2007-08 Precon Championships: We Have a Winner!

This has been our sixth season of the Preconstructed Championships- three years of the most exciting event in preconstructed Magic. It is also our fourth Prediction League, and it looks like a new record has been set!

Against the odds, Duel Deck: Goblins stormed to victory over a heavily-favoured Merrow Commerce. As the Merrow pilot observed throughout the match, “It feels like I’m always just a turn behind you,” which meant that the Goblins had just enough speed to stay ahead of the Merfolk’s board development. As we’ve seen, once the Merfolk are able to kick off their synergy engine, they become extraordinarily difficult to unseat.

This puts the Gobbos in some esteemed company, and makes them only the second-ever Duel Deck to win it all. Things were much less clear, however, with our Prediction League. What a finish! Given the lower number of points available in the competition since the 2007-08 Season didn’t have a full thirty-two decks, we saw congestion at the top of the leaderboard almost right up to the end. Here are the stories of four of our competitors (in alpha order).

Aaro is a longtime reader of the site, and has been in the hunt with the Prediction League from the beginning. In October of 2011, we saw Duel Deck: Elspeth barnstorm to glory, but Aaro was only getting his feet wet. Ending the season with only 5 points (the winner of the Prediction League that season did it with 20), he surely knew that he’d want to do even better the next time around. Sure enough, the following May he had improved his form, almost tripling his earlier result. Only twice in this season’s competition did Aaro fail to pick up at least half the points available in a round, and that consistency kept him in the hunt.

If the mark of a champion isn’t in not failing, it’s how one deals with that failure, then Karnival has earned the title. He took only a single point in each of the first five rounds of predicting- out of a possible fourteen. Many at that point would have called it a day, walked away and found something else to try. Not Karnival. He redoubled his efforts, looked within to find where he was going wrong- and poured it on. With an incredible 83% success rate for the reest of the competition, he stormed right back into contention!

“If it wasn’t for you meddling kids,” goes a common villain’s lament from Scooby Doo, and Sparky– while by no means a villain- will surely shake his fist at the Lauer Division’s opening round. Betting against Elementals’ Path, Battalion, and Turnabout proved costly, as it proved a fateful stumble against the backdrop of what had been some commanding performances this season. Up until that point, Sparky had put himself on the map by turning in two rounds with perfect guesses. When the fateful Lauer stumble came along, Sparky knew he’d need to turn in another perfect performance to stay on top. If you heard that only one predictor got a perfect score in the final round, you wouldn’t want to bet against Sparky- and you’d be right.

Finally, we come to our frontrunner, Triumph. If that fateful first round of the Lauer was costly for Sparky, it was a moment to savour for Triumph. For the first time in the competition, we had a clear-cut leader of the pack occupying the pole position. His lead was as narrow as they come- just a single point- and it disappeared the next turn when a commanding, 3-for-3 performance from Aaro saw Triumph having to share the limelight once again. Nevertheless, Triumph had a consistently analytic approach to picking winners, and his picks were well thought-out and researched. That extra legwork ensured that when the dust finally settled, he’d have a place at the podium as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are your for Prediction League winners for 2007-08! A hearty congratulations to them all! Here’s how the final leaderboard looks:

Now comes the saddest of duties, as we have only the one prize package to award! In the last Preconstructed Championships, both Euphet16 and Jenesis finished in first place, and so both had their plaques mounted in the Hall of Champions. So it will be today, as all four of our competitors will share eternal preconstructed glory equally. But there can be only one prizewinner… or can there?

We’re happy to announce that each of the three runners-up will not go away empty-handed, instead getting a $25 gift certificate for Mind Games, Ltd! As a reminder, our Grand Prize consists of:

• A copy of Duel Decks: Sorin vs Tibalt
• A Dragon’s Maze Fat Pack
• A sealed Theme Deck from the 2007-08 Season (a surprise!)
• A $30 gift certificate to Mind Games, Ltd

To pick a winner for the Grand Prize, I enlisted the aid of my assistant. Together we wrote each name on an identically-sized chit:

Then we folded them into quarters, and stuck them in a Fat Pack box, like so:

After giving the box a thorough shake, my assistant had the difficult duty of withdrawing one at random, which he faithfully discharged:

And the name Liam picked? Congratulations go to…

Again, thank you to everyone for playing- winner, runners-up, and everyone else who participated! This wouldn’t be half of what it is without your participation, and it gives us tremendous enjoyment. Thanks also to Mind Games, Ltd, for sponsoring the competition! And huge thanks to That Guy James for the amazing graphic for our Grand Final.

For those eager for another crack, this Autumn’s “Fall Classic” will be the 2012-13 Season, meaning Return to Ravnica Block. What will happen when the Guilds go to war? Stay tuned to find out!

Finally, to the winners: Please contact us about collecting your prizes!