The Mana Pool

Oh look, a cute little turtle lizard guy with a teeny little knife! Why's he just walking towards us? What does he think he's gonna OH DEAR LORD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

We're talking about enemies that look like they'd be pushovers, but will instead absolutely wreck you for one reason or another. We'll do the inverse of this on a future episode, so be sure to give us your ideas!

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

The FINAL definition of vamp on the Merriam-Webster site says "Improvise, extemporize." That's the one we're using here. Not "a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men," which is the FIRST definition. What the actual hell?

On this Dorks Just Chatting, Chewie talks all about his newly-purple beard and his mom's stay in the hospital. Dirk has no idea when things happened and tells us all about a massive school program that eventually just...stopped. We discuss extracurricular activities in school (or our lack thereof). We reminisce about weird problems we had with old guests (or people who didn't become guests) in our ridiculously long history. We wonder at the UK officially preserving Badger Badger Badger, which leads naturally into...Nintendo Power and its comics. Naturally. Eventually this gets us to new editions of books that change words and titles, and that's where Chewie learned about the original title of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. That's not even the end, I just got sick of typing!

Badgers - https://www.fark.com/goto/14073900/boingboing.net/2026/05/19/the-uk-has-formally-declared-badger-badger-badger-worthy-of-preservation.html Nintendo Power comics - https://comicsalliance.com/nintendo-power-comics-retrospective/

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

The dorks have returned! You know when there's a game or movie or whatever media that, when you look at it, you just know that this is gonna be right up your alley? But then you give it a shot and it just...isn't? What's that about? We're going to give lots of examples of this phenomenon for ourselves and try to figure out what happened with each other them. Let us know about things that seem like they'd be your jam but just weren't for some reason. But not American cheese, that's just silly.

This episode topic comes to us from Mycroft in the TMP Discord! Thanks! You should join the Pool too so you can weigh in on future episodes, the link is always down with all the others.

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE

This is what happens when there's no Dirk and when the Pooligans don't give us a direction. You can't just leave us to our own devices! We cannot be trusted!

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

The dorks return to Magic to take a look at Secrets of Strixhaven, the new set that amazingly isn't based on some other IP! Two of the dorks actually went to a prerelease for it, so they have Thoughts. You know the drill, mechanics then the card image gallery bouncing around looking at cool stuff.

Oh, because of the main new mechanic there are a lot of Scar and Illidan Stormrage references, so you should probably...

BE PREPARED!

SoS Mechanics - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/secrets-of-strixhaven-mechanics SoS Gallery - https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/secrets-of-strixhaven/card-image-gallery

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE

We've done it! We're made it to three quarters of four figures! To celebrate doing this for over 18 years (not quite half our lives) we're going to take a look at what it's been like being a nerd over the course of our lifetimes. How we're viewed by society and even the very defintion of "nerd" have changed a lot over the years, so we're digging into it from our own experiences.

To help us with this we've enlisted the aid of one of Chewie's favorite podcasters! It's Brian Edwards, host of The Character Issues Podcast and one of the many contributing hosts of Cane and Rinse! He's awesome and also an aging nerd, so it was really great of him to join us for this momentous occasion! Also, you should totally go check out Character Issues, it's a lot of fun. Go follow Brian on Bluesky at characterissues.bsky.social!

Thank you all so much for helping us get this far! Let us know about your nerd history and if anything we talked about hit especially close to home for you. Here's to reaching 1000!

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE

And then it all came crashing down. After Overwatch, the Devil Himself took over and ran decades of goodwill into the ground in the pursuit of the mighty dollar. And also other...problems...came to light that accelerated the fall.

But is it all doom and gloom forever? Can Blizzard save itself under the control of...Microsoft? Wait, seriously?

Why Jeff Kaplan left Blizzard: https://kotaku.com/overwatch-jeff-kaplan-blizzard-pve-leaving-2000678084 Design Delve on Hearthstone's bad UI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1oX9go1ITQ Chewie's Steam Next Fest article - https://www.patreon.com/posts/chewie-played-22-152827365

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE

We pivoted away from our second Blizzard show to save Brian's mental health, but we'll do it very soon! Instead we're doing a DJC that starts with the titular question and just goes from there, as these shows tend to do. Also, I think Dirk talks more on this episode than he has on a single episode in YEARS. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Remember when Blizzard was great? Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo were some of the most powerful IPs in gaming, and they all came from a singular company that could do no wrong. It was truly a glorious time to be alive. So let's bask in the warm glow of nostalgia for this episode, remembering only the good times back before the Devil Himself took sole control and destroyed two and a half decades of loyalty and goodwill.

Chewie's Steam Next Fest article - https://www.patreon.com/posts/chewie-played-22-152827365

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE

The dorks (most of them anyway) return to do exactly one (1) episode on the TMNT MTG set. There are improved versions of old mechanics, video game nostalgia, and lots of ampersands. What's your take on the turtle set, and have you ever had turtle soup?

Mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mechanics Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/card-image-gallery

Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch.

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP TMP Streams Archive: youtube.com/@TMPStreams Twitch: twitch.tv/themanapool Discord: discord.gg/7da7T6s BlueSky: themanapool.bsky.social Instagram: TheManaPool Threads: @TheManaPool Email: [email protected]

Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE