The Infinite Game — Discovering Vintage Miracles at 2025 Eternal Weekend Europe
Written by ForceofPhil
What it do. Miracles are the best. I love the archetype so much that I've committed to solving it for the current Legacy era when Wizards of the Coast (WotC) explicitly aims not to print cards that lend to the gameplay Miracles aims to create — the infinite game.
For those unfamiliar, there are two types of games: finite games and infinite games. To understand whether a game is finite or infinite, learn the following:
Finite Games
- All the players are known at the start of the game.
- There is an agreed-upon endpoint.
- The rules are predefined.
Infinite Games
- Players may compete as long as they have the will and resources to play.
- The goal of the infinite game is to perpetuate the game.
Some examples of finite games are all sports. Typically, they are games between two teams for a predetermined amount of time within an agreed-upon set of rules, and the winner is whoever has the higher score when the time runs out.
An example of an infinite game is international diplomacy. Players (i.e., countries) are involved in issues they desire to be involved in if they have the will and resources to play. The goal of diplomacy is to perpetuate the relationship so that their needs are met (i.e., maintaining the will and resources to play) and preventing whatever might end the game (e.g., nuclear war).
Magic: The Gathering is a finite game. All the players are known at the beginning of the game, playing against each other with an agreed-upon rules set, and whoever reduces the others' life from 20 to 0 first wins. Of course, there are different forms of victory like alternate win conditions or milling out the opponent, but those still abide by the feature of a finite game.
Although there are some aspects of Magic as a finite game that need to be maintained, like the players and ruleset being known and agreed upon, when the game ends is debatable within the limits of Magic's game engine.
What Is Control?
What is tempo? What is prison? What is combo versus aggro? The semantics of what any deck or archetype in Magic is typically depends on who you talk to. However, having a clear understanding of the goals of your deck can help understand card choices and how to play them effectively.
For me, control is the macrotype that attempts to bend Magic's frame toward an infinite game. The goal isn't to win, the goal is to perpetuate the game. The two necessary aspects for that are the will and resources to play.
That is why I am almost always opposed to win conditions that attempt to end the game. I'm a control mage. I'm not trying to end the game. I'm trying to perpetuate it. Trying to end the game proactively fundamentally misunderstands what control aims to do. The game can't be controlled if it isn't being played.
Round Clock
Despite a perpetual game being possible in Magic, practical factors prevent it. The most obvious is rounds lasting only 50 minutes. It's challenging to play forever when rounds are less than an hour. In this way, timed rounds limit what is possible in Magic.
As a result, true control decks that achieve the goal of infinitely perpetuating the game must accept an inherent handicap — win conditions. If a control mage includes a card with the explicit purpose of ending the game, it is antithetical to what they initially set out to do. However, they must do so because an opponent's will to play might outlast the time in round.
2025 Eternal Weekend Europe — Vintage
I played UW Miracles in the Vintage main event at the 2025 Eternal Weekend Europe in Lucca, Italy. My list was not tuned as I had no intention of being serious in Vintage, I was in Italy to play the Legacy main event, and thought it would be fun to spin my Sensei's Divining Tops again.
I played a 61-card maindeck just because I wanted Entreat the Angels in the list for the brand. I didn't have access to a Mox Pearl or Time Walk, so I only played with half power. I got in zero testing and built the deck the night before while fighting off a migraine. The list can be seen below in my round two feature match, courtesy of the 4SeasonsTournaments YouTube channel:
I realized in round one that Vintage offers the solution to Miracles' desire to play an infinite game in Lurrus of the Dream-Den. Lurrus is not unique in the format; it is played in pretty much every deck that doesn't have Mishra's Workshop or Bazaar of Baghdad. Lurrus' inclusion in all those decks, however, is explicitly different from that in Miracles.
In UB Lurrus, Esper Lurrus, BUG Lurrus, or most other Lurrus brews, the nightmare cat is used for value and staying power. Ideally, those decks never have to reach for Lurrus because the game will have ended before it's necessary. Ideally, a Miracles pilot (i.e., control player) never reaches for Lurrus because they don't want to. The primary reason to reach for Lurrus is to race the opponent's will to keep playing after all hope of them winning has been sufficiently fatigued.
Since Lurrus can sit in the sideboard rather than take up a slot in the maindeck, the inherent handicap of playing a win condition main is alleviated (unless you play an Entreat the Angels for the brand). Lurrus' benefits extend beyond that, though.
When an opponent reveals a Lurrus at the start of the game, they are sharing that all of their threats cost one or two mana — extremely valuable information to know when Counterbalance is in the deck. "You flew halfway around the world to play against CounterTop," I said to my round one opponent.
Looking Ahead
I intend to explore Miracles in Vintage more thoroughly in 2026. CounterTop is real in a Lurrus-driven format, and it's exactly the kind of Magic I want to play, in perpetuity.
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Featured image: Lurrus of the Dream-Den by Slawomir Maniak