The Mana Pool
Join Brian, Mike, Dirk and Chewie as they discuss all things Magic: The Gathering. Since there are plenty of tournament and strategy podcasts out there, we've decided to focus on the fun of the game in all its many forms, from Prereleases to multiplayer free-for-alls to whatever else we can come up with. Give us a listen!

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Syndication

Greetings one and greetings all. This is Brian, taking a break from rambling on the air (internet?) waves to do some typing for you. Here you'll find Episode 60 of the Mana Pool, now with 75% less Dirk (don't worry, he'll be back, he's just experiencing recent matrimony, that's all).


In this episode, there's some news that we need to go over. And when I say some news, I mean so much news that you might think that this was a news show or something. Seriously. We go over Cardshark member promotions for December, talk about Wizards' prerelease survey and related changes, the banned and restricted list, changes coming to a Magic Online near you, a brand new Duel Deck set coming out next year, and throw in a quick plug for the ongoing contest being run right here at the Mana Pool. See the links below for all that stuff. Oh yeah, and Worlds 2008 happened too. We'll tell you who won all the good stuff.


After three hours of news, we do have some content for you- binder pulls! What's that mean? Listen in and find out, and you'll soon find yourself flipping/digging/pawing/scratching/eating your way through your collection for hidden gems (Volrath's Dungeon) and lackluster duds (Molten Sentry). This was a fun one to put together, and we hope that you enjoy.


Cardshark Member Promotions

http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp


Prerelease News

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/13c


Banned & Restricted List Announcement

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/15a


MTGO Changes

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/17a


Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic Announcement

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1737



Music for this episode: Devour by Shinedown. Totally awesome. Check them out at http://www.shinedown.com


And don't forget to send your contest entries to us at themanapool@cardshark.com. For full contest rules and whatnot, see the link below.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-60-news-and-a-binder-pull-two-bits-t274.html

Contest information: the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.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

Direct download: Episode_60_-_News_and_a_Binder_Pull_Two_Bits.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:02pm EDT

Episode 59 - Out of the Deck Box Combo: Auras Chewie here. Mike was good enough to write the show notes for this episode, but there are a couple things that bear mentioning first. Sorry about the horrible clicking sounds that show up for the first 9 minutes or so. We still have no idea what causes them, and we just happened to not check the file after we recorded it. So of course, we have clicking sounds, because we didn't check for them first. Murphy and his stupid laws. The other thing is that I have a brand new headset that my beautiful and thoughtful girlfriend Alexis got me for my birthday. Let me know if it sounds better or worse than the desktop mic. Now, having said that, here are the show notes originally intended for this episode.


Hello again, and welcome to The Mana Pool! This is Mike, filling in for Chewie on the show notes this week. Speaking of this week, every Magic player knows the appeal of a quality "Enchant Creature" card. Why settle for simply playing creatures as-written when you can make them better? Yeah, that knight is pretty decent with his first strike and 2/2 body, but how about making him bigger, giving him flying and trample, and hey, let's throw some shroud on there for good measure. The only problem is that you have to dump a big pile of cards into your graveyard if something happens to the creature. Because of that built in risk of giving your opponent card advantage, most "serious" players avoid them. But "serious" is nothing we've ever taken seriously.


This week we have another comparative Out of the Deck Box feature, looking at what happens when 3 different dorks embrace the allure of the aura and make it the focus of their decks. From Dirk, we have a Green build geared towards making a creature so big, it would send Galactus running for cover. Mike submits a huge pile of White and Blue cards dedicated to exploiting the interactions between great auras and creatures that love to have them around. Finally, Chewie shows us what happens when some Red, White, and Blue auras with CIP triggers are put into a deck made to flip them in and out of play.


Whether it's magical rope ladders, terrible land bases, or way too many ideas in a deck at once, this is another episode with something for everyone.



And don't forget to send your contest entries to us at themanapool@cardshark.com. For full contest rules and whatnot, see the link below.


We're now being broadcast on Radio Free Subspace! We're on Thursday nights at 8pm, but check it out anytime. It's an eclectic mix of all kinds of music and whatnot, and it's pretty cool. Give it a listen here:

http://loudcity.com/stations/radio-free-subspace


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-59-out-of-the-deck-box-combo-auras-t268.html

Contest information: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.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

Direct download: Episode_59_-_Out_of_the_Deck_Box_Combo-_Auras.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:22pm EDT

Episode 58 - Multiplayer Mayhem for Mike

It's official: Mike is leaving us. Not the show, he'll still be here as the rules guy and the old-school knowledge. But he's physically leaving us to take a job that is about 8 hours away. And he's doing so relatively soon. So he decided that we should all get together and play Magic one more time before he wandered off to the far reaches of what-have-you.


So we did. The four Mana Pool hosts gathered at my beautiful girlfriend's house, had a practice Thanksgiving (Dorksgiving) and played a mess of Magic. We then retired to my fabulous crappy apartment to record an episode live instead of over Skype. We were joined by Kat, Mike's girlfriend, who was sitting on my bed making a cute little robot doll while we recorded. She played the part of the peanut gallery during the show.


And here it is. We had just finished playing seven games of multiplayer free-for-all Magic, and then we came here to bring you all the big moments in every game. We also went over the slow moments. And the one game that we all thought would never actually end. And those couple games that just ended suddenly and with great style. So yeah, you'll get the full story of our (possibly) last gathering of the Mana Pool hosts for the purposes of playing Magic for hours on end. At least the last one that won't be a super-special occasion. We hope you enjoy!


And don't forget to send your contest entries to us at themanapool@cardshark.com. For full contest rules and whatnot, see the link below.


Music for this episode: B.Y.O.N.E.S. (NES Of A Down Extended Mix) by detalub0


We're now being broadcast on Radio Free Subspace! We're on Thursday nights at 8pm, but check it out anytime. It's an eclectic mix of all kinds of music and whatnot, and it's pretty cool. Give it a listen here:

http://loudcity.com/stations/radio-free-subspace


Forum link for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-58-multiplayer-mayhem-for-mike-t267.html

Contest information: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.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

Direct download: Episode_58_-_Multiplayer_Mayhem_for_Mike.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:50pm EDT

Episode 57 - Ancestral Memories For this episode, we are Brian-less. Of all the terrible things that could have happened to cause his absence for this first episode of the new year of casting, this is perhaps the worst. He's lost his voice. Let's hope he survives.


Everyone that plays Magic started playing at some point. Which means that after everyone started playing, there was a new set that came out. This episode is all about our first new set. For Mike, that was Fallen Empires. For me, it was Homelands. Please don't hold that against us, at least we got over it and are still playing. For Dirk, it was Onslaught. We're going to take a look at each new set and explore the world they've created for it, which covers the story and the flavorful aspects. We'll then discuss the mechanical leitmotif for each set, meaning the keywords included and any strong themes running throughout the cards. And of course, the meat of each set review will be a look at the notable cards that originated there. We'll be hitting cards we just really like, cards that are excessively powerful, cards that are historically important, and cards that were just a lot of fun.


So sit back, relax, and take trip down our memory lane as we take a look at our first new sets. For those of you that weren't playing back in these times, especially the dark ages of Fallen Empires and Homelands, you'll get a look at where things were back then, and perhaps an idea of where they're going now.


And don't forget to send us your contest entries! For the full scoop, check out the link below.


We're now being broadcast on Radio Free Subspace! We're on Thursday nights at 8pm, but check it out anytime. It's an eclectic mix of all kinds of music and whatnot, and it's pretty cool. Give it a listen here:

http://loudcity.com/stations/radio-free-subspace


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-57-ancestral-memories-t263.html
Contest information: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.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

Direct download: Episode_57_-_Ancestral_Memories.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:46pm EDT

Episode 56 - The One Year Episode

Welcome to our one year anniversary episode! To be perfectly honest, there's not terribly much that is completely new and awesome in this show. We really wanted to stick with one of our core concepts, something that the fans really appreciate. So we went over the Cardshark Member Promotions for the month of November and called it a day. You can find them here:

http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp


Okay, not really. First there's a big announcement about the first Mana Pool Contest. We want everyone to send in their best Magic story. Cardshark.com, our fabulous sponsors, are donating a box of Shards of Alara to the cause, and each host picked out some of their foil rares to add to each winner. For the full list of prizes and the full contest rules and regulations rundown, see the forums. Or click right here:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.html


As I said, we really wanted to do something that the listeners would really enjoy, a fan-favorite type of thing. So we decided to do an entire episode of Out of the Deck Box! We each picked out one of our decks that we really enjoy and went to town. I told everyone about my Pestilence deck. Brian expounded on his Shared Fate deck. Dirk discussed his Saviors deck. And Mike finished us up with his Big Black Stupid deck. We went through each deck and hit the important cards, the important concepts, the ideal plays, and the reason we love it so much.


Thanks again to everyone who has listened, posted on the forums, emailed us, and generally did anything whatsoever to keep the show going. We appreciate all of you, and we hope to keep entertaining you for the next year to come.



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-56-the-one-year-episode-t262.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

Direct download: Episode_56_-_The_One_Year_Episode.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:39pm EDT

Bonus Episode 1 - The Outtakes

In honor of our one year anniversary of podcasting, I wanted to give everyone a look behind the scenes.  Here are some of the bits that didn't quite make it onto the feed for your listening pleasure.  The rest is explained in the clip.  Thanks a lot for listening throughout the year everyone, and enjoy the completely non-Magic goodness in this Bonus Episode!

Direct download: Bonus_Episode_1_-_The_Outtakes.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:57pm EDT

To honor our one-year anniversary, we offer you this song for direct download.  By taking sound clips from around 10 episodes and splicing them together with Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim and a few of the DELETED buzzer sounds from Strong Bad Emails, Rob Anderson created something we dorks will treasure always. 

 

First featured in episode 52, this piece of audio goodness really captures the personalities of hosts of The Mana Pool.  He cuts down through all the Magic and the content of the show to show you a glimpse of who we really are and why we love doing the show.  So here it is for all to enjoy at your convenience.  I give you No One Expects the Mana Pool by JungleRatRob.

Direct download: No_One_Expects_The_Mana_Pool.mp3
Category:Non-podcast Audio -- posted at: 6:57pm EDT

Episode 55 - Take Your Pick As the race for the Mana Pool Presidency heads to the finish line, the political ad campaigns are starting to get dirty. The last round of ads will be sprinkled throughout this episode so you can have all the information you need when you get to the polls.


In this episode, we're taking a look at the Booster Draft format. Brian did a Shards of Alara draft on Magic Online and saved the results, so we're going to take a look, pick by pick, at the entire thing. We'll check out the cards in each pack and try to figure out just exactly what Brian took, or should have taken, and after we're all done we'll check out the deck he built and he'll tell us how he did with it.


In other news, here's the link to the article unveiling the full decklists for Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/11



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-55-take-your-pick-t258.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

Direct download: Episode_55_-_Take_Your_Pick.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:09pm EDT

Everyone loves Out of the Deck Box, right? So why don't we do a whole episode where we each pick one of our many (many) decks and tell you folks all about it? Sound like a plan?


Well tough. We're not doing that. Instead, Brian thought we should each pick a deck that wasn't our own and talk about it. After lots of “huh?” we decided that it was, in fact, a good idea. Brian kicked us off by talking about my old roommate Corey's Sneak Attack deck. Dirk wanted to tell everyone how my Poison Ping deck works. Mike wanted to discuss Dirk's Bird tribal deck. Since I have a Bird deck too, Brian went over it and we spent a while discussing the similarities and differences. We'll have to do this again with some other decks, it's a lot of fun. And I finished things off by expounding on a deck with a very touching origin, Mike's Killer Instinct deck. It's a nice and simple episode, but it was a lot of fun. We hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.


Oh yeah, if you'd like a look at the decklists in their entireties (is that even a word?), then check out the forum link at the bottom of these show notes. It'll be on the Facebook group too in case you guys wanna check it out there.



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-54-out-of-someone-else-s-deck-box-t256.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

Direct download: Episode_54_-_Out_of_Someone_Elses_Deck_Box.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:49pm EDT

Episode 53 - Savoring Shards: Exploring the Flavor of Alara Chewie here. First off, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of this episode. We recorded it almost a week ago, but I've been bouncing back and forth between really busy and seriously exhausted, so it's all my fault. You can spread around the blame with the other dorks if you want though, I'm not going to stop you.


In this episode, Mike thought we should take a closer look at the Shards. Of Alara. Since this is a block just oozing with flavor, everyone seems to be talking more about the flavor and philosophy and whatnot of this one than they have in previous sets. Not ones to stand idly by while the bandwagon trundles along without us, we hopped on. And what a buffet it is! We looked at the flavor of the shards in various ways, including but not limited to:


- The colors that comprise each shard

- The colors that are missing from each shard

- The mechanical identity of each shard

- Citing examples from flavor text

- General setting and feel of each shard


In other news, there's also news in this episode. Wizards recently revealed the name and whatnot for the final set in the Alara block. You can find it, if you are so inclined, here:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1702


Wizards also FINALLY gave us some information about the next iteration of Duel Decks. Jace vs. Chandra is coming Nov. 7, and it looks to be seriously awesome. Two 60-card decks, each with 4 rares, which includes the foil alternate art versions of Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalaar. Six cards get new artwork featuring the planeswalkers in action. Control vs. Burn, baby! I can't wait. Check out the announcement showing some of the art the product information pages in the links below.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1700

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/jacevschandra/productinfo



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-53-savoring-shards-exploring-the-flavor-of-alara-t253.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

Direct download: Episode_53_-_Savoring_Shards-Exploring_the_Flavor_of_Alara.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:49pm EDT

It must have been a full moon or something. Perhaps Karma reached out to slap us. Whatever the deal was, we had serious problems actually getting this episode recorded. The recording program didn't seem to want to record. Part of the way through, Brian decided to turn into Optimus Prime transforming into a truck. He didn't actually make it all the way through to the end of the episode. After he transformed, he rolled out. Dirk absolutely forgot how to read set labels. And we realized again that we were all incredibly stupid about Tarmogoyf when Future Sight broke.


This episode, we decided to talk about the recent Standard rotation. A truly ridiculous number of cards left Standard when Shards of Alara came out, putting an end to the largest Type II environment...ever. We lost Coldsnap, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight, and the Timeshifted sheet. Well, we didn't lose them, they just rotated out of most popular Constructed format. Extended and whatnot still have them, don't panic.


To commemorate this, we decided to take a look back at these sets from a different point of view. We wanted to check out some of the cards that came out of nowhere to define the format (Tarmogoyf, of course). We also wanted to take a look at some cards that just didn't live up to the hype. Not just the hype that Wizards built up, but the expectations we had about how much some of the cards would do. I think you'll find that our discussion leads us to believe that there's a lot more to be discovered and explored in the cards that just rotated out of Standard.



Not only do we have serious technical issues on this episode, but we also have what could be the single most awesome thing ever. Perhaps we had such problems because Karma wanted to balance out this particular show. One of our longtime listeners, JungleRatRob, decided to do a remix. He took a truly staggering number of audio clips from the show and mixed them with Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. He sprinkled in a few of Strong Bad's "DELETED" buzzers for humorous impact.


What he got out of it was a piece of pure, unadulterated AWESOME. I'll be honest with you, I was in tears the first time I heard it because I was laughing so hard. Even my Mom liked it, and she doesn't listen to the show at all. As Mike put it: "Our musical entertainment is a survey of the true heart of the show. The rambling of lunatics, that is." Amen to that. He really managed to avoid any of the actual content of the show and deliver a piece of music that really cuts down to who we are and why we love to do the show. And for that we are forever indebted to you, JungleRatRob, for the effort you put into this, becaues you did for us. We appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine.



Music for this episode:

No One Expects the Mana Pool by JungleRatRob

Look for it for individual download soon, right here on our feed. Hit the forums and tell us what you think.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-52-standard-rotation-time-flies-in-a-snap-t248.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

Direct download: Episode_52_-_Standard_Rotation_-_Time_Flies_in_a_Snap.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:27am EDT

Whether it's caused by eroding your memory, freezing your brain, dampening your thoughts, having your secrets drowned or your grimoire stolen, glimpsing the unthinkable, looting, brokering, or just being driven insane by the sound of the millstone relentlessly grinding away, Milling is never a fun way to lose a game of Magic. But it sure is a great way to win a game of Magic! If you can get it to work, that is.


In this episode, which is brought to you with one more Polar Kraken than usual, we're going to take a long, hard look at being run out of cards. We have three decks that each win by depleting your opponents' libraries, albeit each one does so in its own particular fashion, which you can see further down in the show notes. Different colors go about milling in different ways, and we'll cover all the ones that come to us. Keep an ear out for a lively biological discussion about the classification similarities and disparities between crustaceans and cephalopods. And no, I'm not making that up.



Dirk’s Milling Deck

Creatures:

Drift of Phantasms x3

Soratami Mindsweeper x2

Lore Broker x4

Belltower Sphinx x4

Blizzard Specter x2

Vedalken Entrancer x4

Thought Courier x1

Lurking Informant x4


Artifact:

Millstone x2


Enchantment:

Seal of Doom x4


Instant/Sorcery:

Last Gasp x3

Psychic Drain x4

Glimpse the Unthinkable x3


Lands:

Swamps x8

Islands x8

Dimir Aqueduct x4




Brian's Milling Deck

10:Plains

11:Island

2:Azorius Chancery

1:Boreal Shelf

4:Ink Dissolver

3:Drowner of Secrets

3:Fallowsage

3:Information Dealer

3:Silvergill Adept

2:Wandering Graybeard

1:Surgespanner

1:Stonybrook Schoolmaster

1:Grimoire Thief

1:Riptide Chronologist

4:Merrow Commerce

3:Memory Sluice

2:Forced Fruition

2:Pemmin's Aura

2:Summon the School

1:Hoofprints of the Stag




Mike's Squid (Mollusc?) Alarm

Land (22)

15: Island

2: Cephalid Coliseum

2: Saprazzan Skerry

2: Sveylunite Temple

1: Shelldock Isle


Creature (14)

2: Cephalid Broker

2: Cephalid Looter

2: Chronozoa

2: Riptide Shapeshifter

1: Arcanis the Omnipotent

1: Isleback Spawn

1: Magus of the Future

1: Murkfiend Liege

1: Polar Kraken

1: Tidespout Tyrant


Non-Creature (24)

4: Accumulated Knowledge

4: Rune Snag

4: Serum Visions

4: Wistful Thinking

2: Capsize

2: Feldon's Cane

2: Homarid Spawning Bed

2: Intruder Alarm

 


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-51-ransacking-the-library-fifty-three-to-go-t240.html
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
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Direct download: Episode_51_-_Ransacking_the_Library_-_Fifty-Three_to_Go.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:52pm EDT

Episode 50 - Super Special Shards Prerelease Dorkstravaganza

Hey all! This is Brian, taking the reins of the show’s writing department for a week, and what a week it is to be here. The Mana Pool is proud to present its 50th Episode spectacular. Lions! Squires! Mana-producing, vigilancing, multi-color bears! We’ve got it all, so come on in!


In this episode, we’ve got 50% more hosts than usual. Dirk, sadly, could not be there for reasons that Chewie will kill him for later. In the meantime, we’re joined by guest hosts in the form of Thomas (Mike’s brother), AJ (dorking group member from days past), and Jason (garthok84 of the forums, and an increasingly present guest host). The six of us crowd around the proverbial campfire that is the internet recording program and regale you and each other with our stories from the Shards of Alara prereleases. With 4 locations, somewhere over 7 decks, and more Masters of Etherium and Broodmate Dragons than you can shake a very large stick at, this is the episode you don’t want to miss!


After you listen to the show, log on to the forum thread for this episode. Tell us what you thought about it, and while you’re at it, share your own stories from the prerelease if you made it out. [Chewie note: All the decklists that were given to me by the various hosts and guest hosts and no-shows will also be posted in the forums, so go check them out there.]


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-50-super-special-shards-prerelease-dorkstravaganza-t239.html
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Direct download: Episode_50_-_Super_Special_Shards_Prerelease_Dorkstravaganza.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:40pm EDT

Episode 49 - Shards of Alara Preview 5

Hello again, and welcome to The Mana Pool! Mike here one last time with one last rundown of one last Shards of Alara Preview episode before the Prerelease. We're finishing up from where we left off last time, and covering the additional cards that were shown Wednesday and Thursday.  Unfortunately, Brian could not be with us, but we have our wonderful guest host Jason filling in for him again.

 

We have a couple of cards that are not in the same cycle, one that isn't Skyshroud Elf, even more awesome names, and a really gross guy (but that's a plus).

 

As always, send us your emails, and feel ever so welcome to visit us on the forums and the Facebook group.  If you're going to the prerelease, have fun!  By the way, Chewie's Prerelease Survival Guide for Shards of Alara can be found at:
http://cardshark.com/resources/pdfs/PrereleaseSurvivalGuideshardsB.pdf


Shards of Alara Visual Spoiler:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler

 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-49-shards-of-alara-preview-5-t236.html
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Direct download: Episode_49_-_Shards_of_Alara_Preview_5.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:47pm EDT

Episode 48 - Shards of Alara Preview 4

Hello again, and welcome to The Mana Pool! Mike here again with yet another rundown of yet another Shards of Alara Preview episode. All the customary hosts are present and accounted for (no special guests, unfortunately), and we start to tackle the first part of a massive info dump that showed up in the Visual Spoiler over the past weekend. Tune in later in the week to get completely up to date.


Today, we have a very encouraging member of a new cycle, a vampire that likes to brawl, a card with an even better name ever, and just a bunch of other neat, neat cards. We close with a couple of interesting (at least to me) rules notes from the Masters Edition 2 FAQ.


Keep sending us your questions and comments (the email address given below broadcasts to all the hosts), and keep telling your friends. Maybe someday the name of our podcast can be in blue letters below a card from a massive weekend info dump. And you'll have heard about it first!



Shards of Alara Visual Spoiler:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-48-shards-of-alara-preview-4-t235.html

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Direct download: Episode_48_-_Shards_of_Alara_Preview_4.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:35pm EDT

Episode 47 - Shards of Alara Preview 3

In a world where Shards of Alara preview cards are shown at a rate much less frequent than in previous sets, there is no need for two episodes of The Mana Pool in a week. In this world, episode 47 of The Mana Pool is just being released, instead of coming out late last week. It covers the preview cards shown from September 10 to September 17 on the Magic website's Shards of Alara Visual Spoiler, found here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler


Also in this world, there is no Dirk on episode 47. Instead, he has been replaced by AJ, one of the other dorks that played Magic with the host dorks in college. He may or may not be using a Rock Band microphone to record. Please feel free to make fun of him either way, because it's funny. However, using a Logitech USB Desktop Microphone to do vocals in Rock Band would be funnier.


And finally, in this world gone mad, the new Magic Player Rewards textless cards have been shown, and we totally tell you all about them. If you'd like to see them as well as listen to us rant and rave about them, all you have to do is click the following link:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rewards/welcome


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-47-shards-of-alara-preview-3-t233.html
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Direct download: Episode_47_-_Shards_of_Alara_Preview_3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:06pm EDT

Episode 46 - Shards of Alara Preview 2  

Hello again, and welcome to The Mana Pool! Mike here again with a rundown of our second Shards of Alara Preview episode. Unfortunately, Brian could not join us because of other schedule obligations. Fortunately, we have a special guest. It's Jason (garthok84 of the forums), who had previously appeared to help us out in the Eventide prerelease aftermath, and he does not disappoint.


We start things off by taking care of a few things we missed the first time around. A new Cardshark Member Promotion for September appeared, hosted by one of our premium sellers, and it's quite spiffy. We have a few comments regarding the updates to the DCI Banned and Restricted List that were announced a week or so ago, as well as the announcement that States will start again in the U.S. in November, as well as Champs in Canada.


Then it's preview cards! Among them are revelations of three new keyword abilities, a Jedi, Doran 2.0, and a pants-wettingly powerful Planeswalker. The cards are great, conversation is good, and the episode isn't an hour and a half long. What is there not to love?


Thanks again for listening, and keep sending in your comments and questions. Who knows, maybe someday we can have a “mailbag” segment, like all the grownup radio shows. Have fun, and go play some Magic! Or listen to the episode. You know, whatever.


Cardshark Member Promotions:
http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp

Shards of Alara Visual Spoiler:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-64-shards-of-alara-preview-2-t232.html
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Direct download: Episode_46_-_Shards_of_Alara_Preview_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:03pm EDT

Episode 45 - Shards of Alara Preview 1

Hello, all, and welcome to the month of September. This is Mike, coming back from a weekend full of forgetting I agreed to write the show notes for this episode. Because this was our first episode of the month, we get things started with a rundown of the new Cardshark Member Promotions for September. Raffles! Free cards! Great deals! That guy who keeps trying to give away his excess Dissension uncommons (in addition to the other free cards he sends, of course)!


A semi-stealthy update to the Shards of Alara minisite means we're also officially starting Shards of Alara previews. There's a new Planeswalker, some funky artifact shenanigans, the best name ever, and NOT Bitterblossom. I wish I could remember more, but yeah... I forgot to write the show notes until just a little while ago. Have fun with the episode, and enjoy the links to the Cardshark Member Promotions and the Visual Spoiler for Shards of Alara.


Cardshark Member Promotions:

http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp


Shards of Alara Visual Spoiler:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-45-shards-of-alara-preview-1-t228.html
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Direct download: Episode_45_-_Shards_of_Alara_Preview_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:35pm EDT

Episode 44 - More Multiplayer Mirth and Merriment  In this episode, we cover a fair bit of news. There's a new look on our forums page. There's a new look for the Magic website. There are lots more pictures of your host dorks on our Facebook group, in case you want to know what we have looked like over the years. Here's a hint: We looked like dorks.


There's also the matter of Shards of Alara previews. No, don't worry, the official previews haven't started yet. But they have shown a couple of interesting things. One is the Hellkite Overlord, which we mentioned on the last show. This time, we give you the full rundown of what the card does. If you'd like to follow along, go to Gatherer and look it up. The other interesting bit of info is the unveiling of the Shards of Alara Prerelease and Launch Party card. Just one for both this time, but boy is it amazing. It's a planeswalker. If you'd like to follow along, check it out here:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/1660


Then we get into the meat of the episode. Since these episodes seem to be very popular, we like to do them whenever we get a chance. Last weekend, your four host dorks managed to get together to play some Magic. We got in four good games and one horrible waste of time. Don't play Assassin with just four people, okay? Trust us. Each game came complete with ridiculous card interactions that you just won't see anywhere but a multiplayer casual game, and we kept note of all the hilarity so we could bring it to you, our faithful listeners. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed playing.


Quick aside: For anyone interested in how my fantasy draft went, I got Adrian Peterson, Clinton Portis, Carson Palmer, TJ Houshmandzadeh, and Braylon Edwards for my core starters. Aw yeah.



Music for this episode: Swift - To Phoenix by Foot, off their third album A Communication Manual



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-44-more-multiplayer-mirth-and-merriment-t222.html
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Direct download: Episode_44_-_More_Multiplayer_Mirth_and_Merriment.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:54pm EDT

Episode 43 - Back to Basics:  Combat Strategies & Tricks 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
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Direct download: Episode_43_-_Back_to_Basics-Combat_Strategies__Tricks.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:37pm EDT

Episode 42 - Back to Basics: The Combat Phase 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
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Direct download: Episode_42_-_Back_to_Basics-The_Combat_Phase.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:02pm EDT

Episode 41 - Back to Basics: The Sealed Deck Process in Action

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
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Direct download: Episode_41_-_Back_to_Basics-_The_Sealed_Deck_Process_in_Action.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:04pm EDT

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

Category:general -- posted at: 10:54pm EDT

Episode 40 - Back to Basics:  Sealed Deck 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
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Direct download: Episode_40_-_Back_to_Basics_-_Sealed_Deck.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00pm EDT

Episode 39 - Back to Basics:  The Basics

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
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Direct download: Episode_39_-_Back_to_Basics_-_The_Basics.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:45am EDT

Episode 38 - The Eventide Prerelease Ordeal

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.


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Direct download: Episode_38_-_The_Eventide_Prerelease_Ordeal.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:15pm EDT

Episode 37 - Eventide Previews and the Last Tribal War

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.html
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Direct download: Episode_37_-_Eventide_Previews_and_the_Last_Tribal_War.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:45pm EDT

Episode 36 - A Staggering Amount of Eventide Previews

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.html
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Direct download: Episode_36_-_A_Staggering_Amount_of_Eventide_Previews.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:56pm EDT

Episode 35 - Eventide Previews 3 and Then Some

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.html
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Direct download: Episode_35_-_Eventide_Previews_3_and_Then_Some.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:13pm EDT

Episode 34 - Eventide Previews and Multiplayer Free-For-All Extravaganza 2

In this episode, we take on the nine new Eventide cards that have been previewed on the Magic site since the last episode. Not only the cards in the visual spoiler and the day's articles, but also a few cards that showed up in the Eventide primer video in Monday's Arcana. Tuesday's video had no new cards, but it's a good way to familiarize yourself with Chroma, the new ability word in Eventide. Here are the relevant links.


Eventide Visual Spoiler:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/eventide/spoiler


Eventide Video #1: Hybrid:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1622


Eventide Video #2: Chroma:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1623



But now for the meat of the episode. The last two game sets of Tribal Month have been pushed back yet again by a momentous gathering of the dorks. This past weekend, your host dorks (that's Mike, Brian, Dirk, and me, Chewie) gathered at my lovely girlfriend's house (she has the most room) to play Magic. We were joined in this gathering by one of our college dorks who is now in grad school way out of town, the oft-mentioned AJ. It was a lot of fun to have AJ playing around the table with us again, even when he won with a Mana Echoes-fueled Fireball out of nowhere in the first game. We were finally able to put our mantra of “Kill AJ” to good use again, since he was actually sitting there with us. Seven games were played, and we took notes to pass the games along with you listeners, since everyone seemed to enjoy the last time we did it.


That was Episode 15 just in case you missed it and enjoy that sort of thing. Thanks everyone for listening, and if you've stumbled upon this episode because of the Eventide previews, feel free to give some of the rest of the episodes a chance. Just excuse the first episode, we didn't quite know what we were doing yet.



Music for this episode: Together Again by The Muppets

You might recognize this, it's the opening song from The Muppets Take Manhattan, played here in honor of having AJ back with us.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-34-eventide-previews-multiplayer-free-for-all-2-t193.html
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Episode 33 - Eventide Previews and More

In this episode, we give you the result of the Onslaught vs. Lorwyn Goblin Tribal War thing. The captain for the Onslaught deck was the Goblin Warchief, and the Lorwyn deck got the Mad Auntie. Who won? I'm not going tell you. You'll just have to listen. You can find the decklists for these two decks here, eventually:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/tribal-month-t179.html


Then, Tribal Month gets preempted by the Eventide previews, which have started just a bit early. We'll get back to the various things we wanted to discuss eventually, but as big breaking news, the previews just won't wait. We cover all the officially spoiled cards as of the week before official previews started. Starting from the bottom of the page and going up, we go from Doomgape to Thunderblust. I really wish I was making that up, because it sounds quite silly. Anyway, stay tuned for multiple episodes a week for the preview weeks, where we'll be going over all the cards found there. You can find the full visual spoiler here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/eventide/spoiler


Then, we decided to go back a bit and cover some news we missed. First off is the announcement of From the Vault: Dragons, a Limited Edition boxed set. It includes 15 foil dragons from the history of Magic, including a new dragon that will appear in Shards of Alara. Of the 15, 6 will have newly commissioned art. Find the full announcement here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1589


And finally, we hit the relatively recent announcement of a second edition of Duel Decks. Last time we had Elves vs. Goblins, but this time we get Jace vs. Chandra. Some of the best control and burn cards from the history of the game will be featured in these ready to play 60 card decks, along with foil alternate-art versions of those mighty planeswalkers, Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalaar. Find the full announcement here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1608


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-33-eventide-previews-and-more-t192.html
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Direct download: Episode_33_-_Eventide_Previews_and_More.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:52pm EDT

Episode 32 - The Minority Report

In this episode we are Dirkless. Whoa, that looks like a real word. Playing the role of Dirk in this episode is Thomas, Mike's brother, who you may remember from the episode that discussed how Time Spiral had several hints about the tribes that were going to appear in Lorwyn. Okay, so he's not playing the role of Dirk. He's playing the role of Thomas. He's a natural for the role, oddly enough.


Since it's Tribal Month here on the Mana Pool, we decided we should do more than just focus on the tribes everyone knows. Elves and Goblins get all the glory. What about some of the lesser known tribes? Speaking of which, what makes a tribe a tribe? Is it a number? The presence of a “lord” of some type? Or is it all psychological? We'll discuss all this and more, as well as go into a few other areas of tribal concern.


Spaceninja posted in the Pimp My Deckbox thread about his Pegasus deck and asked what everyone's favorite B-list tribes were. So of course we had to rattle off a few of those. Thanks for the inspiration!


And speaking of B-list tribes, we take a look at Brian's deck built around the Assembly-Worker creature type (quite possibly a U or V-list tribe) and Thomas' deck built around Skeletons. Boy are they, um, resilient.


Brian's Assembly-Worker Deck

10: Forest

4: Urza's Factory

3: Urza's Mine

3: Urza's Power Plant

3: Urza's Tower

1: Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

4: Assembly-Worker

4: Woodland Changeling

2: Game-Trail Changeling

2: Joiner Adept

1: Seedborn Muse

1: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

2: Garruk Wildspeaker

2: Door of Destinies

2: Riptide Replicator

2: Doubling Cube

1: Mindslaver

2: Doubling Season

3: Reap and Sow

3: Recross the Paths

2: Sylvan Scrying

3: Luminescent Rain



Thomas' Skeleton Deck

20 Swamp

Artifacts

2 Banshee’s Blade

2 Bonesplitter

3 Demon’s Horn

2 Carrionette

2 Corrosive Mentor

2 Drudge Skeletons

3 Flayed Nim

2 Kjeldoran Dead

4 Lim-Dûl’s High Guard

3 Skeleton Scavengers

3 Unworthy Dead

2 Bad Moon

1 Drudge Spell

2 Unholy Strength

3 Lose Hope

2 Steal Strength

2 Night’s Whisper


Music for this episode: The Nightlife by ARDEN

Check out ARDEN at www.myspace.com/thebandarden


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Direct download: Episode_32_-_The_Minority_Report.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:50am EDT

Episode 31 - Soldiers and Zombies and Merfolk Oh My  

Welcome back to Tribal Month! This time, we start off with a quick discussion of the Eventide Booster Pack preview that showed up on the Magic website for a few days. Here's the link that worked for us after they took it down, hopefully by the time you read this it'll still be working. Be sure to run your mouse over the Overbeing of Myth to see the full text.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/preview/evepack


Next up we have the results of the first Old School vs. New School Tribal Decks Overly Long Named Thing, Onslaught Soldiers vs. Lorwyn Soldiers! Who won? Well you'll just have to listen to find out, won't you? Remember, we went with an almost Highlander deck for each one, only including cards that dealt specifically with Soldiers from each block, with one Captain as a four-of. The Captains were chosen by a vote on the forums, so thanks very much for everyone that participated in that. You can keep voting for non-Soldiers if you like. There was a bit of a problem with this format though. The Lorwyn Soldiers are woefully underrepresented, so we decided to allow for backup from Knights (slightly better class of soldier, right?), flavorful cards from the Lorwyn block (Coordinated Barrage, Daily Regimen), Kithkin cards (Wizened Cenn, Kithkin Harbinger), and finally non-rare Changelings (Changeling Sentinel, Avian Changeling). They also get two Captains, just to keep the numbers the same. The Onslaught Captain is Daru Warchief, and the Lorwyn Captains are Kinsbaile Borderguard (unanimous vote!) and Cenn's Tactician. The full decklists will be published in the Tribal Month thread on the forums (also where you can vote for the rest of the tribes), found here:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/tribal-month-t179.html


In honor of Tribal Month here on the Mana Pool, we decided to dig around and find a tribal deck we could bring Out of the Deck Box for your listening pleasure. Since 3/4 of us have Zombie decks, we decided to go with that. Here are the decklists for those lovable undead guys.


Dirk's Zombies
20 Swamps
1 Lord of the Undead
1 Vengeful Dead
2 Boneknitter
2 Noxious Ghoul
2 Severed Legion
2 Soulless One
2 Twisted Abomination
2 Undead Warchief
3 Shepherd of Rot
4 Festering Goblin
4 Gravedigger
1 Aphetto Dredging
1 Debtor's Knell
2 Bubbling Muck
2 Cruel Revival
2 Dark Banishing
2 Eradicate
2 Patriarch's Bidding
3 Consume Spirit

 

 

Mike's Zombies

17 Swamp
3 Spawning Pool
1 Unholy Grotto
4 Soulless One
4 Stromgald Crusader
4 Twisted Abomination
4 Undead Warchief
3 Bone Dancer
2 Grave Defiler
2 Gravedigger
2 Gravespawn Sovereign
1 Grotesque Hybrid
1 Helldozer
1 Lord of the Undead
4 Innocent Blood
4 Strongarm Tactics
3 Feast or Famine

 

Chewie's Zombies
18 Swamp
2 Barren Moor
2 Unholy Grotto
2 Carrion Feeder
4 Festering Goblin
2 Skirk Ridge Exhumer
2 Rakdos Guildmage
2 Zombie Master
2 Lord of the Undead
1 Zombie Trailblazer
1 Undead Gladiator
2 Vengeful Dead
2 Brain Gorgers
3 Soulless One
3 Undead Warchief
1 Balthor the Defiled
2 Noxious Ghoul
2 Twisted Abomination
2 Gempalm Polluter
1 Nefashu
2 Gravespawn Sovereign
2 Feeding Frenzy
2 Zombie Infestation


And finally, we finish up by taking a quick look at Brian's experience at Regionals, where he piloted, appropriately enough, a Merfolk tribal deck. And since that's a complete episode, we decided to stop there.


Forum thread for this episode:  http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-31-soldiers-and-zombies-and-merfolk-oh-my-t186.html
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This episode's music: Apparently Tribal Month and No-Music Month overlap. I didn't get the memo that they'd both be in June...

Direct download: Episode_31_-_Soldiers_and_Zombies_and_Merfolk_Oh_My.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:11am EDT

Episode 30 - And Now For Something Not Completely Different Well, this was going to be our first Tribal Month episode, but Wizards went and threw a curve ball at us. There's a big bunch of announcements that appeared this week, and we're here to give you our two cents' worth. Well, there's four of us, so that's eight cents. Don't spend it all in one place. We discuss the changes, talk about some of the things Mark Rosewater said about the changes, and then talk about the changes some more. There's a new rarity (mythic rare!), a land in each booster (one less common), and smaller set sizes from here out (compensates for the other two changes). Also, they're changing up the way preconstructed decks are put together (still the same price though) and how the Magic novels are published (not that anyone's really going to notice). Now that I've typed all that, you can go listen to us rant about each of these tidbits. Find those announcements here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/20080602


And Rosewater's article here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr334


Then there's the obligatory discussion about the Old vs. New Tribal War that we're going to wage. Onslaught vs. Lorwyn, with the four tribes that cross over going head to head. Elves, Goblins, Soldiers, and Wizards from each block will attempt to beat the living crap out of the other block's tribe. But each deck needs a captain, and that's where you guys come in. We need you to hit the forums and let us know which option for captain is the best one. You can find those options in the forums, here:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/tribal-month-t179.html


And last but not least, we bring Dirk's infamous Elf deck Out of the Deck Box, courtesy of a request by Mayshod. And speaking of which, here it is. It might not look utterly terrifying, but in a game consisting of 4-8 people, it's pretty freakin' scary. Trust us all on this. Freakin' scary.


Land

18 Forest

Creatures
1 Allosaurus Rider
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Elvish Soultiller
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
2 Elvish Champion
2 Elvish Riders
2 Imperious Perfect
2 Nath's Elite
2 Voice of the Wood
3 Immaculate Magistrate
3 Lys Alana Huntmaster
4 Heedless One
4 Llanowar Elf
4 Wellwisher
4 Wirewood Channeler

Other Spells
1 Gaea's Anthem
2 Naturalize
2 Privileged Position



Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-30-and-now-for-something-not-completely-different-t185.html
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This episode's music: No music again. This is like an episode and a half in length, you'll manage without the music.

Direct download: Episode_30_-_And_Now_For_Something_Not_Completely_Different.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:59pm EDT

Episode 29 - To the Third Power (Cubed)

In our triumphant return from a vacation hiatus, we promptly decided to skip the show we were going to do and do this one instead.  Please forgive the quality of this episode, both content and sound quality, as it was kind of slapdash.  On Memorial Day, your host dorks got together along with Chris (PhoenixRising422 on the forums) and Michael (Science_Fixes_Everything on the forums) to do a bit of dorking.  Not just any dorking, it turns out, we did a Cube Draft!  After we were done with all that, we rolled over to my apartment to record the show.  So there were six of us sitting in my bedroom (only four real chairs, a video game chair on the floor, and the bed) trying desperately to be heard by the mic.  Plus, I was getting sick when we recorded (am fully sick as I post this episode now) so I might sound a little...terrible.  But enough excuses, what about this Cube thing?

Brian, being as he has more free time than he has sense now that his finals are over, decided to create a Cube so we could do a draft.  A Cube is a whole mess of cards put together for the purpose of being drafted.  He put a lot of effort into balancing the colors, the curve of each color, and putting in plenty of threats as well as answers, and it really turned out to be a whole mess of fun.  So join us as all six of us discuss our decks as well as the games we played.  You can find the entire list of the contents of the Cube on our website.  Here's the link: 
http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=344508

 

Or if you'd rather download the Word file that lists the Cube contents in a handy-dandy table, then there's a link to that too!
http://media.libsyn.com/media/themanapool/Brians_Cube.doc

 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-29-to-the-third-power-cubed-t180.html
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This episode's music:  No music this time, I'm sick.

Direct download: Episode_29_-_To_the_Third_Power_Cubed.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:44pm EDT

The Cube List Pay no attention to the image on the right.  This is NOT what we meant when we said that Brian created a Cube of Magic cards.  Although that is pretty freakin' cool over there.  Yeah, check that out. 

*Ahem*  Here is the list of cards in Brian's cube, separated by color.  Feel free to peruse and offer feedback and comments in the forums.  The Cube episode was Episode 29 - To the Third Power (Cubed), and the link to the forum thread can be found here:
http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-29-to-the-third-power-cubed-t180.html

And for those of you who'd rather have a table than a list, here's where the Word file with the Cube is currently being held:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/themanapool/Brians_Cube.doc

White

Exalted Angel

Mageta the Lion

Glory

Savannah Lions

Blinking Spirit

Divine Presence

Second Sunrise

Delaying Shield

Pulse of the Fields

Intervention Pact

Pristine Angel

Oracle’s Attendants

Solar Tide

Weathered Bodyguards

Tivadar of Thorn

Glarecaster

Akroma’s Vengeance

Knight of the Holy Nimbus

Charmed Griffin

Heavy Ballista

Crowd Favorites

Gallantry

To Arms!

Return to Dust

Griffin Guide

White Knight

Eiganjo Free-Riders

Samurai of the Pale Curtain

Nagao, Bound by Honor

Descendant of Kiyomaro

Phantom Flock

Mistral Charger

Belfry Spirit

Oathsworn Giant

Mycologist

Calciderm

Mistmeadow Skulk

Daru Warchief

Slith Ascendant

Whipcorder

Voice of All

Silver Knight

Ghostly Prison

Unquestioned Authority

Bathe in Light

Wing Shards

Swords to Plowshares

Purge

Faith’s Fetters

Test of Faith

Oblivion Ring

Genju of the Fields


Blue

Great Whale

Chronozoa

Fleeting Image

Shapesharer

Volrath’s Shapeshifter

Intruder Alarm

Charisma

Juxtapose

Followed Footsteps

Ertai’s Meddling

Aeon Chronicler

Quicksilver Elemental

Quicksilver Dragon

Spawnbroker

Vesuvan Shapeshifter

Ambassador Laquatus

Mischievous Quanar

Psychic Membrane

Puppeteer

Tinker

Pemmin’s Aura

Telling Time

Riftwing Cloudskate

Standstill

Metamorphose

Circular Logic

Chamber of Manipulation

Covert Operative

Fledgling Mawcor

Foil

Eyes of the Watcher

Hinder

Chain of Vapor

Pongify

Master of the Veil

Wash Out

Zephid’s Embrace

Plasma Elemental

Reality Strobe

Kajin of the Vanishing Touch

Remand

Delay

Thought Eater

Primoc Escapee

Belltower Sphinx

Graxiplon

Thieving Magpie

Slith Strider

Soratami Savant

Merfolk Looter

Jetting Glasskite

Mistform Shrieker


Black

Laquatus’s Champion

Sutured Ghoul

Sorceress Queen

Chainer, Dementia Master

Mindwarper

Vampiric Tutor

Dregs of Sorrow

Twilight’s Call

Animate Dead

Phyrexian Arena

Phage the Untouchable

Death Cloud

Woebringer Demon

Skeletal Vampire

Beacon of Unrest

Sengir Vampire

Undead Gladiator

Filth

Wall of Souls

Dark Ritual

Betrayal of Flesh

Nezumi Graverobber

Withered Wretch

Zombie Infestation

Simulacrum

Zombify

Shrouded Lore

Enslave

Fallen Ideal

Night’s Whisper

Devour in Shadow

Chainer’s Edict

Cabal Therapy

Razorjaw Oni

Bottomless Pit

Nantuko Husk

Skull Collector

Throat Slitter

Hand of Cruelty

Plagued Rusalka

Infest

Ebon Drake

Flayed Nim

Slith Bloodletter

Cabal Executioner

Consume Spirit

Terror

Knight of Stromgald

Grotesque Hybrid

Crypt Rats

Phyrexian Defiler

Phyrexian Gargantua


Red

Shivan Phoenix

Fledgling Dragon

Crater Hellion

Ashling the Pilgrim

Starke of Rath

Breaking Point

Inferno

Bedlam

Starstorm

Final Fortune

Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

Hammerfist Giant

Skarrgan Firebird

Hamletback Goliath

Bloodfire Colossus

Sulfuric Vortex

Decree of Annihilation

Sudden Shock

Goblin Warchief

Flame Javelin

Pyrohemia

Rough//Tumble

Chain of Plasma

Oni of Wild Places

Genju of the Spires

Flame Wave

Vulshok Sorcerer

Frenetic Raptor

Greater Forgeling

Gempalm Incinerator

Atog

Skirk Volcanist

Shattering Spree

Pain Kami

Cleansing Beam

Threaten

Anarchist

Blood Rites

Captive Flame

Scorched Rusalka

Ridgetop Raptor

Shaleskin Bruiser

Snapping Thragg

Mogg Fanatic

Frenzied Goblin

Carbonize

Magma Jet

Slith Firewalker

Custody Battle

Prodigal Pyromancer

Slice and Dice

Flames of the Blood Hand


Green

Kavu Titan

Glissa Sunseeker

Krosan Cloudscraper

Molder Slug

Thriss, Nantuko Primus

Wild Pair

Saproling Burst

Natural Affinity

Squall Line

Nostalgic Dreams

Timbermare

Plated Slagwurm

Rite of Passage

Ursapine

Gaea’s Anthem

Tempting Wurm

Ambush Commander

Stand Together

Deep Reconnaissance

Centaur Glade

Genju of the Cedars

Lure

Time of Need

Explosive Vegetation

Primal Boost

Chain of Acid

Overrun

Might of Old Krosa

Krosan Grip

Harmonize

Creeping Mold

Phantom Wurm

Sporesower Thallid

Deadwood Treefolk

Nacatl War-Pride

Psychotrope Thallid

Nullmage Shepherd

Gristleback

Indrik Stomphowler

Trophy Hunter

Scryb Ranger

Imperiosaur

Brontotherium

Rooting Kavu

Kavu Chameleon

Brawn

Venomspout Brackus

Slith Predator

Hunted Wumpus

Elven Riders

Karstoderm

Krosan Warchief


Artifact

Masticore

Thran Golem

Darksteel Colossus

Eater of Days

Dupliant

Howling Mine

Chimeric Staff

Oblivion Stone

Mesmeric Orb

Crumbling Sanctuary

Damping Matrix

Whirling Catapult

Engineered Explosives

Culling Scales

Liar’s Pendulum

Gauntlet of Power

Cloud Key

Stuffy Doll

Grafted Wargear

Spawning Pit

Darksteel Brute

Skullclamp

Aether Vial

Juggernaut

Arcbound Slith

Myr Retriever

Mourner’s Shield

Ornithoper

Sun Droplet

Mirror Golem

Bottle Gnomes

Cathodion

Mask of Memory

Phyrexian War Beast

Heartsone

Zuran Orb

Black Vise

Fodder Cannon

Guardian Idol

Ensouled Scimitar

Gemstone Array

Vulshok Morningstar

Icy Manipulator


Land

Kor Haven

Academy Ruins

Lake of the Dead

Kher Keeper

Desert

Svogthos, the Restless Tomb

Blinkmoth Well

Skarrg, the Rage Pits

Duskmantle, House of Shadow

Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree

Archaeological Dig

Quicksand

Mirrodin’s Core

Stalking Stones

Terrain Generator

Ancient Tomb

Nantuko Monastery

Barbarian Ring

Centaur Garden

Temple of the False God


Multicolor

Shadowmage Infiltrator

Simic Sky Swallower

Vhati il-Dal

Razia, Boros Archangel

Stonebrown, Krosan Hero

Autochthon Wurm

Anthem of Rakdos

Invoke the Firemind

Aethermage’s Touch

Death Grasp

Guided Passage

Fervent Charge

Mistmeadow Witch

Inkfathom Infiltrator

Traitor’s Roar

Tattermunge Witch

Mercy Killing

Terminate

Steel of the Godhead

Helm of the Ghastlord

Shield of the Oversoul

Psychatog

Jagged Poppet

Armadillo Cloak

Watchwolf

Consume Strength

Lightning Helix

Plaxcaster Frogling

Mortify

Putrefy

Fire//Ice

Simoon

Charging Troll

Samite Archer

Backlash

Urborg Drake

Runes of the Deus

Category:general -- posted at: 11:24pm EDT

Hey everybody!  I just thought I'd let everyone know that there won't be a new episode of The Mana Pool for a week or so.  Two of your hosts, including myself who is the one who does all the uploading and whatnot, are going on a week-long vacation to Walt Disney World.  We're leaving tomorrow and I'll be back next Wednesday.  Brian has a second bit of vacation after that, so he won't be back until the following Sunday. 

If you've been enjoying the show, please go check out the forums.  I have a small questionnaire posted there that I'd like as many of you as possible to answer.  It's a series of questions involving some concerns I've had since I started doing the show several months ago.  I'd like you guys to answer honestly and give me some real opinions.  Once we get back, we're all going to go over all the answers we got and use those answers to shape the direction future episodes will take.  Thanks a lot everyone!
Category:general -- posted at: 10:25pm EDT

Episode 28 - A Two-Man Assortment

There is two of us! If you don't get the reference, please refer to Ali and Ali's sister. If you don't get that reference, then I bet you don't know how to type with boxing gloves on. If you didn't get that one either, you apparently haven't been subjected to the joy that is Strong Bad. But that's for neither here nor there, this is a Magic podcast! So back to the subject at hand.


There is two of us! This time, due to finals, dead internets, and various other issues, Mike and I are the only hosts. But that's okay, because we said so. This is sort of a potpourri episode, where we throw lots of things at you. We figured out a few more slang terms that we didn't cover last time, so first we handle those. Then, of course, we have to talk about the Shadowmoor Launch Party and how we all did there. Spoiler: We didn't all fail horribly this time. We then finish up with a quick announcement about an upcoming project that we want to tackle, but we need your input to help us out. So roll on over to the forums and let us know what you think!


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-28-a-two-man-assortment-t172.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

This episode's music: The Search by Swift
Check Swift out at http://www.swift-band.com

Direct download: Episode_28_-_A_Two-Man_Assortment.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:41pm EDT

Episode 27b - Talking the Talk part 2 In this episode Mike, Dirk, and I finish the discussion of the many, many terms that get thrown around in a game of Magic. Not the usual things like keyword abilities and phases of the turn and whatnot. Oh no, we're talking about the unique language that Magic players have invented to describe what's going on. Have you ever topdecked a fatty? Have you ever looted into burn? How about that time your opponent was tapped out and you decided to roll with an alpha strike, only to have him pitch a card to use his trick? And everyone has chumped with a weenie, whether they want to admit it or not. If you have no idea just what in the name of Jonny Magic I'm talking about, then this is definitely the episode for you.

Since the discussion ran so incredibly long, I had to split it up into two parts. This is the last hour of that discussion, where we cram in more slang than you can fog an alpha strike with. Did that sentence make any sense at all? Keep listening to find out. 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-27b-talking-the-talk-part-2-t169.html 
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com
Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
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This episode's music: M-16 by Ill Mic
Check Ill Mic out at http://www.illmic.com
Direct download: Episode_27b_-_Talking_the_Talk_part_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:50pm EDT

Episode 27a - Talking the Talk part 1

In this episode Mike, Dirk, and I begin the discussion of the many, many terms that get thrown around in a game of Magic. Not the usual things like keyword abilities and phases of the turn and whatnot. Oh no, we're talking about the unique language that Magic players have invented to describe what's going on. Have you ever topdecked a fatty? Have you ever looted into burn? How about that time your opponent was tapped out and you decided to roll with an alpha strike, only to have him pitch a card to use his trick? And everyone has chumped with a weenie, whether they want to admit it or not. If you have no idea just what in the name of Jonny Magic I'm talking about, then this is definitely the episode for you.


Sadly, the discussion about slang terms ran incredibly long, so all you're getting here is the first half of the conversation. Stay tuned for Episode 27b, coming soon to an Internet near you.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-27a-talking-the-talk-part-1-t167.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

This episode's music: M-16 by Ill Mic
Check Ill Mic out at http://www.illmic.com

Direct download: Episode_27a_-_Talking_the_Talk_part_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:06pm EDT

Episode 26 - Prerelease Stories and Special Guests  

This episode, we have some special guests joining us on the show. Chris and Molly, better known as PhoenixRising422 and myboyfriendsagamergod on the forums. Shadowmoor was his first Prerelease, and this episode was recorded on his birthday, so we decided to have him on to give us his perspective on the tournament. Actually, Brian and I tell you how we did too. We then get Mike and Molly to give us their ideas about the set now that it's gone public. Tune in for lots of random discussions about the tournament, thoughts on the new set, and just general dorkiness in general.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-26-prerelease-stories-and-special-guests-t161.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


This episode's music: Breathless by Swift

Check Swift out at http://www.swift-band.com

Direct download: Episode_26_-_Prerelease_Stories_and_Special_Guests.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:26pm EDT

Episode 25 - Shadowmoor Previews 6  

In this extra special long episode, we take on the (almost) last of the preview cards. There will be one more small bit up by the time you read this, but we wanted people to be able to listen to the show before the Prerelease. Not only do we cover the four easy-to-find previews, but thanks to Brian we also uncover 5 preview cards hidden in the YouTube embedded videos in the feature article for today. And these hidden cards are all commons, so you're bound to see them at the Prerelease, whether they're in your deck or your opponent's, so be sure to listen closely.


Once that's done, we go back to a segment that hasn't popped up lately. What could it be? Out of the Deck Box! Requested a LONG time ago, Dirk and I finally discuss our UB Discard decks, which are then compared and contrasted. Here they are in their entirety.


Dirk's UB Discard Deck

Creatures

2 Nezumi Shortfang

3 Abyssal Specter

4 Screeching Buzzard

1 Lore Broker

2 Fatespinner

1 Silent Arbiter


Spells

4 Consume Spirit

2 Syphon Soul

1 Liliana Vess

3 Dark Ritual

3 Syphon Mind

4 Megrim

2 Honden of Night's Reach

2 Honden of Seeing Winds

3 Evacuation

3 Skullcage


Lands

8 Island

12 Swamp


Chewie's UB Discard Deck

Creatures

4 Solemn Simulacrum

4 Screeching Buzzard

4 Abyssal Nocturnus

4 Lore Broker

1 Magus of the Jar

1 Nihilith

1 Myojin of Night's Reach


Spells

4 Megrim

3 Wheel and Deal

3 Evacuation

2 Howling Mine

2 Time Spiral

1 Temporal Cascade

2 Ill-Gotten Gains

1 Windfall

1 Debtor's Knell

1 Prosperity

1 Well of Knowledge

1 Words of Waste

1 Memory Jar

1 Oversold Cemetery


Lands

2 Tainted Isle

2 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

2 Dimir Aqueduct

4 Island

12 Swamp


Then we finish up by giving you the rest of the tokens in Shadowmoor, along with a quick word of advice about hybrid cards for anyone going to the Prerelease. Thanks for listening and everyone have fun at the Prerelease!


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-25-shadowmoor-previews-6-t159.html
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com
Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
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Direct download: Episode_25_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_6.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:15am EDT

Episode 24 - Shadowmoor Previews 5 and Less! On this episode, we have technical difficutlies. Difficulties. See? It's just Brian and me, because apparently everyone else decided to run off to a foreign country with the hopes of getting a big musical career launched. It was news to me too. Anyway, something about connecting my computer and Brian's computer equals some kind of horrible joke in which we are the punch line. You'll hear Brian responding to stuff that I haven't said yet. Not because he's a psychic with amazing powers, but because Skype hates us. Hopefully you won't notice too much, as we went to great lengths to keep this from getting completely out of control. We marginally succeeded.


But other than that, we handle more Shadowmoor previews! Personally, I really like Murderous Redcap. And Torrent of Souls. And especially Midnight Banshee. Oh, the Deus of Calamity is awesome too. You know what, almost all of these are just good cards. You should totally listen to this episode.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-24-shadowmoor-previews-5-and-less-t157.html 
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Direct download: Episode_24_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_5_and_Less.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:35am EDT

In order to get this to the most people, I've decided to put this up on my RSS feed as well as send it to the boss at Cardshark.  Inside you'll find anything you could ever want to know about going to the Prerelease.  Included are tips for preparation, getting there, surviving once you get there, and actually playing.  There's a quick tutorial on building your deck with a focus on the new set.  I also give a rundown of mechanics new and old that will be in the set, along with a few tips for each one.  I hope this is some help to you.  Stay tuned for a new episode of The Mana Pool coming soon!
Direct download: Prerelease_Survival_Guide_shadowmoor.doc
Category:general -- posted at: 8:02am EDT

Episode 23 - Shadowmoor Previews 4 and More! In this episode, we hit the few cards that popped up between the last episode and Thursday. Mirrorweave and Tattermunge Maniac take up quite a bit of the discussion this time around. You know, because they're awesome. In totally different ways. Check out the Shadowmoor official preview archive here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/shadowmoor/spoiler

Then, since we ran out of cards with lots of time left, we go over a couple of the decks posted in the Pimp My Deckbox thread. We're leaning towards renaming this to "Bring out Yer Deck!" at the moment, but you never know with this mercurial group of dorks. Anyway, we take a look at a deck posted by garthok84 and then another by myboyfriendsagamergod. Man, that's a mouthful. We tried to keep each individual's particular situation in mind when suggesting things (budget, collection size, and in the case of the second one, boyfriend's a dork) so we didn't just say things like "You totally need 4 of the Ravnica Dual Lands and the Onslaught Fetch Lands, then some Garruk and Tarmogoyf and Jitte." Anyway, here's to some basic advice.  Let us know what we did right (and wrong) in this segment.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-24-shadowmoor-previews-4-and-more-t156.html
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Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
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Direct download: Episode_23_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_4_and_More.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:17pm EDT

Episode 22 - Shadowmoor Previews 3

Shadowmoor looms nigh, and we have the preview cards to prove it. Only nine cards to go over this time, which means we actually have time to go over a couple other things. Actually, we really just go over the Member Promotions for April on Cardshark. Then we dive into the preview cards. Again, to make this paragraph seem a little longer, I'll give you my favorites out of these. I really like Din of the Fireherd and Burn Trail. Burn Trail introduces Conspire, a new keyword, and I think you'll find it interesting. If you want to follow along, here's the preview page, which for some reason I forgot to put on the previous preview episodes.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/shadowmoor/spoiler


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-22-shadowmoor-previews-3-t153.html
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Direct download: Episode_22_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:43am EDT

Episode 21 - Shadowmoor Previews 2 Here we go again with the Shadowmoor previews. This time we have 18 new cards to discuss for your benefit and amusement. Listen as Brian rambles, Dirk goes green, Squanto hates, and I attempt to keep everyone on task and fail miserably. My favorites, just so this show description is a little bit more than two lines? Tower Above and Dusk Urchins. Tower Above is the first mention of a new keyword, Wither. Check this episode out for the full story, and watch out for the next previews episode coming soon.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-21-shadowmoor-previews-2-t151.html
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
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Music for this episode is Release the Wolves by Swift, off their 4th album, The Absolute Uncontrollable. Check out Swift at http://www.swift-band.com

Direct download: Episode_21_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:58pm EDT

Episode 20 - Shadowmoor Previews 1  

In this episode, we tackle the first of the REAL Shadowmoor preview cards, totalling 14 in all. Yes, Episode 19 - Breaking News was all fake cards. But, given the fact that no one made any sort of conversation on the forums, I'm guessing everyone either immediately got it, or didn't care, or didn't listen to the show, or hates us. Fair enough. There's really nothing else to say about the show, so I hope you enjoy listening to what we think about all these random new cards.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-20-shadowmoor-previews-1-t149.html
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Direct download: Episode_20_-_Shadowmoor_Previews_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:58am EDT

This episode is a bit different.  We go over what I originally assumed to be 4 preview cards for Shadowmoor.  I found them on the site Sunday night after the update.  When the dorks got together to discuss them, they were no longer there.  I don't know if it was a glitch in the uploading process or what, but they're not there anymore.  So we decided to go over them separately and get back together later to go over the cards that are now on the Card Preview Archive for Shadowmoor.  Nothing else happens in this episode other than some discussion and wondering what the deal could be, so have at it.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-19-breaking-news-t145.html
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Direct download: Episode_19_-_Breaking_News.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:04pm EDT

Episode 18 - Some Useful Information

In this episode Squanto, Brian and I give out some generally useful information. First up is the Gatherer, the official Magic database. You can find it at http://gatherer.wizards.com. This is easily the most powerful tool out there for tracking down cards for any reason whatsoever. We'll tell you all about how to use it, including a few things that you might not know. Try searching for the word Ravager under Mirrodin Block. Didn't get anything did you? Find out why in this episode!


It's odd. At the end of the last episode, Squanto said we would be giving out tips for new players. After we recorded but before the show was posted, Molly (myboyfriendsagamergod on the forums) put up a thread asking for deckbuilding advice. Several of us on the forums chimed in with advice. For the second part of this episode, we go through this advice and even more advice for the novice deckbuilder. These are some fundamentals for building a deck, so even accomplished players should give it a listen. Note that this doesn't necessarily apply to building tournament-worthy decks, but primarily casual play decks.


Out of the Deck Box (Possibly Soon to be Renamed)

This week we take a look at Brian's WR Rescue deck, as requested in the forums.


Land (22):

9:Plains

9:Mountain

3:Terramorphic Expanse

1:Island

 

Creatures (23):

4:Whitemane Lion

4:Aven Riftwatcher

3:Stonecloaker

2:Stormfront Riders

2:Calciderm

2:Keldon Marauders

2:Icatian Javelineers

2:Magus of the Disk

1:Dust Elemental

1:Soltari Priest

 

Non-Creature Spells (15):

3:Cloudstone Curio

3:Momentary Blink

3:Lightning Helix

2:Fatal Frenzy

2:Dead//Gone

2:Brute Force


Due to a complete lack of intelligence on my part, there is no music on this episode. You can feel free to hum whatever bit of music you'd like to hear.


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-18-some-useful-information-t138.html 
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Direct download: Episode_18_-_Some_Useful_Information.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:27pm EDT

Episode 17 - FNM with the Mana Pool

In this episode, your host dorks discuss the recent trip to Friday Night Magic. We also reinforce for everyone why we are definitely not a podcast for the hardcore tournament player. Dirk play Treefolk, Squanto played Merfolk Aggro, Brian played burn with Countryside Crusher, and I played Elves. The results were not pretty, but a good time was had by all. While we were there we got to meet PhoenixRising422 from the forums (Chris) and determined that he was, in fact, also a dork. So life is good.


Garthok84 on the forums (Jason) named an idea we mentioned a long time ago: Pimp My Deckbox. Give us your deck and we'll see what we can come up with for you. Note: We are not master deckbuilders and we're not going to help you tune your deck to win that Extended PTQ. But we can help you get a deck idea rolling or help you fix up a deck that just doesn't seem to be working properly.


In this episode's Out of the Deck Box (possibly soon to be renamed), we're going to take a look at my Poison Ping deck. Here it is in all its glory.

Poison

4 Marsh Viper

4 Sabertooth Cobra


Ping!

4 Viridian Longbow

2 Psionic Gift

2 Hermetic Study


Untapping

4 Seeker of Skybreak

2 Seedborn Muse

1 Patron of the Orochi

3 Intruder Alarm

2 Pemmin's Aura

4 Vitalize

2 Awakening


Setup

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

2 Worldly Tutor

2 Defense of the Heart

 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-17-fnm-with-the-mana-pool-t135.html
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
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Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
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March is also Classical Music Month here at The Mana Pool!
Opening music: First Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky
Closing music: Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland

Direct download: Episode_17_-_FNM_with_the_Mana_Pool.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:54pm EDT

Episode 16 - Timmy, Johnny, and Spike

What are all these people doing in my apartment?  In this episode, we, your host dorks, are discussing the three player psycographies that Magic R&D uses to design cards for certain types of players.  Those psycographies are Timmy, Johnny, and Spike.  Or, the Power Gamer, the Combo Player, and the Tournament Winner, to use their stereotyped and slightly misleading epithets.  After running Timmy, Johnny, and Spike out of my place of residence, we discuss their various attributes, as well as try to figure out where we all fall in the spectrum.  Also, the new month (since the last episode, that is) means you get to hear the Cardshark Member Promotions for March.  Check out the deals!

 

Listeners, help us figure out where Squanto falls (after he drinks your milkshake, that is).  He's unsure of his player type, so he's going to post some random cards instead of the usual Notable Cards so you guys can help him figure it out.

 

Mark Rosewater's articles about Timmy, Johnny, and Spike
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr220

 

Out of the Deck Box (Possibly Soon to be Renamed) this week is Brian's Korlash deck, as requested in the forums.  Here it is in all its glory.

23: Swamp
1: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4: Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
2: Nightmare
2: Fleshwrither
4: Twisted Abomination
2: Lord of the Undead
2: Mournwhelk
1: Kagemaro, First to Suffer
4: Grim Harvest
4: Tendrils of Corruption
3: Nameless Inversion
1: Makeshift Mannequin
2: Consume Spirit
1: Revive the Fallen
3: Loxodon Warhammer
1: Mirror Gallery

 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-16-timmy-johnny-and-spike-t129.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

 

March is also Classical Music Month here at The Mana Pool!
Opening music: Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Closing music: A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky

Direct download: Episode_16_-_Timmy_Johnny_and_Spike.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:55pm EDT

Episode 15 - Multiplayer Free-For-All Extravaganza

Last weekend the dorks gathered!  With Mike visiting Brian, we set aside all of Saturday for Magic playing!  Dirk and I joined them at Brian's house, and much dorking ensued.  We started at about 10:30am.  There was a break for lunch, let's say an hour just to be safe.  Then we concluded the day's events around 8:30pm.  Yes friends, that is most definitely 9 hours of dorking.  There was a small break for something else Magic-related, keep reading for more info on that.

 

In all, 11 games were played.  I wrote down what everyone was playing and made a few notes about the big plays in each game.  Nothing terribly in-depth, just enough to remind us what was going on.  In this episode, we discuss these 11 games and tell you all about how awesome they were.  That's pretty much it, really.

 

We took another break from the free-for-all so Mike and I could do a Winston Draft with six packs of Scourge that I had for some reason.  For those of you that don't know, a Winston Draft is a two-man draft format that is loads and loads of fun.  I have written two Winston walkthroughs for Cardshark, and you guys should definitely check it out if you can't regularly get 7 other people together for a friendly draft.  Here are the articles.

Time Spiral Winston
http://www.cardshark.com/content/view_article.asp?article_id=4036

Lorwyn Winston
http://www.cardshark.com/content/view_article.asp?article_id=4111

 

And finally, for this episode's edition of Out of the Deck Box (Possibly Soon to be Renamed), Brian gives us a look at his Ink-Treader Nephilim deck, which is always a blast to play.  Here's the list, and check out the episode for Brian's explanation on how it works and why it's fun.

 

Land (22)
8: Forest
3: Island
3: Mountain
2: Plains
2: Azorius Chancery
2: Boros Garrison
1: Gruul Turf
1: Simic Growth Chamber
 
Creatures (11)
4: Ink-Treader Nephilim
3: Autochthon Wurm
2: Intet, the Dreamer
2: Razia, Boros Archangel
 
Non-Creature Spells (27)
4: Polymorph
2: Magma Jet
2: Cytoshape
2: Blind with Anger
2: Psychotic Fury
1: Vanish into Memory
1: Ovinize
4: Farseek
3: Journey of Discovery
3: Reminisce
2: Tel-Jilad Stylus
1: Seal of Primoridum

 

Forum topic here: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=125
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com
Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
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February is Classical Music Month here at The Mana Pool!
Opening music: Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Closing music: O Fortuna by Carl Orff

Direct download: Episode_15_-_Multiplayer_Free-For-All_Extravaganza.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:15am EDT

Episode 14 - Casual Etiquette and We Has a Flava

What is okay to play in a casual setting? Can you break out your hardcore land destruction deck around the kitchen table? Is it okay to play a 20-counterspell deck in the Casual room on MTGO? Do your friends hate you when you whip out your mono-black heavy discard deck? Brian leads us in a discussion of deck-type etiquette when playing in a non-tournament environment. Give us your opinions on the forums!



Have you ever read a Magic novel? Do you check out the flavor text and wonder what is going on? Or is it all just a card game to you? We discuss some of the flavor of the game, from stories and characters to the evolution of Magic art since Alpha. Let us know what you think about the flava of the game!



Out of the Deck Box!
This week Mike shows off a deck that has come to be known simply as "The 5-Color Deck". Here it is in all its unsleeved glory!

Land (20)
7: Forest
2: City of Brass
2: Island
2: Mountain
2: Plains
2: Reflecting Pool
2: Swamp
1: Crystal Quarry

Artifact(7)
3: Lotus Petal
2: Etched Oracle
1: Lotus Bloom
1: Platinum Angel

Multicolor (12)
4: Guided Passage
1: Cromat
1: Dune-Brood Nephilim
1: Genju of the Realm
1: Glint-Eye Nephilim
1: Nicol Bolas
1: Palladia-Mors
1: Vaevictis Asmadi
1: Witch-Maw Nephilim

White (1)
1: Honden of Cleansing Fire

Blue (1)
1: Honden of Seeing Winds

Black (1)
1: Honden of Night's Reach

Red (1)
1: Honden of Infinite Rage

Green (17)
4: Kodama's Reach
4: Utopia Tree
4: Wall of Blossoms
2: Forgotten Ancient
1: Constant Mists
1: Honden of Life's Web
1: Regrowth

Forum topic here: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=122
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com
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February is Classical Music Month here at The Mana Pool!
Opening music: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss
Closing music: Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner

Direct download: Episode_14_-_Casual_Etiquette_and_We_Has_a_Flava.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:19am EDT

Episode 13 - Deck Types and a New Segment

First we have to resurrect Squanto, since Vegas worked him to death.  From there, the episode takes off and never really stops.  Squanto, Mike, Brian, and I discuss the differences between the three major types of Magic decks:  Aggro, Control, and Combo.  At great length.  No really, we're really pretty thorough.  Pros, cons, examples, rantings, ravings, questions, arguments.  Pretty much everything except the kitchen sink and a shotgun blast. 

 

Then we introduce a new segment to the show, Out of the Deck Box (possibly to be renamed later), where one of us dorks just picks a deck from his casual collection and talks about it.  Since this was my idea, I started it up with my oldest surviving deck idea and one of my all-time favorites to play.  I simply call it the Graveyard Deck.  Here's the list:

Creatures

4 Nether Shadow

4 Ashen Ghoul

4 Nether Traitor

4 Abyssal Gatekeeper

2 Phyrexian Plaguelord

1 each of the following:

Ascendant Evincar; Mortivore; Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder; Havoc Demon; Patron of the Nezumi; Braids, Cabal Minion; Magus of the Abyss; Woebringer Demon; Dross Harvester; Liege of the Pit; Devouring Strossus; Hell's Caretaker; Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper

Spells

4 Buried Alive

2 Dread Return

1 each of the following:

Recurring Nightmare; Attrition; Death Pit Offering; Hecatomb;

Land

2 Cabal Coffers

1 Phyrexian Tower

19 Swamp

 

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=118

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com

Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com

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February is Classical Music Month here on The Mana Pool!

Opening music:  Hallelujah chorus from Messiah by Handel

Closing music:  Mars, Bringer of War from The Planets by Gustav Holst

Direct download: Episode_13_-_Deck_Types_and_a_New_Segment.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:36am EDT

Episode 12  - Prerelease Anecdotes and More

On this episode, the whole dorky crew goes over what they played at the Morningtide Prerelease and how it went for them.  We cover our single Sealed flight experience, then how Two-Headed Giant treated us.  Spoiler:  It stomped us.  Hard.  Of course, then we just had to talk about some of the other stuff going on at the tournament, but that's nothing worth mentioning in the show notes.  Except that we were basically accused of cheating before the tournament even started.  How's that?  Listen and find out!


We couldn't let the new set come out without mentioning how some of the new cards in the set work with cards from previous sets, of course.  Here are the quick combos we came up with.

Everbark Shaman and Battlewand Oak

Slithermuse and Stormbind

Spitebellows and Momentary Blink

Veteran's Armanents and Militia's Pride

Maralen of the Mornsong and Aven Mindcensor


Forum thread for this episode:

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com

Forums located at http://cardshark.freeforums.org

Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com

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Opening and closing music: Storm Warning by Ill Mic

Check out Ill Mic at http://www.illmic.com

Direct download: Episode_12_-_Prerelease_Anecdotes__More.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:35pm EDT

Episode 11 - Final Morningtide Not-Quickie

You know, we do 13 cards and we go to right around an hour. This time we only had 5 cards, so how long did we go? Right around an hour. In this episode, we discuss, at great length, some of the things you can do with the 5 preview cards that have popped up since the last episode. We actually came up with some doozies this time, let us know what you think.

There's also Brian's Prerelease article thing that he's doing, where you guys tell us all about your Prerelease experience. The deck you played, how you did, what you thought, whatever you can think of. Brian will sift through all this and pick out some favorites, then use those to write an article for Cardshark about the Prerelease as a whole. Email all that to us or post them in the Prerelease thread here:

http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=105

We also take a fair amount of time to discuss the Prerelease experience, so if you're thinking about going, be sure to listen closely. Also check out my Prerelease Survival Guide, located on the home page of Cardshark. We also go into a few topics that we've had to put on the backburner due to Morningtide previews, but they'll all be coming up sometime soon. This is the last of the preview Not-Quickies, so next week we'll be back to the random stuff that we come up with off the tops of our heads, exclusive to the Mana Pool.

Big shoutout to wolfstalker for helping us spread the word!

Forum thread for this episode here: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=107

Morningtide Card Preview Archive: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/morningtide/preview

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

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Forums located at http://cardshark.freeforums.org

Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com

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Direct download: Episode_11_-_Final_Morningtide_Not-Quickie.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:27pm EDT

On the off chance anyone wants to help us out, here's the flyer my fabulous girlfriend and I designed (she did all the work, I watched in awe).  If you'd like, you can print this out, make some copies, cut them out, and hand them out to people.  Sure it's a large pain, but it's not so much pain that I'm not willing to put you guys through it.  You know, if you want me to.  Anyway, here it is.  Thanks a lot if you decide to help!
Direct download: Mana_Pool_Flier.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 2:37pm EDT

Episode 10 - Morningtide Not-Quickie 2

Wow. We've done this for 10 episodes now. That's pretty crazy. Seems like only a couple months ago we got this whole thing started...

 

Oh wait, I guess that's when it was. Never mind then. Mike, Brian, Squanto and I (da Chewie, of course) discuss the 13 new Morningtide preview cards to come out since our last look. This was supposed to be a quickie episode, but with 13 cards to talk about, we're lucky to fit it to within an hour (PROTIP: We just missed it).

 

Also in this episode is the second mention of Brian's Prerelease article thing. We want you, the listeners, to hit us with your Prerelease experiences. Give us decklists, records, stories, whatever you can come up with. You can post them here on the forums in the Prerelease thread (not made yet) or you can email them to us. However you want to do it is fine with us. Brian will sift through the stuff, pick out some favorites, and incorporate that into his big Prerelease article that he'll write for Cardshark.



Forum link for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=104 

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com  

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Direct download: Episode_10_-_Morningtide_Not-Quickie_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:02am EDT

Episode 9 - Morningtide Previews Not-Quickie

Well, this was supposed to be a quick episode. Mike, Brian and I take on seven more official Morningtide preview cards, four from the preview page and three from the Player Rewards Program email. Included is much discussion on these new cards, which are by far my favorite yet. We went a little bit longer than we meant to, but only so we could bring you the best discussion we possibly could.

We also mention a new way for you, the listener, to interact with us! If you attend the Morningtide Prerelease, send us your decklist and/or a quick rundown of your experience. You can email it to us or post it here on the forums. Brian will sift through any and all information you supply and pick out his favorites. He will include these favorites in a future article for the Cardshark content page about the Prerelease. So by all means, go to the Prerelease and take some notes!

This episode's forum thread:  http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=101

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Direct download: Episode_9_-_Morningtide_Previews_Not-Quickie.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:43pm EDT

Hey look, an episode that's actually UNDER an hour long! Perfect for that drive to work, waiting for the bus, or ignoring your teacher/boss for 20 minutes!



In this quickie episode Squanto, Dirk, Mike, Brian and I (da Chewie!) discuss 5 Morningtide previews that have cropped up in articles and sidebars and whatnot on the Magic site since Sunday. Keep an eye out on Thursday for another quickie! 


This episode's forum thread: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=100
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Direct download: Episode_8_-_Morningtide_Previews_Quickie.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:47pm EDT

In this episode Squanto, Mike, Brian, Dirk and I (da Chewie!) take on the issue of proxies.  When is it okay to use proxies?  When is it not okay?  And what should you do when confronted with someone using proxies?  And what about using your foil lands in place of normal lands at a Limited event?  We tackle these hot-button issues right here in the Mana Pool.

 

Next up we hit even more Morningtide preview cards on the official Wizards Morningtide previewed card archive.  Not content with the 16 we covered in episode 6, we discuss 12 more cards that have popped up since that episode was recorded.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/morningtide/preview

 

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

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Opening and closing music:  Lovesick by Swift

Check out Swift at http://www.swift-band.com

Direct download: Episode_7_-_Etiquette_Question_2_and_More_Morningtide.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:40pm EDT

It's the Best of 2007 show for the Mana Pool!  Squanto, Brian, Dirk and I (da Chewie!) discuss all the best things to come out of the Mana Pool in 2007.  This includes but is not limited to the Best Single Card We Never Got Around To Discussing, the Thousand-Year Elixir.  We go over the Chris Millar article that discusses the Elixir, and talk about Brian's experiences both with and against it.  Here's the article: 

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/cm99

 

Then comes the part everyone wants to hear, the Morningtide preview cards.  Wizards is doing something new this time around by having all the cards officially previewed in magazines and various other places listed in one spot.  At the time of this recording there were 16 cards here, but there are definitely more already, so go check it out.  We're going to cover anything that has come up since this episode next time, so stay tuned.  Here's the link:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/morningtide/preview

 

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

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Forums located at http://cardshark.freeforums.org

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Opening and closing music:  Slave by Social Outcast u.b.

Check out Social Outcast u.b. at http://www.myspace.com/socialoutcastub

Direct download: Episode_6_-_Best_of_2007_and_Morningtide_Previews.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:12pm EDT