TerminusTerminus | Art by Jarel Threat

Welcome back to 60 to 100, a series where I take beloved decks from 60-card formats and convert them to Commander. It's been a few months since the last installment, and I'm so excited to get back to it! To celebrate my triumphant return, I'm going to be taking a look at one of my favorite Legacy decks from what I consider to be the format's glory days: Miracles. Once a powerhouse of the Legacy format, Miracles has completely fallen off the map in recent times. Many attribute this deck's fall from grace to the 2017 banning of Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top. Fortunately for this series, Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top is still perfectly legal in Commander, and there's no one to stop me from casting TerminusTerminus for here.

The Source Material

Miracles is a control deck that uses Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top to set up instant-speed TerminusTerminus plays and lock opponents out of the game with CounterbalanceCounterbalance. With Sensei's Divining Top and Counterbalance in play, alongside BrainstormBrainstorm and Jace, the Mind SculptorJace, the Mind Sculptor's +0 ability, it wasn't uncommon to achieve game states where the opponent simply couldn't resolve any more spells. From there, Monastery MentorMonastery Mentor, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and in some cases a huge Entreat the AngelsEntreat the Angels could easily close out a game. That's really all there is to it!

In April 2017, Sensei's Divining Top was banned, citing both power level concerns and tournament logistics issues. A player with a Sensei's Divining Top in play could often eat up large portions of the round timer, leading to delays in extra turns with repeated Top activations. Combined with the fact that Miracles had been the best deck in the format for quite some time by that point, the folks at Wizards decided that enough is enough. This ban didn't immediately kill the deck, but it was the beginning of the end for Miracles. Today, you won't even find Miracles in Legacy metagame breakdowns, although it has seen something of a resurgence in Modern in 2025.

Bringing Miracles to Commander

I struggled with choosing a commander to helm this deck a lot. In the end, Aminatou, the FateshifterAminatou, the Fateshifter was too good to pass up. Her precon was what introduced me to the miracle mechanic way back when, and she's literally tailor-made for this strategy! Her +1, much like Jace, the Mind SculptorJace, the Mind Sculptor's +0 ability, can set a miracle card on top of the deck. Her -1 blinks a permanent, which synergizes well with the many powerful enters triggers that help make this deck tick.

When writing this series, I'm normally something of a stickler for color identity, and I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't find an Azorius() or Jeskai() commander that tickled my fancy. To justify this breach of the source material's color identity to myself, I've decided that it isn't entirely implausible that a Miracles player at some point in the deck's history would have included a couple black cards somewhere in the 75, and black really is just a splash color in my final build of the deck anyhow.

Key Cards for Miracles

The most important part of this Miracles deck is... the miracles! In Legacy, Miracles decks got away with including four copies of TerminusTerminus and sometimes a copy or two of Entreat the AngelsEntreat the Angels. If I could, I'd probably just play four Terminuses as well, but Commander's singleton restriction forces me to branch out a bit. Thankfully, there are plenty of good options. Devastation TideDevastation Tide is a board wipe in the same vein as Terminus. If I squint a little, ZephyrimZephyrim does a decent enough impression of Entreat the Angels. Temporal MasteryTemporal Mastery is just a bananas extra turn spell that I'd be thrilled to include in most of my blue decks.

In constructed formats, the second or third best version of an effect will rarely see play. Why include the second best board wipe with miracle when a deck can have four copies of Terminus? The most exciting prospect of porting a deck like Miracles to Commander is getting the thrill of playing with a lot of these second or third best options that I'd never include in a 60-card deck.

Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top and its functionally similar cousin, Scroll RackScroll Rack, are vital to allowing this deck to live out this deck's dreams of ruining opponents' days by locking them out with CounterbalanceCounterbalance or slamming a Terminus after they've resolved a Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth and moved to combat. To do that, I'm going to need a lot of ways to fish those two artifacts out of the deck. Trinket MageTrinket Mage and Tribute MageTribute Mage can grab Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack, respectively. They can also be blinked with Aminatou, the FateshifterAminatou, the Fateshifter for additional value to find artifacts, like Expedition MapExpedition Map, Sol RingSol Ring, and Disruptor FluteDisruptor Flute.

As is often the case with my decks, there's a second layer of tutors devoted to finding more tutors! Step ThroughStep Through is one of my favorite cards to include in blue decks, as it incentivizes me to construct a package of situational Wizards around it. In addition to giving purpose to my situational Wizards package, it serves as an uncounterable, instant-speed tutor that can find Trinket Mage or Tribute Mage for just two mana.

SpellseekerSpellseeker is yet another tutor that can be searched for with Step Through. This combination provides access to any card in the deck via Vampiric TutorVampiric Tutor. My favorite chain of tutors made possible in this deck is Step Through to find Spellseeker, Spellseeker to find Muddle the MixtureMuddle the Mixture, and finally Muddle the Mixture to find CounterbalanceCounterbalance. This is unlikely to be a common line of play, but it's important to me that I have multiple lines to find all of my deck's key cards.

How Does this Miracles Deck Win the Game?

Aside from the common Miracles win condition of opponents conceding out of exhaustion, this control deck is actually looking to win through good, old-fashioned combat! Entreat the AngelsEntreat the Angels and ZephyrimZephyrim are both instant-speed late game mana sinks that can flood the board with flying bodies to close out a game. This requires a lot of mana and therefore time to achieve, but such is the nature of control decks.

In a control deck like Miracles, the important thing isn't so much that it has an instant-win button, but rather that it has a theoretically possible way to bring a game to an end after it has stabilized and rendered all opposing strategies inert. By the time the board has been flooded with 4/4 Angels that are swinging for lethal, the game has likely been effectively over for multiple turns.

Miracles Commander Decklist

Conclusion

This deck fills me with indescribable joy! I just barely missed out on the Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top era of Miracles decks. My memories of that version of the deck come from binge watching old Grand Prix and SCG Tour coverage when I first ventured into competitive Magic. By the time I was experienced enough to even begin wrapping my head around playing Legacy, Sensei's Divining Top had long been banned. With this deck, I get to experience a taste of what masters of the archetype like Reid Duke felt playing Miracles in its prime.

This Commander deck falls nicely into Bracket 3 (Upgraded), including just three Game Changers and lacking any sort of two-card combos. I think this bracket is perfect for control decks like this one, as the changes that must be made to power these decks up enough to hang in higher brackets compromises their identity in ways I find less satisfying. When piloting the decks that I build for this series, I'm much more interested in the decks recreating the experience of playing their 60-card counterparts than creating a deck that plays like a high power Commander deck.

That's it for this installment of 60 to 100! I'd love to read about must-play cards I missed in the comments! I'm always overjoyed to see the feedback this series gets, and I'm so happy to hear from fellow devotees of 60-card Magic and players that haven't gotten to experience this side of the game alike!