The Mana Pool

Here we see the fabulous new Magic 2015 Designer collection.  See how the fabulous non-Magic game designers turned their attentions to the intricacies of Magic design to create fabulous new cards.  Okay, enough of that.  M15 previews are here of course, and this episode we're starting with the Designer Cards, made by various designers of other games.  They're all pretty cool.  There are a few othe...

Here it is everyone! I've been working on the super-secret project for over FIVE MONTHS now, and it's finally time to reveal it to the world!  We're doing a Kickstarter to get capital to create all the merchandise we could ever want - sleeves and stickers with the TMP logo, t-shirts, and tokens and playmats with EXCELLENT new Jars art!  If you want the full details, just click the link right down...

On this episode, the dorks are taking a look at death in Magic.  Some of the planes we've visited over the years actually go into specifics about what happens when you die.  Ravnica, Theros, and Innistrad, for example, paint a fairly clear picture of the afterlife.  Most of the other planes mention it only casually or only bring it up as a way to justify reanimation spells. But we're taking a look...

The dorks begin this episode by telling you all about how awesome Conspiracy draft is.  And it is.  Like a lot.  Seriously, go do some Conspiracy drafting, it's SO much fun! But after that, we decided to do something silly.  We've done it before with  video games and again with television shows , so it's time we do it again.  We're taking a look at movies and imagining what kinds of Magic cards we...

This episode begins with a short look at the rest of the Conspiracy Card Image Gallery, now that the full set is on there.  And by short, I mean we went on for EVER and EVER because there's SO MUCH good stuff!  No really, we had to put off what we were originally going to do this episode because we spent so long being Conspiratorial. That being said, we panicked slightly and decided to do a Story...

This episode is all over the place.  We didn't really have a central topic this week, so it's sort of a potpourri of nonsense.  We had plenty of speculation about the next block, then Brian left for the night.  Then there was lawsuit talk, which everyone should totally read.  There's a Kickstarter for crazy custom deck boxes, jailbait songs, sweet Terese Nielsen lands, and plenty of Conspiracy car...

On this episode, the dorks are taking a look at old cards.  Not just because Vintage Masters is coming up soon on Magic Online, and not just because it's preview time YET AGAIN, but because a demon told us to.  A listener known only to Chewie as Shadow Demon asked a simple, innocuous question a while back, and ever since then it's been on the table as a possible show idea.  The question was (nearl...

The dorks long for the days when we could just talk about something stupid for a whole episode, so we decided to just talk about something stupid for this whole episode.  Mike decided that we should talk about the mighty centaurs, because Journey Into Nyx decided to give them a lord. It ended up being a Magic history lesson with centaurs as the thread running through the whole episode.  Be sure to...

The dorks tell you all about their Journey Into Nyx Prerelease experiences!  Which of the dorks did well?  Which of the dorks did multiple prereleases?  Why is Chewie so bad at this game?  These questions and more will be answered in this episode!  Actually, not all of them will be answered.  Sorry about that, but Chewie's just bad, there's no particular reason why.  There's also a pretty fair amo...

We grabbed Bill, or Squee, or whatever ( @SqueeGoblnNabob ) to join us for the full run-through of Journey Into Nyx now that it's all out there for all to see.  There was a bit of news too, the PAX East Magic Panel, some Conspiracy news, some Duels news, and lotsa other stuff.  So...enjoy!   Journey Into Nyx Card Image Gallery - http://www.wizards.com/Magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/journeyintony...

It's still Journey Into Nyx preview season!  That's pretty much it.  You know the drill by now, there's really nothing much else going on.  Except for the Designer Cards from Magic 2015.  Those are pretty cool.  I love that they're using nerd designers instead of nerd celebrities, you know? But seriously, have you seen the art for Riptide Chimera?  Holy crap that thing is terrifying. Nightmare fue...

It's been a while since we recorded, so we've got news!  An article on Gathering Magic about Vorthos podcasts (we got an honorable mention!), new Duel Decks, and a new eBook are all on the docket, so do enjoy that. Then we get to the fun part, the first of the Journey Into Nyx previews!  There's a god, there's all the mechanics (old and new), there's lots of crazy stuff, and there's a boat that sc...

So we're sure you've noticed that Episode 318 has yet to follow Episode 317.  You are correct.  Mike and Chewie hopped on to explain what happened. To make it up to you, we've included the outtakes from the recording of Episode 317's commercials.  Some of these are pretty funny, so we hope you enjoy! The first video on The Mana Pool's YouTube channel is now up, you should go check it out! - http:/...

On this very special episode of The Mana Pool, the dorks are finally opening up to all the big plans they've had in the works for many months now.  From e-books to quantum computing apps and everything in between, we're revealing everything!  This will also mark the first episode all our new sponsors are on board with some nice, unobtrusive commercials to help us pay for all these amazing plans. ...

Remember Commander Shenanigans 2 ? It was episode 303. Later that day, we recorded another episode. This is it. For some reason, when we record one live episode it records through the USB mic, which is why CS2 sounded good. When we record a second one, it defaults to the built-in laptop mic. That happened here, and we didn't catch it. This episode is a few days late because I decided to try to mak...

Chewie enjoyed asking people Three Questions at GP Charlotte so much that he decided to truck up to Pittsburgh and do it again!  As always, Chewie’s asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches his eye.   The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff Chewie does, is to entertain you,...

Following a week off to prepare for the insanity that was Grand Prix Richmond, here is the GP Richmond episode!  It's just Chewie and Mike from the standard-issue dorks, so to help us out we brought on two special Richmond dorks!  First up is our (very) old pal, Level 3 Judge, podcaster, and horrible person Bryan Prillaman!  You might remember him from the Avant-Card Show back in the day or his cu...

Chewie enjoyed asking people Three Questions at GP Charlotte so much that he decided to truck up to Pittsburgh and do it again! As always, Chewie’s asking Three Questions to anyone willing to answer them, whether they’re a listener, judge, pro player, innocent bystander, or just someone that catches his eye.   The real purpose of this show, like most of the stuff Chewie does, is to entertain you,...

Hey look, we actually did the follow-up to last week's episode!  Because this was a topic suggested by our friend JT ( @NerdPop140 ), we brought him on this week to help us tell you all about it.  But first, we have news!  Anyone under 18 planning to attend Grand Prix Vienna needs to have written parental permission, so click the link below for all that information.  WotC also released the full de...

On this episode, the dorks cover a few more bits of news. Last week we missed that some of the Conspiracy cards are going to not be legal in Vintage and Legacy, which sparks some discussion about why that could be.  Hasbro is loving the Magic, because it's making them lots of money.  Not only that, but they're gonna be making some Pop! vinyl figures and actual action figures of your favorite plane...

Warning: Chewie is sick.  So he sounds a little different than usual, and he's muted a lot.  The dorks bring lots of news this week!  Since the last episode was a live one, we've got two weeks' worth of stuff to talk about! They revealed an Event Deck, announced a new From the Vault, and teased us with a bizarre coded webpage.  Luckily, people much more motivated than us went ahead and decoded it,...

It's the Born of the Gods Prerelease, so you know what that means!  We took the recorder with us and recorded a bunch of stuff that happened!  Listen as Chewie, Mike, and Brian let you know what happened after (almost) each round! We're joined by lots of guests, including our old friend Gabe!  He's the one that taught Mike how to play a thousand years ago!  There are also appearances from listener...

In case you couldn't tell from the amazing title, the dorks are joined this week by our favorite Level 2 judge and Monday Night Magic cohost, Cluze!  I can say that because Prillaman is a Level 3 now.  Dr. Science comes on to help us take a look at the full Born of the Gods set before the prerelease.  Yes I know it's after the prerelease now, but give me a break here.  There's not much else to say...

In case you weren't aware, we're still knocking out those Born of the Gods previews.  We recorded this the day the FAQ was accidentally put up, but we didn't actually do any of those cards.  That would have been a really long show, and that's turrible.  As has become tradition during preview season, we reached through the internet and snatched up our old buddy Bill Bloodworth ( @SqueeGoblnNabob )...

On this episode, the dorks take on all the news and the first round of Born of the Gods spoilers!  There's a serious amount of bizarre news, from coins to a movie to a high-priced Modern Event Deck announcement.  News you can use?  Probably not, but there's plenty enough news here!  All the links are down below, so follow along if you want! After that, we have a super secret special guest!  So sec...