1997 Pro Tour Los Angeles/Top 8 decks
| Pro Tour Los Angeles | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Date | 28 February–2 March 1997 | ||||
| Location | Los Angeles, United States | ||||
| Attendance |
Seniors: 236 Juniors: 123 | ||||
| Format |
Rochester Draft (Mirage and Visions) | ||||
| Prize pool |
Senior: $150,000 Junior: $30,000 (Scholarships) | ||||
| Winner |
Senior:  Tommi HoviJunior:  Jess Means | ||||
| 1996–97 Pro Tour Season | |||||
| |||||
| |||||
This page documents the decks from the Top 8 Masters[1] and Top 4 Juniors[2] at Los Angeles. These provide insight to how the best Professional Magic players of the time approached the Mirage / Visions Rochester Draft format.
Masters Division Top 8
Tommi Hovi
Masters Division Champion Tommi Hovi drafted a 
deck.
| “ | Tommi Hovi set his drafting goal ahead of time: build a red-green creature-heavy deck, focusing on 3/3 creatures. That's exactly what he managed to do. His final deck contained fifteen creatures—five 3/3s, three 2/1 regenerators, and the rest scattered about— backed up by three creature-enhancing spells, two card-retrieval spells, and the coveted Kaervek’s Torch. | ” |
David Mills
Disqualified finalist David Mills drafted a 
deck.
| “ | David Mills wanted to go green-white in the final draft. But since he knew his first-round opponent (Truc Bui) liked black, he started counter-drafting black cards and got so many good black cards that he actually considered going for mono-black himself. “But then Zhalfirin Commander got passed to me, and then Ward of Lights, which is almost my favorite card.” Eventually Ray of Command came his way, he ended up playing a three-color deck, heavy black with support from white and blue. | ” |
John Yoo
Semifinalist John Yoo drafted a deck.
| “ | John Yoo built the most creature-heavy deck of all the finalists: twenty creatures, supported only by Undo and Enfeeblement. | ” |
Alan Comer
Alan Comer drafted a deck.
{{cquote|Backing the creatures up was an impressive total of eight damage or removal effects (plus the Rats), including Infernal Harvest and two Undos. One of these cards, Kaervek's Hex, Comer included specifically to kill Warthogs, Guildmages, and other 1/1 creatures that he saw his first-round opponent Ben Possemiers drafting.
Truc Bui
Truc Bui drafted a strong deck and at the conclusion of the draft many considered him the favourite to take down the tournament. Things didn't go his way in the quarter final, however, and he was knocked out by David Mills.
| “ | Truc Bui finished in first place after the Swiss rounds (Friday and Saturday) and had some very strong picks in the final:draft. He managed to grab both “Timewalklike” spells, Final Fortune, and Relentless Assault, along with two direct-damage spells, Drain Life and Infernal Harvest, and two Shadow Guildmages for additional direct-damage capability. | ” |
Ben Possemiers
Ben Possemiers drafted a deck.
| “ | Ben Possemiers built a creature-heavy green-white deck, adding only one damage-prevention and two a creature-enhancement spells to supplement the creature swarm. He included no removal or damage spells. Instead, his deck was about as close to a weenie deck as possible given the environment, with 1/1 creatures making up almost one-third of his total spells. | ” |
Unfortunately, Ben's list hasn't been preserved, with the coverage in the Duelist Sideboard instead publishing Truc Bui's deck twice.
Brian Weissman
Brian Weissman drafted a deck.
| “ | Brian Weissman, famous for his Classic “The Deck,” lived up to his reputation by drafting blue-white; however, he added a healthy dose of red to the mix. The core of his deck contained five medium-to-large creatures with flying: two Drakes, a Dragon, a Djinn, and Zuberi the Griffin legend. His ground troops, though also dangerous, served mostly to hold things to a stalemate until the air force could win the battle. | ” |
John Immordino
John Immordino drafted a deck.
| “ | John Immordino’s deck was somewhat similar in theme to Brian Weissman’s, featuring large creatures with flying and plenty of defense. He ignored the usual “if you play any black, you have to go heavy black” adage, building a mostly blue-white deck with a few black spells. His final deck contained only twelve non-Wall creatures, and half of them were almost purely defensive. | ” |
Junior Division Top 4
Jess Means
Junior Champion Jess Means drafted a deck.
| “ | Jess Means went into the final-round draft hoping to get “a really fast black deck,” but his primary strategy was to watch what the two players on each side of him were taking. He ended up with a black-white deck featuring strong midsized creatures: four creatures with flying, two regular flankers, and two super-flankers. | ” |
Zvi Mowshowitz
Runner-up Zvi Mowshowitz drafted a deck.
| “ | Zvi Mowshowitz spent the first part of the draft collecting black and white spells, but after picking up some strong multicolor spells—Delirium, Discordant Spirit, and Savage Twister—he switched to black-red-green. His main focus was to draft big creatures. “If you draft a 3/3 or a 3/4, it's going to take something with it almost no matter what happens,” he said. | ” |
Aaron Kline
Semifinalist Aaron Kline drafted a deck.
| “ | Aaron Kline built a balanced white-red-green deck around a core of eight 2/2 and 3/3 creatures, backed up by a few larger ones, three creature enhancements, and three anticreature spells. Kline didn’t go into the draft with any particular colors or strategy in mind, and he didn’t do any defensive drafting. He just tried to draft whatever colors the majority of other players weren't drafting, and made his deck as good as possible. | ” |
Creatures (14)
Sideboard (26)
1 Agility
Brian Harding
Brian Harding drafted a deck.
| “ | Brian Harding started out drafting black and green, but he got three lucky picks in other colors: a first-pick Kaervek’s Torch and two Ray of Commands, one first-pick and one second-pick. So he abandoned his two Granger Guildmages and other green cards and ended up building a fast black deck with splashes of blue and red. | ” |
References
- ↑ Beth Moursund (May 1997). "Top 8 Masters Decks (pdf)". The Duelist Sideboard #6. Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on October 9, 2025.
- ↑ Beth Moursund (May 1997). "Top 8 Juniors Decks (pdf)". The Duelist Sideboard #6. Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on October 9, 2025.