1996 Pro Tour Dallas

1996 Pro Tour Dallas

 

Competitors

 

Masters decks

 

Junior decks

 

Classic decks

 

Pro Tour Dallas
Date	22–24 November 1996
Location	Dallas, United States
Attendance	Masters:240 players Juniors:151 players Classic: 95 players
Format	Standard (Type II) Classic (Type I)
Prize pool	Masters: $150,000 Juniors: $60,000 (Scholarships) Classic: $40,000
Winner	Masters: Paul McCabe Juniors: Justin Schneider Classic: Scott Johns
1996–97 Pro Tour Season
1996 Pro Tour Atlanta 1996 Pro Tour Dallas 1997 Pro Tour Los Angeles
Previous Tournament: 1996 Pro Tour Atlanta Next Tournament: 1997 Pro Tour Los Angeles

The second Pro Tour event in the 1996-97 season was held in Dallas, Texas, from 22–24 November 1996. The main event was Standard constructed and was won by Canadian Paul McCabe in his first Masters Division Pro Tour appearance; He had finished second in the Junior Division of the previous Constructed Pro Tour in Columbus.

The Junior Division was won by Justin Schneider, while the supplementary Classic (Type 1) event was won by Scott Johns.

Description

Qualifying

Entry to the tournament was invitation-only. There were three ways to qualify:

• Previous Pro Tour results:
  • The Top 32 of 1996 Pro Tour Atlanta
  • The Top 16 of 1996 World Championships
  • The Top 16 of 1996 Pro Tour Columbus
  • The Top 8 of 1996 Pro Tour Los Angeles
  • The Top 4 of 1996 Pro Tour New York
• The Top 2 placed players in a qualifier tournament (Ice Age / Alliances constructed).
• The Top 25 DCI-ranked Standard players as of October 13, 1996, who weren't otherwise qualified. This was restricted to players within the Top 50.

Additionally, the Top 128 DCI-ranked Classic players were invited to Friday's Classic event. Players could participate in both Classic and Standard only if they qualified for each.

Format

Dallas was played using the Standard format. This consisted of the most recent Edition, its extension Chronicles, and all Expansions which were widely available to purchase at the time. These were:

• Fallen Empires
• Fourth Edition
• Chronicles
• Ice Age
• Homelands
• Alliances
• Mirage

Additionally, the following cards were banned:

• Amulet of Quoz
• Bronze Tablet
• Channel
• Jewelled Bird
• Mind Twist
• Rebirth
• Tempest Efreet
• Timmerian Fiends

And restricted:

• Balance
• Black Vise
• Hymn to Tourach
• Ivory Tower
• Land Tax
• Strip Mine
• Zuran Orb

This was the last major Standard event to have a Restricted list. These cards would be banned, or rotate out in the case of Hymn to Tourach, from January 1997.

Meta

The three standout archetypes in Dallas were Necrodecks, Prison and Sligh.

Necrodecks were, by necessity of Necropotence's casting cost, heavily black. They could be further categorised in three ways:

• Aggressive builds which utilised a large number of the two drop Knights in the format, as played by Brian Hacker.
• Slower, but more disruptive, builds which had a higher focus on hand disruption and board control. These typically played larger creatures such as Sengir Vampire as finishers. Champion Paul McCabe's deck is an example of this style.
• Versions that splashed red for direct damage, Shatter, and extra Sideboard options. Chris Pikula played this type of deck.

Central to Prison decks were the artifacts Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb. The one land that your opponent untapped each turn, could be tapped again with Icy. You could also tap your own Winter Orb on your opponent's turn in order to untap all of your own lands. While these two key cards were colorless, most prison decks were base white in order to play further control tools like Armageddon, Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God.

Sligh was an innovative monored deck, originally designed by Jay Schneider, which pioneered the concept of a Mana curve. It featured cheap creatures, direct damage spells, and land destruction. Paul Sligh had brought the deck to the community's attention earlier in the year, qualifying for Los Angeles with it. However, Patrick Chapin's performance in the Junior Division, being undefeated in Swiss, really helped prove that it was a "real deck".

Other decks which were present included Blue White Control, ErhnamGeddon, White Weenie and Turbo Stasis.

“	The diverse environment we anticipated was certainly present. No deck was even close to dominant, it was about as evenly spread as any tournament I'd played in before. For example, I played against a Winter Orb “Prison” deck; two Necrodecks (one with blue for Energy Flux); a standard Erhnageddon; a red/green/white Wildfire Emissary “anti-Necro” deck; one Turbo/Stasis; one monogreen, speed-creature deck; the “Sligh” deck off the Internet, a mono-red, Ironclaw Orc/Lightning Bolt monstrosity; and a blue/red Hammer of Bogardan deck with Lightning Bolts, Counterspells, and Wildfire Emissaries.	”
—Peter Radonjic

Schedule

Friday November 22

• 8am: Classic (Type I) tournament starts.
• 8pm: Player meeting

Saturday November 23

• 8am: Check-in for the Master & Junior division players.
• 9am: Standard (Type II) play begins. Six rounds of Swiss-style pairings.

Sunday November 24

• 8am: Check-in for the Top 8 Master and Junior players. Single elimination.

Masters Division

Standings

Round 5

After Round 5 there were four players with undefeated 5-0 records:

• Brian Hacker
• Marc Hernandez
• Robert Thornburg
• Michael Sochon

A further five players were on 9 match points, with 4-0-1 records:

• Bertrand Lestree
• Aziz Al-Doory
• Brian Weissman
• John Pennock
• Mark Justice

Round 9

At the end of Swiss rounds the standings were:

Place	Player	Deck	Color(s)	Points	Record	Comment
1	Brian Hacker	Necropotence		16	8-1	Beat Olle Råde.
2	Jason Zila	Prison		15	7-1-1
3	Chris Pikula	Necropotence		15	7-1-1	Beat Eric Tam (Necro), Kyle Rose (White Weenie) & Marc Hernandez (Necro) Beaten by Rob Dougherty (Sligh) Intentional draw with George Baxter
4	Robert Thornburg	Monoblack Aggro		15	7-1-1
5	Paul McCabe	Necropotence		15	7-1-1	Beat Jay Schneider (Sligh)
6	George Baxter	Prison		15	7-1-1	Intentional draw with Chris Pikula
7	Peer Kröger	White Weenie		15	7-1-1	Was 42nd on the ladder after Round 5, with a 3-1-1 record.
8	Olle Råde	Counter Hammer		14	7-2	Beaten by Brian Hacker.

Finishing in 9th place, due to tie-breakers, was the 1996 US Champion Dennis Bentley. Canadian Peter Radonjic also had the same record, finishing 10th.

Previous Pro Tour Champions Michael Loconto finished 28th, "Hammer" 40th, and Frank Adler was 101st with a 4-4-1 record. 1996 World Champion Tom Chanpheng managed 36th place, while Classic Champion Scott Johns fell outside the Top 64 in the Standard portion of the event.

Top 8 bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Brain Hacker	2
	8	Olle Råde	0
						1	Brian Hacker	0
						5	Paul McCabe	3
	4	Robert Thornburg	0
	5	Paul McCabe	2
											5	Paul McCabe	3
											2	Jason Zila	0
	3	Chris Pikula	2
	6	George Baxter	1
						3	Chris Pikula	0
						2	Jason Zila	3
	2	Jason Zila	2
	7	Peer Kröger	0

Final results

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Paul McCabe	$26,000	30	First Canadian to win a Pro Tour
2	Jason Zila	$16,000	25
3	Brian Hacker	$9,000	20
4	Chris Pikula	$9,000	20	Second Pro Tour Top 8
5	George Baxter	$5,500	10	Second Pro Tour Top 8
6	Olle Råde	$5,500	10	Third Pro Tour Top 8
7	Robert Thornburg	$5,500	10
8	Peer Kröger	$5,500	10

Junior Division

The Junior competition ran consecutively with the Masters across days two and three.

Nate Clarke was dominant in the early rounds of Swiss, playing the same Prison deck as Shawn "Hammer" Regnier and George Baxter. He easily defeated 1996 Pro Tour New York Junior runner-up Aaron Kline, leaving him without any permanents in play at all in one game. However, after being given a game loss for arriving late to his Round 4 match, he lost his temper and started swearing at the Judges. This led to his disqualification.

“	Nate was literally seconds late in sitting down to play his match. After finding out he would lose the first game, Nate threw a shit fit, calling the judges several profane names. While everyone was entertained, Nate was removed from the tournament. Eventual winner of the Juniors (Justin Schneider) said Nate had the best deck and would have won the Juniors if he had not been DQ'ed.	”
—Tom Guevin

Standings

Round 5

After Round 5 there were four Juniors with undefeated 5-0 records:

1. Patrick Chapin
2. Jon Boyd
3. Andrew Pacifico
4. Jason Moungey

In fifth position was Chris Stetzer, the only player who had recorded 4 wins and a draw.

Round 8

At the end of Swiss rounds the standings were:

Place	Player	Deck	Color(s)	Points	Record	Comment
1	Patrick Chapin	Sligh		14	6-0-2
2	Justin Schneider	Prison		14	7-1
3	Jason Moungey	Midrange		14	7-1
4	Jeremy Baca	Prison		13	6-1-1
5	Vinnie Falcone	Erhnam Burn'em		13	6-1-1
6	Jeff Simoneau	Necropotence		13	6-1-1
7	Yubin Tao	Blue White Control		13	6-1-1
8	Adam Jansen	Midrange		13	6-1-1

Ninth place was Pennsylvanian Geoffrey Anders II, in his debut event. The best finish by a player from outside of the United States was Canadian Song Ly in 14th.

Top 8 bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Patrick Chapin	2
	8	Adam Jansen	1
						1	Patrick Chapin	0
						4	Jeremy Baca	3
	4	Jeremy Baca	2
	5	Vinnie Falcone	1
											4	Jeremy Baca	2
											2	Justin Schneider	3
	3	Jason Moungey	0
	6	Jeff Simoneau	2
						6	Jeff Simoneau	1
						2	Justin Schneider	3
	2	Justin Schneider	2
	7	Yubin Tao	1

Final results

Place	Player	Scholarship
1	Justin Schneider	$16,000
2	Jeremy Baca	$10,000
3	Patrick Chapin	$5,400
4	Jeff Simoneau	$5,400
5	Jason Moungey	$3,200
6	Vinnie Falcone	$3,200
7	Yubin Tao	$3,200
8	Adam Jansen	$3,200

Classic (Type I) competition

Due to issues with the DCI-rating database, many players who weren't on the posted invitation list were able to participate in Friday's Classic Competition. These included both finalists Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe, as well as Brian Weissman who had apparently fallen from 107th place the month prior to 404th. An explanation, given in a Usenet post, was that a tournament which Brian had swept all 8 rounds had instead been incorrectly entered as him having lost all his matches. The number of invitations for the event may have been as high as 144 players, although only 95 would end up participating.

In Round 7, the last round of Swiss, the top 6 players all took Intentional Draws. Jeffrey Kuta and Mark Justice were paired in a "win-and-in" match. This was won by Kuta who, along with Justice's teammate Scott Johns, then had to wait for the result of a match between Darwin Kastle and Mike Dove to determine if they would make the cut. When that went to time, Kastle finishing in 10th place with 10 match points, both were in.

Standings

At the end of Swiss rounds the following players had a 5-2 record or better:

Place	Player	Deck	Color(s)	Points	Record	Comment
1	Thomas Guevin	Necropotence		13	6-0-1	Beat Rudy Edwards (9th) Intentional draw Round 7.
2	Sean Fleischman	New York Zoo		12	5-0-2
3	Paul Ferker	New York Zoo		12	5-0-2	Beat Jeffrey Kuta.
4	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	New York Zoo		12	5-0-2
5	Shane Cargilo			11	5-1-1
6	Huei-Saint Shwe	Zoo		11	5-1-1	Intentional draw with Scott Johns
7	Jeffrey Kuta	Necropotence		11	5-1-1	Beat Johan Disenborg (18th) & Mark Justice Lost to Paul Ferker
8	Scott Johns	Turbo Zoo		11	5-1-1	Intentional draw with Huei-Saint Shwe

Swede Thomas Andersson, who'd been 9th in New York, was the highest placed player from outside the United States. He finished 17th.

Top 8 bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Thomas Guevin	1
	8	Scott Johns	2
						8	Scott Johns	2
						4	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	1
	4	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	2
	5	Shane Cargilo	0
											8	Scott Johns	2
											6	Huei-Saint Shwe	1
	3	Paul Ferker	0
	6	Huei-Saint Shwe	2
						6	Huei-Saint Shwe	2
						2	Sean Fleischman	0
	2	Sean Fleischman	2
	7	Jeffrey Kuta	1

Final placings

Place	Player	Prize
1	Scott Johns	$11,200
2	Huei-Saint Shwe	$6,900
3	Sean Fleischman	$3,850
4	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	$3,850
5	Tom Guevin	$2,250
6	Paul Ferker	$2,250
7	Shane Cargilo	$2,250
8	Jeffrey Kuta	$2,250