Miracle causes lots of questions, as it’s a pretty complex mechanic.  First, there’s the static ability that says “You may reveal this as you draw it if its the first card you drew this turn.” Then once you do that, there’s the triggered ability that say “When you do, you may cast this for its Miracle cost.”

The confusing part for many people is, “Where is the card in the middle of all that??” Well, the answer is that it’s in the same place as any other card you draw: Your hand.  It’s just revealed the whole time, and it usually gets set down on the table for clarity’s sake.

The other important thing to note is that since Miracle is a triggered ability, it uses the stack and can be responded to. You don’t get to immediately cast the card for the miracle cost… you have to wait until that triggered ability resolves. Before any ability on the stack can resolve, each player will get priority and has the chance to respond.

So let’s say your opponent draws and reveals Terminus. Lucky for you, he did the same thing earlier, so there’s a Terminus in his graveyard. You can now cast Surgical Extraction on the Terminus in the graveyard, and you get to search the player’s graveyard, library and hand for any other copies of Terminus. Since the revealed card is still in the player’s hand, you get to exile it. Then when the Miracle trigger resolves, there’s no card to cast, so nothing happens. Congratulations!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Josh Stansfield, Level 2 judge from Orange, CA