2011-12 Precon Championships: Round 6 and the Leaderboard
For those fighting to the last in the Prediction League, these are heady days. As we move week to week towards our final goal of determining a preconstructed Champion for the 2011-2012 Season, every point is crucial. A fourth of the way through the Forsythe, four decks have advanced. Now that the dust has settled and the arena floor mopped…how does the field look now?
From an initial field of over twice that, there are twenty-five bold souls still hanging in with the Prediction League, eager to win fame, glory, and their choice of one of our spectacular prize packages. With so much hanging in the balance, every prediction becomes a painstaking thing. For instance, only about half of our predictors called the first match correctly, an Event Deck battle between Illusionary Might and Death’s Encroach. Though many were certain the mono-Black Zombies could carry the day, the Illusions proved surprisingly strong and nimble. “Time to outthink those pesky Zombies!” was the battle cry of Illusions backer (and previous Prediction League champion) Icehawk7.
Our next match was one of those that takes most folk by surprise, but it’s a great way to nip an unexpected point if you happen to be right! Predicted Stric9, “Based purely on my desire to see angels, dragons, and demons come to life. Even with undying, if one lands, it doesn’t mean anything when you’re facing a one-sided beatdown.” Indeed, the Commander deck triumped over the Innistrad Intro Pack, and hopes to redeem the spotty performance of its kin in previous rounds. As for stric9, he was the only member of the League to claim all four points this week, so congratulations to him!
Although many didn’t seem to love the Duel Deck release itself, most backed Koth to prevail over Eldritch Onslaught. Sadly for fans of the Izzet-coloured flashback deck, it never got its engine going and fell in straight defeat. Ezra the strange opined, “It looks pretty close but I think that this deck has the removal to take out all the few creatures of Eldritch Onslaught. Lets see if Koth can hammer the opposition.”
Finally, Spiraling Doom was the rare deck that recieved full, unanimous backing from the predictors. signofzeta had perhaps the most amusing motive for backing: “Spiraling Doom, cause I don’t think that Grab for Power can get it’s 3 artifacts on time, and without them, I don’t think it stands a chance. And besides, Spiraling Doom has “Doom” in it’s name. I mean, it’s Doom. I predict that Spiraling Doom will win the division just because it has “Doom” in its name.”
After the latest round of predictions, we have a clear leader atop the table. Jenesis has broken free of the pack, but by the slimmest of margins- a single point! With this being a ‘wildcard week,’ with three matches deciding the division, can the lead last?
As always, kindly alert us to any discrepancies and we’ll happily investigate!
Finally, here are this weekend’s matches. Please choose one winner for each of the three games. Good luck to all!
Ertai's Lament 
Ok here’s for a shot at redemtion
Game 21: illusionary Might will cut the Hevenly inferno down. Sorry no Commander this go around.
Game 22: Spirling Doom will Hand defeat to Koth. Birthingpod and undying will flood the field.
Game 27: Spirling Doom and Illusarnary might will duke it out and go three rounds with Spirling Doom squeking by with a Victory!
Illusionary Might
Spiraling Doom
final: Spiraling Doom
21:illusionary might
22:spiraling doom
27:hard to call, but I’m going with spiraling doom
Illusionary Might
Spiraling Doom
Spiraling Doom
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiraling Doom
27: Spiraling Doom
Eh, why not?
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiriling Doom
27: Spiriling Doom
27 will be close, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if it goes the other way, it all depends on if Doom can find a birthing pod and resolve it. If not it will be a tough fight to beat Might.
21: Illusionary Might. I continue to believe Commander deck too inconsistent to play well against more focused products like event deck.
22: Spiraling Doom. Too many way to handle Koth deck, although Koth already surprised me one time.
27: Illusionary Might. That’s a though call but I think the blue deck is faster to play. It’s yet too see if it can withstand the toolkit nature of Spiraling Doom. I hope I got it right 😀
Addendum: this is going to be another all-event decks division final. I’m sure we’re in for at least a surprise!
Might.
Doom.
Doom.
Undying is powerful. Koth can burn, but is there anything worse than being chased by zombies on fire? Might has a hot. I was tempted to give it the last round, but Doom has undying, the combo with pod, and some nice removal. To me, that seals it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the last match was Doom vs Hold the Line with Doom coming out on top as the zombie horde.
The Doctor is in, and he smells Doom.
“Fire will eventually destroy a zombie, but a fiery zombie destroys a lot of other things first.”
—Rem Karolus, Blade of the Inquisitors
Heavenly Inferno: It’s upset special time. Might’s attack is heavily aerial based, and if there’s one Commander deck able to match that, its Inferno. It’s certainly not going to be an easy win, and it’s still really likely that the consistancy of the Illusions will triumph, but I’ve got a feeling.
Spiralling Doom: Nothing much to say here.
Spiralling Doom: Unlike Inferno, it can pick and choose when its toolkit items go online.
I’ve had better luck this season going with my gut…
21. Heavenly Inferno – again, just a feeling.
22. Spiraling Doom – I think Koth could be capable of a surprise upset, but Doom is an efficient toolbox that could well make it to the end.
27. Spiraling Doom – There’s a small voice in my head (one of many, *snarf*) that wants to pick Inferno here, gambling on a chance to take the lead. That voice isn’t strong enough to overrule the thought that Doom is just too good.
illusion might
doom
illusion
ilusion might
spiraling doom
spiraling doom
1 – Illusionnary Might
2 – Spiraling doom
3 – Illusionary Might (so I don’t feel as bad because I always lose to my friend’s illusionary might deck -____-)
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiraling Doom
27: Spiraling Doom
Illusionary Might
Spiraling Doom
Spiraling Doom
Illusionary Might
Spiraling Doom
Illusionary Might
Game 21: Illusionary Might
Game 22: Spiraling Doom
Game 27: Illusionary Might
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiraling Doom
27: Spiraling Doom
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiraling Doom
27: Illusionary Might
21: Illusionary Might
22: Spiraling Doom
27: Illusionary Might
I’ve spent all day trying to figure out which deck would come out on top. As much as I want Heavenly Inferno to go the distance, it just can’t move as quickly as the others. With decks like these, speed does matter.
Illusionary Might should be able to put a stop to whatever Heavenly Inferno has in mind.
Spiraling Doom can also shut down Koth because burn doesn’t work quite as well when the undying mechanic is working.
So between Illusionary Might and Spiraling Doom, who wins? Illusionary Might’s weakness is in its early creature because they die as soon as they’re targeted. On the other hand, Illusionary Might has counterspells. But counterspells don’t matter because you can’t counter Birthing Pod’s ability and there are three of those alone. And Spiraling Doom has three doomblades, that’s amazing removal right there.
At the end of the day, I think Illusionary Might just may be more consistent so I’m going to go with that.