Are you a Quiet Speculation member?
If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.
If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode of the QS Cast yet, I highly recommend it. If you have, then you know that Chris VanMeter and I have exactly one thing in common: belief in Champion of Wits.
Champion of Wits is a card that I have been interested since I saw it in the spoiler, for a couple of reasons. First, there was its mana cost-to-power and toughness ratio. Three mana for a 2/1 was on the wrong side of the efficiency spectrum. The second standout was its ability: when it is played for three mana, it results in its controller drawing two cards then discarding two cards. The value hound in me immediately was crestfallen, as a card with the text “draw two, discard two” is card disadvantage.
Both of these attributes caught my eye, and not for the reason that you may think. I did not hang my head in disappointment at how bad this card was – no, instead I thought to myself, “This card was probably busted in development, huh?”
The reason I thought this is because a few minor changes could result in a very different and very powerful card. For example, what if Champion of Wits cost two instead of three? Or what if it drew cards equal to its power then only required its caster to discard one?
To me, these are the kinds of thing that I pay attention to. If you listen to Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work podcast enough, you hear stories about cards that were changed because they were too powerful for their format, or they were the kind of thing that every deck played. A card-drawing engine that came attached to an uncounterable 4/4 could certainly be that, given the right conditions.
It is possible that the development team thought that this card would see a bunch of Standard play, and I'm wondering what they saw. I've come up with a slew of possibilities. Now that I have my playset of Champion of Wits, here are five things that I plan on doing with it while it is in Standard:
1. Discarding Two Champion of Wits to Another Champion of Wits’s Trigger
Champion of Wits has a small enough mana cost that I don’t mind playing multiples in whatever deck it is in. However, that does not mean that all I’ll be doing in such a deck is casting 2/1 Naga for three mana. I will probably have something better to do in the following couple of turns with the cards that I am keeping in hand after discarding two Champions. The decks where this would happen are decks that play Glimmer of Genius, Hour of Devastation and probably a couple of planeswalkers. In the case of choosing between playing a second Champion of Wits or casting a turn-four Glimmer, unless I am taking some serious beatdowns, I am picking the Glimmer line every time.
2. Putting Champion of Wits into My Graveyard with Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is another card that perked the ears of value-seekers early on. The mana cost is the best we have been getting for card selection recently, and as far as digging goes, it lets you see lots of cards, and more importantly, it can find you lots of card types. I’m pretty interested in the applications of Strategic Planning when it comes to decks that want to play Descend Upon the Sinful and Scour the Laboratory, which have not found a permanent place in any archetype yet, but with attractive ways to dump cards in the graveyard like Champion of Wits and Strategic Planning, there’s the opportunity to play a cool control game and draw, like, so many cards, you guys. Green has always been the delirium color of choice, but the options for your deck are now much broader.
I would like to take this opportunity to agree with you that yes, Scour the Laboratory may not be as good as Glimmer of Genius is in a vacuum, but the difference between card selection with Glimmer and card quantity with Scour is not insignificant.
3. Sacrificing Champion of Wits to Cast Elder Deep-Fiend
The deck that I am hoping to look at first for Grand Prix Washington DC is UR Emerge, which appeals to the part of me that likes having options on what to do with my cards other than what is written. I also really enjoy flashing in giant, land-tapping monstrosities to tap all your lands during your upkeep. The ability to put creatures onto the battlefield at times other than your main phase seems beneficial, especially considering the whopping three board wipes entering Standard with Hour of Devastation (the set), and making creatures with six toughness seems fantastic when lined up against Standard’s new darling, Hour of Devastation (the card).
4. Eternalizing a Champion of Wits a Couple Turns Early
Like one-mana cantrips, one-mana mana dorks like Elvish Mystic and two-mana ramp spells like Rampant Growth are now personae non gratae in Standard, but there are still some ways to make extra mana on my side of the board available. For example, casting a two-mana creature like Servant of the Conduit on turn two into Champion of Wits on turn three, then casting Hour of Promise on turn four puts me at seven mana on turn five.
Dedicated ramp decks would also benefit from the card selection provided by Champion to prevent gluts of expensive cards early or ramp cards late. Alternatively, The Scarab God's activated ability can eternalize Champion of Wits at a steep discount. I have a less clear vision of what this deck may look like, but alongside Lord of the Accursed and Gisa and Geralf, UB Zombies may have a chance to shine should synergy and the ability to grind out games be competitive in Standard.
5. Curving an Eternalized Champion of Wits into Casting Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Champion of Wits is blue; Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh has blue in his mana cost, so they go in the same deck, probably. The eternalize activation on Champion of Wits costs seven; so does Nicol Bolas. Naturally, my mind is bound to wander in the direction of the God-Pharaoh for as long as it is in Standard, so there’s a good chance that I will put the two together in at least one deck. Drawing six cards off of two Champion of Wits activations makes me confident that I will have drawn what will likely be my one copy of Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh by the time that I am able to cast it, too.
One of the things that I like about blue in formats like Modern or Cube is consistency. I can have a plan, and if I build my deck right, be reasonably certain of my ability to execute it. To me, Champion of Wits is the shining beacon of the possibility of some truly harebrained plans in Standard for years to come, and I can’t wait.
The Bottom Line
What does this mean for the future price of Champion of Wits? Given that it has already jumped from near-bulk to $3, there's a chance that it doesn't go higher than $5, although I could see it rise to $6 if it is a star at the Pro Tour this weekend. However, one of the important things to keep in mind with a card like this is that the cards that play well with it could get a boost too. If Champion of Wits is big, I'd watch out for Descend Upon the Sinful, Hour of Promise, and Elder Deep-Fiend to see a rise in price to accompany a rise in demand.
To be the very first to know when I have done something cool with Champion of Wits, follow me on Twitter and Twitch, and subscribe to my YouTube channel!
 
 
After these initial tests, I started to opt for a more aggressive build, even trying Simian Spirit Guide to accelerate the extremely aggressive turn-one hands. This proved to be a bit too reliant on opening with the small threats like Signal Pest and Bomat Courier, and too weak to longer game plans. I wasn't ready to give up yet, though. While the stock lists of Affinity have always merited their place in the Modern meta, after all this testing I felt that the deck could be improved immensely with the introduction of Bomat Courier. So back to the drawing board it was.
With the Galvanic Blasts back in the deck, I had to decide what would get cut to make room for Bomat Courier. I settled on cutting the Masters, one Steel Overseer, and a land.
Whether Grixis or Jund, the Death's Shadow matchup plays out pretty similarly, with Jund having a higher threat potential. Either way focus on card advantage while drawing their removal away from the serious threats, aka Etched Champion and Cranial Plating. Ideally Bomat Courier should be the first play of the game, because it allows you to passively generate advantage that can accumulate and take over games.
The name of the game is racing. These games are extremely dependent on whether your opponent fetches and shocks, or has the ability to retain their life total through basics. If so, go for infect kills with Arcbound Ravager and Inkmoth Nexus. If they fetch and shock, go for faster kills with Cranial Plating and Signal Pest combined with Bomat Couriers.
Again this is a race. Your end goal is similar, except these games will typically involve drawing multiple cards off of Bomat Courier. Focus on card advantage and dealing damage in quick succession before they can get Tron online. These lists typically do not play Oblivion Stone, so rain the aggression on them.
This becomes a great matchup with the inclusion of Bomat Courier. Navigation around their namesake card is everything. Keep some creature threats in your hand so that you can discard them as part of Bomat Courier’s effect. Reanimating two Etched Champions and a Vault Skirge while drawing four cards with Bomat Courier feels amazing, not to mention that it will come back to join the party as well. Remember to do this in response to Living End going on the stack and not in response to the cascade trigger, so they can't choose to whiff. This match is also won with Arcbound Ravager.
Dangerous matchup. Galvanic Blasts are used to kill their creatures here, typically the combo pieces. Spot removal won’t be enough for later stages of the game. Go for damage and kill them ASAP.
Drop their life total to 0 or infect them out—your choice, but race is the pace. Decent matchup post-board. Game one is definitely winnable if you can kill their creature(s).
Race, definitely in your favor both pre- and post-board. Watch out for their creatures because those can rack up damage very fast. Vault Skirge makes these games easy. Bomat Courier offers race potential, and fliers are hard for them to deal with.
Bomat Courier will likely open a gap in their defenses due to the threat of card advantage. Play out Steel Overseer or Arcbound Ravager with the idea that these will die. Do not fight too aggressively over their removal unless lethal is one turn away.
From Grixis, Kolaghan's Command is the larger threat. However, play so that you can connect with a large attack on turn four, after the initial resolution of Kolaghan's Command. This is typically when their guard is down, or when they deploy their own threat. Hold up the card advantage that Bomat Courier can produce.
Game 1: He curves out with Heritage Druid and Elves. Then Elvish Archdruid into Ezuri, Renegade Leader kills me on turn three.
Game 1: Opponent mulligans to four, with no early discard spells. I land an Etched Champion he can't deal with.
Game 1: My hand is amazing but he has three Amulet of Vigors and kills me on turn two with an insane combo of Azuza, Lost but Seeking and three Titans.
Game 1: He gets early Tron and Karn Liberated starts annihilating my hand and board.
Game 1: I am able to get an early Bomat Courier and pressure his life total. I finish the game with Etched Champion after he starts casting multiple Lingering Souls.
As a result, the larger the square the more likely it is to accurately reflect that analysis. Smaller cubes are more likely to miss a color entirely, or even contain some that the big analysis will filter out. How many FMN metas contain lots of janky weirdness that never shows up on any standings? Mine definitely does. As a result, statistical modeling breaks down on the small scale. This is natural. Statistical analysis is intended to take lots of little numbers, aggregate them, and then model the totality of reality. The smaller the scale you're working with, the harder it is to get meaningful results. I've mentioned this about my sample sizes in 
problem, despite billing as if he did, and then despite the ruined trip absolutely not being the driver's fault, the rest of the car never quite forgives him.) You can however get a sense of who might go and what they are likely to play.
Therefore, just listen to what your fellow players are saying. Even those who intend to play a different deck at every event or never publicly say what they're playing have opinions and will share them readily. Whether it's chatter between matches or social media discussions, you can find out what players in your area are thinking. This gives you a sense of their perception of the metagame and how they're preparing. Oftentimes players will reveal their deck choice just by revealing their biases.
As I mentioned, Colorado has had a reputation for being a Burn state for a very long time. It's not undeserved. It also tends to have lots of Jund and Tron. This has been the trend, but it isn't guaranteed. My local game store is arguably the center of Modern in the Denver area. We have the most Modern tournaments and the highest turnout every week. There has been a high amount of Burn and Tron, with Eldrazi recently having the edge on traditional Gx, but Jund has disappeared and there's only one GB Rock player left. Some have simply been turned off by all the Tron, others jumped ship to Death's Shadow. There has also been a surge in Living End and Affinity, both of which were big players two years ago but disappeared last year. Generally, every player talks about their deck as their deck and plays them at every event, so I'm not worried about left-field choices.
For UW Control I'm more worried. As I noted above, there's been an upsurge in UW recently. While my technical play in the mirror is good thanks to years playing the deck, my deck is weak to other control decks. I don't play Ancestral Vision because it's too slow most of the time, but it really aides the mirror and I know that many other control players have Vision. This leaves me weak to the mirror.
Control decks in Modern have 
