Top 8 Magic – magic.facetofacegames.com

Aaaaaand they’re back not days after their last podcast. Zvi ran a Doom Patrol list — his modified version of the Doom Foretold deck Bryan Gottlieb has popularized for the new Standard — to a 12-1 finish in the big Arena Standard preview event over the weekend. He and BDM discuss the list, what changes might be made moving forward, and how the deck is positioned in the metagame.

While discussing the deck they digressed slightly into the Daryl Morey incident and the NBA reaction to his support of Hong Kong. This discussion happened BEFORE the Blizzard news about rescinding Blitzchung’s Hearthstone Grandmaster prize money and firing the casters of the event.

On the day of BDM getting to play with Throne of Eldraine cards for the very first time he sat down with Pro Tour champion and Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz to get his first takes on the new Limited format.

After the draft, BDM and Michael J. Flores connect to talk about the draft (***spoilers*** it did not go well) and discuss the cards Mike is thinking about buying from Face to Face Games for this new Standard format. After that the two discuss the new fall TV season and what they have been watching so far.

Once upon a time there was a Hall of Famer and Pro Tour champion named Zvi who was going to be attending the Mythic ball in Richmond. Before he could attend that ball the wicked tournament organizer said had to complete all his chores; poring over the new cards as they were released to public, thinking about building new decks, and talking about the new cards for multiple hours on the longest running Magic podcast on the game’s history. 

Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz joins Pro Tour Historian emeritus for another episode — and then another one after that — of Top 8 Magic. 

Find out which cards have the noted deckbuilder excited about the upcoming Standard format, which one he fully expects to get banned in Modern, and what the gamblers line would be for Hall of Famer-elect Reid Duke to register a copy of Garruk, Cursed Huntsman in his 75 cards for Richmond. 

This podcast contains no actual modern Mardu Burn list but it does eventually get around to why not. There is extensive Magic talk though as your hosts Brian David-Marshall and Michael J. Flores both had a topic of interest. 

BDM wanted to dwell on some of the new cards spoiled from Throne of Eldraine — specifically the possibility of the Adventure mechanic allowing for a Rube Goldberg-like buyback mechanic on the spell side. 

MichaelJ was talking on the eve of a large local MCQ — no PTQ — wait? still an MCQ? — and he was in full pyro mode talking about his beloved burn deck and all the various permutations from Rakdos to Boros to Naya and even the apocryphal Mardu Burn. 

After well more than an hour of Magic talk they turn their attention to what shows they have been watching — which for two very busy guys is a disturbingly large amount of television content.

The longest running Magic: The Gathering podcast returns to talk about this year's newly renamed Magic Hall of Fame, swings at some savage rumors, and finishes up on where Modern will be after a trio of key bannings and un-bannings. Pro Tour Historian, Emeritus Brian David-Marshall is joined by onetime Resident Genius Michael J Flores AND A BRAND NEW MICROPHONE for our, um, four hundred and eighty-seventh episode!

Michael J Flores and Brian David-Marshall are reunited and MichaelJ doesn’t feel so good. The classic line-up for Magic’s longest-running podcast is back together after a brief interruption. MichaelJ was away on vacation and after sleeping on a boat for close to two weeks he has been diagnosed with landsickness — which apparently is not what happens when you miss Lan D Ho but something much more serious. 

The guys decided to celebrate by playing a little FNM. Mike played his MonoGreen Standard deck that BDM refers to as “last year’s model” while Brian opts for a little Core set draft. First couple of minutes are pretty noisy as “Table for 8” is a lot louder than one for two. After the noisy intro the guys take it to the streets after their rounds to recount the evening and then talk about the future of WPNQs, PTQs and all things related to the recent OP announcements. 

BDM and Zvi  with their immediate reactions to the new esports announcement. 

BDM & Mike Flores react to the aftermath of Hogaak Summer at the most recent Mythic Championship in Barcelona.

*spoiler alert* If you haven’t watched Spider-Man: Far From Home you should STOP LISTENING WHEN BDM TELLS YOU TO. *spoiler alert* 

Brian David-Marshall and Mike Flores are reunited for another episode of the longest running Magic podcast in the game. Before they did though, Brian met up with Top8Magic superfan, and professional comic book illustrator, Butch Mapa at Joe’s Coffee Shop on the iconic corner of Waverly and Gay in the West Village of NYC. 

Later that day Mike and BDM reconnected to discuss their respective Prerelease weekends, why BDM thinks Prereleases should go away, and whether or not banning Bridge from Below will solve some of the problems that have emerged in the wake of Modern Horizons. (Spoilers; Mike thinks there may be a more problematic card that needs to be banned from that set and posits a new breakfast cereal/combo deck). 

If you haven’t watched Spider-Man: Far From Home you should DEFINITELY STOP LISTENING WHEN BDM TELLS YOU TO. That’s pretty much the topic of conversation the rest of the way. 

With BDM out of town, Mike tags in Pro Tour Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz to preview the White cards from Core Set 2020.