The Mana Pool

It's preview season! That means we brought Bill (Squee) on, as is tradition. We start with a look at the newly-revealed Clash Packs, which are full of nifty rares and new art. And from there we move directly to the previews. There are dragon cycles, ridiculous cards, proto-Khans, non-legendary mythics, a spider-elephant, broken windows, and butt-fighting. Hope everyone enjoys! Fate Reforged Clash...

It's the first week of Fate Reforged previews, and none of us are completely with it. Seriously, we can't seem to get our words working properly. We're bad at this game. As we usually do during the first week, we begin with the mechanics of the new set! So of course we spent a nice long time on Manifest, which is easily one of the most interesting Magic mechanics in recent memory, possibly ever. F...

This week we're finishing up our series about the clans of Tarkir with a look at the Mardu and the Temur. Again, we're looking at what each clan is trying to do mechanically and examining how the colors and guilds that make up each clan help or hinder that goal. If you haven't, I recommend you listen to the last two episodes to hear how we handled the other three clans. That's only part of the epi...

We begin this episode with another insanely adorable Sam Quiz. After that there's a bit of discussion about the recent tournament rules change regarding revealing Morph creatures. Then we return to last week's topic, taking on the Jeskai and Sultai clans. We're looking at how each clan's constituent colors/guilds and their abilities work towards the overall goal of the clan. And since the Jeskai a...

Yeah, we didn't really care that this was a big milestone episode. It's like we've done six other 50-episode increments! We started off this episode with a bit of news, then go into one of Brian's Magic Mad Libs! This one was pretty funny, so we hope you guys enjoy. All the links for the news are down below! From there, we dove into the main topic of the episode. You know, once we finally all got...

Happy Dorksgiving everyone! Before Thanksgiving, Brian invited us all over to his house to have a big meal and some Magic. He also invited our good friend (and Monday Night Magic cohost) Bill Bloodworth (Squee) to join us. During all that time, we wanted to do a new installment of our Commander Shenanigans series, which we do whenever a new Commander product is released. To keep it from becoming a...

It's back! We haven't done one of these flavor-fights in a long time, so here's how it works: - We use the Random Card button on Gatherer to find 8 creatures that go into a tournament bracket. - We take their art, flavor text, and abilities into account and ignore their power and toughness. - We argue with each other until we determine a winner! Here's the bracket for this tournament: Deadly Reclu...

It's our seventh birthday here on The Mana Pool! To celebrate, we're taking a look back at where things were way back when we started. How our personal lives were going, how Magic was looking, that sort of thing. We then take a look at where we are now and where we're going, both with life and Magic. It's a more personal episode, with less Magic than usual, but very much worth the listen. Also, Sa...

We're back at GP Las Vegas! As always, I’m asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches my eye. The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff I do, is to entertain you – the listener. Rather than asking the same old questions that everyone else does, I’m looking to give you a slightl...

The dorks are talking history this time around - more specifically the history of all the legends and planeswalkers from the new Commander 2014 decks. Wonder who Titania and Freyalise are? Want to know what's up with Ob Nixilis and his many forms? Think way too much about Lorthos' deal? Well worry no more, as we've got all kinds of stuff to tell you! Except for Lorthos, there is no deal. Sorry. No...

This episode is all about the mechanic that caused many headaches back in the day and has recently started again - Morph! We're stepping back all the way to the Onslaught block to tell you about its origins, then jumping forward to Time Spiral to look at some of the insanity there, then moving on to the current take on Morph and what they've done to make it less painful for everyone involved. Of c...

We're back at GP Las Vegas! As always, I’m asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches my eye. The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff I do, is to entertain you – the listener. Rather than asking the same old questions that everyone else does, I’m looking to give you a slightl...

Due to scheduling issues, we don't have a proper episode for you this week. But never fear, there's still something to listen to! Back in September, Chewie went to the tiltEXPO to do a couple panels. One of those panels was all about podcasting. If any of you have ever wanted to know what it takes to start your own show, there are three podcasters giving their advice right here! And don't worry, w...

In honor of Multiplayer Week over on the Magic site, we're joined this week by Serious Fun columnist Bruce Richard! Bruce spearheaded this week's awesome return of the Multiplayer Hall of Fame! And since anyone can just go to the articles and see the rankings, we got Bruce to go into far more detail about what the Hall actually IS, its origins, and the insane amount of work that went into bringing...

We're back at GP Las Vegas!  As always, I’m asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches my eye. The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff I do, is to entertain you – the listener.  Rather than asking the same old questions that everyone else does, I’m looking to give you a sligh...

After falling into a time warp, the dorks are looking at all the stuff from Return to Ravnica and Magic 2014 that rotated out of Standard recently.  All those cards that Chewie got sick of talking about on Monday Night Magic and the ones Mike and Brian got sick of seeing at Friday Night Magic.  We've got the whole week covered! After that we're telling you all about the Khans Sealed PTQ we went to...

The dorks kick this episode off with some news and a few updates, just some things you might want to know.  After that, we have a very personal listener question.  We were asked a very simple question that revealed a lot about us: If we lived on Theros, which of the pantheon of gods would we be most devoted to?  It led to a really good discussion. After that, it's on to a Story Circle!  This one i...

It's Prerelease time again!  You know what that means - Chewie and the dorks are heading out to play some Magic, and the digital recorder is coming with them!  On this episode, follow Mike and Chewie as they check out Khans on Saturday at Lucky's Card Shop in Greensboro, then Brian joins them for Sunday to have a second go at the format! Find out which clans the dorks played as well as what lots o...

I enjoyed asking people Three Questions at GP Pittsburgh so much that the listeners decided to chip in and send me to Vegas to do it again!  As always, I’m asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches my eye. The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff I do, is to entertain you – t...

This episode begins with another Sam Quiz, be warned!  After that there are a few bits of news to talk about, then it's off to the full set of Khans of Tarkir!  We jump around the Card Image Gallery picking out stuff that's cool, pointing out some seriously amazing art, and generally taking it all in.  It's a fun episode and we hope you all enjoy! Commander B&R update: http://forum.mtgcommander.ne...

I enjoyed asking people Three Questions at GP Pittsburgh so much that the listeners decided to chip in and send me to Vegas to do it again!  As always, I’m asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches my eye. The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff I do, is to entertain you – t...

Be warned: this episode begins with another adorably cute Sam Quiz. Don't listen to the first 3 minutes if you have a particular allergy to things that are "totes adorbs". PREVIEWS!  Khans previews are in full swing, and we're talking about them all!  At least, everything on the Card Image Gallery the day we recorded plus the ones in the mothership articles that day.  There's a ridiculous amount o...

Since last week's Exiled! was something we really wanted to do right, we focused on it exclusively and ignored the insanely huge news that dropped that week.  So this week we're making up for it by going extremely deep on the new way that Magic blocks will be done.  And I mean it, we're leaving no stone unturned here. After that, we're telling you all about the different clans of Tarkir!  We're hi...

Welcome to the series premiere of Exiled! on The Mana Pool.  Conceived and hosted by our own Brian Baker, Exiled! may or may not...borrow...some ideas from the Food Network show Chooped!  But surely not, because that doesn't happen anywhere ever. The idea is that the Judge gives the competitors three cards that they must use in their decks.  The competitors can then choose a card that only they ca...

This episode begins with a surprise quiz from Brian's daughter Sam, which we all...failed.  But it's great.  D'awww. Of course, we had to talk about all the reveals from gamescom!  New Khans cards and mechanics, plenty of nifty artwork, and a Commander 2014 card are all there for us to talk about.  From there we went to the fully revealed Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning decklists and discussed for a...