TheMuffinMan
06-18-2008, 07:09 PM
Yes really Battle of Wits.
Contrary to what one may think by initially looking at the list, it can actually drop bow rather consistently and at a fair speed. You can conceivably win on turn two and its speed tends to surprise people. Since it has such a high card count it of course can crap out. I would argue however, that this happens less than a normal combo deck, and should be viewed as combo control.
I have been working on this deck for quite some time now. It is adapted from an articles written a long time ago. You can see part 1 and part 2 of the primer written by Ben Kowal and Matthieu Durand here:
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/7676.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/7677.html
I used Kowal's vintage version as a base a while ago and the deck has evolved since. I will be the first person to state that I do not consider this to be a viable tier 1 deck. The main point of posting this is first off to present this deck to a community in hopes that it can evolve into something of a viable tier two. Also I would like it to evolve to the point where that someone could have fun with on mws and surprise people playing tier one decks or, if you have the collection, could be taken to a tournament and perform decently.
Ubw Battle of Wits
Lands
14 Island
1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
4 [A] Scrubland
2 [PT] Plains
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
1 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
1 [MI] Swamp
1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [CH] City of Brass
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [B] Underground Sea
4 [MI] Crystal Vein
14 [IA] Snow-Covered Island
3 [WL] Gemstone Mine
4 [A] Tundra
Teh Win
4 [OD] Battle of Wits
4 [SC] Decree of Justice
Tutors:
4 [MI] Enlightened Tutor
4 [OD] Tainted Pact
4 [TE] Intuition
4 [MI] Mystical Tutor
4 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven
4 [HL] Merchant Scroll
4 [UD] Academy Rector
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
Cantrips/Carddraw
4 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [FD] Night's Whisper
4 [7E] Sleight of Hand
4 [IN] Opt
4 [FD] Serum Visions
4 [OD] Peek
4 [LRW] Ponder
4 [VI] Impulse
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [NE] Accumulated Knowledge
Countermagic:
4 [RAV] Remand
4 [MM] Counterspell
4 [SH] Mana Leak
4 [FD] Condescend
4 [MM] Misdirection
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [OD] Divert
4 [NE] Daze
Anti-Creature:
4 [B] Swords to Plowshares
4 [OD] Innocent Blood
4 [TE] Diabolic Edict
3 [LG] Moat
4 [DIS] Condemn
Tutor Targets:
1 [PS] Dromar's Charm
1 [IN] Recoil
1 [SOK] Footsteps of the Goryo
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
1 [MI] Shallow Grave
1 [TE] Reanimate
1 [DK] Tormod’s Crypt
Accelerants
4 [US] Show and Tell
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [A] Dark Ritual
Disruption
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
4 [AP] Vindicate
4 [7E] Duress
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [R] Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 4 [UL] Engineered Plague
SB: 4 [7E] Arcane Laboratory
SB: 4 [US] Back to Basics
[B]Card Choices:
If you choose to read the vintage articles, a good explanation of some of the card choices will become apparent. However, I will go over some of them in here just the same.
- Cantrips: These are present in order to draw into the better cards and to help keep the manabase from becoming too large. While one could replace them with just "good" cards, I feel as though I would rather have cards that either draw into a combo chain or just help you find your best cards.
- Your alternate win condition is decree of justice and is there as a good late game finisher. It is there just in case something goes terribly wrong. I.e. discard + extirpate on bow or what have you.
- There are some one ofs that are meant to be tutored for i.e. recoil and dromar's charm through merchant scroll, trinket mage tutors, or some one ofs to setup a difficult gifts ungiven with the stack usually consisting of rector, shallow grave, reanimate, and cabal therapy or bow and no grave/reanimate depending on your mana.
- Accelerents: Some cards like dark ritual or ancient tomb might seem out of place. However, they can significantly increase your chances of getting an early rector or bow, and often surprise your opponent.
- Seemingly suboptimal cards like condemn and divert are there to combat problematic issues such as lackey in the former case and sinkhole/hymn/vindicate/counterspells in the latter.
- Snow-Covered lands are there for tainted pact
Matchups:
Since the field in legacy is so diverse its difficult to gauge how this would do at a tournament. However, I will try to go over what I’ve experienced as the favorability of this deck in some matchups. Note: take this information with a grain of salt as most of the testing for this analysis has been done on mws.
Threshold: While this might seem completely unfavorable it isn’t quite so bad. You have a lot of ways to cause end of turn battles and drain their countermagic. Also cheap disruption in the form of misd, force, and disrupt can help force through big threats. The faster they come out the worse it will be for you. The long game is definitely in your favor as you have very strong card draw and a diverse group of cards to tutor for in order to throw them off. If they have cards like reb or krosan grip in the sb it can get alittle hairy. Back to basics can come in and provide a good threat.
Goblins: From my experience this matchup is very draw dependent. If you don’t have an answer to turn one lackey you are going to have a rough time. I would say overall its unfavorable. E-plagues in the sb help a little and beb can help deal with turn one lackey.
Black Aggro: This matchup can be pretty bad since they have a massive amount of hand disruption and if they crack you on turn one and keep the waste/ld going its pretty tough to recover. Your misd effects are great here and if you make it into the mid to late game you have a pretty good shot.
Random aggro (Zoo/RG): This matchup is usually favorable. You have just as efficient creature removal and lots of countermagic. Try to save countermagic as much as possible for the fatal burn spells. Beb can help in the sb. Against reb again just use discard or misd effects.
Fast Combo: You have a large amount of countermagic and disruption. If you draw more of that initially, as opposed to creature control cards, and get through the first few turns you should be fine. Arcane lab is the best shut down combo card I could think of.
Deck Improvement:
Overall I would like to say again that I feel as though this can become a viable tier two deck and in my opinion it is a blast to play. I think the main things we should focus on is cutting cards and getting the deck to be more streamlined (as much as bow can). It is currently 258 cards which is more obese then even a bow deck should be. I think the range of cards we want should be 240-245 which prevents us from having to add relatively useless cards like 2x gaea’s blessing in order to keep bow viable in the late game. Also, the sideboard is old and needs work. I would like to keep the discussion focused on the current color scheme since adding more colors would add greater strain to the manabase against waste.
I hope this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
200+ card decks ftw!
Contrary to what one may think by initially looking at the list, it can actually drop bow rather consistently and at a fair speed. You can conceivably win on turn two and its speed tends to surprise people. Since it has such a high card count it of course can crap out. I would argue however, that this happens less than a normal combo deck, and should be viewed as combo control.
I have been working on this deck for quite some time now. It is adapted from an articles written a long time ago. You can see part 1 and part 2 of the primer written by Ben Kowal and Matthieu Durand here:
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/7676.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/7677.html
I used Kowal's vintage version as a base a while ago and the deck has evolved since. I will be the first person to state that I do not consider this to be a viable tier 1 deck. The main point of posting this is first off to present this deck to a community in hopes that it can evolve into something of a viable tier two. Also I would like it to evolve to the point where that someone could have fun with on mws and surprise people playing tier one decks or, if you have the collection, could be taken to a tournament and perform decently.
Ubw Battle of Wits
Lands
14 Island
1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
4 [A] Scrubland
2 [PT] Plains
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
1 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
1 [MI] Swamp
1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [CH] City of Brass
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [B] Underground Sea
4 [MI] Crystal Vein
14 [IA] Snow-Covered Island
3 [WL] Gemstone Mine
4 [A] Tundra
Teh Win
4 [OD] Battle of Wits
4 [SC] Decree of Justice
Tutors:
4 [MI] Enlightened Tutor
4 [OD] Tainted Pact
4 [TE] Intuition
4 [MI] Mystical Tutor
4 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven
4 [HL] Merchant Scroll
4 [UD] Academy Rector
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
Cantrips/Carddraw
4 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [FD] Night's Whisper
4 [7E] Sleight of Hand
4 [IN] Opt
4 [FD] Serum Visions
4 [OD] Peek
4 [LRW] Ponder
4 [VI] Impulse
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [NE] Accumulated Knowledge
Countermagic:
4 [RAV] Remand
4 [MM] Counterspell
4 [SH] Mana Leak
4 [FD] Condescend
4 [MM] Misdirection
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [OD] Divert
4 [NE] Daze
Anti-Creature:
4 [B] Swords to Plowshares
4 [OD] Innocent Blood
4 [TE] Diabolic Edict
3 [LG] Moat
4 [DIS] Condemn
Tutor Targets:
1 [PS] Dromar's Charm
1 [IN] Recoil
1 [SOK] Footsteps of the Goryo
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
1 [MI] Shallow Grave
1 [TE] Reanimate
1 [DK] Tormod’s Crypt
Accelerants
4 [US] Show and Tell
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [A] Dark Ritual
Disruption
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
4 [AP] Vindicate
4 [7E] Duress
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [R] Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 4 [UL] Engineered Plague
SB: 4 [7E] Arcane Laboratory
SB: 4 [US] Back to Basics
[B]Card Choices:
If you choose to read the vintage articles, a good explanation of some of the card choices will become apparent. However, I will go over some of them in here just the same.
- Cantrips: These are present in order to draw into the better cards and to help keep the manabase from becoming too large. While one could replace them with just "good" cards, I feel as though I would rather have cards that either draw into a combo chain or just help you find your best cards.
- Your alternate win condition is decree of justice and is there as a good late game finisher. It is there just in case something goes terribly wrong. I.e. discard + extirpate on bow or what have you.
- There are some one ofs that are meant to be tutored for i.e. recoil and dromar's charm through merchant scroll, trinket mage tutors, or some one ofs to setup a difficult gifts ungiven with the stack usually consisting of rector, shallow grave, reanimate, and cabal therapy or bow and no grave/reanimate depending on your mana.
- Accelerents: Some cards like dark ritual or ancient tomb might seem out of place. However, they can significantly increase your chances of getting an early rector or bow, and often surprise your opponent.
- Seemingly suboptimal cards like condemn and divert are there to combat problematic issues such as lackey in the former case and sinkhole/hymn/vindicate/counterspells in the latter.
- Snow-Covered lands are there for tainted pact
Matchups:
Since the field in legacy is so diverse its difficult to gauge how this would do at a tournament. However, I will try to go over what I’ve experienced as the favorability of this deck in some matchups. Note: take this information with a grain of salt as most of the testing for this analysis has been done on mws.
Threshold: While this might seem completely unfavorable it isn’t quite so bad. You have a lot of ways to cause end of turn battles and drain their countermagic. Also cheap disruption in the form of misd, force, and disrupt can help force through big threats. The faster they come out the worse it will be for you. The long game is definitely in your favor as you have very strong card draw and a diverse group of cards to tutor for in order to throw them off. If they have cards like reb or krosan grip in the sb it can get alittle hairy. Back to basics can come in and provide a good threat.
Goblins: From my experience this matchup is very draw dependent. If you don’t have an answer to turn one lackey you are going to have a rough time. I would say overall its unfavorable. E-plagues in the sb help a little and beb can help deal with turn one lackey.
Black Aggro: This matchup can be pretty bad since they have a massive amount of hand disruption and if they crack you on turn one and keep the waste/ld going its pretty tough to recover. Your misd effects are great here and if you make it into the mid to late game you have a pretty good shot.
Random aggro (Zoo/RG): This matchup is usually favorable. You have just as efficient creature removal and lots of countermagic. Try to save countermagic as much as possible for the fatal burn spells. Beb can help in the sb. Against reb again just use discard or misd effects.
Fast Combo: You have a large amount of countermagic and disruption. If you draw more of that initially, as opposed to creature control cards, and get through the first few turns you should be fine. Arcane lab is the best shut down combo card I could think of.
Deck Improvement:
Overall I would like to say again that I feel as though this can become a viable tier two deck and in my opinion it is a blast to play. I think the main things we should focus on is cutting cards and getting the deck to be more streamlined (as much as bow can). It is currently 258 cards which is more obese then even a bow deck should be. I think the range of cards we want should be 240-245 which prevents us from having to add relatively useless cards like 2x gaea’s blessing in order to keep bow viable in the late game. Also, the sideboard is old and needs work. I would like to keep the discussion focused on the current color scheme since adding more colors would add greater strain to the manabase against waste.
I hope this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
200+ card decks ftw!