Whtz, the BibliophileWhtz, the Bibliophile | Art by Leanna Crossan

Greetings and salutations my dear brewers, and welcome to what's probably the craziest build I've ever attempted in Commander.

Before diving deep into pools of cardboard, allow me to recontextualize a bit. Most of you probably know that Wizards of the Coast has recently announced the new Mystery Booster Commander Edition. This set will contain around 2,000 cards from all eras of the game, as well as 60 new commander-eligible cards. The R&D team has really gone the extra mile there to provide interesting new designs — sometimes rather daring, maybe too much so — as well as a ton of flavor for old-timers such as myself, with throwbacks to Ice Age and Homelands. Talk about a nostalgia trip...

I couldn't be happier, except... except of course this had to be a convention-exclusive product. Because of course every single one of us is able to take a three-hour plane from East to West coast, or cross half of Europe to attend one of these. And because of course each and every one of us is guaranteed to have the spot we want in the eventual Secret Lair releases.

I'm not even going to apologize for the heavy sarcasm there. Mystery Boosters are exceptional products, and this one I would go as far as calling it the actual, real, for true Commander Legends 2. But it won't be available save for a lucky few. And I guess at a premium from scalpers (may they burn forever in Phyrexia). If there ever was one incentive to proxy cards, this is definitely it in my book.

Now that the inevitable rant from the obnoxious French guy is over, let's have a look at what this article is actually about. Meet Whtz, the BibliophileWhtz, the Bibliophile.

Among all rulebreakers, I believe this is the one people are talking about the most, and with good reason. Until now, the exactly-100-card-and-not-one-more-or-less rule was written in stone, alongside commander color identity. Sure, companions have somewhat thrown a wrench in this, but the difference remained minimal. Singleton, on the other hand, has already been somewhat overthrown by "You can have as many of these as you want in your deck" creatures, and commander tax has been circumvented thrice, by Derevi, Empyrial TacticianDerevi, Empyrial Tactician, Yuriko, the Tiger's ShadowYuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and Liesa, Shroud of DuskLiesa, Shroud of Dusk.

Whtz basically says who cares about that 100-card rule, do your worst! (and maybe grab your Battle of WitsBattle of Wits while it still costs pennies).

And do my worst I shall, oh yes...

Technically, I could build a 300-card deck and try to optimize as best as I can. But where would the fun be in that?

Instead, I want to try another route. What is the highest card count I can reach while still having a deck that's actually playable in Bracket 2 tables?

For once, I decided to go with a no-holds-barred brew:

• Budget is irrelevant, save for the most unreasonable cards.
• Lore is secondary. This mostly means that I won't skirt around Universes Beyond cards like I usually do.
• No card ceiling. If it goes up, it goes up.
• Yorion, Sky NomadYorion, Sky Nomad will be played as companion. Because I can.

Thus commences the journey.

Step One – Card Draw and Ramp

The process I have undergone is, in essence, rather simple: cram in each and every decent card draw outlet out there, then add all the available ramp, see how many cards that is, and proceed from there.

To achieve this goal, I set myself some boundaries:

• No cantrips, no looting (draw one/discard one effects).
• Outlets must be able to technically net you at least one card for every two mana invested in them.
• All of the X spells in the world, except those that draw cards for everyone.

With this, the search was on. I went to Scryfall, and subsequently searched for all the cards that associated the words draw and two, three, four, five, six (not much luck with this one).

I also searched for triggered events, such as Welcoming VampireWelcoming Vampire, Coastal PiracyCoastal Piracy, or Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel.

Eventually, I ended up with 227 cards, which I have conveniently split in various categories in the list here.

Showing all the cards here would generate a behemoth of a list, so instead here's a chart of how many cards there are in each category:

This should help keep the hand full enough.

For ramp, I followed a similar reasoning:

• All the two- and three-mana rocks. Four and five mana rocks must provide at least two mana, or have an excellent other advantage. Six-mana ones must provide three.
• All the instant- and sorcery-reduction outlets, as well as generic-cost reducers.
• Nothing that helps opponents as well.

Back to the Scryfall search. I've looked for all the mana rocks and/or creatures that mentioned add with either , , or , as well as the mentions of any color.

I've also searched for any instant/sorcery cost-reducers. I've decided however to forego those focused on artifacts. Once you ramp once or twice, you'll be much happier being able to pay your draw spells for less rather than getting more one-for-one ramp.

This has led to some rather spicy finds. But bad as they may be, I really need to add as many pieces as possible, if only to match the draw and ensure a consistent rock in the first turns.

In short, this led to 197 cards, which I've decided to sort thusly:

As you can see, there's a vast majority of trinkets producing one mana of any color, which hopefully will be enough to allow casting the most colorful spells in the deck.

Let's move on to the next part.

Step Two – Targeted Removal, Board Wipes, and Protection

This one is going to be much, much more straightforward.

For targeted removal, I've decided to restrict myself to spells that cost either one or two mana, and that destroy or exile creatures, enchantments and/or artifacts. There are however a couple exceptions at three mana that are too good to pass up, even at that cost.

For board wipes, I've remained rather conservative, adding only seventeen to the list, most of them white. However, I also added as many mass bounce spells as I could as well. Not only will they beef up the rather flimsy mass removal package, but they could also actually be rather helpful to win the game. But more on that later.

Protection finally has been entirely dedicated to keeping the player alive. This is one of those decks where the commander isn't that important, so you don't really care whether it actually lives in the long run. Don't get me wrong. The additional card draw each turn is nice, but it's not a key component either. But making sure you can stay alive, that's a key part for sure.

You can also find the complete list of all these spells over here.

Time to move to the fun part.

Step Three – Setting Up the Proper Mood

Now that almost all the veggies are done with (lands excepted), let's talk about the general strategy.

This is a rather unique case, as usually a commander deck has around 30 slots left for its intents and purposes. Here, the sky is basically the limit.

The first line of play would quite obviously be winning with Battle of WitsBattle of Wits. I'm certain there's no one among you who haven't thought about it when this commander was released. The problem is finding it. The chances of getting the card through regular draw are already slim in a 100-card deck, and they become ridiculous when playing with several hundreds.

To this end, I've packed as many enchantment and instant/sorcery tutors as I could find, save of course for those on the Game Changers list, as well as Academy RectorAcademy Rector, because of its prohibitive cost.

Some can actually be chained together to find the proper tutor. Cast SpellseekerSpellseeker to grab Personal TutorPersonal Tutor, which in turn will give you Idyllic TutorIdyllic Tutor to get Battle of WitsBattle of Wits.

A few of these tutors can also search for other combo lines. Grab Intruder AlarmIntruder Alarm and Thraben DoomsayerThraben Doomsayer, and suddenly you have an infinite army, assorted with your entire deck in your hand if your commander is out.

Another one I'd love to tackle is with Twenty-Toed ToadTwenty-Toed Toad, which should be doable with all the card draw at hand.

And if you want to undertake more exotic wins, how about trying to grab 70-80 cards in your hand and WindfallWindfalling to victory? This is actually the reason why there are so many spells that extend your hand size to infinity.

Or how about casting TraumatizeTraumatize on yourself and Psychic SpiralPsychic Spiral someone to death? One could even go as far as trying to mill the entire deck out and then play an empty deck win condition...

This incidentally is why there's also a beefy recursion package. If your best stuff gets thrown into the bin, you may as well treat it as your second hand to grab whatever you fancy on your way to victory.

Or, you know, just go grab Approach of the Second SunApproach of the Second Sun for a more straightforward win.

If however you feel like taking a more traditional route to victory, I've also added a bunch of creatures that care about you drawing your second card each turn. With so many ways to trigger this second draw, I believe they could grow big rather quickly.

There are also a few token makers, just to provide some sort of defense for your face.

And of course, with such a massive deck, how could I not include Animate LibraryAnimate Library? Sure, you'll need to rule 0 this in, but frankly, if anyone is crazy enough to accept playing against this deck, chances are one Un-card won't make a difference.

Add to the mix some milling outlets, a couple massive life gainers — Invincible HymnInvincible Hymn looks hilarious in here — and 380 lands, including almost each and every variation that give both and , and voilà, you have a deck. I mean, a tower. I mean... a Behemoth, a Monstrosity, a Cosmic Horror, a Comic Horror, a Horrible Comedy, I'm at a loss for words...

Now, while this isn't quite as huge as the 2,222 cards the Delinquent Duo brought to a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament — seriously, look it up, that story is hilarious — 1,036 is still a massive amount of cards for something that's actually playable.

So much so, in fact, that I can't in good faith post the entire list in here, as we're used to on EDHREC.

Instead, clicking on this link will bring you to the final list on Archidekt. 

I understand this is less than ideal, and I apologize for this wobbly solution, but it's honestly the best I can do with this exceptional deck list.

If you missed it, here's another chance of seeing the full list!

And here's one more, just to make sure everyone gets it.

One last, pinky promise.

Conclusion

There are several insights I've learned from this ordeal.

1. There are truly a lot of Magic cards that do anything remotely specific.
2. The meme isn't worth the time it took to assemble this.
3. A sincere and heartfelt thought for all former Rules Committee members who must have fallen off their seat when they saw this rulebreaker addition.
4. This deck is actually playable. Not great, but still consistently hits its land drops, grabs decent ramp, and gets going rather fast.
5. Don't even think about building this in cardboard. It would cost more than $2,000, and it's for all intents and purposes the least practical thing to play ever.

On to you then.

Was someone crazy enough to actually build this?

Did any of you already win with a Battle of Wits?

Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time with something hopefully more in line with what Commander actually is.