Bumping in honour of the miracles deck winning the block constructed Avacyn restored Pro tour competition.
Although it was block constructed and not standard I think the hypothesis is confirmed.. stacking your deck with miracles does create a competitive deck.
I think it is time to seriously think about creating a standard version of the deck.
If you watched closely, alot of his wins came from his opponent not doing anything til turn 3-4. That is not very likely in standard. Also tamiyo basically just mana screwed everyone in that top 8. Not trying to downplay the deck. Just commenting that you do actually need to pack cards like Whipflare because you cannot start casting your card draw spells till turn 3-4.
Make sure you have cards that would attack them from different angles. Making 3/3's and 2/2's for free and taking a creature forever are similar, but not too different when you look at what decks those effects will be good against.
Invader Parasite looks fantastic as a way to just annoy the hell out of ramp and control.
Solemn Simulacrum getting lands isn't all that impressive unless you are ramping into restoration angel combos or something expensive (or splashing for venser)
Goldknight Redeemer may look silly, but it can easily put a game out of reach.
Inferno Titan - If there was a fatty to ramp into, this is it.
Stonehorn Dignitary - At least in the board.
Sunblast Angel - Second to inferno titan, but necessarily worst in every situation.
Also, consider splashing for Venser the Sojourner. It's nearly a free-roll.
Restoration Angel is a card (much like Snapcaster) that gets better the more diversity you add in your deck. Most people think that in order to keep your deck consistent, you jam a bunch of cards that do the same thing. A bunch of splicers makes for a very boring gameplan and one that is easily trumped.
1 Humans
1 Flare
1 Esper Control
1 green aggro
2 Wolf Run
1 Delver
1 wildcard - Probably Tezz or heartless
I have played Vexing Devil and variations of red decks for the last week on cockatrice. It's not that good.
The main reason I don't think delver will do that well is people will be packing alot of Mental Misteps this weekend to combat pillar of flame and the fabled red deck.
I been personally been playing 3 whipflare 3 slagstorm 0 bombs I am pretty sure this isn't correct. I feel like there should be 2ish bombs in the deck. I was thinking of just going 3 whipflare 1 slagstorm and 2 bombs. Bonfire of the Damned is a pretty interesting card. I did some testing with it. I personal experience with it is just high variance but if you run ponder it could be very good.
I have been happy with 2 ratchet bombs and 3 slagstorms but you do need other sweepers on top of these or at least some card that instantly stabilizes the board. They just get you to the late game.
I run 3/4/0 in that order. I had 4/4/0 at one point but I feel like I was just drawing cards and just die to the board because I wasn't doing anything with it. Maybe Blue's Zenith has a place in our deck; maybe not? The only time I ran this card was in UW and UB control and it seem way better in UW because of the Pristine Talisman (another card to think about for this deck)
I have settled on 2 Tezzeret's Gamit, 4 think twice, 2 ravings for now. The miser Blue Sun's Zenith is always useful against decks with d.i. removal as it is a win condition they cannot interact with. It is not necessary to the deck, but you should include some incremental card advantage to make up for the fact you have no massive card draw
I personally think that Tamiyo, Karn and maybe even Jace do have a place for this deck but the other two don't. They just seem so underwhelming. As of right now my deck has 4 Tamiyo and 1 Karn. It might be one too many Tamiyo but that card is sooooo good when I draw it. Karn is just the nuts against any deck. Jace is very good against control mirrors.
Jace is probably good in this deck, but I haven't had room. Chandra almost gets no love from anyone so I will at least try to make some selling points for her. She is keeps gravecrawlers under control and can kill an undying dude with a sweeper (first copy resolves and they comeback, then second copy resolves and kills them dead). Slagstorm copied can kill titans. Chandra + Slagstorm kills a hero. She keeps lingering souls under control as long as there are no anthems involved (not all that likely but you do have ratchet bombs to kill those) and she is the stone cold nutter-butters with Rite of Ruin or any big finishing spell. She can also keeps most planeswalkers in check (she aces sorin and liliana). Also tezz's gambit.
Karn is probably the stones in this deck and I will have to make room for him at some point. I agree with 4 tamiyo's, but my 5's are clogged with batterskulls.
I think they are really close. One exiles a creature from the game which is very good but at the same time it is sorcery spell. They can slam down swords and just get a sword hit off. Galvanic Blast is instant and It can kill our oppenents turn 1 draw if we are on the play but if we are on the play with Pillar of Flame we have to use one of our 2 mana to kill there one drop then we are pretty much tapped out for there 2 drop. I think it matters a lot but I could be totally wrong.
Exiling has been the most amazing thing ever against everything. You can just kill a Strangleroot Geist, Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, Solemn Simulacrum, Moorland Haunt, and Chandra's Phoenix.
There are many options but we need to figure out which ones are the best for this deck. Seem like most people are picking Frost Titan; which I don't think it is 100% correct. I feel like aggro swarms it a bigger deal but in the end I think it mainly what your meta is. Frost Titan for Ramp? Inferno Titan for really heavy aggro decks? Consecrated Sphinx for control? Wurmcoil Engine for heavy removal aggro decks? There has to be a correct one.
I have been running Batterskull, Frost Titan, and Chandra's Phoenix so far. The only one that has stood out to me has been batterskull as that card is just unreal (you can even bounce it back to you hand the turn before you cast rite of ruin). Frost Titan has been good at keeping Kessig Wolf Run and other titans off my back, but its not that resilient to removal. I think Karn may just be the best of all the win conditions with frost titan being the next best. The fact that we have a hard time dealing with other bombs makes us very limited in what we can actually run.
The issue by picking a counter package is dependent how many many Cavern of Souls we see. I think all sorts of deck will be running 1-4 of them. So our counters against creatures are getting worst and worst. But at the same time I don't believe that is true. We can always use are counter spells to counter non-creature spells.
2 Mana Leak and 2 Dissipates has been acceptable so far. We need them to deal with opposing planeswalkers and Oblivion Rings/Pods/Swords.I also run 3 negates in the board
Ghost Quarter - There are a lot of random lands we could blow up that are annoying
Desolated Lighthouse - I think this is easily in the top 3 nonbasic lands in type 2. I am not sure what is the correct number of these. I been running 4 because I think it is the nuts but it could be really greedy to do so. I think 3 is the safest number for this card.
Cavern of Souls - Even good in the control mirrors! I think running 1-2 is fine in this deck but in enemy color decks the manabase are not the greatest. Another things to think about.
Evolving Wilds - You should run at lease two if you don't you are just wrong!
Random Green Splash for Ancient Grudge - I was thinking about doing this but if you do this I think you need to cut down the colorless lands to 3-4 or maybe not? I am not a 100% sure. The splash seems worth it tho.
I like my mana base so far. I have even gone as far as to put 2 Alchemist's Refuge in my board just to make sure I demolish the control matchups. 2 Lighthouse, 2 Ghost Quarter, 1 Evolving Wilds, 4 green sources is how I run it. You don't want too many etb tapped lands so you have to careful when you balance Sulfur Falls and the like with non-basics. I have been toying with the idea of running green in the deck just for beast within and garruk relentless as I had alot of success with those in UW control
Well once you add in Tamiyo, Frost Titan, and Rite of Ruin - you start to be able to keep their lands in check. It's not part of your typical game plan, and honestly frost titan and rite of ruin aren't exactly bff's, but it helps against control and wolf run.
Also draw-go hasn't been good for quite a while. The best answers to what your opponent is doing is sorcery speed and counterspells are not as reliable as they used to be with cards like Carvern of Souls and werewolves in the format. For 1 blue, ponder is just want you want to be casting to keep up with your opponent.
Can I ask what role rite of ruin will be meant to fill?
I was orriginally going to use bonfire of the dammed in my list but I replaced it with slagstorm as I don't think it's reliable enough. I guess if you have Koth there specifically to set it up, though he only doubles the outputs from your mountains, so you'd probably want to skew the mana base towards mountains.
Rite of Ruin keeps with the subtle land destruction plan and gives the deck a reliable sweeper against anything. If its a titan deck you ranch their lands and the titan (possibly the Sphere of the suns if they have some out). If its birthing pod, you kill the pod and the dudes. If it's tempered steel, they scoop. It keeps the creature/land count down so tamiyo can do her thing and if you ever have out a chandra, they probably just lose. This card is much, much better than destructive force in the current meta. We are running slagstorm//whipflare and ratchet bombs to keep the early creature count down also, so you dont have to worry about then sacrificing thier weakest creatures.
Bonefire is just because I wanted to have a random miracle card in my deck with desolate lighthouse and I run ponders. Ambitious, but not costing me anything to run it.
I am going to be running rite of ruin and some number of bonefire of the damned, that is why I suggested Chandra or koth. Koth can accelerate you into these and Chandra can copy them.
As far as titans are concerned, I am not sure which is better honestly. I would go with 2 frost and one inferno since you have so much card draw.
If you watched closely, alot of his wins came from his opponent not doing anything til turn 3-4. That is not very likely in standard. Also tamiyo basically just mana screwed everyone in that top 8. Not trying to downplay the deck. Just commenting that you do actually need to pack cards like Whipflare because you cannot start casting your card draw spells till turn 3-4.
Invader Parasite looks fantastic as a way to just annoy the hell out of ramp and control.
Solemn Simulacrum getting lands isn't all that impressive unless you are ramping into restoration angel combos or something expensive (or splashing for venser)
Goldknight Redeemer may look silly, but it can easily put a game out of reach.
Inferno Titan - If there was a fatty to ramp into, this is it.
Stonehorn Dignitary - At least in the board.
Sunblast Angel - Second to inferno titan, but necessarily worst in every situation.
Also, consider splashing for Venser the Sojourner. It's nearly a free-roll.
Large Creature: Sigarda, Host of Herons
Medium Creature: Olivia Voldaren
Small Creature: Champion of the Parish
Instant: Faith's Shield
Sorcery: Bonfire of the Damned
Enchantment: Burning Vengeance
Artifact: Grafdigger's Cage
Land: Kessig Wolf Run
Player: Sam Black
So they have to green sun for the titan? Oh noez.
Honestly you are better of just countering the ramp spells like we did against valakut when they had summoning trap.
1 Flare
1 Esper Control
1 green aggro
2 Wolf Run
1 Delver
1 wildcard - Probably Tezz or heartless
I have played Vexing Devil and variations of red decks for the last week on cockatrice. It's not that good.
The main reason I don't think delver will do that well is people will be packing alot of Mental Misteps this weekend to combat pillar of flame and the fabled red deck.
I have been happy with 2 ratchet bombs and 3 slagstorms but you do need other sweepers on top of these or at least some card that instantly stabilizes the board. They just get you to the late game.
I have settled on 2 Tezzeret's Gamit, 4 think twice, 2 ravings for now. The miser Blue Sun's Zenith is always useful against decks with d.i. removal as it is a win condition they cannot interact with. It is not necessary to the deck, but you should include some incremental card advantage to make up for the fact you have no massive card draw
Jace is probably good in this deck, but I haven't had room. Chandra almost gets no love from anyone so I will at least try to make some selling points for her. She is keeps gravecrawlers under control and can kill an undying dude with a sweeper (first copy resolves and they comeback, then second copy resolves and kills them dead). Slagstorm copied can kill titans. Chandra + Slagstorm kills a hero. She keeps lingering souls under control as long as there are no anthems involved (not all that likely but you do have ratchet bombs to kill those) and she is the stone cold nutter-butters with Rite of Ruin or any big finishing spell. She can also keeps most planeswalkers in check (she aces sorin and liliana). Also tezz's gambit.
Karn is probably the stones in this deck and I will have to make room for him at some point. I agree with 4 tamiyo's, but my 5's are clogged with batterskulls.
Exiling has been the most amazing thing ever against everything. You can just kill a Strangleroot Geist, Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, Solemn Simulacrum, Moorland Haunt, and Chandra's Phoenix.
I have been running Batterskull, Frost Titan, and Chandra's Phoenix so far. The only one that has stood out to me has been batterskull as that card is just unreal (you can even bounce it back to you hand the turn before you cast rite of ruin). Frost Titan has been good at keeping Kessig Wolf Run and other titans off my back, but its not that resilient to removal. I think Karn may just be the best of all the win conditions with frost titan being the next best. The fact that we have a hard time dealing with other bombs makes us very limited in what we can actually run.
2 Mana Leak and 2 Dissipates has been acceptable so far. We need them to deal with opposing planeswalkers and Oblivion Rings/Pods/Swords.I also run 3 negates in the board
I like my mana base so far. I have even gone as far as to put 2 Alchemist's Refuge in my board just to make sure I demolish the control matchups. 2 Lighthouse, 2 Ghost Quarter, 1 Evolving Wilds, 4 green sources is how I run it. You don't want too many etb tapped lands so you have to careful when you balance Sulfur Falls and the like with non-basics. I have been toying with the idea of running green in the deck just for beast within and garruk relentless as I had alot of success with those in UW control
Also draw-go hasn't been good for quite a while. The best answers to what your opponent is doing is sorcery speed and counterspells are not as reliable as they used to be with cards like Carvern of Souls and werewolves in the format. For 1 blue, ponder is just want you want to be casting to keep up with your opponent.
2 Chandra, the Firebrand
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Slagstorm
2 Rite of Ruin
2 Desperate Ravings
1 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Think Twice
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Dissipate
2 Ponder
3 Hinterland Harbor
1 Copperline Gorge
7 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
6 Island
2 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Batterskull
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Alchemist's Refuge
3 Negate
1 Memory’s Journey
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
Rite of Ruin keeps with the subtle land destruction plan and gives the deck a reliable sweeper against anything. If its a titan deck you ranch their lands and the titan (possibly the Sphere of the suns if they have some out). If its birthing pod, you kill the pod and the dudes. If it's tempered steel, they scoop. It keeps the creature/land count down so tamiyo can do her thing and if you ever have out a chandra, they probably just lose. This card is much, much better than destructive force in the current meta. We are running slagstorm//whipflare and ratchet bombs to keep the early creature count down also, so you dont have to worry about then sacrificing thier weakest creatures.
Bonefire is just because I wanted to have a random miracle card in my deck with desolate lighthouse and I run ponders. Ambitious, but not costing me anything to run it.
As far as titans are concerned, I am not sure which is better honestly. I would go with 2 frost and one inferno since you have so much card draw.
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