Battle of Wits!

Notes for the Battle of Wits deck
cards 250

lands 99
Slots to work with151

rough breakdown
draw 40
removal 40
permission 40
win 15
utility 15

Lands
Fetches:
4 Flooded
4 Polluted
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Duals:
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Savannah
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden

Basics:
10 Island
10 Plains
5 Forest

Utility (Safely run 26)
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Tolaria West
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Tabernacle at pendral Vale
2 Maze of ith
1 Urza's Factory
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2 Academy Ruins

6 slots left

Draw: 40
4 SDT
4 FOF
4 Intuition
4 Jace
4 Thirst for knowledge
4 Accmulative knowledge
4 Anscestral Visions
4 Sylvan Library
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 brainstorm

Removal:44
4 STP
4 Path
4 Condemn
4 EE
4 Wrath
4 Disk
4 Humility
4 Moat
4 Route
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Oblivian Ring
4 runed
Permission: 28
4 Force
4 Counterspell
4 Counterbalance
4 Mana Leak
3 Forbid

Utility Creatures:
4 Weathered Wayferor
4 Trinket Mage
4 Vendillion Clique

Utility: 14
4 Life From The Loam
4 Cunning Wish
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Crucible of worlds
4 Eternal Witness

Win:
4 Battle of Wits
4 Elspeth Knight Errant
1 Mind Slaver
4 Decree of Justice
4 Academy Rector

-Want to find space for the following combos/ synergys

E Tutor
Mana Severance/ Charbelcher
Painter/ Grindstone
Sceptor/chant?
Tezzeret?
Replenish?
Salvagers combo?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bruno_tiete

4 Pentad Prism

It fixes mana and accelarates whatever business you have to play.


Jak, I believe several cards, mainly on color duals and fetchs are given. Could we just consider 16 fetchs and 12 duals are in?

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Yeah, I can get with that.

4 Windswept Heath
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Tropical Island
4 Savannah

I'll go ahead and add 4 Vedalken Shackles since the deck will most likely be heavy blue and this will help against aggro.

Decklist (so far 120 cards)
UWg Battle of Wits

Lands
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Savannah
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Academy Ruins
1 Dust Bowl

Acceleration / Mana Fixing
4 Pentad Prism

Draw
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Fact or Fiction

Tutors
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Intuition
4 Gifts Ungiven

Counters
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Forbid

Removal / Creature Control
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Humility
4 Moat
4 Wrath of God
4 Engineered Explosives

Recursion
4 Life from the Loam
4 Crucible of Worlds
3 Replenish
1 Regrowth

Creatures
4 Academy Rector

Win
4 Battle of the Wits

4 Elspeth, Knight Errant

She's too good to not include. I love things that are both win and creature control.

Don't forget the cycling lands. Unless you need the removal or counterspell right now, your Gifts pile should almost always be Life from the Loam and three cycling lands.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AngryTroll

Don't forget the cycling lands. Unless you need the removal or counterspell right now, your Gifts pile should almost always be Life from the Loam and three cycling lands.

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How many? 1 of each enough?

I'll go ahead and add 4 Spell Snare since it rocks Legacy

Decklist (so far)
UWg Battle of Wits

Lands
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Savannah
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Academy Ruins
1 Dust Bowl
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Secluded Steppe

Acceleration / Mana Fixing
4 Pentad Prism

Draw
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Fact or Fiction

Tutors
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Intuition
4 Gifts Ungiven

Counters
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Forbid
4 Spell Snare

Removal / Creature Control
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Humility
4 Moat
4 Wrath of God
4 Engineered Explosives

Recursion
4 Life from the Loam
4 Crucible of Worlds
3 Replenish
1 Regrowth

Planeswalkers
4 Elspeth

Creatures
4 Academy Rector

Win
4 Battle of the Wits

Why not add Jace to the draw section? I think its a really good draw engine for a control deck.

4 Trinket Mage to find Sensei's Divining Top and...

1 Tormod's Crypt in the main
1 Relic of Progenitus in the main
Both of these are tutorable by Trinket Mage and Enlightened Tutor and keep you from scooping to Ichorid/Loam decks

land thinning: scouting trek + traumatize

Isocron Scepter

More of what's working is probably going to help.

Also, with that many fetches, low-commitment splashes are very manageable, and if you agree - Vindicate, and Deed.

Also, a guy to follow you around and shuffle that mother for you.

PS -

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malchar

land thinning: scouting trek + traumatize

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No Traumatize, we have Jace. Also, if ~this~, then Worm Harvest.

Nah, not one of each cycling land. You're a blue based control deck, right? You don't want a green one, because you'll already be casting LftL. White looks like your most dominant splash color, so either three Lonely Sandbar, or Two Sandbar, one Secluded Steppe.

Also, 4 Decree of Justice.

Eternal Dragon seems good.

4 Swords to Plowshares because cheap removal is good.

I'll go ahead and also go for 4 Path to Exile and 4 Condemn.

Edit-

If we go by most control decks (ie Landstill), the numbers for a random list are...

Draw (10) = 17% (so around 41 card drawers for us)
Counters (10) = 17% (again, around 41)
Lands (24) = 40% (so 100 for us)
Removal (14) = 23% (so about 58 for us)
Win (3, not including manlands) = 5% (so between 12 and 13 for us)

Now, the deck doesn't need to follow exactly like this, but it is a good structure.

What about 4x mystical tutor? Goes and gets any of our other tutors/replenish/removal and so on.

Mana severance might be an interesting play with goblin charbelcher as an alternate win condition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rockout

What about 4x mystical tutor? Goes and gets any of our other tutors/replenish/removal and so on.

Mana severance might be an interesting play with goblin charbelcher as an alternate win condition.

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Already in.

I think trying to run a two card combo is weak when you might as well get Battle. I'd rather see the slots go to something like removal or counters, etc.

I think it was mentioned, but it doesn't seem to have made it into the deck: Sterling Grove. Protect BoW or search for it.

Feldon's Cane or Gaea's Blessing might be an idea, so you can still win if someone mills you down to >200

I really feel like Knight of the Reliquary should be in there as a 4 of. He's a great beater/win condition, and with the amount of space we have he can probably go get a lot of very useful lands, as well as accelerating our mana.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AngryTroll

Nah, not one of each cycling land. You're a blue based control deck, right? You don't want a green one, because you'll already be casting LftL. White looks like your most dominant splash color, so either three Lonely Sandbar, or Two Sandbar, one Secluded Steppe.

Also, 4 Decree of Justice.

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Considering the fact that you said every gifts pile should be 3 cycling lands + loam, your logic looks pretty terrible (here is the hint: you can't gifts for 3 sandbars + 1 loam).

It would probably be smart to run 2 of each cycling land, giving you a chance to restart your loam engine if your GY ever gets nailed for some reason.

Another suggestion would be to run a single copy of each of the COPs (or more realistically, COPs green red and black.) Or if you prefer, you could try the Runes of Protection since they cycle, but they also require white mana for each activation, so that doesn't seem great.

Krosan Verge is worth considering if you want more mana consistancy, at the price of speed.

A single copy of Mirari's Wake seems like a useful tutor target for occasions where you want lots of mana (Mindslaver lock, or Loam/Cycling recursion) and as a way to make your Decree's truly game winning.

It's also worth considering Drift of Phantasms, Dizzy Spell, and Muddle the Mixture. Drift finds Idyllic Tutor -> Battle, as well as being a blocker/tutor for other cards. Dizzy finds removal or E. Tutor -> Battle. Muddle finds good ol' Counterspell, Regrowth, and any other 2-drops that get added in the future.

Also, it's strange I haven't seen anyone suggest Bant Charm yet. It's creature removal, artifact removal, and functions as a situational counter. It seems anything that can serve multiple purposes warrants a look.

How about Muddle the Mixture? It's a counter that searches for Sterling Grove, Lftl, removal and what not.

1 Exile into Darkness, an amazing recuring thing of removal.