This is where it all started. The first ever episode of Battle of Wits, my Magic: The Gathering quiz show, filmed in the early days of the pandemic when I really needed a project to throw myself at.

## The contestants

I got four brilliant guests together: Merchant (Connor), Emmmzyne (Emma), Syvantir (Scott), and Gavin Verhey from Wizards of the Coast. In hindsight, inviting the guy who designs the cards was probably asking for trouble.

## The rounds

The format is five rounds, a point per correct answer, and whoever has the most at the end wins. I try to keep each episode a bit silly:

- **Tiny Leaders**: guess the commander from an increasingly de-pixelated piece of art.
- **Ritcheswoo**: I show a phrase and a card that are spoonerisms of each other, like <span class="spoiler-inline">"Boiling Seas" and "Soiling Bees"</span>.
- **Natural Connection**: a mythic round worth double, where you work out the fourth thing in a sequence and why. <span class="spoiler-inline">This one was all You Make the Card winners.</span>
- **Topsy-Turvy**: I ask the trivia in reverse word order and you have to answer in reverse too.
- **Judge**: I make a statement about Magic with exactly one thing wrong, and you spot it.
- **Reality Smasher**: two card names smashed together where the end of one starts the other, like Crucible of World Slayer.

## How it went

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<summary>Show the result (spoilers)</summary>

Gavin ran away with it and finished on 16 points. I did warn everyone that once we hit cards from the last few years I'd get a lot worse at writing questions he couldn't answer. Turns out I couldn't stop him anyway.

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If you enjoy it, the rest of the series is well worth a watch too.