Miracles Do Come True

Posted on August 3, 2018

This past weekend I went to a Modern PPTQ last minute. I was wanting to play Tron because I just felt like the deck had a lot of good matchups and it wasn't difficult to pilot. The hardest part about Tron is your sequencing, sideboarding, and mulligan decisions. I was already great at all of those since I've played the deck before for a year. Sadly, or happily (depends on what you think of Tron) I could not get the cards. So, my next choice was either Lantern Control or a Control deck. Lantern hasn't been very good in the metagame recently and I was curious about how good Miracles was, so that was the deck I ended up sleeving up. I didn't really have time to test with the deck, but I was able to play four matches with the deck at FNM the night before. I ended up going 3-1. I then changed the deck a little. Here's the list I ended up taking to a top four finish.

U/W Miracles | Modern | Ali Aintrazi, 4th Place Modern PPTQ

I personally dislike a ton of countermagic in the main deck. Outside of Cryptic Command, I don't want a ton of Logic Knots, Mana Leaks, Spell Snares, or Negates. The reason for this is if you're opening hand has no countermagic or your opponent leads with an Aether Vial or a Cavern of Souls you end up having a lot of dead cards. In the scenario where you don't have any opening hand and then you start drawing them on turn three or later, it's most likely already too late. So instead I went for the full eight cantrip spells in Serum Visions and Opt. That way I could find what I needed faster and be able to setup Terminus more frequently, as that's the reason you're playing this deck in my opinion.

I also originally had a 1-1 split on Vendilion Clique, one in the Sideboard and one main deck but I found myself always bringing in the second one in games two and three so I just played two main deck. Clique is an excellent card at seeing what your opponent has while also blocking a creature or applying pressure. It's phenomenal against the Mardu Pyromancer matchup because they'll just randomly throw out spells like Kolaghan's Command with bad modes when they have a Bedlam Reveler in their hand, so then you get to tuck away the Reveler and basically have them play poorly with their spells. You can also Clique away a dead or bad card and attempt to do a Terminus at instant speed.

Glimmer of Genius is an odd one. I am just a huge fan of the card and it also happens to play very well in Miracles. For one it punishes your opponent for playing around Cryptic Command. Sometimes your opponent will activate a creature land or cast a one or 2-drop to try and avoid getting blown out by Cryptic Command, that's when you can just Glimmer of Genius and punish them. Glimmer is also another fantastic way to dig for Terminus at instant speed, giving a max total of three cards to look at. Think of Glimmer of Genius as a playable Sphinx's Revelation. Sphinx's Revelation costs a ton of mana, you need to at least invest a total of six mana to compete with Glimmer of Genius, and Glimmer still lets you see more cards when X is three on Sphinx's Revelation. I just found Revelation lackluster, it's great when you can Revelation for five or more, but Glimmer would be good there as well. Glimmer is also much more playable in the Modern format which is probably the fastest format in Magic.

Overall Thoughts

Miracles is a fine deck, but I honestly prefer Jeskai over it. The pros to Miracles is your matchup against Tron and Scapeshift is better than Jeskai Control. However, by playing Miracles you make your Burn, Infect, Company, and Humans matchup worse. Lightning Helix alone can just beat burn where Miracles has to rely on only Path to Exile, countermagic, and Timely Reinforcements. I'd play Miracles if I expected a lot of Tron but otherwise, I'd personally stick to Jeskai.

If I were to play Miracles tomorrow, this would be the list I play.

U/W Miracles | Modern |Ali Aintrazi

I reworked the mana base to have more colored sources and I also trimmed on a Cryptic Command. I honestly found it difficult to cast at times because I have 4 Field of Ruin. I found myself just Field of Ruining any land to fix my mana and that took away some of the power of Field of Ruin. I've also cut the Negate for a Mana Leak, Negate main deck is so hit or miss and I'd rather just have a counterspell that is live at the least the first five turns of the game.

I shaved a Clique for a Snapcaster Mage because that card is better overall, especially when you really need more copies of Path to Exile in your deck. This also helps with the Cryptic Command shave since I can just use a Snapcaster to buy one back. I've also added Peek for more Terminus value, it's literally why we are playing this deck. The information you get from Peek is also very valuable allowing you to know when you can deploy that Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria safely. I got this idea from my buddy Phillip Lorren who recommended me trying the card.

As far as the Sideboard goes, I hate Rest in Peace in my Snapcaster Mage deck. It makes Sideboarding so awkward, especially now since I want to run four Snapcaster Mages. I've shaved the Rest in Peace for Surgical Extractions. While Surgical isn't as widely good as Rest in Peace, it does have some matchups where it is better like against Tron or Scapeshift. Surgical also gets better the more Snapcaster Mages we run. I've shaved the Baneslayer Angel because the card just isn't necessary and against Burn, turn five could be too late especially since they get to untap first and they also play Skullcrack. I just want the third Timely Reinforcements here. Lastly, the deck tends to have one "big" card in the sideboard that can generate card or board advantage like a Torrential Gearhulk or an Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Instead, I've opted for Search for Azcanta. Against the matchups where you want that value card, Search for Azcanta is just better. Against the control mirror, Jund, Mardu, Company, Lantern, and other slow decks that may try to outgrind you, Search for Azcanta is just the better card and you can deploy it so much earlier.

I do love Jace, the Mind Sculptor, so this deck does have a special place in my heart. If you just want to play this deck no matter the metagame, make sure to have Blessed Alliance in your arsenal if you are expecting Burn or Infect as that card is very good against those decks and those decks tend to give Miracles a tough time. If you're afraid of Infect or it's big where you play, don't forget that Solemnity is a card that can also double up as Affinity and counters company hate. Devoted Druid can't untap with a Solemnity in play and Walking Ballista just instantly dies.

Well, I'll be playing a little more Modern since it's the PPTQ season for Modern but I'll also be testing for Standard since I'll be going to GP Orlando in a couple of weeks. I'm still on Esper Nexus as my deck of choice as the deck just keeps on serving me well. We'll see as Orlando gets closer.

As always, thanks for reading guys!

I'll see you all next Friday,

Ali Aintrazi

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