The Mana Pool

In this episode, your four hosts definitely do NOT get lives. Trust me on this.First up, there's the big news regarding 11th Edition. There isn't going to be one! The next core set will be Magic 2010. It will contain roughly half new cards. Yeah that's right, new cards in a core set. Weird. We'll go over all this and the other assorted bits of news that aren't worth putting in the show notes, as well as give you our opinions on the matter. Then there's the title of the episode. In this new segment that we've decided to call "An Excellent Bit of Deckbuilding Nonsense". It'll be another of those segments that shows up for a while, then disappears, then shows up again when someone asks where it went. Sound good? The point of this exercise is to give each of the hosts a deckbuilding idea and turn them loose. This time we decided to go with "Life Gain". Use life gain for something other than "I just happen to gain some life when I do X". Dirk's idea was a great basic use for gaining life. Mike made life gain a major focus of the deck's theme. Brian took the concept and turned it completely on its head. And I decided to make life gain the win conditions in the deck. And yes that's supposed to be plural. If you'd like to take a look at the decks we built, just click on the forum link down below. They'll be there.Music for this episode: the Metal Mario theme from Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-69-get-a-life-t301.htmlCheck out our archive at http://themanapool.libsyn.comEmail us at [email protected]Send me an article at [email protected]Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.comCardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.aspRSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

For anyone joining us from the MTGCast, welcome to The Mana Pool! Come on in, the water's fine. For everyone else, welcome back. Please use your assigned locker space for changing into your trunks. Also, please wait until us hosts get out of the locker room, because we definitely don't need to be here to see that.It's a product review and a set review! But first, we have to read the contest winning story, the one submitted by kurai_seraphim (that's Bill). Featuring Mike as the Lord of Atlantis!Then we jump back in time for Brian and I to take a comparative look at the new 6 card Conflux boosters that are available at the large retail stores. I bought five of the 6 card boosters and two of the standard 15 card boosters, giving me 30 cards from each type of pack. We'll take a look at the contents of each, then draw some conclusions about which type of booster pack is the better deal.Fast forward back to the present, and Mike, Dirk, and I take a look at the original five-color gold set, Invasion. We'll take a quick look at the story and the mechanics of the set, but primarily we're just going to be going over some of the more memorable and awesome cards in the set. Hope you enjoy!Music for this episode: No One Expects the Mana Pool by JungleRatRobDownload it directly here: http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=401796Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-68-the-reviews-are-in-t296.htmlEmail us at [email protected] Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Welcome to our random nonsense episode. I'm dying slowly and pitifully, Mike's sleep schedule is being treated like a pinball, Brian's classes are eating into his social activities, and Dirk plays WoW. Not only that, but we're going to attempt to humanize ourselves just a little bit. We're gonna give you a look at your dorky hosts from a different perspective – what we're doing when we're not playing Magic or podcasting about Magic. Are we really big dorks, or are we actually cool people who play Magic? Find out here!

Next up is the contest story that won second place, from Ben Ahrendt. That's Panahinuva on the forums, and the guest host on episode 63. It's a great story, as narrated by our own Brian Baker. We tried to get Ken Follett, but he didn't return our calls. And Don LaFontaine died last year, so he was out. So we went with our third choice, the guy that does the game footage recap commentary on Inside the NFL, but we have no idea who he is. So it was up to Brian, and he performed admirably.

There were some recent changes to the Comprehensive Rules that were posted on the Magic website. Mike wanted to go over a few of the more interesting ones (in theory). He covered Eye for an Eye, Gilded Drake, Guardian Beast, and Sorrow's Path. Turns out they finally made it not completely useless, but still absolutely terrible. You can find the full list here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/23c&page=1

And then we move into the second round of Jace vs. Chandra games. We made a few changes to each deck and pitted them against each other yet again. After listening to the results, hit the forums and let us know if you have any recommendations for the next round of changes.

Music for this episode is the Main Theme from Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii. Holy crap it's great.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-67-potent-potables-t294.html

Email us at [email protected] Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

It's the Conflux Prerelease Bonanza! Okay, I'm totally not gonna call it that. But in this episode, we all get together and tell you about the Prerelease. Spoiler alert: Mike the did the worst of us all. We also get Bill, winner of the Mana Pool Contest and Kurai_Seraphim on the forums, to join us to tell us how he fared. There's also a brief sidebar on cheating, a bit of discussion about some of the cards in the new set, and even a quick look ahead at Alara Reborn. I mean quick, too. Like just a few seconds. But it's in there! And there are new member promotions on Cardshark (since it's a new month) and new members on the forums to welcome. Yay new people!

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-66-conflux-prerelease-t293.htmlEmail us at [email protected] Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Alas, we are Dirkless yet again! Luckily (for him), he has a good excuse this time. We are also Mikeless. Is that even a word? Also luckily, he has a good excuse too. I'd hate to have to kill a dork in anger, you know?

Before we got to the show though, Brian and I had to finish a game. Luckily, I was able to summon up a garthok84 from the forums to fight for me. Then he decided to stick around and guest host this episode for us. It's Jason McFarland, guest host extraordinare and third place winner of The Mana Pool Contest!

So yeah, it's more Conflux previews. Nine cards' worth of goodness, in fact. Never mind the random tangent about whether or not narrow cards that work well in block are are good or not. Or the fifteen minute discussion about the last card (arguably the most important, from a tournament perspective). Or the assorted other random nonsense that comes up all the time. Yeah. Thanks for putting up with all our crap. Enjoy the Prerelease!

Conflux Visual Spoiler: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/conflux/spoilerForum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-65-conflux-previews-4-t291.html Email us at [email protected] Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Brains! No, wait, that's not right.

Previews! After you pay for this episode, you'll get to hear our takes on 13 more Conflux preview cards. Now all you have to do is figure out where to insert the money...

Conflux Visual Spoiler: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/conflux/spoiler

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-64-conflux-previews-3-t288.html Email us at [email protected] Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

In this originally-named episode, we're gonna hit more Conflux previews! But first, we're gonna give you the story that won third place in the contest, submitted by Jason McFarland, who is garthok84 on the forums. It involves my favorite format ever and a terrible, horrible, soul-crushing way to lose. But before that, we've got a promo to play for Mr. Suitcase, a podcast over on the MTGCast. Preceding that, there's a bit of a rules issue that recently came to my attention that we wanted to clear up involving Unearth, in case some of you don't know it. I didn't know it.

Before we get to all that though, we introduce you to Ben Ahrendt who is Panahinuva on the forums and the second place story in the contest, who joins us for this stupidly overpowered preview episode. I mean really, Nicol Bolas and Progenitus in the same episode? You're lucky your iPod can hold this entire episode at all. Holy crap.

If you want to see the answer to the Unearth-Blink issue written out, go here and scroll down awhile. You'll find it eventually.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/askwizards/1008

Conflux Visual Spoiler:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/conflux/spoiler

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-63-conflux-previews-2-t287.html

Email us at [email protected]

Send me an article at [email protected]

Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com

Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

In this episode of The Mana Pool, our heroes bravely withstand a goblin attack to bring you the first round of Conflux previews. There are 17 cards to go over, and they manage to hit every one of them without any major casualties, although Dirk may never walk again. Tune in next week to see which of your hosts learns a valuable lesson. The Mana Pool – Mondays on the WB! No wait, they're not that anymore. Never mind then, their TV show got canceled. You'll just have to get your episodes off the internet like everyone else.

And congratulations to the winners of the First Official Mana Pool Contest (Not an Official Name)! What, you don't know who won? Then you haven't listened to this episode yet!

Music for this episode is Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals by Raymond Scott. Again with the music you might recognize from a misspent youth watching Looney Tunes. Next episode will be something different, I assure you. Probably no music at all actually, so you better enjoy this one.

Forum thread for this episode:http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-62-conflux-previews-1-t286.html Email us at [email protected]Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

Welcome to the first Mana Pool episode of 2009! We of course have to start off predictably with some Magic-related New Year's resolutions. We all resolve to play more Magic than we have in recent times, so that must be the dork equivalent of "lose weight". I actually resolve not to lose weight, even though Wii Fit says I'm morbidly obese, but that's neither here nor there.

Then we get into the meat of the episode. We're going to start a deck evolution sort of thing, much like we did with the Clash Deck, except that we're actually going to do this one more than once. But instead of just building a deck and going from there, we're going to change it up a bit. We're going to take two decks and evolve them parallel to each other. And not just any two decks, no no no. We're starting off with the Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra. And boy are these decks a blast to play against each other. We've played some games with them straight out of the box, and we're going to make some changes and get back to you with the results, along with more changes. It'll be a running feature here on the show, at least until Brian gets bored with it.

Music for this episode is Powerhouse by Raymond Scott. It's classic music that was used a lot by Warner Bros for the Looney Tunes. You'll definitely recognize it.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-61-checked-on-new-year-s-resolution-t282.html Email us at [email protected]Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool

In this episode, there's some news that we need to go over. And when I say some news, I mean so much news that you might think that this was a news show or something. Seriously. We go over Cardshark member promotions for December, talk about Wizards' prerelease survey and related changes, the banned and restricted list, changes coming to a Magic Online near you, a brand new Duel Deck set coming out next year, and throw in a quick plug for the ongoing contest being run right here at the Mana Pool. See the links below for all that stuff. Oh yeah, and Worlds 2008 happened too. We'll tell you who won all the good stuff.

After three hours of news, we do have some content for you- binder pulls! What's that mean? Listen in and find out, and you'll soon find yourself flipping/digging/pawing/scratching/eating your way through your collection for hidden gems (Volrath's Dungeon) and lackluster duds (Molten Sentry). This was a fun one to put together, and we hope that you enjoy.

Cardshark Member Promotions

http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp

Prerelease News

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/13c

Banned & Restricted List Announcement

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/15a

MTGO Changes

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/17a

Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic Announcement

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1737

Music for this episode: Devour by Shinedown. Totally awesome. Check them out at http://www.shinedown.com

And don't forget to send your contest entries to us at [email protected]. For full contest rules and whatnot, see the link below.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-60-news-and-a-binder-pull-two-bits-t274.html

Contest information: the-mana-pool-contest-announcement-t261.htmlEmail us at [email protected]Send me an article at [email protected] Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themanapool