Ever since Akio Chiba’s 11-2-2 performance at GP Kyoto 2015 (Click here for his deck tech), I’ve been messing around with Punishing Miracles. The deck traditionally has had a strong control plan but was guaranteed to face its worst match-up repeatedly in every tournament. The unfortunate truth was that the deck’s worst match-up was the clock.
With the printing of Nahiri, I think that the weaknesses of the deck have been largely removed (both the clock and other ones), and it has gained significant improvements to its core gameplan (and a bad pun in the title as you’ll see below*). Accordingly, I think that the deck is now very well positioned and an excellent choice for competitive play. I also feel quite strongly that this is the best approach to Miracles for those who want to leverage the Nahiri-Emrakul package; I think it’s a bit too clunky in the traditional builds, mentor builds, or Legends builds. This deck is different enough from traditional Miracles that I think it’s better off as its own thread.
From testing, I’d say that my mainboard is either “correct” or very close to it. The sideboard might be off by 1-4 cards, but it has generally been performing well. Here is what I’ve been playing:
Punishing Fire recursion can fuel the looting abilities of Nahiri, the Harbinger and Dack Fayden. This converts them into just raw card advantage rather than the situational card advantage that Punishing Fire normally is. (This is a bigger deal than you might think, since Miracles normally is starved for hard card advantage)
Pyroblast is actually justifiable as a 4-of in the maindeck. Part of this is because so many decks are blue in Legacy (and the card advantage referred to above means that you can often afford to use them aggressively on cantrips to prevent opponents from maneuvering around you and to trade off on resources favourably). The other part is that Dack Fayden, Nahiri, and Brainstorm represent ten ways to dispose of them verses non-blue decks, making them unlikely to clog your hand when they might otherwise be “dead”. Lastly, Dack Fayden ultimates VERY easily in this deck, so Pyroblast very often enters its hidden mode of “R: Gain control of target non-blue permanent.”
Emrakul is included to let Nahiri threaten lethal with her ultimate, but the ability to recycle your graveyard in has been surprisingly relevant (for things like restocking on pyroblasts after ultimating Dack or for restocking on Terminus — also for fringe things like conspiring with dack fayden to accidentally solve your Painter match-up). Lastly, it has been relevant on rare occasion that you do have 16 mana-producing lands, so it is possible to eventually hardcast it (AND go infinite since one of those lands is Karakas).
* All credit for the portmanteau deck name goes to Cythare
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
So, I've been chatting with ER offline about this for a while when I'm not busy scrubbing out with other decks, and my list is similar, but not quite the same. This is what I've been running:
My sideboard is also drastically different because there isn't a ton of combo in my meta other than occasionally Tin Fins (I think we have 1 regular Storm player), but there are a lot of midrange decks that attack on the ground and other wacky decks.
Despite liking Mentor, I'm not sure it's correct. One of the major reasons that I added it was as a threat for Nahiri that couldn't be Karakased but could be recast more easily than Emrakul.
I ran a slightly off version today in a local 4-rounder. I wasn't able to arrange to borrow the two volcanic island that I was short, so I ran with 2 steam vents. Otherwise it was exactly the list I have in the OP. As always, this is to the best of my recollection, so there may be details that are slightly off.
R1: GBw HexDepths (LOSS 1-2)
My opponent and I have a kinda strange match. I lose a tight game 1, assemble a lock under humility in G2 with JTMS and punishing fire bringing the game to a close, then brick on interaction in G3 as he risks a kill on something like turn 6 in the face of unknown interaction.
R2: Bant Exalted (WIN 2-0)
He's got meddling mages, sanctum prelates, cold-eyed selkies, stoneforge mystics, mainboard meddling mage,2 etc.
I'm able to play around the prelates pretty well -- he just can't hit enough relevant CMCs, and even with prelate on 2, I'm still able to pitch and regrow punishing fires for dack/nahiri card advantage. He brings in a bunch of stuff to answer me, but nothing really is able to line up just right. As an example: he sticks a Spellskite to blank punishing fire, and that works, for a turn. But then Dack fayden steals it and I spend the rest of the game trying to defend my new spellskite.
R3: Aluren (WIN 2-1)
This is a local player borrowing my deck. He combos off in Game 1 through interaction and with force back-up (I love how absurd that deck is). I fight through and stabilize in G2 and 3. G3 culminated with me ultimating Nahiri to fetch emrakul with humility out, then casting a second nahiri to exile my own humility and killing him as time was called.
R4: Legend Miracles (WIN 2-0)
Game one I develop planeswalker superiority as he asserts countertop dominance. This asymmetrical warfare comes to a close when my T3 dack fayden finally ultimates on like turn 10 or 11 (he had chipped away with I think two snapcaster hits). I hardcast force of will towards the end there prior to the ultimate. After the ultimate, I immediately pyroblast his counterbalance and run away with the game. This game was interesting, because my opponent flooded super hard on white cards, but I think that our draw quality wasn't actually so different -- instead I think the crucial factor was just how absurd dack fayden was at churning through the deck and how good punishing fire was at testing counterbalance (I stuck a jtms on a turn that he tapped out too, but JTMS was a poor "also ran" in comparison to Dack Fayden's raw power). Somewhere in there was super cool turn where he bluffed me into running double pyroblast into counterbalance (I responded to him tapping top with the second pyro, but he had a top on top all along D: ), but dack fayden was just too good.
Game 2 saw us kinda jockey for position with me shocking myself on turn one to hold up pyroblast. He appears to hold back, and bluffs playing around it by not playing counterbalance on t2 (in reality though, he was just mana screwed). I pyroblast something unimportant (might have been a force on counterbalance?); he sticks a turn4 back to basics and I pyroblast that to destroy it a turn later. After the Back to Basics, he's on the back foot for the rest of the game and I close it out with triple planeswalker on board.
After the first round, at least two (but I think all three) of my matches were pair-ups, including R4 when my opponent was the only undefeated in the room. This resulted in me stealing first place on the second breakers.
All in all, the deck felt pretty good. I don't have any changes that I would recommend from this tournament. The MB felt amazing, and the SB generally supplied what I needed.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Quote from votan »
:ER:, you suck as a hero
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With the printing of Nahiri, I think that the weaknesses of the deck have been largely removed (both the clock and other ones), and it has gained significant improvements to its core gameplan (and a bad pun in the title as you’ll see below*). Accordingly, I think that the deck is now very well positioned and an excellent choice for competitive play. I also feel quite strongly that this is the best approach to Miracles for those who want to leverage the Nahiri-Emrakul package; I think it’s a bit too clunky in the traditional builds, mentor builds, or Legends builds. This deck is different enough from traditional Miracles that I think it’s better off as its own thread.
From testing, I’d say that my mainboard is either “correct” or very close to it. The sideboard might be off by 1-4 cards, but it has generally been performing well. Here is what I’ve been playing:
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Counterbalance
4 Dack Fayden
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Brainstorm
4 Pyroblast
4 Punishing Fire
4 Force of Will
4 Terminus
1 Karakas
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Plateau
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Pulse of the Fields
2 Wear // Tear
2 Flusterstorm
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Humility
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Academy Ruins
1 Containment Priest
1 Narset Transcendent
Interactions of note:
Punishing Fire recursion can fuel the looting abilities of Nahiri, the Harbinger and Dack Fayden. This converts them into just raw card advantage rather than the situational card advantage that Punishing Fire normally is. (This is a bigger deal than you might think, since Miracles normally is starved for hard card advantage)
Pyroblast is actually justifiable as a 4-of in the maindeck. Part of this is because so many decks are blue in Legacy (and the card advantage referred to above means that you can often afford to use them aggressively on cantrips to prevent opponents from maneuvering around you and to trade off on resources favourably). The other part is that Dack Fayden, Nahiri, and Brainstorm represent ten ways to dispose of them verses non-blue decks, making them unlikely to clog your hand when they might otherwise be “dead”. Lastly, Dack Fayden ultimates VERY easily in this deck, so Pyroblast very often enters its hidden mode of “R: Gain control of target non-blue permanent.”
Emrakul is included to let Nahiri threaten lethal with her ultimate, but the ability to recycle your graveyard in has been surprisingly relevant (for things like restocking on pyroblasts after ultimating Dack or for restocking on Terminus — also for fringe things like conspiring with dack fayden to accidentally solve your Painter match-up). Lastly, it has been relevant on rare occasion that you do have 16 mana-producing lands, so it is possible to eventually hardcast it (AND go infinite since one of those lands is Karakas).
* All credit for the portmanteau deck name goes to Cythare
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Counterbalance
4 Dack Fayden
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Monastery Mentor
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
1 Pulse of the Fields
4 Punishing Fire
4 Pyroblast
3 Terminus
1 Karakas
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Plateau
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Containment Priest
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Will
1 Hydroblast
2 Meddling Mage
1 Moat
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Wear // Tear
The notable differences are:
-1 fewer Terminus and a 61st card to make room for 2x Monastery Mentor for a faster clock (Mentor is great with Punishing Grove!)
-1 fewer Volcanic Island and one more basic Plains to help out with casting Pulse of the Fields and Monastery Mentor (and Moat out of the board
My sideboard is also drastically different because there isn't a ton of combo in my meta other than occasionally Tin Fins (I think we have 1 regular Storm player), but there are a lot of midrange decks that attack on the ground and other wacky decks.
Despite liking Mentor, I'm not sure it's correct. One of the major reasons that I added it was as a threat for Nahiri that couldn't be Karakased but could be recast more easily than Emrakul.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
I ran a slightly off version today in a local 4-rounder. I wasn't able to arrange to borrow the two volcanic island that I was short, so I ran with 2 steam vents. Otherwise it was exactly the list I have in the OP. As always, this is to the best of my recollection, so there may be details that are slightly off.
R1: GBw HexDepths (LOSS 1-2)
My opponent and I have a kinda strange match. I lose a tight game 1, assemble a lock under humility in G2 with JTMS and punishing fire bringing the game to a close, then brick on interaction in G3 as he risks a kill on something like turn 6 in the face of unknown interaction.
R2: Bant Exalted (WIN 2-0)
He's got meddling mages, sanctum prelates, cold-eyed selkies, stoneforge mystics, mainboard meddling mage,2 etc.
I'm able to play around the prelates pretty well -- he just can't hit enough relevant CMCs, and even with prelate on 2, I'm still able to pitch and regrow punishing fires for dack/nahiri card advantage. He brings in a bunch of stuff to answer me, but nothing really is able to line up just right. As an example: he sticks a Spellskite to blank punishing fire, and that works, for a turn. But then Dack fayden steals it and I spend the rest of the game trying to defend my new spellskite.
R3: Aluren (WIN 2-1)
This is a local player borrowing my deck. He combos off in Game 1 through interaction and with force back-up (I love how absurd that deck is). I fight through and stabilize in G2 and 3. G3 culminated with me ultimating Nahiri to fetch emrakul with humility out, then casting a second nahiri to exile my own humility and killing him as time was called.
R4: Legend Miracles (WIN 2-0)
Game one I develop planeswalker superiority as he asserts countertop dominance. This asymmetrical warfare comes to a close when my T3 dack fayden finally ultimates on like turn 10 or 11 (he had chipped away with I think two snapcaster hits). I hardcast force of will towards the end there prior to the ultimate. After the ultimate, I immediately pyroblast his counterbalance and run away with the game. This game was interesting, because my opponent flooded super hard on white cards, but I think that our draw quality wasn't actually so different -- instead I think the crucial factor was just how absurd dack fayden was at churning through the deck and how good punishing fire was at testing counterbalance (I stuck a jtms on a turn that he tapped out too, but JTMS was a poor "also ran" in comparison to Dack Fayden's raw power). Somewhere in there was super cool turn where he bluffed me into running double pyroblast into counterbalance (I responded to him tapping top with the second pyro, but he had a top on top all along D: ), but dack fayden was just too good.
Game 2 saw us kinda jockey for position with me shocking myself on turn one to hold up pyroblast. He appears to hold back, and bluffs playing around it by not playing counterbalance on t2 (in reality though, he was just mana screwed). I pyroblast something unimportant (might have been a force on counterbalance?); he sticks a turn4 back to basics and I pyroblast that to destroy it a turn later. After the Back to Basics, he's on the back foot for the rest of the game and I close it out with triple planeswalker on board.
After the first round, at least two (but I think all three) of my matches were pair-ups, including R4 when my opponent was the only undefeated in the room. This resulted in me stealing first place on the second breakers.
All in all, the deck felt pretty good. I don't have any changes that I would recommend from this tournament. The MB felt amazing, and the SB generally supplied what I needed.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules