The Mana Pool

Hello again, and welcome to the second preview episode for the upcoming Rise of the Eldrazi release.  This is Mike, writing the show notes at the very last minute, several days after the recording, possibly because I'm a lazy dope.  I'll leave the proof of whether or not that's true as an exercise for the listeners. So yes!  Rise of the Eldrazi previews!  They pretty much speak for themselves!  I...

Surviving tornadoes, tearing the space-time continuum, attempting to predict the future, B&R list updates, the largest Magic event in history, nifty Tainted Sigil tech, Phyrexian boobs, reprint policies - and all that happens in the first quarter of the show!   Then we go off on the important stuff, which is of course Rise of the Eldrazi previews.  There are lots and lots, including our take on th...

Hey there, fellow geeks. This is Dirk. I got roped into writing the show notes again since Brian didn't feel like getting around to them (Brian: hey! I'm a busy guy, what with all of this.. stuff... and other stuff!) So anyway, this wasn't a shorter episode, so let's get to it.   We have the usual opening; we're still brought to you by Cardshark and all of that jazz. We've gotten some emails. Bria...

Hey look, another episode of us playing Magic live and in person! There's not much to say really, so here's a quick rundown. The four of us got together for another reason, but we couldn't skip playing Magic and recording it for our beloved listeners. So we broke out the microphone, the laptop, and the something soft to put the mic on and went to town.   Mike did the work putting this episode toge...

Hello again, boys, girls, and other various creatures of the multiverse! This is Brian, bringing you a quick overview of tonight's (today's? yesterday's?) show.   The first thing you will notice is that we have an extra voice with us. No, not Dirk, although Dirk has gone from being a common host to an uncommon host lately. Maybe he'll have a higher toughness for the same cost now. No, we were hono...

Before you get too excited, there's lots of stuff to go through before the big topic. We've got an announcement about Cardshark and a new site design. And there's the March Member Promotions while we're on the topic of Cardshark. Then we crack open a pack of Zendikar and a pack of Worldwake and discuss what we've got. Remember Mad Libs? We've got a Mad Magic Lib for you. Let us know what you think...

Chewie here, and this is an episode quite unlike most of our others.  Mike and Brian went to the Star City Games 5K tournament in Richmond, and this episode is all about their experiences.  They both did Saturday (Standard) while Mike tackled Sunday as well (Legacy).  Hear all about how they did and what they thought in this very episode!   And while we're on the subject of tournament Magic, let's...

Is that some Duel Decks? We've got the decklists for the new Phyrexia vs. the Coalition Duel Decks, which we went over with great excitement. You don't get to hear that though. You get to hear the second take, due to some technical difficulties. Don't worry though, we made it sound just as good as the first.   Because of those tech problems we recorded the second half of the show the next night, w...

Hey, this is Mike here.  Hello again, and welcome to the... uh... um... *mumble*  I really should have written these show notes back when Chewie first asked me to.  Thankfully, he's around to remind me about all the interesting things we talked about on this most recent episode of The Mana Pool! The first topic this time is the experience of the Worldwake Prerelease and Launch.  You'll get to hear...

Poor Dirk, falling in the well again. Oh well. No pun intended there, really.   So here we are again with the last round of Worldwake previews. There are some doozies in this one too. From Wurms that blow up the world to stupid turtles to elementals that make wolves to a crazy go nuts Upwelling guy, we cover it all. At least all of it that was up when we recorded. Enjoy the cards and the ridiculou...

It's the time again! Previews galore, this time for Worldwake! Mix around 30 parts preview cards with something like 5 parts Magic news, and you get this episode!   Show notes are for punks on episodes this straightforward, so that's enough of that.     Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-114-worldwake-previews-1-t459.html Check out our archive at http://themanap...

This is it. Years in the making. Epic in scope. The episode many have clamored for has finally become a reality. The time has come. The four hosts have once again gathered. And the number 113 will never...be...the same. Okay, enough of all that. But really, ever since The Mana Pool #15 waaaaaaay back in March of '08, we have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our Multiplayer Mayhem episode...

Through all the lag problems, special guests leaving early, and nauseous hosts, we bring you this momentous episode! Wizards of the Coast has included us in their pooled Worldwake preview cards, sending us 5 preview cards to go over on the show! They're not exclusive, but we're getting there! In an effort to make this even more special we grabbed Ben, who is Panahinuva on the forums and is easily...

Hello again, and welcome to the Show Notes! This is Mike, here to give you a quick rundown of what we're up to. Before you start playing a game, you need to have a solid idea of whether or not you can do well enough to win. Given some thought (and depending on how the deck is built), your opening hand should be able to give you a fair approximation of an answer. Whether or not to mulligan any pote...

Chewie here, bringing you what we think will become another one of those "classic" episodes of The Mana Pool. Thanks to Bill (Kurai_Seraphim) for hitting us with this idea. We're going to take a look at the various mechanics in Magic. Big deal, nothing classic about that, right? Wrong! We're looking at them from a flavor perspective! We take all this reminder text and try to make some sense out of...

Brian here once again, telling you about the show so you know what you're getting into. Of course, you never really know what you're getting into here at the Mana Pool until you start to listen. We start off with the usual rigmarole. As a side note, we love that listeners are sending us more emails than ever. Keep them coming! It provides us great feedback on the things you like (and don't like) a...

And there's The Twelve Dorks of Christmas. Even though there's only four of us. Oh well. We begin with an Out of the Deck Box from Mike, who has built an Esper-type deck with some old school flava. He wants some feedback on it, so by all means let us know what you think. As always, if you want to see the decklist and offer up some advice or comments, hit the forums. The link is at the bottom of th...

Hello again and welcome to another episode of The Mana Pool! This is Brian, standing in for our oh-so-fearless, ever-so-valient, and so-so-so-overworked leader Chewie. We've got some good stuff on the menu for you tonight (today, this morning- insert most appropriate here). It's the first episode we recorded of during a new month, but due to a relative lack of Cardshark member promotions, we didn'...

Hello again, and welcome to The Avant-Card Show. This is Mike, filling in for... Wait, what? I mean The Mana Pool. This is The Mana Pool. You'll understand my confusion soon. Unfortunately, due to hardware/software issues and scheduling conflicts, we are Dirkless yet again (and unfortunately, due to sleep issues and schoolwork conflicts, our Brian has to leave before the end), but to make up for i...

Hey look, it's a new episode! First off, we spend some time responding to listener feedback, as we have a lot of it. You should send us some too! Then we have lots of Magic news to go over. There's some discussion about the new Premium Deck Series: Slivers. The new Grand Prix schedule was released, not that we care terribly much, but we do take a few minutes to make fun of the new alternate art fo...

Because winning by knocking your opponent's life total down to zero is SO last season, we're having a fire sale on all the other nifty ways to win. Alternate win conditions for all! We've got Epic Struggles, Darksteel Reactors, Chance Encounters, and Poison. For those workaholics out there, we have a few Coalition Victories, Helix Pinnacles, and even one Barren Glory in the back corner. None of th...

In this episode, Mike gets distracted by something early on. But that's not the actual content of the show! Brian and I kick it off by each opening a pack of Zendikar and going through the contents. Then we switch gears and talk about Brian's PTQ experience from a few weekends ago. He did really well. His deck list is in the forum thread for this episode, give it a look and let us know what you th...

Here it is, as promised. For hitting our 100 th episode, Jungle Rat Rob (Rob Anderson) has worked his audio editing magic again and come up with another great clip compilation! This time it's got so much funny that he couldn't fit it all in one song, so he used three. We have the Superman Main Theme by John Williams, Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian, and Simple Passing by Hammerbox. This also feat...

And in this episode, we bid a fond farewell to the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor mega block. We're gonna take a look back at the stuff that is gone from this Standard. All those cards that we loved, hated, despised, thought were nifty, and were beaten by are getting one last look before heading off to Extended Land forever and ever amen. And then, not to get stuck looking at the past, we forge ahead into the...

Hello again, and welcome to The Mana Pool! This is Mike, filling in for Chewie on the show notes while he's busy getting a previous episode uploaded. For those of you who've been anxiously awaiting our customary Prerelease story time episode, this is your lucky day! Not only do we have that, but due to scheduling conflicts and hateful technological mishaps, it took us so long to get this one recor...