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Thread: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

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    [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control



    I. Overview
    II. Core Deck List
    III. Card Choices
    IV. How to Play the Deck
    V. How to Evaluate Opening Hands
    VI. Sideboarding
    VII. Why Play This?
    IIX. Tournament Reports


    I. Overview

    Miracle of Science is a combo-control deck that is a hybrid of two existing decks, Miracles and Omnitell. It takes the soft-lock and consistency of Miracles but ditches the reliance on creatures. It takes the uninteractive combo of Omnitell, but ditches the bad cards. The result is a flexible, powerful deck that has tool for every matchup.

    And come on, don’t you want to confuse the hell out of your opponents (and sometimes yourself)? Since this deck is a hybrid of two decks, let’s look at where the pieces of this deck came from.

    Looking at Miracles first, the Counterbalance + Sensei’s Divining Top has always been a potent, proactive plan for Miracles against circa half of the field, and Terminus is a rout against the other half. However, developments in Miracles technology has driven it further towards a low-curve, combo-esque deck by decreasing reliance on slow threats, like Entreat and Jace, in favor of burst card advantage with Predict and a cheap game-ender with Monastery Mentor. This philosophy and shell can be swapped into another kill condition.

    Now, Omniscience had its day in the sun when Dig Through Time (but not Treasure Cruise) was legal, largely because it got to cut combo-only cards like Enter the Infinite in favor of good cards, thus turning the deck into a “two-and-your-deck” card combo. Dig is banned now, and Omniscience has been relegated to a mediocre three-card combo. But if something could fill Dig’s size 8 shoes, Omniscience, Cunning Wish, and Emrakul combine to build a combo that’s immune from almost all splash hate.

    A novel deck is spun from these disparate strands by Sensei’s Divining Top. It fronts another angle of attack with Counterbalance. It plays defense with Terminus. And, it helps find the pieces of the trimmed-down Omnitell combo. This deck forces your opponent to have all the answers to problems that don’t share a common solution.

    II. Core Decklist

    This is what I perceive to be the core list with the few flex slots.

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

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Cunning Wish
    4 Force of Will
    2-3 Predict
    0-2 Preordain
    1 Split Decision

    4 Ponder
    4 Show and Tell
    2-4 Terminus

    3 Counterbalance
    4 Omniscience

    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

    1-2 Nahiri, the Harbinger

    4 Sensei's Divining Top

    // 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


    The sideboard is largely influenced by the maindeck and your local meta, so what’s presented here is what works for me as of 2016-11-06. My current maindeck numbers are 0 Preordain, 2 Predict, 4 Terminus, 1 Nahiri.

    I believe that what makes this deck unique is its use of white control cards, especially Terminus, to buy time. Counterbalance is a powerful, low-cost addition to that.

    III. Card Choices

    a) Cantrips and Draw

    The biggest reason this deck works is a plurality of cheap and effective cantrips. The following are non-optional:
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    4 Sensei’s Divining Top


    If that’s not obvious, you should look for a different deck. Secondary options:
    Predict - This card serves two needed functions. One, it fills out the Counterbalance curve a little. The two CMC is very light even with a couple of Predicts. Two, it provides card advantage to power through discard or control matchups. It serves as a (very inferior) substitute for Dig in this role.
    Preordain - A good card, and very defensible inclusion if you can find the room.

    Bad cards:
    Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Contentious, I know. This fights for slots with Nahiri, and I can’t imagine ever playing a Jace over a Nahiri. It gets Red Blasted, doesn’t defend as well, and kills incredibly slowly. Jace can’t fit in another slot because of the CMC.
    Personal Tutor - This is not a pure combo deck, so a card that gives moderate selection at the cost of a card is not even close to playable. The fact that Entreat Miracles doesn’t play this card is enough evidence.

    b) Threats / Combo Pieces

    Show and Tell - Should be obvious. Play 4.
    Omniscience - Would you guess that playing 4 is correct?
    Cunning Wish - Being in white and red gives Cunning Wish a huge amount of flexibility in addition to being part of the kill. I would think twice before registering less than 4.
    Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - Best creature in the game when you’re not paying the mana cost. Griselbrand is in the running, but uncounterability and time walk matter more. I believe only playing 1 is correct because it’s not a great draw outside of combo scenarios.
    Counterbalance - A good card, but often boarded out. It is great in combo, control, and Delver matchups, but the bad curve makes it more difficult to get value out of a blind Counterbalance.
    Nahiri, the Harbinger - This card really does it all. It kills in 3 turns while helping your hand. She also helps stabilize a board or kill a pesky Counterbalance. Post-board, she is probably the best threat because she’s immune to Red Blast, Flusterstorm, Abrupt Decay, or mediocre beats. She also slices, dices, and does the laundry. Now if only she weren’t so dang angry…

    And now for a list of creatures that are not in the (main)deck!

    Monastery Mentor - The card is insane and gives you an incredibly low opportunity cost threat with 4 Tops. However, its home is the sideboard because the decks you want this card against have maindeck removal that you would like them to board out. It comes in for different cards in every matchup.
    Vendilion Clique - A savvy player can know what to play around or through without hand information. I would play more Mentors before the first Clique unless there is a crazy amount of combo in your meta.
    Snapcaster Mage - This is another big reason why Miracles is so good, and it helps the 2 CMC slot for Counterbalance. However, there really aren’t enough types of cards to flash back without playing Swords to Plowshares and Counterspell main, and even then the body tends to be irrelevant. Worse, you can’t cast the flashback spell with Omniscience. I’ve tried it and wasn’t impressed.

    c) Disruption / Removal

    Terminus - This card is a big reason Miracles is so good. You can buy time to find the kill by casting it off of Omniscience. It gets around Chalice on 1. I have played as few as 2 copies, but that makes the Infect and Merfolk matchups very difficult.
    Swords to Plowshares - I think its home is sideboard because this deck isn’t equipped to play the 1-for-1 game with Swords very well, making Terminus the better choice main. Sometimes you need targeted removal, though, and having it to Cunning Wish for is great.
    Force of Will - Turns out this card is great. Rarely cut.

    d) Sideboard Options

    Necessary Combo Cards:
    Eladamri’s Call
    Release the Ants
    Firemind’s Foresight

    See the combo explanation section for what these are used for.

    Good options, play them:
    Flusterstorm - Important tool for beating combo and decent in Miracles too. Good card to Wish for before jamming the combo.
    Surgical Extraction - Excellent card, should include. Not costing extra on top of Cunning Wish makes it a silver bullet against Lands and Storm too. Play more in reanimator-heavy metas. Consider switching decks in reanimator-heavy metas.
    Disenchant - Important answer to permanents. Waaaay better than Echoing Truth.
    Pyroblast - This card is essential to beating Miracles! Without it, you don’t have a good way to beat Counterbalance on the stack. Also helpful as an out to Jace or opposing Show and Tells maindeck. Play REB if you have a Korean 4th copy.
    Engineered Explosives - This is a card that’s good against both Chalice and creature decks, and acceptable against Miracles. I like playing two.
    Monastery Mentor - discussed above with creatures.

    Probably bad options:
    Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Not a good card for this deck. Making Show and Tell uncounterable isn’t enough because there is only one Emrakul. Cunning Wish is just as vulnerable.
    Wear // Tear - The card is good in the abstract, and great for Counterbalance, but with only two Volcanics it seems dubious. Most of the time Cunning Wish gets a Disenchant, it’s against a Wasteland matchup to kill an Artifact, so Wear // Tear does not shine. It could be better than a second Disenchant.

    Junkers, never ever play them:
    Blood Moon - Hurts Top significantly by shutting off fetches. Bad matchups don’t want this card, good matchups don’t need the help.
    Pact of Negation - I get that you want a free counterspell to Wish for, but it is generally awful on defense. There aren’t enough sideboard slots.
    Trickbind - If you could Wish for Trickbind, you should instead Wish for Firemind’s Foresight and kill them at instant speed. Trust me, those edge cases where it’s good or you can’t win aren’t worth it.
    Intuition - Opens you up to Surgical Extraction, and what are you finding with it anyway? I would play another Predict first.

    e) Other considerations

    Color
    Why red over 1. no third splash, 2. green, 3. black? One word: Pyroblast. Black gives the deck discard, which doesn't help against Miracles, and is not significantly better than the combination of Pyroblast and Flusterstorm in other matchups. Green gives Krosan Grip, which is great against Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void, but I believe Red is more flexible. Also red allows playing Nahiri, which is one of the best cards in the deck in certain matchups.


    IV. How to Play the Deck

    a) Execution
    The basic Omniscience + Cunning Wish combo:
    1. With Omniscience in play, wish for Firemind's Foresight.
    2. Cast it for Brainstorm, Split Decision, Cunning Wish.
    3. Cast Wish, hold priority, cast Split Decision targeting Wish.
    4. When Split Decision resolves, vote for copy (their vote is irrelevant). Get Eladamri's Call and Release the Ants.
    5. Call for Emrakul
    6. Brainstorm it to the top of library
    7. Release many Ants.

    If Split Decision is discarded or exiled, get Predict with Firemind’s Foresight instead, and try to put a Terminus or Omniscience on top with Brainstorm. Typically opposing decks will not have 6+ CMC cards. If they do, they’re probably playing a bad deck.

    b) Strategy
    Figure out what role you want to play in the matchup - jam the combo, or grind them out? Then use that to guide keeps and cantrips.

    If you’re playing against opposing Omniscience decks, don’t play Show and Tell unless you have several redundant combo pieces or Forces.

    When playing against Miracles, treat it more like the Miracles mirror than you would expect. Your deck is set up to jam threats, but there is no reason to do so unless you are at risk of missing land drops or they can feasibly resolve Counterbalance with Top and mana up.

    More details later.

    V. How to Evaluate Opening Hands
    Does it have fewer than two Termini? Does it have a blue source? Does it have a cantrip?

    Keep.

    The top of your deck will reward faith, or punish in a just distribution.

    VI. Sideboarding

    Under construction. See Tournament Reports for some examples.

    VII. Tournament Reports

    ”The Miracle of Science” 4th at CardKingdom 1K
    Miracle of Science Legacy Champs Top 64
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Reserved for more primer

    If you guys have any comments or feedback on the primer, please feel free to post!
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    very good deck. I like the Nahiri way out of any situations.

    What's the SB plan against DNT and Eldrazi?
    Matchups where Counterbalance can't really shine.

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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Last weekend, I managed to get in a couple of Matches against Miracles, Grixis Delver and Death & Taxes.

    D&T is comically easy. Back when DTT was legal, the D&T matchup was already pretty good, adding Terminus to the deck makes it ridiculous.

    Grixis Delver felt fine as long as I got to play the Miracles game, grinding him out with Terminus and/or Counterbalance. The all-in combo openings are way too vulnerable to Therapy and their other disruption. That's basically what I expected because I hated the matchup with traditional Omnitell back in the day. What I'm still not sure about is how many Forces I want to have post board. Miracles boards out all of them but that feels excessive with this deck. Right now I board out two and bring in the Flusterstorms instead.

    Miracles also felt ok. I really enjoy playing the Miracles mirror and as phazonmutant pointed out, the matchup is pretty similar. Nahiri was a house and Mentor was great as always once they boarded out Terminus. It's probably difficult if they draw perfect, because they have Snapcaster and more Blasts. I think we have to set up for a win in the midgame, before they draw all these cards.

    I also played a couple of matches against Shardless on XMage, but not enough to really form an opinion. How do you sideboard there? I'm thinking -3 Counterbalance -1 Force, +2 Mentor +2 Flusterstorm. Flusterstorm does nothing except countering Hymn, but since Hymn is backbreaking, I like it in theory. I also thought about bringing Blasts to fight Ancestral Vision if the game goes long, but I don't really want to dilute the deck any further.

    In the old thread I asked about the Counterbalance curve. Turned out that it's just fine in practice.

    @ Poron:

    Against D&T, I'd board out the Counterbalances for 2 Explosives and 1 Swords to Plowshares. I don't think Mentor is needed against them because they are so weak to our combo.

    Eldrazi: -3 Counterbalance -1 Predict, +2 Explosives +2 Mentor.

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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    We got a shoutout from The Brainstorm Show: http://www.thebrainstormshow.com/pod...ator-and-more/

    Thanks, Wilson (and his co-hosts too, I suppose)!
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  6. #6

    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Any ideas what to cut if I wanted to squeeze in a third Mentor in the SB? I won a very small tournament today with the deck and Mentor did serious work in all postboard games.

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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by Philipp2293 View Post
    Any ideas what to cut if I wanted to squeeze in a third Mentor in the SB? I won a very small tournament today with the deck and Mentor did serious work in all postboard games.
    It really does! I think the second EE could go. It's great if you expect lots of Chalices, but it's only so-so against Miracles and D&T. Mentor should be a fine replacement.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Well I played this today with a few changes, most notably 3 impulse and a counter spell, to a 5th place finish. I'm not sure how I feel about it still. I feel like the split plans sacrifice something. There is a big high risk, high reward feel especially when draws can get awkward. It does have me wondering if miracles with just nahiri and emrakul would be better.

    May have to give it another go regardless. Impulse felt like an MVP. And I did play 3 wish, 3 terminus, 1 nahiri, no predict.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    This is what I ended up playing:

    4 omniscience
    4 show and tell
    3 cunning wish
    1 emrakul
    1 nahiri, the harbinger

    1 split decision
    3 counterbalance
    4 force of will
    3 terminus
    3 impulse
    1 counterspell

    4 sensei's divining top
    4 ponder
    4 brainstorm

    2 ancient tomb
    1 plains
    5 island
    1 mystic gate
    2 volcanic island
    1 tundra
    4 flooded strand
    4 scalding tarn

    Sideboard
    1 fireminds foresight
    1 eladmri's call
    1 release the ants
    1 red elemental blast
    1 pyroblast
    1 surgical extraction
    1 disenchant
    1 engineered explosives
    2 flusterstorm
    2 swords to plowshares
    3 monastery mentor


    The show and tell half feels clunky. If you have counter/top lock you can basically win with anything at that point. The only draw I felt was those oops nut draws you can get sometimes. Miracles with rip/helm feels much stronger.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by Weapon X View Post
    Well I played this today with a few changes, most notably 3 impulse and a counter spell, to a 5th place finish. I'm not sure how I feel about it still. I feel like the split plans sacrifice something. There is a big high risk, high reward feel especially when draws can get awkward. It does have me wondering if miracles with just nahiri and emrakul would be better.

    May have to give it another go regardless. Impulse felt like an MVP. And I did play 3 wish, 3 terminus, 1 nahiri, no predict.
    Nice, glad you gave it a spin. Draws definitely can be awkward, so keeping hands with cantrips is probably the biggest predictor of wins.

    What's the thought behind Impulse?
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Impulse feels like a closer dig through time. It helps to focus on a given plan as you can just look for the missing piece. It basically helps focus an awkward draw.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by Weapon X View Post
    Impulse feels like a closer dig through time. It helps to focus on a given plan as you can just look for the missing piece. It basically helps focus an awkward draw.
    Ok, that makes sense. I'm not sure that's better than the card advantage of Predict, but worth testing. I tried your changes except -1 Impulse for +1 Cunning Wish. Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.

    I've run into a lot of situations where I would want to Wish for Wear / Tear to get around Counterbalance, and I've noticed that I don't bring in the second EE any more against Miracles because it's just too tough to resolve through Counterbalance. EE is better against Chalice decks and D&T, but I'm comfortable making that swap to try it out.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by phazonmutant View Post
    Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.
    You played Aluren for a couple of weeks. Is it safe to say that you feel this deck is stronger, or just better-positioned based on what you're playing against? Also, have your matchups been somewhat predictable (Tier I decks at the top tables), or are you still playing against a wide range of decks later in the tournament?

    (For outsiders, the most commonly played decks in these ~35-person weekly tournaments have been Miracles, Death & Taxes, and Aluren, with sometimes an uptick in combo decks.)

  14. #14

    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-t...le-of-failure/

    Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.

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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Forgot to ask, but what does miracles look like around you? In addition to fow and counter top they also have spell pierce, spell snare, counterspell, etc over here. That's what makes getting through a counter/top lock hard. They get to play more control while we sacrifice that same space for a show and tell package that forces us to play dead cards outside of the combo.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by nedleeds View Post
    http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-t...le-of-failure/

    Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.
    I used impulse as a direct replacement for DTT

    But the OP has a habit of shit talking when its not a conventional idea

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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by ESG View Post
    You played Aluren for a couple of weeks. Is it safe to say that you feel this deck is stronger, or just better-positioned based on what you're playing against? Also, have your matchups been somewhat predictable (Tier I decks at the top tables), or are you still playing against a wide range of decks later in the tournament?

    (For outsiders, the most commonly played decks in these ~35-person weekly tournaments have been Miracles, Death & Taxes, and Aluren, with sometimes an uptick in combo decks.)
    I think both are decently positioned in the Seattle meta, but the Aluren deck just feel clunkier than this one. Miracle of Science has a quicker nut draw, disruption that gets online faster, and a better plan C. Aluren has a stronger non-combo plan though. 4-round weekly events don't really give a good sense of what will go to the top in a larger tournament, but I have played a lot against a small set of decks, mostly with good matchups (roughly in order of times played):
    D&T - very good
    Miracles - even (skill-dependent)
    Aggro Loam - good
    Burn - bad

    Quote Originally Posted by nedleeds View Post
    http://www.eternalcentral.com/tusk-t...le-of-failure/

    Told you Impulse is the shit. Like most milennials you dismissed it because the internet didn't tell you it was good.
    You didn't read what I said - I don't have enough data to know if it's good. I haven't even drawn it! Get off my internet, old man.

    Quote Originally Posted by Weapon X View Post
    Forgot to ask, but what does miracles look like around you? In addition to fow and counter top they also have spell pierce, spell snare, counterspell, etc over here. That's what makes getting through a counter/top lock hard. They get to play more control while we sacrifice that same space for a show and tell package that forces us to play dead cards outside of the combo.
    Snare and Counterspell in some mix are common 2-ofs. The most common build is Predict with Mentor, but there are some on ETA and like one on Legends. There are a couple truly exceptional Miracles players, a few decent ones, and a couple crappy ones. I'm not scared of Pierce, that card doesn't seem good in their deck. I would be surprised if the builds are wildly divergent.

    There is more dedicated to the combo preboard, but they have many more dead cards because of removal. Our removal is not totally dead because they sometimes just jam Mentor hoping to clock us. But I do aggressively put back combo pieces if I'm playing for the long game. Postboard they have more answers but we have more threats. They usually have to leave in removal or they will just die to Mentor, so it's pretty close on conditionally good cards.

    You should practice the matchup a few times. Predict is very big here, for what it's worth. It's not an easy matchup to play by any means, so against a good player it could be frustrating. My win rate is good, somewhere around 10-5, so if you play it right or they are bad, you can win very easily.
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  18. #18

    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by phazonmutant View Post
    Ok, that makes sense. I'm not sure that's better than the card advantage of Predict, but worth testing. I tried your changes except -1 Impulse for +1 Cunning Wish. Impulse never came up, but Counterspell was nice once. 4-0d the weekly, but too early for me to say.

    I've run into a lot of situations where I would want to Wish for Wear / Tear to get around Counterbalance, and I've noticed that I don't bring in the second EE any more against Miracles because it's just too tough to resolve through Counterbalance. EE is better against Chalice decks and D&T, but I'm comfortable making that swap to try it out.
    Why exactly is EE hard to resolve through Counterbalance? I get that you have to actually pick a CMC, but paying 2UW or UUUW should be pretty easy for CMC=4 but 2 sunburst counters. Against some builds (those without mentors), CMC=3 (UUW, 1UR, 1UW) might even be reasonable. In my experiments in Ub and Uwb Omni, I find that CMC=5 isn't very difficult to attain, and I just end up paying a bunch of blue mana.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    Quote Originally Posted by emidln View Post
    Why exactly is EE hard to resolve through Counterbalance? I get that you have to actually pick a CMC, but paying 2UW or UUUW should be pretty easy for CMC=4 but 2 sunburst counters. Against some builds (those without mentors), CMC=3 (UUW, 1UR, 1UW) might even be reasonable. In my experiments in Ub and Uwb Omni, I find that CMC=5 isn't very difficult to attain, and I just end up paying a bunch of blue mana.
    Typically the Counterbalance you lose to is early, turn 2-3. Later on, you have more chance to find and hold up protection. A follow-up EE on 3 can work. However, once they get to untap with Counterbalance a couple of turns, they typically will have Force, Wear / Tear, or Counterspell, and have the ability to turn off your protection for the EE. So by the time you can cast EE through Counterbalance, they can deal with it. This is the same argument the Miracles thread has for not bringing in EE or W/T - several good pilots (e.g. AnziD) exclusively rely on never letting Counterbalance resolve.

    The upshot is that it just doesn't do what you want it to do consistently - as an answer for Counterbalance it's merely decent. Doubling as bad removal for Mentor is decent too. But I don't think it's better than the next card I would cut from the main for the second copy. For reference, my board plan against Miracles is:
    -1 S&T, -1 Omni, -1 CW, -4 Terminus, +2 REB, +2 Fluster, +2 Mentor, +1 EE

    It's not that EE is a bad card, I'm just making a super marginal tweak based on the sideboard map.
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    Re: [Deck] Miracle of Science - Uwx OmniTell Control

    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.
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