Introduction (Con't) I've put together many different miracle decks with varying success, but this one only came together after Lyra Dawnbringer and Shalai, Voice of Plenty were printed. Jenara, Asura of War rounded out the angel sub-theme and she became the perfect commander. I bought a Timetwister and Moat in 2012 for $350 each and have been trying to put together a miracle deck ever since. The only restriction I have on the deck is that all 8 Bant miracles must be used, even if there are better alternatives. For example, the deck would probably be much better if I substituted Banishing Stroke for Swords to Plowshares. But I'm choosing not to do that. Why? Because this is a miracle deck.
Win Conditions
Entreat the Angels = Generate a lot of mana; go wide, make angels, and win the game.
Jenara, Asura of War = Generate a lot of mana; pile +1/+1 counters onto Jenara and win the game. (Note: Jenara turns Revenge of the Hunted into a legitimate threat to kill an opponent rather than a random buff.)
Hurricane - Generate a lot of mana; deal direct damage to everyone and win the game.
Major Ideas
Timetwister ♥ Miracles - Reload your used miracles and simultaneously shuffle a hand full of miracles back into your deck. Timetwister was made for this deck.
Cycling ♥ Miracles - In a 99 card deck with 8 miracles, the additional card draw helps dig into your miracles faster. More importantly, every card with cycling represents the ability for instant card draw to activate your miracles on your opponent's turns.
Plains Matters - Mistveil Plains is essential for your miracles in a deck that runs Mystical Tutor and Personal Tutor. Use Windswept Heath, Flooded Strand, and Kor Cartographer to fetch it directly into play. On the other hand, Tithe, Orsekos Explorer, and Eternal Dragon have some options. This deck just happens to be the correct colors to run the only 2 cycle lands which have the 'plains' subtype: Scattered Groves and Irrigated Farmland. Tithe & Oreskos Explorer turn into draw spells. Add in Fluctuator for a discount. And shuffle them back into your deck with Mistveil Plains & Timetwister for even more value. Throw in some dual lands and you have a mini-tool box of plains matters cards.
Final Thoughts I have fun manipulating the top deck and it's fun when it works. Blind flipping a miracle can feel even better. This is a deck that can attack on multiple axis (the 3 win conditions). You want to drop Jenara, Asura of War early and often, while setting up a big Entreat the Angels, and if all else fails, Hurricane everyone to death. From a deck building perspective -- coming from someone who has been putting miracle decks together for years -- it's nice to find multiple different mechanics with so much overlap and synergy (miracles, cycling, plains matters, and angels).
Cuts
Acidic Slime - Great with Revenge of the Hunted, but just not enough slots for another spot removal. The deck would probably be better if I just swapped out Banishing Stroke or Vanishment, but again, this is a miracle deck. I may put this back in the list later. Akroma's Memorial - This keeps going in-and-out of the list. All good abilities, but all of the creatures that matter already have flying and Entreat the Angels can be cast your opponent's EOT for pseudo-haste. It's also a 7-mana artifact in a deck that runs both Devastation Tide and Rebuild. Re-casting it does not feel good. Decree of Savagery - Nice with New Perspectives, but not worth the cost without it. Many other single target buffs in the deck. And the deck would only really benefit from a cycle'd Decree of Justice. Doubling Season - Even with Jenara and Entreat the Angels, it just isn't good enough. Jenara would rather get the same effect from Hardened Scales for less and Doubling Season + Entreat feels like overkill a lot of the time. Mirror Entity - Similar problem to Decree of Savagery where there aren't enough creatures to get enough value. Also, all the creatures that matter are already angels. Nylea's Bow - This was in the deck for a long time. It shuffle miracles and cycle lands back into the deck, it puts +1/+1 counters on Spike Weaver, it shoots down things that might fly over Moat, it's great with Revenge of the Hunted, and it even gains some life. And yet, 9 times out of ten, I would rather have a mana rock and set up something big instead of gain incremental value one turn at a time. Remote Isle - This deck really hates tap lands. I made an exception for Path of Ancestry and most of the time Irrigated Farmland and Scattered Groves never get put onto the battlefield -- they are just tutored for and cycled. Serra's Sanctum - The deck just barely does not have enough enchantments to make this worth while. This deck really wants to drop a turn 2 or 3 Jenara. Sanctum gets in the way of this most of the time.
I was actually thinking of either building Jeskai or 4c non black miracles list using the precon commander but I really like this idea. thanks for posting
The duo of Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya seem like good options for you if you want to go the route of showing off your miracles to everyone as a potential deterrent. It's leaning a little bit into political territory so it may not be your thing, but being able to play lands off the top lets you see more cards and dig into miracles faster regardless. You aren't playing a super-reactive deck so showing your draws isn't as much of a downside as it would be in a full-on control shell.
I was actually thinking of either building Jeskai or 4c non black miracles list using the precon commander but I really like this idea. thanks for posting
Yeah, I had Naya and Jeskai version of the deck build a couple weeks ago.
Naya was really fun (with Pyromancer's Goggles + Mana Reflection + Bonfire of the Damned, but there just wasn't quite enough top deck manipulation and/or tutors. It was fun when it work and when it didn't... it just wasn't a miracle deck. It was a glass cannon deck that had a hard time getting to the good parts. Naya also couldn't push cycling as a mechanic without access to New Frontiers.
I think the best thing about Bant is that it has 3 win conditions which attack from 3 different angles and yet the game plan is the same: stall the game, manipulate the top deck, and generate a lot of mana.
(I considered building 4-color Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, which is also an angel, and Jenara is just better. There aren't really enough things to proliferate unless you went heavy super friends. And yet, as good as Atraxa is, it just isn't as good as Jenara as a voltron commander option who can end the game with some counters and either Revenge of the Hunted and/or Temporal Mastery.)
Life from the Loam is super nice with the cycling package. You dredge the Life from the Loam and then cast it to get 3 cycling lands.
With New Perspectives and Fluctuator you can end up drawing a lot of cards. You can even dredge it a second time in a turn and just get back all the lands you cycled that turn, possibly drawing 6 cards or whatever.
To make it a little bit more consistent for targets, you can run a few more cycle lands; Drifting Meadow, Slippery Cast, Remote Isle, are the best as they work with Fluctuator.
With miracles Portent is nice to setup them up, as you can draw it opponents turn making it the first card you draw for a turn.
I would be also tempted into Preordain and Ponder, as you can setup miracles a little better. Sometimes you actually want to delay them until you get targets.
@Darrenhabib - Life from the Loam + Intuition + more cycling lands is tempting, but Timetwister really is really antithetical to that strategy. When it's working, it's great. But it feels like a lot of setup and Timetwister resets all of your hard work getting that engine to work. Also, if I have free mana at EOT, my first targets with Mistveil Plains are always key miracle cards, Irrigated Farmland, and Scattered Groves. With the current build, you are actively putting your cycle plains back into your library. Also, I decide to ditch all graveyard strategies. Replenish, Eternal Dragon, and Lay Claim are all cut.
@thomeyis - Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix are tempting, but I like the surprise of blind miracles. I might try them in the future. These will probably be forever of my "maybe" list.
Basilisk Collar was just under-performing. Pretty good with Jenara and great with Revenge of the Hunted, but I normally would much rather have another mana dork that enables turn 2 Jenara.
I resisted Cyclonic Rift for as long as possible, but it's just too good, especially with Timetwister. Together with Devastation Tide and Rebuild, I can really slow down combos players trying to set up their board. I'm tempted to add a Time Spiral for some redundancy.
Cavern of Souls felt like a necessary addition for landing those defensive angels. I also found it great mana fixing for a turn 2 or 3 Jenara which can sometimes be tricky to line the correct mana up in the first few turns. It's basically another tri-land for Jenara.
I love miracles. This is my miracle deck.
1 Jenara, Asura of War
Miracles (8)
1 Banishing Stroke
1 Blessings of Nature
1 Devastation Tide
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Revenge of the Hunted
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Terminus
1 Vanishment
Creatures (15)
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Oreskos Explorer
1 Spellskite
1 Palladium Myr
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Magus of the Moat
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Spike Weaver
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Instant (8)
1 Noxious Revival
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tithe
1 Angelsong
1 Lull
1 Rebuild
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Personal Tutor
1 Timetwister
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Hurricane
1 Decree of Justice
Enchantments (14)
1 Land Tax
1 Rancor
1 Rune of Protection: Artifacts
1 Rune of Protection: Black
1 Rune of Protection: Blue
1 Rune of Protection: Green
1 Rune of Protection: Lands
1 Rune of Protection: Red
1 Rune of Protection: White
1 Sylvan Library
1 Moat
1 Mana Reflection
1 New Perspectives
1 Decree of Silence
Planeswalker (2)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
Equipment (1)
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Other Artifacts (12)
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Doubling Cube
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Fluctuator
1 Mind Stone
1 Scroll Rack
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Opal Palace
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Savannah
1 Scattered Groves
1 Temple Garden
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
Basic Land (17)
10 Forest
2 Island
5 Plains
Introduction (Con't)
I've put together many different miracle decks with varying success, but this one only came together after Lyra Dawnbringer and Shalai, Voice of Plenty were printed. Jenara, Asura of War rounded out the angel sub-theme and she became the perfect commander. I bought a Timetwister and Moat in 2012 for $350 each and have been trying to put together a miracle deck ever since. The only restriction I have on the deck is that all 8 Bant miracles must be used, even if there are better alternatives. For example, the deck would probably be much better if I substituted Banishing Stroke for Swords to Plowshares. But I'm choosing not to do that. Why? Because this is a miracle deck.
Win Conditions
Major Ideas
Combos
Timetwister + Cyclonic Rift / Devastation Tide - Nuke all nonland permanents and all graveyards with two cards.
Timetwister + New Perspectives - Need 7 cards? No problem.
Mana Crypt + Rune of Protection: Artifacts - Lose the flip? No problem.
Hurricane + Rune of Protection: Green - I never cycle the green rune unless I have no other choice.
Ancient Tomb + Rune of Protection: Lands - Does not ramp mana, but prevent the damage.
Basilisk Collar + Revenge of the Hunted - One sided board wipe.
Mana Reflection + Opal Palace - Two activations for +1/+1 counters. (Note: Commander tax needed.)
Mana Reflection + Path of Ancestry - Double scry on all of the angels.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope + Akroma's Vengeance - An obvious combo, but a good one.
Decree of Silence + New Perspectives - Zero mana, uncounterable, "Counter target spell. Draw a card."
Final Thoughts
I have fun manipulating the top deck and it's fun when it works. Blind flipping a miracle can feel even better. This is a deck that can attack on multiple axis (the 3 win conditions). You want to drop Jenara, Asura of War early and often, while setting up a big Entreat the Angels, and if all else fails, Hurricane everyone to death. From a deck building perspective -- coming from someone who has been putting miracle decks together for years -- it's nice to find multiple different mechanics with so much overlap and synergy (miracles, cycling, plains matters, and angels).
Cuts
Akroma's Memorial - This keeps going in-and-out of the list. All good abilities, but all of the creatures that matter already have flying and Entreat the Angels can be cast your opponent's EOT for pseudo-haste. It's also a 7-mana artifact in a deck that runs both Devastation Tide and Rebuild. Re-casting it does not feel good.
Decree of Savagery - Nice with New Perspectives, but not worth the cost without it. Many other single target buffs in the deck. And the deck would only really benefit from a cycle'd Decree of Justice.
Doubling Season - Even with Jenara and Entreat the Angels, it just isn't good enough. Jenara would rather get the same effect from Hardened Scales for less and Doubling Season + Entreat feels like overkill a lot of the time.
Mirror Entity - Similar problem to Decree of Savagery where there aren't enough creatures to get enough value. Also, all the creatures that matter are already angels.
Nylea's Bow - This was in the deck for a long time. It shuffle miracles and cycle lands back into the deck, it puts +1/+1 counters on Spike Weaver, it shoots down things that might fly over Moat, it's great with Revenge of the Hunted, and it even gains some life. And yet, 9 times out of ten, I would rather have a mana rock and set up something big instead of gain incremental value one turn at a time.
Remote Isle - This deck really hates tap lands. I made an exception for Path of Ancestry and most of the time Irrigated Farmland and Scattered Groves never get put onto the battlefield -- they are just tutored for and cycled.
Serra's Sanctum - The deck just barely does not have enough enchantments to make this worth while. This deck really wants to drop a turn 2 or 3 Jenara. Sanctum gets in the way of this most of the time.
Thread | Draft
11/11/2018
-1 Plains, +1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Basilisk Collar, +1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
-1 Replenish, +1 Spellskite
-1 Eternal Dragon, +1 Dragonlord Dromoka
-1 Lay Claim, +1 Cyclonic Rift
Thread | Draft
Yeah, I had Naya and Jeskai version of the deck build a couple weeks ago.
Naya was really fun (with Pyromancer's Goggles + Mana Reflection + Bonfire of the Damned, but there just wasn't quite enough top deck manipulation and/or tutors. It was fun when it work and when it didn't... it just wasn't a miracle deck. It was a glass cannon deck that had a hard time getting to the good parts. Naya also couldn't push cycling as a mechanic without access to New Frontiers.
Jeskai was another glass cannon deck with things like Aurelia, the Warleader + Gisela, Blade of Goldnight + Sakashima, the Imposter. Jeskai's problem was that it was a miracle commander deck without a miracle commander. It doesn't have an equivalent to Jenara, Asura of War. It also wasn't as good as Bant at building a pillow-fort. Bant gives Spike Weaver and Lull / Angelsong.
I think the best thing about Bant is that it has 3 win conditions which attack from 3 different angles and yet the game plan is the same: stall the game, manipulate the top deck, and generate a lot of mana.
(I considered building 4-color Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, which is also an angel, and Jenara is just better. There aren't really enough things to proliferate unless you went heavy super friends. And yet, as good as Atraxa is, it just isn't as good as Jenara as a voltron commander option who can end the game with some counters and either Revenge of the Hunted and/or Temporal Mastery.)
Thread | Draft
With New Perspectives and Fluctuator you can end up drawing a lot of cards. You can even dredge it a second time in a turn and just get back all the lands you cycled that turn, possibly drawing 6 cards or whatever.
To make it a little bit more consistent for targets, you can run a few more cycle lands; Drifting Meadow, Slippery Cast, Remote Isle, are the best as they work with Fluctuator.
I also like to run Intuition as you can search for Life from the Loam and two cycle lands, or whatever.
It also helps with making more Replenish targets.
With miracles Portent is nice to setup them up, as you can draw it opponents turn making it the first card you draw for a turn.
I would be also tempted into Preordain and Ponder, as you can setup miracles a little better. Sometimes you actually want to delay them until you get targets.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
11/11/2018
-1 Plains, +1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Basilisk Collar, +1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
-1 Replenish, +1 Spellskite
-1 Eternal Dragon, +1 Dragonlord Dromoka
-1 Lay Claim, +1 Cyclonic Rift
I tried a few of the suggestions above.
@Darrenhabib - Life from the Loam + Intuition + more cycling lands is tempting, but Timetwister really is really antithetical to that strategy. When it's working, it's great. But it feels like a lot of setup and Timetwister resets all of your hard work getting that engine to work. Also, if I have free mana at EOT, my first targets with Mistveil Plains are always key miracle cards, Irrigated Farmland, and Scattered Groves. With the current build, you are actively putting your cycle plains back into your library. Also, I decide to ditch all graveyard strategies. Replenish, Eternal Dragon, and Lay Claim are all cut.
Ponder and Preordain are great cards, but blue is just a splash in this deck and just aren't on the same level as Brainstorm, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, or Sylvan Library. But if this deck skews more blue, Ponder + Preordain will probably be the first inclusions.
@thomeyis - Oracle of Mul Daya and Courser of Kruphix are tempting, but I like the surprise of blind miracles. I might try them in the future. These will probably be forever of my "maybe" list.
Basilisk Collar was just under-performing. Pretty good with Jenara and great with Revenge of the Hunted, but I normally would much rather have another mana dork that enables turn 2 Jenara.
I resisted Cyclonic Rift for as long as possible, but it's just too good, especially with Timetwister. Together with Devastation Tide and Rebuild, I can really slow down combos players trying to set up their board. I'm tempted to add a Time Spiral for some redundancy.
Cavern of Souls felt like a necessary addition for landing those defensive angels. I also found it great mana fixing for a turn 2 or 3 Jenara which can sometimes be tricky to line the correct mana up in the first few turns. It's basically another tri-land for Jenara.
Dragonlord Dromoka wishes it were angel. On the other hand, Lyra Dawnbringer and Cavern of Souls don't really do anything for it. Still a great card.
Thread | Draft