fk03-06-98
Pro Tour LA Day One: Making the Cut
By Francis Keys
As expected, the pros generally split between two dominant deck
archetypes: fast and furious mono-red burn and blue/white control,
sometimes with a splash of black for Lobotomy, Corpse Dance or Diabolic
Edict. The advantage of developing and testing decks within a strong team
became obvious as multiple members from many leading teams successfully
navigated the first seven rounds of Swiss.
In the Midwest, Team Deadguy made an excellent showing with Sligh, of
course. Dave Price led the field with top seed and a 7-0 record, while
teammates Chris Pikula (75th) and Worth Wollpert (82nd) took advantage of
the new cut to 96 after Chris�s disappointing 65th place showing in Germany.
Team ACD from Chicago put together a variation on blue/white control with
fast white weenies and a signature Orim, Samite Healer to accompany the
usual complement of counterspells, board control, and life-gaining cards.
Bob Maher led his team at eighth place, with Andy Nishioka (28th), Chriz
Czuba (59th), and Ben Kellerstrass (96th) following.
The Jersey kids played blue/white control with a splash of black, as
designed by Jon Finkel. Despite getting heavy net exposure, Jon�s deck
performed extremely well, putting Jon at 13th, Eric Phillipps at 63rd, and
Feming Chan at 77th. David Bachman and Brian Kibler chose their own
directions, with David playing white weenie to ninth place, and Brian
deciding on big red with higher casting costs than the typical red deck
with 16 one casting cost creatures for 18th place. Happy John Chinnock
finished 80th.
The big surprise came from Team CMU. Despite membership of noted master
deckbuilders Brian Schneider and Erik Lauer, their winning deck came from
a design by Michael Turian. Featuring 12 slivers, eight land destruction
spells and four Cursed Scrolls, their startling deck is mono-green.
Ignoring the obvious metagame sent four members to the second day, with
Erik at tenth, Dan Silberman at 28th Michael at 29th, Brian at 83rd, and
PT Chicago champion Randy Buehler at 46th.
Following strong showings at multiple recent professional events, Tongo
Nation saw two members through to the second day. Mike Long found himself
19th with his own variation of blue/white/black control, while Don Gallitz
heated it up with mono-red and Flowstone Giants for 30th.
Texas sent a crew to day two, with Lan D.Ho and his big red Lightning
Elemental deck finishing 33rd and AustiKnight Bryan Hubble playing familiar
blue, white and black. Former Team Dallas member George Baxter road his
own variation of blue/white black to 58th place, calling his Gravediggers
"Blinky."
George�s new colleague on The Team, Brian Weissman, played Jon Finkel�s
blue/white/black deck to 72nd place, while fellow Californian Scott Johns
hit 14th place with little red. Brian spent the weeks before Pro Tour Los
Angeles texting extensively with Sweden�s Olle Rade, who also played
Finkel�s deck with a 35th place result. In a humorous feature match,
noted deck back readers Olle and Finland�s Tommi Hovi squabbled over
marked cards, sending Tommi searching for Tempest islands printed in the
US. Tommi finished 48th, while World Champion Jakub Slemr played red to
42nd.
It seems nearly impossible for isolated independents to compete with the
advanced deck construction and extensive testing available to active teams
and Internet users. Because of the high quality of play, the top 96
included decks representing most of those in play. Heading into the
second day, quality of deck and sideboard construction become
quintessential in the talented field of players.
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