won't be stage two, you just lose.

As to the fighting of White Source, this assumes you have a CB floating 2 already. This is where Clique shines. You can in theory bounce 20/20 token using Karakas. If they blow up Karakas, you can still use Clique in a pinch. In other words, even without White Source, as long as you have Jace in play, use Clique to block for that 20/20 turn, Jace then can bounce the token. If the Lands player had Decay when we're already in stage 2, wouldn't he target CB with that Decay already? Hence I doubt he'll hold on a Decay just for a potential Clique.

The inevitability is on the Miracles' side once we're on stage 2. Most of time, Miracles' will Entreat for the kill or reach Jace ultimate while the Lands' player keeps failing to find Abrupt Decay/Krosan Grip. That 20/20 plan almost never works. Just be patient, I've won 50 minute game 1 against Lands on extra turn by passing the Tabernacle tests and Maze of Ith.

[eyeownyu]

i usually find the lands MU fairly easy. I usually win with jace because of the fact that maze of ith stops angels. Once you have a countertop lock with a 2, all you need to do is find your jace while trying to keep your land base fairly intact.

[Ancestral]

I feel like Lands has inevitability. CounterTop on 2 slows them down, but then they just amass a bunch of Ports, lock out your white, and kill you with a 20/20. The game boils down to "Can I find Entreat before they assemble 2 or 3 Ports", and I somehow am always on the losing proposition of that bet. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

i disagree, counterbalance doesn´t slow them dowm...counterbalance kills lands!!! make the 2 on top they can´t p. fire or loam, so they are dead to jace. 6 basics as enough to play with even with ports, and if they can´t get loam not sure how they fiind 3 ports ... and all your removal kills marit lage, it´s not a problem at all, the example you made happens once in twenty games or more, they lock you out of mana and have man to depths, early in he game...remeber we have cards to play too xD

[Gros]

Hey guys i have a question for you... i'm toying with this since some months:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Dig Through Time
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Counterbalance
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
2 Entreat the Angels
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
1 Council's Judgment
3 Snapcaster Mage
SB: 1 Council's Judgment
SB: 3 Vendilion Clique
SB: 3 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Force of Will
How would you sideboard vs. Shardless keeping in CBs and siding in RiPs?
I cannot figure out what to cut for board in Rips, Rebs, Explosives, Disenchant/judgment

[Ancestral]

Hey guys i have a question for you... i'm toying with this since some months:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Dig Through Time
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Counterbalance
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
2 Entreat the Angels
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
1 Council's Judgment
3 Snapcaster Mage
SB: 1 Council's Judgment
SB: 3 Vendilion Clique
SB: 3 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Force of Will
How would you sideboard vs. Shardless keeping in CBs and siding in RiPs?
I cannot figure out what to cut for board in Rips, Rebs, Explosives, Disenchant/judgment

you can take out forces and snapcaster if you bring in all those cards

[Malakai]

There're 2 cards from Black that's even on the table for discussion: Engineered Plague and Notion Thief. These cards are only good for a specific LGS, not a large SCG size tournament option. All the other cards including discards are just garbage. Anything Black can do, White can do it also, and most likely do it better.

Neither of those two cards are playable in this format. The real options from black to consider are Thoughtseize/Inquisition over things like Spell Pierce, Dark Confidant, and Lingering Souls. Not that it matters--it's been tried, and the mana hit just isn't worth it.

[rickster]

Reid Duke's list from the Invitational

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=81885

[presquepartout]

I noticed that several featured Miracles lists were eschewing Flusterstorm for Spell Pierce in their sideboards (Reid, BBD, and at least one other person who is escaping me right now). Is there much of reason for this? Normally, I'd assume SP over Fluster is a budget choice, but not when people like Reid or BBD are opting for it.

[TheArchitect]

I noticed that several featured Miracles lists were eschewing Flusterstorm for Spell Pierce in their sideboards (Reid, BBD, and at least one other person who is escaping me right now). Is there much of reason for this? Normally, I'd assume SP over Fluster is a budget choice, but not when people like Reid or BBD are opting for it.

I have not done this miracles, but I have done it in decks like deathblade or esper before. It is not just a budget choice. There a lot of matchups I would rather board in Spell pierce over flusterstorm. BUG delver, Miracles, any chalice deck. The matchups I would rather be able to bring in fluster are basically just storm, stifle decks. Against S&T decks, they both have advantages and one is not better all the time.

I'd play pierce over flusterstorm if I was more worried about BUG delver and Miracles than storm and stifle (which would probably be the case at the invitational).

[Julian23]

Played Philipp's list at a local event on Saturday:

R1: 2-1 vs BUG Delver, WIN
R2: 1-2 vs Burn, LOSS
R3: 2-0 vs Miracles, WIN
R4: 2-1 vs UB Tezzerator, WIN
R5: ID
Quarters: 2-1 vs UW Nemesis & Taxes, WIN
Semis: 2-1 vs BUG Delver, WIN
Finals: 0-2 vs Shardless BUG, LOSS

This deck is insane. I had totally forgotten how you could sometimes just run away with games, never for your opponent to come back. I still made a lot of mistakes, I feel, but just by the sheer power of the cards, especially Snapcaster Mage and Dig Through Time, I was always able to stay in the game and eventually recover once things got tight. In game3 of the Semis vs BUG life totals were 1-21 in his favor with both players empty handed but his Sylvan Library vs my top. The game lasted for another ~15 turns and I eventually won #Busted.

[Hrothgar]

This deck is insane.

WTF?

4 win (2 vs the same deck + 1 mirror) and 3 loss = the deck is insane?

The deck is strong, sure, but not insane.

[Quasim0ff]

WTF?

4 win (2 vs the same deck + 1 mirror) and 3 loss = the deck is insane?

The deck is strong, sure, but not insane.

to be fair, burn, UB tezz and Shardless are all fairly bad matchups (though not impossible)

[Julian23]

It's 5 Wins and 2 Losses. And the deck really is insane, so much raw power

[presquepartout]

with ponder miracles, i have never found burn to be a bad matchup. i have one match loss against burn, and it was largely due to my own play error.

[klaus]

Reid Duke's list from the Invitational

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=81885

No Ponders, 3 DTT = clunky.
Not only do you have a harder time filling the yard, you also top deck DTT more frequently at the wrong time cause you lack filtering..

[twndomn]

It's 5 Wins and 2 Losses. And the deck really is insane, so much raw power

What's Nemesis & Taxes?

No Ponders, 3 DTT = clunky.
Not only do you have a harder time filling the yard, you also top deck DTT more frequently at the wrong time cause you lack filtering..

Yeah, but he's Reid Duke. Duke can play whatever he wants and win with it. I wouldn't recommend that list to anyone else.

[Dragonslayer_90]

It's 5 Wins and 2 Losses. And the deck really is insane, so much raw power

What Julian is trying to say is that Ein's build of Miracles makes it such that the deck is Tier 1 even in the hands of inexperienced but competent to good players overall. When in the hands of masters like Ein or Angelo Cadei, the deck is Tier 0/ God Tier/ #busted