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Thread: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

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    "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    I'm back to the Source (your source for legacy) with a calculated new brew. I had diabolically bad results with the stock BDM Miracles list in a couple of 1Ks, which really shook my faith in the deck. I had to take a step back to study the format. Omniscience seemed like a good counter to the prevalence of D&T and paucity of combo hate, except that the deck is bad. Then, I was struck by divine inspiration! Omniscience was good when it could function (thanks to Dig Through Time) as a 2ish card combo of Show and Tell + Omniscience + the deck. Sensei's Divining Top can see more cards than Dig over the course of a game, and Predict is recent Miracles tech to combat card advantage decks. Once you're playing Top and Predict, Counterbalance and Terminus are incredibly efficient answers to a broad swath of decks. Perhaps what science really needs is just a little bit of faith? Thus I was a convert to the Miracle of Science.

    2 Ancient Tomb
    1 City of Traitors
    4 Flooded Strand
    5 Island
    1 Plains
    1 Polluted Delta
    4 Scalding Tarn
    1 Tundra
    1 Volcanic Island
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Counterbalance
    4 Cunning Wish
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    4 Force of Will
    4 Omniscience
    4 Ponder
    3 Predict
    2 Preordain
    4 Sensei's Divining Top
    4 Show and Tell
    1 Split Decision
    2 Terminus

    //Sideboard:

    1 Disenchant
    1 Eladamri's Call
    2 Engineered Explosives
    1 Firemind's Foresight
    2 Flusterstorm
    2 Monastery Mentor
    1 Pyroblast
    1 Red Elemental Blast
    1 Release the Ants
    1 Surgical Extraction
    2 Swords to Plowshares

    It functions as a either a 2-card combo deck with the combos of Top + Counterbalance and Show and Tell + Omniscience, or as a combo-control deck. Often casting Show and Tell into Omniscience without the Cunning Wish or Emrakul is just fine because you have the tools to buy time. And because I'm splashing white, I can cut crappy bounce spells for permanent answers like Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares. Between those two, I can deal with everything Wipe Away could except for unusual situations involving Counterbalance or Chalice.

    For those that aren't super familiar with Omniscience - the reason I can cut traditional wish board cards like Trickbind is because I can win at instant speed with a single Cunning Wish. With Omniscience in play, wish for Firemind's Foresight. Cast it for Brainstorm, Split Decision, Cunning Wish. Cast Wish, hold priority, cast Split Decision targeting Wish. When Split Decision resolves, vote for copy (their vote is irrelevant). Get Eladamri's Call and Release the Ants. Call for Emrakul, Brainstorm it to the top of library, then Release many Ants.

    The Mentor in the sideboard is a way to punish decks that board out all their removal. Oftentimes decks struggle to board to deal with the different plans of dudes, science, and miracles, which really all share the common core of cantrips. When you're playing 4 Tops, Mentor is so trivial to combo out with that it easily justifies the slots.

    I took this brew to the Card Kingdom 1K tournament and ended up in 4th, losing to the eventual winner playing Aluren. The tournament was streamed (https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/84926167), and I was on camera around 0030 and 07:15:00.

    I'm not going to go super deep into any of my matches because for the most part the decisions don't translate well to text. There's a lot of deciding what role to play and then ripping sick cards off the top because Show and Tell is a dumb card. If there was a clutch play I'll included it.

    R1 Esper Faeries
    It's cool to see a brew mirror, but it's also obvious that his disruption just doesn't line up well against this deck. Wastelands and equipment is not super effective.
    1-0

    R2 Miracles (traditional Ponder)
    I was extremely nervous about the Miracles matchup and in my pre-tournament shower meditation came up with a deckbuilding plan to beat them. I added a Volcanic Island and the REBs, cut extra Disenchants for Engineered Explosives (for Counterbalance), and added Mentors as another angle of attack. I'm not great at any angle of attack, and I think that the AnziD style of 4-blast Miracles will be a tough matchup, but this plan has enough different threats to make it difficult to play against.

    In practice, I baited countermagic with Counterbalance, and had the follow up Show and Tell. This absolutely crushed my miracles opponent. Science, bitch.
    2-0

    R3 Eldrazi
    Game 1 I was in a basically no-win situation with Chalice on 1 in play, Thought-Knot on the stack, and several mana and combo pieces short of the kill. I did manage to tilt my opponent by resolving Brainstorm through the Chalice though. Games 2 and 3 I had broken draws of turn 2 kills.
    3-0

    R4 Burn
    Burn seems like a tough matchup. My opponent put me to 10 on his second turn game 1, which sucked. Game 2 I showed him that Emrakul is still good, even if you don't cast it. Game 3 was super close. I played to my outs of finding Terminus for his Eidolon, and had a cool sequence of Terminus in response to Rift Bolt on the stack (after he shocked himself of course), Flusterstorm your Rift Bolt. He nuked his lands for a lethal Fireblast, putting me on having nothing. I Forced to 3 life, and he was able to find the bolt before I could find the missing combo pieces.
    3-1

    R5 Miracles
    I got Josh Monks with some tricky stack interactions with Omniscience in play to his Counterbalance. I was able to pick a fight when he tapped low, bait milling him with Predict, and then Eladamri's Call in response to Top for the lethal Emrakul. Game 2 I cast Mentor off of Omniscience before he killed it, then killed him. Have faith in science, padawan.
    4-1

    R6 ID
    4-1-1

    QTR Shardless BUG
    He didn't really interact with me much this match. Discard is good, but he needs pressure to back it up and he just didn't have any.
    5-1-1

    SEMI Aluren
    I thought going into the match that this was a good matchup, but in retrospect it seems tough because this deck is very weak to discard and they can win at instant speed off of my Show and Tell. My keep game 1 was atrocious and I never drew the Brainstorm to make it good. Game 2 I played around a second Krosan Grip on Top by drawing the Force of Will, but in retrospect they rarely have more than 1 Grip and often have 3+ Thoughtseize, so I should have played around that instead. I almost won with Mentor despite him having Yawgmoth's Bargain on tiny sticks active, but he hit with the last Brainstorm.
    6-1-1

    BONUS Weekly Card Kingdom 30-man tournament
    I ran the deck back at today's weekly tournament and went 3-1. I lost to 4c Loam thanks to some...experimental boarding...which turned out very poorly. Doesn't matter how bad Split Decision is in the matchup, DON'T CUT IT. I had the win on the stack despite him Showing in Rec Sage plus a Golgari Charm, but without Split Decision in my deck, I instead lost. Besides that, I won a rematch against Aluren with an awesome stack 7 cards deep, won a match against Storm where I was about to hard-cast Omniscience but failed to find the 10th mana because I boarded out a Plains, and beat Miracles through Counterbalance.

    To recap, this deck looks like a roadapple, but actually is challenging and fun to play and seemingly quite good.
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  2. #2

    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Seems like a cool take on a silly (what SnT based deck is not) archetype. While I agree that trickbind is generally not needed with firemind's foresight, there are still some scenarios where I think it could be worth the opportunity cost of putting it in the SB. These scenarios only seem to come up against decks that can put in something catastrophic off your own SnT, such as Griselbrand, or as in your report, Aluren. Having trickbind could allow you to stop them from drawing 7 or winning at instant speed, while still allowing you to cast Emrakul. You could do this by using the same FF chain except getting trickbind/call off the two wish copies. Am I thinking about this the wrong way, or is this sort of scenario just not relevant enough? I have not played an Omni-deck for quite some time -- so please forgive me if I am overlooking something.

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by phazonmutant View Post
    To recap, this deck looks like a roadapple, but actually is challenging and fun to play and seemingly quite good.
    I learned a new word. I can figure out from context what it means.

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by grimfield View Post
    Seems like a cool take on a silly (what SnT based deck is not) archetype. While I agree that trickbind is generally not needed with firemind's foresight, there are still some scenarios where I think it could be worth the opportunity cost of putting it in the SB. These scenarios only seem to come up against decks that can put in something catastrophic off your own SnT, such as Griselbrand, or as in your report, Aluren. Having trickbind could allow you to stop them from drawing 7 or winning at instant speed, while still allowing you to cast Emrakul. You could do this by using the same FF chain except getting trickbind/call off the two wish copies. Am I thinking about this the wrong way, or is this sort of scenario just not relevant enough? I have not played an Omni-deck for quite some time -- so please forgive me if I am overlooking something.
    In what you are describing, what prevent your opponent to win as an answer to your wish? and if they do not (i.e. if your wish resolves), why not just winning?
    The only way trickbind works is if it is in your hand already, or did I miss something?

    Otherwise, what do you think are the big advantages of this approach over a classical miracle deck? the ability to win fast is important against which MUs?

    It looks quite fun, I can imagine people should really be wondering what the hell is going on. Congrats for coming out with this :)

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by dte View Post
    The only way trickbind works is if it is in your hand already, or did I miss something?
    Otherwise, what do you think are the big advantages of this approach over a classical miracle deck? the ability to win fast is important against which MUs?
    Any time you're running SnT and CB, the amount of game-ending threats is quite high. One stops all your spells from resolving and the other probably results in a loss. Meanwhile a normal miracles pilot is probably panic-countering the game-enders while working towards their JTMS...which this deck legitimately may not care enough about to use a counter. It's not even clear that this deck necessarily loses to resolved CB with SnT's cmc.

    Trickbind is more for ETB effects from whatever opponent puts in play with SnT (probably Rec Sage). The split second isn't really as important (they have to counter wish if they can) as being 2cmc. The less likely, to be relevant, aspect is that when they put an ability on the stack you are locked out of sorcery speed, but when Trickbind's split second stack is cleared priority goes right back to the active player (this only really matters if you have Emrakul in hand).

    Sideboarding seems pretty straightforward against fair decks where CB is underperforming, but looks pretty challenging for blue mirrors. I'm guessing you trim Wish, Omni, and ??? for more counters and potentially EE/Disenchant @phazonmutant? Also with the SDT playset and Mentor in the board (SDT loop exploit), was there any consideration given to making 1-2 cuts (probably Omni) to put in 1-2x E. Tutor?

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by lordofthepit View Post
    I learned a new word. I can figure out from context what it means.
    You mean "fun"?
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    was greg mitchells hair ever on camera?
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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by Fox View Post
    Trickbind is more for ETB effects from whatever opponent puts in play with SnT (probably Rec Sage). The split second isn't really as important (they have to counter wish if they can) as being 2cmc. The less likely, to be relevant, aspect is that when they put an ability on the stack you are locked out of sorcery speed, but when Trickbind's split second stack is cleared priority goes right back to the active player (this only really matters if you have Emrakul in hand).
    I still fail to see what kind of abilities you want to counter, or when sorcery speed spells would be needed.
    Against a deck that would play Emrakul and Rec Sage / Ashen Rider?
    or a deck that play LloS and Rec Sage / Ashen Rider / oblivion Ring?

    I am sure there is some cases where it can be useul, but I fail to see them. Can you elaborate?

    Also, Do you think it is possible to play a one of Nahiri in SB? You already have Emrakul, w and r as splash, and it would be worth the look on your opponent face :)
    It is a very strong threat against miracle. Probably not good enough, but well.

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by danyul View Post
    You mean "fun"?
    I'm almost certain Greg obtained this and at least 75% of his epithets from me.

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    Re: "The Miracle of Science" - 4th at CardKingdom 1K

    Quote Originally Posted by nedleeds View Post
    I'm almost certain Greg obtained this and at least 75% of his epithets from me.
    You're an Ichor Wellspring of Exotic Curses. You're absolutely right about this one.

    A few people have asked about Trickbind. I think dte got the argument right. Since a single Cunning Wish is lethal except in edge cases (Split Decision is exiled or discarded or they have Emrakul in deck, and you can't play sorceries), if you had multiple Cunning Wish to try to play around things like Griselbrand activations, it would be better to just win on the spot. Sideboard space is always tight with a wishboard, and I didn't think Trickbind made the cut.

    Quote Originally Posted by dte View Post
    Also, Do you think it is possible to play a one of Nahiri in SB? You already have Emrakul, w and r as splash, and it would be worth the look on your opponent face :)
    It is a very strong threat against miracle. Probably not good enough, but well.
    I was thinking about cutting a Preordain for a Nahiri maindeck actually! It seems like a solid catch-all. I'm not sure what I would cut from the board - it's just not efficient enough at threatening or answering anything to be a sideboard card.

    Quote Originally Posted by Fox View Post
    Any time you're running SnT and CB, the amount of game-ending threats is quite high. One stops all your spells from resolving and the other probably results in a loss. Meanwhile a normal miracles pilot is probably panic-countering the game-enders while working towards their JTMS...which this deck legitimately may not care enough about to use a counter. It's not even clear that this deck necessarily loses to resolved CB with SnT's cmc.
    ...
    Sideboarding seems pretty straightforward against fair decks where CB is underperforming, but looks pretty challenging for blue mirrors. I'm guessing you trim Wish, Omni, and ??? for more counters and potentially EE/Disenchant @phazonmutant? Also with the SDT playset and Mentor in the board (SDT loop exploit), was there any consideration given to making 1-2 cuts (probably Omni) to put in 1-2x E. Tutor?
    Good analysis. That's the summary of why I think the deck is good. It has a high density of threats that win the game, requires different answers to disrupt all the plans, synergizes well, and threatens to win the game as early as turn 2, unlike Miracles.

    Resolved CB is still very bad because both 3 and 2 on top stop the win, but if you ever find a chance to resolve Eladamri's Call (see my match round 5), it's tough for Miracles to beat an uncounterable Emrakul.

    For Miracles (or grindy blue decks without Wasteland):
    -1 Omniscience, -1 Cunning Wish, -1 Show and Tell, -1 City of Traitors, -1 Preordain, -2 Terminus, -1 ? (cut at random), +2 REB, +2 EE, +2 Flusterstorm, +2 Monastery Mentor

    Quote Originally Posted by grimfield View Post
    Seems like a cool take on a silly (what SnT based deck is not) archetype.
    Thanks! It is a silly deck.
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