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Episode 43 - Back to Basics: Combat Strategies & Tricks Aug 22, 2008

Show notes

This time, we actually stay on task most of the time! We start off by discussing some basic combat strategy. Attacking, blocking, looking ahead in the game, etc etc. Then we move into tricks. We cover some of the different types of tricks, what they do, and how to use them. It's a much more enjoyable episode than last time, I assure you. That's all you get for now because I seem to have hurt my back and can't really sit here long enough to give you more in-depth show notes. Thanks for listening!

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-43-back-to-basics-combat-strategies-tricks-t217.html Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 42 - Back to Basics: The Combat Phase Aug 15, 2008

Show notes

In this episode, we go over that most entertaining of phases, the combat phase. We cover all the steps of combat, what each step entails, and what sort of things you can and can't do in each step. In fact, I'm going to let Mike handle this via IM:

"The way I remember it, it started with a general overview of the structure of the turn, then we looked closer at the general structure of combat, then we went through combat very carefully, step-by-step, and spoke in some detail about special abilities that affect certain steps. With the usual amount of anecdoting and pointless rambling sprinkled in there. And Brian giving explanations that take twice as long and make half as much sense =P"

So there you have it, straight from the Rules Guy's mouth. Or fingers, since he typed that. We don't call Brian the Lead Rambler for nothing, and we do love him for it. Of course, if we're going to call out Brian for his rambling, then we should also call out Mike for randomly waxing about pre-Sixth Edition rules and how they didn't make any sense. He does that at least twice in this episode, perhaps more. And while we're at it, we pick on Dirk for not knowing something obvious close to the beginning of this episode. It turns out he's not dumb, he was actually not paying attention because he was trying to find something related to the Shards of Alara discussion we had just prior to recording. And of course, let's not leave me out of the merrymaking. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make a Facebook page for the show. Not at all. Behind the scenes here at The Mana Pool!

Right then, hope everyone enjoys the episode and learns something useful. Or at least remembers something useful. Or at least gets a kick out of a bunch of dorks discussing combat until we're ready to actually fight. Thanks for listening, and if you know how to start a Facebook page for the show, please let me know.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-42-back-to-basics-the-combat-phase-t212.html Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 41 - Back to Basics: The Sealed Deck Process in Action Aug 08, 2008

Show notes

On this episode of The Mana Pool, we decided to practice what we preach. Last time, we gave you the basics on Sealed. For this episode, we wanted to show you those basics in action. To do this, we've done two things. First, I opened a Sealed pool of cards (a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs) and copied down the contents. I then sent the list to Dirk, Mike, Brian, and myself. Each of us had the following assignment: Build a Sealed Deck out of this pool, write it down, and be prepared to discuss. Amazingly, all four of us did this assignment, and we discussed our four very different decks. Just as a quick preview, there was a black/green deck, a green/white deck, a green/red deck, and a black/white deck. So not only have we talked about building a Sealed deck, but we have shown that there is no absolutely "right" way to build one out of a given pool. You can find the entire Sealed pool and our decklists here:

http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=366568

And you'd think that would have been a good episode, right? Wrong! That wasn't enough for you, our dear listeners. We had to take it a step further. Not only did we build 4 different decks before we recorded, but we also decided to build another one from an entirely different Sealed pool live on the air! I opened up the cards at the beginning of the episode, and during the discussions of the individual decks, I was sorting and typing up this new list. It went out to the dorks, and we went through the entire process of building a deck out of it. There's much discussion, disagreement, explanation, reasoning, despair, and ultimately, harmony. You can find the entire pool and the final decklist in the same post as before, but here's the link again:

http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=366568

Hopefully you found this educational, or enlightening, or at least entertaining. Let us know what you thought, whether you do it on the forums, in the Facebook group, or just in an email, so we'll know if we should do something like this in the future.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-41-back-to-basics-the-sealed-deck-process-in-action-t209.html Email us at themanapool@cardshark.comSend me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.comRSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Sealed Pools and Decks Aug 08, 2008

Show notes

Note: If you'd rather read this in a more familiar fashion, you can find it in a *.doc file located here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/themanapool/Sealed_Pools_and_Decks.doc

For Episode 41, I opened a Sealed pool of cards, a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs. Each host dork took this Sealed pool and made a Sealed deck. Here is the original card pool.

Land:

Madblind Mountain (U)

Sunken Ruins (R)

White:

Kithkin Shielddare

Kithkin Zealot

Last Breath

Recumbent Bliss

Suture Spirit (U)

Windbrisk Raptor (R)

Blue:

Banishing Knack

Briarberry Cohort

Dream Thief

Ghastly Discovery

Oona's Grace

Prismwake Merrow

Put Away

Black:

Ashling, the Extinguisher (R)

Crowd of Cinders (U)

Disturbing Plot

Gloomlance

Merrow Bonegnawer

Rite of Consumption

Smoldering Butcher

Splitting Headache

Red:

Blookmark Mentor (U)

Bloodshed Fever

Hotheaded Giant

Inescapable Brute

Puncture Bolt

Smash to Smithereens

Green:

Bloom Tender (R)

Devoted Druid

Gleeful Sabotage

Nurturer Initiate

Phosphorescent Feast (U)

Tower Above (U)

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

Artifact:

Antler Skulkin

Chainbreaker

Hoof Skulkin

Lurebound Scarecrow (U)

Shell Skulkin

Black/White Hybrid:

Beckon Apparition

Bloodied Ghost (U)

Edge of the Divinity

Nightsky Mimic

Unmake

Red/White Hybrid:

Duergar Assailant

Duergar Hedge-Mage (U)

Fire at Will

Blue/White Hybrid:

Aethertow

Enchanted Evening (R)

Thoughtweft Gambit (U)

Turn to Mist

Green/White Hybrid:

Barkshell Blessing

Elvish Hexhunter

Safehold Elite

Safewright Quest

Black/Green Hybrid:

Quillspike (U)

Stalker Hag (U)

Blue/Black Hybrid:

Merrow Grimeblotter (U)

Blue/Green Hybrid:

Favor of the Overbeing

Grazing Kelpie

Shorecrasher Mimic

Slippery Bogle

Red/Green Hybrid:

Boggart Ram-Gang (U)

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Mudbrawler Raiders

Tattermunge Duo

Tattermunge Witch (U)

Red/Black Hybrid:

Emberstrike Duo

Sootwalkers

Torrent of Souls (U)

Tyrannize (R)

And here are the four decks that came from this endeavor. Note the differences and, even though they're different colors, note the similarities.

Brian's Sealed Deck, by converted mana cost

1 – Merrow Bonegnawer, Nurturer Initiate, Elvish Hexhunter

2 – Bloom Tender, Devoted Druid, Safehold Elite, Disturbing Plot, Gleeful Sabotage, Rite of Consumption

3 – Quillspike, Stalker Hag, Hoof Skulkin, Tower Above, Unmake

4 – Ashling the Extinguisher, Crowd of Cinders, Soldering Butcher, Wickerbough Elder, Wildslayer Elves

5 – Gloomlance, Torrent of Souls

6 – Morselhoarder

7 – Loamdragger Giant

Land:

10x Forest

7x Swamp

Dirk's Sealed Deck, by color

Lands

9 Plains

7 Forests

Green

Bloom Tender

Tower Above

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

White

Kithkin Shielddare

Last Breath

Recumbent Bliss

Suture Spirit

Windbrisk Raptor

White/Black

Bloodied Ghost

Edge of the Divinity

Unmake

White/Red

Duergar Hedge-Mage

Fire at Will

White/Blue

Æthertow

Turn to Mist

White/Green

Safehold Elite

Safewright Quest

Green/Black

Stalker Hag

Green/Red

Boggart Ram-Gang

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Green/Blue

Favor of the Overbeing

Slippery Bogle

Mike's Sealed Deck, by color

Red:

Bloodmark Mentor

Puncture Bolt

Green:

Bloom Tender

Devoted Druid

Gleeful Sabotage

Nurturer Initiate

Tower Above

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

Artifact:

Chainbreaker

Hoof Skulkin

Lurebound Scarecrow

Red/White Hybrid:

Duergar Assailant

Green/White Hybrid:

Barkshell Blessing

Elvish Hexhunter

Safehold Elite

Black/Green Hybrid:

Quillspike

Blue/Green Hybrid:

Grazing Kelpie

Red/Green Hybrid:

Boggart Ram-Gang

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Mudbrawler Raiders

Tattermunge Duo

Tattermunge Witch

Red/Black Hybrid:

Sootwalkers

Land:

11 Forest

6 Mountain

Chewie's Sealed Deck, by card type

Creatures

Elvish Hexhunter

Kithkin Zealot

Suture Spirit

Safehold Elite

Nightsky Mimic

Devoted Druid

Quillspike

Bloodied Ghost

Duergar Hedge-Mage

Stalker Hag

Crowd of Cinders

Sootwalkers

Ashling, the Extinguisher

Smoldering Butcher

Windbrisk Raptor

Spells

Safewright Quest

Barkshell Blessing

Beckon Apparition

Last Breath

Fire at Will

Unmake

Recumbent Bliss

Aethertow

Gloomlance

Thoughtweft Gambit

Land

8 Plains

6 Swamp

3 Forest

As a second exercise for this episode, I opened another Sealed pool, again a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs, and we constructed a deck live on the air. Here is that pool.

White

Recumbent Bliss

Cenn's Enlistment

Light from Within

Flickerwisp

Woeleecher

Safehold Sentry

Blue

Consign to Dream

Banishing Knack

Wilderness Hypnotist

Deepchannel Mentor

Faerie Swarm

Put Away

Parapet Watchers

Briarberry Cohort

Black

Corrupt

Blowfly Infestation

Polluted Bonds

Soul Reap

Merrow Bonegnawer

Creakwood Ghoul

Raven's Crime

Smolder Initiate

Aphotic Wisps

Sickle Ripper

Disturbing Plot

Red

Flame Jab

Duergar Cave-Guard

Hotheaded Giant

Smash to Smithereens

Rustrazor Butcher

Blistering Dieflyn

Boggart Arsonists

Green

Savage Conception

Wickerbough Elder

Witherscale Wurm

Drove of Elves

Gloomwidow

Nurturer Initiate

Presence of Gond

White/Blue

Godhead of Awe

Aethertow

Turn to Mist

Blue/Black

River's Grasp

Memory Sluice

Black/Red

Spiteflame Witch

Cultbrand Cinder

Red/Green

Firespout

Loamdragger Giant

Giantbaiting

Mudbrawler Raiders

Morselhoarder

Green/White

Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

Elvish Hexhunter

Safewright Quest

Safehold Elite

Barkshell Blessing

White/Black

Nip Gwyllion

Unmake

Edge of Divinity

Blue/Red

Noggle Bridgebreaker

Noggle Bandit

Stream Hopper

Mindwrack Liege

Noggle Hedge-Mage

Black/Green

Rendclaw Trow

Green/Blue

Slippery Bogle

Grazing Kelpie

Shorecrasher Mimic

Selkie Hedge-Mage

Artifact

Hook Skulkin

Fang Skulkin

Scrapbasket

Pili-Pala

Wingrattle Scarecrow

Land

Moonring Island

And finally, here is the complete decklist, after much discussion, discord, and decision. Sorted by card type then mana cost.

Land

9 Island

6 Forest

3 Mountain

Creatures

Stream Hopper

Elvish Hexhunter

Pili-Pala

Briarberry Cohort

Safehold Elite

Selkie Hedge-Mage

Noggle Hedge-Mage

Rendclaw Trow

Noggle Bandit

Faerie Swarm

Wickerbough Elder

Noggle Bridgebreaker

Godhead of Awe

Deepchannel Mentor

Mindwrack Liege

Noncreatures

Banishing Knack

Barkshell Blessing

Flame Jab

Consign to Dream

Giantbaiting

Presence of Gond

Firespout

Aethertow

Savage Conception

Episode 40 - Back to Basics: Sealed Deck Aug 02, 2008

Show notes

In this episode, in keeping with the recent Prerelease and Launch Parties for Eventide, your host dorks bring you the basics of Sealed Deck play. We cover color selection, creatures, the curve, removal, land counts, and whatever else comes to mind, sprinkled with our own experiences and anecdotes as per usual. Please excuse the horrendous pops that show up for the first 15 seconds or so, but we didn't catch it in time to re-record that part. Stay tuned for the next episode for a follow-up to our Sealed Deck tips.

In other news, there is now a Facebook group for The Mana Pool. We're under Common Interest – Hobbies & Crafts, since I couldn't think of anything else that fit better. Just do a search for The Mana Pool and join up! I'm going to try to make it not just another forums page by doing something different with it, I just don't know what yet.

Music for this episode: The Picard Song by Dark Materia. Engage!

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-40-back-to-basics-sealed-deck-t208.html Email us at themanapool@cardshark.comSend me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 39 - Back to Basics: The Basics Jul 25, 2008

Show notes

This episode kicks off a series we've decided to call Back to Basics. Since Wizards of the Coast is focusing on acquisition this year, we thought it would be nice to spend a few episodes focusing on some of things that would be relevant to newer players, affectionately referred to as "noobs". For this episode, we've started with the basics. Each of us (except Dirk, who chose his girlfriend and Dark Knight over us for some reason) go over how we started playing Magic back in the day, and all the anecdotal fun that goes along with that.

After covering the beginning, we decided to go over some of the misconceptions we had when we were noobs. That leads to more interesting anecdotes, of course. From there we move into some of the mistakes that we see new players making all the time. And we mean things all new players do, like over-protecting your life total and using combat tricks at inopportune moments. More anecdotes, of course. We have lots of stories to tell. Some of them are interesting, others not so much. Hopefully we'll avoid these later ones.

If you are in fact a newer player, then we would like to offer you a wondrous resource for helping you learn all there is to know about the game. That resource is the Magic Academy, a column on the Magic website written specifically for you. The column assumes you know the basics of how stuff works, and goes from there. It's really good stuff. Even if you're not a noob, you should still check this out. I read every column when they were writing this thing, and I've been playing for years. Here's the link to the entire run on the Magic site:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/academy/home

And of course, we end the episode with a call for topics. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions or requests for a topic for the Back to Basics series, then please please please let us know. Our email address is directly below, as is the link to the forum thread for this episode. If you'd like to go straight to Show Ideas on the forums, here's the link to the last page of the thread:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/show-ideas-t90-105.html

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-39-back-to-basics-the-basics-t203.html Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 38 - The Eventide Prerelease Ordeal Jul 22, 2008

Show notes

On this special Prerelease episode of The Mana Pool, we are joined by a special guest. You know him as garthok84 from the forums, and as a matter of fact so do we, but his name is Jason. He was good enough to join us on the show with virtually no warning and no prep time whatsoever, so we appreciate that quite a bit. Everyone give a big thanks to him on the forums for making the episode much more interesting, because without him we'd have been the usual amount of dorky.

We kick the episode off with a bad beats story. No, not a game of Magic. This bad beats story is the series of unfortunate events that happened on the morning of the Prerelease. I told this story to Jason, and a couple judges, and a handful of listeners, at the Prerelease, and they agreed that it is a story that must be shared with the world, so here you go. Hopefully it's so bad that it will make you feel better about yourself. Let's just say old Murphy and his laws were running rampant across my life that morning.

Then of course we have to go into everyone's Eventide Prerelease experience. We nitpick Jason's deck, make fun of Mike's inability to build a 40 card deck on the first try (or even the last try), praise Dirk for his awesomeness, make fun of Brian for using Worm Harvest even though last week he claimed it was one of those cards you probably shouldn't run, and wonder at the sheer number of bombs in my deck (keep listening to see whether or not they actually did me any good). If you want to see the decks we used, they'll be listed in the Eventide Prerelease Deck Lists thread on the forum, found here:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/eventide-prerelease-deck-lists-t199.html

We finish the episode up with an actual Magic bad beats story from Jason, who recounts the experience of his friend at the Prerelease. It's really short, pretty simple, and so incredibly painful that it warrants its own paragraph in the show notes. I can't even put it here, you just have to listen. Yeah, it's that bad.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-38-the-eventide-prerelease-ordeal-t202.htmlEmail us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 37 - Eventide Previews and the Last Tribal War Jul 11, 2008

Show notes

Ah, summer. The sun shines brightly, the birds sing sweetly in the trees, and a young dork's fancy turns to thoughts of the last few Eventide preview cards we'll be talking about before the big event this weekend. Mike here again, as Chewie insists that the posting of the show goes much faster whenever he doesn't have to write the show notes himself (it does).

First, we finally conclude tribal "month" with the results from the last of the Onslaught vs. Lorwyn tribal wars matches: Elves. It's the battle that seemed to interest everyone the most, and the narrative does not disappoint. From there, it's on to the small handful of intriguing preview cards, as well as a short feature on the recently revealed new creature tokens for Eventide that will be showing up here and there in your booster packs (some creatures have hair!).

We close with an open discussion of special tips and other things to keep in mind when building your sealed deck at the Eventide prerelease event. The fact that Shadowmoor will still be in the mix means that everyone will have an immense number of viable color combinations to choose from, and we'll all need to have some method of keeping everything sane and orderly.

Now that previews have come to an end, feel even freer to send in your praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions for the show and its various segments. As a podcast for the more casual side of Magic, we want to know what the people have their minds on and are most interested in talking about. Thanks for helping us make it all the way to Episode 37! Just try not to listen to any more episodes on your way to the parking lot (you need to watch for cars).

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-37-eventide-previews-and-the-last-tribal-war-t197.htmlEmail us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 36 - A Staggering Amount of Eventide Previews Jul 09, 2008

Show notes

Hey, this is Mike here, filling in for fearless leader Chewie, who is currently busy eating ice cream and playing Rock Band (or watching The Muppet Show; he wasn't very clear on that point). In this episode, Brian is back above the weather, giving us our customary cadre of dorks. It turned out that the massive weekend info dump to the visual spoiler that we totally didn't expect to happen actually happened, with a total of 18 new Eventide cards having been put up on the site between the evenings of the 3rd and the 8th, including another one of the new cycle of Spirit Avatars (I've taken to calling them "Spaghetti Monsters") and 4(!) of the new cycle of Lieges. So yeah, we have tree-insect-dragon-lich things (sort of), puppy dogs full of bees (not really), Chewie's face (almost), and Will (poor Will). Follow along at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/eventide/spoiler to see for yourself what all those idiot words mean. Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-36-a-staggering-amount-of-eventide-previews-t196.htmlEmail us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Episode 35 - Eventide Previews 3 and Then Some Jul 07, 2008

Show notes

In this episode, we are without Brian, who is feeling under the weather. With the lead rambler missing, you'd think this episode would be shorter, wouldn't you? Shows you what you know, we can all ramble just fine whether we have Brian or not. Sorry for yet another long episode.

But what an episode it is! First off we go over the results of the Onslaught vs. Lorwyn Tribal Wars for Wizards! Mike and I played these games in the morning before we did the Rock Band and Magic featured in the last episode. Wizards! They're slow, they're boring, and they're a bit silly when taken all together. Who won? I'm not going tell you! Give us a listen and find out. It actually wasn't boring to discuss, so hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Then, of course, we had to hit the preview cards. I must say, I'm getting more and more excited about Eventide as they show more and more cards. Every card that had been shown as of Thursday July 3 is discussed here. Technically, that should have been all the cards that have been shown thus far because July 4 is an American holiday, but lo and behold on Friday they revealed another seven cards! On a national holiday! Oh well, we'll grab those next time. For now, we touch on the twelve cards that popped up since the last episode. Thanks for listening and enjoy!

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-35-eventide-previews-3-and-then-some-t195.htmlEmail us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

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