[Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

[Weapon X]

If it helps to sway you, predict requires another card to be good while impulse will always be good. I still find the build clunky though. Needing 8 slots or so for a combo win that aren't great outside of said combo feels bad.

[phazonmutant]

That's very true, but being able to net cards is pretty valuable against discard decks. The fact that Miracles plays Predict also makes me lean towards it, because overall that deck plays the best cards in blue and white, so might as well crib from them. But, you have a point, which is why I'm testing it out.

That's always been the complaint from Miracles players. I find it runs as smoothly as Miracles does with its reactive cards and cards you don't want in hand, but can go over the top without being vulnerable to commonly played hate. Really only results will prove it.

Edit: Thought more about why you might find it so clunky. Hybrid combo decks are often very tricky to play, because they have several game plans available, and playing to the right one affects so many game actions. Miracles has a little bit of that with its tempo draws of Counterbalance and Mentor, a) those hands are usually obvious, and b) you can get pretty good results just playing it as a control deck. This deck has light control elements, combo pieces that can be interchanged for control (CWish), a partial-combo (Showing Omni) that turns on some previously dead draws, and Mentor post board. Often I find that I shuffle away combo pieces in certain matchups. Maybe part of the reason you feel the deck is clunky is because you're misevaluating your cantrips because you don't have the experience with the deck to know which plan to be on?

[Weapon X]

For netting cards I was looking at fact or fiction. I do feel my old standby of accumulated knowledge in tandem with predict could be a strong engine in the right deck. Otherwise needing 2 cards to try to net a card is bad and not actually netting cards at that point.

Edit: I feel it clunky because of what it's a hybrid of. My pedigree of building multiple attack angle decks is where I'm coming from. In enchantress as an example you have an engine present and you can add single cards to get multiple ways to win. That takes minimal space for maximum effect without watering the deck down. You have a deck here that removes the consistency and protection of something like miracles for some oops I win draws, but also gives itself a large choke point. When I had built my NOTopBantBlade the packages were so small that if one plan is stopped you can move seemlessly into a different plan and still threaten an existing plan. That's the makings of a powerful deck and something that could be possible here, I just don't think show and tell is the right plan.

[lordofthepit]

I went a somewhat disappointing 4-2 in yesterday's Card Kingdom 1k Tournament yesterday. I feel decent overall about my play, and the matchups still lead me to believe the list is well positioned in the meta. My list was a little different, incorporating some of Weapon X's suggestions to test:

2 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
1 Impulse
1 Predict
1 Split Decision

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
3 Terminus

4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Omniscience

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

// Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Eladamri's Call
1 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
1 Wear // Tear

R1 - Chris on RUG Lands
His deck is slow and doesn't really interact. I had draws were were medium-fast and had basics, so ran him over.
1-0, 2-0

R2 - Bill on D&T
I Forced a turn 1 Aether Vial, but he slowed me down with Thalia. When I found the mana to Show and Tell, I was facing a 2-turn clock with a known Sanctum Prelate in hand. The plan was to Show Omniscience, then untap, Terminus, and hopefully buy time to find the combo, but I think I punted by fetching a Plains. He put Prelate on 6, nice read. Game 2 he mulliganned to 5, but we still had a close game. He strangely put Prelate on 1, which slowed down the Mentor I cast off of a Showed in Omniscience tremendously. However, his Palace Jailer shipped me the Monarch pretty quickly, and with a second Mentor I was just barely able to eke out lethal before his SoFI-equipped Jailer ran me out of tokens. Game 3 we had some tricksy play with Vial on 3, Prelate in hand, and a Terminus on top my library where I Disenchanted his Vial, he activated, I flipped Top to wrath a couple of his dudes. However, his Prelate on 1 again shut me down and couldn't find the win. So I guess this is how D&T wins the matchup - always draw Thalia, put Prelate on non-3s.
1-1, 3-2

R3 - Jake on D&T
This was a super tight match too, but this time I came out ahead. Game 1 he beat down with Thalia, and I was unable to draw fetches to play through his Port + double Waste. Games 2-3 are on camera: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/...61?t=00h31m45s
Game 2 he mulled to 5 and I kept a land-heavy hand with a Ponder. I stacked wrong, drawing the Omni instead of the Cunning Wish, so I didn't have the card I wanted to pitch when he cast Thalia. That set me back, but eventually I found a deterministic win through Vryn Wingmare on board and Thalia put in of Show and Tell. The longggg tank over EE on 2 was figuring out 1) why he would tap out of Karakas with EE on 2, and then 2) deciding that it probably meant he had a backup Thalia, and 3) that I couldn't win through both Thalia and Wingmare on board. Game 3 was weird, but shows the power of Mentor in the deck. The attack with Plow on Top and 3 tokens was horrendous - I should have waited until the next turn to attack, but it worked out ok.
2-1, 5-3

R4 - Shawn (lordofthepit) on Predict Miracles
Game 1 I Forced a Counterbalance, and he didn't Force back. So when he tapped out next turn to cast Mentor, I decided to yolo shove instead of letting him untap, casting Terminus as bait, and then playing Show. The odds are close on the two options, so I went with my read. Game 2 he drew all 4 Snapcaster Mages and some interaction, which meant I had to start fighting over them. They beat me down. Game 3 we were both holding up mana representing REB and Fluster. I have a sweet setup where I could use Counterbalance as bait, Force his counterspell, Fluster his next, and if none of that worked, flip Top for a second Counterbalance, and if that didn't work, I had Show and Tell + Emrakul as the final trump next turn. He countered both Counterbalance, then followed up with a Counterbalance + Top, but I baited his Top flip with a Ponder so Show resolved, and he wasn't able to find the Terminus.
3-1, 7-4

R5 - James on Esperblade
His turn 1 Thoughtseize on my hand of Top + random garbage looked pretty good, but I was able to set up a turn 5 Show and Tell with Counterspell backup, correctly reading that he had Force in hand after he passed a turn with 2 cards and 4 mana untapped. Game 2 was a quick affair, and I basically ran him over with the combo.
4-1, 9-4

R6 - Tyler on Grixis Tezzeret
I wasn't expecting this deck so deep in the tournament, but he was running crazy hot. This match was also streamed: https://www.twitch.tv/cardkingdom/v/...61?t=02h56m00s
Game 1 I got down my Top, but he had a Chalice on 1. I set up to Cunning Wish for a Wear / Tear, while he played Tezzeret. He obviously had the Force + blue card (in his deck with like 18 blue cards), then killed me. Game 2 was more of the same, he had a turn 1 Chalice with Force backup for my Force, then also had Tezzeret left to kill me. I think he made a big mistake by attacking, which allowed me to kill his Chalice on 1 by blocking with a Mentor, a fresh Monk, and two of the three dead Brainstorms in hand, but he ripped two castable artifacts in 3 draws between Dack and Baleful Strix to lethal me with Tezz.
4-2, 9-6

Well, that was it for my tournament. Tyler ended up losing in the finals to Burn, which really does seem well positioned right now with a bunch of Aluren and other BUG decks, and few Delver or fast combo.

Mulling over the results and deckbuilding:
The two D&T matches were much closer than my previous experience against them has been, but I think that overall my opponents' draws were above average (Thalia, Karakas, and Prelate every game) while mine were about average to bad. Still, cutting the fourth Terminus might be a little greedy. The Wear instead of the EE was great, pretty happy with that change. Counterspell was solid, put it to good use against Miracles and Esperblade. I'm still not sure about Impulse over the second Predict. The difference is just too marginal to say. One game I was able to Impulse two extra Omnisciences to the bottom and find a land, where Predict would have drawn me one plus a random card. Not enough data yet. Overall happy with the deck, and I think it has every chance of being a Tier 1 deck if more players picked it up.

[thefringthing]

I picked up the cards for this at GP Louisville and have been reading over what little material you've written up about it so far. A couple of quick questions:

1) Is there a reason to play a 4/1 split of non-Strand fetchlands over 3/2?

2) How have you been sideboarding against Death & Taxes? Like Miracles would? I know you bring in the Mentors.

3) I know you think this is bad in a Reanimator-heavy metagame, but is there anything you would try other than playing a different deck? Would you go up to a third Surgical Extraction or play a 1/1 Surgical/Faerie Macabre split or something like that?

[phazonmutant]

I picked up the cards for this at GP Louisville and have been reading over what little material you've written up about it so far. A couple of quick questions:

1) Is there a reason to play a 4/1 split of non-Strand fetchlands over 3/2?

2) How have you been sideboarding against Death & Taxes? Like Miracles would? I know you bring in the Mentors.

3) I know you think this is bad in a Reanimator-heavy metagame, but is there anything you would try other than playing a different deck? Would you go up to a third Surgical Extraction or play a 1/1 Surgical/Faerie Macabre split or something like that?

1) Nope
2) Something like: +2 StP, +1 Disenchant, +2 Mentor, +1/2 EE, -3 Counterbalance, -2 Predict, -2 Force

The intuition is you can't pay the mana to Wish for an answer in the games where you actually need the answers like Plow and Disenchant.

3) More graveyard hate definitely helps. The question is cuts. Your meta will determine that.

[thefringthing]

I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

I'm testing out one Merchant Scroll over the fourth Wish as a way of making the Counterbalance curve a little better.

[ESG]

I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

This isn't so rare, actually. I've played against at least two people who blind-Predicted a 4-of. When you play more 4-ofs in your deck, your odds are much better to hit. I still choose to believe Greg is a master and could blind-Predict a 2-of just as easily.

[phazonmutant]

This isn't so rare, actually. I've played against at least two people who blind-Predicted a 4-of. When you play more 4-ofs in your deck, your odds are much better to hit. I still choose to believe Greg is a master and could blind-Predict a 2-of just as easily.

Not a master, just prescient. The spice must flow, etc.

I guess actually there are some dumb corner case situations involving desperation Predicts where the 4/1 fetchland split is better.

I'm testing out one Merchant Scroll over the fourth Wish as a way of making the Counterbalance curve a little better.

Good point. Oh that's an interesting idea. I actually have had several long games against Miracles and other grindy decks where I've run through all 4 Cunning Wishes, but otherwise that seems solid.

[thefringthing]

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

[.dk]

Not a master, just prescient. The spice must flow, etc.



Good point. Oh that's an interesting idea. I actually have had several long games against Miracles and other grindy decks where I've run through all 4 Cunning Wishes, but otherwise that seems solid.

I was actually testing out a Merchant Scroll in one of the Predict slots - obviously not as good for the CB curve. Usually was finding me Force of Will to backup S&T, but obviously multi-faceted. I suppose you could also run it in the 4th Terminus slot as well to help the counterbalance curve out too.

[thefringthing]

TFW opponent sees Merchant Scroll for Impulse and puts you on High Tide, then walks into a huge Terminus:


For reference, my maindeck is currently:
20 Land
4 Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will, Omniscience, Show and Tell, Sensei's Divining Top
3 Cunning Wish, Terminus, Counterbalance
1 Counterspell, Impulse, Predict, Merchant Scroll, Split Decision, Emrakul, Nahiri

[phazonmutant]

Haha this sounds so janky but I like it.

List looks reasonable.

[thefringthing]

Is Containment Priest in the board going too deep against Reanimator and Death & Taxes?

[cris_rj]

Almost completing the paper liso of the deck. I bought a personal tutor and a secound Nahiri test it !

[phazonmutant]

Is Containment Priest in the board going too deep against Reanimator and Death & Taxes?

Probably. I don't think it's good enough for D&T, and Surgical is better if you want to beat Reanimator.

Almost completing the paper liso of the deck. I bought a personal tutor and a secound Nahiri test it !

Cool! Pretty sure Personal Tutor isn't good though.

[thefringthing]

I tried my list from a previous post -1 Merchant Scroll -1 Show and Tell +1 Personal Tutor +1 Cunning Wish and thought it was fine. If it's worse than just playing 4/4/4 split of combo pieces and not worrying about the Counterbalance curve so much, it's not much worse.

[Jon]

Played in a monthly local event, not a large turnout due to rain and shit. Lost to the winner twice. First round and the finals.

Tried my hardest to channel my inner Hot Carl but didnt have a Vneck Tee or a sweet scaft. Shoulda been better and gone to Georgia Tech.

Lost to Team America spoiled by Dr. P
Beat Jund, 12 Post, B/W Pox, and UWR Blade.

Deck was pretty solid, not too happy about the mana base but thats fixable.

[nedleeds]

Played in a monthly local event, not a large turnout due to rain and shit. Lost to the winner twice. First round and the finals.

Tried my hardest to channel my inner Hot Carl but didnt have a Vneck Tee or a sweet scaft. Shoulda been better and gone to Georgia Tech.

Lost to Team America spoiled by Dr. P
Beat Jund, 12 Post, B/W Pox, and UWR Blade.

Deck was pretty solid, not too happy about the mana base but thats fixable.

1 x Pimpulse.

[thefringthing]

Maybe this has been hashed out somewhere in the Mono-Blue Omni thread, but is there any argument for replacing Eladamri's Call with Congregation at Dawn to let you find a Flusterstorm with Firemind's Foresight instead of a Brainstorm?

EDIT: I guess maybe you would still get Brainstorm anyway, since the most likely scenario where it matters is defending against Surgical Extraction? But in this case you get to save the Brainstorm to switch plans rather than use it up setting up plan A.