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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December 2008
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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