fk03-07-98
Pro Tour Los Angeles Day Two: Beating the Best
by Francis Keys
After boiling the player field down to the good and the lucky, the Tempest
constructed environment showed its true color. The small card pool
severely limited the number of viable decks while wicked color hosers
frustrated popular monocolor strategies. In match after match, players
found themselves losing against decks they had consistent success with in
testing simply because of the incredible speed of the environment. With
deck construction so limited, playing skills and luck of the draw
superceded deck pairing on the path to the final eight.
Thirteen rounds of grueling Swiss left some twenty players in possible
contention. At the top table, 18-year-old Kyle Rose put an end to Will
Hilts� Pro Tour dreams, winning two of three fiery games. Will�s wild
blue, black and green sliver deck with Living Death was performing well,
but he took erroneous damage from Kyle�s Scalding Tongs when he failed to
notice that Kyle was holding four cards.
Deadguy Dave Price and World Champion Jakub Slemr calculated the odds and
agreed to draw at the second table, producing the only final round draw for
players in contention. In a Northern European matchup, Denmark�s Svend
Sparre Geertson defeated Finland�s Tommi Hovi 2-1 as Tommi failed to produce
black mana in the third game against Svend�s double Wasteland and Stone
Rain.
Ben Rubin matched up with Team CMU�s Randy Buehler playing mono-green,
winning in three games with an aggressive blue, white and black deck he
developed with Dan Glegg. In a long battle at the fifth table, Andrew Wolf
played lightning-fast black weenies to victory against Ken Wallach�s
blue/white/black control deck, winning two straight games.
New Jersey�s David Bachmann benefited from his white weenie deck�s anti-red
design as he defeated Deadguy Chris Pikula. Table seven hosted Adam Katz
with blue/black beatdown and Martin Jonsson�s blue/white/black control,
with Adam winning the match 2-1.
Darwin Kastle�s blue/black beatdown failed to deliver the cards he needed
as Zvi Mowshowitz won with another red deck. Despite the popularity of his
version of blue/white/black, Jon Finkel lost to Lukas Ladra in three games.
Green�s last chance for the final eight rested with Brian Schneider as he
defeated Roger Ver�s red deck, taking down Roger�s Rathi Dragon in the
third game.
After fourteen rounds of play, Kyle Rose, Dave Price, Jakub Slemr, Svend
Sparre Geertsen, Ben Rubin, and Andrew Wolf found themselves guaranteed a
spot in the final eight. Six of the twelve contending decks focusing on
burn hinted at a fiery finish to the Pro Tour. David Bachmann, Adam Katz,
Lukas Ladra, Will Hilts, Brian Scheider and Mowshowitz held their collective
breath awaiting the tie breakers for the last two spots.
Going into Sunday, the matchups feature Kyle Rose (#1 seed) against Adam
Katz (#8). Jakub Slemr (#2) will face David Bachmann (#7). Fire faces
fire in the third matchup, with Svend Sparre Geertson (#3) against Dave
Price, the modern master of Sligh. Ben Rubin (#4) takes on Andrew Wolf
(#5) in the final pairing.
Surprisingly, the decks in final eight fail to include Finkel�s popular
blue/white/black or any other true control deck. Six speed decks--four
mono-red, one white and one black, compete with bigger but still aggressive
blue/black and blue/white/black decks for the big cash prizes.
Given the chaotic nature of pairings throughout the tournament, predictions
based on deck type will likely fail to identify Sunday�s winner. The
players and pairings are in place. All that remains is to shuffle and draw
like a pro. Pro Tour Los Angeles may become the fastest final eight in Pro
Tour history.
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