Battle of the Wits, an in depth look at the biggest deck in Magic

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CoolStuffInc

10 July 2012

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By: Harrison Greenberg

While it seems as if jokes have always been made about alernate win conditions in Magic being competitive, it is in my nature to try to exploit these hilarities and make people feel good that they just lost to such an amazing idea. While this is my first article for Tappedout.net I would like to introduce myself to all of you. My name is Harrison Greenberg and I am the manager of our great store front of Coolstuffinc.com I have a vast competetive Magic history including 2 pro tours, multiple grand prix's as well as being a Star City grinder/writer for a few months last year. I am known for brewing decks and having them flouish into the main stream including my G/W vengevine deck called Jumanji last year as well as one of the first people to introduce the card Birthing Pod into the mainstream. Looking at the M13 spoilers I was looking forward to seeing Noble Hierarch come back and was waiting and watching the annoucements to see when they posted that he would be coming back. Much to my dismay, he was not ever spoiled and all of my hopes were done. Then on the night of June 30th I found my hidden gem. Battle of Wits was coming back and my brewing had begun. 4 hours of looking at every single card in the standard format, I had whittled down the deck, found the exact number that i wanted to play and also found the correct ratios of spells I wanted. The deck is broken down into 10 categories and are each very important to the strategy at hand. Here is how a deck with 251 cards can so viably find its 4 Battle of Wits and beat down opponents.

Battle of Wits: 20 cards 8%

In this category we have the meat and potatoes of the deck, Battle of Wits and the tutor spells to find them. The cards in this category are:

4 Battle of Wits
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Increasing Ambition
4 Rune-Scarred Demon
4 Diabolic Revelation

Draw spells: 24 cards 9.5%

These cards help to thin out the deck a bit and try to find the tutors or other cards that are needed to help survive the game. there are a few other cards that I considered playing in these slots but this is the cards that made the cut:

4 Amass the Components
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Divination
4 Think Twice
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

Mass Removal: 28 cards 11%

This is the category of card that keeps the deck alive and pumping to buy the proper amount of time to maintain control of the game and be able to resolve and keep a Battle of Wits in play. Some of these are generic mass removal and others are a bit more situational but will nearly always give at a minimum a 2 for 1:

4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Curse of Death's Hold
4 Barter in Blood
4 Day of Judgment
4 Terminus
4 Black Sun's Zenith
4 Life's Finale

Spot Removal: 24 cards 9.5%

Here we have some stall cards that are quite situational but can deal with early threats as well as problem cards such as planeswalkers or artifacts/enchantments:

4 Doom Blade
4 Go for the Throat
4 Dismember
4 Banishing Stroke
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Sever the Bloodline

Mana Ramp/fixing: 20 cards 8%

Mana fixing as well as ramping is quite an important part of a control/combo deck to ensure that it runs smoothly. These are the best cards that I could find in the format without running green and possibly messing up the mana base more than helping it:

4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Pristine Talisman
4 Manalith
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
4 Sphere of the Suns

Creatures: 12 cards 5%

The creatures in this deck aren't real creatures but serve the purpose of ensuring that you have the best creature on the board, or at least to ensure that they dont. I do have other creatures in the deck, but those all serve other purposes and do not count as "creatures."

4 Consecrated Sphinx
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

Discard Spells: 8 cards 3%

The generic good discard spells are in this deck more for the information factor to help you to play your deck properly against your opponents game plan, but also can get you out of some sticky situations:

4 Duress
4 Despise

Counter Spells: 8 cards 3%

Having only 8 counters in the deck at first seemed like I would not have one consistantly enough to alway have one, but as testing ensued, I found that they were good to have in my deck to tutor up to make sure that I could have a clear path to victory once I gain control of the game:

4 Negate
4 Dissipate

Lands: 82 cards 32.5%

The only note worthy thing that I will say about this section is my exclusion of the Scars lands. I feel like I cannot consistantly draw them before turn 3 and I'm not sure that they are good enough to put in the deck if im expecting them to come into play tapped:

4 Shimmering Grotto
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Ghost Quarter
13 Plains
20 Island
25 Swamp

Other Spells: 25 cards 10%

In this section I will talk about each card specificly, explain why the choice was made to include the card and also what role the card plays in the deck:

4 Druidic Satchel:

The satchel can help out in mulitple ways including ramping, gaining life as well as putting a chump blocker out every once in a while. This is a cute card that doesn't hurt or help the deck but it can be very useful in many situations

4 Timely Reinforcements:

The best white control card ever printed couldn't be left out of this deck and there is no question that it will be useful in most every situation of every game that you will draw it.

4 Lingering Souls:

Another one of the best spells that can be cast right now in standard could not be left out and putting out chump blockers to gum up the works of an aggro deck could be just what the deck needs to get maximum value for a board sweeping effect.

4 Gideon Jura
4 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Adding planeswalkers to nearly any deck that can support them is a good idea and both of these could not be left out of this deck. Both planeswalkers help to stall out any creature decks and buy you time to get control of the game and to let you cast the more important spells in the deck. If your ever activating the ulitmate on either of these planeswalkers, the game is in your hands and it will give you an easy way to win the game.

1 Elixir of Immortality:

As the only 1 of in the deck this Elixer is in the deck to help you out if your opponent has gotten you down to below 200 cards, the 5 life could also randomly help in a situation or 2.

4 Snapcaster Mage:

Last but not least we have my personal favorite card ever printed in magic. Snapcaster Mage does any and everything you would want it to in this deck but giving you a second chance to cast your favorite spell of the game a second time. Weather it be some extra card drawing or some board sweepers or maybe even the all-mighty flashing back a Go for the Throat and block out of nowhere, Snapcaster is a card that you will always want to see.

With the most cards that you have every played with in a single deck all working towards 1 common goal, this Battle of Wits deck is sure to give you a good time and maybe even some match wins. The only thing that we all know for a fact, is that you better be a very good shuffler.

Editor's note
You will likely be able to see this deck in action by another player in the Tappedout/CoolStuffInc. 2K later this month.

Deck Link: Battle of the Wits