Fighting the Good Battle (of Wits)

By Ben Bleiweiss

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Building on a Budget! In this week's article, we've got a lot going on—the results of the "What is Budget?" poll and forum discussion, the evolution of one of my personal favorite decks, and the first round of playtesting for the Extended budget-competitive Intruder Alert deck! Let's dive right in, shall we?

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you, the reader, two questions in the form of a poll. The first question:

How should Budget be determined for this column?
By a strict ticket count.	3855	82.0%
By a strict limit on number of rares (under a certain ticket amount) and uncommons per deck.	844	18.0%
Total	4699	100.0%

The results of this poll are pretty conclusive and definite—BoaB should continue to be defined by a strict ticket limit from Magic Online. This leads to the second question: what should that ticket limit be?

What is the maximum cost, in tickets, of a budget deck?
30 Tickets	2432	55.2%
25 Tickets	466	10.6%
20 Tickets	845	19.2%
15 Tickets	290	6.6%
10 Tickets	188	4.3%
Less than 10 Tickets	185	4.2%
Total	4406	100.0%

While a majority voted that they were happy with a 30 ticket limit, quite a few people (approximately 45%) wanted a lower ticket limit. Many expressed their thoughts in the forums as follows: even if 30 tickets is fine as a limit, I shouldn't strive to hit 30 tickets each week if I don't need to—just fill out decks with the right cards, and if cheaper and viable alternatives are available, go with them. Fair enough! Look for me to start shifting in this direction for future columns - 30 tickets as a limit, but less consciously trying to hit that 30 ticket limit unless absolutely necessary as called for by that deck.

One of my favorite decks to evolve in the Building on a Budget column is the Battle of Wits decks. With the release of each new set, I would change up the deck with the newest cards, until the unthinkable happened: Battle of Wits was rotated out of the base set with Tenth Edition, and Battle of Wits was Standard legal... no more!

A good number of people wrote over the past few months to ask me when I was going to evolve Battle of Wits in Extended. The time is now—I love being able to instantly win the game with a pile of huge cards, and playing Battle of Wits online is ideal, since you don't have to deal with shuffling a ridiculously large stack of cardboard.

For those who are witnessing the total awesome power of Battle of Wits for the first time, note—this is Battle of Wits, budget style! You have to be especially budget-conscious when making a deck that has over 200 cards, since costs of even the commons can add up. Here's a brief rundown of the official (tm) Building on a Budget Battle of Wits Building rules!

1) The deck shalt be between 240-250 cards. This alloweth yon Bleiweiss to draw cards with spells, yet not put himself below 200 cards for his win condition, Battle of Wits.
2) No rares will be allowed in the deck other than Battle of Wits. No more than 40 uncommons at one time, and their expense shall be kept down.
3) Battle of Wits is legal in Extended now, so Extended shall be the format. Cards from Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Edition will be allowed, in addition to Coldsnap, Invasion block, Odyssey block, Onslaught block, Mirrodin block, Kamigawa block, Ravnica block, Time Spiral block, and Lorwyn (whew—that's a lot of sets!)

I had moved the Battle of Wits deck to a three-color build as of Planar Chaos, but I decided to revert it back to a two-color build (black and blue) since Extended has a much larger card pool. Here's a list from the last time I played Battle of Wits as a two-color deck.

Time Spiral BoW 2.0

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (32)

4 Dimir House Guard 4 Dimir Infiltrator 4 Drift of Phantasms 1 Gravedigger 4 Nekrataal 3 Thieving Magpie 4 Thought Courier 4 Looter il-Kor 4 Sage of Epityr

Sorcery (30)

4 Brainspoil 4 Compulsive Research 4 Consult the Necrosages 4 Counsel of the Soratami 4 Diabolic Tutor 1 Nightmare Void 1 Ribbons of Night 4 Sift 4 Sleight of Hand

Instant (49)

2 Boomerang 4 Clutch of the Undercity 1 Cremate 1 Darkblast 3 Dark Banishing 1 Execute 4 Last Gasp 1 Mnemonic Nexus 4 Muddle the Mixture 3 Repeal 1 Slay 4 Telling Time 1 Cancel 1 Grim Harvest 4 Mystical Teachings 4 Perilous Research 1 Strangling Soot 4 Sudden Death 4 Think Twice 1 Wipe Away

Artifact (31)

4 Dimir Signet 3 Golgari Signet 4 Izzet Signet 4 Azorius Signet 4 Chromatic Star 4 Prismatic Lens 4 Rakdos Signet 4 Simic Signet

Enchantment (5)

4 Battle of Wits 1 Treasure Trove

Land (96)

4 Dimir Aqueduct 42 Island 42 Swamp 4 Frost Marsh 4 Terramorphic Expanse

243 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Since we have a much larger card pool than was available in Standard at the last update, I figured I'd need to go through the list of all the cards available in blue, black, artifact, and land for this deck. I pulled up a spoiler generator, and first went through commons, then uncommons, and then cross-referenced ticket prices to see which cards were affordable for the deck.

Just as a reminder—the main strategy of this deck is to drop a Battle of Wits, and as quickly as possible. The deck achieves this by having a ton of card-drawing and card-filtering spells, along with multiple tutoring devices (Diabolic Tutor and transmute cards from Ravnica). Because the deck is between 240 and 250 cards at any given time, there are many silver bullets in the deck—cards that are a one or two-of that are good against one specific strategy and can be tutored for, but that you might not draw in any given game due to the size of the deck.

Here's a list of the cards considered for the deck!

Blue commons: Catalog, Condescend, Dizzy Spell, Echoing Truth, Foresee, Ideas Unbound, Jilt, Merfolk Looter, Mulldrifter, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Peek, Pestermite, Ponder, Probe, Rushing River, Sage Owl, Scrivener, Serum Visions, Stormscape Familiar, Trinket Mage, Words of Wisdom

Black commons: Coercion, Coffin Purge, Death Denied, Distress, Echoing Decay, Eyeblight's Ending, Footbottom Feast, Ghastly Demise, Nameless Inversion, Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Rancid Earth, Rend Flesh, Stinkweed Imp, Terror, Twisted Abomination

Artifact commons: Aether Spellbomb, Chromatic Sphere, Darksteel Ingot, Wanderer's Twig, Wayfarer's Bauble

Land commons: Barren Moor, Bog Wreckage, Lonely Sandbar, Seafloor Debris

Medium-expensive commons: Ancient Spring, Deep Analysis, Duress, Exclude, Nightscape Familiar, Opt, Repulse, Sulfur Vent

Too-expensive commons: Careful Study, Counterspell, Recoil

Black uncommons: Barter in Blood, Deathmark, Eradicate, Ghost-Lit Stalker, Hideous Laughter, Infest, Mind Sludge, Nezumi Graverobber, Skeletal Scrying, Throat Slitter, Withered Wretch, Yixlid Jailer

Blue uncommons: Annex, Arcane Laboratory, Careful Consideration, Carry Away, Compulsion, Concentrate, Flash of Insight, Merchant Scroll, Mystic Speculation, Persuasion, Riftwing Cloudskate, Spell Burst, Tidings

Aritfact uncommons: Icy Manipulator, Scrabbling Claws, Talisman of Dominance

Land uncommons: Dreadship Reef, Salt Marsh, Vivid Creek, Vivid Marsh, Waterveil Cavern

Useful-but-expensive uncommons: Shriekmaw, Wash Out

In order to fix up the deck, it was time to take cards out and put cards in. The first swap I made was removing Counsel of the Soratami for Mulldrifter—Mulldrifter is almost always the superior card choice, as it can be played as a creature or more like a sorcery.

Frost Marsh has gone up a lot in price due to a snow-based deck in Standard, so it was no longer a viable budget option. However, the cycling lands from Onslaught are perfect for this deck—when I don't need them they are a new card, and when I do need them, they are a land. I put in 4 Lonely Sandbar and 4 Barron Moor in place of the 4 Frost Marsh, 2 Island, and 2 Swamp.

Instead of having both Execute and Slay, I took them both out and added in Deathmark.

There weren't any good mass-removal spells available in standard last I used it, but Infest and Hideous Laughter are now both available. I added one of each in (to be able to transmute for either/or depending on the transmute card in hand). I also added Terror, Rend Flesh and Eradicate, and took out Dark Banishings.

The deck wasn't great on graveyard hate, but Extended allowed me to add Nezumi Graverobber, Withered Wretch, and Coffin Purge, and take out Cremate.

Extended has a lot more silver bullets than Standard (due to a large card pool) and I already had a large card-drawing pool. Treasure Trove, Sift, Consult the Necrosages, Perilous Research, and Telling Time all got the axe, and were replaced with more situationally useful cards. These cards include:

Echoing Truth / Echoing Decay: To deal with lots of token creatures, such as from an Empty the Warrens or from an Intruder Alarm deck.

Probe: Discard and card drawing.

Death Denied: Originally in the early builds of the deck as a good one-of to return most of your creatures in one shot.

Rancid Earth: The deck is lacking in land destruction. Now it has a spell to kill a troublesome land.

Wash Out: As a one-of, since it is slightly more expensive. In the right situation, capable of taking out the opponent's entire board.

Shriekmaw: Also as a one-of, and a strict one-for-one swap with a Nekrataal. This gives a five-drop tutor target to go along with multiple two, three and four drops.

Mind Sludge: Just for the off-chance I can take out my opponent's entire hand.

Nightscape Familiar: With so many blue spells in this deck, Nightscape Familiar will likely shave several mana off costs over the course of the game. Also, it's an early defense against ground creatures, if need be.

Common out: 1 Boomerang, 4 Consult the Necrosages, 4 Counsel of the Soratami, 3 Dark Banishing, 4 Sift, 2 Swamp, 2 Island

Uncommon out: 1 Cremate, 1 Execute, 4 Frost Marsh, 1 Nekrataal, 4 Perilous Research, 1 Slay, 4 Telling Time, 1 Treasure Trove

Common in: 4 Mulldrifter, 4 Dizzy Spell, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Echoing Decay, 4 Nightscape Familiar, 4 Barren Moor, 4 Lonely Sandbar, 1 Terror, 1 Probe, 1 Rend Flesh, 1 Scrivener, 1 Death Denied, 1 Rancid Earth, 1 Coffin Purge

Uncommon in: 1 Shriekmaw, 1 Wash Out, 1 Eradicate, 1 Deathmark, 1 Infest, 1 Hideous Laughter, 1 Mind Sludge, 1 Nezumi Graverobber, 1 Withered Wretch

Battle of Wits

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (43)

4 Dimir House Guard 4 Dimir Infiltrator 4 Drift of Phantasms 1 Gravedigger 4 Looter il-Kor 3 Nekrataal 1 Nezumi Graverobber 4 Nightscape Familiar 1 Scrivener 3 Thieving Magpie 4 Thought Courier 1 Withered Wretch 4 Mulldrifter 4 Sage of Epityr 1 Shriekmaw

Sorcery (25)

4 Brainspoil 4 Compulsive Research 4 Diabolic Tutor 1 Eradicate 1 Infest 1 Mind Sludge 1 Nightmare Void 1 Probe 1 Rancid Earth 1 Ribbons of Night 4 Sleight of Hand 1 Wash Out 1 Deathmark

Instant (46)

1 Boomerang 4 Clutch of the Undercity 1 Coffin Purge 1 Cremate 1 Darkblast 1 Death Denied 4 Dizzy Spell 1 Echoing Decay 1 Echoing Truth 1 Hideous Laughter 4 Last Gasp 1 Mnemonic Nexus 4 Muddle the Mixture 1 Rend Flesh 3 Repeal 1 Terror 1 Cancel 1 Grim Harvest 4 Mystical Teachings 1 Strangling Soot 4 Sudden Death 4 Think Twice 1 Wipe Away