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!

Categories

podcasts
general
Non-podcast Audio
60 Card Challenge
Previews

Archives

2024
March
February
January

2023
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2022
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2015
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2014
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2013
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2012
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2011
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2010
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2009
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2008
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2007
December
November

October 2011
S M T W T F S
     
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31

Syndication

Episode 202 - Bringing Back the Binder Pull

On this exciting episode of The Mana Pool we're bringing back a fan favorite segment, the binder pull! We're all just opening up our binders and picking out some cool cards to discuss. Then discussing them. You know.

After that, it's back to the emails! We've got a whole mess of interesting rules questions and little tidbits here and there. There's a short rant from Chewie about pottymouths and professionalism that will probably end up offending someone, but it happens. No harm meant I assure you.

At this point my show notes say "something at the end". It's been long enough since we recorded that I'm not entirely sure what that means. So if you hear something at the end, that's what it meant. And if you don't, then I've got nothing.

Intro (and new Outro!) Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Trogdor by Strong Bad - http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html

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

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-202-bringing-back-the-binder-pull-t729.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Direct download: Episode_202_-_Bringing_Back_the_Binder_Pull.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:01am EDT

Episode 201 - Armchair Art Critic

This episode is packed!  We start off with our traditional post-rotation discussion.  I'm not sure why we do this, not being Standard players for the most part and being a casual podcast, but we always do and we've always gotten positive feedback about it.  So here it is again!  Did you realize that something besides Squadron Hawk rotated out?  I didn't either!

Keeping with this Standard-centric topic, we then move to a quick discussion about the first couple of SCG Open with the new Standard.  It's amazing what these people are doing nowadays! Oh, and there are new Innistrad Event Decks to discuss.

That sounds like a full show right there, but we're not even close to done yet!  There's a new format that's been making the rounds lately, Horde Magic.  It was introduced to me by SkeetWo, a listener named Justin, when I met him at Curio Cavern in Springfield VA. It was a blast when I played the Horde with him, so I wanted to introduce it to my cohosts. Of course, since we recorded this it's been all over the place, including an article by Stybs on the mothership (where he also mentioned another favorite of the show, Respawn Magic).  Links for those are right here:


Peter Knudson: http://www.quietspeculation.com/2011/09/horde-magic-a-new-way-to-play-magic-and-survive-zombie-invasions/

Adam Styborski: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/sf/165


And that's not even the whole show!  Dirk had the brilliant (no really, no sarcasm at all) idea to talk about art.  Good art, bad art, creepy art, whatever.  And this led to the most fun discussion we've had in a while.  We picked out some stuff that was great, some stuff that was ridiculous, and we finally solved the long-standing mystery of what happened to Baron Sengir's legs.  Hope you guys enjoy it!

----------

Donate to Dustin’s Extra Life page! Help out some sick kids! – http://extra-life.org/participant/vognasty

Intro (and new Outro!) Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Aria di Mezzo Carattere (Orchestrated) from Final Fantasy VI by Nobuo Uematsu

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

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-201-armchair-art-critics-t727.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Direct download: Episode_201_-_Armchair_Art_Critics.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:53pm EDT

Episode 200 - Blame It On the Listeners

This is it!  We've hit #200!  Because we couldn't do it without all of you out there, we decided to jump through a lot of hoops in an effort to get some listener participation.  If you'll recall, several weeks ago we put a bunch of questions on the website.  One was a poll about which decks of ours you guys liked, and the rest were asking for suggestions for cards of a particular type.  Well we took that information and came up with a bizarre Planechasey kind of thing.  We made a stack of all the cards you guys suggested and shuffled it up.  After 3 turns of buildup we drew from the listener-supplied stack along with our normal draw.  Whatever card we drew we HAD to play by our next turn.  No discarding it, no skipping out on it, nothing like that.  If you submitted it, we HAD to play it if at all possible.  Not only that, but when we played it we read off who submitted it and what their comment was about it.  So if you're lucky, you might just hear yourself on the show! 

Forgive us if we seem rushed, we recorded this the day of the Innistrad Prerelease and had to get the games finished with enough time for us to actually make it to the tournament.  And be sure you listen to the quick intro about Extra Life!  I'm uploading this after midnight the day before, so I really need to get some freakin' sleep.  If you're hearing this on Saturday, October 15, then you can check out the uStream the Extra Life game-playing here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/extra-life-2011

————
Donate to Dustin’s Extra Life page! Help out some sick kids! – http://extra-life.org/participant/vognasty

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Whack It by Swift

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

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-200-blame-it-on-the-listeners-t723.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Mem … tions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Direct download: Episode_200_-_Blame_It_On_the_Listeners.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:30am EDT

Episode 199 - Prerelease and Rules, Lots of Rules

We are joined this week by Amanda Stevens, one of the originators of RedSiteWins.com and hosts of Red Cast Wins.  You guys remember her, right?  She interviewed us a long while back.  And it’s a good thing, because Brian was unable to join us this week.  Anyway, we’ve got to talk about the Innistrad Prerelease, because we recorded this right after that happened.  Mike, Brian, and Chewie (that’s me) all went to the tourney, so find out how we did and what we pulled.  Amanda did some spellslinging at her prerelease, so there’s another nifty story.  Of course, then we’ve gotta talk about how we like the set as a whole and all that.

There was a rules update!  Some of the updates are actually pretty cool, so we had to talk about them.  If you’d like to follow along at home, just click here.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/161d&page=2

From there, we tackled our mountain of listener emails.  There were a lot of rules questions, funny comments, and completely random nonsense that have built up over the last several weeks.  So we’ve got to share those with you.  Whether you like it or not.  But I think you’ll like it.  So there.

 

————
Donate to Dustin’s Extra Life page! Help out some sick kids! – http://extra-life.org/participant/vognasty

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Release the Wolves by Swift

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

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-199-prerelease-and-rules-lots-of-rules-t722.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Mem … tions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Direct download: Episode_199_-_Prerelease_and_Rules_Lots_of_Rules.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:58am EDT