GP Top Eight Question #2: Colors

[Matt]

By percantage of cards in the top 8, what do you predict the color rank will be? The colors are blue, red, green, white, artifact, and black, which is also my order. Gold cards count towards both (all? Go Sol'Kanar!) colors.

Blue should be obvious. Gro, Tide, Landstill, Goblins are the current contenders for the throne. Red will be a less popular color choice but the players who go red will go VERY red (green will be splashed for Gro creqtures, etc., while burn and goblins are very pure). Green gives the gro men, and maybe a Survival. Artifact gives Vial, Jitte, the occasional Chrome Mox, and techier stuff like Worb, Tormod's Crypt, and Null Rod. Black is a huge stinker right now; Duress is hot, and so is Engineered Plague, but it's not being used in any serious Survival (its most 'natural' partner) or control decks, and its creatures have never been less impressive.

Further predictions: the most-played card of each category!

blue: Force of Will, no contest
red: in a contest between Goblin Lackey and Lightning Bolt, I'll go with the Lackey. This is kind of meaningless, because where Lackeys go, so will Piledrivers, and Bolt has its own partners in crime.
green: Werebear will put up more T8 numbers than Survival.
white: Swords to Plowshares. Another easy one. Meddling Mage comes #2. After that...Seal of Cleansing maybe?
artifact: Jitte, then Vial.
black: Cabal Therapy edges out Duress. The closest contest, but paradoxically also the least exciting.

[JACO]

While Vial Goblins is a really good deck, in our testing it seems to lose to RDW/decent Sligh unless you have a white sideboard. 4x Mogg Fanatic, 4x Grim Lavamancer, and 4x Cursed Scroll never seem to let Goblin get their creatures established, let alone all the Bolts to blow away creatures with. But in spite of that, I think you'll see more Goblins in the Top 8 than Lightning Bolts.

Black: Duress (yes, this will edge out Cabal Therapy, because a number of aggro control decks like Tog, Rock, and GroATog will play Duress, and mainly combo type decks like Reanimator or Life will be playing Therapy)
Blue: Force of Will or Brainstorm (yes, this will be close)
Green: Eternal Witness or Survival of the Fittest
Red: Goblin Lackey & Goblin Piledriver
White: Swords to Plowshares
Artifact: AEther Vial (no contest; Jitte may appear, but AEther Vial is much more important against control)
Gold: Pernicious Deed