The Mana Pool

Hey there, all you Mana Pool listeners!  Brian here, subbing in for Chewie.  He worked 12 hours on the day that we recorded this episode, only to come home and run the recording less than 2 hours later, and he needed a bit of a break.  You'd never guess it from the episode, though, 'cause we're all firing on all cylinders for this one.  When I say "we", I don't mean Dirk, because he's not going to...

Can we say that? This time we've got a lot to go over.  We're Dirkless again due to his recent computer problems, but we're joined by my old roommate Corey again, so that evens out.  We've got a mess of feedback to go over first.  Then Brian and I have to tell you about the recent PTQ we attended.  We ran the decks that were being tested in the last episode, just so you know.  No last minute deck...

This is probably not what you were expecting, is it?  Due to recording time problems, it was either this or no show at all.  And since I know what happens to you rabid Mana Pool fans out there when you don't get your weekly fix, Brian and I came up with a solution.  Let us know if you thought this was good, bad, terrible, stupid, didn't care, greatest thing ever, or whatever you think.  Please giv...

Prepare yourselves for a wild ride. That's all the warning you get. This episode, we're taking it back. All the way back to our college days when we would spend many hours of the night, many times a week, playing big round table multiplayer Magic. To help us take it all the way back that far, we have my old roommate Corey joining us for the first time. You may remember hearing about him on previou...

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> This episode was a complete mess, but not for you to listen to. Allow me to explain. First, we are joined by our old friend AJ of "Kill AJ" fame. This leads to our pre-recording conversation becoming a completely random mess that I really wish we could have recorded. Then we have a bit of listener feedback, which...

Hey there, all you Mike fans!  This is me, filling in on the notes for Chewie this week as a special treat for everyone who missed me (hi, Mom!).  Unfortunately, we're less one Dirk this time, as he had some stuff to take care of and didn't feel like he had anything in particular to contribute to the subject matter of the episode. Anyway, we kick things off with a special little featurette that mi...

First off, I just wanted to say sorry for the lateness of this episode. I'm sure you'll hear about why in the next one. In this Mike-free show, we're here to talk the Alara Reborn Prerelease. We decided that it made more sense to record on a night that Brian could join us, since he was at the Prerelease, so we had to do it on a night Mike was unavailable. Sorry to all the Mike fans out there, he s...

And the final Alara Reborn Preview is upon us! We are Mikeless in this episode, but that's okay because we have joining us the amazing Jason, also known as garthok84 on the forums, who was the third place winner of our big contest at the beginning of the year. He takes up the slack from Mike's absence and is generally a horrible human being throughout the entire episode. Which is what we look for...

Hello to all you folks out there in Internet Land! This is Mike, filling in on the notes for Chewie because... uh... because he told me to, really. Welcome to another Alara Reborn preview episode! As usual, Wizards dumped a whole truckload of stuff on us through the main site and other venues since we last sat down to record, so we're just doing a partial update of the official spoiler list as it...

We are again Dirkless this episode, as he is off with his bride gallivanting around our nation's capital. So instead we have Ben, known on the forums as Panahinuva, who was one of our contest winners from a few months ago. Most excellent. Well you know what the deal is. First we have some stuff to go over as usual, shout-outs and whatnot. Be sure to check out the Avant Card podcast, brought to you...

On this episode, we begin Mikeless, because something stupid happened at work. Then we dive into Brian's Scarecrow Deck, which was requested as an Out of the Deck Box. Here's the list for that. We Wish We Had A Brain 14: Swamp 4: Cloudpost 2: Temple of the False God 2: Rupture Spire 1: Shimmering Grotto 1: Vesuva 2: Chainbreaker 1: Wingrattle Scarecrow 1: Rattleblaze Scarecrow 3: Watchwing Scarecr...

First off, Brian got sick and died, so we are without his services for this episode. Then there's a bit of Magic news, including Alara Reborn Intro Pack decklists and the announcement of Zendikar. Then there's the feedback we've gotten from people in various places, new members on the Facebook group, and all that good stuff. And Cardshark Member Promotions, because it's a new month. Zendikar: http...

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-73-shred-memory-t308.html Check out our archive at http://themanapool.libsyn.com Email us at themanapool@cardshark.com Send me an article at submissions@cardshark.com Cardshark located at http://www.cardshark.com Cardshark Member Promotions: http://www.cardshark.com/member_promotions.asp Subscribe to our RSS Feed: http://feeds....

There's a lot going on in this episode. First off, we have lots of Mana Pool news. New members on the forums, new people in the Facebook group, some comments on the MTGCast page, stuff like that. Also, I got a job. Yay employment! There's also that whole bit about From the Vault: Exiled, but we really don't know enough about it to do anything other than read the stuff on the announcement, found he...

Man, this whole show has gone to the dogs. Well, hounds. And it's for the birds. And cats. And even rabbits and slugs and leeches. We're taking a look at the way Magic handles real-world animals. Any creature type that is a real animal, I have taken a look at and figured out how many there are and what, if anything, ties them all together. Since I did this, I'm going to torment my fellow dorks by...

On this extra-long and woefully non-creatively named episode, we have lots and lots of stuff to go through. First off, there's all the new member promotions on Cardshark. The featured promotion is especially interesting, be sure to check it out. We have new members on the Facebook group, new members on the forums, and a quick message to one of our forum members, involving the words "dude" and "dor...

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...

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 winni...

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 play...

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...

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...

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...

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. Prece...

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 a...

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 mea...