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 "Boiling Seas" and "Soiling Bees".
- Natural Connection: a mythic round worth double, where you work out the fourth thing in a sequence and why. This one was all You Make the Card winners.
- 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
Show the result (spoilers)
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.
If you enjoy it, the rest of the series is well worth a watch too.