No Miracle at all - 56th at GP Strasbourg

[Einherjer]

So I was attending GP Strasbourg, obviously. What deck would I be playing? Well, owning all of the blue Legacy Control and Tempodecks gave me quite some options. I was very familiar with the Miracles-archetype as I did play that deck at GP Ghent (to a failure) and at several Legacy Opens here in Austria with quite some success. I had been testing the deck with Stefan Schütz (who placed 11th at this GP) on Cockatrice a lot, which increased my playskill quite a lot. For the theoretic part of Miracles Fabio Matteo Dozio (who sadly couldn’t attend the GP) was my buddy of choice, I was debating quite a lot with him, which helped me in most decisions of cardchoices. The weekend before the GP there was another Open to be held so I decided to play the UWr Miraclebladerip-build I had been testing/discussing over the past weeks. It was pretty much Greed-Miracle, combining so many different gameplans into one, but it worked out, I won that tournament so I knew I’d be playing Miracles at the GP.

We left on Friday 1 am, so this was gonna be a long day. A friend picked me up at home, together we drove to the next big city where we joined the other 2 of us. Right after we were up to Vienna. Nothing really happened on the way there, besides the typical discussion about metagames and decks, ya know. Once at Vienna we were off to Frankfurt and from there to Strasbourg. Everything went supersmooth and we arrived about 2 hours in advance! Nice.

So we made our way to the site and met some people. I was trying to buy some fbb Trops german in nm quality, but they only had one, and this one was overpriced so I left the merchants-area rather pissed. I registred for a GPT and lost the first round to Esperblade. Happens. Time to enter the second one, and time to die to Esperblade in R1 again. Well, one more trial? Sure, so off we go and I got butchered by Maverick in R1. I was pissed, you know? So I sat down and was trying to make my list fit this Espermeta better. Stoneforge Mystic and Skull didn’t seem to cut it with so few Jund around. Though being good against Tempo it might not be necessary. So I cut these 3 slots for 1 more land (Mishra – good against opposing Jaces), Counterbalance and Blood Moon. So I entered the Legacy Warmup and beat Esperblade in R1. Yay! In R2 I was so tired and played rather bad so I just conceded to my opponent after the time has been called. I went to bad soon after I ate some fries.

I was waking up at about 3 or 4am with an important idea. I need to have an Batterskull and a Disenchant in my Sideboard. With having that idea I could be sleeping way better for the rest of the night. As soon as I woke up later I jumped out of the bed and smashed these cards into the Side.

So, we were up to the site and the player meeting, obviously I had an illegal decklist with 13 sideboardcards. But I did change it just in time so I was able to play this deck:



1) Fonmarty Mathieu with RUG Delver
I: I start with a Top, he is deploying a Delver and a Grim Lavamancer. Both don’t do a lot and I keep floating a Terminus on Top, but before casting it I decide to force through my Counterbalance, and sweep afterwards. After smashing a Blood Moon we are ready for game 2.
II: He is pretty much doing everything Tempo should do. Waste, Stifle, Daze, early threat. I die the way I am supposed to :D
III: I open with a lot of Basiclands and buisnessspells, like multiple Balances and RIPs. I just play one after the other and win from there. Before he has the chance to recover anyhow I Helm of Obedience him.

1-0

2) Anghelescu Jonathan with Sneak and Show
I: I know him, so I know what he was playing, which didn’t really help G1 as I have way to many bad cards preboard. Show and Tell into something and I am dead.
II: Humility? Check. 2 Counterspells? Check. Lands? Check. Well I think he is dead already… After countering his Sneak Attack and letting his Show and Tell resolve while floating a cc3 on Top with Balance in Play this game is pretty much over.
III: Detention Sphere is on my starthand, Humility joins soon after. A clique and a lot of counter don’t let him get into the game. When he is one 3 with my Clique in play he has one drawstep to draw an out. Scalding Tarn from top and he is dead.

2-0

3) Camps Pierre with Elves
I: I keep a good hand against any creaturedeck. He starts with Gitaxian Probe and I panic a little. When he proceeds to slam a Forest and a Llanowar Elf I am all happy again. After Balance and Terminus did resolve he is practically dead.
II: Well, I got even more spicey stuff in my sideboard. Pyroclasm <3. I just Pyroclasm and Terminus a little until I get to resolve Humility, Skull and Balance. Everything from this point is probably a joke.

3-0

4) Estratti Samuele with RUG Delver
I: He keeps, and mulls to 4, and passes. I think he is playing Oops/Belcher/TinFins so I smash RIP and Balance. He is mindtricking me as he is counting something on his cards and concedes. I fall for this ruse and board against these combodecks.
II: Well, I don’t have alot of removal left in my deck so I die to a lone delver.
III: I keep a rather good hand and handle everything he plays besides… Sulfuric Vortex. Still I find an Tutor in time, though the Detention Sphere gets Red Elemental Blasted. And here we are, my first loss. Damnit. Though losing to Estratti seemed fair.

3-1

5) Borra Lennaert with Team America
I: He deploys an Delver which gets Swords to Plowshares. Soon after he plays double Tarmogoyf. I just deploy and force through my RIP and he is dead.
II: I just have enough Balances to play through his Decays and lock him out the typical way. After I got a Blood Moon out he is practically dead.

4-1

6) Stopar Samo with Canadian Threshold
I: He plays Volcanic Island, Ponder and I am a little afraid of him playing Combo, as my hand isn’t that confident with handling too unfair stuff. As he proceeds to play a Delver everything seems great. I swords that one and Balance/Top-lock him out.
II: T1 Nimble Mongoose? Impressing. The Mongoose is forced to stay 1/1 which buys me enough time to lock him out. After he is locked I terminus and he is dead.

5-1

7) Karlsson Alexander with Maverick
He was the Maverickplayer who beat me on Friday. So time to battle again my friend.
I: Well this was a easy one. I didn’t have much removal besides a Swords to Plowshares but I had the T5-kill with RIP/Helm and he is just trying to beat me down with Knight and Sigarda. I am faster.
II: I keep in Spell Pierces and handle a GSZ and a Choke, but a topdecked Teeg is getting me some problems. I keep bouncing him with Jace while I look for an solution with my Top, in the last turn possible I decide to Brainstorm with Jace, fetch and look into top, fetch, top again and there it is. Pyroclasm. It kills Teeg, the freshly played Mother of Runes and the RIPed-Knight. Well game over because 10 Angels come down a turn later.

6-1

8) Giraud Virgile Dredge Dredge
I: I start with Top, he is like exploding but misses a Therapy, so he is pretty pissed when I drop RIP on my turn 2.
II: My T2 RIP is too slow, I die to Flayer of the Instantkill.
III: I got aloot of counters, so my hand only dies to Draw, Discard, Dredge. He decides to go for it the traditional way and I counter like 3 or 4 outlets. After I get a RIP and a Helm he concedes.

7-1

9) Koini Patrik with MUD
Yay, playing against a friend I came here with, great.
I: I keep a pretty good hand against MUD but still he has too many buisnessspells. My Cliquebeatdown isn’t going to work as I have to Swords 2 Wurmcoils so a lategame Karn seals the deal.
II: I get manascrewd by a lot of Wastelands and Rishadan Port, so I am dead, no matter what he plays.

7-2

Hmm atleast Day 2 without any Byes, not too shabby but there is still a second day! Btw, Byes are for girls.

We were going to bed early, 2 of us reached Day 2 so we had to go to the site rather early. I was somewhat happy with my score, as I scrubbed out at GP Ghent with 3 Byes, but I didn’t really expect to do good at day 2 though.


10) Brown Eric with Sneak Attack
I: I really manage to do the unmanageable. I lock him out G1. With Counterbalance. Floating Blood Moon and Jace on Top. I did let most of his cantrips resolve in fear of Show and Tell and Sneak Attack. After having countered a lot of his spells he decides to go for the Emrakul hardcast. No problem for me, though it takes him a long time to get the mana. Once he cast Emrakul I terminus and he concedes… great… not much time left though.
II: I keep the hand with Force of Will and Flusterstorm but I don’t draw anything too good from there. So I painfully die a few turns later.
III: I manage to get Humility, Balance and 3 Tops on the battlefield with alot of lands and 7 counters in my hand. Though I lack a win condition. Sadly time is being called and I show him my hand and friendly ask for him to concede as his hand is nothing but 2 counters. He says no, fair enough. This was my first sanctioned match I unintentionally drew, dammnit.

7-2-1

11) Manach Vincent with Dredge
I: T2 RIP is enough. Really these matches aren’t even fun.
II: I open with RIP and 2 or 3 counters. Not like he had a chance.

8-2-1

12) Hausmann Marius with BUG Delver
I have been talking to him earlier that day, so I pretty much know his deck. BUG Delver is a rather easy matchup… as long as they don’t play Dark Confidant which he does. *sighs*
I: He has 2 Dark Confidants and 2 Tarmogoyfs to follow up. I just can’t find enough removal for them and die a painful death.
II: I got enough removal for all of his creatures and feel pretty confident in winning this until he rips the 1of Lilly from the top! Nooo! Well though she does not kill me she manages to shorten my ressoucres that hard that Confi and Strix kill me.

8-3-1

13) Alveirinho João with BUG Control
His deck is traditionally a bad MU- alot of Planeswalkers, Deeds and Counters. Didn’t test vs it at all as I didn’t think this deck would be a metafactor.
I: 2 Counterbalances provide me with enough Cardadvantage to enable me to win the Planeswalkerwar. Soon after Angels end the game.
II: He somehow decided to keep atleast 3 Force of Will in and forces 3 of my early plays. Well… this didn’t get him far as he 2-1ed himself… not too great. Though I was out of Balances and RIPs at that time I just slammed a Jace and proceeded to win.

9-3-1

14) Ballester Carlos with Esperstoneblade
Here it is, the matchup I was planning to dodge. But pairings are pairings, time to stomp him!
I: I play Top, then Balance, he decides to Force of Will. He then slams Souls. I play my second Balance and sweep the board. On his next turn he resolves Jace, but instead of like fatesealing me/or him he decides to Brainstorm… but I am able to Counterbalance every single spell he tries to resolve. Mishra and a T1 later my Clique end Jace’s miserable life, and win me the game soon after.
II: Here I do a try a experimental Sideboardplan I had been discussing with Tomáš Vlček on Saturday. It is boarding out the Swords and keep Terminus in, and board in Pyroclasms obviously. This is a good plan as long as you have Counterbalance, if you don’t it is worse. But with 4 Balances postboard I felt good doing so. And it just worked, I resolved a Balance, swept the Board and he was practically dead from there. The last turningpoint was him casting Batterskull, which forced me to Enlighten Tutor for my own, which meant I had to sacrifice my 2 and my 3 slot on top. I slammed that Skull, but he had Clique and 2 Mystics. They got a SoFaF and started the Beatdown. I found my Mishra in time and started the anti-race with Skull on this Mishra. When I topdecked my Clique everything was over, as he didn’t leave any removal in, postboard.

10-3-1

15) Mackl Valentin with RUG Burn
I: He managed to put down a Nimble Mongoose before I Counterbalance-locked him. I knew his list, because I built it for a friend of mine for the Legacy Championship for Sunday, so it was rather easy as I didn’t play around Stifle/Daze/Waste. While the Mongo was hitting me I deployed a Blood Moon and got a Warning because I tried to activate my Mishra, dammnit. In any way, on 1 life I decided to combo for it with Helm and win.
II: I remove his first threats and lock him out with 1 and 2 on top. He only has the 1of Grip as an out from this time. Here I get another judgecall because of an trigger but I bring the game home in any way on back of my lone Mishra beating him down from 18 to 0.

11-3-1

16) Rivoire Jean-Luc with Canadian Threshold
I: Last round, good matchup, lets go for it. I swords his first Delver and lock him out. Easy job.
II: As usual sometimes the RUG-players get this hands. You know, pure tempo, pure destruction. I didn’t manage to do anything, being on the draw didn’t help either :D
III: So, the all deciding match between Top64 and Top32 and my deck decides to do what? Yeah, provide me with an akward hand I pretty have to keep. First time my manabase mocked me. I started with 2 Volcanics, 1 Mishra, 1 Top, 2 Brainstorms, 1 Terminus. You can’t mull this. I only find basic Islands from there on an die to multiple Nimble Mongeese. Shit happens.

11-4-1

So I ended up being 56th. This was my first moneyfinish at a GP and my first propoint. From now on I am a Proplayer :D

After our success we decided to buy some Duel Decks and clash with it. I lost all the games with my Izzet Deck, even though it had Brainstorm. I fell asleep pretty soon after.

It was a great Grand Prix, and I know I won’t be missing any other Legacy-GP in Europe. I was meeting many people, having a lot of fun and ended up cashing, sounds like a perfect weekend, doesn’t it?

I think that Miracles is a great deck capable of beating every single deck out there, though it does require a lot of skill and familiarity with this Archetype. There is nothing worse than see less experienced people play Miracles, they always get into timeout and it one top activations takes way to long for them. When you wanna play Miracles the competitive way you pretty much have to know all decks in and out, you have to know your deck to 101% and you simply have to play at a fast pace, if you don’t this deck isn’t something for you. I wish there would be less bad players playing this deck, as they got us quite a bad reputation out there in the Legacy crowd :(


Greetings


Btw, I didn't feel like checking this text for mistakes. So I am sorry for any I have made, but I simply don't care.

[Loxmatii]

So awesome tops (-:

Greetings with a good result
if another GP will be in a few days, will you bring this deck? If yes, what changes will you do in main/side?

[sauce]

how did you feel about the 4 tundras? i feel like they are more of a liability than a necessity. i've been playing the 2 tundra version since pretty much october. VERY rarely do i get in a situation where I am like "crap... I wish I had a 3rd tundra to fetch".

[lyracian]

Nice read. Congratulations on the money finish.
Could you post a full deck list please rather than just the photo.

[alphastryk]

how did you feel about the 4 tundras? i feel like they are more of a liability than a necessity. i've been playing the 2 tundra version since pretty much october. VERY rarely do i get in a situation where I am like "crap... I wish I had a 3rd tundra to fetch".

Yeah, 4 is a LOT or tundras. 2 feels like too many on occasion for me... perhaps the metagame in europe has less wastelands, or they are used less aggressively?

[Julian23]

As usual, was a pleasure meeting you again in Straßburg. Your report makes me wanna sleeve up Miracles again. Well done! :-)
Cu at the Bazaar?

[Einherjer]

I am short in time (at work right now) so let me answer a few points now, I'll deal with the rest later this week.

I'd play this deck again at any high-profile tournament, not because I think this is the best deck available, but more because of the simple fact that I am experienced with it. I've been playing this deck since the Release of Angels and Terminus, and before I was toying around with Stoneblade. I've tried every single approach to this deck (besides the 4 Ponder-Levy list which I am testing right now ), so I am pretty confident about my decisions and stuff. So yes, I'd play it again.

What to change? Well the mainboard seemed great, I can't remember me mulling at all at this weekend (maybe 2 or 3 times?) and my manabase was unstable one single time, even if I did play against Delver decks all day long. The only cards I did not like were the Timely Reinforcements in the Sideboard. I would probably cut them. Not too sure about what to add though. Probably Explosives and Humility. Pyroclasm was great all weekend, a 2mana Wrath, I can only ask all of you to test it by yourself. This card is just the perfect Terminus addition, and under a RIP it actually is a kill-everything.

4 Tundras... well. I have been playing with 1 Tundra, with 2, most of the time with 3 and now with 4. Though my initial idea behind playing 4 is far from being competitive at all I gotta admit I never felt bad about the 4th. There were games vs Threshold where I had to play 4 Tundras in a row, I wasn't able to go the Basicplan because a Wasteland would screw me even more, obviously. Against other Decks without Wastelands you want as much mana efficiency as you can get, 4 Tundra enable this. I am playing 6 bad lands - Mishra, Karakas, Plains x2 and Volcanic x2. A Tundra is necessary to accompliment this lands. If you decide to play a more straight manabase that many Tundra might not be needed, though I feel that atleast 3 is mandatory, and 4 is probably right too. As said, I felt superconfident about my manabase, in all this weekend I had one game where it screwd me over - obv. R16, G3 :D

More to come once I am at home :D

Greetings

[Kayradis]

Good report! Congrats on the money finish!

What were your overall SB strategies against the match up you didn't face?

[Einherjer]

So, this was the decklist for the GP:

//Lands
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Arid Mesa
4 Island
2 Plains
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Karakas
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
3 Rest in Peace
1 Blood Moon
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Detention Sphere
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
4 Brainstorm
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Vendilion Clique
//Sideboard
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Disenchant
2 Pyroclasm
1 Batterskull
1 Humility
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Entreat the Angels
2 Flusterstorm
1 Counterbalance


As I just don't have the time to like write all boardingplans for all decks I didn't face I'd be glad if you said me the specific matchup you'd like to hear about. Generally Sideboardingplans never work out in real life the way they should. Best example is vs RUG. I board the following:

-4 Force of Will
-1 Entreat the Angels
-2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-1 Spell Pierce
+1 Counterbalance
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast
+1 Batterskull
+2 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Flusterstorm

I did not use this boardingplan against all RUGdecks. Why? Because at some I expected Sulfuric Vortex which would mean +1 Spell Pierce -1 Vendilion Clique. How do you expect it? Well not that easy, the critiques I go after are the following:

Do they play Grim Lavamancer?
Do they play Green Sun's Zenith
Do they play Thought Scour?
Do they play Chain Lightning?
Do they play no Stifle?

If one of the questions above occurs I prefer to board vs Vortex, as these bullet points should indicate a more aggressive/different version of RUG Delver, making Vortex a better choice. Why would I board out Vendilion Clique against Vortex? It is a clock at last. -- well in this deck racing a Vortex is simply not possible, trust me. This is not Stoneblade. We must take care of it, not race it.

So this little experiment should show that general boardingplans are always rather hard, you really need to see the opposing deck in action to board correctly vs it. And on top of that some choices of what to board out come down to personal playstyle too.

So if you wanna know my opinion about any matchup, feel free to ask - but obv. my boardingplans aren't always correct and I am always open to criticism.

And no Julian, sadly I won't be making it to BoM :(

Greetings

[Piceli89]

Thanks for the call in the opening, it was a pleasure to help you (although you still kept that terrible Mishra's Factiry :p), and really good job in achieving so high of a placement. GGz!

EDIT: I wouldn't cut Spell Pierce against Threshold, though: in that matchup it is safer than REB (although ofc less of a "hard" solution) since you run 5 basic Islands and you don't really always want to fetch Volcanic out because of Wasteland and because of the priority to fetch basic Plains before that. It's also a good countermeasure against Stifle in the first 2 turns if you were to begin with a fetchland, where it is really important to not get stuck by their disruption.

[jeanbathez]

Gratz ! Seems you have picked the right version for the GP :-)

[Einherjer]

Gratz ! Seems you have picked the right version for the GP :-)

Thanks
Haha, yep! I was very unsure about whether I should play UWr Miracleblade, or UWr RIPmiracleblade or just UWr Ripmiracle :D Every version has it's up and downsides, but I still think that this version was probably very close to optimal for this meta :D

Greetings