Miracle Control

[obituary 95]

The new omniscience build is more resilient to humility though. If after show and tell, you manage to put it in play, they can still go via the storm route with burning wish into petals of insight into burning wish into grapeshot. That can be a bit troublesome

true but unlike the other routes there storm combo strategy is not the hardest thing to stop. one counterspell on a burning wish or petals of insight is usually enough.

[menace13]

true but unlike the other routes there storm combo strategy is not the hardest thing to stop. one counterspell on a burning wish or petals of insight is usually enough.

Because you have more counterspells after SnT resolves.

[ivanpei]

Also, I think we can't overlook the psuedo-instant speed terminus can get, which is a huge bonus. I can't tell you how many games having a terminus floating on my library with a top in play has been incredibly powerful. This lets you not tie up your mana during turns, allowing you to keep counter magic up or to clear the board during their turn and play Jace. It also is necessary against Aether Vial and occasionally haste effects (like sneak and show). Sure, uncounterability is nice, but I really think the cost of terminus, with the ability to be played at instant speed is much stronger.

Terminus is the clear winner for the first 4 sweepers. Costing 1 mana, instant speed and killing everything is the clear winner in my book. Pitching to force and uncounterable is great, but double white kills it for me. It's not that easy to maintain double white early against folk etc.

[Jessenator]

I've been testing the UW Stoneblade version siding in Counterbalances and I have liked that a lot more. The problem with this deck I"ve been having is that I cannot find a fast enough way to win at times. And Counterbalance isn't the best card to be bringing in at all times.

Has anyone else been testing this version?

[Koby]

I've been testing the UW Stoneblade version siding in Counterbalances and I have liked that a lot more. The problem with this deck I"ve been having is that I cannot find a fast enough way to win at times. And Counterbalance isn't the best card to be bringing in at all times.

Has anyone else been testing this version?

Its pretty slow deck. Second place from SCG Portland tried to speed it up with Entreat the Angels.

[Sturtzilla]

I've been testing the UW Stoneblade version siding in Counterbalances and I have liked that a lot more. The problem with this deck I"ve been having is that I cannot find a fast enough way to win at times. And Counterbalance isn't the best card to be bringing in at all times.

Has anyone else been testing this version?

I have just gotten my lists together and been play testing at locals. I have been trying both Stoneblade, U/W Miracles, and a Hybrid of the two. From my experience both in the play testing, playing against it, and watching various games, I would have to say that the straight U/W Miracles deck really is strong, but does have problems closing games. When you think about it, this makes sense. You are running 3-4 Jace and 2-3 Entreat the Angels as your win-cons. So I mean we are talking about only 5-7 cards that let you win the game, this is a lot less than many of the other decks in the format. So digging into them can take a lot of time, even with Top and Brainstorm.

That being said. I have really been liking my hybrid version. It really gives you more flexibility in most match ups, allowing you to be the control deck or the aggressor. More importantly, it very easily can change these gears, thanks to SFM and Batterskull.

[ajr]

Its pretty slow deck. Second place from SCG Portland tried to speed it up with Entreat the Angels.

Yeah, I just found I was drawing too many games that I couldn't possibly lose but didn't have time to win. If they can deal with the Batterskull, you've got a few tiny guys and Jace, and Jace takes a huge number of turns. Entreat more or less fixed that and gave me an 'oops, I win' card against a number of decks at the cost of a Stoneforge Mystic; I generally find that three is enough in any event.

[mike1987]

I've been testing the UW Stoneblade version siding in Counterbalances and I have liked that a lot more. The problem with this deck I"ve been having is that I cannot find a fast enough way to win at times. And Counterbalance isn't the best card to be bringing in at all times.

Has anyone else been testing this version?

I am playing that version too, i have cut some ponders for extra land, spell pierce and entreat the angels. I usually only board in the CB against combo deck like storm not SNT, RUG delver, mirror(stoneblade) or miracles.

[Troll Slayer]

Congratulations on the SCG Top 2 Adam!

[Valarne]

Hi guys.

So I only played UW Miracle a few times, so my perspectives might lack some insight because of this - anyway. I tried the UWb splash for Thoughtseize in the board. They were specially meant for S&T decks. During the tournament they didn't appeal much to me in the random matchups I faced, and when I did face S&T (Sneak) it didn't seem like they broke or would break the matchup in half. On the way I was a bit annoyed with the 2 black duals. So I am thinking straight UW - I just need a clock against S&T as others also has talked about. Since I feel that the deck doesn't want to sideboard to much against most decks, I got the idea to "transform" by putting 4 Delvers, and the fourth Snapcaster and Cliques in the board, going up to 12 Creatures. Here is a suggested list. Please let me know what you think, and consider the Delver-idea before you discard it completely ;). I still don't know if Counterbalance is the shit main, but I'm running it until I know, since its cool on paper...
UW Miracle


60 main:

3 Jace
3 Balance
4 Top
4 Brainstorm

4 Force
2 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 Snapcaster
4 STP
3 Terminus
2 Entreat
3 Vendilion Clique

23 land: 5 Island, 2 Plains, 3 Tundra, 2 Glacial Fortress, 1 UW Filter, 1 Karakas, 4 Flooded Strand, 4 blue fetch, 1 Windswept Heath/or something else.

edit: after reading Brian DeMars' recent article on UW, I thought that a Wasteland-manabase for this list should be tried; gives important backup to Delver and Pierce postboard against the relevant decks. 17 blue lands, 2 Plains and 4 Waste.

SB:
4 Delver
1 Pierce
1 Counterspell
1 Clique
1 Snapcaster
4 Surgical
1 Terminus
2 Disenchant

[lambert101]

@Sturtzilla
You mind posting your hybrid list? I am getting the itch to play control again.

[Valtrix]

The first part in understanding if a transformational sideboard would be worthwhile is what it it trying to beat? You mention the Show and Tell decks, but is this almost all the transformation sideboard is aimed at beating? To me it seems that transforming would only be kind of okay against Show and Tell, other combo, and possibly control decks. With this being the case, I'm not sure that running a transformation sideboard is necessarily the best solution. But, before I say any more, could you describe more in depth what your goal and motivation for the creature sideboard is?

[Jessenator]

I have just gotten my lists together and been play testing at locals. I have been trying both Stoneblade, U/W Miracles, and a Hybrid of the two. From my experience both in the play testing, playing against it, and watching various games, I would have to say that the straight U/W Miracles deck really is strong, but does have problems closing games. When you think about it, this makes sense. You are running 3-4 Jace and 2-3 Entreat the Angels as your win-cons. So I mean we are talking about only 5-7 cards that let you win the game, this is a lot less than many of the other decks in the format. So digging into them can take a lot of time, even with Top and Brainstorm.

That being said. I have really been liking my hybrid version. It really gives you more flexibility in most match ups, allowing you to be the control deck or the aggressor. More importantly, it very easily can change these gears, thanks to SFM and Batterskull.

Makes a lot of sense. But the thing with the UW Standard Miracle is that you don't need to find your win-cons until mid-late game. Early game cards like that in multiples can even be bad. I really still like Land Tax in the Stock UW Miracle decks as it provides all your land drops, card advantage and a good deck shuffler. I like the Stoneforge package as well, but I haven't found a list that I'm happy with, hopefully you can ship yours on here and I'll test on Cockatrice or something.

And I would never go below 4 Jaces in a deck like this. At least 3 Jace + 1 Elspeth

[lambert101]

I like the Stoneforge package as well, but I haven't found a list that I'm happy with, hopefully you can ship yours on here and I'll test on Cockatrice or something.

+ 1

I have not found or brewed a list I h ave been happy with. Straight U/W miracles seems slow where as I have not liked the 21 land count in the hybrid lists.

[Guy I Don't Know]

Hi guys.

So I only played UW Miracle a few times, so my perspectives might lack some insight because of this - anyway. I tried the UWb splash for Thoughtseize in the board. They were specially meant for S&T decks. During the tournament they didn't appeal much to me in the random matchups I faced, and when I did face S&T (Sneak) it didn't seem like they broke or would break the matchup in half. On the way I was a bit annoyed with the 2 black duals. So I am thinking straight UW - I just need a clock against S&T as others also has talked about. Since I feel that the deck doesn't want to sideboard to much against most decks, I got the idea to "transform" by putting 4 Delvers, and the fourth Snapcaster and Cliques in the board, going up to 12 Creatures. Here is a suggested list. Please let me know what you think, and consider the Delver-idea before you discard it completely ;). I still don't know if Counterbalance is the shit main, but I'm running it until I know, since its cool on paper...
UW Miracle


60 main:

3 Jace
3 Balance
4 Top
4 Brainstorm

4 Force
2 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 Snapcaster
4 STP
3 Terminus
2 Entreat
3 Vendilion Clique

23 land: 5 Island, 2 Plains, 3 Tundra, 2 Glacial Fortress, 1 UW Filter, 1 Karakas, 4 Flooded Strand, 4 blue fetch, 1 Windswept Heath/or something else.

edit: after reading Brian DeMars' recent article on UW, I thought that a Wasteland-manabase for this list should be tried; gives important backup to Delver and Pierce postboard against the relevant decks. 17 blue lands, 2 Plains and 4 Waste.

SB:
4 Delver
1 Pierce
1 Counterspell
1 Clique
1 Snapcaster
4 Surgical
1 Terminus
2 Disenchant

4 Vendilion clique and 4 Snapcastermage is enough creatures for the clock, I personally would test disruption in your delver slots because delver has rather narrow application...

[Valarne]

The first part in understanding if a transformational sideboard would be worthwhile is what it it trying to beat? You mention the Show and Tell decks, but is this almost all the transformation sideboard is aimed at beating? To me it seems that transforming would only be kind of okay against Show and Tell, other combo, and possibly control decks. With this being the case, I'm not sure that running a transformation sideboard is necessarily the best solution. But, before I say any more, could you describe more in depth what your goal and motivation for the creature sideboard is?

Well, transformational is a bit of an overstatement. The reason for the idea of creatures came up, since I feel that the deck already has a lot of disruption available (also response to another comment), so filling the curve with reactive stuff will just clutter the mana in the important turns. The obvious solution to this is adding proactive disruption, namely Thoughtseize, but my line was, that dipping into a third colour was excessive. The point of the Delvers is simply to be able to apply pressure, letting the Pierce, Counterspells and what-not do the rest.

cheers - Tue

[Kaslan]

what do you think of Detention Sphere instead of ORing ?

Pros :
-Pitches to FoW
-Takes out multiple of the same targets


Cons :
-just a bit harder to cast then Oring

[menace13]

what do you think of Detention Sphere instead of ORing ?

Pros :
-Pitches to FoW
-Takes out multiple targets


Cons :
-just a big harder to cast then Oring in our deck

REBS now double as enchantment removal. Casting this is not harder at all. What are the chances your O-Ring came off of WW1/W2? All your plains, a Wasteland, and Ruins?

Edit: Yes, It can happen and will. But I would only keep that hand with Top and Infi removal anyway.

[Kaslan]

REBS now double as enchantment removal. Casting this is not harder at all. What are the chances your O-Ring came off of WW1/W2? All your plains, a Wasteland, and Ruins?

That's why I said '' just a bit harder ''

as for being targeted by REB ... it's another down side

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

what do you think of Detention Sphere instead of ORing ?

Pros :
-Pitches to FoW
-Takes out multiple of the same targets


Cons :
-just a bit harder to cast then Oring

Absolutely. Card takes care of any token shenanegans from empty the warrens.