Basics in Miracles

Legacy forum

Posted on Feb. 16, 2015, 6:04 p.m. by GlistenerAgent

I've always wondered why Miracles decks elect to play anywhere from 8-10 basic lands. The logic I came to was that getting Wastelanded is particularly painful for a control deck that is very mana hungry and needs to hit all its land drops, but perhaps there's more to it.

It's actually exactly that it needs to play around Wasteland. With the amount of lands in the deck, it's really not that difficult to hit your land drops. Being Wasteland proof is so important that I used to keep a Mountain in my sideboard for use when playing against Delver so that my REBs would always be live. As Miracles, you should beat Delver 9.5/10 times mostly because you nullify their resource deprivation and can just keep 1, 2, 3 cmc on top of your library with a Top and Counterbalance in play.

February 16, 2015 6:09 p.m.

bigguy99 says... #3

Joe Lossett has always said, "I can't even begin to tell you guys how much I love the one-of basic Mountain in my deck," or something to that extent.

February 16, 2015 6:47 p.m.

TurboFagoot says... #4

Parsimony, man. It's just about beating Wasteland and Blood Moon. (And also playing Blood Moon if you wanted to)

February 16, 2015 6:56 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #5

I don't know, I wouldn't call anyone with four Jaces and four Forces in their deck cheap. :)

February 16, 2015 7:09 p.m.

bigguy99 says... #6

Miracles doesn't even run playsets of JTMS or FoW. Most decks have two, three max of Jace and usually three FoW because it's card disadvantage and the deck usually has an answer anyway.

February 16, 2015 7:12 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #7

Fair enough. The point still stands.

February 16, 2015 7:13 p.m.

bigguy99 says... #8

Well yea, you can't call any deck in Legacy "cheap." There's always a money card or two.

February 16, 2015 7:13 p.m.

Stifle also exists to screw your Flooded Strand fetch. That and the Wasteland/Blood Moon factor, as already mentioned.

February 16, 2015 8:34 p.m.

TurboFagoot says... #10

Well don't get carried away Aeons, the decks still play a bunch of fetches to make their Tops and Brainstorms playable.

February 16, 2015 9:09 p.m.

??? Faggot? My point being that other decks that run will sometimes also run Stifle, hitting fetches to prevent the fetch. Non-basic or not, still screwed, hence the number of basics in Miracles, as well as what has been previously mentioned.

February 16, 2015 11:09 p.m.

TurboFagoot says... #12

Fagoot*

I get that a few decks run Stifle, but the presence of the card is not an influence on Miracles running more basics/fewer fetches, as the deck needs a large amount of fetches to get the most value out of the cards that it runs.

February 16, 2015 11:30 p.m.

In any case, granted fetches are needed to proc Brainstorm, Top, etc., but having an out to a Stifle via running more basics is an advantage, regardless if it's a conscious thought or not. Doesn't Miracles sometimes run Back to Basics in the sideboard? Could be a different deck.

February 16, 2015 11:46 p.m.

JexInfinite says... #14

Basics are useful just generally. Playing around Wasteland is very important. Getting Waste'd can lose you the game, especially against D&T.

February 17, 2015 3:21 a.m.

This discussion has been closed