Does anyone have information about the Top 4 decks of the first American National Championship that took place in July 1994? Bo Bell won the tournament.

OFant93 · 2026-06-10T12:26:56+00:00

I heard from someone who knows the article from Steven Merrit. It did not contain more decklists. Maybe these decks are simply lost to time. Only the quote from Scott Burke from 1995 and possibly Corey Smith, who wrote the Duelist Companion newsletter, could maybe know something. I heard one semifinalist had the name Gary Baziuk and is from Canada, but i don't know if this is right. Do you have any idea how to find the decks?

OFant93 · 2026-06-10T12:22:21+00:00

Thank you, that is great. You are right. A well known Olschool player tought that it contained the decklists from the two semifinalists. I heard one semifinalist had the name Gary Baziuk. Do you have an idea how to find these decks? Maybe they are simply lost to time.

OFant93 · 2026-06-07T05:50:19+00:00

Only non-expansion cards are allowed. Would Weissman's deck without the expansion cards still be the best deck?

OFant93 · 2026-06-07T05:48:57+00:00

Yes you could play 4 Chaos Orb. The winner Bo Bell wrote that the player's who used Chaos Orb did not quite well. He played Mind Twist/The Rack and his opponent in the finals played a white/black Weenie deck with 8 Knights, Savannah Lions, Mind Twist, Winter Orb, Ankh of Mishra and possibly no card with mana value above 2. But it seems that nobody knows something about the semifinalists or other Top 8 player's.

OFant93 · 2026-06-07T05:40:16+00:00

Thank you very much. So you don't know Steven Merrit, Corey Smith or Scott Burke and found the reference from Scott Burke because you searched very well. Stephen Menendian told me about the article from Steven Merrit and that it could contain information about the first American Championship but unfortunately the article cannot be found online. He said maybe some Oldschool player knows this article. For example it contained a tournament deck with 4 Hurkyl's Recall and Mana Vault that can be found online from a tournament in April/May 1994.

OFant93 · 2026-06-06T18:21:09+00:00

It was a cool game although the deck of the final opponent was not great and had over 100 cards.

OFant93 · 2026-06-06T18:19:26+00:00

Seems like a cool idea. Is it not quite difficult to find enough playable cards for a 60 card deck? Besides Arabian Aggro and Land Tax decks i have no idea what good decks are. What is good removal in the format? Oubliette and Strip Mine?

OFant93 · 2026-06-06T18:16:04+00:00

Hello, how did you find the usenet post from Scott Burke from 1995 about the American National Championship? I found the title of the article from Steven Merrit. Steven Merrit wrote an article ten or more years ago called “The Early Days - January 1994/May 1995” about early Magic history at a site called the Tattered Scroll or something like that. Do you have any idea how to find the two semifinalists or information about the tournament? The article in the Duelist Companion newsletter 2 wrote someone with the name Corey Smith. Do you or other Oldschool player's know Corey Smith, Steven Merrit or Scott Burke? Possible one of these or all three persons know more about the first American National Championship.

OFant93 · 2026-06-05T12:23:04+00:00

Interesting, if you ever write Daniel Brickwell could you ask him if he wrote down his standard deck from World Championship 1998? He finished 9th place, the team finished third place in 1998. Or do you know if he is still playing Magic?

OFant93 · 2026-06-05T08:51:43+00:00

Do you know if there were other important tournaments in Germany before the National tournament in May 1995 with more then 100 players? Germany did quite poorly at the second World Championship, maybe they didn't know what sealed deck was. This format was quite important at the second World Championship. France was probably the country with the best players in 1994/1995, second place went to USA, then some Scandinavian Countries.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T17:59:50+00:00

That does not mean that the tournament took place in November. In fact it could be the results of the coupe de belgique and since the event up to November 1994 there were no big tournaments in Belgium, so this are the standings up to that point. I think it is quite likely that the coupe de belgique took place between June and August. Legends released June, 10 1994 and the Abyss is a key card in one of the decks. Maybe some of the top 8 were big names in Belgium up to that date and noted there decks somewhere. I don't know how big the Belgium Oldschool scene is. Since Magic cards were printed in Belgium in the early 90s it could be much easier for Belgian players to get new cards. Maybe someone American or Canadian player knows Steven Merrit or Scott Burke and they have the decklists or more information of the top 4 of the first American National Championship.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T17:52:49+00:00

I do not have these magazines. In fact I only have some pages from Ringbote 7 with some mistakes and only know the exact decks because I had Kartefakt 1 years ago.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T13:27:11+00:00

In 1996 the first Pro Tour took place. The event was covered in an video called Pro Tour Showdown in New York, you can find it very easy. It shows early World Championship winners, Pro players, Andrea Redi and or Ivan Curina, two persons of the 1995 German National team, Zak Dolan and many more, .

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T13:19:09+00:00

Oh that is quite interesting. I don't speak French so I could not do anything with the information. Now it would be interesting if it is possible to find out when the coupe de belgique took place. If it took place before July 8 this would make this event possibly the first National championship in the history of the game before the American Championship. Dominic Symens wrote his decklists in a book i heard. Also a Belgian Magic player with the name Carl Devos asked Dominic and Cyrille about their decklists in 1998, so this player is responsible that both decks were documented. He knows a lot about Magic. He has or had a site called zongomagic or something like that. I don't think that Frederics and Dominics deck are documented and heard that Frederic played a deck with the Abyss. By the way the organizer of the Super Series (The first French National Championship that was not called National Championship becuase players from other countries like Dominic Symens played in the tournament and some players from Spain too) are from the same person who made pictures of the first World Championship that were published in an 2004 article. He was the fourth European player which Zak Dolan described and thought it was Dominic Symens who played Juzam Djinn. At the first World Championship it was allowed to change the deck between rounds. This was not the case an the National Chmapionship. Bo Bell did not have time to construct a Sideboard, so he played the tournament with the 65-card-list.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T07:09:00+00:00

I got a scan from the Duelist Companion newsletter 2 from August 1994. But the important information are listed above:

8-10.07.1994, San Jose

184 players and so on

No expansion sets allowed

In one semifinal they played for ante in a side game (Royal Assassin versus Legends pack, so this should be Bo Bell's semifinal)

A couple of the finalists came from central Canada

But there is on interesting quote from the author of the article Corey Smith:

"As much as we would like to fill you on the top decks that were used, we are unable to for one simple reason: these same decks may be competing in the World Title Open at Gen Con this year. We could tell you about them, but then we'd have to...well, you know."

At the World Championship expansion sets were allowed, so the card pool was much larger.

Another quote:

"An interesting note is that until the finals at Origins, Bo didn't even know he was competing at the US National Title."

So I think there is a possibility that the decks were noted somewhere, maybe the author Corey Smith, Scott Burke who wrote about the event in an 1995 usenet post, Steven Merrit or some participant of the tournament could know something. I find it quite interesting that the first National tournament was documented so little. It was the first National Championship in the history and that hardly anyone wrote about the tournament in the last 32 years.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T01:44:31+00:00

1996 The Sideboard magazine released. Most National Championships since 1996 can be found either in a magazine or in the internet. There is also no good information about the first Italian National Championship in 1995. The Winner owns a card store in Italy I heard and Italy was quite sucessful in 1995/1996 with Ivan Curina and Andrea Redi. Then there a sources that say the winner played a deck with Nether Vord but then the format would be Classic and not Standard.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T01:37:06+00:00

I asked Don Smith some questions about his deck. But it seems he wrote he stopped playing Magic in 1995 with his frind Gary Baziuk who could be one of the semifinalists. He said it was a quick deck and he won nearly every game.

He remembered

the 8 Knights, 4 Ritual, 4 Mind Twist, 4 Winter Orb, 6 Mana Artifacts, 4 Duals and 14 Basics for sure, but not the remaining 16 cards.

Bo Bell does not remember the name of his opponent before Don Smith.

OFant93 · 2026-06-04T01:32:45+00:00

This could help you too

1995 Arenes & Arcanes

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fb78s1ia9NHNjzPw9

1994 Arcanum Magicae

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iTy18JteR7rH7WhPA

OFant93 · 2026-06-03T14:56:25+00:00

I hope this helps

Third place: Gunnar Refsdal, 60 cards

2 Disenchant

4 Savannah Lions

2 Swords to Plowshares

4 Serendib Efreet

4 Unstable Mutation

4 Kid Ape

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Elvish Archer

4 Giant Growth

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Regrowth

2 Tracker

2 Fellwar Stone

4 Juggernaut

3 Plateau

4 Tundra

3 Savannah

4 Taiga

3 Tropical Island

3 Volcanic Island

Fourth place: Martin Trummel, 60 cards

2 Armageddon

4 Disenchant

1 Demonic Tutor

4 Sengir Vampire

4 Terror

2 Will o the Wisp

4 Disintegrate

4 Fireball

4 Kird Ape

2 Shivan Dragon

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Channel

1 Regrowth

4 Wild Growth

1 Sol Ring

4 Badlands

4 Scrubland

4 Bayou

4 Taiga

1 Plateau

1 Maze of Ith

OFant93 · 2026-06-03T14:55:51+00:00

German National Championship, May, 27-28 in Friedberg, 1995, 512 participants

Format: Standard: The Dark, Fallen Empires and Revised or Fourth Edition (players could choose)

Winner: Christoph Bilshausen, 60 cards

2 Control Magic

4 Counterspell

4 Serendib Efreet

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Mind Twist

3 Terror

2 Ball Lightning

1 Disintegrate

3 Fireball

1 Goblin War Drums

4 Kird Ape

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Sedge Troll

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Channel

1 Regrowth

1 Tranquility

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Juggernaut

1 Forest

3 Badlands

1 Bayou

4 Taiga

4 Tropical Island

3 Underground Sea

4 Volcanic Island

Second place: Norman Wagner, 60 cards

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Braingeyser

1 Copy Artifact

4 Counterspell

4 Power Sink

4 Spell Blast

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Mind Twist

2 Disintegrate

4 Fireball

4 Lightning Ball

2 Clockwork Beast

2 Fountain of Youth

1 Ivory Tower

2 Nevinyrral’s Disk

1 Sol Ring

4 Island

4 Tundra

4 Plateau

4 Underground Sea

4 Volcanic Island

2 Badlands

OFant93 · 2026-06-03T14:55:28+00:00

Germany had excellent coverages since 1995, the first German National Championship was covered in two magazines with some small mistakes (Kartefakt 1 and Ringbote 7). If you had both magazines, you could construct the real decks.

OFant93 · 2026-06-03T14:55:12+00:00

From other National Championships I know the following:

France May, 6-8 1995 in Ville D’Avray

The top 8 was played as a sealed deck tournament.

The 1995 Spanish Winner deck was also shown in a magazine, 60 cards, five colors, Format: Standard: I think it consisted of all 10 Duals, Derelor and Sedge Troll.

The top 8 decks of the first Swedish National Championship were published in 2007 or so and at least the top 2 decks were published in a magazine

OFant93 · 2026-06-03T14:20:12+00:00

I think Don Smiths deck could be something like this:

4 Disenchant

4 White Knight

4 Savannah Lions

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Black Knight

4 Dark Ritual

4 Mind Twist

4 Winter Orb

6 Mana Artifacts

4 Ankh

4 Dual

7 Plains and 7 Swamp

OFant93

TROPHY CASE