2009-10 Precon Championships: The Introduction
Welcome card slingers and sports fans of all ages to the inaugural 2009-10 Preconstructed Deck Championships (or “Precons” for short). This past season has been a very busy time for Wizards, and we’re excited to have a crowded field of decks vying to see who will claim the honours of best in class. Although in future seasons we’ll be looking to anoint a champion at the end of September (right before Standard rotates), we’re just as excited now to throw them in the ring, and see which will be the last deck standing.
2009-10 was a busy season for Wizards! Not only did we have the new core set (M10) and all of Zendikar Block to work with, but we had two Duel Decks, the first-ever Premium Deck Series deck, and a special one-shot release of Duels of the Planeswalkers-themed decks! Our tournament format will be one very familiar to many of our readers- the 32-slot single elimination bracket, and all games from the opening rounds to the final will be best-of-three.
Brief aside: because there were 34 decks contending for the honour of competing, a couple of cuts had to be made. We arbitrarily decided to make those cuts from the Duels of the Planeswalkers decks, which were introductory decks with a lower power level. Still, we wanted everyone to have a sporting chance.
The highest-scoring deck of the lot- Ears of the Elves– was automatically in, but we held a pre-tourney playoff to see who would claim the final two slots reserved. Teeth of the Predator came from behind and knocked out Hands of Flame, while Eyes of Shadow easily held off Thoughts of the Wind to secure its rightful place.
The Championship will be divided as follows. There are two Conferences, the Rosewater Conference and the Forsythe Conference. Each Conference is further divided into two divisions. In the Rosewater Conference, we have the Nagle and Tinsman Divisions. For the Forsythe Conference, you have the Turian and Lauer Divisions. Each deck’s name went into a hat, and they were pulled at random to seed each Division. Here’s a view of the brackets (click on the image to expand the size):
Our coverage will focus on each Division in turn, which we feel is far more easily followed than going from one full round to the next. We’ll give summaries up to the Final Four, when we’ll switch to the full match play-by-play we use for deck reviews.
And with the table set at last, let’s get down to the meal! In our next Championships piece, the eight contenders for claiming the Nagle Division will begin their battles. Anyone care to offer some predictions?
Ertai's Lament 
I think that the duel decks are very strong in their own right, so they might have a chance.
Any work on Deadspread Meddling yet?
I agree, and i’m putting my money on Liliana’s deck.
All of the remaining three Meddlings are in progress, and we’ll have a new one up in the next few days (alas, not it’s not Deadspread’s turn quite yet). We’re trying to get them done relatively soon, mindful of the comments contest!
Which reminds me I need to make my R/W Myr deck.
This is an awesome idea. Ears of the Elves should take their division easily. Adventurers might have had a good run except that they’ll be running into Ears immediately after their win against Brute Force. Without some “Meddling” Adventurers is solid, but won’t make it all the way against Ears. Ears is an incredibly deadly deck. It requires almost no tweaking to play it in tournaments.
On a comment about your later offerings, why did you decide you do Dissension first?
And why is the EotE Game 1 Details purple?
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘first’… you mean, before Ravnica? Or before something else?
The Game 1 details are purple because before taking the screenshot I’d clicked on the link to see what how the software worked. Silly me, I didn’t realise until later it made that highlight, and I figured it was cosmetic enough to just leave as is. Good eye!
Yeah, before Ravnica.
We don’t tend to worry overmuch about block order- we nicked a Stronghold before Tempest, and all of ROE without having done WWK. They tend to be self-contained enough for the purposes of review. In this particular case, we’re short one of the RAV decks at present anyway, so Dissension was as good a palce to start as any!
What a cool idea of being creative with casual MtG.
Although that Elves deck might really rock, don’t underestimate the WR Strike Force.
Great idea. Love it.
Phyrexia and Slivers. One of them is going to make it out of that division. If that one can get going, it might just go all the way.
Elves will probably take its division. Not sure it’ll be able to take Liliana’s Deck or Strike Force in the next round.
If I had to put money on a deck, Phyrexia. I’ve only had it for about a week, but out of all of them that I’ve played with, which isn’t that many, its a beast.
I think Liliana’s deck will still get taken by Ears. I have both decks and Ears can be so fast out the gate that even if Liliana was on the battlefield on turn 5, it’d be too little, too little. In fact, why don’t I take the two of them and run through a couple games myself? I only have a 5 year old at home to play with and she’s scared of Black so I’ll have to do them on my own. I’ll let you guys know what happens!
So, it was closer than I thought. I guess my “meddled” Ears deck is a bit faster than the one right out of the box. It’s going to be VERY close!
It’ll be interesting to see who gets it done in the three games allowed!
Thanks for letting us know, Steve. I saw your comment when it came in, and was curious about the results myself. The next article for the Precon Championships goes up Friday!
this is such a cool idea! yet another reason ertai’s lament is my favorite magic website.
btw: has anyone else ever thought ertai looks exactly like alec baldwin?
Close, I think he looks more like Stephen Baldwin. He’s too thin to be Alec’s caricature, plus with the blonde hair, he’d have to be Stephen.