MTG Salvation

Well, I'm not sure just how real it is, but it did manage to go 3-1 at a Daily on 10/31/2014. Between this and the Treefolk deck that won that 110 player event, it's nice to see these offbeat, zany, fun decks in the sea of Delver/Burn:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-daily-2014-11-01



So many cool synergies in here:

Gifts + Unburial Rites
Scapeshift + Valakut
Godo + Batterskull
Panglacial Wurm + land search effects
Gifts + Eternal Witness
Gifts + Noxious Revival

It's hard to evaluate a 242 card deck, but I'm sure there are places we can go from this starting list.

A streamer called MattiasNL on twitch plays Battleshift (the decks name). You can find his past broadcast about this deck here. It is pretty nice to play, since it has 12 ways to "win" (Gifts, Scapeshift, Battle of Wits).

Greetings,
Kathal

PS: But I would name the deck a Million dollar baby, since it costs more than 2k Euro

I also stumbled into this list while on the hunt for gifts tech. The amusing thing is that it does everything I'd ever 'test' in a 4c gifts shell--like every good 'possible' idea is covered.

Quote from BatHickey »

I also stumbled into this list while on the hunt for gifts tech. The amusing thing is that it does everything I'd ever 'test' in a 4c gifts shell--like every good 'possible' idea is covered.

My brain would melt trying to cast a Gifts that wasn't for a combo.

I wonder if a Splinter Twin archetype could fit in there too, and if it would even be worth it? Could also double down by adding Tooth and Nail to grab two pieces. I think the beauty of the archetype is the pure number of ideas presented. Not just a deck that might ramp a Battle of Wits into play, but just playing a high density of other cards that win the game as well.

I think having some more cards with Transmute would improve consistency. Clutch of the Undercity grabs Gifts Ungiven and Scapeshift. Pact of Negation + Tolaria West would be a very potent way to back up whatever combo you're aiming to land (and can you imagine using Pact to back up Battle of Wits? Your upkeep would have a game loss trigger and a game win trigger on it at the same time!). Those are likely my most concrete suggestions for a deck with possibilities like this. Beyond that, I encourage you and whoever pilots it to keep doing what you do.

Started following MattiasNL a couple weeks ago... this deck is semi-real. Like, it's really really sweet and totally a "fun deck", but it gets there. MODO is actually the strongest asset and biggest weakness to Battle of Wits. Auto-shuffler is awesome; v4 MODO being v4 MODO means unintentional mis-click losses and burning the clock for 5 minutes to resolve Scapeshift or Gifts Ungiven.

He's now brewing with Bant Battle of Wits, and it's Pod-based. ALL the hype for the awesome fringe decks!

Quote from Michai »

he went 4-0 today with the battle of pod list

Anyone got a list/link to a list? Battle of pod sounds just completely impossible to play correctly if you've got a pile of silver bullets, which sounds awesome.

Some tipps:

Don't double sleeve. Yes, it may hurt, that goyfs and co. aren't double sleeved, but it ads around 40% space to the deck.
Make 2 piles, shuffle each one on its own (120 cards aren't that hard to shuffle) and than smash the piles together and cut some times.
Suggest the opp to use the same method to shuffle, or he should just cut several times, since otherwise it would take too long.

Greetings,
Kathal

PS: If I get all the cards together, I might play the deck too, since having several "I win" 1 card combos in the deck sounds amazing.

Does this deck need gofys? Or is that really just a powerhouse card to keep it alive in the early game?

Quote from ikillutwice »

Does this deck need gofys? Or is that really just a powerhouse card to keep it alive in the early game?

Honestly, if that's what would keep a person from playing Battle of Wits, then swap them with Sylvan Caryatid. The truth is Mattias built the deck to function as a (really huge) normal deck that had lots of cards that stood strong on their own without the titular enchantment anywhere near them. If you watch one or two of the highlighted vids you'll see cards like Tarmogoyf, Thragtusk, Wurmcoil Engine, Courser of Kruphix and others acting like they would in a 60 card deck.... threats that need to be answered or stabilizing cards that regain ground. Sure they individually don't show up as often, however since you're playing ALL the good cards, you will always draw SOMETHING.

I would totally play this deck if I could shuffle it fast enough.
I see that some other people have commented on this problem.

The other thing is, doesn't your deck become to tall in paper magic and just fall over? Some of my friends have had that problem with EDH.

Depends on their card quality and sleeve quality. I notice foils tend to bend from exposure to air, or just cards in not pristine condition. Also sleeves like Ultra pros tend to be really slippery, especially in an EDH deck, while sleeves like Dragon shields or KMC especially like to stick together.

I love this deck. I've got a super casual friend who runs a deck like this. His is a GUR ramp deck with plenty of ways to cycle it's grave back into his deck. He hasn't played in a while, so I'm curious how much better his list is with TC and Dig

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/250521#online

MattiasNL went 4-0 in a daily with Battle of Wits!

Anyone have updated ideas for a battle of wits deck? I've been toying around with a build that uses muddle the mixture and a bunch of other transmute cards, but I'm not entirely sure it will be to competitive. Basically I'm looking for serious suggestions to help make this deck as competitive as I can, theoretically it will have every answer I need in the deck it's just a matter of getting it.

So, I've been running this deck on MTGO as that is really the only way to run it effectively. I tried a tutor heavy version with enlightened tutor and the transmutes but the problem is battle of wits itself is the weakest win condition in the deck. You have to play it and hope they don't bounce it or destroy it and hope they don't have lethal on the swing back and survive for a turn. So finding more ways to vast battle of wits is not where the deck wants to be.

Every game with this deck is something different, and extensive testing has taught me that you want as many one card combos as possible. For example: gifts for iona/elesh/terastodon is a one card combo, as is scapeshift. So, I've been running tooth and nail for emrakul and xenagod and a little more ramp than this list to great effect. I actually have a couple cultivates and kodamas reach. Instead of wall of roots I've been running sylvan caryatid because color has been hard to fix sometimes.

With BFZ coming out, there is one card I see that is an automatic four of in the list. The U/G converge card that lets you tutor for any instant or sorcery with CMC less than or equal to the number of colors you spent to cast it. It's 4 redundant copies of gifts or scapeshift in this deck because this deck is 5 colors.

I don't run the Godo + batterskull because I cannot afford batterskull online, but that is the only major combo I don't run in this deck. The deck is fun because it has so many plans of attack and they're all viable. The issue is knowing what is a good hand and what is unplayable.

For example, in game two v a Jund deck I kept obstinate baloth, 4 land, cantrip, and rampant growth. Baloth did a lot of work vs turn three liliana tick up.

Could you post a decklist for me? The current version I'm trying to make work is an esper version that's tutor heavy, but the more I play the more I just want to jam every combo in it.

I'm currently at work, but I'll post my deck list either later tonight or tomorrow when I get home.

Another good card I forgot to mention is primeval titan, as it can close out the game quickly and let you find panglacial when you attack the turn after.

If you're running esper tutor edition battle of wits, look at the enduring ideal deck. You could lock out the game the same way they do then win with battle of wits.

My brother-in-law runs a Sultai Battle deck that utilizes a self-mill mechanic to try and dig for stuff he needs/wants. Its kind of fun to play actually because you just rip through dozens of cards at a time hand picking whatever you want. Its kind of like shuffling through your entire collection to find what you need. It utilizes Psychic Spiral as a win condition. It pulls double duty by making sure your deck has the required number of cards in it to win with Battle but depending on how fast you can tear through your deck it can win in an instant.

It's a little more on the casual side so running things like Mnemonic Wall to get back instant's and sorceries is viable there but you could run Snapcaster Mage, Gifts Ungiven, and Corpse Connoisseur to get what you want. Drift of Phantasms is one of my favorite Transmute cards.

Somebody has to try the audacious lists that are trying something new. Kudos to this guy, who dared to try something new in a format that can punish brewing. I might just build this now IN PAPER. Proxy town, here I come! I could also slowly buy more cards for it. It would be a fun casual deck.

Sorry for taking so long to post my list, I haven't had internet for a week and I only had the list on mtgo.
I ended up removing tooth and nail because it was stuck in my hand too often when I was unable to cast it.

I'm also excited for BFZ because of the card Bring to Light, which functions as 4 redundant copies of gifts ungiven or scapeshift.

What about starting from a brand new theory? These are rough numbers and just a crazy idea.
x140 Shadowborn Apostles
x2 Rune-scared demon
x4 Battle of wits
x94 Swamps/Islands

This should give you on average 4-5 Apostles in your opening hand.
T1 Land, Apostle
T2 Land, Apostle, Apostle
T3 Land, Apostle, Apostle, Apostle
T4 Land, Sac 6 Apostle, put Rune-scared Demon in play in turn tutoring for BoW
T5 Land, play Battle of Wits and pray?

doing this we can gradually filter out Apostle and replace them with cards such as Signets to filter U and Ramp, Tutors, Discard/kill cards ect. but what does everyone think about an Apostle tutor engine?

Hello all,

Like all of you I have been beguiled by the allure of building the ultimate deck in Modern, and I'm trying to make it the most fun that I can by jamming as many archetypes and combos into the deck as I can while retaining some level of competitiveness. (Just how much is yet to be seen, but hopefully enough to enjoy the deck!)

As for the Shadowborn deck above, I can't really comment as to its competitiveness as I've never played against that type of deck, but it seems like a very "all in" proposition, and one that cannot recover from a board wipe. Also, it would seem easy to tire of as each game would be exactly the same. I like the idea of having a bunch of decks in one so to speak, and being able to win in many different ways.

So that's my building philosophy, here is the deck.



The deck contains the namesake Battle of Wits of course, along with an abundance of ways to search it up, but it also runs Scapeshift, a Gits Ungiven package, a Knight of the Reliquary + Retreat to Coralhelm combo, and a Glittering Wish package. The only true sideboarding is the 4 of Stony Silence brought in against Affinity.

Because I want to use the sideboard as a "wish board", and the general inefficiency of sideboarding in a 250 card deck, I would have to customize the deck based on the local meta quite a bit. There are somewhere around 10-20 flexible spots here, and some of the control could be swapped out for more creatures depending on how the meta looks.

Prime candidates include Spellskite, Kitchen Finks, Loxodon Smiter, and Obstinate Baloth, in the case of heavy discard or burn, and the option to reduce the main deck in size before the tournament begins in the event of a combo heavy meta - slightly increasing the odds of drawing combo peices but also a higher risk of falling below 200 cards in the library.

All of this is still changing and I am open to any suggestions.

Thanks for reading!

If you put one elixir of immortality in you can transmute it out if needed.