Ive been knocking the deck about in Apprentice. Its obviously no world-beater, but it gets Battle Of Wits into play virtually every game within the first 10 turns. The real problem is the mana base - Ive no idea what the correct land/spell mix is for a 241 card deck. :\
If I were playing it seriously I`d consider abandoning much of the countermagic, the Apprentices etc. I misjudged how this would play - it RACES to the Battle, using mana on cantrips very freely. You never get 6 mana sat there to play a Stormscape Apprentice or what have you. Id be more inclined to throw in spells to slow my opponent - Cease Fires, Orims Chants, that sort of thing, replacing cards like Spite/Malice and Undermine. Force Spike would be good. The question is MORE about how much/little mana you have available.
Maybe even go the whole hog and drop the countermagic entirely for other stuff:
-4 Spite/malice
-4 Undermine
-4 Dromars Charm
-4 Absorb
+4 Orims Chant
+4 Cease Fire
+4 Duress
+4 Addle
That is at least much more likely to protect your Battle Of Wits. Potentially you could throw in 4 Disrupt as well somewhere.
Basically the key is working out how to cast 38 spells in about 10 turns
. The slower creature base should also be re-evaluated to one that is more low-end.
-4 Stormscape Battlemage
-4 Nightscape Battlemage
-4 Cavern harpy
+4 Phyrexian Rager
+4 Sawtooth Loon
+4 Rotting Giant
At 4cc Thieving Magpie looks very suspicious. Consider that open to change as well.
