Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 1996–97

1996–97 Pro Tour season

Pro Player of the Year	Paul McCabe
Rookie of the Year	none awarded
World Champion	Jakub Slemr
Pro Tours	6
Grands Prix	5
Start of season	13 September 1996
End of season	17 August 1997
← 1996 1997–98 →

The 1996–97 Pro Tour season was the second season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 13 September 1996 with Pro Tour Atlanta, and ended on 17 August 1997 with the conclusion of 1997 World Championship in Seattle. The season consisted of five Grand Prixs, and six Pro Tours, located in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Paris, New York, and Seattle. At the end of the season Paul McCabe from Canada was awarded the Pro Player of the year title. It was the first seasons to host Grand Prixs, major tournaments awarding cash prizes and Pro Points, but open to all players.

Pro Tour – Atlanta (13–15 September 1996)

German Frank Adler won Pro Tour Atlanta. It was the only Pro Tour ever to host an individual Sealed Deck competition as the main event. Actually the cards were all previously unknown to the players as Mirage product was used, but Mirage had not been officially released yet.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $150,000
Players: 192
Format: Sealed Deck (Mirage)

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Frank Adler	$26,000	1st German to win a Pro Tour
2	Darwin Kastle	$16,000	2nd Final day
3	Aaron Muranaka	$9,000
4	John Yoo	$9,000
5	Terry Borer	$5,500
6	Mike Long	$5,500
7	Chris Pikula	$5,500
8	Matthew Vienneau	$5,500

Pro Tour – Dallas (22–24 November 1996)

Eventual Pro Player of the year Paul McCabe won Pro Tour Dallas. The Canadian defeated Jason Zila from the USA in the final. Olle Råde had his third Top 8 appearance while playing only his fourth Pro Tour.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $150,000
Players: 242
Format: Standard

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Paul McCabe	$26,000	1st Canadian to win a Pro Tour
2	Jason Zila	$16,000
3	Brian Hacker	$9,000
4	Chris Pikula	$9,000	2nd Final day
5	George Baxter	$5,500	2nd Final day
6	Olle Råde	$5,500	3rd Final day
7	Robert Thornburg	$5,500
8	Peer Kröger	$5,500

Pro Tour – Los Angeles (28 February – 2 March 1997)

Tommi Hovi won Pro Tour Los Angeles, winning the final against David Mills. It was the only Pro Tour final ever to be decided by a disqualification. Mills was disqualified because he repeatedly tapped his lands after (rather than before) attempting to play a spell, which was not allowed at the time. Leading to an upset amongst the players it was eventually decided that Mills would be allowed to claim his prize, despite being originally disqualified without prize.

Los Angeles was also the first Pro Tour to use the so called Paris Mulligan. Previously players were allowed to take a mulligan if they had an all-land or no-land starting hand. Instead players could now mulligan whenever they wished to do so, but had to draw an opening hand with one card less. The name Paris Mulligan actually refers to the subsequent Pro Tour in Paris, which was the first Constructed Pro Tour to use this rule.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $150,000
Players: 236
Format: Rochester Draft (Mirage-Visions)
Head Judge: Tom Wylie^[2]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Tommi Hovi	$26,000	2nd Final day, 1st Finn to win a Pro Tour
2	David Mills	$16,000	Disqualified
3	Alan Comer	$9,000
4	John Yoo	$9,000	2nd Final day
5	Truc Bui	$5,500	2nd Final day
6	John Immordino	$5,500	2nd Final day
7	Brian Weissman	$5,500	2nd Final day
8	Ben Possemiers	$5,500	1st Belgian in a Top 8

Grand Prix – Amsterdam

GP Amsterdam (22–23 March)

1. Emmanuel Vernay
2. David Nott
3. Wessel Oomens
3. Sven Dijt
5. Roeland Van der Hoevenen
5. Matt Henstra
5. Michael Huth
5. Dominique Coene

Pro Tour – Paris (11–13 April 1997)

Paris was the first Pro Tour held outside the United States. In the finals the biggest names of Magic at that time, Mike Long and Mark Justice, met determine the champion. Actually both decks present in the final belonged to Long as he had previously loaned his deck to Justice. Eventually Long won the match, en route winning a game which his Combo deck was not capable of winning any more, but he convinced Justice to concede anyway.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $150,000
Players: 223
Format: Mirage Block Constructed (Mirage, Visions)

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Mike Long	$26,000	2nd Final day
2	Mark Justice	$16,000	3rd Final day
3	Darwin Kastle	$9,000	3rd Final day
4	Henning Rimkus	$9,000
5	Sturla Bingen	$5,500	1st Norwegian in a Top 8
6	Paul Ferker	$5,500
7	Jason Gordon	$5,500	2nd Final day
8	Jason Zila	$5,500	2nd Final day

Grand Prix – Washington D.C., Tokyo, Barcelona

GP Washington D.C. (26–27 April) Mike Long David Price Nate Clark Chad Solo Scott Seville Michael Pustilnik Terry Borer Dennis Bentley

GP Tokyo (4–5 May) Kenichi Fujita Toshiki Tsukamoto Yoshiyuki Tsuruta Yoshikazu Ishii Goro Matsuo Masami Ibamoto Satoshi Nakamura Takashi Niwa

GP Barcelona (4–5 May) Pierre Fayard Alain Fernandez Ivan Garcia Santiago Rodriguez Mathieu Poujade Nicholas Olivieri Joaquim Casa Michel Debard

Pro Tour – New York (30 May – 1 June 1997)

Canadian Terry Borer won Pro Tour New York, defeating Ivan Stanoev in the finals.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $150,000
Players: 259
Format: Booster Draft (5th Edition-Visions)

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Terry Borer	$26,000	2nd Final day
2	Ivan Stanoev	$16,000	1st Czech in a Top 8
3	Gabriel Tsang	$9,000
4	Jeroen Weyden	$9,000	1st Dutch Player in a Top 8
5	Mark Chalice	$5,500
6	John Chinnock	$5,500
7	Michael Pustilnik	$5,500
8	Patrick Chapin	$5,500

Grand Prix – London

GP London (12–13 July)

1. Michel Sochon
2. Cyrille DeFoucaud
3. Ollie Schneider
3. Graham Thomson
5. Ben Possemiers
5. Daniel Brickwell
5. Robin McCandless
5. Frederic Bannach

1997 World Championships – Seattle (13–17 August 1997)

Main article: Magic: The Gathering World Championship#1997 World Championship

Jakub Slemr from the Czech Republic won the World Championship. He defeated Janosch Kühn from Germany in the final, playing a mainly black aggro-deck, dipping into all other colours for utility. Canada won the team competition in a final against Sweden.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $200,000 (individual) + $50,000 (national teams)
Players: 153
Format: Standard, Rochester Draft (Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight), Extended

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Jakub Slemr	$34,000	1st Czech to win a Pro Tour
2	Janosch Kühn	$22,000	Pro Tour debut
3	Paul McCabe	$12,000	2nd Final day
4	Svend Geertsen	$12,000	1st Dane in a Top 8
5	Gabriel Tsang	$8,000	2nd Final day
6	Nikolai Weibull	$8,000
7	Nate Clark	$8,000
8	John Chinnock	$8,000	2nd Final day

National team competition

1. Canada (Gary Krakower, Michael Donais, Ed Ito, Gabriel Tsang)
2. Sweden (Nikolai Weibull, Mattias Jorstedt, Marcus Angelin, Johan Cedercrantz)

Pro Player of the year final standings

After the World Championship Paul McCabe was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.^[1]

Rank	Player
1	Paul McCabe
2 (tie)	Terry Borer
2 (tie)	John Yoo

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Rosewater, Mark (26 July 2004). "On Tour, Part 1". Wizards of the Coast. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr134. Retrieved 1 December 2008. 
2. ^ "Head Judges of Pro Tours and World Championships". XS4ALL. 30 October 2009. http://magic.wiki.xs4all.nl/index.php?title=Head_Judges_of_Pro_Tours_and_World_Championships. Retrieved 16 November 2009.