What is Miracles?

Miracles is a Blue-White Control deck that takes its name from the equally named deck from Legacy history. Back then, Sensei's Divining Top was legal, and Control players would use it alongside Counterbalance to lock games down after stabilizing the board via Terminus. When the opponent attempted to cast a spell with a mana value you knew you didn't have in the top 3 cards of your library, Brainstorm and Jace the Mind Sculptor could help with that. Eventually, they would use a topdecked Entreat the Angels to win the game.

Unfortunately for us, Sensei's Divining Top is around the price of an entire Value Vintage deck, give or take a few dollars. This means we have to get imaginative.

The idea of the deck is that aggressive decks are too powerful and consistent for 4 mana wraths to be effective stopgaps, so you run 4 copies of Terminus (alongside 4 copies of Swords to Plowshares and some number of March of Otherworldly Light) to deal with these creature-based decks.

The deck also has access to extremely powerful countermagic. Counterspell and Lose Focus are very good both in the early and late game, and Spell Pierce allows us to survive early pushes from fast combo decks (especially Cascade decks).

In order to set up Terminus, the deck runs the maximum amount of copies of Brainstorm, Brainsurge and Portent, which allow you to not only put Terminus on the top of your deck, but also to draw it during your opponent's turn if needed. In addition to this, the new Avatar set brought us Agna Qel'a, a very powerful land that synergizes extremely well with the Miracle mechanic. A very recurrent play is setting up a Terminus 2 cards down with Brainsurge in the end of our opponent's turn, drawing for turn, then activating Agna Qel'a to draw Terminus and discard something else. At this point, we can cast a Terminus that can actually get manlands.

It is also important to note that Portent, unlike Ponder, can be used to set up an Upkeep Terminus during your opponent's turn! Just leave the it on top, pass the turn and wipe their board.

Agna Qel'a also allows us to "filter" our situational cards. Playing against High Tide? Loot your creature removal away. Are you playing against Humans? Loot those Spell Pierces. Doing this not only improves your card quality in most matchups, it also makes Sailors' Bane cheaper down the line.

Okay, the deck has a lot of ways to not lose, but how do you win the game?

Our win conditions of choice are Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Sailors' Bane and Hall of Storm Giants. They're not exciting, but they get the job done and are generally hard to interact with. This also means casting Swords to Plowshares against us is extremely awkward, as there will never be a point where that play costs less than 4 mana.

Where are your Celestial Colonnades?

They are in the trade binder, where unconditional taplands belong. Value Vintage is not as slow as many people like to think it is. This is a format where Hypergenesis goes on the stack on turn 2. This is a format where Simian Spirit Guide and Elvish Spirit Guide can produce a turn 1 Shardless Agent cascading into Crashing Footfalls and now you have to deal with 10 power on turn 1. This is the reason why we play Terminus, and the reason why we choose Miracles over any other control shell: It allows us to survive instead of dying with 3 different bargain bin Wrath of Gods in hand.

On top of that, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms gave us Hall of Storm Giants which is just better anyways.

What about Entreat the Angels and Triumph of Saint Katherine?

Entreat the Angels and Triumph of Saint Katherine often do not give you a choice on when to deploy. The translation from the 2017 Legacy deck is rough, as we don't have Sensei's Divining Top and we only have 1 copy of Brainstorm. Of course, we have Brainsurge now, but it's still hard to control when you're drawing your Miracle win condition.

I wanted to have agency over when I deploy my threats, so Sailors' Bane felt like a natural fit in the deck. There's also a certain elegance to all of your wincons being 7/7 creatures with Ward. Swords to Plowshares tends to not be a very good card against us.

Why aren't you playing Balance?

Balance has historically been a way for Control decks to stabilize games early. While it's a fantastic tool against Rhinos, that's the only matchup where you really want it, and even then, it's not free. You will invest most of your hand in resolving Balance, and it only guarantees you survive an early push.

It always feels like a blank piece of cardboard when the deck is doing what it's attempting to do, and the prospect of killing a creature in exchange for 3 lands and 3 cards in your hand is harrowing. I tried it for a long time and I came to the conclusion every time I saw it I would have been happier had it been a March of Otherworldly Light so I just made the swap.

Even against Rhinos, if they make a super early push and you get to March of Otherworldly Light one of the rhinos, you are buying 2 entire turns to dig for a Terminus, and if they used Spirit Guides to get to get their cascade spell, it's not really card disadvantage to answer each rhino individually, and using two removal spells to deal with a can of rhinos does not feel that bad. Your entire goal in the Rhinos matchup is to survive (or counter) the first Crashing Footfalls, stabilize the board and then win because your cards are just better than theirs in the long run.

What are some advantages of Miracles over other Control strategies?

The Miracles shell has a big advantage going for it: It's extremely cheap and it has great mana, which allows you to run somewhere between 4 and 5 cards worth 2 dollars. Currently, I'm playing two copies of Teferi, plus two sideboard copies of Harbinger of the Seas as a means to beat both Cloudpost and Manabond, which are historically really bad matchups for UW-based control strategies.

Additionally, Terminus is one of the cheapest boardwipes in the format (budget-wise) and the cheapest boardwipe in the format (mana-wise). The strength of the strategy hinges on how absurd of a card Terminus is.

Are 23 lands enough?

This is a Xerox deck, and our top-end is really light. Teferi requires 5 mana, but it's really a 3 mana play that allows you to keep up Counterspell. Sailors' Bane is often 2 mana. The top of our curve are Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Brainsurge. 23 has felt more than enough.

How does the deck deal with flooding?

Agna Qel'a. I cannot sing its praises enough, this land is the best thing that's happened to Control gamers in Value Vintage since Mystery Booster 2 made a lot of staples cheap.

What do I actually care about in a Control mirror?

Hit your land drops. I know this sounds silly, but mana advantage is a big deal in a Control mirror. This is the matchup where Spell Pierce is live on turn 10. Save your countermagic for the stuff that will actually kill you or lock you out of the game. Let the cleanup step be a way to accrue card advantage: If your opponent casts a Brainsurge on your end step while they have 7 cards in hand, they are either going to play a land and discard a card (at which point the +1 from the Brainsurge is gone) or they will discard 2 cards (even better!). If you have 7 cards in hand, you can cast Brainsurge in their end step as long as you have a land and a Portent to avoid discarding. Card advantage spells such as Brainsurge, Memory Deluge, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are not worth countering in the early stages of the game, but they're absolutely worth countering when both players have 5 or less cards in hand. Otherwise, you are saving your countermagic for their win conditions and trying to use your cantrips to find lands. You can do this in the early game (while your opponent cannot realistically deploy anything scary) and in the mid to late game as long as we keep interaction open: It is preferable to not hit your fourth land drop on turn 4 and keep interaction open to prevent a Planeswalker from coming down. You can always Brainsurge in their end step to find your next land drop. From Turn 3 onwards, do not stop representing Counterspell mana until your opponent's End Step if you can help it, even if you do not have any countermagic. Half the battle is selling your opponent on the illusion that your hand is stronger than it is.

This feels silly to point out, but, if your opponent's win condition can be dealt with by Swords to Plowshares, do not waste countermagic on it. Just plow it the turn they deploy it. This is the very reason why we're on Sailors' Bane, as it costs 2 mana and makes Swords to Plowshares cost 5, which means we're mana positive and likely to win a counter war on said Swords to Plowshares. This is another time when Spell Pierce excels: They cast Plow for W. Ward 4 trigger goes on the stack. They pay 4. You Spell Pierce it. Plow goes to the graveyard and you are now in a winning position.

The player who has the most lands as we enter the late game is the player who is generally favored to win as they will have the mana to win counter wars. Use your cantrips to ensure that is you.

Obviously, Agna Qel'a carries the control mirror. This is another reason to want to have extra lands around.

After sideboarding, it is very likely your opponent will trim some amount of targeted removal (since all of our threats have Ward). They will also think they don't need Plow in the early game. Even if it sounds counterintuitive, bring all your Containment Priests in. Flash them in at your earliest convenience. Make them have to answer a 2/2 on top of everything else you're doing. A Plow pointed towards a Priest is a plow not pointed towards Hall of Storm Giants. Back in the day, Control mirrors in Modern used to come down to flashing a Snapcaster Mage at the end of turn 2 and just going face. Sure, Containment Priest is no Snapcaster Mage, but this play pattern is still valid.

Additionally, if your opponent is also bringing their own Containment Priests, Containment Priest is a very good blocker to an attacking Containment Priest, so that's something.

Okay, I'm sold, show me the list

Your wish is my command.

How do I sideboard using this deck?

Honestly this is one of the easiest decks to get good at sideboarding with. Every matchup seems to have cards that don't do enough (Counterspell against super aggressive decks, March of Otherworldly Light / Swords to Plowshares / Terminus against slower decks that don't commit to the board as much and/or combo decks like High Tide or Fluctuator...) and cards that seem to be at least a bit better.

Remember that bit about Containment Priest in the Control mirror? Both it and Harbinger of the Seas are better than the cards that have no text in your deck even if their text isn't the best against your opponent's deck. They are creatures and they can get them dead. They're, of course, the last cards you bring in if you still have dead cards after sideboarding, and Priest is obviously better than Harbinger at being a 2/2, but it's better than having dead cards in your deck.

Dispel comes in against any deck that plays Countermagic, but it's also good against Infect (as it counters many of their pump spells), High Tide (Guess what? High Tide is an Instant!) Burn, Prowess (it gets Lightning Bolt and Fireblast)... I trust your ability to recognize whether or not your opponent is playing a deck that uses instants to bring their plans to fruition.

Minor Misstep, on the other hand, is one of our greatest tools against Cascade based decks. Being able to counter Hypergenesis, Crashing Footfalls or Living End for one mana is great. Of course, it still comes in against Burn, Infect, Prowess, High Tide... as it hits a lot of their cards.

Stern Scolding comes in against most aggro decks: Spirits, Humans, Prowess, Infect... all hate to get their threats Scolded. But there is a second category of decks you can bring Stern Scolding against: Lurrus decks. Scolding gets Lurrus cleanly without giving them the ability to recast anything and therefore if you see a cat you're putting Scolding into your deck on game 2.

Test of Talents is of course good against Cascade, Burn, Control, High Tide and most other flavors of combo (but not Fluctuator!)

This is here because of Reanimator and Hypergenesis, but it also hits some other decks. For instance, Manabond plays Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel, and Containment Priest prevents the most annoying aspect of it (the massive threat).

Two important things to note is that this card is not very good into Living End, as it will kill the priest before the creatures are brought back, essentially circumventing it.

This is why we're on a 2-2 split with Rest in Peace: RIP does not cover Hypergenesis, Priest does not cover Living End, we want to cover both. Of course, both come in against Manabond (especially the Life from the Loam builds) and Reanimator (for obvious reasons)

You don't need me to tell you why this is here.

This is here because Trenchpost gives me nightmares but the rise in popularity of Manabond decks trying to hit you with Marit Lage makes it even more justifiable.

I just wanted a card I'm not ashamed to bring in against Fluctuator and that has uses into aggressive matchups.