The Mana Pool

Latest Episodes:

Episode 268 - The Magnor Criol of Deckbuilding Feb 22, 2013

Show notes

On this episode, of course we're gonna talk about From the Vault: Twenty. I mean, duh. Then we go on into more esoteric topics. A listener known as Andrew Hunt (Magnor Criol on the forums) supplied us with six 60-card casual decks to talk about. And we do. At great length. These are really pretty cool. We go over each one, poking at the pros and cons, bouncing potential modifications off of each other, stuff like that. The links to the TappedOut pages are below.

Then we have a slight interruption. Jeremey Schofield (@J_Schofield) pops in to try to get money out of you! Not for himself, but for Chewie! Jeremey has spearheaded an operation to get Chewie a plane ticket to Grand Prix Las Vegas in June. If you remember, GP Vegas is going to be Modern Masters Limited, which is most likely going to be completely amazing. The GP itself is shaping up to be one of the biggest ever. So if you'd like to chip in and help, all you have to do is click here: http://www.gofundme.com/2309p0

*Chewie note: By the time this was ready to be posted, we had already reached the goal of $500! But if you still want to send in more, go right ahead. Any excess funds will be split between beefing up the prize pool for the raffle-type thing he's doing and the rest will be donated to the MTGCast Network to keep it up and running. Pretty cool huh?

Here are the decks in the order that we talked about them, feel free to follow along:

Shaper's Madness - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/shapers-madness/Consumerism - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/consumerism/Gloryscale Multifun - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gloryscale-multifun/Pointed - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pointed/Infinite Murkfiend - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/infinite-murkfiend/A Draining Experience - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/a-draining-experience/

From the Vault: Twenty - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1171

Be sure to check out the Cardshark 12 Year Anniversary Promotion!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftbandIntro by Tosus!Break Music - Top Gun Anthem by Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens (NES version arranged by Kyouhei Sada, Kazuki Muraoka, Kouji Murata, Unknown, courtesy of http://www.vgmpf.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-268 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-268-the-magnor-criol-of-deckbuilding-t898.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 267 - Erryday I'm Cycling Feb 19, 2013

Show notes

Wow, we talked about a LOT of stuff this week. We handled lots of it in quickfire, lightning-round fashion and you can find the links for those down there after these paragraphs. Doing the live episode from the Prerelease and having Prillaman on one week means we missed a fair amount of news. So even though it's not really news anymore, we still decided to weigh in with our opinions. Yay opinions!

What does YOUR favorite guild-flavored floss taste like?

The main topic, however, is something new. Yes, after more than five years of podcasting about Magic, Brian has managed to come up with something we've never talked about before. We're all very proud of him.

I suppose I should tell you what that is. There are a lot of cycles in Gatecrash. Hey, there are a lot of cycles in every Magic set. But outside of those cycles, there are a lot of really cool cards that stand alone. Well this episode, we decided to take a look at those noncycled (uncyclic?) cards and imagine what they would look like as part of a cycle. From Giant Vacuum to...well I'm sure we named some more, we made up some cycles that just seemed to work. Or that sounded like fun. Or that were completely ridiculous. Whatever it was, we were all over it. And it led to some fun and interesting discussions too, so we hope you guys enjoy it!

Be sure to check out the Cardshark 12 Year Anniversary Promotion!

B&R update: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/232 Extort in Commander: http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15321 Dragon's Maze buy-a-box is Render Silent: http://www.wizards.com/ContentResources/Wizards/Sales/Solicitations/2013_02_04_DGMBAB_Solicitation_en_US.pdf DGM prerelease stuff: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1156 Guild letters: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1165

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - The Case for Mars from the Symphony of Science - http://symphonyofscience.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-267 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-267-erryday-i-m-cycling-t897.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 266 - Let's Play Tag Like Adults Feb 10, 2013

Show notes

We're joined this episode by none other than Bryan Prillaman, one of our favorite dorks. You know, the mossy guy formerly on Avant-Card Show and now JudgeCast. We really love that guy. And our own Brian got sick and died, so we had to find a replacement at the last minute. And since it was last minute, this episode is all over the place. We did cover a few important things though, so let's list those:

-Missed triggers policy update: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/233-Gatecrash Event Decks: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1161-Gatecrash Intro Packs: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1152

Yeah, that's all the important stuff. Now for some unimportant stuff that you will be far FAR more likely to remember:

-Children are plague factories-Judge tag-The baby on the meat hook twitched-Condescending Charm, coming in Dragon's Maze

Man I've missed Prillaman. Check out the picture for this post on the website, it's him. Man he's a goober.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Psychosocial Baby by Isosine (Mashup of Slipknot's "Psychosocial" and Justin Bieber's "Baby")This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-266 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-266-let-s-play-tag-like-adults-t894.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 265 - Gatecrash Prerelease Live Feb 04, 2013

Show notes

Yes you read that correctly! The dorks venture forth into the long dark of Lucky's Card Shop in Greensboro NC to bring you field reports straight from the Prerelease! Actually it's quite well-lit in there, but that wouldn't have sounded anywhere near as cool. But yes, Chewie brought his Tascam DR-08 recorder with him to catalogue everything we did while we were there. Well, maybe not everything. I mean, he didn't take it to the bathroom or to McDonald's with him. Okay he did, but he didn't use it at those two places.

Anyway, Prerelease. With a Simic, an Orzhov, and two Boros players in our crew, somebody was probably going to do well. And they did, but you'll have to listen to find out who and how good. Or just, you know, pay attention to the forums and Twitter and stuff. Whatever. We discussed how rounds went, talked to other players, got a few good stories, and had an all-around good time. So give it a listen and let us know what you think, since this is the first time we've done this.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - various NES soundbites courtesy of The Videogame Music Preservation Foundation - http://vgmpf.comThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-265 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-265-gatecrash-prerelease-live-t893.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 264 - Stark Raving Mad Jan 29, 2013

Show notes

We are joined this episode by a VERY special guest, Graham Stark from LoadingReadyRun! Graham, who is a very funny fellow it turns out, hangs out with us for the first half of the episode. We talk about what LRR is, Magic, having a real job, drafting, Magic, Gatecrash, Guilds, and more Magic. Probably some other stuff too, it's been a while since we actually recorded this one.After Graham takes his leave of us so he can go be funny on camera and stuff (definitely a rough life), we turn our sights to the full Gatecrash set. We take a look at some cycles that have been revealed or fully fleshed out, check out some reprints, hit the last of the mythics, and generally just go over anything that looks cool. We hope you enjoy!Follow Graham on Twitter: @Graham_LRRCheck out LoadingReadyRun at.... http://www.loadingreadyrun.comWatch the Friday Nights series: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/936Gatecrash full set: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/gatecrash/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Airbase by Anamanaguchi - http://anamanaguchi.comThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-264 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-264-stark-raving-mad-t889.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 263 - Slimy Hat Salesman Jan 22, 2013

Show notes

This episode had a great many possible titles to pick from. Here are two of the ones I didn't choose: Five Alarm Fire, How Much Mustard Did They Have? And that's why I love this game.We're joined this week by our old friend Bill Bloodworth, who is Kurai_Seraphim on the forums and @SqueeGoblnNabob on Twitter. It's almost a tradition to have him here with us when preview season hits, so why change things now? We talked a little bit about the GTC Event Decks (there's only a little bit of info, after all), and a fair amount about the tokens in Gatecrash. And from there, it was all spoilers. Yeah, there were a lot. So...we hope you enjoy!Gatecrash Spoilershttp://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/gatecrash/cigGatecrash Event Deckshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1146Gatecrash Tokenshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1147 Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Lap Dancing Lady by Tony FerrinoThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-263 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-263-slimy-hat-salesman-t885.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 262 - Uncommon Fish Mutant Jan 16, 2013

Show notes

This episode we are joined by none other than Dr. Science himself, Cluze! He did a Magic Mad Lib with us, which is always fun. Before that, we talked about a bunch of announcements and news and stuff. No really, look at all these announcements and news and stuff we talked about! Well, the links are down there somewhere. I'm sure you'll find them.Then we hit the Gatecrash previews, of course. That's why you're all here, after all. And we went on about them. And on. And then on some more. Holy crap, the second part of this episode was as long as a normal episode! But we were definitely thorough, and took at least a glance at everything that had been spoiled up to that time. So sit back, enjoy, and let us know what you thought.Follow Cluze on Twitter @lacluyze - he's a pretty cool guy. Then go listen to him over at Card Advantage while you're at it.Magic 2014http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1141Fan Kitshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1142Duels 2013 Deck Pack 3http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1143

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - The Black Gate (from Return of the King) by Howard Shore - http://www.howardshore.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-262 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-262-uncommon-fish-mutant-t884.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 261 - Crashing All the Gates Jan 07, 2013

Show notes

We begin this episode short one host, but don't worry about him. He'll show up in the nick of time. Brian gives us his take on last episode, throwing out ideas for Hellsing seen through the lens of Magic cards. Then he and Chewie tell us about some of their experiences with the Return to Ravnica Booster Battle Packs, or whatever they're called. But of course, that's not why any of you are here, is it?Yes, we're going to hit each and every Gatecrash card that had been revealed when we recorded this. And holy crap there were a lot of them. From the first five that revealed the new guild mechanics all the way down to everyone's favorite planeswalker bro, we're taking a look at them all. And be sure you stay tuned until the very end, because we have some information about playing Extort cards in EDH that came all the way from a high-level judge.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Gates of Love by Bang Camaro - http://www.bangcamaro.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-261 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-261-crashing-all-the-gates-t883.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 260 - Giant Chicken Token Dec 31, 2012

Show notes

Chewie got a 2013 Holiday Card! That's the good news. The bad news is that Brian was having technical difficulties, causing some serious feedback problems. The majority of them were edited out, so just trust us that they were absolutely worse than you can hear. There is also another of Brian's on-theme Magic Mad Libs. Yay Mad Libs!

But this episode is more than problems and a Mad Lib. This one is another of those free-form rambling discussions with no real point or purpose other than to entertain our thousands of listeners across the globe! Or...at least the American ones, in this case. Roughly a year ago, we did Episode 205 - Would Solid Snake Have Shroud? It was jolly good fun, so Brian thought we should do it again. But instead of looking at video games through the lens of Magic cards, this time we're doing television shows! Shows we enjoy, shows we've seen, or just shows we think might work well with Magic. If you have any ideas or suggestions for shows, then hit the forums or leave a comment on the site. Hope you enjoy!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Cheers Theme by Gary Portnoy

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-260 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-260-giant-chicken-token-t882.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 259 - Tundra Wolves Man 13 Dec 16, 2012

Show notes

Man, this episode is all over the place. We have a Cardshark promotion to tell you about, first and foremost. If you want a shot at winning the five best planeswalkers in Standard, you should definitely pay attention. Here's the link, in case you can't pay attention:http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Default.aspxThen, we hear from a Russian listener. We've been at this a long time (over 5 years now in fact) and that might be a first. How cool is that?Then we have another Magic Mad Lib. If you thought last week's was funny, then you've got to hear this one. Featuring 100% less singing (thank goodness), this Mad Lib might be Chewie's favorite ever. No kidding. The follow-up discussion was also some top-notch stuff."What are the monkey people called?" - DirkThe rest of the episode (yeah, all that was only like a quarter of it at most) is taken up by our responses to two listener emails. Tony Mendolia (who never fails to tell the world about our new episodes on Google Plus, even though we've pretty much given up on it) asks us a question about saving sets of commons and uncommons for his kids. This was a really good discussion, plus it gave Dirk a chance to weigh in with some serious mic time!The second half of the show is all about Ravnican flavor. More specifically, the storyline of Return to Ravnica. Andrew from CO in LA (confusing, innit?) wanted to know about it, since he wasn't exactly sure what was going on. We ended up going over everything we know, or think we know, and connecting as much of it as possible to the original Ravnica storyline. Another good discussion, and another satisfied listener (in theory anyway, since we didn't exactly run it past him ahead of time).Hope you all enjoy, and try not to get stabbed in the uterus. Just sayin'.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Youth of America by Birdbrain - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdbrain_%28band%29

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-259 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-259-tundra-wolves-man-13-t878.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at dorks@themanapool.com Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected