Extending Miracle Control to Standard

Last week we looked at a Block Constructed deck based on the new mechanic, Soulbond. This week, I’d like to look at some of the possibilities with the other new mechanic in Avacyn Restored, Miracle. I built the deck and started writing this last week, and I was overjoyed to see that this past weekend, Alexander Hayne took Pro Tour Avacyn Restored by surprise with his own Blue/White Miracle Control deck. While Hayne’s deck was Block Constructed, we’ve extended the theme into Standard, as well as playing in a third color. The deck itself is a heavy Control build, designed to simply survive the early onslaught through board sweepers, until we eventually get our win condition active. This is a Miracle theme deck, so some of the choices are a little less than ideal but, as with last week’s, the deck is largely here to inspire. That being said, in my playtests so far it has definitely proven to be quite resilient. Without further ado, you can check out the deck here.

The Miracles

A quick refresher on the Miracle mechanic itself, the ability reads “You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it’s the first card you drew this turn.” This means that typically during your Draw step, if the first card you drew this turn is a Miracle card, you can reveal it and cast it during the draw step for a reduced cost. Likewise, if you have a way to draw during an opponent’s turn, as long as it is the first card you drew on that turn, you can do the same. This ability conveniently ignores timing restrictions, so you are able to cast Sorcery-speed Miracles even during the opponent’s turn, which can sometimes be crucial to a winning strategy. One thing to be mindful of, however, is that you can not allow the Miracle to touch the rest of your hand if you want to reveal it. If you’re playing with Miracles, or just want your opponent to think you may be, always keep the card you are drawing separate from your hand until you have determined whether or not it is a Miracle, and whether or not you want to reveal it. Now on to the spells!

This deck sports only a single real win condition in [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels], which is why I’ve included four of them in the deck. We ultimately need to draw this spell, ideally as the first card drawn on a given turn so we can cast it for the reduced Miracle cost. As early as turn four you can Miracle this into an Angel token, which is not ideal, but can still win us games in a pinch. It is usually going to be correct to Miracle [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels] for as much as you can afford when you draw it. We have ways to get it back later when we have more mana, so don’t hesitate to cast it for one Angel on an early turn. In order to stay alive long enough to actually get value out of our win condition, however, we’ll need a variety of ways to keep the opponent off their game plan. Since this is primarily going to be creature-based, I’ve included four [mtg_card=Terminus] which does wonders against creatures small and large, as well as permanently removing Undying creatures and [mtg_card=Loyal Cathar]. For smaller creature strategies, which look to clutter up the board with a lot of little guys, we’ve got four [mtg_card=Bonfire of the Damned] which we can hard cast as early as turn three to clear out X/1 creatures, as well as a whole range of utility critters such as [mtg_card=Birds of Paradise]. This can also help out against Planeswalkers, since you can redirect the player’s damage to the Planeswalker. The few points of damage isn’t often going to be relevant, and keeping an opposing Planeswalker off of their ultimate is going to be much more important in most cases. Our final board sweeper is [mtg_card=Devastation Tide], which returns all non-land permanents to hand. This doesn’t have much, if any effect on us, given that we only run three creatures, but we can sometimes derive some benefit from being able to recast [mtg_card=Snapcaster Mage] while also setting back the opponent’s plans by a turn or two. Since this is at most a hindrance, I’ve only included three here, though running more or less may actually be correct.

Outside the realm of win-cons and board sweepers, we’ve got [mtg_card=Thunderous Wrath] as a two-of, which can take out a larger creature, though not a Titan, or keep an opposing Planeswalker in check while we look for [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels] to close out the game.

Utility

Pretty much the rest of the deck is dedicated to utility. We’re running three [mtg_card=Faithless Looting] which churns through the deck and allows us to discard early Miracles or late Lands as needed. [mtg_card=Noxious Revival] adds some value to Miracles that have been cast or discarded. This lets us set up a [mtg_card=Terminus] during the opponent’s end step, or [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels] for our own turn. [mtg_card=Noxious Revival] has been an all-star in every game I’ve played with this deck, setting up on-the-spot victories, or dragging the game out to give us time to find our win condition. [mtg_card=Snapcaster Mage] will typically be used to chump block and Flashback [mtg_card=Noxious Revival] to buy extra time via [mtg_card=Terminus] or give us another use out of [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels]. We’ve also got a full four [mtg_card=Ponder]s to set up our Miracle draws, so we don’t get too many uncastable spells in the early turns. I like library manipulation with Miracles, and this is as good as it gets in Standard right now.

[mtg_card=Think Twice] is here to allow drawing during the opponent’s turn and to simply sift through your deck. Setting up a [mtg_card=Terminus] with [mtg_card=Ponder] during your turn, then waiting for the opponent’s end step to [mtg_card=Think Twice] and cast [mtg_card=Terminus] can be seriously powerful, as it gives the opponent an opportunity to commit more creatures to the board and frees up your own turn for other options. Finally, one of my favorites, [mtg_card=Desolate Lighthouse] is another card draw tool. Like [mtg_card=Think Twice], this lets us draw on the opponent’s turn, as well as allowing us to discard a Miracle to set up with [mtg_card=Noxious Revival], and helps us churn through our deck looking for [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels]. It’s kind of an uncounterable catch-all for what we’re looking to do.

The Mana Base

As to the mana base, I’ve opted to include only Innistrad and Core Set dual lands here, rather than Scars duals. The reason being that we typically don’t care about our first couple of lands coming in tapped, but we want to drop our later lands untapped so we can start hard-casting our Miracles earlier. Scars duals come into play tapped if you control more than two other lands, where these lands come in tapped only if you’re lacking in Basic lands. Being a Control deck, we don’t ever want to miss land drops if it can be helped, so we’re running a total of 26 lands, including two [mtg_card=Desolate Lighthouse], plus plenty of card draw. The colored lands have proven to be adequate for our needs, with the only trouble I’ve so far encountered being getting to three White sources to hard-cast [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels]. To this end, I added three [mtg_card=Evolving Wilds] late in the process, which not only finds our Plains when we need them, but gets us an early Basic land to ensure that our dual lands come in untapped.

The Game

The deck plays out much like a typical Control build, usually eating some early damage before clearing the board with one of the many sweeper effects. A first-turn [mtg_card=Ponder] can help you set up your turn three [mtg_card=Terminus], though this is most beneficial when you’re on the draw and your opponent has already committed some threats to the board. Otherwise, you can wait to [mtg_card=Ponder] on turn two or three to set up your sweeper of choice. Once you’ve survived the first wave, you’re going to be setting yourself up for another sweeper when it becomes optimal. Between [mtg_card=Noxious Revival] and [mtg_card=Snapcaster Mage], this shouldn’t be too difficult once you’ve found your first. Then it’s just about surviving until you find [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels]. With so much card draw, coupled with the four copies in the main deck, this shouldn’t be too difficult. If you’re short on White mana to hard-cast it, just discard it to [mtg_card=Desolate Lighthouse] or [mtg_card=Faithless Looting] and then drop it back on top with [mtg_card=Noxious Revival] to miracle it next turn. Normally you’ll want to wait and cast [mtg_card=Entreat the Angels] during your own draw step to maximize the amount of mana you have available, but there are times when [mtg_card=Think Twice] into Entreat will save you during combat.

So, what do you think? If Miracle Control is going to make it in Standard, what kind of tech will we have to adopt? Will straight Blue/White be the most powerful option, or will more diverse colors allow a stronger game?