Battle of Wits :D

[Toad]

I've been working on a nice Battle of Wits decklist for a fun tourney in a few weeks. My current build has 247 cards with a lot of tutors and cheap draw/cantrips. The mana base looks really janky but is surprisingly pretty strong unless facing heavy LD decks like Suicide Black. I can often goldfish by turn 5 or 6.

// MANA BASE 88
4   Underground Sea
4   Tundra
4   Tropical Island
4   Volcanic Island
4   City of Brass
4   Grand Coliseum
4   Flooded Strand
4   Polluted Delta
2   Windswept Heath
2       Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4   Underground River
3   Darkwater Catacombs
3   Adakar Wastes
4   Mirrodin's Core
4   Krosan Verge -- not sure about this.
2   Skycloud Expense
2   Savannah
2   Scrubland
2   Bayou
17   Island
1   Mox Pearl
1   Mox Emerald
1    Mox Sapphire
1   Mox Jet
1   Mox Ruby
1   Sol Ring
1    Black Lotus
1   Shivan Reef
4   Yavimaya Coast
4   Talisman of Progress
4   Talisman of Dominance

// DISRUPTION 16
4   Blackmail
4   Duress
4   Cabal Therapy
4   Xantid Swarm

// COUNTERMAGIC 20
4   Force of Will
4   Counterspell
4   Mana Leak
4   Mana Drain
4   Circular Logic

// CANTRIPS 20
4   Brainstorm
4   Opt
4   Sleight of Hand
4   Peek
4   Impulse

// DRAW ENGINE 28
4   Compulsion
1   Ancestral Recall
1   Fact of Fiction
4   Deep Analysis
4   Accumulated Knowledge
1   Time Walk
1   Yawgmoth's Will
4   Merfolk Looter
4   Thirst for Knowledge
4   Concentrate -- probably too expensive.

// TUTORS 24
4   Academy Rector
4   Oath of Druids -- to Oath up the Rector.
1   Mystical Tutor
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Demonic Tutor
3   Sterling Grove
3   Intuition
3   Quiet Speculation -- grabs Call of the Herd, Deep Analysis and Cabal Therapy.
4   Cunning Wish

// REMOVAL 21
4   Recoil
4   Swords to Plowshares
4   Pernicious Deed
4   Vindicate
4   Fire / Ice
1   Balance

// MANA FIXERS 8
4   Chromatic Sphere
4   Darkwater Egg

// WIN CONDITION 4
4   Battle of Wits

// RANDOMNESS 6
4   Call of the Herd
2   Gaea's Blessing

There still are some slots I'm unsure of. Namely, Call of the Herd (included for the nice synergy with Intuition and Quiet Speculation) and Concentrate (2UU seems prohibitive). And there are probably a lot of good cards that can go there I'm unaware of. I'm considering a single Chainer's Edict, to fetch with Quiet Speculation.

My current "sideboard" is

4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Diabolic Edict
3 Disenchant
3 Coffin Purge
1 Enlightened Tutor

Feel free to post your own Battle of Wits deck decklist, I'll appreciate that too as long as you post some thoughts about your choices.

Now I'm back to my shuffle training

[Fëanor]

Battle of Wits is indeed fun times. Here are some comments of my own, take them as you may.

Last Word allows BoW and/or Tutors to go through without pesky countermagic from the other side getting in the way.

You've got a lot of draw, but what about Bazzar? it might disrupt the manabase, but think of the draw youd be getting. Also I'd consider putting in the obvious Timetwister, since less than 200 makes you weep. And Lim Dul's Vault

How about Powder Keg for some removal?

Doomsday WOULD kick...sad day...I dont think you can stifle it...

You know it would be cool to see if it's possible to make a BoW.dec with fluctuator yeeeeeeeees. fluctuator and Feldon's Cane, teehee.

Just wanted to add that while your discard does the trick, unless the reason for not running double colored is a mana issue, why not persecute?

Peace

[Toad]

Powder Keg is a nice removal but I'm already packing 4 Swords to Plowshares and 4 Vindicate, which is IMHO enough.

And yes, I'm not running Persecute because of the BB in the casting cost, which is really prohibitive.
 
I'm considering cutting some janky stuff for 4 Bazaar of Bagdhad, 4 Squee, Gobin Nabob and 4 Replenish.

[Kerz]

What about 4 Death Wish and 1 BoW on sideboard? Effectively turn 1 Battle into 4, but who knows. I'm not a battle of wits expert  

[Jacob Orlove]

Tainted Pact is a super impulse in here. Seriously, it's amazing. And you can go like 20 cards without even risking the 200 limit.

[rvs]

Toad: PM BWM. We made a very playable list for him a few months ago. All it needs is a Mirrodin update IIRC.

[thorme]

Last Word allows BoW and/or Tutors to go through without pesky countermagic from the other side getting in the way.

Last Word works no better than any other counterspell in this regard, and is quite a bit more expensive to cast  (5 for BoW w/ 4 remaining for LW).

Last Word cannot be countered, but they can target the BoW itself with their second counterspell.

[Alfred]

Oath of Druids sounds risky when you only have two gaea's blessings. Maybe up the count a little?

[Triple_S]

I have a decklist that I've been messing around with on MWS that can usually go off around turn 4 or 5.  It can have some trouble with Stax/WMud but seems pretty decent against most everything else...send me a message on AIM and I can send you the file.

[BaskingRootWallaIsAwesome]

I've played battle before in extended however and if you dont like krosan verge, i personally like terminal morraine

[LotusHead]

My Battle of Wits deck uses Long Terms Plans to speed things along (Puts a card 3rd from top), and it's an instant. Merchant Scroll is used to get Long Term Plans.

Teferi's Puzzle Box is just for fun.

(My deck is mono-Blue)