All Legacy players know of Miracles, as all subjects know the King. This article will not discuss the generalities of Miracles. There are already many great articles by many experienced players, who have shared their general Miracles knowledge with the community. Instead, this article is focused on discussing a specific aspect of Miracles. After the banning of Sensei’s Divining Top, a weakness surfaced in the deck. Diagnosis of this weakness and the discovered solution has been verified by a year of testing.

The Problem

Every Magic deck has strengths and weaknesses, so what is currently the weakness of Miracles? A year after Sensei’s Divining Top was banned out of Legacy, a particular weakness surfaced for Miracles: Combo decks. The “soft lock” guaranteed by Sensei’s Divining Top + Counterbalance has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Although we still have Counterbalance, instead of being able to control the top of our library with a single generic mana, today, we must maintain a constant flurry of library-manipulating cantrips. This is much more difficult to guarantee, and presents a much higher resource requirement. It also must be noted that it is no longer possible to “float” Force of Will, Legacy’s cornerstone card, on top of our library, simply to switch it with Sensei’s Divining Top at the right time. Losing this tool has increased the power of discard effects against Miracles. In practice, this translates to a more difficult time beating Combo archetypes, such as Show and Tell, ANT/TES, and Reanimator. If you expect to face a strong presence of these archetypes, this is the Miracles variant for you!

Traditional Answers to Combo

Historically, Miracles has almost always been set in UW colors, with a splash into Red. The only spell outside of those colors is Surgical Extraction, but thanks to Phyrexian Mana, it is always paid for with the “free casting cost” of 2 life points, instead of the otherwise unavailable Black mana. Today, there is actually a trend of some players to remove the Red from the deck altogether, aimed at maximizing the effectiveness of Back to Basics while constructing an extremely resilient manabase. We would be willing to explore this option, but are unwilling to leave the house without the support of Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast. Consider this “classic” configuration of UWr Miracles:

UWr Miracle - Angelo Cadei - 4 Seasons Winter 11/02/2018 - 11/178 players

The traditional answers to Combo decks, up to now, have been;

A very versatile card, with players almost always registering between 2 and 4 copies (we always play 3). It helps to protect from discard effects, as well a natural strength against other cards with “Storm” in their text box. It also allows for stack-based tricks, where your opponent is baited into placing multiple spells on the stack at once, and you use one Flusterstorm to counter all of them simultaneously!

The main reason for playing Red. It can neutralise Show and Tell as well as help us in a counter-war (and is a live card against control and Delver). This effect is played in total from 2 to 4 copies, depending on the list (we play on average 2 Pyroblast and 1 Red Elemental Blast).

Our favorite creature, or at least right up there with Snapcaster Mage. One of the most flexible and skill intensive cards, it can solve some otherwise unanswerable situations. For example, it is one of the best answers to Show and Tell + Omniscience, since its Enters-the-Battlefield ability goes on the stack, and you can strip Emrakul or Griselbrand from the opponent’s hand before they are able to cast it. Players play between 0 and 3 copies of the card (we are down from 3 to 2, after the ban of Sensei’s Divining Top).

Many combo decks operate through the graveyard in some respect, and Surgical Extraction is very effective in disrupting these combo lines. For example, a well-timed Surgical Extraction can fizzle a Past in Flames chain out of ANT, or remove a creature in response to a Reanimation spell. Even against Combo decks that do not rely on the graveyard, it allows Miracles to counter the first casting of a critical spell, and then forever remove all other copies of that card from the Combo player’s deck. While there are harder-hitting anti-graveyard cards, like Rest in Peace, we rely on our Snapcaster Mage against combo, and do not want to lose out on the opportunity to use Snapcaster Mage to Flashback a Brainstorm or Flusterstorm, impervious to discard (at least until the end of the turn). In addition, Surgical Extraction, with Force of Will, allow for a critical mass of cards that interact with Reanimator before your first turn! While Rest In Peace hits harder, it costs 2 mana, and against Dredge or Reanimator, that is often too late. It is imperative to play 2-3 copies, depending on the expected metagame.

Honorable mentions:

These cards prove useful against Sneak Attack, Animate Dead, and “anti-hate” cards out of Combo sideboards, such as Silent Gravestone or Defense Grid.

Its ability helps us against discard effects and is useful against Burn.

Beating Combo; The New Solution

Until now, for a Combo player to beat Miracles, they could just methodically sculpt an unbeatable hand, complete with the combo and a sufficient number of disruption or protection to push the combo through. Sometimes, this could even include an Abrupt Decay to destroy a troublesome Counterbalance at the end of the Miracles player’s turn, then untapping and going for the win. This is where our new solution comes into play: Thoughtseize.

One of the strongest discard effects ever printed, it can strip any non-land card from the opposing hand for the cost of 1 Black mana (and 2 life). Thoughtseize in Miracles works double-duty. It acts proactively, allowing us, for example, to successfully stick a win-condition like Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Monastery Mentor, by removing the opponent’s answer before casting the win condition. More importantly, however, it creates a new angle of attack that was previously only possible through Vendilion Clique: hand disruption against Combo. Unlike Vendilion Clique, which requires a 3 mana investment, Thoughtseize is available as early as the first turn of the game.

Another powerful aspect of Thoughtseize is its ability to psychologically disrupt the opponent. The threat of Thoughtseize can force the opponent into awkward timings, since there is no longer a guarantee that their key cards will remain in their hand until they are ready to deploy them. The threat of Thoughtseize prevents the Combo player from taking their time to sculpt their unbeatable hand. While the effects of forcing suboptimal play are not clearly visible in the game, it, nonetheless, has an important impact on how the games play out. For example, an opponent might be forced to use Brainstorm to protect their key cards, instead of using it to improve their overall hand quality.

The Deck

Below are two different versions, a more controlling build with Entreat and Angels and Search for Azcanta, and one that seeks to be more aggressive in the midgame, thanks to Monastery Mentor. Both builds are valid, and the choice depends primarily on one’s own desired playstyle. Testing both builds will give you the greatest understanding into which suits you better.

4C Miracle – Entreat the Angels style

4C Miracle – Monastery Mentor style

Analysis

Beyond Thoughtseize, certain other choices require a deeper explanation. This version of the deck aims to be as lean as possible, looking for lines of play that do not clog the hand with expensive cards and allow us to cast multiple spells per turn. This is why cards with high casting cost, like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, or Supreme Verdict, are not present. Due to the 4-color manabase, it is not reasonable to attempt to support a card like Back to Basics, like a 2-color build is able to. Instead of relying on “haymaker” cards, the goal is to create a chain of small, incremental advantages throughout the game, maximising the draw “Draw Go” style of play where Miracles slowly takes complete control.

Specific card choices:

This card has been chosen as the “fifth” copy of Swords to Plowshares because it presents numerous positive aspects in the most important matchups. The three most critical creatures to answer are: Delver of Secrets, Deathrite Shaman, Marit Lage. Against Delver decks, Path to Exile is a practically better card than Swords to Plowshares because these decks are not built with basic lands. Against slower decks, Deathrite Shaman can greatly restrict the timing and flexibility of Snapcaster Mage, so removing the Deathrite Shaman is worth it, even when providing a consolation land. Against Marit Lage, it represents a fifth instant-speed response to the creature, and functions as a “hedge” against plays like Surgical Extraction on Swords to Plowshares.

This card has remarkable versatility, especially in a 4-color build, since now it is able to destroy 4-mana planeswalkers, previously only answerable via Council’s Judgment. It is also a great answer to other troublesome permanents, like True-Name Nemesis, Liliana, the Last Hope, Blood Moon, Trinisphere, Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Aether Vial, and, critically, Chalice of the Void. It works as the fifth Terminus against Elves.

Many players, post ban, have practically replaced Sensei’s Divining Top with Portent. Portent is, in our opinion, a strong card that has four interesting features: it can target our opponent, is the only cantrip that is unimpeded by Leovold, Emissary of Trest in play, has an excellent synergy with Counterbalance and, no less important, allows the ability to cast Miracle cards (almost always Terminus) during the opponent’s upkeep. All of these characteristics are great, so why are we playing Preordain instead? The answer is simple: timing. Preordain, unlike Portent, allows us to find and immediately play a land, allowing us to develop our manabase on time. Also, immediately recuperating the card is very synergistic with Monastery Mentor spell chains, allowing for more spells to be cast together, significantly growing both the number and power of the Monk tokens. Against combo, there are situations where it is imperative to find and immediately cast Thoughtseize, and Portent does not enable this, since the Sorcery-speed spell wouldn’t be drawn until the opponent’s turn. Preordain also allows for more effective “digging” for a particular card. The line of Preordain + Ponder/Brainstorm sees 6 fresh cards without shuffling, while Portent shuffles the unwanted cards back into the deck mid-search. In addition, Preordain is the best cantrip without a secondary shuffle effect, since you can keep one card you want and one you don’t, and finding the card that you’re looking for doesn’t force two unwanted cards to come along for the ride. What if the useful card you find off of Portent gets countered? In these cases, Preordain is the much better card.

Manabase:

A solid manabase is even more important in control decks than in other archetypes. If your mana development is stifled, your gameplan is unable to develop. The power of Miracles in the mid-to-late game is facilitated by the presence of 6 basic lands. Even when adding a fourth color to the deck, we did not want to reduce the basic land count, which is critical to beating all Wasteland and Blood Moon decks. An unwillingness to compromise on the manabase has been ever-present through the development of this Miracles variant.

Conclusion

While Thoughtseize really helps Miracles beat the combo decks, it does come at a price. In the Entreat the Angels version, you lose the ability to transform into a Monastery Mentor build out of the sideboard. In the Monastery Mentor version, you miss out on supplemental threats, like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. The cost of going from 3 Volcanic Island down to 2 Volcanic Island makes it too risky to bring in Pyroblast / Red Elemental Blast against Delver decks, since it is too easy to be Wastelanded off of your only two ways to make Red mana. This cost, losing some ground in good, fair matchups, is compensated by drastically improving Miracles’ more difficult matchups in Combo decks. Whether the addition of Thoughtseize is worthwhile depends heavily on which decks you expect to face. Regardless of whether Thoughtseize is the best answer to your expected metagame, we strongly advise you try Preordain. In UWr or UWrb, it significantly smooths your draws and allows your powerful Miracles deck to function properly.

Marco Aquila and Angelo Cadei

Marco Aquila aka Hrothgar online, started playing in 1998 after buying his first Tempest booster pack. A control enthusiast, in 2013 he played Miracles for the first time and fell in love forever.

Angelo Cadei, known as the creator of Ponder Miracles with Philipp Shonegger and Tomas Vzleck is an expert of the deck. He’s won events across Europe such as Ovino in 2015 and MKM Prague 2016, among many others.

Translated by Max Gilmore

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