Pointed Discussion

I can't wait to see someone lug a huge deck in just so I can sideboard in Nevermore.

Why would you do this Wizards :(

I for one like this card! I liked it more when it came out the first time... don't really want anymore now that I have 4 in a deck already!

Also, this happens to be surprisingly good in the deck I built around it... Not AMAZING but I have won turn 4 several times and averages about a turn 6-7 win (assuming it's not destroyed). Uses a ton of searchers including lots of transmute cards. Lots of fun :)

limited staple

This reprint made me laugh so hard when I first saw it.

Badass art, no question about that.

ah no this card is so bad. I really would love it if they printed a good blue rare in this core set that isn't a creature.

If we get any tutors in RtR, I could see this thing being taken to a tournament or two.

Hilarious choice for a reprint; good to see that Wizards hasn't lost their sense of humor.

Why hello there. What are you doing in a core set my old friend?

Well I wasn't expecting this one, to say the least,

It's an interesting card. I'm glad though that I play mostly on MTGO, so shuffling huge decks ain't a problem. :)

Ooh! Ooh! This is great in EDH!!!! Durrr, I'm so smart!

Nice build-around-me card
But it seems very odd to me to reprint this in a core set... ;-)

Worse - draft - card - ever! :3

4.5/5 for sheer hilariousness and gorgeous art

I want one of these, but I hope I'm not pulling it during the prerelease or drafts.

Finally, a happy reprinting! (This and Akroma's Memorial...)

I LOVE putting this in my deck. I've used it all of... 2? times, but it's fun to have anyway.
I'm a gimmick-player, so I don't stupidly focus on winning with it. I usually run a 250+ card deck (and because of how my collection is, it's mostly singleton), and only have one copy of this. So I figure that if I can happen to draw it and play it, that's just fine. Heck, the first time I used it, it just got countered anyway.

That other comment though... how could this possibly work into Commander/EDH? Isn't that limited to EXACTLY 100 cards, a bit short of the 207-card minimum needed to use this? (if on turn one)

Somewhere in the world, a young boy is on his way to get 100 Islands.

I must agree with TimmyForever, simply because on the whole people who use this seem to think it is clever to make a deck with 150 Islands, 50 Tutors, and this. It isn't clever, it isn't fun, and it isn't difficult. Perhaps if one keeps themselves to a Standard challenge it will find interest, but just like any/all Commander/EDH decks, it's merely who can tutor their win condition the quickest.

Play this in a regular sized deck with Spawnsire of Ulamog and grab 200 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The Legend rule will cause all 200 to go into your library, and if you haven't found Battle of Wits yet you now have 200 spare turns.

Pulled this during the prerelease. I laughed hard. Especially since before we started somebody asked if they would be allowed to use enough lands for a deck built on BoW. Suffice to say, I didn't use this, and I'm not sure I ever will, but the card is hilarious.

Awesome, even more useless unplayable junk reprints. How about One With Nothing and Moonlace for M14? Keep it up, Wizards!

The main reason I like this card is that it sets up a BADASS meter.

Oh, you can be all efficient and win with this here enchantment with a near-200 card deck. But why stop there?

Win with a 400 card deck. Go on. For every 100 cards, there is one Battle of Wits. Do it. You'll be a badass. Happy digging :D

I just went to a local card shop.

Bought an M 13 pack and pulled this.

After a good 5 min laugh I proceeded to buy some single cards

All in all this card will stay in my binder as my first m 13 rare

@timmyforever Okay, let me get this straight. When a card is balanced and capable of still being good in a game, you rate it 0.5 because it isn't broken. When someone builds a deck around this using powerful (not to mention highly expensive) tutors to win, you rate it 0.5 because it'll make you lose once in a while. Why don't you stop being a dick and rate cards based on the fact that they're good, not on the fact that you may lose to them or or just below your standards. You'd probably rate Black Lotus 0.5 because it dies to Smelt.

Played this in a draft. My opponent stared at me.

True_Mumin exemplifies the reason I love being a Johnny. He sees this card and the others he mentioned as useless, unplayable junk.

I see them as requiring much more thought to be used effectively, rather than just throwing down a Baneslayer or a Time Vault infinite combo or anything paired with Doubling Season.

I can spend a long time having fun building weird decks using cards like these. Will they get you 1st place in a tournament? No. Do I have a blast making them and playing them in casual? Yes.

His loss I guess.

@ GlassJoetheChamp

He is indeed. At my prerelease a week back, no less.

Wait, if I have a 201 card deck, exile this with Karn Liberated, restart the game and mulligan to one...

@True_Mumin ImagineOne with Nothing with Ghoultree, Battle of Wits in a tutor deck, or Moonlace in a combo with Doom Blade against Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. It's how you use the cards that determines their true value.

Always pack a copy of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Occasionally you'll get someone who mills your library below 200 and gloats: wait 'till you see the look on their face when they mill this!

Related: Could some sort of self-mill Wits deck work? You'd need a hefty amount of 'yard recursion and something to shuffle your graveyard in...I'm thinking {U}/{G}, Quest for Ancient Secrets, Primal Command, Noxious Revival and similar, maybe Gaea's Blessing, possibly with Laboratory Maniac as a backup wincon? (Though not with blessing :p). Basically you'd be replacing the normal array of tutors for mill, then graveyard recovery. With the added bonus of observing your opponent's reaction to casting Traumatize on yourself in a Battle of Wits deck! As an added bonus, you can run Research to bump up your library size if necessary.

And that's when I played Omniscience! :D

And that's when I lost all my friends! :D

Casting Battle of Wits in Standard: 5 blue mana.
Casting Omniscience in Standard: 10 blue mana.
Casting 200+ spells for FREE off of 4x Boundless Realms fairly ramping your Demonic Revelation?? Priceless.

EDIT: I drafted a foil one of this. After going in thinking I was going to build a nice Red-Green creature beats deck for two and a half packs, I got passed a Battle of Wits and I cursed because I knew how the night was going to end. I resigned myself to the inevitable.

I picked the best cards I could for my 40 from what I had (got no rares I could really use actually so the deck I was about to run wasn't very good anyway- that's what makes this story a little better, lol)

And I set aside 200 Islands and my two Battle of Wits (somebody later told me they passed me the foil one over Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I wasn't going to be winning tonight anyway and that part made me feel a lot better xD) and called that my SIDEBOARD. For my R-G draft deck. Because that's how I roll, bitches! XD

OK, so Match 1, Game 2, the first time I Sideboarded in Battle of Wits-- well, I had to Mulligan down to four to get any non-lands in my hand-- and it was a no land hand that had the Foil Battle of Wits in it!!!!! I actually had a chance if I could go for 6 turns! :O :O :O :O That was the closest I came to non-mediocrity/non-catastrophic failure all night. I never drew Battle of Wits again, I never won a game,

I never even PLAYED the guy with Ajani + Angel (yesh, that dude got HER too. Which explains why I got 2 Battle of Wits. wow.) But after seeing the rares laid out in the pool after the draft, I realized something:
my Red-Green deck would have been so utterly slaughtered by the Ajani + Angel guy, or the Liliana + Vampire Nocturnus Guy, or even the pretty decent Red-Blue Chandra Ablaze guy, that by deciding to Sideboarding in 2 Battle of Wits, I gave myself something to do that night that was much more productive, and healthy, than trying to win against odds like those: trying to have FUN!

There was a small number of guys that were really rooting for me when they saw how close that Game 2 had come, and that was ALMOST the best story anyone will ever have about draft ever xD And that made it worth the trip :)

In related news, I hate forever the cards "Mogg Flunkie" and "Reckless Brute" and "Filnthoof Boar". I had 10 copies total of those 3 guys (3-4-3) and my Game 1 build was a sleek 40 cards with Rootbound Crag and it was complete B.S. how little trouble anyone had with them. They would have deserved it if Battle of Wits had actually worked. :P

Would I do it again? If I had to pick between Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Battle of Wits foil, would I do it again?
Ab. so. lutely. Anyone can lucksack and mise limited with the best Mythic in the set.
It takes something else to play Battle of Wits in draft. Not a lot of decks can create a Moment of Awesome SO AWESOME, that even having it NOT go off but just coming TANTALIZINGLY CLOSE can make your entire night worth it :)

Is wizards trying to tell new players to make 200+ card decks

Do the class act and leave your BoW decks at home if playing with physical cards. As a bonus it will even improve your chances to do well in any given tournament.

This is actually quite ironic, even though it was obviously only reprinted for comical sense.
The rulebook states that a deck can be any size (60 cards min.), but you have to be able to shuffle your deck in your hands (or something like that)... clearly, with 200 cards that would be ... difficult to say the least.

Hilarious card. Would probably be more hilarious to me if I hadn't pulled TWO of them in a sealed tournament.....

I kinda want to build a deck around this though. It would be awesome to win even one game with this card.

Hahaha out of all the things they could reprint for blue. It's actually kind of cool to see them bring back something less run-of-the-mill. It was definitely worth a laugh when this showed up in a draft pack.

Is there a reason this was reprinted other than to artificially raise the value of all other cards in the deck (by virtue of this card being basically a worthless rare)? I guess it's kinda funny, until you pull one in a draft.

I use this as a legitimate wincon in my Phelddagrif EDH deck with Spawnsire of Ulamog. Just get Spawnsire off, grab all my common Eldrazis (I keep them set aside just for the occasion, I have 167, I think) and drop Terminus. I also run Leyline of Anticipation to allow me to do this all just before my turn.
I've never pulled the combo off, and most of my friends don't even know it's in the deck, or about all those Eldrazi I keep set aside. Some day I'll do it. Some day the hilarious Group Hug deck will suddenly combo win out of nowhere with Battle of Wits.

This card redefines "Thousand Island Dressing".

I like how the second ruling says your deck has to be able to be shuffled within a reasonable amount of time, I just imagined someone taking 10 minutes to shuffle a massive deck.

could be fun but i wish they printed something more useful

I'm tempted to just throw it in a normal, 60 card blue deck. Just because.

There is no card in MtG that I love more than Battle of Wits right now. None. This card so embodies the spirit of MtG to me that I smile whenever I see it.

what is really mean in Casual is Painter's Servant Grindstone
Ancestral Tribute Living End Laboratory Maniac Avacyn, Angel of Hope i have had it go off 3 times out of 23 muti player games >:) loads of fun.

Got this in the prerelease and made a 220 card deck.
My only regret was cracking an evolving wilds when it was on the top of my library!

3/5 For being one of the most hilarious/irritating cards to get at a prerelease.

200 + Relentless Rats deck with this card and searchers. Make it!

So... worst draft pick ever?

I HAVE SO MUCH CRAP IN MY BRAIN THAT BLUE IS COMING OUT OF ME AND BOOKS ARE BEING RIPPED APART FROM MY VAST AND MASSIVE KNOWLEDGE.


Also IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is it I find out about cards like this while searching the underbelly of Gatherer? I need to try this card out at an FNM and see what happens.
One set, please!

I imagine an opponent complaining about a player who tries to claim victory using this card. "Do I really have to count 200+ cards in your deck?" Seems like that action alone would be longer than some of the games I play...

If I could rate -5/5, I would. It is a funny card, but a complete waste of a rare pull.

During prerelease I pulled 2 of these pieces of cardboard.

I bought a fat pack at release and pulled this card in 3 out of 9 of my booster packs. Not to mention I got 3 more from a few of the 2013 boosters I got throughout the months.

I think I'm going to cut out the guy in the middle of them and line them up in tiny crucifixes around my room.

Printing this as an uncommon would've been a wasted uncommon slot.
Printing this as a common would've been a wasted common slot.

One way or another, someone's going to complain about why this card was printed at it's rarity level. Don't even get me started if this was Mythic Rare...

Astonishing art. Indulgent flavor text. Absurd in-game effect.

BOW before BoW. :P

Everyone saying this card doesn't work in EDH, run spawnsire and X00 legendary Eldrazi (several clever people on page 2 suggested this already, but it needs to be bumped to the front page because a. it will put an end to the naysayers and b. it made me laugh)
My inner Johnny appreciates this very much.


5/5- print more cards like this.

Where i go, if you place at least 3rd in a legacy tournament with this card's effect, you win a dual.

Legal in standard. Seriously?
I just lost a game to this. This kind of crap is why i don't play anything but standard in the first place. this cheese should be consigned to the vaults of history

Just make a 300-card deck, run 4 of these.

Take that, Glimpse the Unthinkable!

Obscenely large relentless rats deck WHOO!

@Drewskithelegend & anyone saying "for edh"

Keep in mind. Sideboards can only be 10 cards deep.

And wishes and spawnsire and such can only retrieve sideboard. Otherwise, they can't retrieve anything at all.

If you play without that rule, why not the simple rule of they can be above 100 cards then? Same reasons why people run 80 card decks in 60 card formats. And also why 60 cards would face off against battle of wits decks...

But yes. There is no viable way to get this card to work in EDH. Unfortunately.

By Blue/White deck was huge already (223), so my friend traded this to me. It's now 250.
And it's not too big.

I once played a grab bag draft with Odyssey, Guildpact, and Mirrodin Besieged. This was in my sideboard, along with about 220 islands. I sided into this exactly once that night.

I won that game.

Ever since, this has been one of my favorite cards.

This card isn't viable in a Standard setting at all, so don't judge it by that. Instead, consider its effectiveness in EDH, where 200+ card decks aren't too far fetched.

@Solstice_MTG, EDH is exactly 100 cards, always. Without a wish effect, there would be no way to win using this there, and you could only run one in EDH.

Not a bad card at all. Back in the day, Jon Finkel took a Battle of Wits deck to 3-0 at the Invitational. Was a viable tournament card back when Odyssey was around.

Other than relentless rats, is there a card that allows you to have more than four in a deck? Maybe there is a way to use thrumming stone to get at Battle of Wits? Or possibly some other kind of artifact or spell with the "Ripple" ability...

Everyone I know with decks big enough to viably run this . . . wouldn't run this.

They "wouldn't want to win like that". :\

@RAT666 - Well, there's always Shadowborn Apostle too.

The biggest challenge is to not let your opponent know what you're playing.

Love the ruling "In tournaments, you must be able to shuffle your entire deck within a reasonable amount of time."
One question: once you have it in play, you're going to count your entire library each turn just to make sure?

Couple years late on this, but I'm amazed at how many people were trashing this card.

Battle of Wits is a very strange card. Both times it was out, it was a viable card, but it requires a deck built around it (obviously), proper ability to sift through your deck for it, ect. The more tutoring you've got, the better.

There was a pretty solid Battle of Wits deck back in Kami-Rav, because there were quite a few ways of sifting through your deck.

It is a weird card and really offbeat, and will probably never dominate due to the ridiculous expense of any deck it is in (seriously, you end up running piles of good cards to up your consistency) but the idea that it is a bad card or a joke card is quite silly; the card is dangerous if you actually have sufficient tutoring available in the environment.

Are there better things to do in the older formats? Certainly. But don't knock a card that just says "you win" in a random control deck.

4 Battle of Wits
4 Rune-Scarred Demon
127 Shadowborn Apostle
115 Lands