From: dgray@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel M Gray)
Subject: Re: Pro Tour and Nationals Stuff
Date: 8 Jul 96 21:36:01 GMT

iqjeff@aol.com (IQJeff) writes:

>On the Pro Tour...alot of the LA players were using Browse, but
>Red/White/Green dominated the scene. The two cards that I saw the most?
>Thawing Glaciers and Kjeldoran Outpost. As I walked around checking out
>all the matches, it was very rare to see a match that didn't have at least
>one Thawing Glaciers on at least one side of the table. Without Strip
>Mines and Armageddons, it rules!

	Correction-- some of the LA players and all but one of the San Diego
players were playing U/W Browse/Digger decks. Lots of non-Californians were
playing them as well. The most popular deck types were probably R/W(usually
with Jokulhaups, Gargoyle, Blinking, DD, and the "Dude Ranch"), U/W, and
R/G/b(what the PCL Team, who all played the deck dubbed "BugBind"-- Stormbind,
Woolly Spiders, Giant Trap Door Spiders, Deadly Insect, Mind Warp, and some
other stuff). Probably the best-constructed of the U/W Browse/Digger decks was
the one played by Brian Hacker(from San Diego).
	Surprisingly, there were some Necro-based decks that did well,
including a monoblack one run by Dave Dittmer, and a B/W one run by Brian
Weissman & John Immordino(all three of them finished in the top 16).

>The Kjeldoran Outpost was also VERY popular, and it obliterated the
>Blue/White defensive decks. Jokulhaups/Ivory Gargoyle was another
>favorite...three of the decks in the Juniors final four supported this
>combo. 

	In order, by my count(I was one of the judges at both PT3 &
Nationals), the most popular cards were Kjeldoran Outpost, Thawing Glaciers,
Blinking Spirit, and Jester's Cap, roughly in that order. Also plenty of
Gargoyles, Jokulhaups, Icys, Pillages, white removal, direct damage, and
Deadly Insects.

>Overall, there was some interesting stuff, but it wasn't nearly as
>interesting as the Nationals Finals - there was a G/W Armageddon
>deck...with no creatures (save Titania's Song), two Stasis decks...with no
>white cards other than Kismets and Land Tax, and of course the champion
>deck...a red/black Necro deck with NO Disks or Drain Life's in either the
>main deck or the sideboard. The final four were pretty distinct, to say
>the least.

	The top 16 from Nationals was truly more diverse than I thought it
would be. By a count made by Beth Moursund and Jeff Lin, there were 44
Necrodecks out of the 122 players. The top 4 were:

1. Dennis Bentley
	B/r Necro with Bolts, a single Fireball, 1 Shatter, 12 knights, and no
Disks. Definitely not standard Necro.

2. George Baxter
	W/Artifacts/u/g Titania's Song/Winter Orb deck with Fellwars, Serrated
Arrows, the white removal pack(StP, Disenchant, Balance, & WoG), Factories and
some other stuff. Probably the most interesting deck at the tournament.

3/4. Mike Long
	U/w/b/artifact TurboStasis with Kismet, Howlers, Arcane Denial, Force
of Will, Lim-Dul's Vault, and Boomerang.

3/4. Matt Place
	U/w/b/artifact TurboStasis almost identical to Long's deck.

The rest of the top 16:
Pete Leiher
	Standard monoblack Necro(defeated by Baxter in the quarters).

Mike Dove
	U/W TurboStasis, similar to Long's & Place's decks, but without
Lim-Dul's Vault(defeated by Baxter in the round of 16)

Bruce Swiney
	Standard monoblack Necro

Derik Mortimer
	Standard monoblack Necro

Mark Justice
	B/w Necro with enough white for Balance and some Disenchants

Kevin(?) Adams
	R/W more or less standard stop-it-all type deck that I didn't look at
too carefully.

Chris Gross
	R/W

Brendon Herzog
	Standard monoblack Necro(and the only 4-2 match record player to make
the top 16).

Adam Green
	G/W/R creatures/direct damage/white removal deck. Adam was,
unfortunately, disqualified at the round of 16 when it was discovered his deck
only had 59 cards. It was an honest mistake, but rules are rules.

Jason Zila
	G/W Erhnams, white removal, Armageddon, Dervishes, Sylvan Library.
Basically Erhnageddon with a few twists thrown in.

Travis Thomas
	G/W as well. I didn't get to look too closely at this deck.

Rick Latham
	R/G Erhnam'n'Burn 'Em with Elvish Rangers, Dervishes, Sylvan,
Primitive Justice, Pillage, Erhnams, and a bunch of DD.

	I've got exact listings of all but two of these decks, but I'm not
going to post them to the net without permission from their creators.

			Dan Gray

>Jeff Hannes
>Games Editor, InQuest Magazine
>IQJeff@aol.com