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    Predictor of Miracles
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    [DTB] UWx Miracle Control



    Who Could Have Predicted? An Unexpected Miracle: The Return of the King


    I. Overview
    II. History
    III. Card Choices
    IV. Sample Decklists
    V. Tips/Tricks
    VI. Closing Thoughts
    VII. Further Discussion


    I. Overview

    Miracles still lives! Miracle control has existed for quite some time, and has gone through numerous iterations since the printing of Terminus, up until April 24th, 2017, where the lynchpin of the deck, Sensei's Divining Top was banned. Since then, Miracle control has become a deck centered around the concept of card advantage, in the form of Predict and Jace, the Mind Sculptor alongside with tempo-recovery and enabling of Terminus. With the banning of Sensei's Divining Top, Miracle began to play more library manipulation effects; the most recent being Portent alongside the cantrip suite of Ponder and Brainstorm to manipulate the top cards of the library. It relies on a hard to answer win condition, namely Entreat the Angels and Monastery Mentor.

    All in all, Miracle Control has evolved since its lynchpin card got banned, and now exists within Legacy as a UW(x) control deck with many viable build paths, that seeks to 2-for-1 the opponent and take control of the game. With tools ranging from Snapcaster Mage to Terminus to Ponder to Counterspell, each card in the deck is a premium spell that has broad applications. With these qualities combined together, the Miracles pilot can sculpt the perfect hand with ease.

    DISCLAIMER: It should be noted, that this deck is not easy to play and requires a lot of time and effort to master. Because the deck presents the player with hundreds of options and lines, making the perfect decision becomes much harder, especially when the calculations begin factoring in future turns. However, if playing a powerful control role is your cup of tea, this is the deck for you.

    II. History

    Placeholder

    III. Card Choices

    Creatures:

    Snapcaster Mage: Any creature played in Miracles is played for its ability to disrupt the opponent and/or generate value. Snapcaster is the most common creature played in almost every Miracles variant. Considering the deck runs a good amount of cheap instants and sorceries the card is perfectly at home in this deck. While ideally used to flashback something, it is also perfectly fine to to use Snapcaster as an Ambush Viper when the game state warrants doing so, like when you want to get the pressure going early against a combo deck.

    Vendilion Clique: The second most common Miracles creature for the main deck. This card is not always featured in the main deck as Clique is hit-or-miss against fair decks. However, most lists run at least two in the sideboard for combo and control matchups. In a Delver heavy field this card is probably better left in the sideboard. If you expect more combo and blade decks though it might be better to have Clique in the main, depending on the rest of your deck’s configuration. Cliques provides a lot of disruption, alongside a clock, which the deck sorely needs in some matchups.

    Monastery Mentor: A powerhouse card in the pre-ban iterations of Miracles, Monastery Mentor allows you to convert all of the "air" the deck contains, the cantrip cartel, and gain incremental advantage as the game goes on. Eventually it'll win the game, and FAST. The downsides of this card include requiring resources to commit to make it powerful, while also being a 3 mana 2/2 vanilla creature, so it is slow and inefficient up front. However, Miracle control contains a suite of spells that work very well with Monastery Mentor, and is probably the current best deck in Legacy to facilitate the existence of the card. It can play both offensively and defensively, but it needs resources.


    Spells:

    Brainstorm: Assuming you have played even a little legacy you have certainly come across the format’s most iconic card. With Brainstorm and fetchlands every deck gets to play magic at a more consistent rate than usually since inherent gameplay variance like mana flood, dead draws, and such are significantly mitigated against with Brainstorm and other cantrips. This legacy staple is particularly important in Miracles as sometimes hands get cluttered with uncastable Miracle cards that need to eventually be put back on top to become live again. In addition to helping the deck making clunky miracle cards live again, Brainstorm has two other essential functions. Since it is an instant speed cantrip, we can use it to trigger miracle cards on our opponent’s turn.

    Ponder: Arguably the second best cantrip in the format, Ponder is a fantastic addition to the deck’s arsenal of weapons. Much like Brainstorm, the card excels at mitigating gameplay variance and can be used to set up Miracle spells and chain cantrips.

    Portent: One of the cards exclusive to the post-ban iterations of Miracles, it's essentially a worse version of Ponder, but has the unique capability of setting up opponent-turn Miracle triggers. It also allows you to play around such effects as Leovold, Emissary of Trest which definitely is relevant in Legacy today.

    Predict: The lynchpin of this new iteration of Miracles, Predict is a very interesting card, and before the ban (and to some less extent, even now), polarized a lot of the Miracles and control community. Predict, at face value, is an instant speed draw two, but requires setup. Before the ban, the setup was relatively easy since you always were able to manipulate the top of your library with Top, Counterbalance, Jace, and cantrips, but it's a bit more difficult now. However, the card is extremely important because a control deck can never truly pull ahead if all it's doing is trading one-for-one. Predict is one of the only true 2-for-1 effects within Legacy, creating literal card advantage in a format that, strangely enough, is rather lacking. There is a lot of theory behind the card, and was quite dominant in the pre-ban iterations towards the end, but is now a critical piece of the deck. A means to pull ahead, a means to instant-speed a miracle, and a means to start a counterbattle on the opponent's end step are all quite powerful.

    I have a short primer on the card, pre-ban, located here.

    Force of Will: The card that holds the format together. Being able to stop combo decks on the play with your opening hand is vital. In a deck whose goal is to make land drop the chances you can hard cast this in the late game is reasonable enough. Not only necessary against combo decks but may also be necessary against decks with cards or angles of attack Miracles can have a hard time deal with. There will be many times you will be siding Force of Will out. However, Force of Will is one of the format’s most powerful and intricate tools available to blue decks. Don’t auto-side it out in every fair MU just because it generates card disadvantage. Sometimes you need it so as to not die to cards like Aether Vial.

    Counterspell: Since we are a slow deck that seeks to go into the late game, it is important for us to have some hard counters in addition to Force of Will. Good ol’ Counterspell is our best option in that regard.

    Spell Pierce/Spell Snare/Flusterstorm: If you want to play more countermagic, you can play either of these or both in some combination, but they are quite narrow at times.

    Swords to Plowshares: Arguably the best removal spell in the format. It does not get more efficient than removing any creature for one mana and a card. Always play between three to four.

    Terminus: The removal spell to end all removal spells – Terminus. Released in Avacyn’s Restored, this card was a huge upgrade for UWx Control in Legacy for two major reasons. First, the card has a virtual CMC of 1 – this is the most efficient option available for the deck and a strict upgrade from its predecessor, Wrath of God. With all the selection and filtering present in the deck, accessing this card’s effect for the low cost of 1 mana is extremely easy to do. The low price of 1 mana also helps play around taxing counters like Spell Pierce and Daze. Second, the “Miracle” trigger enables Terminus to be cast at instant speed. This allows the Miracles player to cast the removal spell at times more opportunistic, whether it be during the opponent’s upkeep, end step, in response to a Brainstorm, or even after the opponent unsuspectedly deploys more creatures. Instant speed also means mana can be held up for counterspells instead. Terminus is also unique in that it gets around "dies" or destroy effects by putting creatures on the bottom of the library, which is almost always an upside compared to a lot of wrath effects. Without top, it's a lot less feasible to maintain the End Step miracle, but it's still completely powerful as a 1 mana draw step wrath, adding an unfair element to an otherwise fair control deck. Portent and Predict also enable it on the opponents turn, albeit at different times.

    Supreme Verdict: The other wrath the deck can play. While Terminus is more efficient, Verdict is always going to be reliable and doesn't necessarily rely on being "enabled." Verdict certainly has weaknesses: Requiring WW in the mana cost, as well as being 4 mana, make it difficult to align against any mana-taxing strategies like Death and Taxes and Delver w/ Stifles, and it also guaranteed to be a sorcery, making it hard to cast multiple spells in the same turn if you cast a 4 mana sorcery. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide if this sort of effect is something you're willing to play.

    Unexpectedly Absent: A new edition to the post-ban decklists, UA takes up what once had cards like Council's Judgment or Engineered Explosives, it started seeing play as an instant speed answer to troublesome resolved permanents. It also has some seemingly cute synergy with cards like Portent and Jace, the Mind Sculptor, as well as Predict. These interactions are far more powerful than they might first appear, and was a massive part of the first few iterations of the post-ban Miracles lists. Still played in many iterations, it creates a crux on turn 2 where the Miracles player could cast Counterspell, Predict, or UA, and creates a focal point for the opponent. Very powerful psychological factor as well.

    Engineered Explosives: Another anti-permanent answer card, EE is utilized very well in conjunction with Mentor, often generating 2-for-1 value while also acting as a powerful psuedo-sweeper. Played more in the Red or Black splash versions of the deck. Utilized heavily against Chalice of the Void decks, as well as
    any token or "wide" strategies such as Elves. An all around great, and sometimes hyper-efficient card.

    Council's Judgment: Was played a lot more often in the pre-ban iterations of Miracles, Council's Judgment is rather inefficient but has the higher upside of getting rid of pretty much any problematic nonland permanent. Excellent against True-Name Nemesis and Leovold, Emissary of Trest this card has the upside, when compared to UA and EE, always costing only 3 mana and having the ability to get rid of planeswalkers.

    Entreat the Angels: The other important Miracle card of this deck. While Entreat takes a good amount of setup, it helps this rather slow deck close out games quickly. This is the main reason that so many lists run Entreat as one of its win conditions still, and is resilient to any resource taxation, as well as being primarily uninteractable, outside of countermagic.


    Planeswalkers:

    Jace, the Mind Sculptor: Needing no introduction, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is one of, if not, the most powerful planeswalkers in all of Magic: The Gathering. Considered “better than all”, each of Jace’s four abilities are extremely relevant to the Miracles game plan. First and foremost, Jace’s value comes from the fact that he is a card advantage engine that doubles as a win condition. Jace’s Brainstorm ability is disproportionately powerful in Miracles than in other decks because it has the added benefit of resetting uncastable miracles. Additionally, since the deck has such concentrated raw power, each Jace Brainstorm pushes you forward by a huge amount, making it all the easier to drown the opponent out. The ultimate is also a realistic win condition that closes games quite frequently. However, this typically occurs once the game state has been locked down. As a control deck, the ideal deckbuilding scenario is one where there are as few win conditions as possible, as win conditions don’t always contribute to the deck’s primary game plan. So, that Jace is a win condition that forwards our plan and more makes it easily overqualified for slots in the list. The other two abilities of Jace are also amazing. Fate sealing (the +2 ability) is fantastic in that it allows you to disrupt your opponent’s draws while filtering your own. In conjunction with the cantrip suite, fate sealing yourself allows you to blaze through your deck at the same speed as Brainstorming each turn – the tradeoff here is sacrificing card advantage for a means to close the game, which can be correct in certain situations. Fate sealing the opponent deflects cards they might draw that can’t be easily handled. Lastly, the Unsummon effect on this planeswalker is relevant in that it is a pseudo creature removal spell that buys time to stabilize. For example, using the -1 ability on an Insectile Aberration is great since the opponent must now recast the Delver of Secrets AND have it flip, while also eventually buying back your own Snapcaster Mages in order to generate additional value. Jace’s only real downside is that it costs a whopping four mana, which sometimes is difficult to cast in a format like Legacy.

    Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: A walker that saw play in some small spots pre-ban, it's started to see a lot more testing in the post ban world. Gideon is unique because it cannot get bolted, isn't blue so it can't get pyroblasted, and costs more than 3 mana so it cannot get decayed, or killed byFatal Push for a multitude of reasons, Gideon excels at any fair matchup because it's extremely difficult to kill and will quickly create a dominant board presence. While still on the level of "fringe," Gideon is very powerful as the format continues to get more and more fair.


    Utility Lands:

    Karakas: Karakas is a strong utility land in Legacy, having wide applications across various matchups. Great against Leovold (sometimes), and other legendary creatures like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Griselbrand, and Iona, Shield of Emeria. Karakas is also very useful alongside your own legendary creatures, such as Venser, Shaper Savant as well as the aforementioned Vendilion Clique to create a sort of "lock" on the opponent and win via your value threats. There is, however, a cost associated with the inclusion of Karakas is that it is, at worst, a white source that gets wastelanded, but also doesn't tap for blue mana. Because Miracles is rather mana-color intensive, not all Miracles builds can facilitate the inclusion of it. To this end, Karakas is often only played in the UW versions of neo-Miracles, as the manabase in the splash variants is difficult to keep consistent while also playing Karakas.


    Common Sideboard Choices:

    Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast: There are (arguably) two reasons to be splashing Red in neo-Miracles, and access to sideboard Blasts is one of them. The blasts excel at opposing blue strategies and opposing card advantage battles, namely any deck that utilizes Snapcaster Mage, True-Name Nemesis, Leovold, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. A one mana counterspell for all of these effects, the card is extremely powerful and can be utilized extremely well with your own Snapcaster mages to break open blue mirror matches.

    Blood Moon: The other reason for most people to consider playing the red splash, Blood Moon is very polarizing and powerful in a bevy of matchups. Since our own fetchlands are a lot less powerful without Top in the deck, it's less of a detriment to shut them off, so Blood Moon seems more appealing. Used to shut down popular strategies such as 4c Leovold decks or Lands, Blood Moon is often a meta-dependent card and can sometimes be, simultaneously, the least sideboarded card AND the most powerful card in your sideboard.

    Back to Basics: If you're not playing red and still would like a lot of what Blood Moon does, Back to Basics is both a good replacement, but also sometimes an upgrade! The weakness in comparison to Blood Moon is that it allows the opponent to continue making land drops and cast spells, but Back to Basics doesn't ever really mess with your own mana, and still turns on fetchlands. Often sharing the same effect, there are a few cases where one is better than the other, but definitely a strong consideration when building a sideboard.

    Flusterstorm: One of the sideboard counterspells of choice for most Miracle pilots. Usually played as a two or three-of. Usually brought in against any combo deck, Delver decks with Stifle, and the Mirror. Extremely powerful alongside Snapcaster Mage as well, but kind of a pain to resolve correctly on MTGO! Beware!

    Surgical Extraction: The premium choice for graveyard hate for Miracles, due to it being "free," and not interfering with Snapcaster Mage's graveyard abilities. Since one of the premiere decks of the format is RB Reanimator, having a free form of disruption is extremely critical, and Surgical just does everything the deck wants to be doing against opposing graveyards.

    Disenchant/Wear//Tear: Referred to as an anti-annoying card, these cards were often grouped together and played based on your mana considerations. If you had a glut of red, and perhaps a mountain, Wear//Tear was often played because of its fuse upside, while Disenchant has no such requirement and is able to be played solely off of white mana. You see less copies of these cards than you used to, mainly because most decklists have access to main deck ways to interact with the cards you're normally using this on, Unexpectedly Absent. That being said, if lists move away from UA, then they will also be forced to add more copies of these in their sideboards.

    Pithing Needle: Generic hate. Mainly used for Sneak attack, Mother of Runes, Thespian's Stage, Aether Vial, Equipment, with many many other applications.

    Izzet Staticaster/Pyroclasm/Kozilek's Return: An additional red-based anti-creature effect, which one you use is often based on which matchup you want to target, while maintain\ing ancillary effectiveness against other decks. For example, Staticaster shines vs something like Infect and Elves, while still maintaining utility against Grixis Pyromancer/Delver and a slew of other decks, as it is a source of persistent removal. The one-of effects, Pyroclasm/Kozilek's Return, are primarily impressive when against a lot of x-2 decks, since they can kill both Young Pyromancer AND Deathrite Shama in one swoop. If you play these effects, these considerations are very important to make.

    Ethersworn Canonist: A card that only saw fringe play before the ban, this card/effect is rather important now since neo-Miracles is not able to lean on Counterbalance against the slew of combo decks that Legacy has to offer. Canonist is an anti-storm card, that you utilize against combo decks to primarily protect the Queen and hose them. While it has some dyssynergy alongside Snapcaster Mage, the power level of what it has to offer is often worth it alone.

    Leyline of Sanctity: A somewhat strange inclusion, at first glance, some lists have shifted away from Canonist as storm players begin to play more answers to the card, and towards Leyline which is often just as powerful, while less of a clock. Leyline offers some utility against Burn, as well as the Twirl/Lejay Grixis Pyromancer deck that attacks Miracles's hands. Definitely a strong consideration if you want to maintain your game plan without disruption against these decks.

    Containment Priest: Always a mainstay consideration in any white deck in Legacy, Containment Priest is very good at what it does. Hosing Show and Tell decks, as well as reanimation strategies and creature tutor strategies (Green Sun's Zenith and Natural Order), Containment Priest is quite powerful at accomplishing what you need her to do. Being 2 mana, however, requires that you play her alongside other cheaper, more efficient effects, and protect her as best as you can.


    IV. Sample Decklists

    Stefano Garcia's Soothsaying Miracles:

    3 Counterbalance
    2 soothsaying
    3 monastery mentor
    3 Snapcaster mage
    2 jace, the Mind Sculptor
    3 swords to Plowshares
    4 Terminus
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Council's judgment
    2 Counterspell
    4 Force of will
    4 Brainstorm
    4 ponder
    2 predict
    4 Polluted Delta
    4 Flooded Strand
    1 Arid mesa
    2 tundra
    3 Volcanic Island
    4 Island
    2 Plains

    Sb:
    2 blood moon
    1 Counterbalance
    2 wear / tear
    1 Izzet staticaster
    2 surgical extraction
    1 containment priest
    3 Flusterstorm
    2 Pyroblast
    1 Red Elemental blast

    Anuraag Das's Miracles from QFP: Black Lotus Event:

    1 Arid Mesa
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Island
    2 Plains
    4 Scalding Tarn
    3 Tundra
    2 Volcanic Island
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Counterspell
    1 Entreat the Angels
    4 Force of Will
    4 Ponder
    3 Portent
    3 Predict
    1 Supreme Verdict
    3 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Terminus
    1 Unexpectedly Absent
    3 Counterbalance
    3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    2 Search for Azcanta


    1 Disenchant
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Entreat the Angels
    3 Flusterstorm
    3 Pyroblast
    1 Snapcaster Mage
    2 Supreme Verdict
    3 Surgical Extraction

    Nicklas Lallo's Miracles:

    3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    1 Entreat the Angels
    4 Ponder
    3 Portent
    1 Supreme Verdict
    4 Terminus
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Counterspell
    4 Force of Will
    3 Predict
    3 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Unexpectedly Absent
    3 Counterbalance
    2 Search for Azcanta
    2 Arid Mesa
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Island
    2 Plains
    2 Scalding Tarn
    3 Tundra
    3 Volcanic Island


    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Disenchant
    1 Engineered Explosives
    3 Flusterstorm
    1 From the Ashes
    1 Monastery Mentor
    1 Null Rod
    3 Pyroblast
    1 Red Elemental Blast
    2 Surgical Extraction

    Callum Smith's Miracles:
    3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    1 Council's Judgment
    2 Entreat the Angels
    4 Ponder
    3 Portent
    4 Terminus
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Counterspell
    4 Force of Will
    2 Predict
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Counterbalance
    2 Search for Azcanta
    1 Arid Mesa
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Island
    1 Misty Rainforest
    2 Plains
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Scalding Tarn
    3 Tundra
    3 Volcanic Island


    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Counterbalance
    1 Disenchant
    3 Flusterstorm
    2 Monastery Mentor
    2 Pyroblast
    1 Red Elemental Blast
    3 Surgical Extraction
    1 Vendilion Clique

    V. Tips and Tricks
    1. When playing against Wasteland Decks, and you have a fetch and a Predict you've set up, you can fetch, hold priority, cast Predict, to play around your opponents ability to "get you" via wastelanding your fetch land.


    VI. Closing Thoughts
    Miracle Control continues to exist in Legacy, as a staple of the format. A natural gravitation towards anyone that played the old deck, its strengths and weaknesses are bit more polarized. I believe that this deck is here to stay and definitely deserves both respect and consideration when considering any Legacy tournament you might play in today.

    Special thanks to Anuraag Das, Callum Smith, Marcus Ewaldh, Nicklas Lallo, Anders Thiesen, Angelo Cadei and the rest of the Miracles cabal on helping both put Miracles back on the map in a post-Top world, as well as the work on this primer! Special thanks to Anthony DeLorenzi for the formatting and notation assistance!

    VII. Further Discussion

    The Miracles Discord Server is a good place to chat with other miracles enthusiasts:https://discord.gg/erDdV5a
    The article by PV called Countering Spells: https://www.channelfireball.com/arti...tering-spells/
    The article by Nick Spagnolo called Casting Blue Spells: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=9237
    The article by Reid Duke called Control decks: https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...cks-2014-10-06
    The article by PV called Reducing Variance: https://www.channelfireball.com/home...cing-variance/
    The article by PV called Technical Play: https://www.channelfireball.com/home...echnical-play/
    The article by Mike Flores called Who’s the beatdown: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/f..._Beatdown.html
    The follow up article by Zvi Mowshowitz called: Who’s The Beatdown II: Multitasking: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/print.asp?ID=2754
    The article by Reid Duke called Thoughtseize you: http://www.starcitygames.com/article...seize-You.html
    The article by Chad Ellis called The Danger of Cool Things: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/f...ol_Things.html
    Last edited by Minniehajj; 06-04-2018 at 09:44 AM.
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