We begin this episode with a look at the Magic 2013 Event Decks, now that they've FINALLY released them.  If you'd like to follow along, you can do so here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1022

But of course that's not the real reason we recorded this episode.  Brian bought a brand-spanking-new Deckbuilder's Toolkit, opened everything up, catalogued it, and sent us our homework.  We were to take this pool and build a 60-card deck with an eye towards multiplayer of course.  Unfortunately, Mike was unable to join us for this one but perhaps he'll tell us about it next week.  As for the rest of us, I think you'll appreciate the decks we built as well as the decks we didn't build.  We spent a fair amount of time talking about both.  The pool was pretty deep (except for one color).  If you'd like to see the card pool in all its glory, here it is: http://themanapool.com/pool-notices/ep240pool/

By the way, here's the Onion link that Chewie mentioned during the final thoughts. It's meant to be funny, but do take it seriously: http://www.theonion.com/articles/sadly-nation-knows-exactly-how-colorado-shootings,28857

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – We Are Star Dust by Symphony of Science - http://symphonyofscience.com

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Yes, we are without Dirk this episode.  He's not joining us on the show while on a cruise, that would be ridiculous.  But we kick off the festivities with another Magic Mad Lib from Brian, our first in quite some time.  It's a long one, and it turns out to be pretty damn funny.

Of course, that's not all.  We had a lot of announcements from the San Diego Comic Con that we just had to give you our opinions on (you know, like everyone else has been doing).  It's about Return to Ravnica, the RTR prerelease, From the Vault: Realms, and something called Commander's Arsenal.  I think I'll just call that Commander's Arse from now on.  Anyway, if you'd like to follow along you can read it all here:
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/devonerule-071612-sdcc-panel-return-to-ravnica-and-more/

Of course, we also have to tell you all about how we did at the Magic 2013 Launch, which no longer exists.  But Lucky decided to do one anyway, so Mike, Brian, and Chewie rolled out to play.  Remember from last episode how well Chewie did at the Prerelease?  Think he can repeat it?  Better listen to find out.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Fight the Minotaur by Swift

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-239
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We are sadly without Brian this time around, but that's only because a) it's his wife's birthday (at least I'm pretty sure that's the excuse he used) and b) Skype absolutely would not let us record the night before.  It was completely weird.  I think it's plotting against us.  But of course it worked the next night, giving you this episode right here!  Yay!

We spent a little longer than anyone probably should have on the Magic 2013 Intro Pack decklists (since we sorta ran out of time last week).  Then we had to go into great detail about our Prerelease experiences!  Mike tells us all about his mediocre black and white deck (it appears lots of people were playing his deck just with better cards).  Then Chewie goes into all the smack he laid down with his blue and red deck.  Seriously, ALL the smack.

Then we dive into our neverending mailbag to point out a few interesting things to you listeners.  Here are a few of those things now! 

Andrew's Nicol Bolas Intro Pack Deck
http://meremortalblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/m13-the-nicol-bolas-intro-decklist/

Tosus' Math of Magic Blog
http://mathofmagic.wordpress.com

M13 Intro Pack Decklists
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1007

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty by KC and the Sunshine Band

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-238
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Because of the holiday (Independence Day here in America), Brian had family over and couldn't join us. We we tapped everyone's favorite goblin deck hand and MTGO draft recorder, Squee! I mean Bill. You know, the guy with the awesome last name! Bloodworth - isn't that cool? You should follow him on Twitter - he's @SqueeGoblnNabob. And his videos are right here too:
http://themanapool.com/category/videos/squee-draft/

Anyway, we had lots of M13 to discuss. All of it actually, as the name of the episode implies. Though it really doesn't imply it so much as state it explicitly. Anyway, to make up for the lack of Brian's rambling, we all sort of became long-winded. Not Limited Resources set review long-winded, but pretty long for us. But we had basically an entire set to fool around with. Next week you'll get to hear about the Prerelease, this week it's all theory and Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 experience. And as always, you can follow along in the Card Image Gallery:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Sara Smile by Daryl Hall & John Oates - http://www.hallandoates.com/

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A few days before recording this episode, one Daniel Beach (@beach7125) asked Chewie a question.  That question would lead to a conversation, which would then lead to this episode of The Mana Pool with guest host Daniel Beach.  Before we tell you the nature of this question, we have to talk about the tokens of Magic 2013 and the remaining preview cards that have been shown since our last episode.  Are we good with that?  The links to those are right here:
M13 Card Image Gallery: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#
M13 Tokens: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1002

The question and ensuing conversation involved the nature of Nicol Bolas as the big bad guy of Magic.  He's Dr. Doom.  Moriarty.  The Architect (or Agent Smith, depending on your take on the films).  And Beach had some issues with that.  So we asked him on the episode to help us air those issues and in generally discuss the nature of Nicol Bolas in Magic fiction.  So if you've read the novels...you have our condolences.  If you haven't read the novels, good on ya and enjoy our completely off-the-cuff and probably inaccurate recollections of the guy who's behind it all (no, not Mark Rosewater - we're not talking about real life this episode).
Nicol Bolas Wiki: http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Nicol_Bolas

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky

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