Completely useless in tournament games and decks with a 60 card limit. But cool enough. Can be very useful in a deck with unlimited cards. a 200+ deck with 20+ Battle of Wits would ensure victory over an unsuspecting opponent.
iandustrial
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(18 votes)
I firmly believe this was included in 9th Edition as a ploy to get new players to buy more cards.
Mark0z4
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
i've never seen someone winning this way; perhaps i'll never do.
DarthExecutor
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
gleemax's number is bigger actually
Owls_and_More_Owls
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Five color 200 card Highlander Two-headed giant Battle of Wits FINAL DESTINATION!!
Samm547
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
You could do a build where you have four of these, 150 cards that look for something in your library, and 75 land.
That would be fun.
Silverware
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This is legal in tournaments. You are alowed to have 60+ cards in a deck, the only requirment is you can shuffel your deck. Of course since your only allowed 4 of these the real challenge is to have 200+ cards and still be able to play this before you drop below 200. There is so much flavor here but it is a card you have to build everything around.
Nerobyrne
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Awarded 2/5 for hilarious flavour text and cool art concept
John-Bender
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
You just have to love the flavor text on this.
Esprel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A battle of wits deck vs. A mill deck. I want to see that match.
no_body
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
awesome flavor!
mouettte
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Ever tried shuffling a 225 card deck ? I just did a 180 card deck, is much harder to shuffle than I expected, haha.
ajpinton
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
How will you ever use this, and there is a clause saying you have to be able to shuffle your deck unassisted to you are disqualified. I is a fun concept but will never work in a real game. Could you imagine counting your deck down to only have 199 cards.
Kurhan
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@esprel
I've never seen it but i'd imagine the mill deck would win most the time. At the same time this could be played, so could traumatize. Basically one you are hit with a traumatize its over.
Also, if you are facing a decently fast mill deck you'll have lost atleast 15 cards by the time you reach the 5 mana required to play this. 15+7 = 22 which means, if you haven't played a single draw / tutor card you'll have 3 turns till you are gone.
Then again, with new anti-mill cards out like the blue quest card, you may have a really decent chance. Just tutor the anti-mill, then take your time until you are good and ready and the pop it.
Definitely and interesting idea. Both decks would have to be designed specifically for that sort of match up.
Lefty2k59
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Perhaps having a 225 Card Library isn't the way to go with this card.
Oh, yeah. If you wanna use this card, here's how: DON'T FREAKING FOCUS ON IT! Just build your awesome-huge 250+ deck and put it in (BTW, I only own ONE. I've never had more than one in a deck, obviously). I recommend a five-color deck+artifacts, especially for mana sources that can fight. Obviously, it's gonna need at least blue in it. Heck, put Progenitis in for kicks! Then play! If you happen to draw it, play it! If you don't, oh well. Just win the old fashioned way! Plus, you can use Demonic Tutor to just pull it out (I've done it once, but usually I'll pull out something I'd rather use, like Akroma or Chandra. RELYING on an instant-win is cheap, I'll generally agree. USING it when you happen to get it, especially with 1/250+ odds, is perfectly fine. And I love laughing at whiners who complain to no end that they lost to it when I just happened to get super lucky and draw it when they couldn't destroy it.
Ah, I also love me a Door to Nothingness. "I kill you!" -Achmed
GradiustheFox
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(6 votes)
This is certainly the champion for most 'great on paper, useless in practice' card. Instant win for 5 mana? =D! And all I is a HUGE deck? Awesome! ... Can anyone help me get my deck to my car? Losing to this card would be painful not only because it's obscenely unlikely, but because of the need to sit there and count 200 cards to see if it really worked. I'd be seriously tempted to just take the loss rather than sit through that.
SuicidalTendancies
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(6 votes)
Probably my favorite alternate win condition of all time
LeoKula
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(9 votes)
I'm pretty sure everybody, at least once, kept starring at this card trying to figure out how to win with this.
RichardJesperson
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
High concept cards like this keep me daydreaming about unusual or unexpected victories. I wonder how many have ever won with this card?
(A 'perfect win' using this card would be 5 islands and this in your first 6 draws, leaving 200 cards - and victory - in the upkeep of your 7th turn. Assuming a deck of 202 Islands and 4 Battle Of Wits, this will occur 1.8% of the time. It is an amusing diversion to think of how to increase the odds using tutors, moxes, lotuses, draw cards etc.)
Belz_
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Hum. Mill yourself, tutoring and graveyard recovery... play this, then Reminisce...
Of all the stupid win condition cards, this is the king, god damn this is ridiculous, you'll need more than 200 cards in your deck and to get it quickly to win with it, and even then it is quite stupid "I have lotsa cards, I win." Almost funny in all it's sillyness.
achilleselbow
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
It's pretty easy to imagine what a deck built around this would look like. Blue for this and counters, black for tutors and removal, and white for mass removal and enchantment tutoring. Start with 4 of these, 4 Brainspoils, and 4 Enduring Ideals, and you already have essentially the same chances of drawing it as you would in a 60 card deck. Pack the rest with tutors, counters, removal, and lockdown. Library manipulation will help you not get screwed, and you can add some mill for the alternate win condition. The other option is to use dredge to mill yourself as quickly as possible and pull the card out of your graveyard. In any case you would really have to watch out for Lobotomy or Thought Hemorrhage.
danegator
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Well, this card was played by Matt Linde and Brock Parker at the 2002 San Diego Masters, four featured matches at: http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/event.asp?event=MASTERSSD02 :)
Zulp
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Flavor text is genius.
Snafinturtle
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(14 votes)
Regardless of the fact that it "may" require a huge deck... I managed to lose to this in a 60 card deck in casual.
Needless to say, i was speechless, and devastated. It's not every day that the spawnsire increases your deck size... :/
This was roughly turn 7.
Prizrak
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@snafinturtle Just came here to repeat my post about Spawnsire of Ulamog. Never thought someone would actually use that combo as a win condition. O_O
(not quite the ridiculousness of spending insane amounts of money just so you can use the legendary rule, but still, that is hilarious)
land_comment
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ummmmmm... This seems counterintuitive. If you have 200 or more cards in your library, wouldn't the chances of getting this be practically nil, even if you were running 4 copies?
supershawn
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
if you see a deck that is towering above the battlefield, slip memoricide into your deck.
DiasFlac420
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Foresee is another good card to go with this. Oh and Elixir of Immortality, should the game actually last that long...
VarteDod
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Would love to build a deck around this if it wasn't so painful to carry and shuffle it. Also, people on MWS don't seem to want to play against someone with a 270-ish cards deck
drunyon
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Possibly the only card ever printed where your opponent knows what deck you're playing EVEN BEFORE YOU START PLAYING. "Oh, a 300 card library? Hmm, I wonder what he could be playing..."
KingKnotts
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I have won alot of matches with this card using cheap tricks ( eldrazi works quite well ) but it is funnier to just build a 250 card deck all lands dual lands except 4 islands ( mainly blue black) make the card before it an island ( only 4 in the deck ) so if you get a island in your hand you have the card in 1-3 turns and mullagin until you see it or a identifier XD if you set up card before anything to search as well you can rig the odds considering your already going to know you will get something soon ( note it is not cheating it is like counting cards it is a talent you are not breaking any rules as you did do a lagite shuffle and everything else you simply gave yourself a bit of an advantage by knowing something that will come up ) XD
Axelle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Lots and lots of tutors are needed for this card. I once made a deck where the chances of getting this or a tutor was 9 out of 60.
ZakFrost
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Stick 4 of these into any 5-color deck you ever make. Who knows, you might get any easy win.
divine_exodus
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Isn't there a rule that you have to be able to shufffle your library in two hands (without any cards falling out continuously), otherwise you can't play it?
Cast Battle of Wits, the two Palladium Myrs and the Galvanizer. Go infinite with the Myrs and cast the Talisman and then the Scepter exiling Research. Pay from the infinite mana and tap the Scepter to cast a Research copy, pay to activate the Talisman's ability and untap the Scepter, rinse and repeat. Keep doing that until you have 200 or more cards in your library, then wait a turn to win the game. Or, if your impatient, use Time Warp.
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Can you imagine this showing up in a booster draft? :)
This is the worst card in the entire game of Magic to put in a tournament deck, and it always will be, and that's okay. It's also the only card in the game that tells you explicitly in the flavor text that you're insane to play this card.
Give this card and a copy of Research // Development to the crazy combo player in your play-group, and let them spend the next month trying to break it. (In casual play, it's sort of possible! Spellweaver Helix + Burning Wish + Mystic Speculation lets you copy Burning Wish once a turn for by playing another copy of Mystic Speculation with buyback, so you can add at least one card to your deck per turn (also works with the other sorcery-speed Wish cards); play Wheel of Sun and Moon, use two copies of Privileged Position and a Platinum Angel for protection, have Elspeth, Knight-Errant activate her ultimate power, and keep discarding and growing your library... nevermind why I know this...)
...I also know that an unearthed Kederekt Leviathan blows up all the protection I just described and ruins the combo. :(
BlackAlbino
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
A deck of 200 tutors! Let's get to it!
Ertai23
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Relentless Rats!!!!
Anathame
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Kingknotts does not have a *** clue about how probability actually works.
Ezuna
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Everyday I'm Shuffling
Gelzo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This screams "casual only" in a very loud voice.
I like it.
ax_morph
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I said I could build a deck based around any card. My friend told me Battle of Wits. And so, I began working on a 250 card deck, and before long had created a green/blue/white deck that did nothing but stall, using everything from Ghostly Prison/Propoganda to the new (at the time) Heroe's Remembered. As more cards came out I fleshed out more and with Alara was able to add cards that actually complimented the tri color deck.
Many people think there is no way such a big deck can win, but when you run Chronozoa/Epic Struggle, Protean Hulk into Soul/Essence Warden and Thopter/Walker/Shield Sphere with Test of Endurance on the field, my 250 deck is one of my most brutal.
Hands up if you can shuffle that many cards without assistance. In new deck protectors.
Clearly should have been unglued
Plungingforward
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you want to be expensive, needlessly complicated and bypass another win condition on your way to victory, you could always use your Spawnsire of Ulamog to put that giant stack of Hand of Emrakuls that's been gathering dust in some corner of your collection into play - and then Worldpurge the lot.
Its pretty ez to win with this, you just need to stack your deck with as many legal tutors as possible, this, and control cards.
Does that make for a fun way to play? No.
Is it a reliable win condition? Yes and No. Requires a very specific deck construction to work properly, and on top of that theirs no reliable way of stopping your opponent from hosing your plans with a naturalize or a counter.
Its something that you dont see everyday and im sure when you win with it people will just get upset with you.
GlassJoetheChamp
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
How's this for a freeform deck:
180x Black Lotus 25x Battle of Wits
Now, I'll just go online and buy the singles I need, and- HOLY SHIT, HALF A MILLION DOLLARS!?!?!
Eh, it's worth it. ;)
Totema
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I hate boring win conditions... With this it's just "have a big deck, tutor it out, win". No satisfaction in there. Other "win-the-game" spells are at least riskier and therefore more fun to play. With this, as long as no one has a Naturalize or something before your next turn, that's it. And it's not too hard to reload your library before your upkeep just to keep mill from preventing this win. Welp.
samster712
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
anyone else think that this would be fun in a Relentless Rats deck???? 4 of this card, 50-60 lands of swamps and islands, whatever else you want to put in it, and like 120 rats
matunos
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
There's 4 cards with cascade that can get you there, if you can get the mana to cast them.
As for shuffling the deck, who hasn't wanted to do a Vegas-style 300+ card shoe shuffle?
shotoku64
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Worst EDH card ever =p
Kragash
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(3 votes)
"This is certainly the champion for most 'great on paper, useless in practice' card. Instant win for 5 mana? "
Except that it's far from an instant win. It must first resolve. And then it must stay on the board until your next upkeep.
And even when someone does pull off this combo, nobody likes to sit around while someone is counting the cards in his/her library to see if they actually won.
"197, 198, 199?! Wait, that can't be right. Let me recount, I must have missed one."
No other card actually merits its owner getting punched right in the face.
And MaRo allowed this to see a reprint. Who does he think he is?
Hivis_of_the_Scale
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Coming in M13
Kingstinky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
in the M13 prerelease, all you have to do is put every single card you get in a deck. then add 130+ lands.
Kaleidostorm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The Johnny in me just got a hard-on
Arachnos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The wizard who memorizes a thousand books is insane. Almost as insane as the player who uses a deck with over 200 cards...
@Shadowflaam: ...or the player who has actually purchased 200 Emrakuls.
How do you even make this work? I guess you stuff your deck full of lands and Tutors?
exion.zero
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'd love to make a deck with this somehow...
I'm thinking Relentless Rats by the bucketload, 4 Sphinx of the Chimes (basically so you can keep discarding those rats to thin out the deck and find the essential cards!), Thrumming stone can work too, so 4 of them! Locket of Yesterdays would come in handy so you can keep playing relentless rats for free after you have 3 in the graveyard. A couple of Elixir of Immortality cards and some sort of way of sending everything you've put on the battlefield into the graveyard (or back into the library ideally). Loads of scry and search cards too.
The strategy is to discard/play as many rats as possible until you finally get both the Battle of Wits and an elixir of immortality in your hand... and maybe something like Planar Cleansing to send everything on the field to the graveyard, Then play an elixir of immortality and the Battle of Wits, sit back and pray they can't kill you on the next move... Maybe save a timewarp if you have the mana for it :P
Of course; chances are you'd probably find it easier to kill them with the rats, but novelty victories are more likely to make your friends rage... which makes them way better!
Comments (67)
That would be fun.
I've never seen it but i'd imagine the mill deck would win most the time.
At the same time this could be played, so could traumatize. Basically one you are hit with a traumatize its over.
Also, if you are facing a decently fast mill deck you'll have lost atleast 15 cards by the time you reach the 5 mana required to play this. 15+7 = 22 which means, if you haven't played a single draw / tutor card you'll have 3 turns till you are gone.
Then again, with new anti-mill cards out like the blue quest card, you may have a really decent chance. Just tutor the anti-mill, then take your time until you are good and ready and the pop it.
Definitely and interesting idea. Both decks would have to be designed specifically for that sort of match up.
Load a library with Tutors, Isochron Scepter, Research // Development, could even see Copy Artifact and Twincast, and have 200 spare cards. You can make upto 8 scepters, 4 for Research 4 for Twincast, beef your library up to 200.
Ah, I also love me a Door to Nothingness. "I kill you!" -Achmed
Losing to this card would be painful not only because it's obscenely unlikely, but because of the need to sit there and count 200 cards to see if it really worked. I'd be seriously tempted to just take the loss rather than sit through that.
(A 'perfect win' using this card would be 5 islands and this in your first 6 draws, leaving 200 cards - and victory - in the upkeep of your 7th turn. Assuming a deck of 202 Islands and 4 Battle Of Wits, this will occur 1.8% of the time. It is an amusing diversion to think of how to increase the odds using tutors, moxes, lotuses, draw cards etc.)
You don't mill me?
I win.
You mill me?
I win.
Wouldn't work very well in practice, but its a fun idea.
EDIT: Also good with invincible hymn
Buddy of mine hit an infinite mana curve (Myr Galvanizer x2 + palladium myr + Gold myr), played Spawnsire of Ulamog, activated his final ability, cast 176 eldrazi (the common and uncommon ones ) then followed it up with hallowed burial.
Needless to say, i was speechless, and devastated. It's not every day that the spawnsire increases your deck size... :/
This was roughly turn 7.
(not quite the ridiculousness of spending insane amounts of money just so you can use the legendary rule, but still, that is hilarious)
Who knows, you might get any easy win.
Cast Battle of Wits, the two Palladium Myrs and the Galvanizer. Go infinite with the Myrs and cast the Talisman and then the Scepter exiling Research. Pay
This is the worst card in the entire game of Magic to put in a tournament deck, and it always will be, and that's okay. It's also the only card in the game that tells you explicitly in the flavor text that you're insane to play this card.
Give this card and a copy of Research // Development to the crazy combo player in your play-group, and let them spend the next month trying to break it. (In casual play, it's sort of possible! Spellweaver Helix + Burning Wish + Mystic Speculation lets you copy Burning Wish once a turn for
...I also know that an unearthed Kederekt Leviathan blows up all the protection I just described and ruins the combo. :(
I like it.
And so, I began working on a 250 card deck, and before long had created a green/blue/white deck that did nothing but stall, using everything from Ghostly Prison/Propoganda to the new (at the time) Heroe's Remembered. As more cards came out I fleshed out more and with Alara was able to add cards that actually complimented the tri color deck.
Many people think there is no way such a big deck can win, but when you run Chronozoa/Epic Struggle, Protean Hulk into Soul/Essence Warden and Thopter/Walker/Shield Sphere with Test of Endurance on the field, my 250 deck is one of my most brutal.
In new deck protectors.
Clearly should have been unglued
Does that make for a fun way to play? No.
Is it a reliable win condition? Yes and No. Requires a very specific deck construction to work properly, and on top of that theirs no reliable way of stopping your opponent from hosing your plans with a naturalize or a counter.
Its something that you dont see everyday and im sure when you win with it people will just get upset with you.
180x Black Lotus
25x Battle of Wits
Now, I'll just go online and buy the singles I need, and- HOLY SHIT, HALF A MILLION DOLLARS!?!?!
Eh, it's worth it. ;)
As for shuffling the deck, who hasn't wanted to do a Vegas-style 300+ card shoe shuffle?
Except that it's far from an instant win. It must first resolve. And then it must stay on the board until your next upkeep.
And even when someone does pull off this combo, nobody likes to sit around while someone is counting the cards in his/her library to see if they actually won.
"197, 198, 199?! Wait, that can't be right. Let me recount, I must have missed one."
No other card actually merits its owner getting punched right in the face.
And MaRo allowed this to see a reprint. Who does he think he is?
@Shadowflaam: ...or the player who has actually purchased 200 Emrakuls.
How do you even make this work? I guess you stuff your deck full of lands and Tutors?
I'm thinking Relentless Rats by the bucketload, 4 Sphinx of the Chimes (basically so you can keep discarding those rats to thin out the deck and find the essential cards!), Thrumming stone can work too, so 4 of them! Locket of Yesterdays would come in handy so you can keep playing relentless rats for free after you have 3 in the graveyard. A couple of Elixir of Immortality cards and some sort of way of sending everything you've put on the battlefield into the graveyard (or back into the library ideally). Loads of scry and search cards too.
The strategy is to discard/play as many rats as possible until you finally get both the Battle of Wits and an elixir of immortality in your hand... and maybe something like Planar Cleansing to send everything on the field to the graveyard, Then play an elixir of immortality and the Battle of Wits, sit back and pray they can't kill you on the next move... Maybe save a timewarp if you have the mana for it :P
Of course; chances are you'd probably find it easier to kill them with the rats, but novelty victories are more likely to make your friends rage... which makes them way better!