2005-07 Precon Championships: Round 9 and the Leaderboard
This is it! At long last, the field has been narrowed from thirty-one decks to a final four. Ove the course of the 2005-07 season, we’ve seen decks from Ravnica Block, Coldsnap, Time Spiral Block, and Ninth Edition battle it out for the right to represent their randomly-seeded divisions in the semi-finals, all for the right for a shot at enduring glory as Champion.
The untested Rakdos Bloodsport fell to Sliver Evolution. Saud Jay Chong, “Love the removal of the Rakdos, but the creatures are so below the curve- and that’s after the hellbent boost.” Next we saw the last Ninth Edition holdout- Dead Again– take on Golgari Deathcreep. The Ravnican guild’s complete domination was foretold by Lia in saying, “It has answers to everything Dead Again has. It can ignore Underworld Dreams by dredging. It can slay a recurring Nightmare with a recurring Stinkweed Imp. Oh, and Dead Again’s removal is, well…dead again.”
When the Slivers and Golgari met in the final battle for the Lauer Division, it was a brutal match as both decks knew that to lose was to fail with the finish right before them. In the end, the Golgari showed impressive dominance and an unbending will to win, and claimed the right to represent their division this coming week-end.
Through it all, our Prediction League has keep right in the hunt, and to the end it looks like we’ve got a race on our hands! The predictors cleaned up this past week, and we saw a surge at the top of the table. Although gobias holds the lead, perfect guesses last week from stric9, tenthtechpriest, and Athena have all seen them gain ground. Here’s the table as it stands:
Of course, this coming Sunday is the Grand Final, with both semi-final matches being decided before moving to the big event. As such, it’s the last chance you’ll have to earn points if you’re competing in our Prediction League! Here are the three matches you’ll want to predict- the winner of each Conference, and the overall Champion.
Best of luck, everyone!
Ertai's Lament 
Fateblaster.
Golgari.
Golgari.
Golgari’s packing some ramp and some lovely removal. That’s not even taking dredge into consideration or the Queen. For the Royalty! (If you get the reference, free cookie! Now I want to make a deck around her…)
These are going to be some wicked and fun matches!
lolz Icehawk u and your Beast Wars references 😛
Finals will be endless march against Golgari with golgari taking the crown. Or:
Endless March
Golgari
Golgari
Now if only I had a cookie to spare.
Well, now that I’ve got no chance of winning this thing, time to vote for my favorites:
Game 29 – Endless March
Game 30 – Suspended Sentence
Game 31 – Endless March
Let’s go Boros!
endless
golgari
golgari
Game 29 – Endless March
Game 30 – Suspended Sentence
Game 31 – Endless March
I’m on the Boros bandwagon!
Kind of a tossup on all fronts, so I’ll just go with my gut. Either way it was a fun ride.
Fate Blaster
Suspended Sentence
Suspended Sentence
Endless March
Golgari Deathcreep
Golgari Deathcreep
Two weeks, two quotes! One with a horrible pun….
On that note, I have a suspicion that Dead Again played Underworld Dreams in game 2.
Back to the finals. As predicted, I’m pretty much out of the competition. Here goes anyways, hoping to end with 17.
Game 29 – Fate Blaster: The rescue “mechanic” will cause Endless March to just crumble beneath Blaster’s removal and card drawing. The lack of fliers also plays into Blaster’s edge.
Game 30 – Golgari Deathcreep: Ultimately, Suspended Sentence’s setup time just takes too long, and while it should take one game where everything just comes together, the Golgari should doom them to a semi-finals defeat.
Game 31 – Fate Blaster: My “minority” pick here, but Fate Blaster has one thing that Golgari doesn’t: the ability to “draw” more than one card per turn. Eventually, the powerful engine and fliers will erode the Golgari in a three game match that is a nail biter until the grisly end.
29 – Fate Blaster
30 – Golgari Deathcreep
31 – Golgari Deathcreep
29) Endless March
30) Suspended Sentence
31) Endless March
I aim for 0 points this time 😀
Game 29: Fate Blaster (FUT)
Game 30: Suspended Sentence (FUT)
Game 31: Suspended Sentence (FUT)
Shoot! After nipping at first place’s heels nearly the whole way, missing out on submitting my choices for last week puts me mostly out of contention (best I can hope for is a tie #sadpanda). At least it was a good reason—vacation! 🙂
Let’s see… Golgari is probably the favorite, but I’ll have to champion the plucky underdogs to have any shot at all.
29. Fate Blaster
30. Suspended Sentence
31. Fate Blaster
Jay, being realistic this likely won’t concern me, but there ARE a few others just one point below Gobias… what happens if there’s a tie??
Good call, I think I established in an earlier season but don’t think I mentioned it here. If it’s a tie, then it’s random selection from amongst those tied for first.
Hope you enjoyed your vacaion, mate!
Well, no chance of winning anymore, but here goes my choices for the final round:
Fate Blaster
Golgari Deathcreep
Golgari Deathcreep
Thanks for all the fun, as usual 🙂
29: Endless March
30: Suspended Sentence
31: Suspended Sentence
Before it’s too late. Thank you Ertai for the fun of these weeks, even if Fate blaster wind the tournament, 😉
Left match: Endless March. I will say it again, hopefully this time it’ll be true. Fate blaster is a very bad deck full of do-nothing cards, and the bounce cards aren’t good against the March.
Right match: Golgair Deathcreep. The dregde mechanic is very good for the long game, and can somehow counter the also execellent long game of Suspended Sentence.
Final match: Enndless March. The final will be an even match, decided mainly on the luck of the draw, as both deck are very similar in quality. The Golgari have better consistency and the killer combo of Savra and Shambling Shell, but I like Endless March more as a deck, futhermore, it’s too late for me to win the tournament…
I found out about your site only a few months ago and it was a blast! The articles are excellent, the writing style is captivating and there’s just so much stuff to read!(for a Magic newcomer like me who didn’t even know what Kamigawa was until two months ago)I could keep on praising you for hours 😛 Here’s my predictions(granted that any of these 4 decks can win and that it was a really exciting ride)
Endless March( Fast, aggressive, great tempo plays and a few solid closers. Fate Blaster is generally slower and its rebounce cards will actually help Endless’s ranks in the long run- I’m looking at you, Keldon Marauders)
Golgari Deathcreep (Suspended’s removal is unconventional and crafty, but “suspend” is a generally slow mechanic and the Golgari will exploit the early game “calm” to gain a solid board position. If the dredge engine starts running smooth, there’s no card in Suspended’s arsenal that can overthrow the position, Imho.)
Final: I have really no idea, so I’m following my gut…..Endless March, go for it! I totally love Keldon Marauders, so it’s just a matter of personal taste.
29. Endless March (PLC)
30. Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
31. Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
Thanks for a great ride! The tournament has been a blast, and your history lesson/deck reviews are always excellent.
Game 29: Endless March (PLC)
Game 30: Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
Grand Final: Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
After sleeping on this, I can’t bear underestimating Fate Blaster again. At the risk of making a tragic error, I’d like to change my predictions slightly:
Game 29: Fate Blaster (FUT)
Game 30: Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
Grand Final: Golgari Deathcreep (RAV)
I hope it is not too late.
Thank you for a great tournament!
Running a bit late here…
Any deck here stands a chance if it doesn’t get hit with mana-screw. Definitely an “any given Sunday” feel….
I feel like I could go anywhere from 3-0 to 0-3 this week.
29 – Endless March (God did I love Whitemane Lion/Calciderm at FNM back when)
30 – Golgari Deathcreep
31 – Endless March
I’m running late too. It looks like everyone is going with their gut on this one. In that case, here is what I’m thinking is going to happen.
29. Endless March
30. Golgari
31. Golgari
I am, however, going to review the reviews and see if anything may make a serious difference and perhaps modify my prediction. Wouldn’t it be tragic if changed a prediction the wrong way though? Talk about a gamble. I’m looking forward to Sunday either way!
This could seriously go any which way so I’m going to keep my predictions as they are and hoping for the best. Good luck to everyone. I hope we see some amazing battles on Sunday.
Ah! I’ve been waiting all day! I can’t take it anymore.
In with three minutes to spare!!