We have lots of stuff going on this week.  The World Magic Cup happened, for one.  That's about all the discussion we're gonna have about that.  WotC has revealed some information about some products (again) that we feel the urge to talk about.  There's the 2012 Holiday Gift Box, which you can find here:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1039

There's the complete listing for From the Vault: Realms, which is right here:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1040

They also revealed a Return to Ravnica card that will apparently be the Launch promo, which we're gonna talk about.  Yes I know it hasn't shown up on the Magic site anywhere just yet (for some reason) but it's official.  Trust us on this.

The main topic of discussion is all about Blue and how it fits into casual, multiplayer, and Magic in general. There's a lot of meat here that I'm just not gonna bother trying to write down, just listen. Also, a couple quick hits:

FNM: Friendly Neighborhood Monkey
"I don't know what number one is, but second place is a five-way tie." - Dirk

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Intro by Tosus - http://mathofmagic.wordpress.com/
Break Music – Cat Blues by Yoko Kanno

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Hey look, we're doing another Commander episode!  Told you we weren't done with these, what now haters?  Or whatever.  Gimme a break, I never know how to start off these episode write-ups.  But we are focusing on Commander again this week, and of course we've got a guest host.  We managed to snag none other than Tom of the now-defunct MTG Radio podcast.   That show is the main reason Chewie decided to give EDH a try back in the day!

We begin with a discussion of competitive EDH that came from a listener email, then move over to the Commander's Arse(nal).  Everyone has their opinion on the product thus far.  Except for Mike, since we were apparently not listening to what he said.  He said stuff though, he assures us!

Commander's Arsenal:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1035

Then we decided to bring back the old Story Circle.  Aw yeah, you know you love it!  Our random general this time around was...Cromat.  Yeah, but we made the best out of it.  If you want to follow along or at least see what these cards are as we rattle them off, you can check out the post here:
http://themanapool.com/the-deck-box/storycircle243edh

Tom is @MTGRadio on Twitter by the way - you know what to do.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Big Pimpin'/Papercut by Jay-Z/Linkin Park

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-243
Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-243-up-your-arsenal-w-story-circle-t838.html
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We're back with another episode to entertain you all!  This one is again inspired by emails we've gotten from listeners like you.  These seem to be more personal in nature, beginning with our favorite tribes.  From there we move into how we started playing and what keeps us interested, and how one can go about getting cards without destroying your wallet.  Then we're asked about our favorite expansion/block, our favorite cards, the cards we've had the most fun with, and which planeswalker we identify with.  The final question, according to my notes, is about our personal idiosyncrasies when we're playing.  That on was fun, because we started pointing stuff out about each other.

Oh yeah, we also talked about Jarad and the Planeswalker Points achievements and badges, but we actually had astonishingly little to say about each one.
Jarad: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1033
Achievements: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/206

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – A Horse with No Name by America

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-242
Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-242-listener-submitted-ideas-appreciation-fortnight-t837.html
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It's time once again for us to dig into our mailbag and come up with something to talk about!  This time we hit on an email about podcasting hardware and software because we seem to have gotten a lot of those lately.  How many of you are starting a podcast anyway?

Then we hit an email that asks about our card preference.  When building a deck, which version of any given card do we like to use?  A certain art, foil, promotional, non-English language, white or black border...what do we prefer?  We spent a good amount of time discussing the various ins and outs of how we pick cards to put in a deck.

From there we get to an email about power creep.  Sorta.  Basically it's the "creatures today are so good and spells are not compared to back in the day - discuss".  And we did.  For a long time.  We threw out lots and lots of points.  We're pretty sure it's worth listening to, so there's that. 

Of course, expect the usual tangents, sidetracks, and random nonsense that you've come to know and love from our show.  Hopefully I didn't forget anything...

Chewie's stand-up video (NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycdcevIHG6A&feature=g-up


Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride (From Disney's ''Lilo & Stitch'') by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu & North Shore Children’s Choir & Key Cygnetures

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-241
Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-241-not-even-quick-fire-discussions-t835.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
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