The Mana Pool

The dorks take a look at the mechanics and gallery of Aetherdrift. You know the drill, we do this sort of thing all the time. Sorry we missed the blue shell by the way. Aetherdrift Mechanics -  https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/aetherdrift-mechanics Aetherdrift Gallery - https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/aetherdrift/card-image-gallery Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thu...

Gamers, amirite? Whether it's opponents across the table, friends next to you, or randos online, eventually they're all going to do something while you're playing that just grinds your gears. The dorks are going to get into all the things that gamers do that annoy them. Not just to vent, but also to help us all recognize that some of our quirks or tics or whatever that we don't pay attention to mi...

The dorks take a look at the main antagonists & final bosses of the first six Final Fantasy games! These range from just nothing to one of the best villains in gaming, period! We'll be going through each game in order to see how the big bad evolved (or didn't) over time. And don't worry, we'll come back to this again in the future to cover more that we didn't get to! Come join us in the future! Th...

The dorks kick off 2025 by looking back at the stuff that happened to us over the last year. Life events, games we played, shows we recorded, that sort of thing. Apologies for anyone going into excruciating details. We're also taking a look forward at things we're hoping to do or experience in the next year. You know, it's your typical year transition introspection thing. Be sure to let us know wh...

The dorks round out 2024 by finishing up our Castlevania discussion! We're hitting all the remaining games, which includes the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS Metroidvanias, the PS2 3D games, the Lords of Shadow reboot, and whatever else we missed in the last show. We'll also hit up some of the places Castlevania has popped up in crossovers with other games! Thanks so much to all of you for stick...

The dorks are doing something a little different this episode. We're taking a look at the Castlevania franchise as a whole! Castlevania is a franchise that all of us have experience with, and it's just so good! There are SO many games, a Netflix anime series, absolutely stunning music, and lots of crossovers into other games! Of course that's a lot to talk about, so this episode is mainly about th...

The dorks return! This time we're Just Chatting about all kinds of stuff! First up is our Thanksgiving holidays and food experiences. Then Brian has a question about parenting, which we tangent off of several times. We talk about what scared or bothered us when we were kids, when sex and/or violence are okay to show them, and lots of other stuff. Then Brian disappears, so Chewie talks about all th...

The dorks have returned! We're taking a look at the MTG Foundations change to combat, discussing all the new stuff coming up next year, digging into the idea that Universes Beyond sets are gonna be Standard Legal, and more! There was going to be a second topic this episode but we ran out of time. Look forward to that in the future! Foundations mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/f...

We're mashing stuff up! First up we're looking at the mashup of Marvel & MTG. The first batch of the Marvel cards were revealed at New York Comic Con so of course, we're gonna check them out. Then it's a mashup of our own creation, the good old Magic Mad Lib. To finish up we're going into one of the most famous mashups in video games! What happens when you smash Disney into Final Fantasy? You get...

The dorks are pointing out the horror movie tropes and references in the new set, and a dorky discussion ensues as usual. Duskmourn Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/duskmourn-house-of-horror/card-image-gallery Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! –  www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed:...

Fear is a powerful and ever-present aspect of our lives. The dorks look at the Fears from Duskmourn, and use them as a jumping-off point to discuss our own fears.  What are you afraid of? Duskmourn Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/duskmourn-house-of-horror/card-image-gallery Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Life...

The dorks dive into the horror tropes of Duskmourn! You know the drill by now - mechanics first then we dive into the card image gallery. And Chewie finds a new word that makes him happy. Heh, boilerbilges. Mechanics: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/duskmourn-house-of-horror-mechanics Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/duskmourn-house-of-horror/card-image-gallery Come join us...

After all this time, the dorks are finally closing the door on the Heirs of Trivester. Did you want a big boss fight? Because we've got a big boss fight! We started this journey back in 2016, though the seeds were actually planted in 2009. To celebrate, I've gathered up all the episodes from before the show was posted on YouTube, made them into videos, and created a playlist of the whole RPG saga!...

The dorks take a look at one of their favorite game genres - Role-Playing Games! We're bouncing around between games that we've loved over the years, both video and tabletop, and talking about why we feel how we do about them. Plus Chewie has to rant about how video game genres are complete nonsense (because they totally are - guess who writes these show notes?) Tell us about your favorite RPGs! C...

This place is overrun with adorable and/or terrifying woodland critters! Yup, we're poking around in Bloomburrow again. Try not to step on the frogs. Or get caught up in a two-card game-winning combo. Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/bloomburrow/card-image-gallery Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Pa...

The dorks return for real this time! Since we got the full update of where the hell we've been for the last couple months out of the way, this episode is all about Furry Ravnica. I mean, Bloomburrow.  Mechanics:  https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/bloomburrow-mechanics Gallery: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/bloomburrow/card-image-gallery Come join us in the future! The show is live...

The dorks explain where they've been for the last, uh....TWO MONTHS? Wait, what? Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! –  www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed:  https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube:  www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End:  https://www.youtube.com/@TheDeepEndTMP Twitch:  www.t...

This was recorded on June 6, but due to a whole lot of life happening, I never got to post it. Sorry about that. But here it is now, so enjoy! The dorks are back! We're chatting about how the Fallout show is an excellent adaptation and why. There's some talk about Chewie's June streaming plans, which got disrupted by various emergencies and life in general. But it was a good plan that will return!...

Brian's homebrew MTG RPG continues! After our tribulations in the tunnel, the party finds itself in a large room. Syr, who we've been chasing down this tunnel the entire time, is in a pod of some sort. From here, all sorts of shenanigans ensue. Things get weird before the end. And of course, we end on a serious cliffhanger just to keep everyone invested! Wait, why do I hear boss music? Come join u...

Placeholder text. Be sure to replace this once we get the plan for 700 worked out. Don't forget to check with Cluze & Squee.  Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! –  www.patreon.com/themanapool Podcast RSS Feed:  https://themanapool.libsyn.com/rss YouTube:  www.youtube.com/TheManaPool The Deep End:  https://...

The dorks return to the Heirs of Trivester, Brian's original MTG RPG campaign that we've been working on periodically for a very long time. Alaric, Karim, and The Angel are heading through the tunnel underneath the tower. Along the way we're faced with doors labeled with some of the most horrible monstrosities in the multiverse. What could possibly go wrong? A lot. A lot could (and will) go wrong....

The dorks get together to do a Just Chatting episode! This time we end up discussing mainly, as the title might indicate, media we've been consuming recently. Chewie goes off on the Cane and Rinse Podcast and Doom Eternal, Brian hits X-Men '97 and The Three Body Problem, Dirks talks the Fallout show, and Mike goes back to Dune 2, which he forgot we already talked about. Other things that come up:...

The dorks return from their longer-than-intended hiatus to finally take our first (and probably only) look at Outlaws of Thunder Junction. We're hitting the mechanics and then taking a look at all the cards the pooligans in the TMP Discord recommended for us. You should join it too so you can tell us what to do! OTJ Mechanics - https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/outlaws-of-thunder-junction-...

Cheevos For Charity my big charity stream happening March 23 & 24, from Noon to Midnight Eastern time each day. I'm going after randomly chosen achievements while taking donations for Trans Lifeline and giving away Steam games from a list of over 900. Come join me, help support a great cause, and get some video games!

The dorks return with a random assortment of of nonsense! We begin by making fun of two accents, then introduce ourselves and our hair. After that Chewie makes the big Cheevos For Charity announcement (more on that below). Then we go into a lengthy conversation about other card games we've played throughout the years. That leads into a discussion about power creep in long-running games. Then it's...