This week I’m going to continue my series on deck breakdowns which I started officially last week with Reanimator. I’ve written several articles about my well known issues with Miracles but today I’m going to put my very real complaints aside and write about the deck itself.
Miracles is one of the most popular decks in the format and is the premier control deck. It focuses on oppressing your opponent with an insane amount of counter magic and building up mana until they eventually can cast one of their few win conditions.
The Engine
The most famous, and also most controversial, part of any Miracles deck is what is known as Counter/Top. The deck will run four copies each of Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top. This allows Miracles to not only have great card advantage but also poke around their deck to find whatever cards they need on top of their deck. In addition, the deck also runs Brainstorm, Ponder, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which gives the deck insane card draw and card selection while enabling the miracles mechanic and Counterbalance.
A good Legacy player knows to give Miracles a chance to respond to a spell because they almost always do. The card selection that makes Countertop powerful isn’t their only option for countering spells. You will face Force of Will, Counterspell, and sometimes even Spell Snare or Red Elemental Blast.
To deal with permanents the deck plays four copies of Swords to Plowshares and Terminus, plus some number of Council’s Judgment. Vendilion Clique helps keeps problem cards off the table as well. To give all these spells a little extra mileage they also run four Snapcaster Mage to recast all the great spells. If you learn nothing else from this article you should learn that you will rarely win a Counterspell war against Miracles and you should never assume any spell is going to get through.
Win Conditions
I’ve listed almost every spell in the deck without listing a win condition. (Snapcaster and Clique beats most definitely do not count). There are three popular win cons that are run in various Miracles decks. Normally decks only run one or two of these. I have yet to see one run all three (there isn’t really room for them, unless one is in the sideboard) but you should know how they all work.
The traditional win con, and most popular, is Entreat the Angels. Since Miracles can run the game so long they can Miracle it late to get a ton of Angels. It isn’t the strongest win con in the world but many people will scoop out of frustration against Miracles before it gets there anyway. (Note: it is rare that you should feel like you have to do this. Just because you don’t feel like you can cast much doesn’t mean that they have anything to win with.)
The next win con that has become very popular is Monastery Mentor. If you hadn’t noticed Miracles is extremely spell heavy so Mentor can be an absolute powerhouse. I’ve been seeing this more and more and finding it in most stock builds these days. The last win-con is a bit more fringe but still very popular which involves Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul. They’ll use the card selection (or bounce ability if they have to) while trying to get Nahiri to where they can ultimate and get a free Emrakul.
There are a lot of ways to hate on Miracles but they are all dependent on what kind of deck you’re running. It is a hard deck to play against and you’ll want to make sure you research what tech you need to really succeed against them. I’m just going to go over some really basic general hate and you can hit me up on Twitter if you have more questions!
Tips and Tricks
If you’re playing a creature based deck, Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial are great against Miracles. Most decks that run these cards have them maindeck but I just want to remind players how important it is to make sure you’re taking advantage of them. Another important thing to remember is to take advantage of your first couple of turns. Chances are they have a Force of Will in their opening hand (plus a card to pitch) but it is unlikely that they have two. If you play creatures on the low-end and don’t have a vial in your deck (I’m looking at you, elves!) you’ll want to try to combo out as fast as you can before Counterbalance hits the board.
If you’re running Green (and not blue), Choke can really shut them down. Miracles decks really need their blue sources, as well as a ton of mana in general. Another great option in green is City of Solitude, which will allow you to cast your spells uninterrupted. The only good removal they have for either of those cards once they land are Council’s Judgement and Nahiri, the Harbinger.
If you’re running white and don’t care about your graveyard, Rest in Peace isn’t the worst option if you’re worried about Snapcaster. It isn’t vital for the match-up but I have found it helpful.
Pithing Needle is great to shut down Top or whatever planeswalkers they have. Krosan Grip is also good against Top. Just remember if you’re using artifact destruction without split second, make sure you wait until they tap the Top to draw before casting your removal spell, or they can just draw in response and it does nothing.
Against Mentor I love having Tabernacle. They normally have access to a decent amount of mana but normally it is only enough to either keep their Monks or cast spells which keeps the Monks from getting prowess triggers.
As a post player I find the match-up pretty easy. Most of my spells go over the top of Miracles so it is a pretty easy win but even if you play a deck where it is a little more challenging for you just make sure you practice.
Miracles is a hard deck to beat but with practice you can find it’s weaknesses!
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH.