Pointed Discussion

Oh hai Lightning Bolt... Wait... you're not Bolt!? You actually look better than L.B. from certain angles, but you're pretty fugly sometimes too? Oh well! Can I get your number?

See, here's the thing: 5 damage at instant speed is almost worth . Actually, more than "almost."

5 damage for ? That's just stupidly good.

Comet Storm and Fireball are scalable but this card is still a serious contender.

Time to stock up on brainstorm before the miracle mechanic creates a run on it.

Just what a burn deck need. If the game manage to go long enough you can definitely cast this spell, or wait for it to show up for you to deliver the final blow.

This card is powerful.

The fact that it is an instant makes it playable even for its hard cast cost. But the miracle cost throws this bad boy over the edge!

I'd play this. I've cast the kicker on Burst Lightning quite a few times to get that bit of extra reach, and this is somewhat similar.

The differences are that this costs one more (a big deal in RDW with 20 lands if that); you don't get options to cast for two; and topdecking this is so good. I think it'll be a two of in my RDW, but I'd play more if I had discard effects.

I've been looking forward to this, got it at the prerelease, won my first game with it, good stuff. However, most of the games the rest of the night didn't pan out so well especially with my blue card draw. Protip: miracle prefers scrying to card draw

*Opponent*: I cast my angel of whatever, go.

*draw...*
I kill it for one mana, suck it.

Mirrraacccleeee! <--- whispered with jazz hands

Am I an evil person for desiring to use this with Liliana Vess in Kaalia of the Vast?

Rules Text Errata: If this card is not in your opening hand it is strictly better than lightning bolt.

But seriously? As long as it isn't in your opening hand you will cast it as soon as you draw it, because when won't you have a single red mana open?

I think if this was miracle costed at 1R it would still be insanely powerful, but at just R its nucking futs.

I admit that I wasn't too sure how the "Miricle" mechcanic would pan out. This card pretty much sold me.

I have to agree that it works best if it isn't in your opening hand, but even then a Lava Axe that can target a creature or player at instant speed is fantastic in any game.

@djflo: use Faithless Looting.

Miracle cards have a way of making games that are pretty much over last a couple of extra turns.

No matter how bleak the situation is, if you have a miracle card in your deck, you keep playing and praying.

Chances are, you won't draw a miracle when you need it, but at least this miracle is playable for its non-miracle cost.

AWH MAH GAWD, DA LAWD BEE PRAYZD, TITS A MERACUL!

Either you have a miraculous 'roided up Lightning Bolt (which, as we all know, is the Dark Ritual of Red in terms of "Well... I have 4 slots available...") or a different (and better?) version of Lava Axe.

Pretty sexy, I'd say. At least it isn't as idiotic as Vexing Devil.

On top of the card's mechanics being hands down great, the artwork is also incredible.

I'm behind on formats and what's current, but if type 2 is still around in some sense, this card is awesome...it's awesome in any format for that matter. It could be tied as one of the best miracle. cards.

White blue red ramp miracle decks...

They are coming!
Mark my words!

Imagine if you had an extra RR saved up for a Fork...

Question- How do you stop a deck running 4x Vexing Devils and 4x these?

Answer- Usually, you don't ;) 36 damage for 8 mana (At best) is no F'ing joke! And realistically and so very often, they hit you for 4-5 turn 1 and then 9 on turn 2.. Have fun trying to stay alive with 6 health after the game just tipped off! Still talkin crap about Angel's Mercy now?? Yah, I know.. what we both wouldn't do for 1 now.. lol GooOod-NIGHT.

I would love to this card full art'd. The art looks awesome.

Seriously thinking of making a deck with nothing but Thunderous Wrath, Terminus, and Devestation Tide, with nothing but Whirpool Rider, Whirpool Warrior, Whirpool Drake, and Lat-nam's Legacy.

When I saw this, my first reaction was actually to think of the scene in the Charleton Heston Ten Commandments where the Finger of God LAYS DOWN THE LAW.

Apparently, in this version, he couldn't find any tablets to write on, and decided to use your opponent's face instead.

(Please, nobody get into a serious religious argument just because I mention the word 'God'. xP I am merely enjoying a moment of awe at looking at some Serious Firepower, and I thought a Chuck Norris joke would be too easy and stupid and un-Vorthos :) )

My, if it isn't Bump in the Night turned red, reversed and instantisized!

Say there are X turns in the average game.
The average mana cost is 6*(7/(7+X)) + 1*(X/(7+X))
The term before the + is how often you pay 6 mana for it, 7 times (opening hand) out of 7+X (The number of cards you draw). The term after the + sign is how often you pay one mana for it. The average damage:mana ratio is 5 over that.
Turns....Average Mana....Damage/Mana
1.........5.375................0.9302
2.........4.8889..............1.0227
3.........4.5..................1.1111
4 .........4.1818.............1.1957
5.........3.9167..............1.2766
6.........3.6923..............1.3542
7.........3.5...................1.4286
8.........3.3333..............1.5 (As bad as Searing Spear)
16........2.5217..............2.03399 (Shock)
46........1.6604..............3.0114 (Lightning Bolt)
As you can see, for it to be as good as Lightning Bolt, every match would have to go on for 46 turns. To even beat out Shock, each and every game would need to be 16 turns long.

Definitely thinking of running 2 in my red-white aggro humans. By turn 6 I could hard-cast or miracle this after some token pounding. could certainly be a finisher.

Miracle is pretty interesting in deck building. I absolutely never want to pay for this, but for 5 to the face NEEDS to be in a burn deck NOW.

If I put 4 in my deck I have a whopping 44% chance of getting it in my opening hand or first turn where it is completely useless to my strategy and actually completely counter-productive. Better to leave it at 1, MAYBE 2, where my chances are 13% and 25% respectively. The flipside of this is that with 4 in my deck, I have about a 7-8% chance of pulling the card on any given draw after the first hand, increasing each turn I don't draw it, but only about a 2% or 4% chance with 1 or 2 in my deck. I would prefer to keep it low, a burn deck is no good if you have near worthless cards, everything needs to be effective, but I'm not sure which pros outweigh their cons. Once again, Magic has proven it is a game that can't be defined by numbers most of the time but rather trial and error.

Also, it would be best to have no draw creating cards (unless it's instant speed, not something mono red has a lot of), which then limits strategy options for the deck a bit.

I love the card, but I'm still toying with how to effectively make my decks with it. It may not be suited for good burn decks as it initially seems, perhaps just a solid spell to supplement a different strategy, or a miracle deck of course.

You seriously say this card has no drawbacks, Dr. Jack? What about the high regular casting cost? Five damage for six mana is really bad.

If nothing else, this makes a decent finisher for a burn deck. At best, it's a ridiculous advantage that can almost ensure your win. The fact that it's regular CMC is playable makes this card a pretty decent inclusion for red decks.

@DrJack:
It's not 5 for R at instant speed.

To use it for instant-speed you need to pay the whole 4RR. It's 5 for R at miracle speed; which is slightly worse, in most circumstances, than sorcery speed.

Still dang good when you get it, but not what you seem to think it is by a long long way.

I love the way this card looks. I also love the way it feels to topdeck it for the win. :)

Considering that red burn usually topdecks past turn 3, this card is pretty nice.

I love this card, costing 6 for normal is not great, although if you draw it in your opening hand you could keep it until you have 6 spare mana (probably never in a burn deck, but oh well). The miracle cost is crazy. <3

So after playing with the Miracle mechanic and this card for a while, I learned what everyone figured out a long time ago; the Miracle mechanic is not broken. I put this in my burn deck as a two of and it would never work the way I wanted it to. Miracles are a powerful mechanic for sure, but they require skill to build around, lots of library manipulation and planning. You can't just toss these into any deck and go like you can with Lightning Bolt. Just my opinion, but Wizards really knew what they were doing when they made this mechanic. It just looks like they didn't.

I run 4 of this in a janky Pyromancy based deck. If I topdeck it, great! If not, then it's high cmc is perfect for the pyro ability.

I wouldn't put more than one of these in a deck most of the time. However, miracle cards become a lot more attractive with Mercurial Chemister. Excess miracles? Burn creatures. Preferably yourStuffy Doll.

I think two is the optimum number for any deck.

paying 6 for this thing is kinda wack but I still run 4 in my RW angel/burn deck and I wouldn't leave the house without em. Yea, it sucks drawing it on your opening hand but starting with none of them in sight pretty much guarantees you'll draw into some miraculous damage. I run chandra, the firebrand in the same deck so even if I draw one at a bad time, paying six for 10 damage is still worth it. Probably my favorite miracle. I like Bonfire of the Damned and all but if it doesn't come down on the right turn its even more useless.

Question from a returning player regarding miracle timing and activation...

My opponent has had his/her first turn and it's the beginning of my first turn of the game. I draw Thunderous Wrath as my very first draw. Since I have no land in play, I can't cast this for its miracle cost, correct?

Even if I have 7 mountains in my hand, I haven't had the opportunity to play one prior the first draw phase.

The rules didn't seem clear to me as to how long I can play with the miracle card "revealed".

Do I have the option to play a Mountain and then cast Thunderous Wrath for its miracle cost? Or did the miracle ability already resolve prior to being able to play a land on that first turn?

Thanks!

@JasonPG - I had the same question. To my understanding(and someone can feel free to contradict me here), the triggered ability for Miracle resolves before any other actions are taken. So once you've drawn it, it has to be cast then and there. You can't draw it, thunk down a Mountain, and play it for the Miracle cost.

Fact: When you topdeck two of these in a row, your opponent is not happy.

The burn spell to end all burn spells. This is why I oh-so-dreadfully need an all-burn-spell deck.

its not as great as it may seem, but its way better than explosive impact...

Well I got a chance to play some games of Magic involving miracle cards, namely this one. One deck has Thunderous Wrath in it, the other deck had no miracle cards. The decks were otherwise pretty well balanced. Guess what? Every time the miracle deck played even one Thunderous Wrath, that deck won. Every single time. We switched decks to make sure the skill level wasn't the factor (I am an experienced old-timer). Made no difference. Thunderous Wrath with Miracle cost = always win. Whenever that deck didn't play Thunderous Wrath, it lost.

Thunderous Wrath:
Power level = 6/5 (You'll splash red just to be able to play it)
Game balance = 0/5 (Equivalent to flipping a coin to see who wins each round)
Fun factor = -5/5 (Makes you wish you were playing Pokemon instead)

Anyone who says the "Miracle" mechanic isn't broken hasn't tested it in the field. I consider "Miracle" to be the most broken mechanic of all time, and by far the most unfun and arbitrary. Losing to an idiot just because of his dumb luck to draw a card and hit you for 5 damage with 1 mana is never fun. That's the difference between old power cards and new power cards. Older ones like Black Lotus and Time Walk were fun as hell, no matter which player got the chance to use them. Newer power cards just do annoying, arbitrary things that feel absolutely unfair. And yeah, the power 9 were not "fair" by any stretch, but they sure made the game so exciting and interesting.

@DrJack:
While I may agree with you regarding that miracle is a too much on the lucky side (and some miracle cards are quite broken, like the Bonfire) I don't think this is the case. In a burn deck you don't want to draw a couple of them at the beginning, because they are dead draw until turn 6, if everything goes well, and that means that you have to play an unusual amount of lands to cast this as soon as possible, if you drew it in the opening hand. And by "unusual" I mean too much, because burn decks want to play inexpensive cards, and so play only few lands.

And I don't think that P9 were so much funny, expecially if your opponents have the luck to open a couple of them and you don't so you have to spend a lot of money to get them. Ironically, somehow is still a matter of luck! Without talking about all the T1 wins that P9 enables, like Channel + Fireball. That's not what I think when I talk about "funny", at least...

If you don't maindeck 4 of these every game you will never understand red.

Far better — though not strictly so — than Explosive Impact.

This card leaves Lava Axe crying in the corner.

I would argue Miracle is a very balanced mechanic, and one that is good for the game. I cannot believe the amount of hate it gets from people thinking its overpowered. So here are my points in favor of it, against its power.

1:) Its dead in hand. If you draw this or another miracle in your opening hand, its almost like you took a mulligan. If you play with miracles, hopefully you have a discard outlet. The miracle costs have to be very low because every mana in the miracle cost increases the number of turns that the card is a dead draw. This effectively limits miracles. The more you want to increase your chances of drawing one when you will need it, the more you will increase your chances of having it when you don't want it. This also affects your deck building in a surprisingly complicated way. If you include 4 thunderous wraths in your deck, you have a 39.9% chance of getting one in your opening hand, you then have a 7.5% chance to draw one on your first draw if you had none in your opening hand, that chance goes up slightly with every draw where you don't get one.

2:) You have little control over the timing. Timing is very important in magic, but when you play with miracles you get to play the card when you draw it. You have very limited control over this process. Undoubtedly your best options are to Scry and use a draw ability like Temple Bell's on each of your opponent's turns. Decent strategies in control, but no one else will want to hold on their mana like that. On your own turn, skipping shenanigans that skip your draw step, you will be playing miracles at the start of your turn only. I cannot stress how much of a weakness this is! Especially on situational miracles like Terminus or Temporal Mastery.

3:) Randomness is good for the game. This is something a lot of players resist, but it is undeniable truth. The developers know this. The game needs some amount of randomness, some way for players who are behind in a match to catch up. Without that, there is no point in playing the game past the third turn or so. If every game with the same decks plays out the same way, then the game loses replay value. Good players seek cards that erode the random aspect of the game because consistency is very important to winning tournaments. Its why you won't see miracles in the pro league and its why you don't see Infect there. Sure you can win with Glistener Elf and Groundswell, but it won't be happening often enough to place you.

4:) Miracle has anti-synergy with drawing. This alone is a huge weakness for Miracles. A deck running miracles has to limit itself to one card a turn or risk dead-drawing miracles. (At which point you should just run another card.) A large number of deck archetypes out there like to draw beyond that, and sorcery speed draw effects, Dark Confidant effects and Multiple-draw spells make up a big part of that. They all discourage miracles from occurring.