Frank Lepore
9/13/2012 10:52:00 AM
Recent Video Articles:
Video Deck Tech - Stuffy Red! (Standard)
Video Deck Tech - TCGplayer Open Dallas and a Sneak Peek
Video Deck Tech - Monoblack Midrange (Standard)

We're winding down to the finals few weeks before Return to Ravnica is released...

Well…in real life, anyway.

On Magic Online, as usual, we should have about three extra weeks before the set makes an appearance. That being the case, I figured I would take one of these final opportunities to play a deck that plenty of people have been practically begging me for: Battle of Wits!


Most of the Battle of Wits decks I have seen have been Esper in nature. I think I saw another in Bant colors, but I'm not positive. What I haven't seen, is one in the color combination I am presenting today: BUG. For the uninitiated, that's black, blue, and green. The lettering order isn't alphabetical, nor is it in color pie order (something which bothers someone like me); they're simply placed in such a way as to spell, “BUG.” This is all fine though; in this situation it's because it allows us to call the deck, “BUG Battle,” which is just...just wonderful.

Allow me to present to you the 250 card monstrosity (perhaps that's harsh...) that we're going to be piloting today:

BUG Battle by thegary86 (3-1) Main Deck Sideboard 4 Acidic Slime 4 Augur of Bolas 4 Bloodgift Demon 4 Borderland Ranger 2 Carnifex Demon 4 Clone 4 Consecrated Sphinx 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Elvish Visionary 1 Griselbrand 4 Phyrexian Rager 4 Treasure Mage Creatures [43] 4 Battle of Wits 4 Beast Within 4 Black Sun's Zenith 4 Blue Sun's Zenith 2 Boundless Realms 2 Contagion Engine 2 Diabolic Revelation 4 Diabolic Tutor 4 Doom Blade 1 Door to Nothingness 4 Duress 1 Elixir of Immortality 4 Farseek 4 Forbidden Alchemy 4 Gilded Lotus 3 Go for the Throat 4 Ground Seal 4 Increasing Ambition 2 Mindslaver 4 Mutilate 4 Ponder 4 Pristine Talisman 4 Rampant Growth 4 Ratchet Bomb 4 Sever the Bloodline 4 Shrine of Piercing Vision 4 Sphere of the Suns 2 Tragic Slip 4 Traveler's Amulet 4 Vapor Snag 4 Vessel of Endless Rest Spells [107] 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Evolving Wilds 27 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor 26 Island 4 Reliquary Tower 27 Swamp 4 Woodland Cemetery Lands [100] Deck Total [250] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

Wow, welcome to a Standard deck that's two and a half times larger than an EDH deck. Another interesting caveat of the deck is that upon finding it, it contained no sideboard. I checked and double checked, but nothing. It's possible that the sideboard got mixed into the deck when it was being posted to the mothership; this would explain things like the four Ground Seal in the main deck, but there's no way to prove it one way or another. Nonetheless, there is no sideboard. I think this is actually a fine choice for a deck like this. I mean, the odds of seeing one of the cards you choose to board in is pretty low, but then again, there are a lot of tutor effects... Truth be told, I have no idea what's going on, so let's just see how it plays!

T2 BUG Battle vs. Monogreen Infect



T2 BUG Battle vs. Wolf Run Ramp



T2 BUG Battle vs. RG Aggro



T2 BUG Battle vs. UB Brew



So...yeah. That was definitely a thing. As of my last article, you'll notice I've taken to showcasing not only decks that I think do have potential, but also decks that...well, need some work. The reason this is beneficial is because players can get a look at not only what makes a deck work, but why a deck wouldn't work and where it might need improvement. This definitely falls into the latter category. This is unfortunate because MTGO player thegary86 was able to go 3-1 with the deck in an MTGO Daily Event. I'm still trying to figure out how...

It's funny, because when I first picked up the deck, I absolutely loved a lot of the cards that were in it! I loved imagining playing a Boundless Realms, then untapping into a win with Door to Nothingness! (However I did realize that in order to do this, I would need some amount of Sphere of the Suns, Vessel of Endless Rest, and Gilded Lotus present for the red and white mana, which was somewhat awkward.) I loved playing with Consecrated Sphinx, Diabolic Revelation, Bloodgift Demon, Increasing Ambition, and a bunch more. But ultimately I'm not sure our marriage was meant to be.


I noticed I had a ton of mana problems with the deck, from drawing too few, to not being able to assemble my colors correctly; to be fair, there are a ton of GG, BB, UUU cards in the deck that need very specific mana. The irony is that there is a ton of fixing in the deck, yet I was still having issues over some twelve or so games. Look at some of the cards that help my mana (all of which are playsets, mind you):

- Traveler's Amulet
- Sphere of the Suns
- Rampant Growth
- Farseek
- Borderland Ranger
- Vessel of Endless Rest
- Pristine Talisman
- Gilded Lotus

And each of these were a four-of! That's 32 cards that could smooth your mana! But nothing helped! If you do the math, 100 lands is about 2/5ths of the deck. That translates to about 24 lands in a 60 card deck, so statistically that's a little on the low side. 32 fixers however is akin to having about 8 in a 60 card deck. That's almost as much as something like Wolf Run Ramp. The numbers seem accurate, but something was still off.

I kept looking at the mana base, and I really wondered why there were no Darkslick Shores in there. I get that your odds of drawing them before turn three are much lower, but still...I think you want as many dual lands as possible in here, even if they are most likely coming into play tapped; especially with so many double blue and double black cards. Unfortunately, even after adding those, it's still only four more lands out of 100 that can produce multiple colors. The Reliquary Tower? No, I don't get those at all. I was never drawing so many cards that I needed to keep every single one in hand, nor was I amassing enough mana to shoot off an “inconvenient” Blue Sun's Zenith that would force me to discard. That would definitely be the easiest swap out for the Darkslick Shores.

Another interesting choice was the inclusion of Clone over Phantasmal Image. I guess the deck is really banking on the long game, so paying two more for a creature that will stick around doesn't seem like a bad idea. I can't help but think that even Phyrexian Metamorph would be better here though, since it can copy artifacts, and has built in protection from Go for the Throat, but who knows. I really felt like I was just missing something after having played the deck a few times.

A possible conclusion might be that the pilot was playing more of a budget version than anything else. This would explain the omission of things like Titans, Darkslick Shores, Phantasmal Image, and even a single Wurmcoil Engine to seek out with your playset of Treasure Mages. It's hard to be sure, but a case can certainly be made for it.

High Mid Low

Overgrown Tomb

$15.25

$8.70

$6.15

Store QTY Price   greenthingsjump 1 $6.15 Gamers Den 1 $7.49 WittyParker 1 $7.59 Phyrexian Games 4 $7.59 GameLinks 1 $7.64 Epic Gaming 2 $7.75 Geeks MTG 1 $7.84 Phoenix Games Inc 1 $7.86 Mox Mania 1 $7.88 >> View all Prices for Overgrown Tomb << Store.TCGplayer.com allows you to buy cards from any of our vendors, all at the same time! Shop, Compare & Save with TCGplayer.com! - [Store FAQ]

I have to say, I still love a lot of the cards that are included in the deck, even if some are a little obscure (Carnifex Demon, I'm looking at you!). The bad part is I don't think Battle of Wits - or at least this version of it - is ready for prime time. Truth be told, the deck might be awesome with some better fixing, which Return to Ravnica seems like it promises to provide. I mean for this version alone we would be getting two new dual lands (Golgari Guildgate and Overgrown Tomb) along with the Transguild Promenade which should help immensely. When Gatecrash comes out we get four more duals for the deck in the Simic and Dimir lands. I don't think BUG Battle is ready yet, but with a little tweaking, I don't know, maybe it could be; especially when you consider how many powerful cards you get to add from the new set!

I apologize for bringing you two decks in two weeks that don't really make the cut, but that's kind of the nature of the beast. You guys were asking for Battle of Wits, and once I start recording games, it's a little too late - and a little dishonest - to not post them because the deck wasn't winning as often as I'd like. Either way, thanks for reading and watching, and be sure to check tomorrow for my third article in the form of The Lepore Report! (Wow, please don't get tired of me; I know this week was Frank Overload!)

And be sure to check out the latest Return to Ravnica discussions and spoilers occurring on our Facebook page, MTGatTCGplayer! You could also win a booster box by entering our contest to here - http://on.fb.me/R5RQU2!

I'll see you tomorrow and thanks again!

Frank Lepore
@FrankLepore on Twitter
FrankLepore on TwitchTV