The Mana Pool

Because of the holiday (Independence Day here in America), Brian had family over and couldn't join us. We we tapped everyone's favorite goblin deck hand and MTGO draft recorder, Squee! I mean Bill. You know, the guy with the awesome last name! Bloodworth - isn't that cool? You should follow him on Twitter - he's @SqueeGoblnNabob. And his videos are right here too:http://themanapool.com/category/videos/squee-draft/Anyway, we had lots of M13 to discuss. All of it actually, as the name of the episode implies. Though it really doesn't imply it so much as state it explicitly. Anyway, to make up for the lack of Brian's rambling, we all sort of became long-winded. Not Limited Resources set review long-winded, but pretty long for us. But we had basically an entire set to fool around with. Next week you'll get to hear about the Prerelease, this week it's all theory and Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 experience. And as always, you can follow along in the Card Image Gallery:http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.comBreak Music – Sara Smile by Daryl Hall & John Oates - http://www.hallandoates.com/This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-237Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-237-all-the-m13-t827.htmlCheck out our archive at http://themanapool.com/category/podcastOur Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPoolOur Google+ page: http://gplus.to/themanapoolEmail us at [email protected]Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/themanapoolCardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/Promotions/Member-Promotions.aspxSubscribe to our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

A few days before recording this episode, one Daniel Beach (@beach7125) asked Chewie a question. That question would lead to a conversation, which would then lead to this episode of The Mana Pool with guest host Daniel Beach. Before we tell you the nature of this question, we have to talk about the tokens of Magic 2013 and the remaining preview cards that have been shown since our last episode. Are we good with that? The links to those are right here:M13 Card Image Gallery: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#M13 Tokens: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1002

The question and ensuing conversation involved the nature of Nicol Bolas as the big bad guy of Magic. He's Dr. Doom. Moriarty. The Architect (or Agent Smith, depending on your take on the films). And Beach had some issues with that. So we asked him on the episode to help us air those issues and in generally discuss the nature of Nicol Bolas in Magic fiction. So if you've read the novels...you have our condolences. If you haven't read the novels, good on ya and enjoy our completely off-the-cuff and probably inaccurate recollections of the guy who's behind it all (no, not Mark Rosewater - we're not talking about real life this episode).Nicol Bolas Wiki: http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Nicol_Bolas

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-236 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-236-the-saga-of-nicky-b-t826.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

Not one, but TWO guest hosts join us for this episode! Everyone's old favorite Eric (of the Many Names) resurfaces to shoot the breeze and drink Southern Comfort while recording with us. The other host is Joseph A, better known as Khaos Kontrol (to Chewie anyway, who kept just calling him Khaos) on our forums. You know, the guy that wrote the awesome poem that we featured a while back on Episode 226. He also did a CMDR Decks video that you might recognize if you hang around on The Mana Pool at all. But because of those things (and he's got a podcast coming up sometime soon), we had him on to help spread the joy around.

We kick off the episode by opening up a package from Tim (@planar_snap ), one of our favorite listeners from the UK. That's vague, lemme rephrase. He's from the UK, and he's one of our favorite listeners. Much better. But he sent us a package with stuff in it, which was opened on the air. And HOLY CRAP what stuff we got! If you want to find out what, you'll have to listen. Tim, we really appreciate all of it. You really didn't have to do that. Damn.

Then of course there's all that other stuff that happened. The Commander/EDH bannings, the Standard (non) bannings, and the Legacy unbanning all happened. Then we had to talk about the Magic 2013 promo cards that they revealed, and Mike noticed something we've been missing for the last several months. How about that? From there we cover the rest of the M13 previews of course.

Commander Ban List Update - http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12073 DCI Banned/Restricted List Update - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/06202012a M13 Promo Cards - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/998 M13 CardImage Gallery - http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#

From there we have to talk about Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, which had JUST come out the day we recorded this. Then Khaos (I mean Joseph) has another poem that he wrote for us for having him on the show. Hell yeah epic background music! There's also some random discussion of things that I only barely remember as well as some very important, very somber, and very true advice. So listen up!

Also, here's the link to the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph. Holy crap this looks like fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btB8tb8fLYM

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – All Beauty Destroyed by Laura by Spruke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVuTT-1puIM&feature=youtu.be

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-235 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-235-vampiric-geyser-t822.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 we lied. Sorry about that. But surely you'll forgive us for skipping a week because of a LIVE episode! That wasn't even one that was in the can! It was recorded so we could put it up while Planechase was still somewhat relevant! Put down your torches and pitchforks, you can hear the second part of the Awards right here. See the title? We covered Cuddliest Werewolf, Most and Least Scary Spirit, Most Dapper Vampire, and of course Best Creature in a Supporting Role and Best Creature in a Leading Role. Brian sorta forgot the difference for a minute, but give him a break. He's cute.

Anyway, what else was there? A bit of news of course, then we hit up the M13 previews. Mind you, we recorded this on Wednesday of last week, so it's not completely up to date. But we weighed in on everything that had been officially spoiled at that point. If you'd like to check these out, you can find them all right here in the M13 Card Image Gallery:http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2013/cig#

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Raise Up by Petey Pablo - http://www.myspace.com/peteypablo

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-234 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-234-innistrad-creature-awards-part-2-t821.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

I'll bet you didn't expect another live episode so soon, did you? Well tough. We all went over to Dirk's house to play with the new Planechase cards! Except we did that at the store. So when we got back to Dirk's house, we threw ALL the new Planes and Phenomena (doot dooo doo-doo-doo) into a pile, grabbed up some EDH decks, and started Planechasing away!

I'm sorry to say we only got in one game, and it was a LONG one. But at no point did it become miserable or stupid. It was actually pretty awesome the whole time. And the end! Not to spoil anything, but the end is completely nuts and epic and holy crap was it awesome. Be sure you stick around for the whole thing. Due to the magic of editing, you'll actually get there about 20 minutes before we actually did.

Also, Trevor wasn't terribly happy when we started recording, so you'll hear a lot of him at the beginning. But bear with us, he passed out not long after we started. He's a cute little 3/3 with trample and haste.

And also, if you're not currently on TheManaPool.com, you should go there and check out the pictures I took during the recording session. This is some crazy stuff right here.

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – We can't take breaks! We're playing Magic!

This episode’s post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-233 Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-233-new-planechase-edh-live-t820.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 marks the first of the Mana Pool Creature Awards! We covered our first few categories here, including Best and Worst Dressed Humanoids and Not-At-All-Humanoids (see image for Worst-Dressed Humanoid nominees), Best Use of Scale Birds, Best Art on a Bad Creature, and Most Disturbing Depiction of a Creature. Stay tuned to a future episode for the rest of the categories!

Oh, right. Planechase. The entire decklists were revealed and all that, so we had to check those out too. All four of these decks look like serious fun, and the Planes and Phenomena (doot dooooo doo-doo-doo) are seriously ridiculous. Like damn.

Planechase Decklists:http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/981

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Thriller by Michael Jackson (creepy voice provided by Vincent Price)

This episode's post: http://themanapool.com/podcast/episode-232Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-232-the-innistrad-creature-awards-part-one-t818.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

Being that this is a casual-centric Magic podcast, we don't venture much into the world of competitive sanctioned Magic. But when we do, we spend a LOT of time talking about it on the next show! That is this show. In case you haven't heard, Mike, Brian, and Chewie went to a Standard PTQ last week. Why might you have heard? Well, that would be because Chewie ended up making Top 8! Of course, we have to spend a good amount of time talking about that, because it's not something that happens every day, you know?Chewie's PTQ Tournament Report:http://themanapool.com/articles/kamikaze-standard-ptq/Oh yeah, and there's this weird little thing called Planechase that has been making the preview circuit lately. We're going to talk about all the cards and planes and phenomena that were spoiled at the time of this recording. Hope you all enjoy, and be sure to listen to the outro music. It's really good.Planechase Visual Spoiler:http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/planechase2012edition/cig

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – The Chase by Giorgio Moroder from Midnight Express

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-231-how-many-years-has-it-been-t812.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com 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

In which we discuss what happened to Dirk, refute the notion that there's no such thing as a free lunch, explain why it's good that we didn't record the previous game, and play some Magic. No really!Mike, Brian, and Chewie lead off with a fairly quick game of Commander, where Chewie's relatively new Johan deck got off to a ridiculous start. Holy crap. Then there's another Commander game after that! After that, we clear up some confusion about whether or not Mike realizes we're not playing EDH anymore, and proceed to play a game with normal decks. I can't really call it a 60 card game, but you'll see why. And we decided to end up with a relatively quick game of Horde Magic again Brian's green Horde deck. Been a while since you heard about that format, hasn't it?So that's our second long-lost live episode. During the last two games, Brian's daughter Sam was awake and running around and happy, so you'll just have to deal with all the assorted baby noises, toy noises, and Chewie turning around to talk to her. She's so cute. And he has focus problems when there's a baby around. Also, we hope you enjoyed the I Fight Dragons sampler platter.Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Musics – All of these are by I Fight Dragons (played on the episode in this order) off their album Kaboom! - http://www.ifightdragons.comSave World Get GirlMy WayKaboom!With You

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-230-commanders-casuals-hordes-oh-my-live-t811.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com 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

We begin by taking a quick look at the Avacyn Restored Event Decks, in all their glorious whatever-it-is. After that, we have a riveting discussion about what happens when you cast Eaten by Spiders on Avacyn. Another listener-inspired topic that we tackled is a simple one: What was the first card you ever really coveted? This leads us to all kinds of nostalgia and manages to infiltrate the main topic of the episode.Main topic you say? Well AVR has lots of shiny new angels and a fair number of new demons, but what about the old guard? Both have been around since the first printing of Magic, but what are we dealing with here? What have these two types looked like throughout the history of the game? We'll discuss some of the ancient creatures of each type and throw out plenty of personal experiences with them too of course.Two things should become pretty obvious from this discussion. First, Brian doesn't actually know the names of any angels or demons in the game of Magic. And second, demons DO NOT get along with Mike, so much so that we named the episode after this phenomenon. You're gonna love these horrible, horrible demonic bad beats stories all the more when you realize that these ALL come from the demons that Mike is playing WITH, not against!Avacyn Restored Event Decks: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/967Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Lights Out by Pitch the Woo – http://www.facebook.com/pitchthewoobandForum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-229-mike-s-demonic-defects-t806.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com 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

Yeah, we just had 3 episodes of previews, so you know what that means - the Prerelease episode! Bill Bloodworth (you know, @SqueeGoblnNabob) joins us for this one, since he was the cause of the funniest thing any of us have seen at a Prerelease for a VERY long time. Brian talked about his experience, Bill told his story, and Mike and Chewie covered their two apiece. Definitely a lot of fun. So be sure to tune in to hear about the bitch scoop, slamming the door, How to Miracle (from Bill), How Not to Miracle (from Mike), Chewie Righteously Blowing things, and of course...GRISELBRAND!Of course, before we get to the Sealed events, we have a few things to discuss. In a quick message on DailyMTG by Helene Bergeot (and aren't they all quick?), it was revealed that Guillaume Matignon's suspension was cut in half. If you'll recall, he was one of the Guillaumes responsible for GuillaumeGate. Guillaume Guillaume. Okay, I think that's out of my system now. But he was one of the guys behind the New Phyrexia godbook leak. Or so we thought...*dramatic pause*Also, there was plenty of talk about the Helvault promotion on the whole. We'll go over the ups, the downs, why it was or wasn't crazy good, and bat around a few ideas for improving future events and stuff. Let us know what you think!GRISELBRAND!Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com Break Music – Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling StonesForum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-228-the-helvault-experience-play-boros-t804.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com 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