Stealing some fame from Olle Rade - my encounters with PT3 winner!
Dan Hörning
Dan Horning comments on the Swedish PT3 victory:
So finally a Swede won an international tournament. This made me very happy
given the very poor showing we managed at the 1995 World Championship (no
Swede was present at the 1994 championship, very few people played MTG
in Sweden back then) - we being Leon Lindback (PT1 semifinalist), myself
as the 1995 Swedish champion, Neil Guthrie and Johan Andersson.
Leon Lindback did then correct the situation back in PT1 when he made
the semifinals and was beaten by Lestree. He also came back to win the
Swedish Nationals this year and took the title I had denied him in 1995.
Anyway, that about Swedish international MTG play. Now let's talk about
Olle Rade and the Gothenburg players (west coast city of Sweden) in
General. At the 1995 Swedish Championship, the players from Stockholm
(the Swedish capital, among them myself, Thomas Andersson (PT 1 top 16),
Leon Lindback and Neil Guthrie) had a distinct feeling that we were
superior in skill to the Gothenburg players (Gothenburg is Sweden's
second biggest city after Stockholm and there has always been a sense
of rivalry between the two cities) and we got it confirmed when I
finished first, Leon second and Neil third.
In the top 16 match I met Olle Rade for the first time. I was playing
a Red-Green Blood Moon Channel/Fireball deck (this was when type II
was RV, DK and FE) which usually won by tutoring for Channelball or
Orgging the opponent to death. Olle was playing White Weenie, which
was all the craze in Gothenburg back then (this was early June '95).
A friend of mine, Anders Blom, warned me that Olle, though young (16
at the time), was one of Gothenburgs best players. I prepared myself
for a tough game and was astonished when I walked away with a 3-0
victory after 15 minutes. White Weenie had a hard time dealing with
my horde of creatures (Kird Apes, Elves, Orggs, Bears (!) and Derelors
- I later figured that 16 of my creatures would have died by Pyroclasm,
a card that did not exist back then) and the Fireballs that killed
multiple weenies every time.
This year the Championship was again in Early June and there were
several qualifiers that I did attend although I was already qualified
as the reigning champion. The final qualifier was two days before
the championship at the same location. I played a Necrodeck (intending
to play Thomas Andersson's anti-necro deck THE CURE in the championship,
as did the championship runner-up Marcus Lagerstrom. Leon Lindback, 1996
champion, played another of Thomas's anti-necro decks) and swept the
opposition big time. For the final match of the Swiss style qualification
I sat at table 1 and faced Olle Rade again.
All through the qualification tournament I had been behaving quite loudly,
intending to have fun through the tournament. Famous were the cries of
"Hymni Hymni!" that I initiated (to mimic the Finnish players that had
swept us at a Stockholm tournament a few weeks earlier - the Fins are. in my
humble opinion, the world's best magic players and deserve at PT winner
as well). You could hear the "Hymni Hymni" whenever someone used a
Hymn to Tourach and that was quite often. Olle quickly got in the mood and,
given our position at table one, we thought that we could give the audience
some show. We screamed in rage every time something was removed or buried, we
gave Finnish names to every creature ("here comes Jorma and, boy, is
he pissed...", "this reminds of when we disked those Russians at Rovaniemi",
"Geddoni! Kiss those lands goodbye!!!" etc.). The judges had actually warned
people crying "Hymni!" earlier in the tournament but they let the racket
at table one continue. Olle played a white weenie deck without crusades,
with four Serrated Arrows, four Power Sinks (!!!) and lots of removal
capacity. He had actually crushed Necro Decks before. I won 3-0 (again)
and throw a disheartened Olle Rade back to 8th place in the Swiss tourney.
2nd place went to Thomas Andersson who had not lost a single match but by
some freak of chance had not met me. He was trying out THE CURE, and had
crushed Necro Decks on his way. I was lucky...
For some reason, there are some people I have met several times who have
never won against me. They appear jinxed as they always have incredibly
bad draws and poor luck when they meet me. Among them are Stockholm Magic's
grand old man, Ake Storm, and National Quarterfinalist Niklas Eriksson.
I figured that Olle was one of them now as well, having lost two matches
to me with 3-0, not winning a single duel.
How wrong I was...
When the National Championship came up, I won the first Swiss game by
2-1 and had to face Olle Rade again. He played the same deck, perhaps
a little more protected against Necro. We started in the same loud
manner as the qualification match but was quickly silenced by the judges.
I soon realized that THE CURE, being a pump-knight, direct daamage,
red-white deck, had very little to put up against Olle and his 4 Serrated
Arrows... He swept me 3-0 and went on to win a lot of matches, only to
lose in the two last matches and not make it to the quarterfinal playoffs.
Too bad. He deserved better. How I did in the nationals this year?
Let's simply not mention it...
Finally, I want to congratule Olle Rade for the PT3 victory. He is a great
guy and he deserves it. Being quite small and frail with long blonde hair,
Olle does not look the part of a Pro Tour winner. You could actually meet
him and think "This one will be easy" but you will be mistaken...
And, finally, I have to admit that the Gothenburg magic players are of
the same standard as we from Stockholm...:-)
Dan Horning
Swedish National MTG Champion 1995