Miracle Control

[SirTylerGalt]

Ooh, I like this one, although I should note that I don't like playing the clique here. I'd prefer to lay out explosives and kill the swarm on our turn before passing to keep our force live.

Given, the current situation though, does our opponent know the top card of their library? I see a Ponder in the graveyard, maybe they hid their best card?.

We have to assume our top card is a blank and plan that way, anything else is upside for us. I think the legitimate options here are to take nothing and to take a wish, and I prefer to take a wish. They are most likely to wish for Empty to try to get through a potential force, or Past in Flames which requires the second tutor. If we leave them both wishes, we possibly lose if they can Empty and wish for a discard spell to take our explosives (which, thinking about it, we should have played out for 0 if we weren't going to kill the swarm to make multiple LEDs dead cards) One tutor limits the options that our TES opponent has, and I think we can beat any single wish target with this hand. Our worst case scenario is that another tutor was hidden, in which case our Clique did nothing, and we still could win, but it is unlikely given the BW -> PiF -> Tendrils line our opponent has. Actually, I take that back - worst case scenario is a hidden Ad Nauseum, which our hand likely can't beat. I like our odds though since it looks like our opponent was planning to win this turn.

Taking a Burning Wish also stops him from using Ill-Gotten Gains with a tutor in the graveyard.

I don't understand when you say "They are most likely to wish for Empty to try to get through a potential force". Xantid Swarm stops us from casting Force.

[alphastryk]

Taking a Burning Wish also stops him from using Ill-Gotten Gains with a tutor in the graveyard.

I don't understand when you say "They are most likely to wish for Empty to try to get through a potential force". Xantid Swarm stops us from casting Force.

I don't know what I'm saying there either, hmm... just ignore that part.

[Lemnear]

Ooh, I like this one, although I should note that I don't like playing the clique here. I'd prefer to lay out explosives and kill the swarm on our turn before passing to keep our force live.

Given, the current situation though, does our opponent know the top card of their library? I see a Ponder in the graveyard, maybe they hid their best card?.

We have to assume our top card is a blank and plan that way, anything else is upside for us. I think the legitimate options here are to take nothing and to take a wish, and I prefer to take a wish. They are most likely to wish for Empty to try to get through a potential force, or Past in Flames which requires the second tutor. If we leave them both wishes, we possibly lose if they can Empty and wish for a discard spell to take our explosives (which, thinking about it, we should have played out for 0 if we weren't going to kill the swarm to make multiple LEDs dead cards) One tutor limits the options that our TES opponent has, and I think we can beat any single wish target with this hand. Our worst case scenario is that another tutor was hidden, in which case our Clique did nothing, and we still could win, but it is unlikely given the BW -> PiF -> Tendrils line our opponent has. Actually, I take that back - worst case scenario is a hidden Ad Nauseum, which our hand likely can't beat. I like our odds though since it looks like our opponent was planning to win this turn.

Wrong analysis. EtW isn't the storm players plan against a deck with potential Terminus, S.Verdict, Detention Sphere, E.Explosives.

It's pretty unlikely to float Ad Nauseam, so the potential lines here are PIF or Dim.Ret. If you take a tutor, nothing stops them from spinning the Dim.Ret. Roulette (asuming you can't counter the Petal) which likely kills you with the available 3 mana float.

The correct choice is to take the Ritual and strip them from PIF and Returns (they have a maximum of 1 mana float) at the same time while being able to deal with Goblins.



Edit: please check current storm-sideboards. IGG isn't even played anymore

[klaus]

Show your work :)

I'm with alphastryk on this one. Not killing Swarm with EE to keep FoW alive is a punt.
You have tons of superb Storm hate in your hand, surviving that one turn as described above will put you way ahead.

[Einherjer]

I'm with alphastryk on this one. Not killing Swarm with EE to keep FoW alive is a punt.
You have tons of superb Storm hate in your hand, surviving that one turn as described above will put you way ahead.

Agreed, but in this very scenario taking the Dark Ritual is probably the correct choice.

Greetings

[Dzra]

We can't take nothing because that means they kill us rather easily with PIF into Tendrils.

Taking a Wish stops them from grabbing Ill-Gotten Gains, but means that they can still Diminishing Returns rather easily.

Taking Petals or Rite of Flame seems bad since there is plenty of Red mana and Dark Ritual is just better.

Taking the Dark Ritual means that IGG or Past in Flames into Tendrils won't work because there isn't enough Black mana (or mana in general). Their only lines at this point are make 10-12 Goblins (which unknowingly kills them) or go for Diminishing Returns with only Lotus Petal left up.

[lordofthepit]

I take the Dark Ritual here. You can make a case for taking Rite in Flames, since it makes future Rites weaker, but I'd rather bottleneck their black sources.

Assuming they don't rip another mana source off the Clique, this gives them access to 7 mana this turn if all their fast mana resolves, which doesn't allow them to do anything too scary with Burning Wish, since they're unlikely to try to short-storm with Tendrils and you have the Empty the Warrens plan covered by the explosives. Essentially, if the top card of your library is a 0, 1, 2, or 4, you're probably in pretty good shape.

[Poron]

if your top card is 1cc: Wish
if 2cc Ritual
if blank: Ritual

but you put yourself in a week position. and you have also wasted your pressure win-con

[YamiJoey]

if your top card is 1cc: Wish
if 2cc Ritual
if blank: Ritual

but you put yourself in a week position. and you have also wasted your pressure win-con

It doesn't matter. You can't counter anything anyway.

EDIT: Holy shit I just read Xanthid Swarm for the first time. That's relatively frustrating.

[Rook1e]

Hi guys.

I'm going to a 100+ tournament this sunday. I'm expecting a the following strategies to make up most of the meta:

D&T, Stoneblade (TNN Variants) ANT and SnT

This is my current list and what i thought could be a decent sb. But wanted to get some inputs from you guys :D

Land (23)
2x Arid Mesa
4x Flooded Strand
4x Island
2x Karakas
2x Mystic Gate
2x Plains
3x Scalding Tarn
2x Tundra
2x Volcanic Island

Sorcery (6)
2x Entreat the Angels
4x Terminus

Artifact (4)
4x Sensei's Divining Top

Instant (15)
4x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
1x Flusterstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Spell Pierce
3x Swords to Plowshares

Enchantment (5)
3x Counterbalance
1x Moat
1x Rest in Peace

Planeswalker (4)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creature (3)
3x Vendilion Clique

Sideboard (15)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Mountain
1x Pithing Needle
1x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Rest in Peace
2x Sulfur Elemental
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
2x Wear / Tear

I'm looking forward to hearing from you all

/Rook

[JPoJohnson]

An interesting scenario came up in Joe's Miracle stream tonite.

It's Game 3 versus The EPIC Storm. We made a misplay by letting Xantid Swarm resolve, then decided to jump in front of it with Clique and hopefully disrupt on the combo player's Turn 3. He has not made a land drop, and Storm is 1 (Clique).


Show your work :)

What I want to know is this: Why not cast Brainstorm in response and be able to somewhat control what the top card would be at that point? I think there's a much greater chance of the storm player holding redundancy in his hand than being able to beat a 1 or 2 perma-counter trigger for his turn. Am I mistaken? Placing Counterspell back on top means that I need 1 of 60 cards in my hand (Ad Nauseam) and finding and placing a 1CMC back on top shuts down cantrips/rituals. I think putting a 2CMC blind on top would be a good choice and would most likely burn through several of their rituals and a tutor in one go.

Edit: Also curious - What did you end up taking and what was the result?

[twndomn]

Hi guys.

I'm going to a 100+ tournament this sunday. I'm expecting a the following strategies to make up most of the meta:

D&T, Stoneblade (TNN Variants) ANT and SnT

Planeswalker (4)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creature (3)
3x Vendilion Clique

Sideboard (15)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Mountain
1x Pithing Needle
1x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Rest in Peace
2x Sulfur Elemental
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
2x Wear / Tear
I'm looking forward to hearing from you all
/Rook

Elspeth is pretty mediocre for the recent meta. TNN would beat her up pretty badly, DnT would give you a hard time to get to 4 Mana with WW available. It's also useless against combos, which you say there will be ANT and SnT. If you have a Blood Moon and you want to have a basic Mountain to be able to play Blood Moon without fearing wasteland, I would understand. Without further explanation, I don't see the need of basic mountain. Again, I don't see how that basic mountain would help you against ANT and SnT.

[Koby]

What I want to know is this: Why not cast Brainstorm in response and be able to somewhat control what the top card would be at that point? I think there's a much greater chance of the storm player holding redundancy in his hand than being able to beat a 1 or 2 perma-counter trigger for his turn. Am I mistaken? Placing Counterspell back on top means that I need 1 of 60 cards in my hand (Ad Nauseam) and finding and placing a 1CMC back on top shuts down cantrips/rituals. I think putting a 2CMC blind on top would be a good choice and would most likely burn through several of their rituals and a tutor in one go.

Edit: Also curious - What did you end up taking and what was the result?

I cannot answer these questions as I was not piloting the deck. Those questions should be addressed to oarsman.

My understanding of the premise was: we need to kill Xantid Swarm and have limited time to do so. Joe reasoned to not counter the Swarm (mistake), so this fixes that mistake and hedges that TES does not have the kill this turn. Clique allows two form of disruption: disrupt the hand, and kill the Swarm. Playing Brainstorm only stops TES from going off this turn, and would not repair the Swarm situation for next turn.

As for what happened -- who cares? A well reasoned decision can stand on its own regardless of how the situation played out.

[YamiJoey]

Killing Swarm is relevant, but we also need a win-con. We currently have no active cards here, and we do not have a land. Casting a Brainstorm now may allow us to put some counters on the top of our deck, but it allows the TES player the chance to just keep waiting on us to make a move. They can wish for outs to CB if we don't put a 2 on top, which leaves us another turn with no lands, and then we're topping into dead cards again.

I think killing the Swarm without using Brainstorm is how we win this game. If I had more time to think about it there's probably a solution, but I'n off out so whatever.

[JPoJohnson]

Killing Swarm is relevant, but we also need a win-con. We currently have no active cards here, and we do not have a land. Casting a Brainstorm now may allow us to put some counters on the top of our deck, but it allows the TES player the chance to just keep waiting on us to make a move. They can wish for outs to CB if we don't put a 2 on top, which leaves us another turn with no lands, and then we're topping into dead cards again.

I think killing the Swarm without using Brainstorm is how we win this game. If I had more time to think about it there's probably a solution, but I'n off out so whatever.

We would most likely burn a few cards from their hand ritual-ing into a countered Tutor, maybe even take an LED and it would take them quite a few turns to rebuild that. I think keeping the Clique for the next attack/EEing it and burning a good chunk of their hand is a much better potential line?

[Rook1e]

Elspeth is pretty mediocre for the recent meta. TNN would beat her up pretty badly, DnT would give you a hard time to get to 4 Mana with WW available. It's also useless against combos, which you say there will be ANT and SnT. If you have a Blood Moon and you want to have a basic Mountain to be able to play Blood Moon without fearing wasteland, I would understand. Without further explanation, I don't see the need of basic mountain. Again, I don't see how that basic mountain would help you against ANT and SnT.

The reason Elspeth is in there is that i often wanted another threat, and so far i have been glad to see her everytime i found her.

The basic mountain is there mostly for the D&T matchup, but also for the UWR Delver matchups. Beeing able to cast my red spells are crucial in these matchups in my experience.

[Valtrix]

The reason Elspeth is in there is that i often wanted another threat, and so far i have been glad to see her everytime i found her.

I would play 4 Entreats before I play Elspeth (and for you, that would only be the third Entreat). Even if it's a lot of miracles in your deck, the sheer power of Entreat cannot be matched (in my opinion). I find more and more that it has the power to win games that I simply could not win otherwise, and for this I really value the card. Especially now that True Name Nemesis is a card, I think Elspeth is significantly weaker since a Nemesis can kill her in two attacks. With Entreat, you can either block a lot of creatures (at instant speed, probably getting card advantage), or straight up racing.

[Cipher]

An interesting scenario came up in Joe's Miracle stream tonite.

It's Game 3 versus The EPIC Storm. We made a misplay by letting Xantid Swarm resolve, then decided to jump in front of it with Clique and hopefully disrupt on the combo player's Turn 3. He has not made a land drop, and Storm is 1 (Clique).



What do you take, and why?
Assume that the Sideboard for BWish has no limit, and any Sorcery could be used.
We don't know what card is on top of the deck.

Show your work :)

My first thought was to take the Wish, since he couldn't kill you this turn and could very well get spooked by the Counterbalance into firing off a desperation Empty the Warrens. As someone pointed out, though, the correct play for your opponent is probably a low percentage gamble on Diminishing Returns, so if you just take the ritual then you ensure that you untap with double counters up plus a semi-blind counterbalance.

It still seems close, though, and I'm thinking a lot of Storm players would fire off the goblins. I'm not an expert on Storm so I can't call whether it's the right play. Miracles list should only have 2-3 ways to kill the goblins post board, and how risky is going all-in on Diminishing Returns with only 3 mana floating? Leaving 2 Wishes that you can't counter this turn is hardly good, either. If he cashes one in for Past in Flames, he's got your 2 counterspells beat and it's on you to topdeck or get a Top in play. What if Duress or Therapy is on top of his deck? You left him double Burning Wish so his draws are ridiculously live. If he chooses to cash in a Wish for Past in Flames even him drawing more mana beats you, assuming you whiff on your next two or so draw steps.

[Cipher]

Edit: please check current storm-sideboards. IGG isn't even played anymore

http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/view/57406

...actually did a bit of searching for a sideboard that didn't have Ill-Gotten Gains. But if Ari and Cook both run it, I'm just assuming it's standard issue.

[Lemnear]

http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/view/57406

...actually did a bit of searching for a sideboard that didn't have Ill-Gotten Gains. But if Ari and Cook both run it, I'm just assuming it's standard issue.

You didn't need to search very long: just take a look at his current SB posted in his thread in this forum. It's gone for quite a while: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...The-EPIC-Storm