Subject: Results & Report-- Santa Ana, CA PTQ 10/27/96 From: dgray@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel M Gray) Date: 1996/10/30 Message-Id: A Professional Tournament Qualifier for Dallas was held on Sunday, October 27 at the Windsor Suites Hotel in Santa Ana, CA. As with all the other qualifiers, the format was Ice Age/Alliances constructed deck, with a number of Swiss Rounds followed by single elimination for the top 8 Masters and Junior Division players. The tournament was run by Tournament Director Scott Larabee, with myself acting as Head Judge, and with assistance from a volunteer staff of Andrea Kunstt, Ken Roth(visiting from Chicago), Krista Miller, Preston Poulter, and Tom Page. We ran seven rounds of Swiss, and the tournament drew 112 players(82 Masters and 30 Juniors). The decks ran from the expected(R/W/G Gargoyle/Jokulhaups, B/W Necropotence, various Browse decks) to the new(monoblack speed Pox) to the interesting(Zur's Weirding, a B/R Necro variant). Every single deck in the tournament had a Zuran Orb somewhere in it(110 in the main deck, 2 in the sideboard). Other popular cards were Thawing Glaciers(appearing in a wopping 89 of 112 decks), Jester's Cap(in 74 decks), and Stormbind(39 decks). Thanks go out from both Scott and myself to everyone who participated(we had players from all over Northern and Southern California, as well as a contingent from Arizona) and to the staff. Congratulations to both the Masters and Juniors qualifiers, as well as to John Magee of Isla Vista, CA who won the Sanctioned Chinese Sealed Deck side tournament. The tournament results were as follows: Junior Division: 1. Jeff Hoida Stockton, CA B/W Necro 2. Daniel Barry Stockton, CA G/R/b 3/4. Ryan Barker Lake Elsinore, CA B/R Necro/'haups 3/4. Kyle Smith San Diego, CA R/W/b 'haups 5-8. Matt Mortensen Phoenix, AZ R/W 'haups 5-8. David Strunk, Jr. Stanton, CA G/R/W 'haups 5-8. Charles Kornblith Pasadena, CA G/R/W 5-8. Brian Selden San Diego, CA G/R/W 'haups In the Quarterfinals: Ryan Barker defeated Matt Mortensen 2-0 Daniel Barry defeated David Strunk, Jr. 2-0 Jeff Hoida defeated Charles Kornblith 2-0 Kyle Smith defeated Brian Selden 2-1 In the Semifinals: Jeff Hoida defeated Ryan Barker 2-0 Daniel Barry defeated Kyle Smith 2-0 In the Finals: Jeff Hoida defeated Daniel Barry 2-0 Masters Division: 1. Mark Hendrickson Covinia, CA B/R Necro 2. Huei-Saint Shwe Sunnyvale, CA B/U/R Browse 3/4. Mark Chalice Claremont, CA B/R Necro 3/4. Binh Pham Santa Barbara, CA B/W Necro 5-8. Cory Jones Capistrano Beach, CA U/W Zur's Weirding 5-8. Colin Mayfield Citrus Heights, CA B/W Necro 5-8. Antonio Lemos Los Angeles, CA B/W/u 5-8. Arthur Kimes Hollywood, CA B Pox In the Quarterfinals: Mark Chalice defeated Cory Jones 2-0 Mark Hendrickson defeated Colin Mayfield 2-0 Huei-Saint Shwe defeated Antonio Lemos 2-0 Binh Pham defeated Arthur Kimes 2-0 In the Semifinals: Mark Hendrickson defeated Binh Pham 2-0 Huei-Saint Shwe defeated Mark Chalice 2-0 In the Finals: Mark Hendrickson defeated Huei-Saint Shwe 2-0 Unlike other qualifiers I've judged and played in, no one player totally dominated the tournament(the best record was 5-0-2, and the eventual Masters Winner went 5-2 in the Swiss rounds). The B/R Necrodeck played by both Hendrickson and Chalice was the deck that was most interesting to me personally. It contained all the usual black Necro elements(Knights, Specters, Necro), plus Stromgald Spy. The red was mostly direct damage, with Orcish Cannoneers and Karpulsan Yeti. As Colin Mayfield said to me right before his quarterfinal match with Mark Hendrickson, "The B/R deck has a total metagame advantage over the me." Mayfield was playing a "standard" B/W Necrodeck(based on the one played by Brian Weissman and John Immordino in Columbus), and throughout the day, Hendrickson and Chalice had beaten B/W decks due to the B/R deck's superior ability to remove creatures. In fact, the Karpulsan Yeti proved to be the favored creature-remover for many decks throughout the day(it also appeared in the deck of Masters Finalist Huei-Saint Shwe). Several other unexpected creatures put in appearances in winning decks. The B/R Necrodeck also included Stromgald Spy(several other Necrodecks used the Spy as well)-- it made a difference in several games throughout the day, which, I suppose, might say something about not underestimating the power of Glasses of Urza :) Numerous decks(including Shwe's and all three of the Santa Barbara B/W Necros[played by Binh Pham, Joel Unger, and Ernest Alexander]) included Walking Wall, a creature I haven't seen in a major tournament recently. Orcish Cannoneers also enjoyed a Renaissance of sorts, appearing in the B/R Necrodecks and a number of R/G decks. For those interested, here were the standings after the Swiss rounds(this only includes those who scored 7 or more match points, an equivalent of a 3-2-1 record). A "(J)" following a name denotes a Junior. Player MatchPts. OppMatch% 1. Mark Chalice 12 63 2. Colin Mayfield 12 62 3. Antonio Lemos 12 57 4. Arthur Kimes 12 55 5. Binh Pham 12 53 6. Matt Mortensen(J) 12 49 7. Huei-Saint Shwe 11 62 8. David Strunk, Jr.(J) 11 50 9. Charles Kornblith(J) 11 45 10. Mark Hendrickson 10 68 11. Cory Jones 10 62 12. Frank Chafe 10 60 13. Joel Unger 10 59 14. Jesse Powell 10 57 15. Kyle Smith(J) 10 56 16. Brian Selden(J) 10 56 17. Jason Hee 10 53 18. Jeff Hoida(J) 10 53 19. Cathy Nicoloff 10 49 20. Daniel Barry(J) 10 43 21. Ryan Barker(J) 10 42 22. Riad Mourssali(J) 9 62 23. Larry McBride 9 62 24. Ariel Sas(J) 9 55 25. Jesse Zinn(J) 9 47 26. Thierry Dallacroce 9 37 27. Truc Bui 8 63 28. Michael Wesolek 8 60 29. Omar Valencia 8 60 30. Daniel Britton(J) 8 59 31. Jason Guillroy(J) 8 59 32. Tony Trupiano 8 59 33. Andrew Ulman 8 52 34. Jason Ho(J) 8 51 35. Mike Britton(J) 8 47 36. Steve Sulzby 8 43 37. Greg Marquez 8 43 38. Matt Feller 8 41 39. Eugene Negri(J) 8 38 40. Shane Cargilo 7 62 41. Ernest Alexander 7 57 42. Michael Schulte 7 56 43. John Grieggs 7 55 44. Quoc Pham(J) 7 50 The following is the color distribution of the decks in the tournament: Monoblack 1 Monoblue 1 Monogreen 1 Monored 1 Monowhite 1 R/G 12 B/W 15 (all the B/W decks were Necrodecks) B/U 5 B/R 14 (11 contained Necro) U/R 4 (all Browse/Digger decks) R/W 5 G/W 5 U/W 8 (2 were Zur's Weirding decks, the rest were Browse/Digger decks) R/G/W 23 (all Gargoyle 'haups decks of one kind or another) R/U/G 1 R/U/W/(b) 9 (8 of them were similar to Sean Fleischman's Columbus deck) B/R/W 1 I hope everyone found this report useful, and I hope everyone who participated in the tournament enjoyed themselves. The next Los Angeles area qualifier will be for Long Beach sometime early in December(date and location TBA, the format is sealed deck, type TBA). Dan Gray