1996 Pro Tour Atlanta/Day 1 decks
| Pro Tour Atlanta | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Date | September 13–15, 1996 | |||
| Location |
 Atlanta, Georgia | |||
| Attendance |
Seniors: 192 Juniors: 62 Teams: 48 | |||
| Format |
Sealed Deck (Mirage) Team Sealed (Ice Age block) | |||
| Prize pool |
Masters: $150,000 Junior: $30,000 (Scholarships) Team: $25,000 | |||
| Winner |
Masters:  Frank AdlerJunior: Aaron SoudersTeam: Pacific Coast Legends | |||
| ||||
The 192 Masters and 62 Junior Division participants each had to make decks from a Mirage Starter deck and two Boosters. Notably, every single player who made the final cut (and that we have a published decklist for) played Red. This was always paired with either Black or Green; or both.
Masters division
John Yoo
John Yoo finished Day 1 at the top of the table. He constructed a 41 card 
deck with only two non-creature spells.[1]
| “ | His best cards, he said, were his two Unseen Walkers, which not only have forestwalk but can give other creatures Forestwalk as well. These helped him win a lot of games. "I think I only ran up against one person who wasn't playing green, and I sideboarded him out. Everyone was playing green."[1] | ” |
Aaron Muranaka
Aaron Muranaka was second in the Swiss with a 
deck featuring three X spells and giant green creatures.[1]
| “ | His strategy was simple: “Just pound on ‘em with big creatures and burn ‘em to death,” he said. “It wasn’t a thinking person’s deck.”[1] | ” |
Creatures (12)
Artifacts (1)
Enchantments (1)
Darwin Kastle
Darwin Kastle finished 3rd with a 
deck.[1]
| “ | Kastle played a well-rounded deck that included a bit of direct damage, a few anti-creature spells, some small and medium-sized creatures, and two huge phasing Sandbar Crocodiles. “The strength of my deck was that I didn’t have any game-breaking cards; I just had a very balanced deck,” he said, He mentioned that some of his best cards were in his sideboard. He had misread Thirst during the deck-construction phase and didn’t put it in his main deck, but as soon as he had it played against him and realized that it didn’t have cumulative upkeep, he started using it in each match. Another of his sideboard cards, Benthic Djinn, was a game-winner against any opponent playing blue.[1] | ” |
Creatures (14)
Matthew Vienneau
Quarterfinalist Matthew Vienneau played with his initial sealed deck, finishing 4th in Swiss with a 7-1-1 record. His one loss was against eventual finalist Darwin Kastle, while he beat PT New York Champion Michael Loconto and Pacific Coasts Legends team members Mike Long and Mario Robaina.[2][3]
| “ | Vienneau built one of the most interesting decks of the day. He had only a tiny bit of direct damage, and just ten creatures total, one of which was a Wall, What he did have was plenty of ways to frustrate his opponent, beginning with the most annoying card in Mirage, Grinning Totem.[1] | ” |
Frank Adler
Champion Frank Adler made it to the finals with a 64 card deck.[1]
| “ | Adler's deck included a couple of good direct-damage spells, some nice creature control, and a wide selection of small-to-medium sized creatures. He said that his best card, however, was Sealed Fate which allowed him to stack the top X cards of his opponent's library. Kaervek’s Purge was a close second.[1] | ” |
Creatures (17)
Terry Borer
Terry Borer's deck took him to 6th place on day 1.[1]
| “ | Borer ignored the usual "evasion wins games” rule of thumb when constructing his deck. “I had some good flyers and colors but I chose not to play them because I felt they weren't the best, I prefer slightly larger ground creatures. Its really, really difficult to win with flyers unless you have the ground locked up, or your opponent has a bad game." By attacking quickly with his ground creatures, he put his opponents on the defensive, forcing them to either take heavy damage or waste their flying creatures in blocking him. His Femeref Archers and Subterranean Spirit, "along with a couple of anti-creature spells, provided good defense against any airborne attack.[1] | ” |
Creatures (17)
Instants (1)
Enchantments (1)
Chris Pikula
Chris Pikula built a deck from his first sealed pool, but he failed to record the basic lands he played on the registration sheet. This resulted in a game loss, which lead to a match loss, in the final round of the day.[1] He had been the only 7-1 player who hadn't been able to intentionally draw into the Top 8 - to his great annoyance - as he had been paired down. Fortunately, his breakers were still good enough for 7th place even with the Round 9 loss.
| “ | Pikula relied mostly on direct damage, counterspells, and creatures with flying for his wins. His strongest card was Hammer of Bogardan. “It's abusive in Sealed Deck! I actually went four consecutive matches, though, including matches against Mark Chalice and Preston Poulter, and I never drew it, so it was a little upsetting.”[1] | ” |
Creatures (13)
Enchantments (1)
1 Soar
Mike Long
Coming in at eighth place was Mike Long with a deck.[1]
| “ | When asked What was the best card in his deck Long replied, “I didn’t Have that many good cards, I had an adequate-to-average deck.”[1] | ” |
Junior Division
The Top 4 Junior decklists were printed in the December 1996 issue of The Duelist Sideboard supplement. The deck of eventual Junior Champion, Aaron Souders, wasn't included as he had won the event from the bottom half of the Top 8 bracket.
Jason Gordon
Jason Gordon finished 1st after 9 rounds on Day 1. He played a deck.[4]
| “ | Gordon played an almost even mixture of four colors: black, red, white, and green. His cards were also quite balanced. He had one large direct-damage spell (Kaervek’s Torch), accompanied by several 1-pointers: Flare, Telim’Tor's Darts, Sandstorm, and Shadow Guildmage. His four medium-to-large creatures and two small regenerators provided good ground control, while five flyers, including creatures with banding and first strike, covered the air. He also had a couple of good anti-creature spells. His usual strategy was to lock things up on the ground, then win with flyers or his large Torch.[4] | ” |
Louis Beryl
Louis finished second in the Swiss, and ultimately would finish second after the elimation rounds. He built a deck on day 1.[4]
| “ | Beryl had very little defense, no X spells, and minor direct-damage or anti-creature spells. He did, however, have Dwarven Nomad, which can tap to make a creature of power 2 or less unblockable, and nine creatures small enough to use it on, along with Soulshriek and Firebreathing—either of which could make one of his small creatures quite dangerous.[4] | ” |
Creatures (14)
David Lively
David Lively played a deck which included the Griffin Lord Zuberi, Golden Feather and two other Griffins.[4]
| “ | Lively's deck was built around medium-sized creatures. He had an even dozen creatures of power 2 or 3, including two Griffins and the griffin Legend which gives all other Griffins +1/+1, and Femeref Archers, which made him almost immune to his opponent's flying attackers.[4] | ” |
The printed decklist was only 36 cards. It appears that a typo was made with the number of Forests; Lively must have played between 5 and 7 total rather than the singleton indicated.
Creatures (17)
Sorceries (1)
Artifact (1)
Trevor Blackwell
Fourth place finisher Trevor Blackwell played a deck.[4]
| “ | Blackwell's deck contained few creatures, but boasted an amazing number of direct-damage spells and artifacts (seven in all), including Kaervek's Torch, Telim’Tor's Darts, two Incinerates, and the dreaded Hammer of Bogardan. Even two of his creatures (Shadow Guildmage and Flame Elemental) had direct-damage capabilities.[4] | ” |
Creatures (13)
Artifacts (1)
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Beth Moursund (December 1996). "Top 8 Master decks from Friday (.pdf)". The Duelist Sideboard #4, pp. 24,25. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on August 1, 2025. Retrieved on August 3, 2025.
- ↑ Matthew Vienneau (November 22, 2005). "Pro Tour Atlanta 1996 Report. No, Really. (website)". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved on July 13, 2025.
- ↑ JasonVorthos (Jun 6e, 2022). "Matthew Vienneau Mirage Sealed - 8th place Pro Tour Atlanta 1996 (website)". MTG Goldfish. Retrieved on July 25, 2025.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Beth Moursund (December 1996). "Top 4 Junior decks from Friday (.pdf)". The Duelist Sideboard #4, pp. 29. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on August 1, 2025. Retrieved on August 2, 2025.