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.