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

This week we're taking it back to a topic that we wanted to do almost two months ago, but we couldn't fit it in. It's all about what does or does not constitute the mythic rarity. Our last Mythic Conscription (Episode 398) caused a lot of consternation among our fan base. A significant number of you out there disagreed with how we assessed some of the mythics in Champions of Kamigawa, with the major schism coming from the mythic-ness of the Myojin and/or the Dragons. There was so much feedback about it that we decided to do this discussion!

We're taking it all the way back to the original definition of mythic as described by Mark Rosewater. There was another article on MTGGoldfish written in December of last year discussing how the mythic rarity has changed in the intervening 8 years. We're going to take a look at those, talk about them until we're all blue in the face, and then relate it all back to that fateful Champions of Kamigawa Mythic Conscription. We hope you guys enjoy, and do give us more feedback to let us know what you think!

LINKAGE:
Episode 398 (the one that kicked off this discussion) - http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-398/
The first introduction of mythic rarity - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/year-living-changerously-2008-06-02
Episode 30 (our first reaction to mythic rarity) - http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-30-and-now-for-something-not-completely-different/
A question on Rosewater's tumblr - http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/134445511588/mister-rosewater-do-you-think-wizards-has-failed
The Goldfish article on the changing mythic rarity - http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/the-changing-definition-of-mythic-rare

 

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/themanapool

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – https://myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-404
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
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The Mana Pool
PO Box 2257
Kernersville, NC 27285

Brought to you by Mana Pool Productions

Direct download: Episode_404_-_What_Does_It_Mean_To_Be_Mythic.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:00am EDT

We're back to take another look at Oath of the Gatewatch! Before that we've got some old news to rehash and some new news to cover! There's the B&R list update, some Commander changes, and new things in the IPG. Then we take a while poking around the OGW Card Image Gallery talking about a bunch of stuff we like or don't like, things that were interesting at the Prerelease, you know how we do.

Then our final thoughts take on a life of their own, as we talk about the horrible water supply debacle of Flint, Michigan. Seriously, this is some stuff that shouldn't happen in modern society and yet here we are. There's also Periodic Table Battleship and discussions of the incoming winter weather down here in the South.

Hope you all enjoyed having two episodes this week!

LINKAGE:
B&R List update: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-18-2016-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2016-01-18
Commander Rules update: http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18057
IPG update: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2016/01/18/ogw-policy-changes/
Oath of the Gatewatch Card Image Gallery: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/oathofthegatewatch
Flint MI story: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/11/health/toxic-tap-water-flint-michigan/
Periodic Table Battleship: http://teachbesideme.com/periodic-table-battleship/#5YFpTb5BLtBf8hX5.03

 

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/themanapool

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – https://myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-403
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheManaPool
And Google+ too: http://gplus.to/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Wanna send us something? Let us know first, then ship it to:
The Mana Pool
PO Box 2257
Kernersville, NC 27285

Brought to you by Mana Pool Productions

Direct download: Episode_403_-_Gatewatching_Etc.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:30pm EDT

It's bonus episode time! Chewie, Brian, and Mike went to the Two-Headed Giant Oath of the Gatewatch Prerelease at Lucky's Card Shop in Greensboro NC. And of course we couldn't resist taking the digital recorder with us to report in live from the tournament! Don't worry, we know it's short. You'll be getting a normal episode later this week as well!

Chewie & Brian decided to re-form their old 2HG Dream Team because they were seriously awesome at it back in the day. Mike joined up with Chris, one of our local listeners that didn't have another head. We'll check in before the tourney starts, in between rounds, and then wrap it all up at the end. We'll discuss some of the cards that were good to us, some that were less than good, and general 2HG strategy. In this format, perhaps more than any other, you really are playing against your opponents just as much as you are playing against their cards, and that's one of the reasons Chewie & Brian are so good at it.

A big shout-out to listeners Kristen & Anthony who stopped by to say hi! I hope I spelled your name right, let me know if I didn't. And if you're the anonymous sailor that met Chewie's old man on a plane, send us a message and say hi! He's bad at remembering names.

 

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/themanapool

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – https://myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-402
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheManaPool
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Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Wanna send us something? Let us know first, then ship it to:
The Mana Pool
PO Box 2257
Kernersville, NC 27285

Brought to you by Mana Pool Productions

Direct download: Episode_402_-_OGW_Prerelease_Field_Recordings.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00pm EDT

I hope you all recovered from the monster that was Episode 400, because it's time to get back to our normal work! Because of the bizarre timing of holidays, previews, and 400...we haven't actually looked at the new set yet. Our bad.

But all that changes now...once we're done talking about how Wizards is trying to fix some of their recent massive screw-ups in community goodwill. But after that we're hitting all the big flashy cards in Oath of the Gatewatch. Then a few others. Then the Expeditions. Then some final thoughts. Got it? Ready...BREAK!

LINKAGE
Judge suspension update - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/learning-opportunities-2016-01-13
Proxies discussion update - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies-policy-and-communication-2016-01-14
Oath of the Gatewatch Card Image Gallery - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/oathofthegatewatch
All the new Expeditions - http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/never-wasted-holiday-2015-12-24

 

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/themanapool

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – https://myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-401
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool
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Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Wanna send us something? Let us know first, then ship it to:
The Mana Pool
PO Box 2257
Kernersville, NC 27285

Brought to you by Mana Pool Productions

Direct download: Episode_401_-_Our_First_Look_at_Gatewatch.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00pm EDT

There's only one way to celebrate this massive milestone - but we couldn't rent an elephant. So instead we're bringing back a fan favorite - Exiled! Remember that? The deckbuilding competition loosely based on Food Network's show Chopped that Brian came up. Its only other appearance was on Episode 337 (the link is below) waaaaay back in September 2014. You should totally give it a listen first if you haven't heard it yet!

On this go-round, your host dorks are playing the role of the judges so that we can grab some guests to be contestants! We're joined by four suckers friends to go through four rounds of restrictive and insane deck construction. Those suckers friends are:

Bill Bloodworth (Squee) of Monday Night Magic & Enchant World - @SqueeGoblnNabob
Bryan Prillaman, recently (unjustly IMO) suspended L3 judge, of JudgeCast - @BryanPrillaman
Chris Lansdell, reformed podcast whore and writer for StarCityGames - @lansdellicious
Andrew Hunt, longtime TMP listener, enthusiastic deckbuilder, Kickstarter backer - @IdleCommenter

Everyone get ready, because this episode went for an hour for every hundred episodes! That's FOUR HOURS in case math & reading aren't your strong suit. Be sure to check out the links below for the stuff we talked about in the episode, including the TappedOut page for all the decks our suckers friends built! And thank you all so much for getting us all the way to the big 400! We couldn't have done it without you, and we love you all!

LINKAGE!
The Exiled decks on TappedOut - http://tappedout.net/users/ExiledTheShow/deck-folders/
Chris Lansdell's RW Soul Sisters Deck Tech - http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_rw_soul_sisters_with.html
The beginning of the Alien Bug Thing Saga, read on from here - https://twitter.com/TheManaPool/status/684033918463553536

 

 

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/themanapool

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – https://myspace.com/swiftband

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-400
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast
Email us at dorks@themanapool.com
Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheManaPool
And Google+ too: http://gplus.to/themanapool
Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx
Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Wanna send us something? Let us know first, then ship it to:
The Mana Pool
PO Box 2257
Kernersville, NC 27285

Brought to you by Mana Pool Productions

Direct download: Episode_400_-_The_Return_of_Exiled.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00pm EDT