1994 United States National Championship
| 1994 US Nationals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | July 1994 | |||
| Location | San Jose, California. | |||
| Format | Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, and Revised constructed | |||
| Winner | Bo Bell | |||
| ||||
The 1994 United States National Championship was held in July 1994 at the annual Origins convention, which that year was being held in San Jose, California. Magic at this point didn't have seperate formats, but it was announced before the start of the tournament that only cards without an expansion symbol would be allowed to be played. The event was won by Bo Bell, who played a black based discard deck.[1][2]
Description
Qualifying
The tournament was open entry, there was no system of qualifiers or invitations.
Format
In 1994 there weren't seperate formats yet: there was just Magic. However, before the tournament the Duelists' Convocation had banned all cards from expansion sets in an effort to make things more accessible to newer players. This was not widely known; after it was announced half an hour before the event started most players rapidly needed to reconstruct their decks.[3]
Rather than it being "Core set constructed", as modern players might understand it, the rule was no cards with expansion symbols. This meant that a Revised Edition Kird Ape was a legal card, but the original Arabian Nights printing was not. It was also clarified by Duelists' Convocation head Steve Bishop that the Antiquities printing of Reconstruction, which had been printed without the set's Anvil symbol, was able to be played at the event.[4] (Reconstruction was also in Revised)
The event was run as a single elimination bracket.
Tournament
The types of decks that were popular at the event were aggressive "Burn" decks, as well as "Counter-Burn" and decks which played big fatties. No players using Chaos Orbs are known to have made it past the first round.[1]
Future head designer Mark Rosewater participated in the event, being knocked out in the second round. The deck he had originally built was heavily based on cards from Antiquities which put him at a disadvantage when it came to making last minute adjustments.[4]
Grand final
The two finalists were Bo Bell, from California, and Don Smith.
Bo was playing a predominately blue and black deck built around four copies of Mind Twist and three copies of The Rack. Two of the Revised The Racks he played had been traded to him before the event by Gene Rosewater, the father of Mark Rosewater.[1][4]
His opponent Don played a "White Black Speed deck" with aggressive creatures like Savannah Lions and the White and Black Knights. These were paired with disruptive elements in Winter Orb and Ankh of Mishra.[5]
The match was best-of-three, and was won by Bo. The key card in the final game was a forced last minute addition to the deck: Phantom Monster.
| “ | I put in the Control's, the Assassins and Queens (oh... and the 1 Phantom Monster; I was scrambling for ANYTHING to go in). And it's funny... the Phantom Monster won me the third game of the Finals (we only played a best of 3). | ” |
—Bo Bell"[1] | ||
Final Result
| Place | Player | Deck | Colors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bo Bell | Mind Twist Rack Control |    
|
| 2 | Don Smith | White/Black Weenies | 
|
Winning deck
The deck played by 1994 US Champion Bo Bell as published in the November 1994 issue of Shadis[2]. Brian David-Marshall gives a slightly different decklist in a 2011 article on magicthegathering.com which is missing the Ivory Tower and four creatures.[1]
Bo did not use a sideboard.[6]
| “ | Now you may look at this deck and say, “That’s the deck that won? I could beat that!”
You may be right. This deck didn’t win because it’s anything special. It won because it’s solid, and because I got some lucky breaks. But out of the opponents I faced I know that I won because it’s a solid deck. There’s a little something for every occasion. And I didn’t get caught with cards I couldn’t use. |
” |
—Bo Bell[2] | ||
References
- ↑ a b c d e Brian David-Marshall (August 5, 2011). "Teaming Up for US Nationals (website)". The Week That Was. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved on June 27, 2025.
- ↑ a b c Bo Bell (November1994). "The Winning Deck (And how to build one) (pdf)". Shadis #16, pp. 63. Shadis. Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved on June 27, 2025.
- ↑ Beth Moursund (May 1996). "A history of the DC's Tournament Rules (pdf)". Duelist #10, pp. 55. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved on July 9, 2025.
- ↑ a b c Mark Rosewater (February 12, 2007). "When the Going Gets Bluff (website)". Making Magic. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved on July 9, 2025.
- ↑ Scott Burke (2 Feb 1995). "World champ decks? (Usenet post)". newsgroup: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy. Usenet. Retrieved on July 9, 2025.
- ↑ Scott Burke (September 1995). "Justice at Origins, Part 1 (pdf)". Scrye Magazine Issue #9 - September/October 1995, pp. 86-88. Scrye, Inc. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved on July 7, 2025.