2011-12 Precon Championships: Round 2 and the Leaderboard
Welcome back to the 2011-12 Preconstructed Championships! This past weekend saw the first round of exciting deck-on-deck clashes as the eight contenders for Nagle Division glory took to the field to stake their claim on glory. On another battlefield, the readers taking part in this season’s Prediction League waged their own struggle for supremacy. There’s a treasure trove of prizes in play for the winner, and every point counts! Of course, with a total of twenty-eight matches to go, it’s still anyone’s game!
In our opening match, the Commander deck Devour for Power was utterly crushed by Hold the Line, the mono-White Event Deck from Innistrad. Virtually every one of our predictors had this one down as a solid win for the favourite, and they weren’t disappointed. Said Jacopo Sassi, “Low curve, tremendous consistency, TWO Mirran Crusader, 8 pieces of removal…it’s simply too much for a Commander deck, loaded with bombs, but slow and unreliable.” Outhouseinferno summed it up much more simply: “hahaha.”
Next up was another Commander deck, taking on Entangling Webs from the Magic 2012 Core Set. Most expected the Core Set deck- with its simple consistency- to solve the puzzle, but Political Puppets  provided the first big surprise on the day. Said 2010-2011 Prediction Champion Icehawk7, “I’m afraid the spiders will be stuck on the wall and unable to climb over them. The spiders will have a chance, but with each passing turn, the walls will get higher and harder to overcome.” And so they did, with Puppets claiming victory in two straight games.
Game 3 proved another difficult one to call, with Innistrad’s Vampires taking on Mirror Mastery, the third and final of the day’s Commander selections. Would this be another surprise victory, or would Commander field a losing record for the opening round? Remarked DomaDragon, “Also a hard match to call, since Carnival of Blood seems so underwhelming and Mirror Mastery really needs a Commander to be good. I guess I’ll side with the hopes that consistency will beat sheer power.” Although it took going to the full three matches to do it, the Vampires indeed carried the day.
Finally, we saw our first Duel Deck entrant in Ajani’s deck, the clear and heavily-picked favourite over Innistrad’s Human-themed Repel the Dark. Jon S bucked the trend and backed the latter. “Two color vs three color? I like Ajani’s deck but I don’t think it will fare well here.” Repel the Dark put Ajani in the catbox with a two-game sweep, and so advances to the next round.
After the first week, here’s the Prediction Leaderboard!
As always, if you note a discrepancy, please don’t hesitate to let us know and we’ll be happy to correct it.
If you’re just joining us, don’t hesitate to jump right in! There are plenty of matches yet to go, and weeks ahead to make up any lost ground and contend for the champion of the Prediction League. Who will stand next to Icehawk7 and gobias as this seasons winner? Will it be a new face, or will either past Champion claim a second scalp?
On that note, here’s the next round of matches. A Divisional winner will be crowned this weekend, so we’ll need three predictions this time: the winner of the first game (Game 17), the winner of the second game (Game 18), and the overall winner of the Division (Game 25).
Three points are up for grabs- best of luck to our predictors!
Ertai's Lament 
1) Hold the Line – Mono colored aggro event deck versus three color…control? Well its a bad match up anyway.
2) Repel the Dark – The two decks already went up against each other and although the vampires managed to take a game, I think Repel is the more consistent performer. Rematch should go to the humans.
I almost forgot the third match. >_<
3) Hold the line.
I think it will be a good day for the humans.
1 – Hold the line
2 – Repel the Dark
Overall winner – Hold the line
1: Hold the Line:
2: Repel the Dark
Final Match: Hold the Line.
Though I wouldn’t be surprised if any of these go the other way. In particular, Political Puppets has enough potential for a nuts defensive draw like in its round 1 or a Propaganda effect,
1. Hold the line (Toto wrote a song about this deck)
2. Repel the dark
Final: hold the line
1) Hold the Line
2) Carnival of Blood (just to change the trend a little)
final: Hold the Line (this deck is a beast!)
1: hold the line
2: repel the dark
Division : hold the line
Hope I do better this time°€!
Game 17: Hold the line
Game 18: Repel the dark
Game 25: Hold the line
1 – Hold the Line – Puppets can be surprising, but I don’t think it will be enough to win this one.
2 – Repel the Dark – This one went to RtD last time, and while Carnival can beat it, I’ll give the edge to RtD’s synergies.
3 – Hold the Line
1. Hold the Line
2. Repel the Dark
3. Hold the Line
So far I’m 3/4(underestimated Repel
the Dark).
17: Hold the line, derp
18: Carnival of blood. I am partial to vampires and I want to be a snowflake
19: Hold the line, that deck is just too good
1. Hold the line. Event decks are designed to be competitive and Puppets were able to kill the slow spiders but not this time.
2.Repel the Darkness- This match up has already been done and the Humans will own the Vamps once agian.
3. Hold the Line- This is the deck that will be crowned Division champ.
17) Hold the Line
18) Repel the Dark
25) Hold the Line
Let’s go, all-Humans final!
17 – Hold the Line
18 – Repel the Dark
25 – Hold the Line
I agree.
Hold the Line
Repel the Dark.
Hold the Line.
Hold the Line – SO POWERFUL!
Repel the Dark – Consistent… Although I wouldn’t put it past CoB to pull off a win.
Overall: Hold the Line.
Game 17: Hold the Line
Game 18: Repel the Dark
Game 25: Hold the Line
Game 17- Hold the line
Game 18- Repel the dark
Game 25- Hold the line
1. Hold the Line
2. Repel the Dark
3. Hold the Line
1. hold the line
2. carnival of blood
3. hold the line
Game 17- Hold the line
Game 18- Carnival of Blood
Game 25- Hold the line
17. hold the line
18. repel the dark
25. hold the line
(1)Hold the line
(2)Repel the dark
(3)hold the line
I’d go hold the line, barring any “luck” involved.
I still think they should have separated intro packs from everything else. Intro packs being the farm league, while everything is the major league, with intro packs having 2 rares, and everything else having around 6 to 8 rares. I don’t think any of the commander decks will stand a chance, and I don’t think an intro pack would stand a chance.
As I said, I’d probably go with Hold the Line for the entire thing, since it’s the only event deck I used that I thought was pretty good.
Hold the Line: It is so powerful.
Repel the Dark: I will go with the human deck in this close match, because I like Humans.
Hold the Line.
1. Hold the Line
2. Repel the Dark
3. Hold the Line
I shouldn’t be surprised that my votes are pretty much the same as everyone else’s.
1. Hold the Line. The best offensive deck in the division against the best defensive deck. But barring a couple of lucky draws to get some walls out there, I think HtL is just too fast to be stopped in this one.
2. Repel the Dark. We’ve already seen this matchup on the site. And while it could go the other way, smart money is that it doesn’t.
3. Hold the Line. It works harder, makes it better, does it faster, makes it stronger.
17: Hold The Line
18: Repel the Dark
25: Hold The Line
I’m not sure if there has ever been such a clear cut #1 going into a Precon Championship. When in doubt, stick with the chalk.
17: Hold the Line
18: Repel the Dark
25: Hold the Line
Hold the Line
Carnival of Blood
Hold the line
Hold the Line
Repel the Dark
Hold the Line
So would anybody here like an actual video feed on these precon deck championships? I think it would be nice, along with separating intro packs from everything else, so no lopsided battles occur, you know for future precon deck championships, and future matches.
oh forgot to mention the second match. Since I only ever used Carnival of Blood, I’ll go for that. I haven’t seen Repel the Dark in action, so uh, I’d go Hold the Line, Carnival of Blood, Hold the Line. I think Hold the Line would make it very very far.
1. Hold the Line
2. Repel the Dark
3. Hold the Line
Argh!! Bloody hell, just missed that one!! Curse you, work that make me goes in countries where the Net doesn’t work!! Well, too late for my vote now : better luck on the next divisionnal challenge 🙂
I’ve been out and about doing military stuff and I’m just getting back into things. I know I missed the leaderboards, but as I post I don’t know the results. I’m betting on Hold the Line taking it from Repel the Dark.