The Mana Pool

Yes you read that correctly! The dorks venture forth into the long dark of Lucky's Card Shop in Greensboro NC to bring you field reports straight from the Prerelease! Actually it's quite well-lit in there, but that wouldn't have sounded anywhere near as cool. But yes, Chewie brought his Tascam DR-08 recorder with him to catalogue everything we did while we were there. Well, maybe not everything. I mean, he didn't take it to the bathroom or to McDonald's with him. Okay he did, but he didn't use it at those two places.

Anyway, Prerelease. With a Simic, an Orzhov, and two Boros players in our crew, somebody was probably going to do well. And they did, but you'll have to listen to find out who and how good. Or just, you know, pay attention to the forums and Twitter and stuff. Whatever. We discussed how rounds went, talked to other players, got a few good stories, and had an all-around good time. So give it a listen and let us know what you think, since this is the first time we've done this.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - various NES soundbites courtesy of The Videogame Music Preservation Foundation - http://vgmpf.comThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-265 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-265-gatecrash-prerelease-live-t893.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We are joined this episode by a VERY special guest, Graham Stark from LoadingReadyRun! Graham, who is a very funny fellow it turns out, hangs out with us for the first half of the episode. We talk about what LRR is, Magic, having a real job, drafting, Magic, Gatecrash, Guilds, and more Magic. Probably some other stuff too, it's been a while since we actually recorded this one.After Graham takes his leave of us so he can go be funny on camera and stuff (definitely a rough life), we turn our sights to the full Gatecrash set. We take a look at some cycles that have been revealed or fully fleshed out, check out some reprints, hit the last of the mythics, and generally just go over anything that looks cool. We hope you enjoy!Follow Graham on Twitter: @Graham_LRRCheck out LoadingReadyRun at.... http://www.loadingreadyrun.comWatch the Friday Nights series: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/936Gatecrash full set: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/gatecrash/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Airbase by Anamanaguchi - http://anamanaguchi.comThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-264 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-264-stark-raving-mad-t889.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

This episode had a great many possible titles to pick from. Here are two of the ones I didn't choose: Five Alarm Fire, How Much Mustard Did They Have? And that's why I love this game.We're joined this week by our old friend Bill Bloodworth, who is Kurai_Seraphim on the forums and @SqueeGoblnNabob on Twitter. It's almost a tradition to have him here with us when preview season hits, so why change things now? We talked a little bit about the GTC Event Decks (there's only a little bit of info, after all), and a fair amount about the tokens in Gatecrash. And from there, it was all spoilers. Yeah, there were a lot. So...we hope you enjoy!Gatecrash Spoilershttp://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/gatecrash/cigGatecrash Event Deckshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1146Gatecrash Tokenshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1147 Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Lap Dancing Lady by Tony FerrinoThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-263 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-263-slimy-hat-salesman-t885.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

This episode we are joined by none other than Dr. Science himself, Cluze! He did a Magic Mad Lib with us, which is always fun. Before that, we talked about a bunch of announcements and news and stuff. No really, look at all these announcements and news and stuff we talked about! Well, the links are down there somewhere. I'm sure you'll find them.Then we hit the Gatecrash previews, of course. That's why you're all here, after all. And we went on about them. And on. And then on some more. Holy crap, the second part of this episode was as long as a normal episode! But we were definitely thorough, and took at least a glance at everything that had been spoiled up to that time. So sit back, enjoy, and let us know what you thought.Follow Cluze on Twitter @lacluyze - he's a pretty cool guy. Then go listen to him over at Card Advantage while you're at it.Magic 2014http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1141Fan Kitshttp://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1142Duels 2013 Deck Pack 3http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1143

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - The Black Gate (from Return of the King) by Howard Shore - http://www.howardshore.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-262 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-262-uncommon-fish-mutant-t884.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We begin this episode short one host, but don't worry about him. He'll show up in the nick of time. Brian gives us his take on last episode, throwing out ideas for Hellsing seen through the lens of Magic cards. Then he and Chewie tell us about some of their experiences with the Return to Ravnica Booster Battle Packs, or whatever they're called. But of course, that's not why any of you are here, is it?Yes, we're going to hit each and every Gatecrash card that had been revealed when we recorded this. And holy crap there were a lot of them. From the first five that revealed the new guild mechanics all the way down to everyone's favorite planeswalker bro, we're taking a look at them all. And be sure you stay tuned until the very end, because we have some information about playing Extort cards in EDH that came all the way from a high-level judge.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Gates of Love by Bang Camaro - http://www.bangcamaro.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-261 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-261-crashing-all-the-gates-t883.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Chewie got a 2013 Holiday Card! That's the good news. The bad news is that Brian was having technical difficulties, causing some serious feedback problems. The majority of them were edited out, so just trust us that they were absolutely worse than you can hear. There is also another of Brian's on-theme Magic Mad Libs. Yay Mad Libs!

But this episode is more than problems and a Mad Lib. This one is another of those free-form rambling discussions with no real point or purpose other than to entertain our thousands of listeners across the globe! Or...at least the American ones, in this case. Roughly a year ago, we did Episode 205 - Would Solid Snake Have Shroud? It was jolly good fun, so Brian thought we should do it again. But instead of looking at video games through the lens of Magic cards, this time we're doing television shows! Shows we enjoy, shows we've seen, or just shows we think might work well with Magic. If you have any ideas or suggestions for shows, then hit the forums or leave a comment on the site. Hope you enjoy!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Cheers Theme by Gary Portnoy

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-260 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-260-giant-chicken-token-t882.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Man, this episode is all over the place. We have a Cardshark promotion to tell you about, first and foremost. If you want a shot at winning the five best planeswalkers in Standard, you should definitely pay attention. Here's the link, in case you can't pay attention:http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Default.aspxThen, we hear from a Russian listener. We've been at this a long time (over 5 years now in fact) and that might be a first. How cool is that?Then we have another Magic Mad Lib. If you thought last week's was funny, then you've got to hear this one. Featuring 100% less singing (thank goodness), this Mad Lib might be Chewie's favorite ever. No kidding. The follow-up discussion was also some top-notch stuff."What are the monkey people called?" - DirkThe rest of the episode (yeah, all that was only like a quarter of it at most) is taken up by our responses to two listener emails. Tony Mendolia (who never fails to tell the world about our new episodes on Google Plus, even though we've pretty much given up on it) asks us a question about saving sets of commons and uncommons for his kids. This was a really good discussion, plus it gave Dirk a chance to weigh in with some serious mic time!The second half of the show is all about Ravnican flavor. More specifically, the storyline of Return to Ravnica. Andrew from CO in LA (confusing, innit?) wanted to know about it, since he wasn't exactly sure what was going on. We ended up going over everything we know, or think we know, and connecting as much of it as possible to the original Ravnica storyline. Another good discussion, and another satisfied listener (in theory anyway, since we didn't exactly run it past him ahead of time).Hope you all enjoy, and try not to get stabbed in the uterus. Just sayin'.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Youth of America by Birdbrain - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdbrain_%28band%29

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-259 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-259-tundra-wolves-man-13-t878.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

We are joined this week by Calvin Russell, also known as Captain Red Zone, from the Off Color Cast. If you've ever listened to that show, you'll know that he has a tendency to sort of run off at the mouth and end up talking to himself, which is perfect for our show! We initially brought him on to talk about battle strategies or something, and he did...at first. It was thoroughly entertaining though, so we hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.

That's not all though! Before we cut Calvin loose, we had a lot to do. Chewie spoke for a bit about Grand Prix Charleston, because believe it or not this is the first time we've recorded since then! Incidentally, have you heard about playing Magic with The Stack? It's pretty freakin' great. There's a bit of news, with Duels 2013 getting a new deck pack featuring Orzhov and Gruul decks. Also, there's a recent rash of card shop robberies in central California. If you're out that way, beware.Off Color Cast: http://www.offcolorcast.comCalvin during the GP stories: http://i.imgur.com/tCp90.gifDuels 2013 Deck Pack #2: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1118Central California card shop breakins: http://www.kmph.com/story/20269093/thieves-target-game-shops-steal-magic-cards

Oh we're not done yet! Brian had a very special (and ESPECIALLY HILARIOUS) Christmas-themed Magic Mad Lib. Seriously, this one was great. Not just because of the Mad Lib itself, but because of the circumstances surrounding it. I mean damn.

And if you manage to make it all the way to the end, you can hear Chewie being not gracious at all as he thanks a few listeners for their generosity as well as Dirk complaining about his students. That last part is pretty funny. I'm just sayin'.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Warp Zone Music from Super Mario SunshineCalvin's New Jam created by Andy of CommanderCast fame, used with Chris's permission. Sorta. Whatevs.

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-258 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-258-into-the-red-zone-t876.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Hey look, another live episode already! Yeah, it turns out that the week after the week we took off due to Thanksgiving, Brian decided to go to Disney World and forget to remind us. We determined that he was missing...about an hour or so before starting. Since having Brian around was pretty essential for the topic we had in mind, we panicked. Thus, I bring you the live episode we recorded just last month!We start off with a nice and sorta quick Commander game. Then we have a particularly brutal (and therefore short) Archenemy game played with 60-card casual decks.Of course, we can't have two short games without having one stupidly long one. Taking up fully half of the unedited time, we played a game of Planechase. If I remember correctly...nope, I don't. I've blocked it. But don't worry, this game isn't actually all that bad. This definitely wasn't the worst game we played that day. Hope you enjoy!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music 1 - Flash Man from Mega Man 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment SystemBreak Music 2 - Dust Man from Mega Man 4 on the NES

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-257 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-257-go-vacuum-live-t871.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcast Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool Our Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapool Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at @TheManaPool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

The latest Limited Resources, posted here because MTGCast is full, and because Marshall is such a great guy that I finally got to meet. Also, Jon Loucks is SUPER dreamy!