1995 United States National Championship
| 1995 US Nationals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | July 13-16, 1995 | |||
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |||
| Attendance |
"Meat grinders": 8 qualifying tournaments of 256 players "Semi-finals": 64 players | |||
| Format |
Type II (Standard) Sealed Deck | |||
| Winner |
Mark Justice Henry Stern (finalist) Mike Long (semi-finalist) Peter Leiher (semi-finalist) | |||
| ||||
The 1995 United States National Championship was held at the Origins convention from July 13-16, 1995.[1] It used the Sealed deck and Type II formats, and was won by Mark Justice.
Description
Qualifying
There were three ways to qualify for one of the 64 available spots in the National "Semi-finals":[1][2][3]
- 25 places for the top rated players by the Duelist Convocation.
- 14 places for two players from each of the seven regional qualifier events.
- 16 places for the top two players from each of eight separate "meat grinder" tournaments held at Origins.
Additionally, several "Alternates" would be chosen from the top finishing players in the qualifying tournaments. There would be at least 9 players from this category to bring the total to 64.
Format
The first four rounds of Swiss was Sealed deck, with a Fourth Edition Starter deck, two Fallen Empires boosters, two Ice Age boosters, and 4 extra basic lands of the player's choice.[4]
This was followed by four rounds of Type II. While Chronicles had recently been released, this was not yet legal in the format. The sets which were used were Fallen Empires, Fourth Edition and Ice Age.
Schedule
Thursday 13 July, 1996
- 9.00AM: Qualifying tournaments.
- Each Qualifier has 5 rounds of swiss matches, each match consisting of two games.
- 1.30PM: Type I (Classic) side event.
Friday 14 July, 1996
- 9.0AM: Qualifying tournaments. 4 further events.
- 1.30PM: Type I (Classic) side event.
- 8.30 PM: Grand-Melee side event.
Saturday, 15 July 1996
- 8.00AM: Registrations for US Nationals Semi-final.
- 8.30AM: Player meeting.
- 9.30AM: Sealed deckbuilding.
Saturday 15 July, 1996
- 10.00AM: US Nationals Finals start.
- 8.00PM: Convention closes.
- 9:00PM: Annual Duelist Convocation member's meeting.
The "semi-finals"
Sealed (Rounds 1 to 4)
When the formats for Nationals had been announced, there had been concerns from higher-profile players about the inclusion of Type III (Sealed deck). Scott Burke penned an open letter on the magic.misc Usenet group to ask that it be dropped on the basis that it would disproportionately reward luck rather than skill[5].
At the player meeting before the start of the first round, this is brought up again; the discussion lasts over an hour. Steve Bishop, head of the Duelist Convocation, is considering weighting the results so the Type II rounds are worth twice the points of the sealed rounds. However, ultimately, the event remains as planned, with the one concession being two extra boosters added to the pool. The idea is that a larger pool will help average out the strength of cards available, giving players more opportunity to show skill with how they build their decks.[3]
Deck building had begun when finalist Mike Long arrived late to the convention centre.
| “ | "I'd been up late the night before playing a lot of ante games," the Centerville, Virginia resident said, "and well, I didn't quite wake up when I was supposed to. So once I realized what time it was, I raced to the tournament to discover that there were just seven minutes left before the sealed-deck section was scheduled to begin.
"[They] told me I could play, but that I only had seven minutes to build my deck. So I built it in seven minutes." Long smiled. "It wasn't that bad."[2] |
” |
Mark Justice, another critic of the Sealed format, ironically receives an excellent card pool and finishes at the top of the leaderboard. He had only lost 1 game and drawn another in his four matches.
Type II (Rounds 5 to 8)
The initial pairings for the Type II constructed rounds were randomized, rather than being based on the standings at the end of round four. Players didn't need to have registered their decks until this point either. Mark Justice, wanting a safe and reliable type of deck which would allow him to maintain his lead, chose to play a predominately 
deck with a minor 
splash.[1][4]
Combined standings
| Place | Player | Points | Record (games) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bruce Swiney | 35 | 17-6-1 | |
| 2 | Mark Justice | 35 | 17-6-1 | Best Sealed performance. |
| 3 | Derek Rank | 34 | 17-6 | Best Standard performance. |
| 4 | Mike Long | 34 | 17-6 | |
| 5 | Henry Stern | 34 | 17-6 | |
| 6 | Brad Minell | 34 | 17-6 | |
| 7 | Dana Rossi | 32 | 16-7 | |
| 8 | Peter Leiher | 32 | 16-7 |
Top 8
The Top 8 was run as a double-elimination event.[6] The initial match-ups were randomly determined.
The format was Type II, but players weren't required to play the same deck they had the day before. Both Mark Justice and Henry Stern took advantage of this fact. They reasoned that the other players would be hesitant to make major changes to decks that they'd been successful with in the Swiss rounds, so they should be prepared to face black based discard strategies. Stern played his "Vice Age" deck from the day before, but added Lifeforce and Whirling Dervish to his sideboard. Justice went one step further, assembling a completely new deck, including those anti-black cards in his mainboard.[4]
Winner's bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| A | Peter Leiher | 2 | |||||||||||
| B | Mark Justice | 0 | |||||||||||
| I | Peter Leiher | 1 | |||||||||||
| J | Henry Stern | 2 | |||||||||||
| C | Henry Stern | 2 | |||||||||||
| D | Dana Rossi | 1 | |||||||||||
| M | Henry Stern | 2 | |||||||||||
| N | Mike Long | 1 | |||||||||||
| E | Bruce Swiney | 1 | |||||||||||
| F | Brad Minell | 2 | |||||||||||
| K | Brad Minell | ||||||||||||
| L | Mike Long | ||||||||||||
| G | Derek Rank | ||||||||||||
| H | Mike Long | ||||||||||||
Loser's bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| n/a | |||||||||||||
| n/a | |||||||||||||
| KL | Brad Minell | ||||||||||||
| Mark Justice | |||||||||||||
| AB | Mark Justice | ||||||||||||
| CD | Dana Rossi | ||||||||||||
| Mark Justice | |||||||||||||
| Peter Leiher | |||||||||||||
| EF | Bruce Swiney | ||||||||||||
| GH | Derek Rank | ||||||||||||
| Derek Rank | 1 | ||||||||||||
| IJ | Peter Leiher | 2 | |||||||||||
| n/a | |||||||||||||
| n/a | |||||||||||||
Henry Stern was undefeated through the Winner's bracket. Mark Justice was defeated by Peter Leiher in the first round, but made it through the Losers' bracket, beating Leiher in the rematch. Having won the Losers' bracket Justice had to face the loser of the Winners' bracket, Mike Long, to make it to the Grand Final.[2][7][4]
Grand Final
The first two games were quickly won by Mark Justice. In contrast, game three is extremely drawn out. On his 45th turn, Henry Stern misses an opportunity to Channel / Fireball for the win; Justice couldn't have gained enough life with Zuran Orb to survive. However, Stern had swiveled to a plan of winning by "Card Death" (decking), which he does a few turns later. Stern also takes game 4, but Justice rides a Shivan Dragon to victory in the decider.[6]
Mark Justice wins the match 3 games to 2. Due to the double-elimination nature of the finals and it being Stern's first loss, a second match needed to be played to determine the overall victor.
Grand Final Redux
The second match starts at 7pm, and the players only have an hour to complete it before the end of the Convention. Fortunately for Mark Justice, he comfortably sweeps Henry Stern in three quick games.[6]
Mark Justice wins 3 games to zero, and becomes the 1995 US Champion.
| “ | "Henry is a very good player," said Justice. "Had a few more cards come his way, you'd be sitting here interviewing him."[2] | ” |
The top two players received out-of-print Magic product for their prizes, with Justice also being given a Hurloon Minotaur embroidered Jean Jacket and an original artwork from Anson Maddocks.
Final Results
| Place | Player | Deck | Color(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Justice | Beware the Worm | 
|
| 2 | Henry Stern | Vice Age |
|
| 3 | Michael Long | Black/Red Land Destruction |
|
| 4 | Peter Leiher | Monoblack Discard |
|
| 5 | Brad Minell | Monoblack Discard |
|
| 6 | Derek Rank | Demonic Vise Age |
|
| 7 | Bruce Swiney | Black/White Discard | 
|
| 8 | Dana Rossi | Monoblack Discard* |
|
Note: While Dana Rossi's maindeck was monoblack, he had a plains and Swords to Plowshares in his sideboard.
References
- ↑ a b c Mark Rosewater (October 1995). "The Long and Winding Road (pdf)". The Duelist issue 7, pp. 49-52. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved on July 4, 2025.
- ↑ a b c d Sparky!! (July 28 1995). "WotC Release: US Team Chosen (Usenet post)". Newsgroup: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc. Usenet. Retrieved on July 4, 2025.
- ↑ a b 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.
- ↑ a b c d Henry Stern (July 21, 1995). "US National Championships, A Players Perspective (Usenet post)". Newsgroup: /rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc. Usenet. Retrieved on July 4, 2025.
- ↑ Scott Burke (June 24, 1995). "Open Letter to WotC (Usenet post)". Newsgroup: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc. Usenet. Retrieved on July 8, 2025.
- ↑ a b c Scott Burke (November 1995). "Justice At Origins: The Quest For The National Title: Part Two (Twitter post)". Scrye Magazine #10, pp. 96-97. Scrye Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 Apr 2024. Retrieved on July 2024.
- ↑ Scott Burke (July 18 1995). "Justice at Origins (Usenet post)". The Dojo. Retrieved on July 4, 2025.