2007-08 Precon Championships: Round 5 and the Leaderboard
For the past three years or so that we’ve run Ertai’s Lament, we’ve done a pretty good job of not letting the events of life get in the way of publishing on schedule. That said, while we’ve still managed to post our deck reviews apace, something fell by the wayside this past week. As many of you know, Jimi is expecting twins, and this past week has given us a dreadful scare. Still, an ultrasound today revealed that “Moose and Squirrel” are coming along just fine, and our worst fears have been unfounded. Splendid news, but it does show where our focus has been this past week.
So when Icehawk left a comment this morning asking if the next round of the Championships had hit any delays, I nearly fainted dead away. This past week I’ve had a nagging sense that there was something I’d forgotten to do, but try as I might I couldn’t figure it out. I was even getting the decks ready for this weekend’s matches, but Icehawk’s note solved the puzzle. I’d forgotten to post the midweek thread for the next round of predictions!
So please accept my apologies for the oversight, and we’ll go ahead and get back on track. Ordinarily, we’d have the matches go up on Sunday, but I’m going to push it back a day to give everyone extra time to get their predictions in. Just to be clear, here’s the schedule:
- Friday, 03 May (today): call for predictions
- Monday, 06 May: matches go up
- Tuesday, 07 May: call for next round’s predictions (back on normal timetable)
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. Now, on to the Championships!
Last week’s matches saw the high-flying Shamanism take on Eventide’s Battle Blitz. The Prediction League was evenly split on the outcome, but while the Treefolk punched hard in the first round they just couldn’t hold up against the Red/White Blitz. acollins1773, who went three-for-three this week, observed, “Shamanism fooled me last week, but the raw power that Battle Blitz is packing is gonna be way to much for it this time.” Indeed that proved to be the case, as Blitz felled the Treefolk in two straight.
Next up we saw Overkill go up against the Goblins deck from Duel Decks: Elves vs Goblins. Another one-sided affair, the mono-Red Goblins proved to be too much for the untested Overkill. Noted past League champion Jenesis, “Goblins is a solid monocolor construction and won’t have to contend with a sweeper-on-a-stick this time,” referring to the trouble the Elves half of the Duel Deck ran afoul of.
Those hoping for a closer match were not left disappointed as the Tinsman Division Finals saw the clash go all three games. Battle Blitz was able to outrace the Goblins for the opener, but the Goblins recover in the second behind a massive Reckless One. With all to play for, it went right down to the wire, but on a one-turn clock and at 2 life Goblins took the win and the division!
Here’s the updated leaderboard.
Congratulations also must go to Brad Hall, Icehawk, Jars Cristobol, Jay Chong, ledvdz, limbonic_art, originalflavorgobias, and Sparky for taking all three points on the day. In addition, the race is starting to see the frontrunner pack break up a little, as only three predictors share pole position (down from seven). With just over half the competition still to play, though, there’s plenty of points to play for.
As always, should you note any discrepancy with your points, kindly bring it to our attention and we’ll sort it out! Now, with the Rosewater Conference nearly settled, we turn our attentions to the Forsythe, starting with the Turian Division.
Here are the upcoming matches for the first round of the Turian. To help our Predictors make their picks, let’s next take a look at each of the disvision’s contenders.
Cho-Manno’s Resolve
Colours: White
Set: Tenth Edition
Rares: Cho-Manno Revolutionary, Pariah
Detail: Cho-Manno was a legend from Mercadian Masques who led the insurgent Rebels, and fittingly enough this is a mono-White deck with a martial theme. With threats all throughout the mana curve it deviates some from the “White weenie” archetype, and fields a few solid threats in the air. As added insurance, it also runs the classic “bone crank,” the Icy Manipulator. (reveiws: not available)
Death March
Colours: Black, Green
Set: Eventide
Rares: Creakwood Liege, Doomgape
Detail: Death March, as the name suggests, is a graveyard/recursion type deck that plays with -1/-1 counters. Thanks to the Quillspike, it even looks to break persist by letting those creatures return again and again- and at full strength. Packed full of creatures with a small supporting suite, this is one midrange deck that truly lives up to its name. (reviews: not available)
Life Drain
Colours: White, Black
Set: Eventide
Rares: Archon of Justice, Divinity of Pride
Detail: Another Eventide deck, Life Drain instead looks to play with the transference of life. Whether it be through creatures with lifelink or draining effects like Syphon Life, this deck’s spindown life counter becomes a perpetual motion machine. It runs the usual 24/12 split of creatures to effects, and while it’s not the most aggressive deck of the lot the ability to keep itself topped up with life lets it develop nearly at its leisure. (reviews: not available)
Army of Entropy
Colours: Black, Red
Set: Shadowmoor
Rares: Ashenmoor Liege, Din of the Fireherd
Detail: This deck is packed full of Elementals, and turns -1/-1 counters to its advantage. Blowfly Infestation keeps the drain-train going, while the counters keep coming through wither and Scar. Despite the name, the deck runs a leaner mix of creatures than others in its set, but that gives it plenty of room for a robust supporting suite. (reviews: not available)
Superabundance
Colours: Blue, Green
Set: Eventide
Rares: Fable of Wolf and Owl, Spitting Image
Detail: Much of the “colour-matters Shadowmoor” environment triggers off of the playing of certain colours of spells, and Superabundance shwcases this to the hilt. When every spell you play triggers added bonuses and effects, most any opponent will soon find itself buried beneath a mountain of incremental advantage! (reviews: not available)
Kamahl’s Temper
Colours: Red
Set: Tenth Edition
Rares: Beacon of Destruction, Kamahl Pit Fighter
Detail: This mono-Red deck plays off the customary archetype, with cheap and aggressive creatures backed by a complement of burn spells. Although the Core Set decks tend to be seen as the lesser contenders thanks to a generally lower complexity and power level, there’s not a lot in the field that can long withstand sufficient fire to the face! (reviews: not available)
And there you have it! Thanks again for bearing with the delay, and we’ll resume our exciting pre-con coverage this coming Monday. Don’t forget to leave your predictions for Games 9 and 10 in the comments below!
Ertai's Lament 
Glad to hear that there aren’t any problems with the twins, your previous tweet was a bit worrying :S
My predictions this week:
Game 9: Death March – Both rares of this deck are a fearsome sight in the field, the core set deck will have a hard time with this one.
Game 10: Army of Entropy – I really like both decks, but this one has a controllish side with the -1/-1 counters and the Kulrath knight that can give it an edge against the orzhov one, imo.
Game 9: Death March. Creakwood Liege is soooo annoying to play against.
Game 10: Life Drain. It’ll be a tough one, but I think Life has enough life gain to stall the board and turn the game around before the -1/-1 counters really set in.
Nice to see that the twins are fine.
Game 9: Cho-Manno’s Resolve
Game 10: Army of Entropy
I have not been impressed with the Eventide decks.
Good to hear all is well!
9: Death March. Lieges are nuts.
10: Army of Entropy. Lieges are nuts. It could go either way. Divinity of Pride is insane with enough life gain support, but… I like the sound of a robust support suite more.
Hmm, time to claw my way back into this. How about…
9: Death March
10: Life Drain
Death march and life drain
Game 9: Death March
Game 10: Life Drain(My favorite theme deck)
9: Death March – Hard removal, a very forgiving hybrid mana cost on most cards, creatures that can get really scary really fast, and enchantment/artifact destruction and hoses the white removal package. Death March gets my vote.
10: Army of Entropy – This one could go ether way. Both decks are amazingly powerful with great removal packages. However, the haste creatures and incredible reach from AoE will keep the divinity of pride off line just long enough to win this one in the end.
Game 9: Death March
Game 10: Life Drain
Game 9: Death March
Game 10: Life Drain
P.S. I’m glad to hear everything’s okay!
Good to hear everything’s fine with your wife and future Magicers 🙂
1. Cho-Manno’s Resolve – I have seen too many core decks win against all odds. I’m betting this one will be the same. In any case, I remember playing with the blue deck (Arcanis’ Guile?) and losing a lot.
2. Army of Entropy – no good reason, I just bet on red/black vs white/black because it feels like it’s much more aggressive.
9: Deathmarch
Both decks have 3 pieces of removal, but Death march has creatures with wither which can act as pseudo-removal, and Cho-manno’s deck only has 40 cards giving better chance of drawing. Cho-Manno has lots of tap effects but they come slowly. Deathmarch is not fast but has 8 creatures with mana cost 1 or 2. Cho-mano’s early drops have first strike, but outside of that the deck has few things that will become legitimate threats. I can see deathmarch having a superior late game due to combos with persist and Quillspike, and has 3 cards to deal with Cho-mano in case he comes into play. Creakwood Liege is a total bomb and will win the match a few turns after it is in play.
10: Life Drain
The deck starts much faster than Army with 13 1 and 2 drops, and although small, offer incremental advantage. It has a Woeleecher but it only affects 2 cards with persist, the 2 resltess apparitions. A lot of the creatures are on the small side and do little but make small life increments. Flickerwisp, Voracious Hatchling and the 2 rares are really good creatures, and could pontentially change the game once they hit play, especially Divinity of Pride. Life drain has 6 pieces of removal with 2 Recumbent bliss, 2 unmakes, and 2 Soul Reap which is quite solid though. Superior removal will decimate the problematic wither or persist creatures Army will throw, and incremental advantage will slowly advance the game to the late where it will draw into its big flyers, meanwhile soaking damage through all the methods of lifegain present in the deck.
Army of Entropy has removal but it is mostly in the form of -1/-1 counters, and has 6 direct removal spells, but 3 of these are scar which only places a -1/-1 counter. The 2 Kulrath Knight’s are the key to turn the deck’s smaller removal into real removal along with the 5 wither creatures it has. Deck also has 2 Murderous Redcap which have the same problem as the deck’s core removal spells, being the small range. The deck is on the slow side, packing only 4 2-drop creatures, and plenty of creatures costing 5 or more mana(6). There is removal and synergy in this deck but it relies too much on a 5 drop card with only 2 copies to really deliver any promise of prominent -1/-1 counter problems, its creatures are not aggresive enough, and has little ways of dealing with bigger creatures.
Game 9: Cho-Manno’s first strike and flying help it get the win – it looks like it’ll have to win quickly to do it, but I think it may have enough of those keywords to do it before Death March’s big beasties beat it down.
Game 10: I’m going with Life Drain.
9: Death March
10: Life Drain
Frig, I’m seriously on top? Haha.
I’mma guess the Death March kicks its opponent’s butt, but not by much. Life Drain sounds like it’s got a strong chance as well, so maybe they’ll be seeing each other soon. 🙂
Very happy you got good news!
9. Deathmarch
10. Life Drain
Game 9: Death March
Game 10: Army of Entropy
For their names alone, Death March and Army of Entropy must win the day!
death march
life drain
9: death march
10: army of entropy
9 – Cho-manno’s resolve
10 – Life drain
Game 1: Death March
Game 2: Life Drain
Opps i meant Game 9: Death March
Game 10: Life Drain
Total guesses for these.
Game 9 – Death March – the 10th edition decks were surprises last time, but I do like that Liege…
Game 10 – I have no idea, so I’ll say Army of Entropy. Lifegain doesn’t really do it for me.
G9: Death March
G10: Could go either way I think but I have to choose, so – Army of Entropy
9) Death March
10) Life Drain
Game 9: Death March (EVE)
Game 10: Army of Entropy (SHM)
G9. Death March G10. Life Drain
9. Cho-Manno’s Resolve (10E)
10. Army of Entropy (SHM)
I’m probably wrong, but after looking over the decklists….
Death March
Life Drain
Death match and army of entropy 🙂