War Torn Front: The Happenings Edition

Welcome back faithful readers to another edition of the War Torn Front Blog. This week we are going to discuss upcoming events and delve a bit into an EDH play by play. So let's jump in.

War Torn Front and several other shops have been busy this week with the upcoming release of Modern Masters. This set promises to be one of the most fun sets to draft outside of cube, and the people are really showing their enthusiasm. If you have a box on pre order with War Torn Front, please make sure to pay it off as soon as possible. Do not delay yourself from the multicolored, chocolatey goodness that is Modern Masters. That being said, what if you are not buying a box and are still curious about the set? Well do I have news for you! First, friday June 7th, Red Sky Comics will be hosting a Modern Masters draft. It will be $25 and has seating for 24 players, so make sure you get there asap or call (209)-726-0667. Second, sunday June 9th, Krier's Cards and comics will be hosting 3 Modern Master's drafts starting at 1 P.M., 2 P.M., and 3 P.M. with the top 2 getting Modern Masters product. The price is $35 to play, but includes a pack of Ultra-Pro sleeves to ensure the maximum life out of your draft product. As of this writing, only 12 spots remain between the 1 and 3 P.M. draft slots, so hurry on down and register with John Krier @ 209-522-0511. Finally, War Torn Front has been doing some crunching and is close to announcing their own Modern Master's draft. More than likely this will be announced via the Facebook page and Twitter, so make sure to watch those feeds, if you feel like drafting Modern Master's this entire weekend. For those who do not like giant lines of text, 3 Modern Master's drafts being potentially fired by 3 different stores, all over 3 different days. It is a good time to be a Magic player. Now time to shift gears, and talk about War Torn Front's plans for the future, and wait more Modern Masters too!

War Torn Front has announced a special Invitational series coming up toward the back half of this month. This announcement came up towards the back half of last week, but it is worth bringing up again. This Invitational series is a set of 4 Standard tournaments, each costing $30.  The prize payout is cash to the top 8 and packs down to 16th place, but the most important piece of this is what the Top 2 get. The top 2 players from each tournament will be invited to play in a free Modern Masters draft, with the payout being a Modern Masters box for first. What a summer War Torn Front is offering! Make sure to register early and Play to Win @ War Torn Front this summer. All the invitational dates and important tournament information can be found here. With those announcements out of the way, let's jump into an EDH play-by-play that happened this weekend at War Torn Front.

So this weekend, I had the chance to sit down with Placido Galvin, Dave Murzi, and Nick Disanto and battle in a pretty interesting EDH game. I have recorded the play by play of the match here, and if you are interested in more of this play-by play action, whether it be EDH, Standard or whatever, please let me know by leaving comments here on the Facebook page. Decklists will be provided at a later time, if the community so wishes to see them.

Placido and Dave were both on Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, Nick was playing Sharuum the Hegemon, and I was playing Melek, Izzet Paragon. I won the die roll and opted to keep.

Turn 1: I led with Island and Soothsaying. Nick played a Watery Grave into play tapped. Placido led with a Swamp and Dave played a Polluted Mire tapped.

Turn 2: I played an Island and Pondered my fate. Nick played a Polluted Delta cracking it to find an Underground Sea taking 1. He then cast Azorius Signet. Placido played a second Swamp, cast Nether Traitor and attacked Dave for 1. Dave played a Swamp and cast Bitterblossom. At the end of the turn, I cast Brainstorm.

Turn 3: I passed my turn with no land drop. Nick played a Guild-Stamped Swamp, cast Orzhov Signet, and Crucible of Worlds. Placido played a Swamp, cast Sol Ring, and played Smokestack. Dave took 1 for Bitterblossom and got a token, played a Swamp and cast Sign in Blood targeting himself losing 2 life. At the end of turn, I activated Soothsaying for 2.

Turn 4: I played an Island and cast Izzet Keyrune. Nick used Crucible to replay Polluted Delta. He then cast Scroll Rack and passed. Placido upped Smokestack to 1, cast Ancient Craving, losing 3 life, played a Swamp and a Skullclamp and attacked me for 1 with Nether Traitor. Dave lost 1 life to Bitterblossom, made a token and sacrificed the token to Smokestack, then cast Demonic Tutor, Sol Ring, and Sensei's Divining Top. At the end of the turn, Nick used Scroll Rack for 3 and cracked Polluted Delta, losing 1 for a tapped Hallowed Fountain.

Turn 5: I sacked Soothsaying to Smokestack and passed. Nick sacked his Guild-Stamped Swamp, and replayed Polluted Delta and passed. Placido decided to sack Smokestack to itself, then played a Swamp and cast Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. He clamped Xiahou and sacked him to return Ancient Cravings to his hand and drew 2 cards. He then played a Mana Crypt and a Phyrexian Arena. Dave took 1 from his Bitterblossom, made a token, played a Swamp, then played Braids, Cabal Minion. At the end of turn, I cast Cyclonic Rift returning Braids back to Dave's hand. Nick also used Scroll Rack for 3, then took 1 to crack his fetch to find an Island.

Turn 6: I played a Mountain and cast Gilded Lotus and passed. Nick replayed Polluted Delta and passed. Placido lost 1 life to Phyrexian Arena, played Thespian's Stage, Solemn Simulacrum and then clamped Solemn. He then cast Ancient Cravings losing 3 life. Dave lost 1 life to Bitterblossom, made a token, and played Cabal Coffers. He then recast Braids, Cabal Minion.

Turn 7: I sacked an Island to Braids, played an Island and cast Eye of the Storm. Nick responded to this by playing Fact or Fiction targeting Placido. Placido split up the 5 cards into two piles. Nick took the pile with Pact of Negation and Sword of the Meek, He then used Scroll Rack for 5 and cracked his fetch, losing 1 life for a Swamp. Eye of the Storm resolved and I cast Flame Jab, triggering Eye and using Flame Jab to shoot a Bitterblossom token. I passed the turn. Nick sacked an Island to Braids and cast Basalt Monolith, Sensei's Divining Top, and replayed his Polluted Delta. Placido sacked his clamped Solemn and drew 3 cards. He then lost 3 life for calling Mana Crypt wrong and 1 life for Phyrexian Arena. He then played Vesuva on Cabal Coffers, Guardian Beast, and then clamped the beast. Dave lost 1 life to Bitterblossom, sacked a token to Braids and proceeded to cast Syphon Mind. Eye of the Storm triggered allowing Dave to cast Flame Jab targeting Guardian Beast, then Syphon Mind went off. Dave drew 3 cards as the rest of us discarded. Dave then played Beseech the Queen, triggering Eye of the Storm. Dave Flame Jabed the Guardian Beast again, cast Syphon Mind again, and then cast Beseech the Queen. Dave finished the turn by playing Reliquary Tower.

Turn 8: I sacked an Island and proceeded to cast Mana Geyser, triggering Eye of the Storm. I cast Flame Jab targeting Guardian Beast, Syphon Mind hitting the table, Beseech the Queen, finding an Izzet Signet, and finally casting Mana Geyser. With the 14 red floating, I played an Island and cast Knowledge Exploitation. I explained to the group that I would now cast every single instant and sorcery from their decks, casting them repeatedly as Eye kept triggering, the table scooped.

If you think that board state is fun or sounds entertaining come on down to War Torn Front's EDH league. This league held every Saturday is a great chance to sling spells you have not touched in a while. Currently the league has 8 players and is constantly growing. If interested message me on Facebook, or War Torn Front's Facebook or Twitter.

Thats all for now faithful readers, come back next week as we talk primers for Pauper and Budget EDH, TCGplayer Silver events and the happenings at War Torn Front.

Welcome to War Torn Front!

Dear Viewers,

Welcome to the inaugural post of the War Torn Front blog, hosted by Wordpress and Blogger. This blog has been a long time in coming, and hopes to deliver news about War Torn Front. Since this is the inaugural posting, I feel some introductions are in order.

I am Brandon Agenbroad, local shop regular, EDH tinkerer, and random writer. As of this writing, I do not represent War Torn Front, in any name shape, or form and as such, my writing should be taken with a grain of salt when it comes in regards to War Torn Front policies. That being said, This blog will be updated weekly with the happenings here at War Torn Front, along with interviews from shop regulars and pros. This series is meant to help build and bridge the community together as War Torn Front grows to being the only shop the matters in Manteca. With that small introduction out of the way, lets talk about the store we love.

War Torn Front's current schedule allows for a ton of Magic playing and you should embrace it. Monday night's starting at 5pm, Pauper Magic events have begun to fire off. With a $5 dollar entry and store credit prizes, now is the time to dive into one of the arguably cheapest formats in Magic. Tuesday is Open Play night, allowing you to come down and play whatever to your heart's content. Wednesday is Modern Night kicking off at 7pm, letting everyone test Modern whether we are in season or not. Thursday is Casual Standard Night. This event is free entry with promos going to the top finishers. Want to try a Standard brew but not sure how it will hold up, come to Thursday nights and get a free testing session in. Friday nights are Friday Night Magic (FNM). FNM is $6 with prize payouts going as low as 2-1-1, earning 3 packs. This event kicks off at 7:00 pm and runs pretty late. Come on in for fun, prizes, trades and all the community you love. Saturday plays host to several events. First is the $15 Win-a-Box tournaments. This event fires as soon as 8 competitors show up, and last person standing walks away with a box of their choice. Second is the budget Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) league. This event starts around 2pm and costs a one time fee of $5 for the 8-12 weeks of league play. Highest point finisher in the league gets a custom playmat of their general and title of Season 1 champion. In addition, the winner has the right to add a card to the banlist for next season. Finally, Kaijudo hosts their Duel Day, the equivalent to Magic's FNM around 2 pm. Sunday, the staff takes a long breather to prep for the next week's events.

As you can tell, War Torn Front has something going on every day for 6 days. No matter whether you consider yourself a pro, scrub, newbie, or casual, War Torn Front has your number for gaming Magic. Since most of the viewers know about Standard, Modern and Draft, i will run down Pauper and the budget EDH league to those curious.

Pauper is a simple format with a small banned list located here:https://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rules/Pauper. This format is a minimum 60 card main deck and 15 card sideboard format. The only restriction is that all the cards in your deck must be common. Cards that were printed at common, and then reprinted at a higher rarity level are legal for use in these events. For example, Rancor was originally printed in Urza's Legacy as a common, then reprinted as an Uncommon in M13. As such, that card is legal for pauper.

The Budget EDH League is an 8-12 week event that runs on Saturday. It shares the same rules for EDH, namely being a singleton format. This means only 1 of any given card, aside from basic land, can be in your deck. The deck construction is 100 cards with one legendary creature serving as a "general." The general determine the colors of your deck and can be normally cast at any time you could play that creature. Each time your general is killed or exiled, you have the option of returning him to the command zone, which raises his/her cost by a culmative 2 mana. A general can kill a player by dealing 21 or more points to a player over the course of a game. Finally, this league adds a new restriction to the EDH game. In addition to following the banned/restricted list found here: https://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rules/100cardsingleton-commander, War Torn Front has added a budget restriction. Your deck, excluding basic lands, can cost no more than $15.00 before shipping and taxes. As you play in the league, you can earn points: 1 point for participating, 2 points for a player kill, and 1 point for last man standing at the table. You can play a maximum of three group games per week and submit results. Every 10 points you earn, increases the budget of your deck by 50 cents, to a maximum of $20.00 at the end of the league. As stated earlier, the top point getter will receive a custom playmat with their general and season 1 EDH league champion. They will also earn the right to ban 1 card for the next season.

Well, that wraps up the inaugural edition of the War Torn Front Blog. Come back next week as we talk events, and future endeavors for this little home away from home we all love.