I think for these it's a little easier to score by rank, so with that said, here's my scoring for the decks:
Competitiveness / Record:This is primarily record, but for tiebreaks I looked at strength of schedule / head2head.
6 points - Warrior's Guild. Record of 6-1 and the only loss was to draw I suspect all of these decks fold to (T3 lily, T6 chandra + intervening removal)
5 points - Bounce Da Mage. Although it went 6-1 here with the only real loss being to the shuffler, we did get thrashed post-concession by the AI one match, which makes me suspect the feeling "this can't possibly be working this well" is more real than not.
4 points - IWCOWABNIP. Record of 4-3 and although the call between elements and thopters was probably the hardest one since I think both have a similar power curve -thopters doing it slightly sooner, elements doing it a little more consistently. The ultimate deciding factor is I'm pretty confident that head to head it isn't a question of which deck is the dog, but rather by how much so thopters gets the nod.
3 points - Bearing the Elements. Record 4-3, see thopters.
2 points - Iron Lion Scion. Record 3-4. I think this one probably is about the same power level as the previous two, just happens to be a win back of the other two from this series.
1 point - Spirits in the Sky. Record 2-5. It won about half it's games where the shuffler didn't hose it, and actually hung tough in some where it did. Not entirely clear to me that in a different series of games this isn't right in the same tier as thopters and elementals.
0 points - Dork Alliance. Record 2-5. Played this one the most of any of the decks outside of elementals and at 8-12 overall (with many against AI) I'm pretty confident saying that in my hands it's about a 30% deck (with another 10% when the opponent gets hosed). I was reading back through my games and Nomad's - I wonder if 80% of the difference isn't just that the overwhelming amount of the time my T2/T3 healer got merc'd immediately (and partially why it's best streak was when I was playing the 4th healer).
Build:I scored this by things like curve+mana/colors/strength of the plan. Basically should/does the deck execute a plan that can win consistently.
6 points - Bounce da Mage. Just no issues really with the build, it's got a plan that somehow wins and executes relentlessly.
5 points - Warrior's Guild. Two tiny things I wasn't crazy about here - one was inciter's/copters. Seems like another 2 drop creature would've fit better. The other was we're skewed white for the 4 drops, but the early-plan warriors would've been better off skewed even or a bit red. Still excellent, just not quite the same polish as wizards.
4 points - Bearing the Elements. I ended up really happy with the structure of the build, it's probably the most consistent deck I've ever built and I like the flexibility where it's very likely to get to 5-6 lands on time, but unlike most ramp decks it avoids (for the most part) the split deck problem. In play-testing it tended towards sticking just enough between roil and the two drops to fend off aggro pretty well, but here it was pretty apparent its going to be frequently run past if you don't find
heaven // earth. I did yank terrain elemental #4 for sage #2 last minute, and maybe that was the difference, but I suspect it was just dodging the toughest aggro matches in play-test (or being on the play in them).
3 points - Spirits in the Sky. Although in my series it was drawing like crap, there's no reason that it should. The evasion+anthems with tempo elements all seemed to work really well to make for very enjoyable games.
2 points - Iron Lion Scion. Mostly just a touch light on black for some of the early doubles, curve felt right on with the scions bopping around. Plan was strong, aside from what was mentioned earlier - it can can have some shaky games when the opponent isn't trying to win with grounded creatures.
1 point - IWCOWABNIP. Really light on blue to be playing whirler and thopter sky network. Tends to work out in the end anyway since the overall power level of the cards is high. I didn't think I'd like the rebukes much here, but they played well in my series. Can go from catch-up to lethal startlingly fast.
0 points - Dork Alliance. I've covered the split plan. The land-base did skew black, but I think I'd have preferred it go a little further yet to get the removal suite online sooner, possibly dropping AoI/Abbey to make it happen/smooth it out since neither really felt especially powerful here. Yes it pushes Gideon out another turn or so on average, but I think that still works out since he primarily played as a finisher for me in this deck.
Enjoyment:Purely subjective scale of how much fun I had playing them.
6 points - Iron Lion Scion. The spicy one ofs were generally great and I liked the overall feel of the deck as this kinda slow, inevitable, infestation that executes the plan, but plays a bit differently each time. Really did a great job of blending the plan+play+theme of the deck while incorporating some cards you don't get to play that often but were great fits here, and I dig that a lot.
5 points - Bounce Da Mage. The list wasn't much to look at, and the plan is eyebrow raising, but all that feeds in to just feeling great when you pull it off such that it probably owns my 2 favorite games from this round.
4 points - Bearing the Elements. This is probably just a boost from having played it a lot. I love the interplay with roil and omnath so much and with the roils and recursion/sorting/walkers has a just a relentless mid-late game.
3 points - IWCOWABNIP. Really enjoyed the 0-60 time on this deck. Starts off a little slow, but with the chiefs/throne you can sniff out lethal from fairly benign looking board states.
2 points - Warrior's Guild. This isn't even a general knock - just personal preference - but plays out such that it's apparent pretty early whether it's going to be a win or loss (mostly win) so I tended not to get particularly invested.
1 point - Spirits in the Sky. This probably ends up higher with a more balanced series. I did enjoy playing it when I got the chance though.
0 points - Dork Alliance. See Competitiveness/Build. 30% of the time it was a blast, 60% of the time I felt like Oliver Twist.
Tribal Breakage:So this one I thought on long an hard. All the decks did a great job highlighting the tribe and identifying a plan for them and then using the out-of tribe cards to support it. First 6 met the requirements even though the last couple tribals were on balance pretty weak and are basically running the spectrum from the out-of tribe cards falling in the "good stuff" category vs. more synergy with the tribal plan.
0 points - Warrior's Guild. This one and thopters are probably the only lists that the opponent leaves the game and isn't wondering "did I just play a tribal deck?" The top end being mostly out-of tribe and just tangentially related to the "kill-em fast" plan is what lands it here.
1 point - IWCOWABNIP. Chandra and skysovereign fit well, but draw some of the attention away from the thopter plan.
3 points - Spirits in the Sky. Most of the top end is out-of tribe, but in the case of Gisela she's a decent fit at a bargain price, and Gideon/wyvern's are feeding into the anthem effects for spirits.
3 points - Bearing the Elements. Similar to spirits in that some of the primary power is (trackers/chandra/Mina) is out of tribe, but generally fit really well with the tribes plan.
3 points - Bounce da Mage. See spirits/elementals. River marshall, open into wonder, and deep fiend are all seemless fits in the wizarding plan (particularly wonder since it can trigger docent). Spire patrol fits the evasive/tricky mold and I'd hesitate to attribute overly much of the deck's success to them (although they're structurally fine).
5 points - Iron Lion Scion. Cruel reality doesn't really feel like a win-con without any sweepers to force the issue, and gearhulk played mostly as value removal. The other power out-of tribe pieces (shambler, aid, leap, bontu) are all uniquely benefited slotting in aside all the scions/scion generators.
And then there's Dork Alliance - 6
Didn't just meet the requirements but ran
22 tribal cards and then had the chutzpah to cut two of the most on-plan cards (healer#4 and retreat#3) for arguably inferior out-of tribe options (priest and procession) such that it was the only deck that left me wondering "why can't I have more tribal cards?"
Diabolical.
Final Scores:Bearing the Elements - 4 points (14 total)
IWCOWABNIP - 2 points (9 total)
Bounce da Mage - 6 points (19 total)
Warrior's Guild - 3 points (13 total)
Iron Lion Scion - 5 points (15 total)
Dork Alliance - 0 points (6 total)
Spirits in the Sky - 1 point (8 total)