UB Mirari Conjecture

Hello everyone!

The Lab is not closed for business but things have been busy both at work and in life so I couldn’t muster the time to write in the past 11 days but still, I have you guys in mind and would like to make it up with today’s juicy article.

Like the title suggests, I have brewed my own take on Mirari’s Conjecture which I went 4-0 with now against:

1. Mono-White Ascend/Vampires/Tokens – 2/0
2. Mono Black Control – 2/1
3. Sultai Counters – 2/1
4. BG Snake.- 2/1

So before we begin, let’s examine the card that made this deck possible.

First Saga:

The first saga returns an instant from your graveyard to your hand, and here are a lot of really good instants in standard that’s relevant to the meta.

Today, the best 1-drop instant by far is Fatal Push. It has more than 10 common targets that are played heavily.

1. Bomat Courier
2. Llanowar Elves
3. Soul-Scar Mage
4. Heart of Kiran
5. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
6. Winding Constrictor
7. Walking Ballista
8. Earthshaker Khenra
9. Kari Zev
10. Gifted Aetherborn
11. Scrapheap Scrounger and many more.

We won’t even need to list those that die when we trigger revolt to convince us this is a good 1-drop to add in the deck.

Blink of an Eye has proven its versatility in the UW Control shell, allowing the player to bounce problematic permanents it couldn’t deal with at the time it was cast. It’s also a great tempo card because it affects the board and replaces itself later in the game. Another thing to point out is you can use Blink to effectively go infinite by bouncing Mirari’s Conjecture when its 3rd saga hits the stack so you can replay the Conjecture and still enjoy the double spell emblem until end of turn.

I am testing 1 Release to the Wind and 2 Blink instead the next time I play. I think this trick is much better since you can loop Release and save mana from casting Mirari Conjecture and effectively have unlimited sorceries and double triggers the entire game.

Lastly, Vraska’s Contempt has become a staple in all black decks because of the steady rise in Teferis, Chandras, Karns, Hazorets and even Scarab God. It’s also a sweet card to double cast and gain the much needed life. I oftentimes win my games sitting at 5-6 life so the life gain definitely helps.

Second Saga:

The second saga returns a sorcery and thanks to the Dimir combination, we have tons of options.

Doomfall is a great maindeck option that’s not technically dead against some decks. This was extremely helpful in killing Bristling Hydras and sniping Planeswalkers from the opponent’s hand.

Divination is usually a bad draw spell if you compare it to Glimmer of Genius or Hieroglyphic Illumination but because we need to spread out our spells between instants and sorceries, we have to keep this in mind in making our card choices. Secrets of the City is a debatable better option because it can draw us 3 cards instead of 2, but having BB and UU on turn 3 is quite difficult to do consistently.

Mastermind’s Acquisition is the card that really opens up the deck’s potential by allowing us to access key cards from the library or from the sideboard to counter our opponent’s game plan. It’s also the card that makes Mirari Conjecture’s double spell chapter worth building around.

Third Saga:

This is the Mirari we all know and love – the ability to double an instant or sorcery is back-breaking especially if you’re doubling Torment of Hailfire which you fetched from the sideboard using Mastermind’s Acquisition.

This is the grand daddy pay-off card we play into which can end the game pretty fast if it resolves. With Mirari Conjecture’s third saga in effect, you can literally cast a Torment of 6 or 7 and effectively force your opponent to sacrifice 12-14 permanents to stay alive or take 36-42 damage  and die.

Don’t get me wrong, the deck does not have to use Mastermind’s Acquisition to fetch Torment to win. We also have another win condition that sits inside our maindeck as a 1-off which we can also tutor for, and take over the game.

The Scarab God has been showing a decline in play time because of the prevalent use of Cast Out, Ixalan’s Binding, Vraska’s Contempt and Essence Scatter. However, be reminded that our deck hosts a good mix of bounce, discard and counter spells to exhaust the opponent’s deck and leave our Scarab God safe. We can even use Mirari’s 3rd saga to double cast a Doomfall and snipe their answer to the Scarab Good.

Apart from the notable removal spells on top, we also have cheap sweepers in case we face off against go-wide decks like Vampires and Merfolks. Cast Downs are there for the occassional Steel Leaf Champion, and Bontu’s Last Reckoning as a 1-off panic button we fetch with Acquisition if needed.

Essentially, the game plan is to delay the opponent from making his winning plays. Disrupt his key cards and refill your hand via Conjecture and Torment the opponent when the coast is clear. Alternatively, you can fetch your God and start re-animating then proceed with the beat down.

*MTGGoldfish’s Visual View is not working at the moment.

The sideboard plan is where things gets interesting.

Against control, Gonti and Nezahal are great tutor targets even in game 1. Nezahal gets super crazy against decks that try to remove your threats ineffectively using noncreature spells. This dinosaur won me the game against MBC when I was able to strip his hand clean and fetch this from the sideboard after he Lost Legacy’ed my Torment.

Gonti is there for the potential value he presents but I’m actually thinking of cutting him to just 1 single copy.

We have a toolbox target against Planeswalkers. The Immortal Sun is another great target I fetched against the MBC and W-Ascend deck to allow me to pull ahead in card draw. Since we don’t run any Planeswalkers, we don’t need to be worried about the Sun shutting us down. Spyglass is a 1-off tutor target against early activations from Kiran or Chandra when we’re on the draw. Sorcerous Spyglass was sided in against MBC attempting to name Dread Shade and Treasure Map but didn’t get the chance to. It’s also a good card against decks that side in Crook of Condemnation and stop them from eating our spells.

Against control, Duress replaces Fatal Push to allow us to peek into our opponents deck for the much needed intel then we can strip it away with a tutored Lost Legacy later. Together with Doomfall in the mainboard, we have a total of 8 discard spells we can double or take back with Conjecture.

Arguel’s Blood Fast usually comes in when we expect the opponent to side into a more slower game. We always to be ahead with card advantage so that we can capitalize faster and have the right answers to the right threats.

Supreme Will was a 1-off in my current list but I’m considering converting 1 Gonti into another copy of Supreme Will. This is my favorite card to have in hand on turn 3 with 3 mana up and no threats in the opposing field. Digging up the much needed Conjecture mid game is super sweet.

Possible changes:

Against a meta full of RB, Mono Red and fast creature decks, you might want to consider have these spells on the sideboard to help you reach our mid to late game.

That’s it for tonight, I hope you like the deck as much as I loved playing it. All my opponents gave their thumbs up for the deck’s sheer flexibility and longevity. I like it and I will keep improving this in preparation for the Nationals.

Ciao,

Vanson