Prepare yourselves for a wild ride. That's all the warning you get.

This episode, we're taking it back. All the way back to our college days when we would spend many hours of the night, many times a week, playing big round table multiplayer Magic. To help us take it all the way back that far, we have my old roommate Corey joining us for the first time. You may remember hearing about him on previous shows, and now you get to experience him firsthand and find out why he sticks out in our minds.

What we're discussing here today are specific cards in multiplayer. More to the point, we're discussing those cards that we just love to play in multiplayer. Everything from the staples like Syphon Soul and Forgotten Ancient to the finishers like Insurrection and Verdant Force – why we like them and what makes them great for multiplayer. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

We're also going to talk about some of those cards that we just absolutely hate to see on the table across from us. Of course this covers the obvious things like Stasis and Portcullis, but also the more subtly miserable cards like Fatespinner and Telepathy. We'll go over what exactly it is about all these cards that we despise so much.

Of course, along the way we get sidetracked, erupt into fits of laughter, go off on tangents, and pick on each other mercilessly. Like more than usual, I mean. Apparently good old Chuck (one of my nicknames for Corey, Chuck Steak) is a bad influence on us. Or maybe a good influence. Whichever it is, I hope you guys get as big a kick out of listening as we did recording it.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-82-back-in-the-day-multiplayer-cards-t339.html
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This episode was a complete mess, but not for you to listen to. Allow me to explain. First, we are joined by our old friend AJ of "Kill AJ" fame. This leads to our pre-recording conversation becoming a completely random mess that I really wish we could have recorded. Then we have a bit of listener feedback, which we always appreciate. Hint hint!

Then there's some news. The Xbox 360 Live Arcade game, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers, is coming out soon, and the list of Achievements has been released, so I spend a couple minutes going over that. Then Mike gets all giddy about the latest Rules Update that happened a couple weeks ago, and he goes over the various functional changes from this update. Believe it or not, this is actually interesting enough to pay attention to. To follow along yourself, go here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/35b&page=2

Then there's this bit of news about Planechase, which sounds like a new Vanguard-ish type of thing. Whatever it may be, we're going over the press release with a fine-tooth comb. Actually it's a shoeshine brush, but whatever. To follow along yourself again, go here:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/187

Then I have a bit of Magic-playing news about my trip to Newport News, VA for Mother's Day. My cousin took me to a cyber cafe/card-playing location called Cyberwocky where I did lots of trading and was involved in a pickup Emperor game, something that is completely unheard of around here. It was great, so I talk about it.

Then we wanted to hit some of the high points of Alara Reborn, and this is where things started to fall apart. Brian suddenly realized that he had to go. Then Mike suddenly and involuntarily left us. While he was trying to get back, the rest of us soldiered on. He finally returned to us, sans some of his enthusiasm (not a word you'd usually associate with Mike, but he had a big Rules Update to go over this episode), and the episode ended shortly thereafter.

The real problems came when I tried to put this show together. Four and a half minutes of footage were covered in the horrible clicks that I only sort of managed to remove. I love you guys so much that I recorded a quick apology right before that part. Then the freaking edited-completely-except-for-music file decided it didn't want to save properly and I had to do it all over again. And then I had serious troubles getting the music for this episode to include both left and right stereo channels when I copied it over. But I eventually figured it out. As I write this, I should have been in the bed 45 minutes ago, but I wanted it all ready to upload tomorrow before we record the next show. That's how much I love you guys. Sleep is not as important as getting the episode out sometime before we record the next one, you know?

Music for this episode: Slave by Social Outcast u.b.

Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/socialoutcastub

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-81-would-you-like-some-content-with-your-tech-t334.html

Check out our archive at http://themanapool.libsyn.com

Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com

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Hey there, all you Mike fans!  This is me, filling in on the notes for Chewie this week as a special treat for everyone who missed me (hi, Mom!).  Unfortunately, we're less one Dirk this time, as he had some stuff to take care of and didn't feel like he had anything in particular to contribute to the subject matter of the episode.

Anyway, we kick things off with a special little featurette that might come back if people like it enough.  As we get settled, it's Nature versus Technology as storms begin to rage in the background and threaten our precious electricity.  From there, we get to the Cardshark Member Promotions (featuring everyone's favorite free uncommons), the final chapter of the Jace vs. Chandra evolution, and then we all get to hear about how Brian and Chewie did at the Alara Reborn Launch Party.  Very informative, very entertaining.  Welcome back to The Mana Pool!


Music for this episode: Your Heroes are Dead by Social Outcast u.b.
Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/socialoutcastub


Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-80-ready-for-launch-arb-t330.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.libsyn.com
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
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First off, I just wanted to say sorry for the lateness of this episode. I'm sure you'll hear about why in the next one.

In this Mike-free show, we're here to talk the Alara Reborn Prerelease. We decided that it made more sense to record on a night that Brian could join us, since he was at the Prerelease, so we had to do it on a night Mike was unavailable. Sorry to all the Mike fans out there, he should be back next episode.

So join us for a complete look at how we did. All three of us competed in the Sealed portion. Guess what colors Dirk played! For that matter, guess what all of us played. It actually matches what you would think. Then Dirk and Brian did a draft. Guess what colors Dirk played! I bet you guess wrong! Hit the forums if you haven't already and let us know how you did. And if you want to cheat, you can check out the forum thread for this episode to see all 5 decklists. The link is right down there if you're not already on the forums.

Music for this episode: I Don't Vote Republican by Social Outcast u.b.

Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/socialoutcastub

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-79-alara-reborn-prerelease-spectacular-t324.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.libsyn.com
Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com
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Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp
Subscribe to our RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool