Post-Theros Standard and Commander League week 6 results.

Welcome back to another edition of War Torn Front's Blog! This week I will be covering Krier's Standard event along with the mini Grand Prix Trial here at War Torn Front on Saturday. After that, we take a look at Commander League's week 6 results.

Saturday, War Torn Front played host to a GPT for Louisville, Kentucky. Although we did have trouble firing the event, eventually 10 players showed up to do battle in Post-Theros Standard. After a quick few rounds, Navdeep and Big Boros took down the event! This was only the beginning of things to come that weekend.

Sunday, Krier's Standard event fired. Thanks to Josh Romano, I have a rundown of the event. Navdeep made his way into the top 4 with Anthony Moreno on BW Control, Josh Romano on RDW , and Liz Bryant on RDW. Navdeep beat Josh 2-1, while Anthony took down Liz 2-0. The finals ended with Navdeep and Big Boros standing tall after a 2-0 victory over Anthony Moreno.  Great Job Navdeep! Heres to a successful run at States! It seems like your on to something big!

Aside from these events, The next few weeks are jam-packed for Theros and Standard! This coming weekend is MTG States held in Santa Clara. This big Standard event promises all sorts of fun and prizes, so go out and play! Make sure you support your local store with shirts and merchandise from that shop! Oct 19th plays host to a PTQ in San Diego and Cupertino for Born of the Gods. This sealed event is one of the few ways to break onto the Pro Circuit! So make sure to mark your calenders and watch MTGNorCal for more info. Also, make sure to pre-reg to ensure you have your spot for the PTQ! If you are not going to the PTQs that day, make sure to stop by at your local Game Store and battle for a cool playmat and packs!In addition, come bring your inner hero and Face the Hydra! This three part Theros event has player use Heroes to aid them in the fight to take down the Hydra. Come battle this Hydra and walk away with an exclusive Hero for this event!

With all of the updates for Standard out of the way, It is time to update everyone about Commander League. This past week marked our halfway point for this league and the players are getting within striking distance of that coveted first place prize! Will Chris Feliciano be able to hold the lead for another six weeks or will a new contender arise? Come find out!

Commander League Week 6 Results!
1st Place: Chris Feliciano 65 points
2nd Place: Troy Reinhardt 59 points
3rd Place: Zachary Williams 50 points
4th Place: Alfredo Rincon 36 points
5th Place: Rodney Bastelman 29 points
6th Place: Brittany Davis 26 points
                Blaine Whitten 26 points
8th Place: Tyler Clary 20 points
                Tim Mason 20 points
                Nate Polson 20 points
11th Place: Eric Avila 16 points
12th Place: Kendall Darling 12 points
                  Kordell Darling 12 points
                  Tyler Schafer 12 points
15th Place: Brandon Coon 9 points
16th Place: Matt Woods 7 points
17th Place: Brett Chilcott 6 points
                  Tommy Levescy 6 points
19th Place: Matthew Ferguson 3 points
                  Israel Jacobo 3 points
                  Donald Joseph 3 points
                  Joe Moreira 3 points

That wraps up another edition of the War Torn Front Blog! Players remember the new Commander product will be available November 1st so make sure to get your product!

Theros Release results and Commander League Week 5 Results

Welcome back, War Torn Front faithful. This week We will go over all of the Theros release weekend results, plus a Krier's Modern event that fired on Sunday, Sept 29th. After that we will take a look at the new standings for league as we rapidly approach the halfway point for the Commander League.

Starting things off, Kriers played host to it's traditional Magic release event, with a Win-a-Box! This event drew most of the Modesto crowd for 5 rounds of Swiss, a top 8 draft, and finally a winner to claim a box of Theros. This past Friday, Josh Romano and Jeremiah Hickman split the top 8, each walking away with a cool 27 packs of Theros, a free draft, and their sealed pools. The top 8 consisted of Josh, Jeremiah, Navdeep, Ryan Owens, Kuang Chen, and Daniel Duron along Kevin Mao and Tom Oliveira. Thanks to Daniel Duron for keeping me up to date on our final two competitors for Krier's Top 8. I would like to thank Josh for this heads up. Keep supplying info to me guys and I will make sure it sees the just forum to be viewed in.

Next, War Torn Front played a host to a Win-a-Box for Theros as well. 22 players showed up to battle 5 rounds of Swiss, into a Top 8 draft. After heads were sent flying, David Myers emerged victorious with Richard Montoya taking 2nd. Thank you guys for coming out. It is your continued support that helps us fire these events and getting you guys insane prize payouts.

Finally, Sunday Krier's played host to a Modern event post-Theros release. 10 players showed up ready to test Theros effect on the Modern scene. Emerging victorious from this was Jason Reed over Placido Galvin in the finals. Jason walked away with 5 packs of Modern Masters and Placido with 3. All of this only for $5! If there is a place to be on Sundays, it has to be Krier's Cards and Comics!

Now, what many of you have been waiting for. The current standings for Commander League as we head to the halfway point for this league.

1st Place: Chris Feliciano 58 points
2nd Place: Zachary Williams 49 points
3rd Place: Troy Reinhardt 44 points
4th Place: Brittany Davis 26 points
                Alfredo Rincon 26 points
6th Place: Rodney Bastelman 24 points
7th Place: Blaine Whitten 22 Points
8th Place: Tyler Clary 20 points
9th Place: Tim Mason 13 points
                Nate Polson 13 points
11th Place: Kendall Darling 12 points
                 Kordell Darling 12 points
                 Tyler Schafer 12 points
14th Place: Brandon Coon 9 points
15th Place: Matt Woods 7 points
16th Place: Brett Chilcott 6 points
                  Tommy Levescy 6 points
18th Place: Matthew Ferguson 3 points
                  Israel Jacobo 3 points
                  Donald Joseph 3 points
                  Joe Moreira 3 points

Just as a reminder to new players coming into league. You still have a shot at overall league prizes, in addition to, the nightly prize payout for the Commander League. So come on down and battle it out at War Torn Front for your Commander dreams!

That is all for this week of War Torn Front's blog. Feel free to comment and reply on Facebook, Twitter, or email and let us know what we can do to make things better. This is Brandon, signing off!

Commander League Week 4 updates and Chris Feliciano's Jor Kordeen

Welcome back WTF faithful. This is another edition of the WTF Commander League! Week 5 starts tomorrow, so please do stop in and play a few rounds. For this unsure, tomorrow night will mark the first night that Theros can join the EDH Community.So grab those decks, check out those generals, and be ready to face off with a great group of players at the Commander League!

After this week's standing, I have a small interview that I conducted with current 1st place holder, Chris Feliciano. His list and his thoughts on the format will be included after the standings, so please make sure to read up on them. 

Starting this week, I will be watching for decks and pilots to include for future Commander league updates. Normally, I would be looking for top finishes, but kooky decks or insane strategies also can count. So if you feel your brew deserves to be up here, prove it at WTF's Commander League, another small reason that we are the only store to play Magic in Manteca!

Week 4 Standings

1st Place: Chris Feliciano 42 points

2nd Place: Zachary Williams 37 points

3rd Place: Troy Reinhardt 34 points

4th Place: Alfredo Rincon 26 points

5th Place: Blaine Whitten 22 points

6th Place: Brittany Davis 21 points

7th Place: Tyler Clary 15 points

8th Place: Tim Mason 13 points

9th Place: Tyler Schafer 12 points

                Kendall Darling

                Kordell Darling

12th Place: Rodney Bastelman 10 points

13th Place: Brandon Coon 9 points

14th Place: Matt Woods 7 points

15th Place: Brett Chilcott 6 points

                  Tommy Levescy

                  Nate Polson

18th Place: Matt Ferguson 3 points

                  Israel Jacobo

                  Donald Joseph

                  Joe Moreira

                  

Chris Feliciano and Jor Kordeen!

Lands                                                                                              

13 Plains

9 Mountain

Great Furnace

Ancient Den

Clifftop Retreat

Rugged Praerie

Sacred Foundry

Battlefield Forge

Ancient Tomb

Rogue's Passage

Kher Keep

Blinkmoth Nexus

Darksteel Citadel

Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion

High Market

Wasteland

Strip Mine

Creatures

Legion Loyalist

Puresteel Paladin

Gold Myr

Iron Myr

Stoneforge Mystic

Etched Champion

Silverblade Paladin

Paladin En-Vec

Mirran Crusader

Hero of Bladehold

Urabrask, the Hidden

Sun Titan

Aurelia, the Warleader

Gisela, Blade of Goldknight

Instants/Sorceries

Faithless Looting

Shattering Spree

Gamble

Steelshaper's Gift

Path to Exile

Swords to Plowshares

Dispatch

Enlightened Tutor

Boros Charm

Dawn Charm

Wear//Tear

Chaos Warp

Wheel of Fortune

Oblation

Ghostaway

Order//Chaos

Return to Dust

Hallowed Burial

Reforge the Soul

Terminus

Austere Command

Artifacts

Tormod's Crypt

Relic of Progentitus

Skullclamp

Sensei's Divining Top

Expedition Map

Sol Ring

Mana Vault

Scroll Rack

Boros Signet

Fellwar Stone

Grim Monolith

Lighting Greaves

Sword of Fire and Ice

Sword of Light and Shadow

Sword of War and Peace

Sword of Feast and Famine

Sunforger

Boros Keyrune

Darksteel Ignot

Thran Dynamo

Enchantments

Land Tax

Fervor

Aggravated Assault

Stranglehold

Assemble the Legion

Planeswalkers

Ajani, Caller of the Pride

Elspeth Tirel

Interview with the Number 1!

Chris Feliciano. This man will tell you many things! He will tell you Boros is the best guild, bar none. He will tell you consuming a beetle will give you the strength of the beetle. Chris will even tell you to suck it, especially to a giant corporation. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I sit down with the man known as Baloo an we discuss some EDH and the League!

So Chris, Why Jor Kordeen?

C: To me it was a choice between Jor Kordeen or Brion Stoutarm for the best general in Boros colors. I felt Brion was a little too slow for my taste, and I wanted to be the aggressor in many of the League games.

So Chris, when did you start Commander League?

C: I started week one, like the others.

As League has progressed, what changes have you made to your initial EDH list and why?

C: I used to play Crucible of Worlds, Armageddon and alot of land destruction to get ahead of the others. However, League's penalty to point for blowing up half a player's mana base in one go was pretty backbreaking for points for me. Instead I decided to cut the land destruction and play Sunforger and a package for it. In addition, my all-star for this list has to be Aggravated Assault. This enchantment plus Sword of Feast and Famine allows me to attack infinitely. Talk about the value! other than that, i tried experimenting with Koth and Gideon Jura and founding them lacking in this list. Vandalblast also managed to get cut because by the time I overloaded it for profit, at most I was hitting two artifacts.

If the league finished today, would you keep the changes you made to the list or would you revert?

C: I actually like how this new list is shaping up. As a result, I think I will keep this list the way it is.

So what was your best moment in League, and as a followup, your bad beat tale from League?

C: My best moment came when I equipped a 0/1 Kobold token from Kher Keep with a Sword of Feast and Famine and spent the next several turns going to town. Rogue's Passage allowed my little guy through, and Aggravated Assault sealed the deal.

C: My bad beat moment came when playing Alfredo and Brandon Coon. Alfredo used Living Death to bring back his army. I immediately used Terminus to clear the field and thought I was in the green. Alfredo then slammed down Drana, with plenty of mana up. With no way to play a dude and protect it in the same turn from Drana's ability, I was quickly mopped up.

So, what , if anything, has intrigued you for Theros?

C: The Hammer of Purphoros is a major upgrade to my list and will replace Fervor for the duration of League. Outside of the League, I plan to test the new Elspeth and Purphoros to see if they merit main deck slots during League.

Finally, what decks do you shudder to see and what decks do you love to play against?

C: I absolutely hate Sigarda, Zach's general with a passion. His deck is extremely fast and outside of my wraths, I have no ways to deal with her. Alfredo's list also present challenges since he loves to build fast decks, which may or may not include some combos.

    On the flip side, I love playing decks that require quite a bit of time to set up. Usually, I can cripple these players to the point of making them my lackeys by the time they get to "nuclear capability" 

Well Chris thanks for your list and that interview! It was a pleasure to see inside your head and speak about EDH as a whole.

Till next week's update WTF faithful, I am Brandon, signing off!

Farewell Innistrad, time to say hello to the New Gods/Theros Edition

Hey guys, welcome to another edition of the War Torn Front blog. Aside from it being later than normal, it is still business as usual here at War Torn Front. This week we will take a look at Theros, as the full set has been spoiled and talk speculation on some of the hyped preorders. We will discuss the mechanics of the set and I will talk a bit about the few cards in Theros that have caught my eye. However, we still have some shout-outs to get to before we start.

First, I would like to thank Josh Romano. Not only for his encouraging words, but his updates on the Krier's tournament scene. Two weeks ago, Casey Reid took down Krier's Sunday Standard with Naya Midrange, defeating Josh Romano piloting Jund Aristocrats. Following them were Chester Moon on Jund Aggro, and Navdeep on Red Deck Wins. Casey walked away with a FTV:20, while Josh collected a FTV: Legends. Great job guys and here is to more earnings in your prize pools! Remember, today is Krier's Sunday Standard, so go on out and battle with your Standard lists one of the last times before rotation.

Second, I would like to thank Vicente Davis for doing an amazing job of encouraging and keeping this community running. Not only as a level 2 judge, but as an administrator and constant supporter to these blogs. I appreciate all the the details you point out in these articles and look forward to working with you more closely in broadcasting the details of the MTGNorCal and magictcg's groups exploits.

Finally, thanks to Chia Lee, Thor Barerra and Placido Galvin for encouraging and feeding me info to write these articles. Without their support, I do not think this blog would be on the post count it has. Now with all the waterworks, lets move to the show.

Theros is, well, amazing. This set knocked it out of the ballpark in flavor, card quality, and mechanics. Rather than swarm this entire post with thoughts on Theros' individual cards, I figure i will touch upon the cycles of things in this set and talk mechanics. First off, my least favorite mechanic: Heroic.

Heroic is an interesting attempt to make the normal creature of Theros into something awe-inspiring. It reflects the everyday person stepping up and becoming something different than they once were. By making the trigger for heroic a spell you cast, seems kinda underwhelming. Do not get me wrong. From a flavor standpoint, it makes sense that some sort of god-like figure would grant normal humanoids abilities beyond their own capability. However, it seems like to get the most bang for your buck that you will have to repeatedly target your own creatures, presenting plenty of two-for-one opportunities. I feel this is the worst mechanic in Theros, but even still, this mechanic will see some play because of the fact it is attached to low costing creatures that can immediately impact the board state early. Next up on the mechanics is devotion.

Devotion is a returning mechanic. In case you may not know, take a look at Chroma from Eventide and come on back. Done reading it, good! Moving on. The biggest proponent to this mechanic is the five mythic god cards. Each of these gods starts off as an indestructible enchantment with a static and activated effect. However, if you control permanents with 5 or more colored symbols of the specific god, the god transforms itself into a creature. These God cards and the other devotion mechanic let you play around with your deck's construction and decide if valuing mono-colored permanents is better for the giant indestructible body or crazy mana/life/dude effects that comes with it, or should we stick to just playing better multi-colored spells.

Next up is Monstrous. This effect captures the flavor of a creature suddenly becoming empowered and wrecking havoc upon the world. Most of the monstrous creatures have cool and splashy effects that make the game state hectic. From our mythic legend hydra to the one hundred hand giant, these creature off more bang for your buck as the game progresses later.

Much like Monstrous, Scry is also a great late game mechanic. I love how many of the spells and creatures in this set have scry values higher than just one. These cards allow for better early and late game play, as it helps smooths and controls the draws of the player using scry. Having scry back seems like Standard wont be nearly as draw-dependant as it used to be.

Finally, my favorite mechanic from the set: Bestow. No matter how many times I look at Bestow, it just reads quite a bit of upside. If you cast it as an enchantment-aura and your targeted creature dies in response, you still get your aura, now instead he/she is a creature. This also works in regards to spot removal and wraths later on. An opponent removes the board thanks to a Supreme Verdict and you only had one dude with 4 Bestow enchants on him. Well, looks like your opponent is looking down 4 dudes. This mechanic just made enchantments, specifically, auras many times better.

There you have it ladies and gentleman, a quick overview of Theros and the mechanics, I feel are great or matter for this coming season. Right now hot predictions are on the red god, the new Elspeth, the new r/g walker, the white god, Reaper of the slums, aka Spiritmonger 2.0, and many more.

Players, if you get the chance, go out and support your local game store for the Theros Pre-releases! These are some of the most exciting times to be a Magic player and no one should miss it. If you happen to be in the Manteca area for this coming weekend, come on by and sign up to play at War Torn Front: The Only Place to Play in Manteca!

Commander League Week 2 + Week 3 Updates!

Hey War Torn Front faithful! I am back and here with updates for War Torn Front's Commander League Week's 2 and early Week 3 results. This week has been pretty hectic, but I hope to be back on schedule with updates including new articles by this Weekend! Anyway onto the League results.

Currently, there are 21 players registered in War Torn Front's Commander League and the top dogs have started to rear their heads. Starting in week 4, I plan to talk and get deck lists with the top 4 players in the League. So stay tuned!

1st Place: Zachary Williams 32 points
2nd Place: Chris Feliciano 29 points
3rd Place: Alfredo Rincon 26 points
4th Place: Troy Reinhardt 24 points
5th Place: Brittany Davis 14 points
6th Place: Kordell Darling 12 points
                Tyler Schafer 12 points
                Kendall Darling 12 points
9th Place: Blaine Whitten: 11 points
10th Place: Brandon Coon: 9 points
11th Place: Tyler Clary: 8 points
12th Place: Nate Polson 7 points
                 Matt Woods 7 points
14th Place: Tim Mason 6 points
                  Tommy Levescy 6 points
                  Brett Chilcott 6 points
17th Place: Joe Moreira 3 points
                  Rodney Bastelman 3 points
                  Donald Joseph 3 points
                  Matt Ferguson 3 points
                  Israel Jacobo 3 points

Further updates will come in towards Saturday Night! Please stay tuned and come battle for the Commander League!

War Torn Front: Commander League Week 1 Results and Clarifications

Welcome guys to the weekly Commander League points roster. Each week, War Torn Front will post results from the previous week of Commander League. In this way, players will know their point totals throughout the league and see who is aiming for the top at the end of the league.

Before we get into the point totals this week, I would like to clarify several things. First, when you are playing at the league, please make sure to verify all the points you get at the table and that at least three members of the pod/table you are playing in sign off on it. While Tuesday we had no trouble with this, Saturday we had issues with people not reading the point achievement sheets. Those sheets are placed at each table for you guys to verify the total amount of points you earned in each game. Please make sure to double check and verify them before submitting them. Once they are entered into our systems, we will not change them! While Saturday did have this problem, we will not balk any further. it is your responsibility to count your points for the league. Second, In the case of a tie between places at the end of the night, the highest points gained from the second pod of play will determine who wins the tiebreaker. For example, During this week we had two players who were tied for third. Player A earned 3 points at his second pod, while Player B earned 5 points at his second pod. In this case, Player B wins the tiebreaker and was awarded third. This is the tiebreaker system we will be utilizing during this league. Finally, starting this week the highest point totals will be paired with one another during the first pods. Players will now be matched, based on their point totals with players who have similar point totals.

With all that mumbo-jumbo out of the way. I present the point total for the players currently in the league.

1st-Kendall Darling/Troy Reinhardt 12 points
3rd-Brittany Davis/Tyler Schafer 8 points
5th-Chris Feliciano/Nate Polson/Zachary Williams/Matt Woods 7 points
9th-Brett Chilcott/Kordell Darling/Tommy Levescy/Joe Moreira 6 points
13th-Rodney Bastelman/Matthew Ferguson/Israel Jacobo 3 points

Remember players, only the highest point total from one of the two nights will be taken for the overall league points for that week!

Look forward to seeing more of you guys come back as Commander League starts up week 2!

War Torn Front: The GP and other important events Edition!

Hey guys, welcome back to another edition of the ,now, official War Torn Front Blog. I am your host Brandon and this week's edition has quite a bit of info so hold tight! This week we will cover the TCGPlayer Silver event held at War Torn Front, including a match report from the finals, I talk a bit with WMCQ winner Jason Gulevich about his adventures in Amsterdam, the Super Smash Bash 5, held last week, Aug 21st, and finally a GP rebound. However, let us lead off with some news from the Front Line!

First, I have officially been picked up by the shop, so now I officially represent the shop, in regards to the blogs and Twitter side of things. Please let me know if you guys would like to see other article related content or ideas posted on a bi-weekly basis. Second, my good friend Thor Barerra will be dropping a pretty extensive article on the site in the next few weeks. While I will not give away the article, I will tease it does have to deal with FTV 20. Third, War Torn Front will be hosting a Commander league starting this week! Yes, the league is back and better than ever. This league will have two days a week to play, one on Tuesday and one on Saturday. More details have dropped from resident rules expert Placido Galvin on the MTGNorCal Facebook group, so make sure to stop by and take a look.

Shifting gears, two weekends ago, War Torn Front played host to a Maxpoint TCGPlayer Silver Event. 38 Standard players descended down to play at the shop, including Jason Gulevich to battle it out. When all was said and done however, Navdeep Singh stood tall as Mono-Red lit Ben X Lopez's Naya on-fire! I will be posting a transcript of the two games at the bottom of the article, if you are curious as how it went down. I would like to thank Nate Polson and Placido Galvin for a great job of judging the event and all the players for coming out and battling for sweet prizes and such! Special Shout-out to Liz Bryant for Top 8ing! You guys keep rocking!

As the TCGPlayer event winded down, I was able to catch a quick word with Jason Gulevich. For those of you who may not know, Jason won the first World Magic Championship Qualifier earlier this year. This allowed him to join Team USA as they battled their way to the World Magic Cup. Unfortunately, the US was eliminated in a close game with Israel. However, the experience is something Jason would not trade for the world. He told me about how Team USA put him on Mono-Red for the Standard portion for the event. Although, Jason would have rather played one of the the other two lists team USA battled with. However, due to the unified Constructed rules, Jason had to play a list that shared little to no copies with his teammates. I asked Jason about the Cifka judge call in Day One. For those who do not know, the situation is as follows: Stanislav Cifka is dead to two burn spells, but has played around Jason's burn all match. As jason ends his turn, Cifka taps 6 mana and motions to his graveyard. The only relevant spell in his yard at this point is Forbidden Alchemy flashbacked. As soon as Jason see this line, he responds and points two burn spells at Cifka, basically killing Cifka. Cifka calls a judge and attempts to argue that while he did tap 6 mana, he did not announce what he was doing. he argues that he would have used the 6 mana to play Snapcaster Mage and flashbacked a Dissipiate in his yard to counter one of the two burn spells. As the judges go over the play, both players seem tense, but at the end of the call, the judges rule in favor of Jason stating that it was Cifka's intention to cast Forbidden Alchemy. Jason commented that while Cifka did seem smug on camera about the call, that afterwords, he admitted to Jason that he had to try and play to his out, but knew he was not going to get the call. While it may have seen scummy, I like to hear that the pros are not nearly as bad as the seem at times. Jason did comment about how American he felt in Amsterdam and that it was a constant point made by the natives, although Jason did make a friend in Amsterdam, but sadly his phone decided to mulligan into oblivion. Tough luck, Jason.

Last week, War Torn Front got a chance to break loose of its Magic playing scene and got to embrace some video game fighting action. We played host to the 5th Super Smash Bash. This event is either a free for all or teams tournament played on the N64 with a copy of Super Smash Brothers. The attendance numbered around 30 and there was quite a bit of fun to be had. At the end of the night, my favorite character of Smash, Kirby, took down the Free for All, and I could not be more proud. In case you are wondering, this event was streamed and you can find a copy of the stream on Twitch. Just search for Super Smash Bash and you will be looking in the right direction.

Finally, this last week was the Grand Prix in Oakland. The team took Saturday off to come down and battle for supremacy in Oakland. While no one from War Torn Front made it to the Top 8, we do have a long list of people who did get some accomplishments in. First, congrats to Ben X Lopez, Matt Woods, and Kenneth Ivy for making Day 2 of the GP. While you guys may not have finished in the money, we still support and appreciate you guys going the distance! Next, congrats to Placido Galvin for taking 2nd at the Duel Commander event with Maelstrom Wanderer. Placido proceeded to win 40 something packs for his efforts. Nice job! Next, congrats to Tim Mason for going 11-0 in the infinite drafts over the weekend. Tim was a machine, and it was highly entertaining to see his draft decks that seemed to have Bogwitch, Festering Newt, and Bubbling Cauldron in some varying degrees. Next up, Jason Gulevich wrecking house in the Modern challenge, picking himself up a foil Modern Masters Goyf by simply reanimating Griselbrand. Great Job boss! Finally, I want to say congrats and ,temporarily, farewell to Ryan Owens as he masterfully sold his collection for a cool $4,500. I hope you come back soon boss, I would love to catalog a pack to power challenge with you!

Overall, this weekend was great for all members of the MTGNorCal and Magic Community, whether it be trading, buying, selling, getting alters and playmats done,etc. I look forward to the next Grand Prix and what many of us will be doing then.

Now, I leave you guys with the play-by-play from the TCGPlayer Silver Event!

Navdeep (Mono-red) vs Ben Lopez (Naya)

Game 1:

Turn 1: Navdeep 20 Ben 20. Navdeep leads the game off with a Mountain and a Rakdos Cackler, unleashing it before passing the turn. Ben plays a Stomping Ground into play tapped.

Turn 2: Navdeep 20 Ben 20. Navdeep plays a second Mountain and Firefist Striker. He attacks Ben for two. Ben plays Sunpetal Grove and casts Voice of Resurgence

Turn 3: Navdeep 20 Ben 18. Navdeep adds a Mutavault to the table and uses Pillar of Flame on Voice. he then attacks with his team into Ben for four. Second main phase, Navdeep plays a Rakdos Cackler unleashed. Ben plays a Sacred Foundry, untapped taking two and casts Avacyn's Pilgrim, before passing the turn.

Turn 4: Navdeep 20, Ben 12. Navdeep plays a Mountain and animates the Mutavault on his side of the table. he proceeds to declare attackers and sends the Mutavault, Striker, and two Cacklers into the red zone. He uses the Striker's battalion trigger to prevent Pilgrim from blocking. After the attackers are declared. Ben responds and casts Selesyna Charm making a 2/2 Knight token. Before blockers are declared, Navdeep Searing Spears the token. Ben takes eight from the attack. Ben plays a land and looking at the board state, scoops them up.

Game 2:

Turn 1: Ben 20 Navdeep 20. Ben leads the game off by playing Stomping Ground into play untapped, taking two and casts Avacyn's Pilgrim. Navdeep plays a Mountain and plays Rakdos Cackler, unleashed.

Turn 2: Ben 18 Navdeep 20. Ben casts a Voice of Resurgence and plays a Temple Garden into play,tapped. Navdeep plays a Mountain and casts Burning-Tree Emissary. Using the floating mana, He casts Firefist Striker.

Turn 3: Ben 18 Navdeep 20. Ben plays a Rootbound Crag and attacks with the Voice for two. After combat, Ben plays Blasphemous Act, clearing the table except for the token from Voice. Navdeep plays a Mutavault and casts Pillar of Flame killing the Voice token.

Turn 4: Ben 18 Navdeep 18. Ben plays a Sunpetal Grove and passes the turn. Navdeep plays a second Mutavault and casts Burning Earth.

Turn 5: Ben 18 Navdeep 18. Ben takes two damage from his lands to cast another Voice and plays a Sacred Foundry tapped. Navdeep plays a Pillar on the Voice and animates his Mutavault attacking Ben for two.

Turn 6: Ben 14 Navdeep 18. Ben takes three damage to cast Boros Reckoner and passes the turn. Navdeep takes one from his Mutavault as he casts Chandra's Phoenix and attacks Ben. Ben takes 2 from his lands and casts Celestial Flare forcing Navdeep to sac the Phoenix.

Turn 7: Ben 9 Navdeep 17. Ben plays a Clifftop Retreat and passes. Navdeep plays a Mountain and takes one to cast Hellrider.

Turn 8: Ben 9 Navdeep 16. Ben takes three damage from his lands to cast Unflinching Courage on his Boros Reckoner and passes the turn. Navdeep plays a Mountain, takes 1 from his lands to cast a second Hellrider. He animates his other Mutavault and proceeds to attack with his two Hellriders and the Mutavault. The Hellrider each trigger and kill ben before combat damage is assigned.

Winner: Navdeep 2-0.

War Torn Front: The Guest Article edition

Hey guys, Welcome to another edition of the War Torn Front blog. Today, I am going to turn over the reigns of said blog to a friend of the MTGNorCal group, Thor Barerra. Thor has been slavering over several articles these past few weeks and I feel it is time to shine. Without further adieu, I would like to humbly introduce Thor Barerra and his introduction article: An Intro to the Pauper Format.

An Introduction to the Pauper Format

I first started playing pauper in late 2008, while trying to grind on MTGO with Nathan Ward to get tix. I remember the entry to most formats seeming rather unreasonable to me at the time (and why wouldn't it, when thoughtseize was 3 to 6 times the normal IRL price, and Pernicious Deed was 80 tix). If you don’t know, event tickets (commonly referred to as TIX) are the common form of currency in the MTGO economy. MTGO Pauper decks in the open pauper format (also known as pauper classic or pauper vintage ) typically can run much closer to a tier two standard deck somewhere in the 60-80 tix price range. Paper pauper vintage on the other hand isn't as back breaking or hard on the bank with the most expensive commons being things like lotus petal and cloudpost, you can probably build every tier 1 deck in the format for under 60-80 dollars depending on prices and how much stuff you can just auto find in the nickel and dime bins. But, variance is important!  And, that’s why the pauper online community PDCmagic.com hosts several different types of events; Classic (Vintage), Modern, Block, and Standard. As well as variant formats such as pauper sealed, pauper cube, pauper commander, Two-headed Giant Pauper Sealed, and pauper draft. Coming of the hot win streak in the pauper standard in Oakland, I wanted to give you some more insight about the wonderful world of pauper standard and the rewards playing gives you!

Pauper in general is a format of basic valuation, strong technical play, and critical decision-making. If you’re not sure about this, just remember, that most of the cards you play in a draft match, on average, happen to be COMMONS! Determining the most synergistic and efficient commons to play together almost makes pauper seem closer to a sealed deck challenge, but the other problem is, that most of the cards you play, are awful, counter spells aren't as cool, oh, yeah, and there aren't any board sweepers. Not that that should deter you, but it certainly is a talking point for why pauper is such a difficult format to play very well over the course of several matches in a tournament setting. Card evaluation is very important, and sideboard cards certainly look much different than in a normal constructed deck. A side boarded beckon apparition can literally be game winning if it hits an archaeomancer target or an EOT think twice. So what makes pauper in general special?

1. The value of pre-existing card selection and ease of acquisition

Players who love playing Standard and Draft get to see more value out of the cards they draft or pick up from limited pools, or even need for standard decks by getting to turn these commons into the vital staples of the pauper standard format. Building your first pauper standard deck isn’t too hard either, you probably already have most of the format sitting in your commons junk pile

2. Playtesting is fun

Because of 1, 2 is fairly obvious, you can play the deck in real time against a host of other decks at a practice tournament or with your friends and really get a feel for how you like the deck. Most of the time we proxy what we don’t have or a list we are considering, but there is always a gratifying feeling of being able to immediately reach to the collection swap out a card or build a deck on the spot and test a different match up. And, no cards need to get proxied on along the way.

3. Metagaming card choices are tricky and can either prove disastrous or genius, miser cards are also fun and provide variety to linear strategies.

Most of the time when you meta a tournament you play either Deck ABC or Deck XYZ, you still get to do the same thing here, and tune your sideboard appropriately, but decks are often based around a small selection of cards, lists aren't typically “tight” they are “tight” in so far as to what you the player like to see in your list. In reality its more similar to playing a draft match where you recognize your round one opponent might have artifacts and enchantment removal for your dudes so you play that miser naturalize in your main deck (why not right?).  The same choice is available of common creatures, removal, counterspells, etc. the determination really lies on whether you think a techy one of can win you the game or if you feel you’ll need more copies of card A as opposed to card B. Still sounds like regular magic? I can buy that, but just wait until you've gravepurged 7 dudes back on top of your library (that often can insta-win you the game by the way).

4. It’s as competitive as you want it to be

Pauper is a format that can be as competitive as you want it to be. There is a pauper world championships held every year, MTGO runs 2-man, 8-man queues, daily, and primer events for pauper, and the number of unofficial pauper MTGO tournaments in the casual room seem to be growing with prize payout up to 7tix for winning the monthly MTGO-Traders sponsored PDC-League tournaments. You can also just come play pauper matches for fun as you like.

5. Pauper offers a wonderful way to introduce the world of constructed magic to newer players.

I've actually been thinking about this for years ever since I started playing pauper myself. The issue is, unless you have a community you already know, or can spend quite a bit of money, it’s hard to really dive into magic and see if the different types of formats catch your fancy. Drafts run anywhere from 10-14 dollars, depending on the shop you frequent, and most constructed decks in standard can carry a hefty price tag, modern is starting to look like legacy, legacy approaching 2 to 3 times legacy from 9 years ago, and vintage… well, lets not talk about vintage. Building on a budget can be hard, especially if you aren't a well-seasoned magic veteran with an eye and knack for that kind of thing. But, in pauper standard, modern, vintage, most anyone can build any deck they like. Since most players have collections consisting of cards from the standard sets they can very easily jump into the standard pauper scene with their homebrews, and net-decks alike very quickly and get a taste of some spell slinging action before jumping headfirst into the more common constructed formats. When I first came back to magic, someone suggested I play Legacy, to which I was later told by friends, that you play legacy after you've been playing magic for a long time and want to just enjoy variant formats, however, after you’ve been playing magic for 20 years and have hella money, you still might not want to play vintage.  Pauper attracts players of all kinds and skill levels and has something to offer everyone, especially the beginner who can use it to quickly become accustomed to the grind of tournament play, the art of deck construction, and the general theory of magic. For the seasoned veteran it provides a different perspective on constructed formats, re-solidifies core values of card quality and selection, and provides a differing challenge in shoring up ones technical and correctness of plays. I make the analogy here to playing with a wooden tennis racket in the age of high tech carbon fiber tennis rackets. Anyone can start learning on a wooden racket, but to master a wooden racket is to learn the game twice, and challenge your-self to playing at a high level even with subpar tools.

Let us know what you think in the comments below or on the MTGNorCal, or War Torn Front Facebook pages.

Thor's second article and my biweekly article are scheduled for later this week, so keep an eye out. Till then loyal readers.

War Torn Front: The Laid Back Edition

Welcome guys to another installment of the unofficial War Torn Front blog. This week, we mellow out and talk a bit about the local happenings, EDH league round 2. and Duel Commander. No EDH Play by Play this week, but do not fret, this article will give you a healthy dose of EDH action. So lets go!

After last week's crazy amount of publicity on our front, it is nice to have a relative quite week for the community. First off let me congratulate several people who won Game Days this weekend. First off, Congrats to Vincent Sandoval for winning War Torn Front's Game Day, to Tyler Clary for winning Krier's Cards and Comics Game Day, Ricardo Ybarra and Vicente Davis for winning Arcane Lab's Saturday and Sunday Game Days, respectfully, Lukas Bradshaw for winning Gamer's Path's Sunday Game Day, Little Gregory for proving he can be a boss, even if he can not legally drive yet, and a special shout out to Joshua Burall for coming in 39th place at the PTQ. Nice job to all of you guys. It is always great to see familiar players winning it up, so please keep it at!

This week War Torn Front is playing host to a Maxpoint TCGPlayer Silver Event. This standard event is a cool $25 and prize payout is guaranteed down to 16th place. So looking for an excuse to test a new Standard list, think you got the solution to the shifting meta, or do you think you got what is takes to Play to Win? Then Come on down, this saturday for a chance to win some cash and Maxpoints and playmats.

If Standard is not your thing, come on down during FNM and draft. War Torn Front has reduced their prices on drafts to $12 and kept the prize support. If that was not enough, they now offer the 0-2 drop special. If you go 0-2 drop at FNM and decide to draft, your draft is only $11. Same prize support, lower prices. Now thats what I call winning. War Torn Front, the only Place to Win in Manteca!

Shifting gears, War Torn Front has been dabbling with a more casual approach to bring in players. In case, you have not heard War Torn Front is currently testing an EDH League. As many of you remember, we had an EDH League going when Alluring Treasures was the shop. The league fell to the wayside due to various issues, but know Placido Galvin and Chia are working to revitalize it. This past week, a closed beta of the EDH League was run to decent results. While I can not give out full details yet, I must say it is looking promising. I believe we have a few bugs to work out with a Krenko list, and multiple Wildfires, but overall promising. We will continue this week with work on it. If you are interested in helping test the league be down at the shop between Today and Wednesday, and watch the Twitter for various announcements about testing. Keep an ear out as further announcement about EDh League return surfaces!

Duel Commander time! I want to give a shout out to a new friend and Duel Commander guru Jesus Navarro aka Jessie. A few weeks ago Jessie addressed the issue of Duel Commander as a format and came to War Torn Front to show it off. At first, I was very skeptical of the format, but after reading several resources like MTGSalvation, Duelcommander.com, and various article from Fireball and Star City, I have grown to appreciate this format. It also helps, that the GP in Oakland is hosting a side event for it. I do not feel qualified to talk about Duel Commander in depth, so instead take a look at this piece.

Finally, make sure you follow War Torn Front's Twitter @ WarTornFront. They will be using the Twitter to announce ideas and promotions, so make sure you are plugged into the most current news and content from the local scene.

Thats wraps up another edition of the unofficial War Torn Front blog. Come back next week as we discuss the TCGPlayer Silver event, and more EDH news as GP Oakland draws near! Till then faithful readers, This is Brandon signing off!

War Torn Front: The " Global" Edition

Welcome readers to another edition of the unofficial War Torn Front Blog. These last two weeks have brought us some of the most exciting things to come to Manteca, since, well, War Torn Front opened. This edition will tackle Jason Gulevich's rise to the World Stage, Ben Lopez's win at Red Sky, Matt Woods win at the GPT for Oakland, and Finally Placido Galvin and Eric Avila's Top 2 and 4 finish in the TCGPlayer 2k. Then we will speak a little about Theros, and wrap up with another EDH play by play. You with me? Lets get started!

Chronologically speaking, I will start from last weekend. Two weeks ago, Saturday July 27th, War Torn Front held a Grand Prix Trial for Oakland. The format was sealed M14 to get practice for the Grand Prix with. 9 players showed up to duke it out, and Matt Woods walked away, defeating Lukas Bradshaw for the 2 byes to Oakland and $50 bucks. Pretty good for a few hours of Magic, if I do say so myself. While War Torn Front will not be hosting any more GPTs they do look forward to seeing many of you players there. Moving onto the next day, Red Sky held a TCG Player Invitational. With a pretty good turnout, Ben Lopez took down the event, defeating Jason Reed in the finals. His prize, $100 cash, an invite to the TCGPlayer 2k that next weekend, a playmat, and 20 Maxpoints.

Things were off to a good start and only got better as we started Magic World Championship week. While most people were glued to the Top 4 of the World Championships, War Torn Front got to see their own Jason Gulevich representing Team USA during the Team Cup. Jason tore it up and defeated several pros and teams before ultimately meeting their end at the hands of Team Israel. Still a great show and great heart from the WMCQ champion of the West Coast. Jason's results guaranteed him some cash payout and Pro points as well. I hope to interview sir Jason about his experience is the next few weeks. In the meantime, War Torn Front can proudly say we have had two players jump to the Pro level. Who else can claim that in Manteca!

Finally, Stockton-Con reared it's head and it was time for the TCGPlayer 2k event. Many of the shop regulars and MTGNorcal players showed up to battle in Red Sky's 2K with Byes for the GP in Oakland on the line. 112 players came to battle, and 7 rounds were had. Tears and blood were shed, and some people may have sore butts, but at the end of the day, Dylan Curtis took the event down. However War Torn Front did get Placido Galvin and Eric Avila into the Top 2 and Top 4 respectfully. Placido walked away with $400 cash, a TCGPlayer Top 8 mat, 40 Maxpoints, and a two round bye to the TCGPlayer big event. Eric walked away with $200 cash, a TCGPlayer Top 8 mat, and 30 Maxpoints. Chia Lee, Tyler Clary, and Anthony Heffernan rounded out the individuals that walked away with prizes, which were TCGPlayer mats and Maxpoints. Great Job to War Torn Front! War Torn Front, the only place to play in Manteca!

Moving onto shop news, War Torn Front is wondering, Is it time to bring back EDH? Many players in the shop have lists and love the format Maybe it is time we revived the EDH league or construct a new one? Give your thoughts or ideas to War Torn Front, rather in store, on the Facebook, or Twitter. I think it is high time we showed some love to more of our casual players and show them how amazing War Torn Front is.

Finally, Theros. At this point, many of you readers have seen what Theros may be bringing to the table. If not, here is a quick rundown of what to expect from the set. First, Theros will be a Greek inspired block focused on Enchantments mattering. The number of legends in Theros will be higher than a normal expansion set, but still lower than Kamigawa's sets. The set has a distinct theme split up into three groups of creatures: Heroes, Monsters, and Gods. Each of these groups will have some mechanic attached to them to make them unique. On the topic of Gods, There will be a total of 5 God cards: One for each color on Mana. These cards will have unique borders to differentiate themselves. In addition, 2 other mechanics will be joining the set, including an old mechanic that needed to be reworked because R&D felt it was too weak before. In addition, the prerelease for this set will be featuring a unique take on Heroes in the from of "vanguard"esque cards. I will dive more into that as we reach the prerelease. However, if you are curious, please follow this link for the full information

With that, Here is your EDH Play-by- Play

Bryan- Kaalia of the Vast                                                                    Joe- Chainer, Dementia Master
Matt- Sen Triplets                                                                               Me(Brandon)-Borborygmos Enraged

Turn 1: Bryan 40, Matt 40, Joe 40, Me 40. Bryan won the die roll and started with Graven Cairns. Matt plays a Swamp and plays Sensei's Divining Top. Joe plays a Terramorphic Expanse and cracks it for a Swamp. I play a Tranquil Thicket.

Turn 2: Bryan 40, Matt 40, Joe 40, Me 40. Bryan plays a Plains and plays Rakdos Signet. Matt uses his Top on his upkeep, then plays Dromar's Cavern returning the Swamp. Joe plays a Swamp and casts Reassembling Skeleton. I play a Mountain and pass.

Turn 3: Bryan 40, Matt 40, Joe 40, Me 40. Bryan plays a Swamp and casta Kaalia of the Vast. Matt plays a Swamp and casts Dimir Signet. Joe plays a Swamp and casts Nezumi Graverobber. I play a Forest and cast Yavimaya Elder.

Turn 4: Bryan 40, Matt 40, Joe 40, Me 40.  Bryan plays a Vault of the Archangel and attacks with Kaalia into Matt, dropping Master of Cruelties for Kaalia's trigger. The master's trigger puts Matt to 1, and Matt dies to the Kaalia hit. Bryan finishes the turn by casting Increasing Ambition. Joe plays a Swamp and uses Nezumi Graverobber to exile Increasing Ambition out of Bryan's yard. I play Glacial Chasm, sacrificing Tranquil Thicket and pass the turn.

Turn 5: Bryan 40, Matt -1, Joe 40, Me 40. Bryan plays a Grand Coliseum and sends Kaalia into Joe. Kaalia's trigger brings Avacyn, Angel of Hope into play attacking Joe. Joe takes 10 from the hit. Joe takes his turn and plays a Swamp, he then casts Undercity Informer. Joe sacrifices Reassembling Skeleton, Nezumi Graverobber, and the Undercity Informer to mill 6 cards off of Bryan. At the end of turn I sacrifice Yavimaya Elder to find a Forest and Mountain and draw a card. On my upkeep I take 2 for Glacial Chasm. I play a Forest and cast Azusa, Lost but Seeking. With my two extra land drops I play a Mountain and a Maze of Ith.

Turn 6: Bryan 40, Matt -1, Joe 30, Me 38. Bryan starts his turn by playing Command Tower and sends Kaalia and Avacyn into Joe. I Maze Avacyn. Bryan then uses Kaalia's trigger to sneak Angel of Despair into play blowing up my Glacial Chasm. He then proceeds to cast Wrath of God. Joe plays Massacre Wurm, which kills Kaalia and makes Bryan lose 2 life. I play a Mountain and cast Kodama's Reach, putting a Forest into play tapped, and a Mountain into my hand.

Turn 7: Bryan 38, Matt -1, Joe 28, Me 38. Bryan plays a Sword of Feast and Famine and equips it to Angel of Despair. Angel of Despair and Avacyn bash into me, but I Maze Angel. I take 8 from Avacyn. Joe plays a Swamp and plays Necropotence. He pays 5 life and ends his turn. I cast Restock getting Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Glacial Chasm back. I play Glacial Chasm sacrificing a Mountain.

Turn 8: Bryan 38, Matt -1, Joe 23, Me 30.  Bryan plays Rocky Tar Pit, then casts Debtor's Knell. He sends Avacyn and Angel of Despair into Joe. I Maze the Angel and Joe takes 8. Joe plays Volrath's Stronghold and casts Sorin Markov. He uses Sorin's downtick to put Bryan to 10. On my upkeep I take 2 for Glacial Chasm. I cast Azusa, Lost but Seeking and play 2 Forests and a Kessig Wolf-Run. At the end of turn, Bryan casts Entomb putting Sire of Insanity into the yard.

Turn 9: Bryan 10, Matt -1, Joe 15, Me 28. Bryan's upkeep returns Sire of Insanity to the battlefield. Bryan then casts Sun Titan returning Battlefield Forge to the battlefield. He then cracks Rocky Tar Pits, grabbing a Swamp. Angel of Despair and Avacyn are sent into Joe. I Maze the Angel, and Joe takes 8 from Avacyn. Joe draws and decides to use Necropotence to kill himself paying 7 life. On my upkeep I take 4 damage from Glacial Chasm and pass the turn.

Turn 10: Bryan 10, Matt -1, Joe 0, Me 24. Bryan sends his team into me, dealing no damage due to Glacial Chasm. Sun Titan's trigger returns Rocky Tar Pit to the battlefield. On my upkeep I take 6 damage from Glacial Chasm and pass my turn.

Turn 11; Bryan 10, Matt -1, Joe 0, Me 18. Bryan casts Lord of the Void and plays Volrath's Stronghold. He attacks with Sun Titan dealing 0 to me and returning Cavern of Souls on Angel. On my upkeep, I take 8 damage from Glacial Chasm and pass the turn.

Turn 12: Bryan 10, Matt -1, Joe 0, Me 10. Bryan plays a Demonic Tutor and cracks Rocky Tar Pits and passes. I am forced to sacrifice Glacial Chasm and attempt to attack with my team and fail. I scoop them up.

Final result: Bryan wins on Turn 13.

Well guys, that is another heaping helping of the Unofficial War Torn Front Blog. COme back in the next few weeks as we will get some insight from our War Torn Front Players and talk Theros.

War Torn Front: The Speculation Game Edition

Welcome back faithful readers to the War Torn Front blog for the week of July 22nd. Despite the two week break, we come back to quite a bit of speculation, rumor, and general resentment regarding the recent decisions made by Wizards. Today, we are going to discuss San Diego Comic Con and the Planeswalker product, From The Vault: 20, and the new Commander product for 2013 So with that on the plate, lets go.

 So last week, San Diego played host to one of the biggest conventions for Pop Culture, Comic-Con. While the panel at Comic-Con did have quite the tasty morsels of information regarding the future of Magic for this year, It was what was on-sale that had the community up in arms. The Hasbro Toy Shop was selling a set of the M14 Planeswalkers, done in the art style of black-on-black. These 5 planeswalkers would only be available through Comic-Con weekend and on the Hasbro Toy Store Website after Comic-Con. The MSRP on this set was set at $65 on-site, and $60 plus tax when it went online. The result of this was pretty evident. By the end of Friday, July 19th, Comic-Con was sold out of the Planeswalker product. Ebay prices on these sets are skyrocketing with the lowest bid/buyout on Ebay today, July 24th, at $330. This is absolutely absurd in my opinion. I understand collectibles at Comic-Con are going to be pricey, since they are exclusive only to Comic-Con. However, asking $300 minimum for a set of Planeswalkers that may not necessarily be good. While collectors will pay the price for this set, I feel Wizards missed out on a chance to give many players a great gift, especially with the push of planeswalkers as the main focus for Magic. However, Wizards' decision to release information about the new products following in the year may have taken some pressure off the Comic-Con decision, it also created a whole new can of worms to deal with.

 The biggest news to come out of Comic-Con was the official spoilers to the From the Vault for this year: FTV 20. This set would present 20 cards from Magic's past winning tournament lists, one from each year. In this way, the community can celebrate the cards that turned Magic into what it is today. The bomb dropping for the FTV is Jace, the Mind Sculptor. As soon as this key card was announced, The price on the FTV shot up, with sales ending as high as $450 for pre sales. In addition to Jace, Gilded Lotus, Impulse, Akroma's Vengeance, Hymn to Tourach, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Cruel Ultimatum, and Venser, Shaper Savant are all making an appearance in this years FTV. Many players are still in shock over Jace being reprinted and are trying to decide whether it is time to drop him or simply hold onto him. Chia Lee said it best in regards to the Sculptor of Minds. "The foil prices will fluctuate, the regular ones will still hold value." I believe this idea to be true as well. We have had reprints of Tarmogoyf and Swords, yet their overall price has not been greatly affected. Personally, I am still looking forward to what is left in FTV:20. There are still plenty of spots left to make this FTV great, as opposed to making this FTV: Jace.

 Now that I covered the sets that are causing some conflict in the community, I can switch gears and talk about sets that I am genuinely looking forward to. Let us lead with the Commander product coming in November. Wizards announced 5 new Commander decks will be released. These 5 decks will be Shard aligned. This means we get Naya, Esper, Jund, Bant, and Grixis Commander decks with brand new generals and new cards. This product will introduce 51 new cards to Vintage and Legacy, and each Commander deck will have 15 new cards legal only in Vintage and Legacy. Over the Comic-Con weekend we got to see two of the new generals: Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge. Prossh is a 3RGB 5/5 Flying Dragon with Whenever you cast Prossh, you make x 0/1 Kobolds of Kher Keep, where X is the mana you spent to cast Prossh. Finally, he has a second effect: Sacrifice another creature: Prossh gets +1/+0 until the end of turn. Jeleva is a 1URB 1/3 Flying Vampire Wizard with whenever you cast her each opponent exiles X cards from the top of their libraries where X is the amount of mana spent to cast Jeleva. Her second ability is whenever she attacks, she can cast an instant or sorcery from the exiled zone without paying it's mana cost. I really like both of these generals. I love how they are turning the Commander tax on generals from a detrimental effect into a beneficial one on certain generals. Even better than this is the fact that this product may not be as badly limited in terms of production as the FTV or the Planeswalkers set. I feel this product set will still end up being fairly reasonable for a 5 100 card decks, that most people should be able to get their hands on. While there is some pretty badass news on Theros, I feel Theros deserves its own article. So next week, I will tackle Theros and what it means for the future of Magic. With that, I leave you guys with the EDH play-by-play.

 Players: Chris F: Xira Arien,                                                             Bryan S: Animar, Soul of Elements                     Matt W:Sen Triplets                                                            Cody: Rhys, the Redeemed  

Turn 1: Cody wins the die roll and leads with Plains. Bryan plays an Izzet Guildgate. Chris plays a Misty Rainforest. and Matt plays a Plains.

 Turn 2: Cody plays a Forest and plays Rhys, the Redeemed. Bryan plays a Gruul Guildgate. At the end of Bryan's turn, Chris cracks the Misty Rainforest (-1), and gets a tapped Overgrown Tomb. Chris plays a Graven Cairns and plays Bitterblossom. Matt simply plays a Watery Grave into play tapped.

 Turn 3:Cody passes the turn and discards Rain of Thorns. Bryan plays a Fire-Lit Thicket, and casts Animar, Soul of Elements. Chris starts his turn by making a Faerie (-1), plays a Mountain, and casts a Sensei's Divining Top. Matt plays an Island and casts Dimir Signet.

 Turn 4: Cody passes the turn, still no land drop. Bryan plays a Coalition Relic and passes. At the end of Bryan's turn Chris uses Top. Chris makes another Faerie (-1), plays a Forest, casts Wood Elves getting a tapped Stomping Ground and sends his first Faerie into Bryan for 1. Matt plays an Isolated Chapel and casts a Coalition Relic.

 Turn 5: Cody:40, Bryan 39, Chris 37, Matt 40. Cody passes his turn still missing land drops. At the end of Cody's turn, Bryan and Matt both charge their Relics. Bryan plays a Mosswort Bridge, then casts Coiling Oracle netting a Forest. He then finishes his turn by playing Rhystic Study. At the end of Bryan's turn, Chris uses his Top. Chris makes another Faerie token (-1) and plays Bojuka Bog on Cody. He then continues the turn by playing Sakura-Tribe Elder and Xira Arien. He then sends two of his Faeries into Bryan. Matt takes his turn, plays a Swamp and casts Keiga, the Tide Star.

 Turn 6: Cody 40, Bryan 37, Chris 36, Matt 40. Cody plays a Plains for the turn and casts Glorious Anthem. At the end of Cody's turn Bryan and Matt both charge their Relics and Chris sacs his Elder for a Swamp. Bryan plays a Heartwood Storyteller, Somberwald Sage,a Wurmcoil Engine, and a Breeding Pool into play tapped. Chris makes another Faerie token (-1), plays a Twilight Mire, casts a Graveborn Muse and sends 3 Faeries into Bryan. Matt plays a Chromatic Lantern and passes the turn.

 Turn 7: Cody 40, Bryan 34, Chris 35, Matt 40. Cody plays a Forest and casts Trostani, Selesyna's Voice. At the End of Cody's turn Chris uses his Top and draws with Xira, and Matt plays Mystical Teachings getting Desertion and charges his Relic. Bryan starts the turn by casting Woodfall Primus hitting Chris' Bitterblossom. He then plays Simic Growth Chamber, his own Keiga, the Tide Star and sends Animar and Wurmcoil to Chris. Chris uses a Faerie to block Wurmcoil and Wood Elf to block Animar. Bryan gains 6 life from Wurmcoil. Bryan ends the turn by casting Vexing Shusher. Chris takes 1 from Graveborn Muse and draws a card. Chris casts Lurking Predators and passes the turn. Matt simply plays Sen Triplets, triggering the Predators. Chris gets a Phyrexian Plaguelord.

 Turn 8: Cody 40, Bryan 40, Chris 34, Matt 40. Cody plays a Parallel Lives, triggering Predators. Chris gets a Dimir House Guard. Bryan activates his Mosswort Bridge casting Blightsteel Colossus. Predators hits an Eternal Witness which returns Chris' Misty Rainforest back to his hand. Bryan continues and casts Consecrated Sphinx, Predators triggers giving Chris a Sylvan Primordial. Chris' Primordial hits Bryan's Rhystic Study, Cody's Glorious Anthem, and Matt's Chromatic Lantern. Chris searches up 3 Forests and puts them into play tapped. Bryan continues with the turn and attempts to cast Phyrexian Metamorph, which Matt counters with Desertion. Bryan responds and casts Draining Whelk on the Desertion. Phyrexian Metamorph comes in and copies Woodfall Primus targeting Lurking Predators. Bryan continues the trend and casts Acidic Slime hitting Matt's Dimir Signet. Bryan then sends Animar, Wurmcoil, Keiga, and Woodfall into Chris. Chris uses three of his Faerie tokens to block Keiga, Woodfall, and Wurmcoil, and Eternal Witness blocks Animar. Before damage, Chris sacs his Faerie token blocking Wurmcoil to Phyrexian Plaguelord to give Somberwald Sage -1/-1. Chris takes 5 trample damage from Woodfall Primus. Chris untaps and takes 1 for Graveborn Muse and responds by activating Top. He then plays Fire-Lit Thicket and Tops during his turn. Chris proceeds to sacrifice his board to Plaguelord, plays a Bloodghast, sacs that and the Plaguelord, and casts Living Death. Chris returns Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elf, Graveborn Muse, Dimir House Guard, Sylvan Primordial, Eternal Witness, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and Bloodghast. Matt, Bryan and Cody's boards are wiped, but Bryan ends up with a persisted Woodfall Primus, 2 tokens from Wurmcoil Engine, and a Somberwald Sage. Bryan's Woodfall Primus hits Chris' Fire-Lit Thicket. Chris' Sylvan Primordial hits Bryan and Matt's Coalition Relics and Cody's Parallel Lives. Wood Elves plus the Primordial net Chris 4 more Forests. Eternal Witness gets Chris Living Death. Chris then casts Survival of the Fittest and casts Fleshbag Marauder. Bryan sacs his Somberwald Sage while Chris lets Bloodghast die. Chris then ends his turn. Matt simply passes his turn.

 Turn 9: Cody 40, Bryan 40, Chris 29, Matt 40. Cody plays a Plains and casts Scion of Vitu-Ghazi, making a bird token and Populating it. Bryan plays a Garruk's Horde revealing a Body Double. At the end of Bryan's turn, Chris uses Survival pitching Acidic Slime to get Butcher of Malakir. Chris takes one for Graveborn Muse plays a Misty Rainforest and uses Survival pitching Big Game Hunter, paying the Madness Cost to hit Garruk's Horde. Chris fetches Nether Traitor and casts Butcher of Malakir. Chris then sends his team into Matt for 26. Matt untaps, plays Tamiyo, and uses her down tick targeting Chris to draw 11 cards. 

Turn 10: Cody 40, Bryan 40, Chris 28, Matt 14. Cody plays a Forest and casts Collective Blessing. He sends his small team to Chris. Chris responds by saccing Fleshbag Marauder, Wood Elves, and Sakura-Tribe Elder to Phyrexian Plaguelord making everyone sacrifice 3 creatures to Butcher of Malakir. Chris takes no damage. Bryan casts Urabrask, the Hidden, then casts Body Double copying Wurmcoil Engine. During Bryan's turn Chris sacs Bloodghast to Plaguelord, cracks his Misty Rainforest (-1)to get a Forest to return Bloodghast back to play, which he sacs again to Plaguelord. This makes everyone sacrifice two creatures. At the end of Bryan's turn, Chris uses Survival to pitch Nether Traitor to get Avenger of Zendikar. Chris takes 1 for Graveborn Muse and uses Survival pitching Charnelhoard Wurm to find Madrush Cyclops. Chris casts Avenger of Zendikar making 17 tokens, Madrush Cyclops and Sulfurous Springs making his plant token army bigger by 1. He then sacrifices Big Game Hunter to Plaguelord to make everyone sacrifice 1 creature. He sends 32 points of damage at Bryan, and 20 points at Matt. Matt dies due to the damage.

 Turn 11: Cody 40, Bryan 8, Chris 26, Matt Dead. Cody plays a Forest and casts Trostani's Summoner making a 4/4 Rhino, a 3/3 Centaur, and 2/2 Knight. Bryan plays a Rogue's Passage and passes. Chris takes 1 for Graveborn Muse, plays a Woodland Cemetery making his tokens bigger by 1. Chris then casts Primal Surge and bricks on Diabolic Tutor after leaving himself with 17 cards in Library. Chris sends his team all out to Cody and Bryan killing them.

Final Result: Chris 25, Matt Dead, Bryan Dead, Cody Dead.

 Until next week, loyal fans See you at War Torn Front!