Miracle Control

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Originally Posted by Einherjer

Okay so I am back from the GP. I ended up 4th - here is my list:

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=12902&iddeck=94661

This list was perfect, it crushed everything. I'll post a tournamentreport somewhere and link it here as soon as its up - as for now Ill give you a short summary of the matches, plus Ill answer any questions:

Day 1: Win against HighTide, Merfolk, Jund, Elves, Esperblade, Patriot (Joel Larson), Death and Taxes, Canadian Threshold and Reanimator(Loic Le Briand) (Feature Match)

So I went undefeated 9-0 without Byes, easy going, right? Those MUs weren't in any particalur order, just Reanimator was last. So Day2 was easy right, just 4-2...

At Day2 I started to win against Jund and BUG Delver, only to lose the Mirror twice, against Maxime Gilles and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.... well... So I had to win two more. I did win against Sneak and Tell after those losses only to beat BUG Delver in the last round 1-0 in order to make Top8. I was in the Feature match - area for pretty much all of Day2.

So in the Top8 I faced Jean-Mary Accart with Boros Painter, which I crushed, only to lose the Semifinals against Maxime Gilles again.

This was the (very!) short recap, deck was outstanding, my plays were good enough to match the decks standards and so I crushed everything and everybody - just the mirror tended to be... well tough - I lost 0-2 three times. I have alot of experience with the Mirror but the opponents had outstanding techs against the mirror just as REB MB and Mystic SB.... Maxime seemed just as professional as I was with playing the deck and PV... well it's PV, right?

If you have any questions I can answer just shoot them away. And thanks for the cheering and congratulations! As said above I'll publish a full and lenghty tournament report at some website...somewhen.

Greetings!

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Sadly i missed your last two matches i had to take my plane

Good job philip !!
Maybe you ll convert me to.miracles lol

One question: why is your deck not all altered? :)

Well done, Einherjer! Your list looks awesome, and piloting it to a top 4 finish with no byes is extremely impressive!

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Originally Posted by Poron

A turn 1 Chalice sounds like almost unrecoverable.. and he plays 4 all the times.

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Really? I feel like Chalice is almost negligible. We are probably winning with Entreat and since we can use Clique and Venser to pressure opposing Planeswalkers then Chalice doesn't really stop us. Chalice is only truly problematic if it comes down before Top, but even if it does, a midgame Venser (or EE/Disenchant) can clear Chalice away long enough to deploy Top with little harm done.

Other than Top, the worst thing Chalice does is shut off REB. REB is our best tool against their Planeswalkers, so losing it definitely hurts. However, same as before, unless that Planeswalker is coming down early (very soon after the Chalice) then we should be able to mount a solid offensive against it via Clique and Venser.

Make sure to pack plenty of 2cmcs and 4cmcs post-board because these are where their relevant cards lie and Counterbalance + Top should be nearly unbeatable for them.

Well done to all participants in the tourney; excellent results!!

To the guys out there writing the Miracle premier, I wonder how you feel kicking off with some parallels with "the Deck" 1996 (the version with Wrath of god and Serra Angel win condition).
Isn't it an truly enhanced version 18 year after? I recall playing that deck those days... :eek:

Also I wonder about adding the Essential Miracle card list (must-be in the deck cards) - the strictly core:

3 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Terminus
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Entreat the Angels
4 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Counterbalance

Total No-lands Core = 23 cards
Total Lands Core = 22 cards

Flex slots:
2-3 Creatures removal, Board removal
3-5 Counterspells
0-2 Library manipulation

Free slots
0-2 Lands
2-3 Win conditions
2-4 Card section/Advantage (e.g. Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique)


Cheers,

Congratulations to all miracle players who showed that Miracle is the deck if well played :).

I finished 80th, lost against Merfolk (lost the toss and lost twice on his Turn 4 with Supreme Verdict in hand...), Show and Tell (SnT Turn 2 countered, SnT T3 with double back up into Griselbrand and game 3, Turn 1 Griselbrand...) and twice against Esper Deathblade (i got totally crushed here due to mana issues and amazing draws like t1 shaman, t2 thoughseize sfm -> SOFAF, t3, Sfm activation and Spell Pierce, T4 a 2nd SFM + Jace ...).

I played this list :

1 Karakas
1 Mountain
1 Volcanic Island
2 Arid Mesa
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Tundra
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
2 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Ponder
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Entreat the Angels
3 Terminus
SB: 1 Wear / Tear
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 3 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Snapcaster Mage
SB: 1 Terminus
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Counterbalance

After watching Joe Losset's streams lately, i found the idea of MD REB very interesting... i didn't got the balls to play them main deck but we had a long conversation with Maxime Gilles and another french miracle player (who finished 83th) about that and it sure did work well for Maxime ^^ .

I just have one last word : Modesty ...

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Originally Posted by twndomn

Maxime, you won game 1, lost game 2 to a 1-of null rod, but that game 3, you threw it away!

When he brainstorm in response to Hymn, he could have hide RiP, and then very likely jam it onto the board on his next turn, Bug's tapped out and I doubt Bug could FoW. Of course, Maxime didn't and Hymn took RiP away.

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Sorry guys, I admit it : I really played badly this final. I replayed the match and I saw a lot of errors. ...... But after 15 rounds (I did not count the concession and the tie) it could happen to everyone to make some mistakes....

I will probably make a short repport

where can I see the top8 matches?

twitch.tv/magic

seems like Leyline of Sanctity would have pushed out of top 8 the BUG guy... he only won by Hymn, Liliana and Thoughtseize

I foresee a raise for LoS

Finished my first article, its more of a tournament report, has 3,5k words. Will be published soon, hopefully I can follow this up with a whole series on Miracles.

Greetings

should you make some changes to fit 4 Leylines, what would you cut, Phillip?

Neither do I see a reason to make changes as of now, nor do I agree on the idea that we need cards against BUG Delver. This MU is such an easy one. I think you are asking the wrong question. I don't know which question you should be asking, all I do know is that it is not "what would you cut for 4 Leyline" :D

Greetings

I disagree. BUG delver is not an "easy matchup" if it is well piloted and build, which was probably not the case with your opponents. Leyline is a good card against BUG and Jund, but I don't think the optimal miracle build has space for leyline.

They key cards to win from a BUG perspective are high impact cards (sorted in order of impact):
1) Sylvan Library (we can't beat that one)
2) Pithing needle (Top and Jace are essentially our win conditions)
3) Lilina of the Veil

Vendilion clique, Hymn to tourach and spell pierce are support disruption spells they have access to postboard but these alone are not gamebreaking.

Our answer to that was to board 1 disenchant and 2 explosives and use the 2-3 spell pierce and 3 counterspells we have postboard wisely.

If the BUG player is just running out creatures and we trade terminus profitably it can look like an easy matchup, but if they start with hymn, clique, needle, Liliana before they start running out creatures it can be a very tough matchup.

I think if you want a card (or two?) against BUG delver that Misdirection would actually be very valuable in the board. Obviously it has a lot of uses against other decks in winning the counterwar, but BUG in particular has a lot of very relevant targets: Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, any of their counterspells, abupt decay (from our balance to one of their permanents generally).

Otherwise I think Engineered Explosives should start seeing play in the sideboard. It's a very flexible answer that helps against a lot of decks. Especially if Miracles is seeing an increase in play, being able to dodge balance with Explosives (most of the time!) is highly relevant. It will also let you cast it on zero if you fear an enemy entreat. Against BUG it gives you an out to Liliana of the Veil, one of the hardest cards for our deck to deal with, in addition to handling basically anything scary they could bring in. It's also a huge boon vs. vial decks, because having a way to deal with vial is highly important in those matchups. Or, because they tend to commit a lot of creatures of similar casting costs, you can usually get a 2-for-1 with the card.

Leyline also kills Liliana and Jace, avoids Abrupt Decay and kills from turn 0 Hymn, Duress Thoughtseize and whatever.

I don't know if we really don't need/like it...

If you think Leyline really "kills" Jace you may need to reread what Jace does...Even if they never ultimate you if they get a brainstorm every turn you're probably just losing that game.

ok, you're right. But it can't go high in counters. It can just +0. That's relevant (and anyway is just another, marginal, upside of Leyline. We're playing it as the best hate ever for black)

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Originally Posted by Poron

Leyline also kills Liliana and Jace, avoids Abrupt Decay and kills from turn 0 Hymn, Duress Thoughtseize and whatever.

I don't know if we really don't need/like it...

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No, you really don't need Leyline. Just play Ein's list. You might want to tweak Ein's SB, which is fine, but I wouldn't touch his main 60. The only modification I would do is to swap the SB Verdict to Main and move a Termius to SB.

Like I said before, Runed Halo stops planeswalker like Leyline and it stops TNN. Leyline's advantage of being non-AD is no longer an advantage because BGx decks like to run Golgari Charm now (to anticipate TNN). Halo is still more versatile comparing to Leyline.

If any of you were on Joe's list for a while, try Ein's list for a change. I personally feel that I can play much faster now with Ein's list, maybe I'll draw a lot less.

Calling my opponents weak pilots couldn't be further off from the truth. I know when I face inexperienced ones, and those were not. I beat atleast 1 superhatepiece (Null Rod/Library/Winter Orb) in addition to Hymn and Lilly plus Spell Pierce every game. Team America is a good Match-Up. If the TA pilot is prepared for this MU its harder, but still one of the better ones.

Greetings

Does anyone have a good boarding plan against BUG Delver?

I went with -3 Force, -4 Balance, -3 Pierce for +2 Misdirection, +3 Rest in Peace, +1 Explosives, +3 REB, +1 Entreat at the GP.
It was not bad on paper, but it turned out that i came into bad situations where my opp. Stifles my fetch and I had to crack another fetch for Volcanic to REB his Stifle.
This left me wide open to Wasteland and lost me the game mostly because of that. Running a mountain still seems stupid to me, as you need to fetch more to have access to all 3 colors and always opens yourself to stifle either. Maybe leaving in 3 Pierces is correct, but i am not sold on that either. Thoughts?