The Mana Pool

It turns out Commander 2019 was too big for one podcast! So we're back this week with our look at the Naya Populate deck and the Rakdos Madness deck! And we're joined by Chase from Best of 3, who you might remember from our War of the Spark prerelease episode. She's really into eggs. Like...REALLY into them. Like damn. And I assure you we didn't actually kidnap her. She was totally on the show of...

  Commander 2019 is upon us! And since our Mike can't be with us this week, we grabbed another Mike to join us - L2 judge and cohost of the Best of 3 podcast, Mike Moore! It turns out that talking about Commander cards takes a while, so it turns out we're only doing the first two decks this week - the Sultai Morph deck and the Jeskai Flashback deck. We're going into detail on all the new cards in...

What's that? Another episode of Brian's custom MTG RPG already? Why yes actually! Before Neverending Preview Season(tm) kicks off yet again, we're seizing the opportunity to follow up on the semi-cliffhanger from two episodes ago! We're heading into the mountain to see what sort of trial Icolnir has (almost literally it turns out) cooked up for us! Treasure? Check! Brutal combat? Check! Party wipe...

Magic was at San Diego Comic-Con this year, and boy did they drop some doozies on us! On this episode the dorks are diving right into all the art and information revealed about Throne of Eldraine, the next Magic set. Be warned: there's a lot of random speculation and nonsense. And yes we even talked about poop, albeit briefly. After that we're diving into the booster changes outlined in Mark Rosew...

The dorks dive back into the Heirs of Trivester, Brian's custom-made Magic-based RPG game! Last time Karim, Alaric, and the Angel were bumbling around the forest fighting big ants and big cats, but now we're finally getting closer to tracking down the mysterious Icolnir. Apparently we're not supposed to trust her appearance but we are supposed to show her great respect. No problem, right? If you h...

The dorks begin this episode by discussing the MTG Arena State of the Beta announcement. There are elemental cats, a Battle Pass, and the Historic format. Oh, and the London Mulligan and Core Set 2020. Those are important too I guess. After that, the dorks turn their attentions to the full set of Core Set 2020. We're checking out the rest of the mythics and cycles that weren't finished last episod...

First, we have another adorable Sam Quiz! Then Mike & Brian do their brief recap of their time at MagicFest Washington DC. After that we're talking about a gift that we got from a longtime listener after well over a year of work! And then we get to the main topic, going over Core Set 2020 previews! These cards are pretty nuts for a Core Set, and we're very excited to dig our teeth into them! At th...

We begin this episode with brief discussions about losing power. Then we're off to review the three new versions of Chandra that were revealed recently. After that we realized we sort of forgot to mention the upcoming animated Netflix MTG series on this show!  The main topic of this episode, however, is a Mythic Conscription for Weatherlight! Since we just wrapped up a years-long storyline, we tho...

The dorks are back with a listener Mad Lib, even more Modern Horizons cards to talk about, and a whole slew of completely pointless truisms! There's also the full list of Horizons mechanics - but can Chewie read through it all in one breath? Or will he die trying? He better not, otherwise no one's getting this episode! Modern Horizons Mechanics -  https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feat...

We're back with more Modern Horizons previews! I've been saying it for a couple weeks now, but this set really is Time Spiral all over again. There's a ridiculous amount of old mechanics coming back, and so many cards are not only good on their own, but are also references to many things throughout the history of Magic. It's so great! Modern Horizons Card Image Gallery -  https://magic.wizards.com...

Modern Horizons previews have begun! This set is like another version of Time Spiral, with old keywords and references to all kinds of old Magic things. So the dorks are going through as many of the previewed cards as we can! Also, Mike may or may not be getting mauled by a bear during the show. No one knows for sure. All hail Queen Ayula! Modern Horizons Card Image Gallery -  https://magic.wizard...

It's time for another Flavor Fight! This time the contestants are mustard, mayo, honey, and...wait, what? NO! Okay, now that THAT'S out of the way, let's actually do another Flavor Fight! As you might have been able to tell from the title and/or thumbnail, we're doing a Planeswalker Flavor Fight! But also because I'm pretty sick of hearing about the 37 planeswalkers that got cards in War of the Sp...

The War of the Spark is upon us! That means it's time for another Prerelease! Three of the dorks are at House of Cards in Winston-Salem, NC to go to battle! But this episode isn't just Chewie, Mike, and Brian talking about their pools! We have a variety of guests on this episode! Mike's cousin Joseph showed up for the Prerelease too! Mike & Brian both played against the lovely Chase ( @ManaCurves...

We've made it to 550! To celebrate, we apparently killed two of our hosts. Hopefully our reanimation spells will resolve before the end of the episode. It's the end of the story of War of the Spark! We're covering all the story-focused cards we can find, so hey, spoiler warning! We're going all the way to the conclusion and talking all about it! Get ready to feel some feels, because once that's al...

  The dorks are back with even more War of the Spark previews! We're starting off with all the cards in the Story Scenes, because the story is the whole point of this episode! Then we're jumping around to the planeswalkers we missed, the Gods (who were being previewed while we were recording), and a few other highlights. And don't worry about the lack of Mike at the beginning, he'll show up partwa...

War of the Spark previews are upon us! And we just happen to have FIVE cards to show off! We're doing something a little different with our previews this time, we hope you enjoy it! Yay free previews! But first Samantha joins us for a Sam Quiz! After that it's time to hit the War of the Spark mechanics and check out all the cards from the story scenes thus far! After finally finishing with all tha...

The dorks have a fun little episode this week, even though Dirk is missing. For...reasons. Also, we weren't able to live stream this episode because of some bizarre issues. Sorry about that. We begin with some news, some of which is real and some of which Brian may have found in questionable corners of the internet. Then it's time for another of Brian's Magic Mad Libs, which are always a hoot. Eve...

The dorks are back with another edition of There's No Plane Like Home! We're tackling (sort of) three planes this episode...and they're all the same plane! We're starting on Argentum, then moving on to Mirrodin, and ending on New Phyrexia! From quiet empty paradise to mostly good generic fantasy world (plus metal) to horrific war zone, we're covering the entire history of the plane! Come join us i...

After some technological difficulties on Mike's part, the dorks decide to forge ahead without him! We're doing a Mythic Conscription for Visions, the follow up to Mirage. But where Mirage was loaded with good fodder for a Mythic Conscription, Visions is a little less...diverse. But hey, at least we got Mike back partway through the episode! Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays...

First up the dorks are taking a look at the brand new reveal of Modern Horizons! Two of them hadn't seen it yet, so we get actual first impressions! Then it's time for the main topic of this week's episode, suggested by the TMP Discord server - deckbuilding! We'll explain why some old deckbuilding rules we learned aren't great and offer up plenty of actual tips. And we'll even go further than that...

The dorks are back on Trivester with Brian's custom MTG RPG! This episode is pretty heavy on the combat encounters and light on the narrative, but I'm sure we'll get back to the mystery in the next installment! If you want to know who gets mauled horribly out of nowhere, who is stalking the party through the jungle, and who you should have rolling your D20s, you're in for a treat!  If you have no...

Don't worry, Dirk doesn't really ruin EVERYTHING. In fact, Dirk was on fire for most of this episode. Like in Overwatch or NBA Jam, not like actual fire. Anyway... This episode we're putting Mirage through a Mythic Conscription. And unlike several of the Conscriptions we've done for older sets, this one actually has plenty of cards to talk about. During the episode we even dig up some actual recen...

The dorks begin with an oddly appropriate Magic Mad Lib (written by Chewie this time!) and then dive into another edition of There's No Plane Like Home. To follow up last week's Theros episode we decided to go to the OTHER plane where the gods are definitely real and you can totally talk to them: Amonkhet. It turns out the Amonkhet discussion is really...weird. Compared to other planes, Amonkhet r...

The dorks are back! We've got an epic-length Mad Lib that Brian wrote! It's seriously long, but the payoff is totally worth it. Just don't deathtouch yourselves, please. After that it's time to return to a segment we started late last year! It's (now) called There's No Plane Like Home! We're looking at how everyday life on the various planes of Magic might be. This episode we're focusing on Theros...

The dorks are live at the Ravnica Allegiance Prerelease! Brian, Mike, and Chewie went to House of Cards in Winston-Salem, NC to partake in this sweet guildy goodness! Brian got his second choice (Gruul, they were out of Orzhov), Mike got his first choice (Gruul), and Chewie asked for the least popular guild and ended up with Azorius! How'd we do? What'd we open? Who is this weird guy whose name is...