Current Events of USC Deckmasters of Semester 962

May 4-5, 1996- Black Lotus Professional Tournament: What a blast! The "Hammer" won the Pro Tournament with a slow, b/r/u deck. Saturday was the JP sealed tournament and the cards looked really nice. On Sunday, Chad Kultgen, Tom Page, Rei Nakazawa, Michael Nickoloff and (the other guy) went to the tournament. The Alliances cards looked great...and most of them were really powerful! WOW! Chris Rush and Quintin Hoover also were there, signing cards. Alot of fun!

May 8, 1996- Wednesday Night Magic: Michael Nickoloff attended. Mike played Preston Polter in the first round and their games lasted 1 hour each, but Preston ended up victorous, 2-1. Mike then played IA grandmaster and lost in the first round. His opponent had a lava burst, an incinerate, a stormbind, a scaled wurm, a venomous breath and some other evil cards.

May 10, 1996- Non-Sanctioned Tournament in Atlanta: Tom Page attended and came in second out of 45 people. Tom wrote,"lost to a freaking millstone deck in the finals (with 3 cop blacks standard). I trashed him first game, and second game I was destroying him, he put out a second turn cop black, but I hymned him 3 times in the first few turns (he was then stuck with only 1 land after I stripped one) and I beat him up with mishras for a few turns, he then draws that second land and plays balance. He had it in his opening hand and I never got it in the 3 times I hymned him. I then didn't draw another land till he had 6 or 7 on the table and a full hand and was able to counter or kill everything i put out. The third game I just had a crap draw and was able to hold me off long enough to get set up. I won a khabal ghoul for my efforts."

May 11, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Mike played Type II and went 2 rounds before losing. He then played Sealed deck and went 2 rounds also. It still seamed most people are playing necro or willowgeddon. Oh, he also played Type 1 against Mark Chalice's new recursion deck with Lim-Dul's vault....really nasty.

May 18, 1996- Non-Sanctioned Tournament in Atlanta: Tom Page attended. He wrote, "The second tourney I went to only had 19 players. I beat a necro deck with quakes, a copy of the deck I lost to last week, another necro deck and a lhurgoyf/geddon deck in the finals. I got AQ city of brass, a sword of the ages and a preacher."

May 19, 1996- AL Premier in Atlanta: Tom Page attended. Tom said, "I played in the alliances sealed deck tourney got crap in my booster and went 3-3."

May 19, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff and Eric Berg attended. Eric got there to later for Type II, so he played sealed deck events and did good. Michael played 'the some-what better stuff' in Type II and lost second round after a bye. Yuck! He then played Type I where he had to play Jeff Dollarhide and his Necro deck in the first round. After three close games, Michael lost. Then, in sealed, Mike had a good sealed deck with a flare, a lava burst and three meteor showers. However, Mike did lose in the second round due to bad luck. What a crappy day.

May 24-27, 1996- Gamex 11: Michael Nickoloff attended. On Friday, Mike played Type I and advanced to the second round after losing to a big creature deck. On Saturday, Mike went 5-1 in the California regionals, but did not make it to the round of 32 due to lack of wins (9-5-1, 27 points). He then played Melee, where he got disked twice in five turns, and therefore being crushed later on. On Sun, Mike changed to a WG willowgeddon deck, and got crushed, 0-2-1, before dropping out. What crap. Mike went on to play Shadowfist and won the small tournament with a really crappy Ascended deck. YAH! In all, not a bad weekend. However, Necro is very strong, and it seems that most decks fall under the luck of the necro deck. However, Kormus Bell+Pyroclasm spells doom for Necro decks.

May 25, 1996- SE Regionals Tom Page attended. He wrote,"I lost first round to a w/g/r orb bind deck 1-2. I killed him the first game, second game he got the pyroclasms when he needed them and ended up with the game in a lock with 2 icys 2 orbs and a kismet down. He always had a disenchant for my disks, and when I got my icy out, he layed the second orb. he then played karma and watched me sac all my land to the zorb it this point it became obvious that he was gonna deck me and I might have been able to stall so I'd win on life from my ivory tower, but that would be cheesy.In the 3rd game he changed strategies completely and put out a second turn dervish followed by erhnams (his deck was creatureless the first two games) and I died quickly.
I then won my next 5 games mostly sweeping and made it to single elimination. beat a necrodeck (first I'd faced that day) and lost to a friend playing a necro deck, but ended up in the top 11 anyway due to the high number of sweeps so I qualified for the nationals!"

May 26, 1996- PT3 Qualifer in Atlanta: Tom Page attended. Tom said, "I swept my first 3 gmatches playing against a stormbind deck then against 2 necro decks (one of which was played by #7 aaron kerry or something like that) won 2-1 the next 3 games, losing one game because i had an extra order in my deck via a dance.
Then in the top 8, ( I was the top seed by far) I faced someone I'd already beaten (2-1 the 1 win being the extra order) and lost 2-0 first game was long and tough, I finally had him beat with a danced sengir when he drew his zuran orb. which allowed him to stay alive to necro till he got a drain life and could kill it (despite my efforts to strip his land away he ended up using 2 dark rituals to kill it.) I hate restricted cards. The 2nd game was no contest. I play a land, he playes a hypno. I play a land, he strips my land hits with the hypno then rituals out a hymn and gets all three of the land I had in my hand. I die with a aeolipile and a drain life in my hand.

June 1, 1996- Sanctioned Tournament in Atlanta: Tom Page attended. He wrote,"Sanctioned tourney with around 60 people, I place 4th. lost to a stormbind deck by inches the first game (damn bind forced me to lay a disk rather than a sengir and i ended up dying to a fireball and a bolt and a couple binds before I got the chance to lay the sengir.
Second game i got mana screwed (1 mishra 1 strip in opening draw) and died because i had serrated arrows in my deck (in my hand actually) instead of aeolipiles (the second turn dervish killed me before i came close to having 4 mana for a disk or an icy (plowsharing the mishra hurt too), both of which i had in my hand."

June 8, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. He played the 'good stuff' deck against Mario Robinia in the first round of Type II. However, Mario also was playing the 'good stuff', and had the better draws (and luck) and won. Mike played sealed deck and got to the second round with a average deck.

June 15, 1996- CardCon XI: Michael Nickoloff did not attend the PT3 qualifier. However, he did play Type I with his Cyclopean Tomb deck and took first place! The competition was not tough; Michael faced a bad blue deck, a speed creature deck, and a big creature/zur's lock deck.

June 22, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Michael played mono-green in Type II and lost in the first round to a willowgeddon deck. Mike played sealed deck and lost in the first round.

June 29, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Michael played mono green in Type II and went three rounds before loosing to w/g willowgeddon deck.

July 6, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Mike played mono-green. He beat a really bad u/w zur's lock deck in the first round. However, he lost in the second round to a mono-red burn deck. Mike advanced to second round of sealed with a mediocre deck.

July 13, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Michael played stasis in Type II and lost 2nd round to a r/u permision/blaster deck. In sealed, Michael got a ton of good cards including a mind twist, mind warp, sylvan library and direct damage. He got to the semifinals before losing to a weenie creature deck with a Soldevi Simulacrum.

July 20, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Michael Nickoloff attended. Michael played stasis in Type II and lost first round to a crappy green deck played by a moron loser. UGH! Sealed was the same, as Michael had no game and lost in the first round.

July 27, 1996- Cardcon XII: Carl Perlas and Michael Nickoloff attended. Carl got a really bad sealed deck for the PT4 qualifer, and dropped out after loosing the first match. Michael did a little better, and went 2-2 before dropping. Michael then played in group therepy (a melee varient) and took second place.

August 3, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Eric Briggs and Michael Nickoloff attended. Eric played white weenie and faced Scott Johns in the first round of Type II. Scott beat Eric in 2 straight games. Michael first played grandmaster and took second and won $40. Type 2 was a disaster as he faced David Strunk, Jr. and a necro-red deck. Michael did improve in Type I with a Land Equilibrium deck and took second place!

August 4, 1996- Slam Pit: Eric Briggs and Michael Nickoloff attended. Michael played gargohaups and won 4 games straight only to loose in the semis against Eric (tourney was double elimination). Eric lost his first match against a crappy green-thing deck, and went through the loser's bracket to beat Michael, and then a mono-red burn deck to win a box of IA boosters.

August 9, 1996- Game Zone Unsanctioned Type II: Michael Nickoloff attended. He played w/r gargoyhaups. He won the first round against r/g and then lost in the next round against necro.

August 11, 1996- PT4 Qualifer in San Jose: Michael Nickoloff from USC and Caroline Liu, Francis Poon, Heui Saint-Hsui and James Findelamer from UCLA attended. Michael, Heui and James went 2-2 before dropping out of the AI/IA sealed competition. Francis and Caroline went 4-2. Everyone had decent decks, but no one had the spoiler cards to take them to the top. Mike had an icy and 17 red cards that he wanted to play with, but it was his luck that he only got 2 mountains in his starter. Even with the extra 5 mountains, it still wasn't enough to avoid mana screw, so Mike ended up playing 5 colors, again.

August 17, 1996- The Saturday Gathering: Eric Briggs and Michael Nickoloff attended. Eric, playing white weenie, went two rounds in Type II before losing to a mono-green deck. Michael played necro and went two rounds before losing to Jason Yang and his burn deck. Michael then played Type 1.5 with his modified Type I deck. He took 4th after losing to a LD deck and then a control/garygoyle deck.