Legacy Miracles - August 2019

This week we will be taking a look at Legacy Miracles. People who have played the format for a while will remember how powerful this deck was when Top was legal. After the banning, people stopped playing this deck as often. Within the past year, it has been picked back up as one of the most popular decks. Now, with the London Mulligan, almost everyone seems to be playing it.

This is one of the few existing Legacy Control decks, and one of the few that can afford to play Back to Basics. At its core, it is very straight forward. This deck usually kills with a Monastery Mentor and his Monk buddies, but it does have more to it than just counterspells and some Tokens.

This deck is amazing because it can counter a lot of the most popular cards in Legacy due to Counterbalance, then Brainstorm in response. It can also slow down any creature-based deck by using Brainstorm to put your Terminus on top, and then draw it at the beginning of your next turn. This deck gets even better because now it can slow down other Control decks, Combo decks, or Tempo decks with Narset, Parter of Veils.

The awkward thing about Miracles in the current meta is that it has been extending the UW Control aspect into other colors. Some people have started playing 4 Color Miracles (for Wrenn and Six) and others are playing Mono Blue. So many people who are playing this deck are playing their own vision on what they think is best for the meta right now. Personally, I think the UW version is still the best, but I don’t play Miracles as often as I’d like to admit.

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Here is a list of our example deck:

Spells:

4 Brainstorm

4 Ponder

4 Spell Pierce

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Snapcaster Mage

4 Counterbalance

4 Narset, Parter of Veils

2 Monastery Mentor

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Supreme Verdict

4 Force of Will

3 Terminus

Lands:

4 Flooded Strand

4 Tundra

3 Karakas

5 Island

3 Plains

Sideboard:

2 Blue Elemental Blast

4 Flusterstorm

4 Spell Snare

1 Containment Priest

2 Back to Basics

2 Force of Negation

As you can see, we have a very clean deck list with a bunch of four-of’s. A lot of people will argue for and against some of these cards (whether the amount or the entire card), but that’s because a lot of different decks have different pilots, and each pilot has a different preference. Here are a few other cards people play: True-Name Nemesis, Leonin Arbiter, Portent.

This deck is pretty straight forward with the counterspells, Counterbalance, Terminus and cantrips.

The important part about playing Miracles is that you win by knowing what to counter, when you brainstorm, and what to leave on top in what order. Sometimes you want to pay attention to your opponent’s mannerisms. Some people have a tell, like twitching or their pupils dilating. Obviously, when you play online this is impossible, so the second part of knowing when to counter is by knowing your opponent’s deck. With every spell they cast, think whether or not they need that spell or if they don’t want you to counter it. This also applies to what to leave on top, whether or not your opponent would care if you cast Terminus. If you have Counterbalance, you need to have a grasp on both top decking and countering.

Playing Miracles is very difficult because you need to know how so many other decks. This is one of the most difficult decks to play, and as a result, the community around it is very resourceful and helpful.