The Mana Pool

We begin this episode by giving a quick rundown of the last EDH game that we played at Brian's house a few weekends ago. It was glorious, and terrible, and bizarre, and epic, and ridiculous. Yes, all those things. Consecutively or concurrently, it doesn't matter. Then we have to tell you all about the crazy first game we played that weekend. It was not an ordinary game of Magic, and it involved yet another of Brian's crazy inventions. I'm sure you guys will enjoy it though, I know we did.Mad Lib! Your filth has freed us!Then we come to the good part. There were some SERIOUS internet connection issues going on here. We invited our old friend Professor J onto the show! TheJaceKid. Jace. Javier. He's almost on par with Eric here, holy crap! The problems were pretty bad, but we soldiered through to give you a big discussion about the color Red in multiplayer. We touched on lots of the big things Red can do, and why that does or does not work in multiplayer. Of course, the discussion is a bit fragmented due to the constant dropoffs, but I think it's still good. Be sure to follow Professor J on Twitter @JacevBeleren

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Red Tide by School for Heroes - http://www.myspace.com/schoolforheroes

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-256 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-256-don-t-stop-living-in-the-red-t866.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

On this episode, we end up talking a lot about Star Wars. Yeah, Disney bought LucasArts, or LucasFilm, or whatever the big thing is named and that's what kicked it all off, but we just went on about it for way too long. We're dorks, we can't help it. We also did another Magic Mad Lib, because they're entirely too much fun and we can't help ourselves.

Then we got into the meat of the episode. We each ranked the guild mechanics of Return to Ravnica in terms of multiplayer usefulness. Of course, as always happens when all 4 of us do something like this, we got VASTLY different results. I love it. So of course we have to discuss (argue) about each mechanic and why this one is better than that one. It's a good one as usual.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music - Duel of the Fates by John Williams - http://www.johnwilliamscomposer.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-255 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-255-the-unintentional-star-wars-episode-t864.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

So here it is, the long-lost live episode of The Mana Pool! Well, not so much long-lost as recorded-and-not-needed. We recorded this way back in late June when Chewie, Mike, and Brian all got together to play some Magic. Dirk was all up in Denver and stuff at the time. So we played some Planechase, some EDH, maybe some other stuff? I don't know, we're all learning this together. There's never much to say with a live episode, so I hope you guys enjoy!

Also, don't forget that Chewie, along with his Monday Night Magic cohost Jack, will be at Grand Prix Charleston gunslinging! That's November 16, 17, and 18! Here's the link:http://phoenixgamesinc.com/calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2012/11/16/1455/-/mtg-grand-prix-charleston

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.myspace.com/swiftband Break Music 1 – Korobeiniki by Ozma - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozma_%28band%29Break Music 2 - Double Dragon Stronghold by The Minibosses - http://minibosses.com/Break Music 3 - Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch? by Sam B - http://deadisland.deepsilver.com/dead-island/deadisland.php

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-254 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-254-planechasing-and-stuff-live-t859.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

This episode is brought to you by: Bling!We recorded this episode the night before the full reveal of Commander's Arsenal, so forgive us the lack of all the details. I do, however, believe that most of what we discussed still applies, so just listen to the episode. We have a nice big discussion about price points, and Commander, and greed, ballin' & flossin' and...I dunno, white people? It's been a few days, give me a break. Here's the entire Commander's Arsenal though, we'll get to it next episode.http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/218cAlso, here's the article on CommanderCast that Chewie mentioned:http://www.commandercast.com/generally-speaking-32-commanders-arsenal-not-actually-for-commander-playersFrom there, we went on to the Modern Masters announcement. More price points, greed, ballin' & flossin', and white people, this time with a Modern bent. Ballin' I say!http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/218This led us quite naturally into a multiplayer version of Modern Masters. So we dug through Gatherer and found a whole lotta buncha Modern-legal cards from the Modern Masters reprint pool that we just LOVE for group games of Magic! Let us know what we missed!Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Mo Money Mo Problems by The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-253 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-253-modern-multiplayer-masters-t856.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

As we tend to do with every Standard rotation, we're going to take a look at all the things that we won't be hearing about any more. Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, New Phyrexia, and Magic 2012 are all gone, and that means no more Titans, Infect, Elesh Norn, Bloodthirst, Heroes, Slagstorm, Ponder, Swords, and ALL KINDS of other stuff!To help us out with this discussion, we brought on everyone's favorite podcaster, Chris Lansdell (@lansdellicious). And I'm glad we did, because this show was entirely too much fun.You may notice a very small difference in the intro. That's all for you, Myke Okuhara!Oh yeah, be sure you hang around until the end. Trust me on this one.Chris Lansdell on Mana Deprived: http://manadeprived.com/author/chris-lansdell/Grand Prix Charleston Information: http://phoenixgamesinc.com/calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2012/11/16/1455/-/mtg-grand-prix-charlestonIntro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – The Touch by Stan Bush - http://stanbush.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-252 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-252-rotated-and-touched-t852.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Hey look, we're finally gonna talk about the Prerelease! Oh shut up, it was worth the wait to have Squanto on episode 250 and you know it. As you may know, ALL FOUR of the host dorks were at the Return to Ravnica prerelease! Dirk (of all people) even did TWO! We had Azorius, Rakdos, and Golgari represented at the one we all did together at Lucky's Card Shop in Greensboro, NC. How'd we all do? Well you're gonna have to listen for that one, aren't you? And that's the majority of the episode, of course.

That's not all though! We also took a look at the new Standard now that RTR is available. Of course this isn't anything in-depth or even useful, we just wanted to poke at it and see what's changed. My old favorite Kamikaze deck is still alive and kicking, in three different major variations!

We also have major problems with time dilation, time slipping slipping slipping, into the future, and Time Reversal being more than just a card.

Also, I got a ridiculously awesome gift from Wizards of the Coast and 360 Public Relations, and I have to take my final thought to explain it and thank everyone that might have had anything to do with it! It's a Tablet of the Guilds print signed by a bunch of RTR's Design and Development team members! Holy crap! You can click on the link down there that says "This episode's post" to see the picture!

Also, I reveal the source of all my power!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Release! by Timbaland - http://www.timbalandmusic.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-251 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-251-prerelease-i-m-out-of-control-t851.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Here we are at another milestone episode for The Mana Pool! It's been almost five years since we started this little show (that's another milestone for next month), and it's been a blast! Lots of things have changed over the years, most notably our lineup. Originally, the show was going to be Chewie and whoever he could track down to record with him any given week. As we went on, the lineup settled into the four dorks that you all know and love, but we did have one other regular host back in the day. He was responsible for MANY of the early topics for the show when we had no idea what to talk about. He was our resident noob and minority. Of course I'm talking about none other than Squanto!

Well I tracked him down (gave him a call) and convinced him (asked once) to come back for the big two-five-oh. Since he's still a Magic player (thanks to Duels of the Planeswalkers on the iPad), he agreed! He's taking an outsider's viewpoint on the game, picking our brains on the current state of the game and where it's heading. We touch on tournaments, Magic Online, Duels of the Planeswalkers, the secondary market, media coverage, and really anything else we could think to include! It was a really great discussion and we're all really happy to present it to you as our 250th episode!

But that's not all! We also took a look at the Banned & Restricted List update that we missed a couple weeks ago (weird, I know). We give you the rundown on the Return to Ravnica Event Decks, which were just released last week. We go back to Magic nonsense to trash on the various Magic novels and thank goodness that they decided to just not release one rather than releasing straight crap.

B&R List Update: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/09202012a RTR Event Decks: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1071

Of course, we go off topic a few times, Chewie is tormented by a couple flies in his room, Brian's sister is hot, Mike's beard is epic, and Dirk is replaced with Robot Dirk. Basically everything's about where it should be. Thanks for listening, and here's to another 250! Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Swell Guy by SwiftThis episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-250 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-250-the-state-of-the-game-t847.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

The full set has been revealed, so we have to spend a nice long time talking about it! You've come to expect this though, right? All the shows out there are doing it, man. Of course, we've been doing it longer, but that's beside the point, right?But we're not going to start out with the awesome new stuff, no no. We have to go back to the Commander banned list update, because we missed something the first time around. Here's a link so you can follow along: http://www.mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12253The Intro Packs for Return to Ravnica have been revealed, so you should probably check those out too. They seem pretty good with just a cursory glance:http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1067Also, our resident Rules Guy gets blue-balled by a less-than-interesting Rules Update:http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/214bAnd of course, the full set for RTR is here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/returntoravnica/cig

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – A Kind of Magic by Queen - http://www.queenonline.com

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-249 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-249-return-of-the-ravnica-or-the-guildpact-strikes-t845.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Yup, it's more Return to Ravnica previews! You know it, you love it. Or maybe you just tolerate it. I know we do! Here's the link:http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/returntoravnica/cig#We also talked about these expensive guild shirts:http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/213And this No Shyfts comic:http://www.5colorcontrol.com/noshyfts/?p=467And we talked at length about the Escapist Expo tournament, which is pretty cool. Chewie and Bill finished in the top 16, and Mike had a serious, SERIOUS problem. No, I mean it. I'm not even playing, this was really bad. But you'll have to wait until the end of the episode to hear all about that! HA! That's called a teaser.http://www.escapistexpo.com

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police - http://www.thepolice.com/

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-248 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-248-the-rules-guy-gets-busted-t843.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 http://twitter.com/themanapool Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspx Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool