The Mana Pool

With Brian still on a boat, the remaining dorks return to just talk about whatever comes to mind! We touch on the recent celebrity deaths before heading into video games we've been playing lately. We spend a fair amount of time on Baldur's Gate 3 since two of us have been playing it (and it's really freakin' good). We complain about Windows 11 hardware requirements too, because that's capitalist nonsense.

From there we wander for a while, hitting Stranger Things, being inundated with Star Wars & Star Trek shows, really bad scenes in otherwise not horrible films, and Brussels sprouts. We end the episode by circling back to Baldur's Gate, discussing getting old, and some random DoorDash nonsense.

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 are looking back at their years of playing video games and choosing some of their favorite weapons to share! Sometimes it's for the wow factor, sometimes it taught a valuable lesson, sometimes it's just iconic, and sometimes it's so silly that it is permanently memorable. What are some of your favorite weapons in games, and why?

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 couldn't settle on a topic for this week, so we turned to our Discord community of Pooligans for some ideas! We're answering three excellent questions on this episode, ranging from relatively simple to "gaining a deeper understanding of how the dorks' minds work" so we hope you enjoy! Thanks to chfuji and Violet Moon for the questions!

If you have any questions or topics you'd like the dorks to tackle in the future, be sure to let us know! I've finally started a list of all the ideas and topics and suggestions and we'll be pulling from it whenever we can.

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]

Most of the dorks are back! This week we're talking about world events that happen every four years...for some reason? Then Chewie talks about taking two teenagers, one of whom had not ridden a roller coaster, to Carowinds to ride roller coasters! After all of that of course we have to talk about the Final Fantasy Prerelease because ALL OF US WENT! Dirk & Mike talk about their decks, while Chewie takes over talking about how Brian & Sam did. Great fun was had by all. From there, Chewie goes into why he's less interested in Magic these days, but how thinking critically about it for all those years has stirred a deep interest in how elements of game design come together in all the games he plays. Then we devolve into the usual nonsense, like GYATT and D&D and Skyrim and how there weren't any good Jasons back in the day.

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

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

The dorks return to finish up with the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set! Along with the usual tangents and distractions, of course. It is still us after all.

Card Image Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/final-fantasy/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! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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 are back, bouncing around the Card Image Gallery for the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set! As usual for UB, we're primarily checking out how well these cards reflect their source material. That's it really, you know the drill.

There's probably one more episode of this coming, so be sure to let us know or come hang out live to let us know cards you want us to be sure we cover!

Card Image Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/final-fantasy/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! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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

Now that the full previews have begun, the dorks dive back into card from the upcoming Universes Beyond Final Fantasy set! We're hitting the mechanics as usual, then poking around to check out the main characters of some of the games. As has become our thing with these UB sets, we're going to be taking a look at how the card mechanics reflect the source material they're based on. So strap in, grab your giant sword of choice, and let's take a look!

Mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/final-fantasy-mechanics Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/final-fantasy/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! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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

Originally we were going to make this episode about everything Star Wars other than the movies, but it turns out we spent WAY too much time on the video games. There are SO MANY video games. And we only covered a fraction of them! We'll dive into 2D platformers, 1st and 3rd person action, racing, grand strategy, real time strategy, Virtual reality, flight simulator, and probably more that I'm forgetting! What's your favorite Star Wars video game?

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

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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

Welcome to Supply Lines, a new running feature here on TMP where the dorks will be looking at resource management in games. What games? All games, because they all have a variety of resources that the player needs to manage to be able to play! To kick it all off, we're starting with the game that we and our audience probably have the most experience with - Magic: the Gathering. We'll sprinkle in some examples from other card games as they come up of course, but MTG is the primary focus of this initial episode.

Be sure to let us know what you think! And please let us know what types of games you want to hear us cover in the future!

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

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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

What exactly is a roguelike? Well it's a video game...genre? Sort of? Genres are all made up and stupid.

In this episode, the dorks will dive into what makes a roguelike a roguelike, with lots of relevant conversations about various aspects of the whole thing. And be sure to let us know your favorite roguelikes and why!

Stay tuned for the end when Mike & Chewie get all caught up in...D&D stuff? Wait what?

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

Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed: https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch: www.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