Hello everyone! Today I would like to talk about the deck that kept me busy for the most part of the last week. I remember talking to a friend shortly before the Fall of Argenport came out and he told me how much he wanted a card like Temur Battle Rage from Magic: the Gathering to be released, so that he could play a fast aggressive deck. After the new set arrived, I was taking a look at all the new cards and as soon as I saw Gift of Battle, I was immediately interested in finding a home for it, having thought about my friend's statement. I also expected that it would take some time to find a consistent and well-balanced home for it. So roughly three weeks after the Fall of Argenport arrived, I present you this: Miracle Blitz.
Miracle Blitz
The Deck Idea
Before I talk about this specific list, I want to tell more about the journey I took to get to the final list and the lessons learned from my failed deck attempts. I usually try to start with more extreme versions of a theme or deck idea to get a feeling for how far I can push. So I started with a Hooru list looking to be more aggressive with a mix of spells and Spellcraft weapons (those trigger the spells-matter cards too). So my first attempt looked roughly like the one below (I had deleted my earlier list so I had to rebuild it from memory).
This list turned out to be not so good and I quickly abandoned it. However, I learned some valuable lessons from playing this deck. Firstly, you don't need that many spells to finish off your opponent if you're playing good early units and soften them up a bit. Next lesson is that 2/2's for two power don't make the cut. Even in the case of Dusk Raider, they just end up sitting on the board without contributing too much to the overall gameplan. This is what made me look into different three faction versions of Gift of Battle decks. I started by looking at FJP versions and wanted to take advantage of Fire's powerful two drops such as Champion of Glory and Champion of Fury. Having tried various three factions decks before Fall of Argenport, I already had some experience with it and I felt like barely anything there had changed. While an aggressive FJP list is good at attacking, it is pretty lacklustre when it comes to blocking units and weapons can often turn out to trade for a single removal spell. The last time I tried to find something like FJP Midrange but with better blocking and anti-removal options I built TJP Midrange. It offers another good two drop for midrange lists in the form of Awakened Student and for spell heavy decks even Alessi, who is just another two drop since you will barely be able to cast her on turn one. Playing Time also adds Accelerated Evolution to the deck which is a great tool to break Permafrost, stave of aggression with endurance units or to fly over your opponents ground blockers. I talked about different Miracle Blitz versions with AromaNova and other members of The Great Parliament, since they had their own version for Kaelari's Saturday Challenge and I recommend reading their Deck Tech too. I will talk about the specific card choices in a bit more detail in the next section but I just want to point out how this is a good example of my usual deckbuilding process. I often take a more extreme idea first and try to learn something while constantly streamlining it. The Hooru list I showed above is just representative of the dozens of variations I had tried, which all turned out to be less successful (shoutout to BruisedByGod who made a better Hooru berserk list than any of the ones I had tried).
Card Choices
Alessi, Combrei Archmage: One of the big payoffs for adding time. I think this isn't the first time we will be seeing Alessi. She isn't really a one drop but still a strong two drop and in the right deck even surpasses Awakened Student. Alessi often ends up being a 5/5 or bigger and is nigh unstoppable with Stand Together.
Finest Hour: Even after four sets, this is still the best combat trick around. Finest Hour allows your small units to trade up or outmatch bigger threats while attacking and blocking whilst saving your units from Hailstorms and Torches in addition to triggering spells matter effects. It does pretty much everything you want to do in a deck like this.
Gift of Battle: This is the centerpiece of the deck. While not necessary to win games this will be your preferred means to end a match as it can lead to huge burst of damage turns. Nothing is more fun than dealing 32 damage on turn three with two Finest Hours and a Gift of Battle on a Rilgon's Disciple.
Seek Power: This card is more of a necessity to run three different factions. However, it still has a use as a spell to trigger spells matter effects. Without Seek Power, the deck does not have enough sources for the powerbase and it helps to get you to four or five power, which is where you ideally want to be.
Sharpened Reflex: I was rather skeptical about this card, as +1/+1 on a unit isn't a huge buff. But the fact that this can save your two drops from opposing Hailstorms and Torches and the fact that the buff is permanent makes it good enough. The scout is also nice.
Accelerated Evolution: Evo is another all-star in the deck. It saves units from Permafrost and gives them that much-needed evasion in form of flying. At first, I underestimated how good it would be in the deck, but it turned out to be my most fetched card from the market. Don't forget that it can pop the aegis on an enemy unit if you need to Equivocate it.
Awakened Student: Student is one of the best two drops in the game as it just takes a couple of Powers and it quickly grows out of control. It also pairs nicely with Gift of Battle for a lot of damage.
Equivocate: This is the best interaction spell currently in the game together with Torch. It does everything this deck wants from its interaction. You gain a lot of tempo against bigger midrange units from casting this, it permanently gets rid of Sandstorm Titan and helps against other decks looking to use combat tricks.
Rilgon's Disciple: The newest Justice two drop does a lot of work. Being part of a possible turn three kills as mentioned earlier this card will often deal a big chunk of the opponent's health. A berserked Disciple deals quadruple damage and will end the match quickly.
Jennev Merchant: Jennev quickly became my favourite tempo merchant. Primal has lots of tempo efficient market options and a 3/2 aegis body works well in this deck. I will address the specific choices further down.
Kosul Battlemage: Another Aegis three drop that even temporarily grows when you cast a spell. This resilient bear head swinging mage is tough to deal with for both decks looking to block it or remove it with spells and is another centrepiece of the deck.
Stand Together: Stand is the current choice of protection for every deck that looks to play more than one unit at a time. It is additional protection from sweepers and helps to go all in on the combo against decks with fast speed removal. The reasoning behind playing it as a four-of is that I would rather see two copies than zero in my matches as it is a vital piece of protection.
Geomar, the Steel Tempest: Our bald valkyrie is the least important card of the deck. We can often run the opponent out of answers before we drop Geomar or can play it early in a matchup where the opponent isn't running much interaction, such as against bigger Time decks. That said, I 'm not sure this is the right choice and I would encourage experimenting, I tried Valkyrie Enforcer in his place, as it is a great tool in the mirror and useful in most matchups. However, I wasn't quite happy with its performance and my teammates convinced me to further try Levitate. It's probably best if you try it for yourself.
The powerbase: I wanted to play a mostly undepleted powerbase and chose a large part of Seats for that. Additionally, I chose only four Crests for that reason too, but still wanted some means to smooth out later draws.
The Market
Gift of Battle: Being one of the centerpieces of the deck, being able to fetch this is often a good idea as it allows you to run virtually seven copies to make for an extra consistent deck.
Permafrost: In the right matchup, this is a one power removal spell and can often be the one thing you need to fetch to turn the tides of a match.
Substitute: This is mostly here to have a cheap answer to Sandstorm Titan. Sometimes it's the only thing holding your flying unit back from finishing the game and Substitute does the job there.
Accelerated Evolution: Being the means to give your units flying it's often the other card you're looking to fetch.
Backlash: This is mostly here to be occasional sweeper protection or protect the combo turn. You mostly don't need this but it's nice to have additional protection from time to time.
Cards I didn't include
Unseen Commando: This is a good option, but doesn't have the in-built protection that is necessary for this kind of deck and thus has to make room for the Aegis three drops available.
Dusk Raider: As mentioned above, I am looking for more aggressive power than a 2/2 for two in my decks, even when they have this much high roll potential. However, I was looking for a more consistent card and Raider had to go.
Crownwatch Standard: Being an arguably better version of Finest Hour, I would like to play this card. However, there is the issue that it will make your Seats depleted quite often and will lose you more games due to a clunky early game than it will win. If you are looking to build a two faction deck then Crownwatch Standard belongs in there.
Crownwatch Press-Gang: While I like the idea of playing Alessi and Press-Gang, I don't believe that it's what this deck requires. I believe there is some grindy deck out there that wants it but for Miracle Blitz I rather have something more tempo positive.
How to Play the Deck
The overall gameplan is to get some early damage in, grow your units and then finish the opponent with Gift of Battle. However, winning with a Berserk unit is only one way to win and you will often find yourself beating the opponent with one or two units flying over the opponent's threats or combating the opponent's removal spells with aegis threats. Remember that blocking exhausts a unit and that if the opponent blocks a Berserk unit without killing it, you now get to attack a second time and that same blocker can't block again.
Mulligan
You are looking for hands that put early pressure on the opponent and have enough action to quickly end the match. Since the deck relies on growing a unit and, with the opponent likely to have removal, the best hands contain multiple threats. That means you should mulligan hands that don't have:
- a two drop and a follow-up unit for turn 3
- TJP influence
- less than 5 power
The Matchups
Fire Aggro: It is imperative that you manage to protect your early unit in this matchup. This means that we will often wait until turn 3 to cast Awakened Student or Rilgon's Disciple in order to have a Finest Hour or Sharpen Reflex up just in case of a Torch. Other than that, you want to keep back early to block and grow your unit until you can attack with Endurance, thanks to Accelerated Evolution, or finish the opponent with a Berserk burst. It is often correct not to block a unit that seems to be supported by a combat trick unless you have a trick that outmatches their one. You have to switch gears after the first couple of turns and start racing them. If you stay defensive for too long, the aggro player should be able to go wide and win. Always keep an eye on your clock (how quickly you can kill them) and theirs. The moment you have a quicker clock is the moment you start going aggressive.
Big Time Midrange: In this matchup, you want to grow one of your early units bigger while attacking early. In the later turns you either win by getting to keep attacking, while playing tempo positive spells like Equivocate or Finest Hour, or you get into a boardstall until you find a way to give one unit evasion and win with a Berserk burst. Permafrost and Substitute are both great picks from the market to keep up the tempo. You want to push in early damage so that the opponent has to stay on the defense during a boardstall whilst also giving you enough time to find the missing combo pieces. Furthermore, you can often swing in with a flying two drop a couple of times to soften them up. Depending on the exact deck you're facing, you don't have to worry about too much interaction from your opponent, so you often can play a Geomar on turn four or five with a trick up. Try to keep Equivocate up to deal with a unit that gets Xenan Initiation played on it.
Aggressive Justice Midrange: Once again we're looking for early damage. It is important to keep your Equivocates for their flying threats, that block favourable and you are looking to race until you find an opportunity to burst them down. Blocking is often a bad idea in this matchup since they are as likely to run combat tricks as you are. However, keep an eye on their pauses to narrow down their fast spells. If you are certain that your trick outmatches theirs then it's a good idea to look for a good block since the tempo gain often results in an overall win. Fully commit to a race and look for ways to set up a quick Berserk lethal. Depending on the opponent's deck, you may need to look out for eventual removal spells and it's often worth thinking about leaving Stand Together up.
Spell based control: You can afford to take a patient approach to this matchup. I would only ever commit two threats at a time, preferably at least one with aegis if you can do that. Then you should be looking to get in some damage every turn. Backlash is a great fetch from the market and you can often take this match without Gift of Battle at all. Try to wait until your opponent spent most of his hand cards on your more resilient threats before playing Geomar and it's often worth keeping Stand Together up over pushing some extra damage. I also recommend trying to cast Stand Together during your opponent's end step before you plan to go all in on the combo or try to combo with an Aegis unit to avoid getting blown out by fast speed removal.
The Blitz Mirror: Since this deck has spiked a bit in popularity, as did the various Hooru versions, I want to talk about the mirror. Equviocate is one of the most important cards here. If the opponent tries to win with a Gift of Battle, Equivocate can often blow them out. For you, this often means that you should try to go off with an Aegis unit to avoid getting blown out. Generally, you don't want to block any of their threats since they do run a plethora of combat tricks. However, later in the game chump blocking their bigger units to avoid them winning through combat tricks is a good idea. Gaining evasion is also really important so that you have a clear path for the moment you want to go all in.
I hope you enjoy playing this deck as much as I do and while I'm not entirely certain that this is the best version, I think we have to prepare for a meta where getting hit for 20+ damage in one turn is a thing. I plan on playing much more of this deck and see how it will adapt once a clear meta materializes. I also intend to try to find a more weapon based list with Gift of Battle. As always, if you have any questions, feedback or want to talk about decks, feel free to contact me on Discord. I'm already looking forward to showing you my next deck idea next Monday. For now, I'm blitzing my way back on ladder.
