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.
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