Miracle Control

[Adryan]

I'm too lazy to write a decklist. List has 22 Lands, the 4th Island is not visible on the Screenshot.

http://postimg.org/image/vnd5s4dpt/

[exallium]

I'm too lazy to write a decklist. List has 22 Lands, the 4th Island is not visible on the Screenshot.

http://postimg.org/image/vnd5s4dpt/

Maindecking Keranos eh... That's ballsy... I like it.

How has bloodmoon been functioning for you? I've tested it over the last few weeks, and while sometimes it gives a free win, other times it ends up locking us into the top of our deck because we can't shuffle off fetchlands anymore. Maybe it's better if you're running ponder?

There's actually a few interesting card choices here =) thanks for sharing your list!

How has swansong been? What matchups is it for? I can imagine maybe Storm, Miracles, Show & Tell, Enchantress...

[Einherjer]

Looking forward to this! Thanks!

As my article is too massive to be posted at once it has to be split apart, and due to my inability to do the splitting-editing where I am right now the first part will be delayed by a week. Sorry for the wait.

Greetings

[Adryan]

Maindecking Keranos eh... That's ballsy... I like it.

How has bloodmoon been functioning for you? I've tested it over the last few weeks, and while sometimes it gives a free win, other times it ends up locking us into the top of our deck because we can't shuffle off fetchlands anymore. Maybe it's better if you're running ponder?

There's actually a few interesting card choices here =) thanks for sharing your list!

How has swansong been? What matchups is it for? I can imagine maybe Storm, Miracles, Show & Tell, Enchantress...

I'm completely happy with my current list and that says a lot because i was never completely satisfied. I'm doing great with it online &offline. I've cashed in a decent amount of dailies with it (~10, but can't remember exactly^^) and i only lost one daily, where i was 1-0 and my pc crashed and i got disqualified. Keranos is so good in the maindeck. He's like the 3rd Entreat or 4th Jace. He's expensive of course, but i really don't fear Delver decks (aka decks where too many high cmc cards sucks) because i have six 1 cmc removal for Delver and a lot of other cheap removal. Tough MU's like Shardless BUG feel a lot better with him in the Maindeck.

Blood Moon is a very high impact card against many decks. People don't expect it when you run Ponder and Snapcaster Mage. If it's not good, say you had to fetch a lot of nonbasics, or the opponent has Golgari Charms/ Decay and open mana... well it's still a 1of and if you draw it/ see it with Top you can get very easily rid of it. I like 2R spells with "you win the game" against UWR Delver, RUG Delver, Grixis Delver etc. Against BUG you need to time it correctly. Tempo decks with R may have outs like Vortex or fringe cards like Krosan Grip etc., but it's still really good against them. When you have a Blood Moon, not having access to shuffle effects (except Ponder) is not a big downside when the opponent can't cast anything^^. Short Summary: i think it's really good. But please don't play bad cards like Tutor with it.

Swan Song is obviously very good against all the combodecks, where i board it. I also board it in the mirror. People really overvalue the bird in the mirror. The upside of having an additional 1 cmc counter that still counters almost everything at Turn 20 is bigger than the downside. If i remember correctly, i only lost one game (it was a game for fun) because of the bird (i was tired and made some mistakes and threw the game away).

[Ltj999]

What about humility against DnT? It seems like it would turn off most of their control shenanigans that they try to pull with thalia and the like.

[zulander]

Holy crap does this deck need a new primer.

[zeus-online]

So....i have so far not actually done too well with this deck. My enemy is the clock, and also inexperience with the deck (I forget counterbalance more often than i care to admit )

I have played at two 4 round events, first one was with this deck:
4 Flooded strand
4 Polluted delta
1 Scalding tarn
3 Volcanic island
2 Tundra
3 Plains
5 Island

3 Snapcaster mage
3 Jace, the mindsculptor
3 Counterbalance
4 Sensei's divining top
2 Engineered explosives

4 Force of will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to plowshares
3 Terminus
2 Entreat the angels
2 Counterspell
1 Fire/Ice
1 Spellsnare
1 Red elemental blast
1 Lightning bolt

Sideboard:
3 Tormod's crypt
2 Pyroclasm
2 Red elemental blast
2 Oblivion ring
1 Counterbalance
1 Counterspell
1 Pyroblast
1 Engineered explosives
1 Terminus
1 Relic of progenitus

Sideboard:
4 Tormod's crypt
2 Pyroclasm
2 Red elemental blast
2 Oblivion ring
1 Counterbalance
1 Counterspell
1 Pyroblast
1 Engineered explosives
1 Terminus

Edit: I had apparently saved my deck list on my laptop

First round:
Nic-fit (Apparently that is the name for this odd deck)
I believe i lost 2-1, but i cannot remember exactly how the games went.

Second round:
Stoneblade. I won rather easily, 2-0. Very unexciting games, i just cast terminus a couple of times and locked the game with jace.

Third round:
Nic-fit, another guy with another version. I made a huuuge misplay and lost game one because of it. I got thoughtseized and somehow forgot to brainstorm my counterspell on top of my library, so i could get it back with sensei's top. This allowed him to pernicious deed away my tokens. It ended 1-1 i believe, and we had no more time.

Fourth round:
Shardless BUG.
I won game 1 with jace after a really long game with very little action. I am uncertain how i actually won this since he resolved multiple ancestral visions, planeswalkers and an early game hymn to tourach.
Game 2 and three was over quickly as he sideboarded Null rod in, and i had no good answers for it. Game 2 was over turn 4 or something. I was land light with a top and he cast null rod and followed it up with 2 tarmogoyfs which did me in.

well, considering that i had not even played a test game before going i thought little of it...but was determined to try and improve my deck.

So here is what i played yesterday:
Mana: 21
4 Flooded strand
4 Polluted delta
1 Scalding tarn
3 Volcanic island
2 Tundra
3 Plains
4 Island

Creatures: 5
3 Snapcaster mage
2 Entreat the angels

Draw: 15
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Sensei's top
3 Jace, the mindsculptor

Disruption: 19
4 Force of will
4 Counterbalance
4 Terminus
2 Swords to plowshares
2 Lightning bolt
2 Counterspell
1 Red elemental blast

Sideboard: 15
3 Relic of progenitus
3 Misdirection
2 Baneslayer angel
2 Disenchant
1 Blue blast
1 hydro blast
1 red blast
1 pyro blast
1 Counterspell

I really liked the main deck...but i will be getting council's judgment, and i am considering if i can make room for 2 spell pierce. The 4 ponders where quite good, although i think they where just: Shuffle your library, draw a card. in every instance
The bolt's are there because i feel like they answer almost any early creature, and they can kill most planeswalkers. They can also help finish the game, although that is theoretical as i have yet to do so. The red blast has been completely useless so far, so i am cutting it.
You will notice that my mana base is not the best, i do not own the correct fetch lands yet, so i will have to work on that.

My sideboard was awful in all honesty. The relics where very good though, but the rest was no good. Although i must admit that i didn't encounter the match ups my angels, blue blasts and misdirections where intended for. MisD seems like a really strong card against Shardless BUG, which is a match up i think i need a sideboard against.

Round 1: Elves!
I win 2-0. Both games where similar, i set up terminus + counterbalance/top and in both games i stabilize at 1 life...Although, i guess i just didn't feel the rush to stabilize above 1 life since it didn't seem like he had any way of burning me out or hasting me down.

Round 2: Lands
I loose game 1 to rishadan ports and life from the loam, and finishes it with a marit lage token.
Game 2 was rather uneventful, he locks my two angel tokens down with maze of it so i can only get through for 2 with snapcaster mage. He can't do anything because my turn 1 relic keeps his loams and crucible offline all game long...time is called and i loose 1-0

I really need blood moon or back to basics if i want to have a chance against lands.

Round 3: Miracle control
I loose game 1 quickly as he manages to resolve sensei's top and counterbalance within the first three turns, he then casts jace, TMS and i get beat down by cliques and angels which i cannot deal with because of the counterbalance.
In game two i manage to get counterbalance/top in play by turn 3, and i am holding jace hoping to cast it on turn 5....but i fail to draw lands, and cant find any, in the mean time my opponent luck-flips an entreat and i am facing 3 angel tokens....i have sideboarded my terminus's out, so...i cast jace, bounce a token...and cast another jace the turn after to bounce a second token. And then i eventually loose to angel token + clique/karakas combo (preventing me from entreating).

Round 4: Twelve-post
Come on! *sigh*
I loose game 1 because...i forget my counterbalance and he resolves show and tell, dropping down the titan . I still manage to summon a bunch of angels though (entreat was on top!) and i fly over for some damage. Does not matter at all since he hardcasts emrakul next turn and goes infinite with karakas. Oh well.
I actually could have stopped it if i had played a third tundra - i had terminus on top, with sensei's top in play and an uncracked polluted delta which could not find white mana. I think he might have been able to eye of ugin and hardcast it on his time walk turn regardless.
In game two i get locked down by pithing needle on jace and ensnaring bridge. We are very close to time, and i figure that i might as well play it out just to study his deck. Eventually he plays eye of ugin and searches up kozilek ?! he then casts it and draws some cards, i EOT flip my top to entreat for 6 angels and i alpha strike with 2 snapcaster mages, 1 swan song token and 6 angel tokens...he attempts to repeal, but i counter it and we tie at 1-1.
My opponent is visually frustrated after i inform him that i in fact could not beat needle/bridge, sorry!

Learning to play legacy and miracle control is more difficult than i initially thought.

I cannot remember what i sideboarded in the games as i did not take notes, but i do remember that my sideboarded cards did very little.

[Dzra]

And then i eventually loose to angel token + clique/karakas combo (preventing me from entreating).

You can beat this by drawing the Entreat and hard casting it. Also, Miracles is pretty tough to pilot, so don't get discouraged.

[zeus-online]

You can beat this by drawing the Entreat and hard casting it.

I don't think i had nearly enough mana to entreat for enough (It would take at least three tokens i think.). Also i am fairly certain that he had multiple counterspells at this point.
Still, important to remember.

Also, Miracles is pretty tough to pilot, so don't get discouraged.

It is very different from the many other blue control decks i have piloted. I think more practice would help more than anything else.

[exallium]

I'm completely happy with my current list and that says a lot because i was never completely satisfied. I'm doing great with it online &offline. I've cashed in a decent amount of dailies with it (~10, but can't remember exactly^^) and i only lost one daily, where i was 1-0 and my pc crashed and i got disqualified. Keranos is so good in the maindeck. He's like the 3rd Entreat or 4th Jace. He's expensive of course, but i really don't fear Delver decks (aka decks where too many high cmc cards sucks) because i have six 1 cmc removal for Delver and a lot of other cheap removal. Tough MU's like Shardless BUG feel a lot better with him in the Maindeck.

Blood Moon is a very high impact card against many decks. People don't expect it when you run Ponder and Snapcaster Mage. If it's not good, say you had to fetch a lot of nonbasics, or the opponent has Golgari Charms/ Decay and open mana... well it's still a 1of and if you draw it/ see it with Top you can get very easily rid of it. I like 2R spells with "you win the game" against UWR Delver, RUG Delver, Grixis Delver etc. Against BUG you need to time it correctly. Tempo decks with R may have outs like Vortex or fringe cards like Krosan Grip etc., but it's still really good against them. When you have a Blood Moon, not having access to shuffle effects (except Ponder) is not a big downside when the opponent can't cast anything^^. Short Summary: i think it's really good. But please don't play bad cards like Tutor with it.

Swan Song is obviously very good against all the combodecks, where i board it. I also board it in the mirror. People really overvalue the bird in the mirror. The upside of having an additional 1 cmc counter that still counters almost everything at Turn 20 is bigger than the downside. If i remember correctly, i only lost one game (it was a game for fun) because of the bird (i was tired and made some mistakes and threw the game away).

Fantastic, thanks for the insight. I'll likely try this build out next week.

[Adryan]

Because i like posting pictures that tell a fun story. Winning is great and winning with fun cards is even greater. R1 of todays daily against BUG Delver. For you guys to see what Blood Moon does consistently for me:

I've tried it. It's okay, but it's the equipment that usually gets you. An equipped 1/1 is still annoying. I've lost enough games against D&T with Humility on the table to not consider it a main sideboard card against them. If you have it in your sideboard already for other matchups it's worth bringing in, but don't expect it to win you the game by itself.

I see it the same way as you. If you have slots for it, it's okay to bring in against Death and Taxes. But you shouldn't run it with Death and Taxes in mind. My boarding plan against Death and Taxes is: -1 Fow -3 Counterbalance -2 Blasts; +1 Counterspell, +2 EE, + 1 Wear/Tear, + 1 Vendilion Clique, +1 Councils Judgement. So i don't have the slots for it, because everything else is better.

[YamiJoey]

@Adryan: Why do you board out a Force for a Counterspell? Force counters Vial, Counterspell costs 3 against Thalia, and can't hit anything relevant on he draw, and very little on the play. Surely Force is just better there, but if you want to cut one, Humility could be right.

[lordofthepit]

I've never lost in 8 matches against Death and Taxes (I believe dropping only two games in the entire span), despite facing some pretty good competition, so I think my sideboarding strategy is pretty effective. Since the specific strategy varies based on the exact composition of your decklist, I'm not going to provide an exact guide, but here's what I've done:

- Remove all your Counterbalances. It's often a solid card if you can stick the lock, but almost everything relevant happens on the board, and you can often be too far behind if you take a few turns to establish Counterbalance. This is especially the case since they can function off Aether Vial and Humility.
- Board in every single form of (cheap) removal. I board in a 4th Terminus and any Wear/Tears, as they have a ton of live targets. If I have any copies of Council's Judgment, Engineered Explosives, or Izzet Staticaster, those go in too. Recently, I haven't had enough slots, so I have not been boarding in Supreme Verdict, since it's pretty hard to get on the board through Thalia, Port, and Wasteland, but it's a reasonable pick. Council's Judgment is a bit expensive, but it is so flexible that I would not question its inclusion in this matchup. There are about a dozen relevant cards to disable with Pithing Needle as well, so obviously bring those in.
- Keep in Force of Will and Spell Pierce, both on the play and draw. Snagging an Aether Vial is very important, but what's absolutely crippling (and the easiest way to lose a game) is allowing Cataclysm to resolve. The only time you can allow Cataclysm to resolve is if you're floating an Entreat on top of your library. I board out Counterspell because I've found it difficult to reliably hold up :U: :U: against their mana denial.
- You need a way to win, but fortunately, everything in the deck other than Entreat the Angels also serves as utility. In this matchup, I would prioritize them as follows with any extra card slots I have available: Jace > Snapcaster > Entreat > Venser > Clique. Jace may be tough to stick, but it's really important to pull ahead. All of the commonly played creatures in this matchup can fortunately be used at instant speed in response to a Port (as can Entreat as long as you have a way to trigger the Miracle), which is great. Snapcaster is the best since it rebuys all our removal spell unconditionally. A reasonable sized Entreat will always win the game, barring some shenanigans like a Serra Avenger equipped with Batterskull, SoFI, and Jitte with multiple counters and Mother of Runes backup. The legendary creatures are unlikely to ever connect, due to the Karakas in their deck, but Venser's flexibility and extra point of toughness wins out here. Keeping all of your creatures is probably reasonable for many lists, although lists derived from Einherjer likely will have to shave some Cliques (due to the availability of extra Snapcasters as well as the full set of Swords to Plowshares).

This may not be the optimal sideboard strategy, but it's been extremely effective for me.

[zeus-online]

What is the plan against goblins?

They seem to have all the right tools to defeat miracle:
8 Powerful turn one plays, vial and lackey - both requiring immediate attention
8 powerful mana denial cards, possibly denying access to potential answers such as moat/humility
Loads of card advantage with ringleaders, matrons and so on.
A nice spread of CMC, rendering counterbalance ineffective
And on top of that they run cavern of souls, making all other counterspells, as well as counterbalance quite ineffective.

Only plan i can think of pre-board is to simply draw enough terminus to get to the mana where entreat can defeat them.

[Malakai]

What is the plan against goblins?

They seem to have all the right tools to defeat miracle:
8 Powerful turn one plays, vial and lackey - both requiring immediate attention
8 powerful mana denial cards, possibly denying access to potential answers such as moat/humility
Loads of card advantage with ringleaders, matrons and so on.
A nice spread of CMC, rendering counterbalance ineffective
And on top of that they run cavern of souls, making all other counterspells, as well as counterbalance quite ineffective.

Only plan i can think of pre-board is to simply draw enough terminus to get to the mana where entreat can defeat them.

Don't die, cast Entreat the Angels as soon as you can.

[TheArchitect]

Goblins is probably miracles 2nd worst matchup, after 12post, for exactly the reasons you described. You basically have to get the nut draw and terminus them in combat on turn 3-5, and then untap pass, and entreat for 2+ in combat, get some blocks and then race. Having moat does help a lot. They have very few outs to a moat and their outs are easy to break up.

[goblinsplayer]

Goblins is probably miracles 2nd worst matchup, after 12post, for exactly the reasons you described. You basically have to get the nut draw and terminus them in combat on turn 3-5, and then untap pass, and entreat for 2+ in combat, get some blocks and then race. Having moat does help a lot. They have very few outs to a moat and their outs are easy to break up.

That and the helm combo helps too, considering it's a way to win out of nowhere. Another useful tip is when you have top out, wait until they port your land on upkeep to top in response, if you need to top on upkeep. I have seen too many miracles players just top on their upkeep and I just tap their other land.

[twndomn]

What is the plan against goblins?

They seem to have all the right tools to defeat miracle:
Only plan i can think of pre-board is to simply draw enough terminus to get to the mana where entreat can defeat them.

Goblin isn't the worst, they're definitely favored. I would argue Goblin and Merfolk are equally bad. As to the match-up, you have to assemble the combo. The combo is: floating Terminus (top of lib), then Entreat (2nd from top of lib). In other words, you have to cast Entreat in the immediate turn after Terminus.

Now, common sb choices are: Izzet Staticaster and possibly Celestial Purge (since it's also good against Liliana/DRS...etc). I would avoid blue cards, since many Goblins are SB-in REB/Pyro Blasts.

Also, kill every Goblin Settler/Kiki you see.

[zeus-online]

Another useful tip is when you have top out, wait until they port your land on upkeep to top in response, if you need to top on upkeep. I have seen too many miracles players just top on their upkeep and I just tap their other land.

Well, a tip for you then. Tap in the draw step instead, does not stop miracle cards though :)


Seems like it would be impossible to sideboard all the cards that aren't useful out.
Is it worth it to keep force of will in? It stops vial and lackey (unless they have cavern of course) on turn 1, but the card disadvantage is quite bad.

Counterbalance seems like a card that needs to be boarded out.

[Tourach]

If there is a cards that shuts down Goblins by itself it is Moat. Humility is also very effective at buying time. The only card I could imagine a monored Gobo-player running that gets rid of them is Chaos Warp and I haven't seen that one in a sideboard. However, I don't run Moat myself and would consider my win percentage in games and matches (lots of them) about 40-45%.

It seems to be easier preboard. That matchup goes down to timing and some luck. It has been mentioned before, that Terminus into Entreat the Angels wins. But in my experience you have some time to set that up. Swords, Snapcaster into Swords and Force in the first few turns. I'm usually happy with a hand that has access to basics and a top or Swords + Snapcaster. I usually try to do some combat tricks (cast Snapcaster in declare-attacker-step, block their Lords). Same goes for Clique obviously. You can also cast a small Entreat during combat (beware of Legion Loyalist). Ether way, the Gobo-player does not see any blockers coming.

Postboard I have the problem that I want to board out a lot (Counterbalance + Counterspell + Spell Pierce, maybe Force) but have few cards to side in. The deck is good against aggro-strategies, so I don't want to overload on anti-aggro-cards in the sideboard. The Gobo-player however has quite a bit to bring in. Needle for our Top and Pyroblast to mention the most important.

Goblins has a lot of dangerous T1-Plays. And if a Lackey or Instigator connects, it will be very hard. However in my experience Vial is not half as bad for us. It is a lot slower, we cannot counter either way (Cavern) and it does not deal damage.