Winning AZMagicPlayers.com 2015 Legacy Series Masters

Preparing for the Masters event started in May for me. At the time, I was going to play Miracles at the event, but I needed to decide on which version because each one is so different.

The standard Miracles list is the French version. 4 Ponders and 3 Snapcaster Mages are what separates this version. This version is the most consistent since it can assemble the one-two punch of Counterbalance and Top the fastest.

The Joe Lossett version is my usual weapon of choice which includes 1 Snapcaster Mage, 3 Vendilion Clique, and one Venser, Shaper Savant. This version is the most powerful Miracles list because it can lock your opponent in various ways. You can see every draw step with Vendilion Clique and Karakas or you can start making them pick up every permanent they control with Venser and Karakas. A big problem with this version is the mana base. Most Brainstorms are used to find more lands. Also with 2 Karakas, 2 Plains, and a Mountain in your deck, sometimes blue mana does not come easily.

Another version is the Monastery Mentor version. This has recently become popular, but when I have tested Monastery Mentor in miracles it was a hit or miss card. The list I chose to run is one I played in the Spring Championships. It is a Reid Duke list from a StarCityGames Invitational a while back. I did change the mana base a little by adding a Mountain and cutting an Island. I also cut a Force of Will for a Pyroblast.

A couple of weeks ago, I started to figure out the metagame for the Masters event to help me decide what I wanted to play. I figured no one would play Burn since there would be at least a couple of experienced Miracles players there. I knew there would be a 12 Post player. Omnitell would be present and it is a hard matchup for Miracles if they find Boseiju. Because of the lack of Burn, I expected more of a Shardless BUG presence, especially since 4 players in the tournament had played Shardless before. I also figured Nathan would be playing Lands. All of this led me to want Blood Moons either main board or sideboard. I ended up wanting to play Mono red Sneak Attack, but in the end I decided to play what I knew.

I decided on playing the creatureless version of Miracles because when I played it, it seemed the most powerful. Having no creatures blanks the removal that the midrange decks have. Having access to 2 Council’s Judgments helps with the matchups where Terminus is not at its best. But the main reason to play the creatureless version is because you have access to 3 Dig Through Time. Miracles is known as a deck that is able to look at a lot of cards and find what you need. 3 Digs lets you find almost anything in your deck. It allows you to find your important sideboard cards too. Since I knew that Omnitell would most likely be the only combo deck at the Masters, I decided that I did not need 4 Force of Will since Pyroblast functions as a Force of Will in that matchup. The Pyroblast would also help in the blue matchups. Because I was playing 2 Pyroblasts I wanted another red source in the deck and decided that the basic Mountain would be best. I knew I wanted 3 plains for the Rishadan Port matchups so I cut an Island.

Spells (37)
Brainstorm
Sensei's Divining Top
Swords to Plowshares
Pyroblast
Counterbalance
Counterspell
Council's Judgment
Entreat the Angels
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Supreme Verdict
Force of Will
Terminus
Dig through Time

Lands (23)
Flooded Strand
Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Island
Plains
Mountain
Sideboard (15)
Red Elemental Blast
Flusterstorm
Rest in Peace
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Ethersworn Canonist
Wear // Tear
Izzet Staticaster
Vendilion Clique
Blood Moon
Keranos, God of Storms
Terminus

The sideboard I put together in the week leading up to the event. 2 Blood Moon was my first inclusion. I then added 1 Rest in Pace, 2 Flusterstorm, 2 Vendilion Clique, 1 Wear/Tear., and 2 Red Elemental Blasts. All of these are pretty standard except that I cut down to one graveyard hate card. This was due to the expected meta. Izzet Staticaster is a favorite of mine because it is very good against a lot of decks and cards. Elves, Death and Taxes, Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor, Empty the Warrens, and Merfolk all are semi or very weak to Staticaster. Keranos was for the midrange matchups/mirror. Against BUG and Grixis, Keranos cannot be removed. Unfortunately, Keranos can be exiled by Council’s Judgment which happened to me in the finals. Terminus was in the board because the split on Terminus and Supreme Verdict in the main is very good in a slower meta but I did want access to another wrath. In hindsight, it should have been another Supreme Verdict because that card over performed all day. Ethersworn Canonist was there for the Omnitell matchup. It is the only reasonable way to win a game when they find Boseiju and the combo. This way they can only cast the uncounterable Show and Tell and then you can hopefully Red Elemental Blast or Council’s Judgment away the Omniscience. There should have been 2 in the board but I only owned one and it allowed me to play the next card in the board. The Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy was a last second addition to the sideboard. One of the sweeter interactions with him is leaving a Terminus on top of your deck while you have 4 or more cards in your graveyard. You are then able to activate Jace revealing Terminus as your draw. Before casting the Terminus, you have to finish resolving the looting effect which then puts 5 or more cards in your graveyard. This causes Jace to flip to a planeswalker. Then you can resolve the Terminus. The main purpose of the card is looting in the early game and then flashing back Swords to Plowshares and Red Elemental Blasts in the mid game until you resolve a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The card needs more testing, but it seems promising.

Finally the tournament report.

Round 1 Vs BUG Death’s Shadow

Game one started with him having an early Deathrite Shaman. I played a Top and spun a lot in the early turns. Eventually I Swords to Plowshared the Deathrite and he played a Deathrite and Delver. I had a Terminus and Entreat on top of the deck which quickly wrapped the game up, but not before I saw both a Breeding Pool and Death’s Shadow.

Game two we traded one for one with removal and creatures until he had a Tombstalker that I couldn’t beat.

Game three was interesting, I led off with a land. He played a Delver that I Pyroblasted on my turn. Then we passed the turns back and forth making land drops. On turn 5 I went for the Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy allowing me to play around Daze with Counterspell backup. It resolved and quickly flipped.  He then resolved a decent sized Death’s Shadow. I Swords to Plowshared it and passed the turn. He played a second one that I reminded him was dead since it was a 0/0 but the last card in his hand was a Liliana that met a Council’s Judgment from me and then I started ticking up Jace, the Mind Sculptor and finished the match.

1-0

Round 2 Vs Shardless BUG

Game one against Shardless is rough because Counterbalance is not a very good card in the matchup and they have multiple two for ones in their deck. I don’t remember that much of game one because I was behind the entire time and never got a chance to recover.

Out:

  • 3 Force of Will
  • 4 Counterbalance
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Terminus

In:

  • 2 Red Elemental Blasts
  • 2 Blood Moon
  • 1 Keranos
  • 1 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
  • 1 Wear/Tear
  • 2 Vendilion Clique

Game two I had an answer for every threat. Deathrite met Swords, Lilliana met Council’s Judgment, Dig Through Time met Pyroblast, and I slammed a Blood Moon while he had one untapped mana so he couldn’t Abrupt Decay it. It helped when he didn’t fetch any basics.

Game Three he led off with a Tarmogoyf and I started with a Top. I ended up taking some decent damage from the Goyf and he resolved a Lilliana. I played a Vendilion Clique and took the Lilliana down to three. He then made me sacrifice the Clique and attacked with the Goyf. I was at 9 and could cast an Entreat for two, but I would lose the Top. He had a Creeping Tar Pit though so I went for the Entreat. It resolved and I double blocked the Goyf, losing an angel. I then untapped and killed the Lilliana. He proceeded to play 3 Shardless Agents in a row and I died without finding a Terminus or a Jace.

1-1

Round 3 Vs Omnitell

Game one I knew what he was on and mulled to 5 finding a Top, a Force and 3 land. He was on the play and starts with a land. On my turn I resolved top, drawing a blue card for my turn. He went off next turn with Force of Will backup and I died.

Out:

  • 4 Swords to Plowshares
  • 3 Terminus
  • 1 Supreme Verdict

In:

  • 2 Red Elemental Blast
  • 2 Flusterstorm
  • 1 Wear/Tear
  • 1 Ethersworn Canonist
  • 2 Vendilion Clique

Game two I saw a card that I didn’t know Omnitell played in Young Pyromancer. Since I knew that I didn’t have any wrath effects in my deck I aggressively tried to force it. He ended up forcing back and it resolved. Then he Gitaxian Probed and got a token. I flashed in a Vendilion Clique to block the Young Pyromancer on the next turn but the token did a decent amount of damage to me. Then I resolved Ethersworn Canonist and won the game from there.

Game Three my hand was extremely good. It had 2 lands, Top, Counterbalance, Vendilion Clique, Ethersworn Canonist, and Counterspell. I resolved Top, Counterbalance, and Canonist and made short work of him.

2-1

Round 4 Vs Elves

This is an extremely good matchup for miracles since the Top/Counterbalance combo is very good against them, but Terminus is as well. Both games I had a Top and a Counterbalance on turns 1 and 2 and locked the games up with a Terminus.

3-1

Round 5 Vs 12 Post

I went from a very good matchup to my worst matchup possible. 12 post is extremely good against Miracles because I cannot interact well with them. Once they have an active Eye of Ugin the game become unwinnable very fast. Game one I found the early Entreat that I need to win the game but never had enough time to cast it because he cast an Ulamog and destroyed my land. I sent the Ulamog to the bottom of his deck but he searched it up again and blew up another land. The following turn he found an Emrakul and cast it which I conceded to.

Game two I found an early Blood Moon and was able to Entreat and start attacking. When I finally attacked for lethal with double counterspell backup, I was blown out by Krosan Grip on the Blood Moon. This turned one of his Mountains back into a Glacial Chasm and then he was able to cast uncounterable primeval Titans off of Cavern of Souls and win the game from there.

3-2

Round 6 Vs UWR Stoneblade

I was at the top of the 9 pointers and thought I could draw in but since people had dropped out of the tournament, one of the 9 pointers got a bye so I could no longer draw safely. However a 6 pointer beat a 9 pointer so a draw locked me in top 8 at 8th seed. We were already playing at that point and ended up drawing anyways because game 1 took 35 minutes. I’m not going to go into too much detail because this was my finals opponent and I remember that match in much greater detail.

3-2-1

Quarterfinals Vs Lands

Game one I fetched two basic Islands and the next land I drew on turn 5 was a Mountain. He found an early 20/20 and I died.

Out:

  • 3 Terminus
  • 2 Pyroblast
  • 2 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Supreme Verdict

In:

  • 1 Rest in Peace
  • 1 Keranos
  • 2 Blood Moon
  • 2 Vendilion Clique
  • 1 Wear/Tear
  • 1 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

Game 2 he had an early Loam with a Mox Diamond. I played a land for turn on each of my three turns and passed. On turn 3 he resolved a Choke and passed the turn. End of the turn I fetched and fused a Wear/Tear destroying the Mox Diamond and the Choke. Destroying the Mox Diamond is key so that he can’t resolve a Krosan Grip. I untapped and slammed a Blood Moon, into a Rest in Peace, and finally a Keranos to finish the game.

Game 3 started with an Exploration from him and a Top from me. He eventually went for the Dark Depths combo and I had the Swords to Plowshares. I then resolved a Rest in Peace and a Blood Moon after confirming that he did not have a Krosan Grip in his hand. I finished with ticking up a Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

This is a rough matchup for miracles in general. The Blood Moons in the sideboard help but most of the time you are going to need to dig to find it.

Semifinals Vs Grixis Control

Game One was a long haul. We traded resources until he had a Young Pyromancer on the field and I was tapped out. Then he cast a Cabal Therapy and flashbacked two. This resulted in me having a Volcanic Island, Mountain, and Plains against his Young Pyromancer, one token, and 5 lands. I ripped a Sensei’s Divining Top off of the top of my deck and put it into play. When I spun the top, I found a Terminus and took out his remaining board state. After the Terminus I found a Jace, Counterbalance, and a Dig Through Time while only having one blue source in play. I drew the Counterbalance and the Dig before I found a second blue source. I tried to cast the Dig Through Time and it was countered, but then I was able to resolve the Counterbalance. After resolving the Counterbalance, I needed to find a 2 mana cost card to start “floating” on the top of my deck with top to lock him out. Since we got decklists, I knew that if I did that I would only have to worry about the Jace, the Mind Sculptor that was in his deck. By the end of the game there were no more creatures left in his deck and he had the Jace in play. I had a Pyroblast to destroy the Jace and he packed it up.

Out:

  • 3 Force of Will
  • 4 Swords to Plowshares

In:

  • 2 Red Elemental Blasts
  • 2 Blood Moon
  • 1 Izzet Staticaster
  • 1 Wear/Tear
  • 1 Keranos

(This one I am not completely sure if I cut a wrath effect for Jace or not)

Game Two started with him attempting to cast a Baleful Strix on turn two. I Pyroblasted to counter it and untapped to resolve a Counterbalance. The following turn he cast a Young Pyromancer that Counterbalance revealed an Izzet Staticaster to. I untapped and tapped out to play the Izzet Staticaster to shoot down the Young Pyromancer. He was forced to kill the Staticaster on his turn and passed back to me. I played a land and passed back. He Pondered and Thoughtseized and then passed back. I played my land and passed once again. He untapped and thought for a while until tapping out for a Dig Through Time. He then proceeded to miss his 3rd land drop for a 3rd turn in a row. I untapped and tried to resolve a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. He Force of Willed the Jace, and I blindly revealed Keranos to counter his Force of Will. Jace resolved and I Brainstormed. He Red Blasted the Jace and passed back to me. I slammed the Keranos and it resolved. He finally found a third land on his next turn and Snapcastered back a Red Blast for the Counterbalance. In hindsight I missed the trigger for the Snapcaster Mage which would have been countered because I revealed a two when he went for the Red Blast. After that though, Keranos easily took over the game.

Finals Vs Jeskai Stoneblade

Game One was another long haul, and when the game finally ended the only threat left in his deck was a single Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The game started slow and he did not try to resolve a threat until a end of turn Vendilion Clique. This met a Pyroblast to counter from me. Things continued to play in this manner where we would either one for one or I would wrath away two threats. Finally in the late game I resolved a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The only cards in his deck that I cared about at that point was a true-name nemesis and 2 Jaces. Any time one of them would pop up, I would send it to the bottom with Jace’s plus ability.

In:

  • 1 Keranos
  • 1 Wear/Tear
  • 2 Red Elemental Blasts

Out:

  • 3 Force of Will
  • 1 Terminus

Game 2 started much like the first one when his first threat was on turn three in the form of a True-Name Nemesis. I dealt with it and then he resolved a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on turn 5 which I responded to with the Keranos. He had the singleton Council’s Judgment to exile Keranos and I in turn used one of mine to exile Jace. I was able to wrath away his next threats and resolved an Entreat the Angels for 3 with double Counterspell backup.

Overall the Miracles deck is what I would consider the most consistently powerful deck in legacy. However, it requires a lot of patience and skill to play. Most of the time in games you lost you made a decision that made you lose the game. Some matchups you are simply overwhelmed but if you want to play a deck that really rewards good play this is what I would recommend. If you do decide to take the plunge to playing this deck, you must be able to play at a good pace of play. One of the biggest killers for this deck is receiving draws because you have locked up the game, but you did not have enough time to win. If you ever have any questions about miracles I will gladly try to answer them. I am in the AZMagicPlayers Facebook Group and I attend most of the bigger events. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it as this is my first Magic article.