2005-07 Precon Championships: Round 2 and the Leaderboard

Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2005-07 Preconstructed Championships! We’ve had a spirited opening week, with some surprising results- and even a touch of controversy! Eight decks took to the field, and already we’ve seen four sent home in defeat.

In our opening match, the combat-tested weenies of Charge of the Boros just couldn’t manage to stand up to Hope’s Crusaders. The Boros had a few natural disadvantages in this matchup that proved telling. Said stric9, “Charge of the Boros is going to dismantle itself against Hope’s Crusaders with that radiance effect working against it.” Willis Terry was more succinct: “Flanking beats weenies.” Most predictors nailed this one as Hope’s Crusaders stormed to victory.

The second matchup- Unraveling Mind vs Simic Mutology– was almost as universally picked. tenthtechpriest went right to the heart of the matter, declaring “decent removal > graft.” He also mentioned graft’s natural card disadvantage as a reason he opted against the Ravnican guild in favour of the madness deck, and his faith was not misplaced.

Things were going smoothly until the third pairing. Less than half of the predictors thought that Izzet Gizmometry had what it took, but it manufactured a surprising upset. Surprising- and controversial. Abusing replicate to power up Wee Dragonauts, the referee failed to catch the fact that replicated spells don’t interact with the Dragonauts, and that the bonus given was overinflated. Varo qoted the rulebook, while Tony summed it up to us a bit more simply: “Dragonauts do not count the replicated spells, just the spells cast, so in this case they would only get their bonus once.” This referee error only impacted the first game, where the Izzet had already stabilised the board state and were eking out the win, but it raises an important point. Whether it be on the field on on the table, mistakes do happen- the best play goes unnoticed, a rule is interpreted wrongly, someone loses a game they might have won. It doesn’t happen often, but any pro will tell you that even they make mistakes in Magic with surprising frequency. And even when the results are heartbreaking- like Thierry Henry’s devastating uncalled handball against Ireland– well, all you can do is set your shoulders, summon up grim determination and soldier on. It isn’t pleasant, but it’s part of the game. The Izzet advance.

The final match split our predictors almost evenly down the middle. It was heartening to see 9th Edition’s World Aflame deck garner some votes of confidence, even if Core Set decks are generally regarded as weaker options. The land-smashing mono-Red deck came close to realising its dreams after a dominating game-one performance, but struggled to cast its spells in the last two games. We can sum it up no better than Yawgmoth, who said, “And so ends a brief, beautiful glimpse back at the Golden Age of Land Destruction! Bitter irony indeed that so lean a deck as “World Aflame” missed its own land drops.” Well put!

After the first round, here’s the Prediction League leaderboard:

If you missed a few this week, don’t be disheartened- there’s still plenty more games ahead. It takes thirty games to decide a winner (1 less than normal thanks to a bye). If you’re just joining us, don’t hesitate to jump right in- last season a couple of late-joiners contended right to the end!

Now for the Next Round

Here are the next round’s matches. Please note your pick for each of the first two matches, and then for the final match to determine the overall Nagle Division winner. The results go up this coming Saturday, so you have until then to tender your selections!

Three points are up for grabs- good luck, everyone!