Hunding Gjornersen
03-15-2011, 02:03 PM
Introduction
Battle of Wits has been a favorite card and deck of mine ever since it was
released in Odyssey almost 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it just happens to blow in Legacy. To really
get a feeling for how bad this card is, imagine if it didn't have that part about needing 200 or more
cards in your library. Thanks to Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast,
Qasali Pridemage, Krosan Grip, and good ol' Legacy countermagic, it'd
still be marginal at best. Passing the turn with a blue enchantment in play and hoping for the best
is a recipe for disaster.
Consistency is another scourge of this deck in any form. Traditionally, the cardpool just
hasn't been there for the 200+ card deck, and you need to run "marginal" cards to make quota.
Naturally, the average quality of hands and draws drops if the average card quality of the deck does
so. I set Battle of Wits aside around the time Conflux came out, bitter about how bad
Opt and others were. To make this deck better, I thought, would take the printing of
another Brainstorm effect, another Duress effect, another Mox, and the
unbanning of Grim Monolith, the latter two of which I highly doubted. Nowadays, the
Legacy cardpool includes Preordain, Inquisition of Kozilek, Mox Opal, and Grim Monolith. Time to give this deck another shot!
Deck List
Here is more or less the list I was playing two years ago:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?11524
Also in this thread are links to previous discussions on Battle of Wits. In 2008, I
argued that Battle of Wits is best played as a combo deck because control decks need
to maintain consistency. I stick by that conclusion, but now know better about the
cheap-tutors-for-Academy Rector strategy. It's really consistent, in that you can burn
out your hand and get Academy Rector into play on turn 3 or 4 most of the time. Sadly,
you're also left trying to top-deck a sac outlet while fearing Swords to Plowshares
and Path to Exile. Combining Rector with a sac outlet is just too hard a stunt to pull
of reliably. Not to mention that it also opens you up to graveyard hate (making every singly piece of
metagame hate effective against the deck). With all that in mind, here's my latest list:
Battle of Wits (03/15/11)
4 Battle of Wits
1 Animate Dead
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Grim Tutor
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Brainspoil
4 Intuition
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Academy Rector
4 Sterling Grove
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Vision
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Portent
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 Spellsnare
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Spell Pierce
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Pithing Needle
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Diamond
4 Mox Opal
4 Grim Monolith
4 Pentad Prism
4 Dark Ritual
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tinder Wall
4 Squandered Resources
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Show and Tell
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Crystal Vein
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
2 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Plains
1 Swamp
6 Island
Total: 227
Comments
Three-Mana Tutors: Not playing tons of tutors for Rector means playing all the three-mana tutors I
previously denounced (i.e. Brainspoil, Idyllic Tutor, Sterling
Grove, and Grim Tutor). With the old ritual-based acceleration package, these
were quite bad. The new mana-base supports them much better. Sterling Grove[cards],
additionally, doubles up as protection, providing much-needed utility.
[cards]Enduring Ideal: This is actually the worst tutor I run. Grim Monolith
and Squandered Resources help a lot, but this card is just expensive. I'm considering
replacing it with Diabolic Tutor, though that seems so bad.
No Street Wraith or Manamorphos: With all the inconsistency of this
deck, we don't need more difficult muligan decisions and that's all these cards bring to the table. I
wish you could run this deck with "16 fewer cards" ala Street Wraith,
Manamorphos, Urza's Bauble, and Mishra's Bauble, but it
just doesn't work that way.
Show and Tell: This is a blue Seething Song! When you're tutoring
directly for Battle of Wits, this is a +1U boost.
Pithing Needle: Mostly for Qasali Pridemage, but this rarely lacks a
good target. Also helps out Mox Opal.
Mox Opal: I'm really concerned that this list doesn't have enough artifacts to support
this boon. So far, metalcraft hasn't been a problem, but all the same I'd like to find room for a few
more artifacts, just to be safe.
Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch: I said before that mana-elves die
to burn then you loose. That can sometimes happen, but more often these two fix your mana and let you
ramp to 3 for a tutor on turn 2 and to 5 (with help, of course) on turn 3. Tapping for blue, white,
and sometimes black is infintely better than always tapping for green.
Squandered Resources: This card has a long history of powering out 5-mana enchantments
that win the game. Around 1997-98 people were using it to crank out Cadaverous Bloom
into a massive Prosperity and eventaully a game-ending Drain Life. I
was originally running this card as a substitute for Lotus Cobra, which I don't own,
and found it to be really good. That it can give you +3 colored mana on turn 3 makes it more
explosive than Cobra, but I'm not sure if that means it's better. Maybe both deserve room.
A Second List
As promised, here's another, significantly more casual, version of the deck. Enjoy!
Cascade BoW (03/15/11)
4 Battle of Wits
4 Academy Rector
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Deny Reality
4 Netherborn Phalanx
4 Ethereal Usher
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Bringer of the Black Dawn
4 Greater Gargadon
4 High Market
4 Miren, the Moaning Well
4 Phyrexian Tower
4 Tolaria West
4 Keldon Necropolis
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Decree of Pain
4 Quicksand
4 Diamond Valley
4 Ruins of Trokair
4 Dwarven Ruins
4 Svyelunite Temple
4 Havenwood Battleground
4 Ebon Stronghold
4 Peat Bog
4 Sandstone Needle
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Hickory Woodlot
4 Remote Farm
4 Tinder Farm
4 Irrigation Ditch
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Ancient Spring
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Crystal Vein
4 Teferi's Isle
4 Temple of the False God
4 Vesuva
4 Saltcrusted Steppe
4 Dreadship Reef
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Calciform Pools
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Krosan Verge
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
1 Plateau
1 Tundra
4 Gemstone Caverns
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Tarnished Citadel
2 Archaeological Dig
4 Fountain of Cho
4 Subterranean Hangar
4 Saprazzan Cove
4 Mirrodin's Core
Battle of Wits has been a favorite card and deck of mine ever since it was
released in Odyssey almost 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it just happens to blow in Legacy. To really
get a feeling for how bad this card is, imagine if it didn't have that part about needing 200 or more
cards in your library. Thanks to Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast,
Qasali Pridemage, Krosan Grip, and good ol' Legacy countermagic, it'd
still be marginal at best. Passing the turn with a blue enchantment in play and hoping for the best
is a recipe for disaster.
Consistency is another scourge of this deck in any form. Traditionally, the cardpool just
hasn't been there for the 200+ card deck, and you need to run "marginal" cards to make quota.
Naturally, the average quality of hands and draws drops if the average card quality of the deck does
so. I set Battle of Wits aside around the time Conflux came out, bitter about how bad
Opt and others were. To make this deck better, I thought, would take the printing of
another Brainstorm effect, another Duress effect, another Mox, and the
unbanning of Grim Monolith, the latter two of which I highly doubted. Nowadays, the
Legacy cardpool includes Preordain, Inquisition of Kozilek, Mox Opal, and Grim Monolith. Time to give this deck another shot!
Deck List
Here is more or less the list I was playing two years ago:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?11524
Also in this thread are links to previous discussions on Battle of Wits. In 2008, I
argued that Battle of Wits is best played as a combo deck because control decks need
to maintain consistency. I stick by that conclusion, but now know better about the
cheap-tutors-for-Academy Rector strategy. It's really consistent, in that you can burn
out your hand and get Academy Rector into play on turn 3 or 4 most of the time. Sadly,
you're also left trying to top-deck a sac outlet while fearing Swords to Plowshares
and Path to Exile. Combining Rector with a sac outlet is just too hard a stunt to pull
of reliably. Not to mention that it also opens you up to graveyard hate (making every singly piece of
metagame hate effective against the deck). With all that in mind, here's my latest list:
Battle of Wits (03/15/11)
4 Battle of Wits
1 Animate Dead
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Grim Tutor
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Brainspoil
4 Intuition
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Academy Rector
4 Sterling Grove
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Vision
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Portent
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 Spellsnare
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Spell Pierce
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Pithing Needle
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Diamond
4 Mox Opal
4 Grim Monolith
4 Pentad Prism
4 Dark Ritual
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tinder Wall
4 Squandered Resources
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Show and Tell
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Crystal Vein
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
2 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Plains
1 Swamp
6 Island
Total: 227
Comments
Three-Mana Tutors: Not playing tons of tutors for Rector means playing all the three-mana tutors I
previously denounced (i.e. Brainspoil, Idyllic Tutor, Sterling
Grove, and Grim Tutor). With the old ritual-based acceleration package, these
were quite bad. The new mana-base supports them much better. Sterling Grove[cards],
additionally, doubles up as protection, providing much-needed utility.
[cards]Enduring Ideal: This is actually the worst tutor I run. Grim Monolith
and Squandered Resources help a lot, but this card is just expensive. I'm considering
replacing it with Diabolic Tutor, though that seems so bad.
No Street Wraith or Manamorphos: With all the inconsistency of this
deck, we don't need more difficult muligan decisions and that's all these cards bring to the table. I
wish you could run this deck with "16 fewer cards" ala Street Wraith,
Manamorphos, Urza's Bauble, and Mishra's Bauble, but it
just doesn't work that way.
Show and Tell: This is a blue Seething Song! When you're tutoring
directly for Battle of Wits, this is a +1U boost.
Pithing Needle: Mostly for Qasali Pridemage, but this rarely lacks a
good target. Also helps out Mox Opal.
Mox Opal: I'm really concerned that this list doesn't have enough artifacts to support
this boon. So far, metalcraft hasn't been a problem, but all the same I'd like to find room for a few
more artifacts, just to be safe.
Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch: I said before that mana-elves die
to burn then you loose. That can sometimes happen, but more often these two fix your mana and let you
ramp to 3 for a tutor on turn 2 and to 5 (with help, of course) on turn 3. Tapping for blue, white,
and sometimes black is infintely better than always tapping for green.
Squandered Resources: This card has a long history of powering out 5-mana enchantments
that win the game. Around 1997-98 people were using it to crank out Cadaverous Bloom
into a massive Prosperity and eventaully a game-ending Drain Life. I
was originally running this card as a substitute for Lotus Cobra, which I don't own,
and found it to be really good. That it can give you +3 colored mana on turn 3 makes it more
explosive than Cobra, but I'm not sure if that means it's better. Maybe both deserve room.
A Second List
As promised, here's another, significantly more casual, version of the deck. Enjoy!
Cascade BoW (03/15/11)
4 Battle of Wits
4 Academy Rector
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Deny Reality
4 Netherborn Phalanx
4 Ethereal Usher
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Bringer of the Black Dawn
4 Greater Gargadon
4 High Market
4 Miren, the Moaning Well
4 Phyrexian Tower
4 Tolaria West
4 Keldon Necropolis
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Decree of Pain
4 Quicksand
4 Diamond Valley
4 Ruins of Trokair
4 Dwarven Ruins
4 Svyelunite Temple
4 Havenwood Battleground
4 Ebon Stronghold
4 Peat Bog
4 Sandstone Needle
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Hickory Woodlot
4 Remote Farm
4 Tinder Farm
4 Irrigation Ditch
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Ancient Spring
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Crystal Vein
4 Teferi's Isle
4 Temple of the False God
4 Vesuva
4 Saltcrusted Steppe
4 Dreadship Reef
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Calciform Pools
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Krosan Verge
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
1 Plateau
1 Tundra
4 Gemstone Caverns
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Tarnished Citadel
2 Archaeological Dig
4 Fountain of Cho
4 Subterranean Hangar
4 Saprazzan Cove
4 Mirrodin's Core