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!
Monday, September 16, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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!
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!
Monday, September 2, 2013
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!
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
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.
Monday, August 12, 2013
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!
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!
Monday, August 5, 2013
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.
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.
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