Miracle Control

[Pherion]

Hello everyone!

Been playing RUG for the last six months, and decided I wanted to do something different. This deck has just popped up, and it seems really fun so far, so I think I'll stick with it for a while :) Here's my current list with some comments afterwards. Any comments or crit welcome!

Main Deck
Lands
4 Tundra
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Plains
3 Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Karakas
3 Wasteland

Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
2 Entreat the Angels

Enchantments
4 Counterbalance

Artifacts
4 Sensei's Divining Top

Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creatures
3 Snapcaster mage
2 Vendelion Clique

Sideboard
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Meddeling Mage
1 Terminus
2 Path to Exile
2 Disenchant
2 Humility
2 Blue Elemental Blast

So I'm not entirely sold on the sideboard - I'm sure there are more optimal ways to build it. It's just what I threw together last week :) That said, I'm considering a splash color, but cant decide if the weakening of the mana base is worth the benefits that any one color splash will give us. There are already so many answers in blue and white - do we really need a splash?

The other thing that bugs me is I'd like to fit an Elspeth into the deck, but I'm not sure what I'd cut to do that. Everything that's there seems rather necessary.

And finally - I've been tempted to swap the Wastelands for Mishra's Factories - I'm just not sure the added win con is necessary. We've got Jace, Clique, Snapcaster and Entreat to do the job for us - the rest of the deck is pretty hard core control.

There's my thoughts!

[Deckerator]

I thought about playing this deck with some more creatures because it can be really difficult to play against decks with creatures with hexproof.
I know that it is contra because of Terminus but some more creatures would be better against mongoose or others.

Creatures i thought about are: Geist of Saint Traft, Tarmogoyf

[Einherjer]

This deck does not need more creatures. If you are afraid of Mongoose, go put some Mishras in your deck. You would not want to play your own creatures and get them Terminused the turn after.

Greetings

[JimmyC27]

If I added creatures to this deck, it would be for Stoneforge Mystic. It stays inside the color wheel, and you can replay the Batterskull after Terminus. Batterskull is incredibly hard for RUG to deal with too -- which is why I assume you mentioned shroud creatures.

[Pherion]

Isn't the RUG match-up already in our favor here? I've play tested RUG with my friend who built this deck as well - and my win ratio with RUG was horrendous. A single Terminus really throws off the whole tempo aspect of RUG.

I can understand the threat of an early flipped Delver or a Mongoose followed up with Thought Scour, but Miracle runs answers to both of these, and with Tops, Jaces, and Brainstorms combined with fetches we should be able to find out answers pretty fast. The problem becomes pushing those answers through RUG's counter magic. For this we just have to remember that the ONLY hard counter they run pre-board (at least right now) is Force of Will. We can play around Daze and Spell Pierce. If they happen to be running Snares, then all of our removal avoids that naturally.

In the end it's a matter of luck - As a RUG player I know that if you draw the perfect hand, it doesn't matter who has a swords or terminus. Two flipped delvers with counter back up for removal and maybe a stifle for Miracle trigger usually wins it lol

[Valtrix]

I thought about playing this deck with some more creatures because it can be really difficult to play against decks with creatures with hexproof.
I know that it is contra because of Terminus but some more creatures would be better against mongoose or others.

Creatures can work, but I'm not sure they are the best choice unless they are also hard to deal with or you play counterbalance to stop swords to plowshares. Off the top of my head, here are the following answers I have to hard to deal with creatures:

Engineered Explosives
Porphyry Nodes
Terminus
Runed Halo
Story Circle

All of these are great cards I think, and would probably look to play most of these before finding room for many creatures.

@Nilla:

Thanks for telling people to board out force, as this is completely correct in a lot of matchups. Force is needed for unfair decks, but you almost always have enough 1-for-1 answers post board to not have to take the card disadvantage that force gives you.

[Valtrix]

Indeed, wasteland makes little sense. You want to keep your lands most of the time, and you can almost never capitalize on them stumbling with mana because this deck tends not to apply nearly as much pressure as most other decks.

[klaus]

Maybe it's just me, but I found the RUG matchup a little troublesome before I put engineered explosives in the deck. It seemed like I frequently had problems dealing with a couple early creatures backed up with a stifle for the miracle trigger.

EE opens you up to Stifle even more. However, after thinking about it, I'll replace one of my 2 Oblivion Rings* with an EE, since I'm rocking a red splash again (pimping EE).
In straight UW versions I'd still go with O. Ring though.

*Edit: stiflable just the same :)

[Einherjer]

Klaus, mind freeing up your inbox?

On a general note, how do we approach the goblin-matchup. Do we just accept it's kinda bad and keep shooting all their dudes in hope they do not get a good hand or do we warrant any sideboard-slots for it. I do have 3 Peacekeeper in my Sideboard, but not for the Goblin-MU. I could bring them in, but they might still have uncounterable burn-like goblins right?

Greetings

[Julian23]

For this we just have to remember that the ONLY hard counter they run pre-board (at least right now) is Force of Will.

Stifle counters the Miracle trigger on Terminus

On a general note, how do we approach the goblin-matchup. Do we just accept it's kinda bad and keep shooting all their dudes in hope they do not get a good hand or do we warrant any sideboard-slots for it. I do have 3 Peacekeeper in my Sideboard, but not for the Goblin-MU. I could bring them in, but they might still have uncounterable burn-like goblins right?

Greetings

Peacekeeper is worth brining it but he's no Humility after all. I remember you running Pithing Needle in the sideboard and you should definitely bring those in against Gempalm Incinerator and Aether Vial.
The problems with Goblins is that it's much more resilient to mass removal. Unlike other aggro decks, wiping the board against them will usually leave them with 3-4 more creatures in hand thanks to Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Matron. Even with Humility, it's still my worst Matchup. Goblin has always been the bane of control, I guess

[Pherion]

Stifle counters the Miracle trigger on Terminus

Sorry, I had moved stifles out of my deck a while ago and haven't put them back in. Honestly the only reason they go back in right now is for Terminus. They still don't do all that much in the meta, and IMO spell pierce is better in RUG right now. But that's a discussion for the RUG thread :)

[Kaslan]

Hey guys ! I've been playing this deck since miracles were printed and came to the conclusion that Snapcaster mage is not card advantage in this deck ( because you can't make good use of the 2-1 body )

I started to test PREDICT as a 2 of and rapidly found out that it has a lot of synergy with : top, brainstorm, ponder and counterbalance ( when you don't have a top and blind flip a card with counterbalance but don't want to draw it ... you can predict it away )

here is my list :

Instants [18]
2 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 predict

Enchantments [1]
1 Oblivion Ring

Sorceries [8]
2 Entreat the Angels
2 Terminus
4 Ponder

Planeswalkers [3]
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Artifacts [5]
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Sensei's Divining Top

Lands [21]
1 Plains
7 Islands
1 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra

1CC
16

2CC
10

3CC
3

4CC
3

5CC
4

6CC
2

[Mr. Headshot]

if it's within your budget: I propose Moat

[rxavage]

If the miracle trigger is stifled does that counter the spell or does it just go into your hand?

[LeePerry]

If anyone knows a card that can answer both merfolk and goblins, feel free to chime in.

Just took a search through gatherer looking mainly at enchantment answers, since these are the hardest to deal with for both merfolk and goblins, some of these are way out of the box or require a splash outside of the deck's regular range, but I'm sure there must be some that merit a closer look.


Teferi's Moat
Sacred Mesa
Crackdown
Dueling Grounds
Energy Field
Invoke Prejudice
Lightmine Field
Moat
Opal Titan
Opal Guardian
Porphyry Nodes
Reverence
Story Circle
Words of Worship
Orim's Prayer
Propaganda
Ivory Tower

[Julian23]

If the miracle trigger is stifled does that counter the spell or does it just go into your hand?

The Miracle trigger is stifled. Nothing else happens which means the card just stays in your hand.

[LeePerry]

I like the idea of the old school propaganda/ghostly prison as a cheap alternative to moat, not completely stifling merfolk/goblins but it will slow them down considerably and will allow you to use your targeted removal with more accuracy.

Words of wind in combination with Jace / top / Brainstorm also lets you gain enough life to stay out of range (chunks of 5 life is a lot) but it eats away your card advantage, which is usually what helps you overpower aggressive strategies.

Porphyry Nodes is interesting since you don't play a lot of creatures yourself, and although it's a bit fickle, it can be interesting and cheaper then propaganda/ ghostly prison. I think it's a great way to slow them down and a source of indirect card advantage, but it doesn't help you stay a live as much as the others.

[Anusien]

Firespout is a much better answer to Goblins than most of those cards.

But I don't understand why you wouldn't max out 4 Terminus 4 Snapcaster first.

[rxavage]

The Miracle trigger is stifled. Nothing else happens which means the card just stays in your hand.

That's what I thought but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

[Anusien]

Firespout is good against goblins. I don't think I've ever resolved one against merfolk though.

Then you can forget Moat.