We are joined this week by Robert Martin, also known as The Beme.  You might recognize him from The Men of Magic interviews.  On this episode, we're covering all the Dark Ascension previews that had been shown when we recorded.  And let me tell you, there are some doozies this week.

Interspersed throughout the card discussions are a variety of tangents.  We'll talk about expensive Magic merchandise, jerks on forums, jerks playing Commander, dragons on Innistrad, money gouging and crooks, the Magic Twitter community, and a certain professional player that I had to interact with later that night.  He's not a bad guy it turns out, I just severely disagree with one of his opinions.  But still...screw him.


Follow Robert on Twitter - @TheBeme

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music - Hellrider by Judas Priest - http://www.judaspriest.com

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-213-rant-over-dka-preview-2-t753.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We've got the first of the Dark Ascension previews for you on this episode!  Of course, Sorin popped up after we recorded, so we'll talk about him next episode.  We do have the Zombie Apocalypse though, which is pretty freakin' sweet.  Because of when this was recorded, we're really only talking about the first few days' worth, so we were able to go a little more in-depth than usual.

But no matter how in-depth we get, two days of cards do not a full episode make!  But we didn't have time to go full-on into another topic, so a listener suggestion came to the rescue!  The question was "what's your favorite combo that you run in one of your decks?"  So we all dug through our decks and came up with the combos we love.  Except for Chewie, who brought every combo in his decks.  Don't worry, he shoots more for synergy in his decks, so he only has a few.  It gives a little glance to the way the dorks build decks.

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music - Corridors of Time (Chrono Trigger Zeal cover) by Laura By Spruke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufJslNR_cOw

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-212-dark-ascension-preview-1-t752.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Creatures!  Everyone loves creatures, right?  And what's the most fun way to play with creatures?  In tribes!  Everyone loves some tribal Magic, right?  There's even a format called Tribal, that's gotta mean something!  No we're not even going to talk about the format on this episode, we're being much more general.  This is just all about some of the various tribes in Magic.  We talk about our favorite tribes, most hated, what makes a good one, all kindsa stuff!

But we're missing Mike!  To help us out with this, we brought in Uriah Oxford, the man behind CMDR Decks on Youtube (and MTGcast).  Of course, we'll talk about tribal in EDH and get distracted by various EDH issues and discussions while we're at it.  I know, it's amazing that we Mana Pool boys can get distracted by anything, but believe me it happens.  And it's good stuff!

CMDR Decks on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/cmdrdecks
Follow Uriah on Twitter - @CMDRDecks

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-211-tribal-talk-with-cmdr-decks-t747.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

On this episode we're missing Brian, who had a last-minute before-Christmas dinner thing.  So We're joined by Brandon Isleib, better known as the Seedborn Muse over on the Muse Vessel!  Of course, you'll be able to find him over on Gathering Magic on Tuesdays from now on, so maybe you should check that out too.  But since we had a guest host, we decided to make a potpourri episode of random smaller topics that have come up recently.

First off there's a quick discussion of the two cards Banned from Modern.  Then we took a quick look at Avacyn Restored.  We let Brandon cut loose on a topic we recently we recently talked about, keeping casual Magic casual.  Then there was a discussion of creatures with Defender in multiplayer Magic.  We finished up with a nice long discussion about the various mechanics in Future Sight and which of them were our favorites.  That one was a good one.

Big thanks to Brandon for joining us, we had a lot of fun with him!  You guys should definitely go check out his Musings, along with the other two guys over on The Muse Vessel!

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – One Shot You Don't Want to Miss by A Light Divided - http://www.facebook.com/ALightDivided or http://www.reverbnation.com/alightdivided

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-210-seedborn-musings-t745.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Hey look, Bill's back!  And since he's here, we begin this episode by talking all about the SCG Invitational we went to last week.  We've got all kindsa stories and people and things.  There are links to the two playmats we talked about a little further down.  And you know you wanna see ;)

Then we have a Magic Mad Lib from Myke Okuhara, which is seriously drop-dead hilarious.  No really.  I might die.  Then we did a real Mad Lib that Brian wrote, because it was there to do.  Just don't get used to this two-Mad-Libs-per-episode thing going on here, okay?

And we finish up with a sizable discussion about the pros and cons of each color, as seen from a gameplay perspective.  We started off with flavor, then realized that's not what the person was asking.  I wish I could remember who asked and where, but them's the breaks, you know?  Hope you enjoy!

Planeswalkers for Equality: http://www.steveargyle.com/?cmd=gallery_ext&art_id=411

Chandra closeup that Mike bought: http://www.steveargyle.com/?cmd=gallery_ext&art_id=368

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Why is the Rum Gone?

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-209-dirk-and-a-half-t743.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

This episode is a little out there.  First off, we're missing Dirk because it's his anniversary.  Because not just anyone can fill in for Dirk, we tracked down two old friends to help us out.  First we got Bill, who is kurai_seraphim on the forums and a recent guest host.  Then we tracked down Ben, who is Panahinuva on the forums, Twitter, and probably everywhere else.

We start off with a couple of listener-submitted Mad Libs, one from Jose Lorenzo de Jesus and one from Austin Abel.  Yeah I know we've done the first one before, shut up.  They're fun.  After that, it's time for a Story Circle.  But not just any Story Circle, this is a holiday special!  We're taking a look at the various holiday special promo cards that Wizards has released the last few years, then we're gonna concoct a Story Circle around one of them!  Trust me, it turned out great.

After that, things got a little unfocused.  We talked about some of the things that are coming up in the near future on TheManaPool.com and discussed our upcoming trip to the SCG Open Invitational in Charlotte.  Just a reminder, Mike's taking on all comers with his High Tide Eldrazi Archenemy deck!  Then we turned our attention to some listener mail and assorted ramblings.  Hope you enjoy!


Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-208-like-for-bullets-t740.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We're joined this episode by Tom, formerly of the MTG Radio podcast.  He's always fun to have on the show, so hopefully you'll all enjoy it as much as we did.  We start off with a fair amount of news - new Planechase, Faithless Looting, and the latest WOTC holiday card.  Links to all those are right here:

Follow Tom on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MTGRadio

Planechase 2012
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/848

Faithless Looting
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/847

Yule Ooze
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/852


Then we get to the good stuff!  Way back in Episode 69 - Get A Life!, we each took the simple concept of "lifegain" and built a deck around it, completely separate from each other.  Then we compared and contrasted our decks on the show.  We each came up with something vastly different of course.  That episode got a really good response, and we've always meant to do it again.

Well we're finally doing it.  This time, we started with the idea of "counters" and ran with it.  And in case you're wondering, we're not talking Cancel here.  We're talking break out the Crown Royal bag full of dice.  So all five of us built a deck around this loose theme, and the results were again wildly different.  Brian, Mike, and Dirk each focused on one type of counter, while I decided to intentionally not focus on one type.  Tom, with his background as an EDH podcaster, built a Commander deck.  If you'd like to see what the decks looked like, here's where you can go to find them:
http://themanapool.com/the-deck-box/make-itcount-deck-lists/

After that, we have a few good discussions that come from listener mail.  We discuss Magic Online vs. paper Magic.  We discuss some of the possible ways to get rid of your collection once you're done playing.  We even talked about Worlds for a minute.

And finally, if you're going to be at the Star City Games Open Series in Charlotte, NC (you know, the Invitational) then you might just see Chewie and Mike there, along with Bill (you know, from Episode 203 - Medium-Sized Discussions) and at least a few others from the podcasting community, including BigheadJoe, Jack LaCroix, and the crew from Runnin' the Gauntlet.  So come on out and see us in Charlotte on Dec. 10!

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Boil 'Em by EnigmaMonkey

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episdoe-207-make-it-count-t739.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We really went all out for our 4 year show.  We've got discussions on beating children, Graveborn, panties, laughing thoctars, Horde updates, and the realization that Mike is actually the ruler of all things.  But I'm sure some of you already knew that, you're very clever.  That's why you listen to us!

Actually, we didn't exactly realize that this was our 4 year anniversary show until just before we started.  But luckily, we had chosen a topic that was very much suited for it!  This episode is a whole mess of Out of the Deck Box!  Each of us took one of our favorite decks (or one that listeners have asked about) and go over it.  We're talking casual multiplayer here, so expect a lot of nonsense and fun!

Brian shared his Shared Fate deck at a listener's request.  We are awesome.  Chewie showed off his Primalcrux deck, even though he still needs 2 more Primalcrux.  No seriously, we're pretty great.  Dirk hauled out the aptly named X-Deck because he really doesn't like us at all.  Actually Mike is the awesome one.  And Mike discussed his themeless Black/Red deck, probably because it's one of the few decks he has that still just doesn't have a central idea running through it.  Kneel before Mike!

Stupid thoctars...


Uncle Zod by memorypalace
Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – The Picard Song by DarkMateria

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-206-kneel-before-mike-four-years-t736.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

On this episode of The Mana Pool, we're talking video games!  Reminiscing, really.  But because we're actually a Magic podcast, we're gonna try to bring it back to Magic as often as possible.  What could the different video game genres bring to Magic?  What about the various characters and worlds that video games have given us?  And the question that Brian used to pitch this idea to me: Would Solid Snake have shroud?  I liked it so much I made it the title of this episode!

After that, we attempted to knock out some of the listener emails that have been piling up over the last month.  Rules questions, congratulations on hitting 200 (oops), and assorted other topics come up for discussion, so don't miss it!  You never know, you might learn something.

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Theme
Intro by Tosus - http://dergeek.com
Image by snatx - http://community.wizards.com/snatx/blog/2009/10/19/zendikar_custom_tokens

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-205-would-solid-snake-have-shroud-t734.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

It's that time again, where we use Gatherer to find a group of unwitting creatures to beat the crap out of each other for our amusement.  I mean...to compete for fame and glory on the battlefield. And charity! Yeah, that's it. Look, what's the point of being able to summon up creatures from around the multiverse if you can't have a little fun with it?

But yes, starting with one of the lamest creatures in Magic and going from there, we have pitched battles between random creatures.  By pitched battles, of course I mean nerd arguments about who would win (and yet Batman vs. Captain America doesn't come up once...huh).  Eight enter, but only one will come away victorious!  Feel free to join in the nerd arguments on the forums or in the comments, of course.

After that, Brian gives us an in-depth rundown of a draft he did on MTGO that he thought was especially interesting.  And it was, so listen up.  You in the back there!  Pay attention!

Intro (and new Outro!) Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music - Killer Instinct Theme

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-204-hyper-instinct-turbo-third-strike-goty-ed-alpha-t732.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool