Hickory Smoke Distress: Called It!

Those who are fans of Distress Inks, Tim Holtz, or Ranger Products know what's happening every month this year. Every month a new color is released and added to the Distress Ink line of products. I made my predictions back in February after the second color was released. You can see those predictions HERE.

So for June this is the new color:

Holy Smoke! Umm...I mean, Hickory Smoke! It's another gray!
So guess what? CALLED IT! In fact, this wasn't even a gray area like last month's color, Twisted Citron.
My very first prediction was for another shade of gray. Here's what I wrote for a color I called "Wet Clay":
"I predicted in one of my past posts that a new color to the line would be in the grey area...literally. So that's my first pick. This Distress color would be a darker shade of gray than Pumice Stone. Perfect for shadows and shading or even just stamping an outline without the BLACK!"

Where do I stand now for the half way point of predictions? (Well, not really half-way. I started late so I'm only predicting 10 out of 12 colors.)
I'm sitting pretty with 2 out of 4 currently. I may have 3 out of 4, if Twisted Citron turns out to be an accurate prediction. (See this POST for reference.) The only one that didn't work out was Mermaid Lagoon.

Hickory Smoke is less of a "whoopee" color and more of a staple that was needed to the line. Pumice Stone is a decent gray neutral but if you just wanted to stamp with it, you could lose detail to it's light color. Hickory Smoke looks like it will make a good stamping ink without being BLACK.

I'm trying to add all the new colors to my marker collection but am picking and choosing what other forms to get. This may be one that I'll invest in the inkpad for the reason listed above.

Thanks for dropping in!
--Wy