Pro Tour Collector Set
| Pro Tour Collector Set | |
|---|---|
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[[File:{{#setmainimage:Pro Tour.jpg}}|250px]] | |
| Set Information | |
| Set symbol | This set has no own expansion symbol. |
The best Pro Tour decks of 1996, eight in total, were released all together in a Pro Tour Collector Set. Only 20,000 of these sets were produced.
Description
The set originally retailed for $125 US and became available in May 1996. They were the first of a series of high-profile preconstructed decks for experienced players. Carefully chosen, they are imitations of the eight most successful deck archetypes present at the 1996 Pro Tour in New York. To avoid printing legal top-rated tournament-level cards, all cards were made illegal for tournament play by printing them with a non-standard backside. Additionally, the cards feature a golden border and have a gold signature of the deck's creator. The back of the cards feature the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour logo and are labeled "Inaugural Tournament New York City February 1996."
Part of each deck is a bio card which provides some background of each player and a decklist card that lists the content of each deck. Additionally, blank cards were added to raise the number of cards per deck to 90.
This Pro Tour used an interesting deck construction format, a variation of the Standard or "Type II" format. In addition to the usual restrictions for Standard decks, each deck was required to contain at least five cards from each of the legal expansions. Meeting this requirement without lowering the efficiency of the decks gave the deck-builders an interesting challenge.
These cards were written under Fifth Edition rules.
- Deck I - Michael Loconto (champion)
- Deck II - Eric Tam (quarter-finalist)
- Deck III - Bertrand Lestree (runner-up)
- Deck IV - Shawn "Hammer" Regnier (quarter-finalist)
- Deck V - Leon Lindback (semi-finalist)
- Deck VI - George Baxter (quarter-finalist)
- Deck VII - Preston Poulter (semi-finalist)
- Deck VIII - Mark Justice (quarter-finalist)
These cards are not legal in any DCI-sanctioned tournaments.
1996 Decklists
Michael Loconto, Champion
“Loconto, a 26-year-old social worker from Grafton, Massachusetts, played a blue-white Millstone deck that generally defeated his opponents by running them out of cards. One innovative concept was his addition of Hallowed Ground, which he used to protect himself against Armageddon, to activate his Land Tax, and to save his Mishra's Factories from destruction.”
Eric Tam, Quarterfinalist
“Tam, an 18-year-old student from Ontario, Canada, played a red-green-white deck with large and unvulnerable creatures, plus a variety of red and white spells for creature suppression. He created a mid-game lock with the only blue card in his deck, Zur's Weirding.”
Bertrand Lestree, Finalist
“Lestrée, a 25-year-old business development strategist from Pantin, France, played the most popular deck type at the tournament, a green-white Armageddon/Erhnam Djinn deck with strong mass destruction capabilities. Lestrée's most interesting playing quirk was his constant use of extra life (mostly from Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb) to draw extra cards with his Sylvan Library.”
Shawn "Hammer" Regnier, Quarterfinalist
“Regnier, a 27-year-old comic bookstore owner from Manchester, New Hampshire, played a blue-white Millstone deck with very heavy permission (including 12 counterspells). A former professional arm wrestler, "Hammer" had a very relaxed, conversational style which he used to unnerve his opponents.”
Leon Lindback, Semifinalist
“Lindbäck, a 20-year-old electrical engineering student from Stockholm, Sweden, played an all-black speed/discard deck. Most noticeable in his deck were four Necropotences which Lindbäck would play early to continually fill up his hand.”
George Baxter, Quarterfinalist
“Baxter, a 23-year-old author (of several Magic strategy books) from Dallas, Texas, played an almost all-black speed/burn deck. Baxter included enough red mana to support direct damage and just enough green mana to play with four Erhnam Djinns.”
Preston Poulter, Semifinalist
“Poulter, a 22-year-old chemistry graduate student from Irvine, California, played a variation of the tournament's prevalent green-white decks. With only nine creatures in his deck, Poulter used Aelopiles and Hurricanes for creature suppression and direct damage.”
Mark Justice, Quarterfinalist
“Justice, a 25-year-old card shop owner from West Walley City, Utah, played a red/artifact control deck with a touch of white for Balance and Swords to Plowshares. The creatureless deck used Winter Orbs to lock down the opponent until the direct damage could finish them off.”