From: scott@fix.oneworld.com (Scott Burke)
Subject: Justice at Origins
Date: 18 Jul 1995 11:17:32 -0700

Reporting from Origins, I want to offer congratulations to the new U.S. 
National Champion and the U.S. Team:

   Champion  : Mark Justice, Utah                (was 2nd in SW Regional)
   Runner-Up : Henry Stern, California           (was #23 in the Top 25)
   3rd Member: Michael Long                      (qualified on Thursday)
   4th Member: Peter Lieher                      (I'm not sure)

The Southwest Region takes #1 and #2!

These were the other four Finalists:

   5th/6th Place: Brad Minell and Derek Rank
   7th/8th Place: Bruce Swiney and Dana Rossi


Mark's prizes were a piece of original artwork from Anson Maddocks, a Hurloon 
Minotaur jacket from Wizards of the Coast, a trophy, a limited edition Scrye 
Origins '95 life counter (only 12 in existence), and a bunch of AQ, LE, DK, 
and RV booster packs.

Mark Justice also dominated the Type 1 tournaments at Origins, winning a 250-
player Type 1 tournament on Thursday and an even larger one on Friday.  He 
couldn't play in the Sorceror's Open ($1000 first prize Type 1) due to 
conflicts on Saturday with the Semifinals, but the winner of that tournament 
was somebody named Chip from Texas.

The U.S. team will travel to Seattle from August 4-6 to compete against 4-
player teams from 20 other countries.  I believe the events will all be 
individual (no team events), but the specifics were not yet available.

The Semifinals took 14 hours of play, and included 4 rounds of Sealed Deck and 
4 rounds of Type 2.  After 24 games, the cut-off for the final 8 turned out to 
be 16-7-1, or 33 points (2 points for wins, 1 point for ties, 3 games per 
match). 

I will leave more details for Mark Rosewater to relate, but the Finals were 
incredible.  They started at 11 AM and ended at 8 PM.  The final 8 played 
double-elimination, and Mark Justice lost in the first round.  But he survived 
through the entire losers' bracket, while Henry went through undefeated to the 
top of the winners' bracket.  All of those matches were 2 out of 3, but for 
the finals, it was increased to 3 out of 5.  In the final match, Mark won the 
first two games, but then Henry won the next two, including the third game, 
when he "decked" Mark and won by card death (no Millstone either).  The fifth 
game was won by Mark.  Since that was Henry's first loss and it was double-
elimination, they played again.  This time, Mark swept Henry in three straight 
games to be crowned the National Champion.

I will follow WotC's policy and not divulge the contents of any of the winning 
decks.  (Sorry, guys.)  But there was no single dominant deck type in the 
Semifinals: I played or saw matches with strong decks that were red/green, 
pure black, blue/red, blue/white, black/red, and black/white.  And the top 4 
players played 4 notably *different* types of decks, including variants of 
Vice Age, Land Destruction, Card Denial, and the introduction of a new deck 
type: The Johtul Worm deck.  When asked, Mark Justice said, "The key to my 
success?  The Johtul Worm."  I'm not pulling your leg: Mark got a Johtul Worm 
out in the finals.

That's the short summary.  Good luck at the World Championship, guys.


Scott.

P.S.  How did I do?  After 36 hours of near-continuous Magic play and deck 
building against 63 of the best, I miss the finals because I make a single 
mistake due to a lapse of concentration: I fail to over-pump my Order of the 
Ebon Hand to guarantee killing Dana's Orcish Veteran, which he protects with 
his Amulet of Kroog. The mistake occurs in the 3rd round of sealed deck, 
during an epic 15 creature complex first strike/banding battle under severe 
time pressure from the judges. If I had killed his Orcish Veteran, I'd have 
been able to kill him. But time runs out and the game is called a draw. If I'd 
won, I'd have gained a point and Dana would have lost a point, tying us at 32 
with several other players for eighth place and invoking a tie-breaker 
sequence based on the cumulative records of our opponents. I don't know how 
the tie-breaker would have come out -- I really don't want to know.  There was 
a good side, however -- they got to play in the Finals, but I got some sleep.  
:-)  So I finished in a tie for 11th place in the semifinal 64.

...................................................................
Scott Burke        .  Engineering Manager  .  Phone  (503) 757-8416
scott@sparcom.com  .  Sparcom Corporation  .  Fax    (503) 753-7821