Odyssey Block Constructed: Battle of Wits Toby Wachter Wednesday, January 30, 2002 Some people have their pet cards, and are identified with them. Everyone associates Brian Kibler with Rith, the Awakener and Armadillo Cloak. Zvi Mowshowitz is known for combo engines, whether they are based off Dream Halls, Horn of Greed, or Yawgmoth's Bargain. Jon Finkel's card used to be Ophidian, before he won the Invitational and got to make his own new and improved version. As for me? Well, I guess I'm stuck with Battle of Wits. To be honest, that makes me pretty happy. As I've mentioned before in previous articles, Battle of Wits decks are incredibly fun to play, because you'll never really draw the same hand twice. Instead of always having the right answer for specific situations, you'll often need to finesse your way out with what you have. Not only is playing a 200+ card deck a lot of fun, but it provides a great show for spectators as well. Whether it was myself at the Grudge Match, or Matt Linde, William "Baby Huey" Jensen or Brock Parker in the Masters, crowds will always gather around to see a Battle of Wits deck in action. Why are people drawn to watching the deck? It's a breath of fresh air to see a huge deck in a competitive Magic tournament, especially after eight years of decks that have always stayed near the sixty card mark. Another interesting thing about the archetype is that it's viable in multiple formats. Over the past month or so, I've received a lot of email from people who want to know how to build an Extended Battle of Wits deck. The answer that I've given is that coming up with the optimal build of the deck in this format is very difficult. Because your mana base is a lot more stable thanks to dual lands and fetch lands, you have a lot more options. With those options comes plenty of room for error. Extended is a format that has a ton of broken mechanics to abuse, and in a 200+ card deck, you can fit all of them in. Because you're running four copies of every possible Tutor, you can get those engines and combos going without much of a problem. It's finding the right ones to use, along with the proper "silver bullets" that can be hard to figure out. For example, you're definitely going to run four copies of Intuition since it's a Tutor, and while you're at it, you might as well put in four Accumulated Knowledge. Now that you have that, it probably makes sense to put Holistic Wisdom in the deck as well. You also might want to put Oath of Druids in your deck, to Oath up Academy Rector or a Morphling. I know that some Extended versions of the deck even contain the Shield Sphere/Enduring Renewal/Goblin Bombardment "Pebbles" combo, as well as Donate and Illusions of Grandeur. Because you have so much Tutoring power (Diabolic, Mystical, Enlightened, Vampiric Tutors, Academy Rector, Intuition, Wild Research, maybe even Eldamri's Call), every card in your deck matters. It's hard enough to tune a sixty card deck to the point that every single card is right, so I can't imagine what it takes to make sure every card in a 200+ card deck is right. It's hard enough to tune a sixty card deck to the point that every single card is right, so I can't imagine what it takes to make sure every card in a 200+ card deck is right. On the other hand, putting together the Standard version of the deck is quite easy. You simply throw in four copies of the best cards in the format, which brings down the inconsistency factor a bit. Your draws will always be different, but if all your cards are good on their own then it doesn't really matter. The cards don't really combo together, and if you do Tutor for something, it's almost always going to be Battle of Wits. Therefore, it's easy to see why a Standard version of the deck is built and played a lot differently than an Extended one. But what about Odyssey Block Constructed? With Pro Tour-Osaka on the horizon, and Torment ready to hit the shelves, players will be trying to figure out what this clean slate metagame will look like, and will try to build their decks accordingly. Red-green seems like a good choice with its speed and card efficiency, thanks to Wild Mongrel, Call of the Herd, Beast Attack and Fiery Temper. It's also fairly easy to put together a Block version of the Standard Psychatog deck that tore up the San Diego Masters. When I got my first glimpse of Torment, I realized that Battle of Wits could work rather well in the format as well. Now, there is one major problem with putting together a Battle of Wits deck in a format like Block Constructed, which is that it's very hard to go with the "good stuff" concept that works in Standard. Simply put, your card pool at this point is only two sets deep, so it's rather difficult to make all your cards pure utility. This is especially true for Odyssey Block, which doesn't have the same amount of utility spells that Invasion Block did. So, once you realize that all your cards won't be able to be good by themselves, you need to rethink your strategy. Luckily, Odyssey Block provides plenty of little mechanics that can go into your deck, just like the Extended version. The best part of it is that the deck's size lends itself perfectly to abusing some of these mechanics. Here's a list to ponder: New Battle on the Block Main Deck Sideboard 50 Swamp 36 Island 4 Cephalid Coliseum 4 Tainted Isle 4 Darkwater Catacombs 4 Mindslicer 4 Shadowmage Infiltrator 4 Psychatog 4 Mortivore 4 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor 4 Millikin 4 Cephalid Looter 4 Cephalid Broker 4 Thought Devourer 4 Cephalid Vandal 4 Chainer, Dementia Master 4 Sengir Vampire 4 Nantuko Shade 4 Laquatus's Champion 4 Ichorid 4 Faceless Butcher 4 Chainer's Edict 4 Obsessive Search 4 Liquefy 4 Mutilate 4 Insidious Dreams 4 Deep Analysis 4 Circular Logic 4 Upheaval 4 Concentrate 4 Battle of Wits 4 Zombify 4 Skeletal Scrying 4 Traumatize 4 Syncopate 4 Standstill 4 Predict 4 Persuasion 4 Peek 4 Morgue Theft 4 Diabolic Tutor 4 Buried Alive As you can tell, the deck has a recursion theme, with lots of ways to fill the graveyard with cards. Zombify, Morgue Theft and Chainer, Dementia Master can bring back creatures from the dead, while Cephalid Looters, Vandals and Brokers, Millikin, Psychatog, Insidious Dreams, Buried Alive and Mindslicer can get your bigger creatures in the graveyard. While the reanimator aspect of the deck is good, the real power of the deck comes from its ability to fill the graveyard with a ton of cards, and not get decked because of its size. This becomes apparent when you look at the deck's second "I win" card, which is Traumatize. Believe it or not, when you play this deck, you'll want to cast Traumatize on yourself. It's a bit hard to understand why a Battle of Wits deck would make a play that nullifies the Battle win condition, but a closer look will show you why. By putting 100+ cards into your graveyard, you make your Psychatogs and Mortivores obscenely big. If you don't have one, you can flashback a Morgue Theft. Better yet, if you're not under any pressure, you can Morgue Theft back Chainer, and really get the nightmare started. Along with the wreckage that will be your huge graveyard, you'll find a lot of card advantage. Ichorids will be ready to go, and you'll have plenty of fuel to keep them coming. Multiple copies of Deep Analysis should be in there as well, allowing you to gain massive, efficient card advantage by simply paying two life and paying three life to draw two cards. This is a great deal, considering you're not playing it from your hand. With the help of a few huge monsters, winning after casting Traumatize should only take a few turns. This is not to say that the Battle of Wits option should be ignored, but the secondary Traumatize strategy can turn the deck into the Psychatog blitz. You've still got Diabolic Tutor and now Insidious Dreams for "Oops, I win", but enough backup to make sure you're still in the game if you don't have a Battle. However, when you're not winning through Battle of Wits or Traumatize, this deck is definitely not the easiest thing to play. The limited testing I've done showed me just how many options are presented on every turn. Do I use my Broker now and hope to draw into something to further develop my board position right away, or hold off for a turn so I can gain card advantage off of Circular Logic? Should I Morgue Theft back Chainer, or go right for Psychatog after a Traumatize? Or perhaps I should go for Mortivore instead? Is it best to summon Mindslicer right away and go for beats, or should I spend the next few turns developing board position to ensure that if it dies, I end up at an advantage over my opponent? There are plenty of problems presented by the deck that are even more complex than this. As I said before, this isn't as simple as throwing together a bunch of cards that are good by themselves. Instead, you need to work towards abusing the synergy of the cards to maximize their impact on the game. For quick reference, here are some notes on the cards that may seem questionable, or deserve an explanation: Insidious Dreams - Yeah, this is really, really bad as far as card advantage goes. Tutoring for even one card means losing two, since it doesn't go into your hand. Bad deal, right? Absolutely. But you know what? It's a great deal when the card you get says "Win the game". Buried Alive - I wasn't too happy with this card at first, and I'm still not, but it always ends up being great when I play it. The major problem is that it doesn't do anything by itself, which means it has dead weight potential. The Ichorids fix this somewhat by giving you something to do with Buried Alive even if you don't have a recursion spell handy. If you do, then you can get the best man for the job. It's definitely vicious to bury three Laquatus's Champions, and have Chainer bring them back one by one. Faceless Butcher - In an environment that's sure to have a ton of token creatures, this guy will be key. Against normal creatures he's fine, but against elephants and beasts he's as good as a Nekrataal. Oh, you can also pull off a bunch of cool tricks with this guy too. For example, play Psychatog, and Butcher him away. Now play Upheaval - everything comes back, and Psychatog ends up in play all alone. Cephalid Vandal - This mill machine is probably too risky for most decks, but in here he fits just fine. Just think of him as a slow Traumatize. You'll be happy to see that as every turn passes and he puts more and more cards into your graveyard, the more options you'll have. Standstill - Just to repeat what I said about this card in the Standard Battle of Wits deck - they have to win. You don't. Because your deck is much bigger than your opponent's, if you both sit there all day, he or she will get decked before you do. They will have to cast the first spell, which gives you plenty of setup time. Normally, Standstill is a card you will only play when the board position is in your favor, since it forces your opponent to cast more spells or lose. However, when the board is neutral, Standstill is a bit more risky. In this deck and other Battle of Wits decks, Standstill is a fine play when the board is neutral, since you have the advantage of not being forced to do anything, while they have to cast a spell or lose. Seeing as how this environment is totally new, there are a lot of cards and mechanics that could fit quite well into this deck. Here are a few examples: Need an extra card that says 'win the game'? Mortal Combat/Auramancer - After a Traumatize, Morgue Theft back an Auramancer and play it to get Mortal Combat. Game over. The problem with this strategy is that casting Traumatize should mean victory anyway. Also, Mortal Combat is a dead weight card without Traumatize, or Cephalids and a lot of time. The temptation to have an auto-win off Traumatize is strong, but not strong enough to make me dip into a third color, and put four copies of a card that does essentially nothing into the deck. Still, "I win" is too good to ignore, and it's definitely amusing to play a deck that utilizes two alternate win conditions. Scrivener/Anarchist - Once again, the temptation to be able to do silly recursion post - Traumatize is strong. In this case it's a bit easier, since getting back a sorcery or an instant doesn't lend itself to anything horribly broken that I can see. Gravedigger - This guy seems like a natural fit, and I would put him in the deck if I had the space. Seriously, there's just no room for him. Under normal circumstances, he'd be played over Morgue Theft, but the flashback is an essential part of the Traumatize strategy. Dawn of the Dead - Of all the cards that aren't in the deck but could be, this is the one that has the best shot. It gets downright ridiculous when this is played right before or after Traumatize, as huge monsters keep coming at your opponent, and it's also quite good when Millikin and the Cephalids are doing their thing. The problem is that I often don't want to bring back creatures with this enchantment because one hit isn't good enough and I want them to stay on the table (like Aboshan and Chainer). Also, the fact that the creatures get removed from the game can be very annoying, since it weakens other cards in the deck. Still, the raw power of the card can't be denied, and when all the pieces come together, it can swing the game entirely in your favor. Some random big flying dude - Most reanimator decks have a "go to" guy, whether it's Thorn Elemental, Multani, Maro Sorcerer, Verdant Force, or Reya, Dawnbringer. Wow, how good would Reya be in this deck? Anyway, Odyssey Block doesn't really present something entirely impressive to recur out. The only real candidates are Iridescent Angel and Hypnox. One is entirely uncastable while the other is far too expensive. Is an 8/8 flyer worth it? I guess it could be, but how can you get it into your graveyard efficiently, besides Buried Alive? It's not as if you'll use Diabolic Tutor to get it when you can just get Battle of Wits. Instead, your only hope is to mill it off with a Cephalid, Predict or Millikin, or hit the 50/50 with Traumatize. That's too much "if" for something I don't really need. Haunting Echoes - Seems like it should be in here to combo with Traumatize, but it really isn't good enough. The card also doesn't do much by itself, and takes a lot of effort and setup time. Still, it could prove to be good in the right situation. Breakthrough - This deck doesn't really mind discarding cards, but this spell is a bit too mana intensive. I always found it sitting in my hand while I used my turns to do other things. Last Rites - This could be very good, especially in conjunction with all the deck's card drawing. You can't really complain about a Mind Twist where they lose their best cards and you lose your worst, or the cards you're about to bring back. So will this deck make an impact in Osaka? I'm not sure. Whether or not it can hang with red-green and Psychatog is still up in the air. Regardless, I'm sure at least one person will run a Battle of Wits deck at the Pro Tour. The allure of playing a card that says "I win" is too great, and it's appropriate to have Godzilla-sized Mortivores and Psychatogs attacking all over Japan.