Miracle Control

[Shaka1333]

Congratulations Drza !

I guess you must be a little disappointed to miss Top8 but you could also think that way : wouldn't you have signed without hesitation for a 10th place in this 300+ people tournamenent earning hundreds of dollars before the tournament ? I bet i would have ;).

[oarsman]

Felt really good about the deck Sunday. I also think my play is showing steady improvement. There are only a few colossal errors from this event that I can remember, which probably means the actual number was somewhere around ten. I think that's pretty good.

[mini1337s]

Felt really good about the deck Sunday. I also think my play is showing steady improvement. There are only a few colossal errors from this event that I can remember, which probably means the actual number was somewhere around ten. I think that's pretty good.

Did you have any issues with only running 2 Swords to Plowshares in the main? I've trimmed to 3 and liked it, but 2 makes me a tad nervous. Was it a meta-call for Dallas?
Congrats to you and Drza on really strong finishes.

[Dzra]

Yeah I do have to thank my friend Albert too who scooped to me in round 8 because unfortunately we all thought that X-1-1 should get there. Overall I was really happy with the deck. I'm a little unsure about the Ponder because it feels slightly redundant, but I've never been unhappy to draw it. I didn't find myself missing Spell Pierce at all either and I think that the REBs MD and Flusterstorms in the board effectively replaced the need for them.

[Einherjer]

Congratulations on such a strong performance last month, fellow Miraclesplayers! Yet I am a little disappointed that we aren't deck #1... and we have even been outperformed by TeamAmerica too... we have to work on this lads, we really have to!

Greetings

[Lans89]

I'm testing Miracles for BoM9 :P! Almost scored some byes last week, but screwed up vs BUG Delver in the last round, after leading 1-0 . The day after I had my toughest hangover ever, but had to play another trial! So I decided to play Elves instead. It was a good choice because I won 2 byes ! I faced Miracles two times, so I'm happy that I prevented some stupid mirror matches.. But now back to Miracles, testing this list:

Maindeck
2# Snapcaster Mage
2# Vendilion Clique

4# Brainstorm
1# Ponder
4# Force of Will
2# Counterspell
1# Spell Pierce
1# Red Elemental Blast
1# Unexpectedly Absent
4# Swords to Plowshares
4# Terminus
2# Entreat the Angels

4# Sensei’s Divining Top
3# Counterbalance
3# Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4# Flooded Strand
4# Scalding Tarn
2# Arid Mesa
2# Plains
4# Island
2# Tundra
2# Volcanic Island
1# Mystic Gate
1# Karakas

Sideboard
1# Engineered Explosives
1# Pithing Needle
1# Ethersworn Canonist
1# Grafdigger’s Cage
1# Rest in Peace
1# Humility or Moat?
1# Wear//Tear
1# Pyroblast
1# Red Elemental Blast
2# Flusterstorm
1# Venser, Shaper Savant
1# Entreat the Angels
+
1# Blood Moon
1# Enlightened Tutor
or
2nd Explosives
2nd Rest in Peace

So I'm still debating over my sideboard. I always have a soft spot for tutor packages! But Blood Moon didn't peform good enough yet.. I own a Moat and would love to fit it into my deck, but rarely board it. Humility is sweet when playing Enl. Tutor, but it feels bad to shut off my Venser, Cliques and Snaps vs decks like Sneaky Show :\!

In the main I've cut 1 Ponder to add Unexpectedly Absent. It is another out vs the evil Liliana and can do some other fun stuff =). Isn't it an underrated card anyway?! I found 2 blasts in the main a bit overkill, but 1 instead of the second Pierce wouldn't harm my list.. Most of the time I hate Pierce anyway! And especially after 2 byes in a large event, I guess the odds of facing a blue deck are big enough! Oh and in my latest testing I had some trouble with Mystic Gate, and rather have a 3th Tundra! So I guess I'll add that change! Some of you have agreed on that already =).

I love Miracles but hate the stress to get 3 games done in time.. Encouraging your opponent to play faster isn't always nice, and sometimes works out the opposite way -_-. I prefer to play a bit relax, with some nice chats, and should often play faster than I usualy do. But Legacy is a second nature to me, so trying to play fast isn't much of a problem. The deck is great and will most likely be my deck of choice out of the Miracles, Deathblade, Elves and Sneaky Show decks I'll bring to Annecy!

Ps: I would love to see an updated primer and some more sideboarding guides (oh and I support the 'dodge Decay and Charm tactic' ^_^!)..

[amalek0]

Locally one of the miracles players has been SB'ing a pair of sapphire charms to deal with UW stoneblade, which has started to infest the local meta. I'm curious if this is just something techy he's doing to deal with the local metagame, or if this is a legitimate strategy for dealing with the stoneforge/batterskull/academy ruins shenanigans of stoneblade in the control mirror?

[YamiJoey]

I don't think it's all that great. We have Terminus, StP and, if necessary, Path to Exile to deal with Creatures, phasing them out seems pointless.

[Dzra]

I don't think it's all that great. We have Terminus, StP and, if necessary, Path to Exile to deal with Creatures, phasing them out seems pointless.

The point is that the charm will exile the germ and then the Batterskull will never phase back in. It's good against Batterskull, but that is it. I'd rather have Disenchant to deal with any equipment than a super narrow anti-Batterskull card.

[Valtrix]

If one really wants to deal with academy ruins recursion they should just use an exile source instead of the super narrow sapphire charm. I really like Act of Authority (although I still wouldn't run it). If they have three mana up, you can't take advantage of the enters the battlefield trigger, but this is true of any removal you try to use on Batterskull. However, the triggered ability in the upkeep you can always target the Batterskull, but you decide only on resolution whether to exile or not. So if they don't bounce you have the opportunity to get rid of the batterskull. On the other hand, if you use the upkeep ability of act of authority there is a very real downside for us by giving them act of authority. Just as we decided on resolution to get Batterskull, they can target our tops and we have to bounce every turn or risk it getting taken away.

[Dzra]

Revoke Existence.

Come to think of it, I should probably be running this since it's a strictly better Disenchant. I don't know if I can shelve my 7th Edition foils in good conscience though. :(

[Valtrix]

It's a sorcery though, so it's not exactly strictly better.

[Dzra]

It's a sorcery though, so it's not exactly strictly better.

Yeah, just realized that. I suppose the Instant is better. Pimped Disenchants, you are still safe!

[martyrX]

hi miracle friends,

played my first real tournament with mediocre results, i went 1-1-2. my matchups were: dredge (draw), lands(draw), stax (win), oops all spells(loss, and quickly). although i was packing 2 rip and a relic on the side, i couldn't find them all day. I'm sure mistakes were made, but oops all spells went off turn 2 and turn 3 on me (FOW didn't help), and dredge and lands were very grindy without any grave hate help, thus the draws (and it didn't help that those 2 strategies were slow).

Just wondering what the general strategy should have been here? I didn't mull to less than 6, should i have just mulled and mulled until i found rip/relic vs the graves?

I'm sure they are good in general, but REB in the main felt near useless today (although it would have helped vs oops). my side looked like this:

2 flusterstorm
2 REB (2 main)
1 counterspell
2 rip
1 relic
1 verdict
1 moat
1 entreat
1 blood moon
1 celestial purge
2 disenchant

the rest of the meta was: dntX2, sneakX2, elves, burn, uwr delver, antX2 and stoneforge. i'm thinking ethersworn cannonist would have been a nice sideboard card here. any suggestions?

martyrX

[Dzra]

Joe on camera... with manaless Dredge. haha Can't seem to escape that one. Didn't see it, but he got game one.

I wonder if Counterbalance is actually a good one against manaless Dredge because of how often they try to combo with Balustrade Spy.

[lyracian]

Joe on camera... with manaless Dredge. haha Can't seem to escape that one. Didn't see it, but he got game one.

I wonder if Counterbalance is actually a good one against manaless Dredge because of how often they try to combo with Balustrade Spy.

Anyone know how the match ended? I only saw half of game two on the replay before they cut to the next round...

[TheArchitect]

Anyone know how the match ended? I only saw half of game two on the replay before they cut to the next round...

I havent watched it yet either, but past matchups are always available here (joes match is near the end): http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/profile/pastBroadcasts

[Philipp2293]

Joe won 2-1, G3 ended after 2 minutes after Joe resolved a turn 2 RIP.

[Lans89]

Any comments on the list and sideboard thoughts I posted? I would very much appreciate it =)!

Btw, 3-0-2 (wins: 2x Elves, Dredge, draw vs another dredge and ID vs Reanimate. I started 3-0 ).

1st after swiss, top 4: Miracles, reanimate and 2x Dredge -_-

Quarters vs Dredge (same as the draw in the swiss) because the dredge players didn't want to split vs Miracles. 1-2 =)! Thought that I would loose.. You loose game 1 unless they mull a lot and it is real hard to win 2 games. Also, sideboarding vs dredge is difficult!

I had to play the finals vs the other Dredge player, but asked him to split because I didn't feel much for playing one more dredge match :P! But I went home undefeated and at least practised vs Dredge and Elves ^_^! The meta showed some diversity but I only faced the same matchups and the same people in the finals.. It frightens me, it's boring and their turns take sooo much time :O!

[Adryan]

Any comments on the list and sideboard thoughts I posted? I would very much appreciate it =)!

Hopefully you want real feedback, not everybody telling you how perfect it is :)

I don't like the Venser in the SB without 2 Karakas in the MD. Rest of the MD is okay.

I wouldn't run neither Moat nor Humility in my SB. Humility is only great against Sneakshow and probably the only MU where it's worth bringing in, so if you want 1 slot that's only for Sneakshow it's okay. Moat on the other hand is a card that's only really good against Goblins, especially with lots of Delvers and Deathrites in the format and lots of Golgari Charms because of TNN.