The Mana Pool

There is two of us! If you don't get the reference, please refer to Ali and Ali's sister. If you don't get that reference, then I bet you don't know how to type with boxing gloves on. If you didn't get that one either, you apparently haven't been subjected to the joy that is Strong Bad. But that's for neither here nor there, this is a Magic podcast! So back to the subject at hand. There is two of...

In this episode Mike, Dirk, and I finish the discussion of the many, many terms that get thrown around in a game of Magic. Not the usual things like keyword abilities and phases of the turn and whatnot. Oh no, we're talking about the unique language that Magic players have invented to describe what's going on. Have you ever topdecked a fatty? Have you ever looted into burn? How about that time you...

In this episode Mike, Dirk, and I begin the discussion of the many, many terms that get thrown around in a game of Magic. Not the usual things like keyword abilities and phases of the turn and whatnot. Oh no, we're talking about the unique language that Magic players have invented to describe what's going on. Have you ever topdecked a fatty? Have you ever looted into burn? How about that time your...

This episode, we have some special guests joining us on the show. Chris and Molly, better known as PhoenixRising422 and myboyfriendsagamergod on the forums. Shadowmoor was his first Prerelease, and this episode was recorded on his birthday, so we decided to have him on to give us his perspective on the tournament. Actually, Brian and I tell you how we did too. We then get Mike and Molly to give us...

In this extra special long episode, we take on the (almost) last of the preview cards. There will be one more small bit up by the time you read this, but we wanted people to be able to listen to the show before the Prerelease. Not only do we cover the four easy-to-find previews, but thanks to Brian we also uncover 5 preview cards hidden in the YouTube embedded videos in the feature article for tod...

On this episode, we have technical difficutlies. Difficulties. See? It's just Brian and me, because apparently everyone else decided to run off to a foreign country with the hopes of getting a big musical career launched. It was news to me too. Anyway, something about connecting my computer and Brian's computer equals some kind of horrible joke in which we are the punch line. You'll hear Brian res...

In order to get this to the most people, I've decided to put this up on my RSS feed as well as send it to the boss at Cardshark.  Inside you'll find anything you could ever want to know about going to the Prerelease.  Included are tips for preparation, getting there, surviving once you get there, and actually playing.  There's a quick tutorial on building your deck with a focus on the new set.  I...

In this episode, we hit the few cards that popped up between the last episode and Thursday. Mirrorweave and Tattermunge Maniac take up quite a bit of the discussion this time around. You know, because they're awesome. In totally different ways. Check out the Shadowmoor official preview archive here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/shadowmoor/spoiler Then, since we ran out of cards with...

Shadowmoor looms nigh, and we have the preview cards to prove it. Only nine cards to go over this time, which means we actually have time to go over a couple other things. Actually, we really just go over the Member Promotions for April on Cardshark. Then we dive into the preview cards. Again, to make this paragraph seem a little longer, I'll give you my favorites out of these. I really like Din o...

Here we go again with the Shadowmoor previews. This time we have 18 new cards to discuss for your benefit and amusement. Listen as Brian rambles, Dirk goes green, Squanto hates, and I attempt to keep everyone on task and fail miserably. My favorites, just so this show description is a little bit more than two lines? Tower Above and Dusk Urchins. Tower Above is the first mention of a new keyword, W...

In this episode, we tackle the first of the REAL Shadowmoor preview cards, totalling 14 in all. Yes, Episode 19 - Breaking News was all fake cards. But, given the fact that no one made any sort of conversation on the forums, I'm guessing everyone either immediately got it, or didn't care, or didn't listen to the show, or hates us. Fair enough. There's really nothing else to say about the show, so...

This episode is a bit different.  We go over what I originally assumed to be 4 preview cards for Shadowmoor.  I found them on the site Sunday night after the update.  When the dorks got together to discuss them, they were no longer there.  I don't know if it was a glitch in the uploading process or what, but they're not there anymore.  So we decided to go over them separately and get back together...

In this episode Squanto, Brian and I give out some generally useful information. First up is the Gatherer, the official Magic database. You can find it at http://gatherer.wizards.com . This is easily the most powerful tool out there for tracking down cards for any reason whatsoever. We'll tell you all about how to use it, including a few things that you might not know. Try searching for the word R...

In this episode, your host dorks discuss the recent trip to Friday Night Magic. We also reinforce for everyone why we are definitely not a podcast for the hardcore tournament player. Dirk play Treefolk, Squanto played Merfolk Aggro, Brian played burn with Countryside Crusher, and I played Elves. The results were not pretty, but a good time was had by all. While we were there we got to meet Phoenix...

What are all these people doing in my apartment?  In this episode, we, your host dorks, are discussing the three player psycographies that Magic R&D uses to design cards for certain types of players.  Those psycographies are Timmy, Johnny, and Spike.  Or, the Power Gamer, the Combo Player, and the Tournament Winner, to use their stereotyped and slightly misleading epithets.  After running Timmy, J...

Last weekend the dorks gathered!  With Mike visiting Brian, we set aside all of Saturday for Magic playing!  Dirk and I joined them at Brian's house, and much dorking ensued.  We started at about 10:30am.  There was a break for lunch, let's say an hour just to be safe.  Then we concluded the day's events around 8:30pm.  Yes friends, that is most definitely 9 hours of dorking.  There was a small br...

What is okay to play in a casual setting? Can you break out your hardcore land destruction deck around the kitchen table? Is it okay to play a 20-counterspell deck in the Casual room on MTGO? Do your friends hate you when you whip out your mono-black heavy discard deck? Brian leads us in a discussion of deck-type etiquette when playing in a non-tournament environment. Give us your opinions on the...

First we have to resurrect Squanto, since Vegas worked him to death.  From there, the episode takes off and never really stops.  Squanto, Mike, Brian, and I discuss the differences between the three major types of Magic decks:  Aggro, Control, and Combo.  At great length.  No really, we're really pretty thorough.  Pros, cons, examples, rantings, ravings, questions, arguments.  Pretty much everythi...

On this episode, the whole dorky crew goes over what they played at the Morningtide Prerelease and how it went for them.  We cover our single Sealed flight experience, then how Two-Headed Giant treated us.  Spoiler:  It stomped us.  Hard.  Of course, then we just had to talk about some of the other stuff going on at the tournament, but that's nothing worth mentioning in the show notes.  Except tha...

You know, we do 13 cards and we go to right around an hour. This time we only had 5 cards, so how long did we go? Right around an hour. In this episode, we discuss, at great length, some of the things you can do with the 5 preview cards that have popped up since the last episode. We actually came up with some doozies this time, let us know what you think. There's also Brian's Prerelease article th...

On the off chance anyone wants to help us out, here's the flyer my fabulous girlfriend and I designed (she did all the work, I watched in awe).  If you'd like, you can print this out, make some copies, cut them out, and hand them out to people.  Sure it's a large pain, but it's not so much pain that I'm not willing to put you guys through it.  You know, if you want me to.  Anyway, here it is.  Tha...

Wow. We've done this for 10 episodes now. That's pretty crazy. Seems like only a couple months ago we got this whole thing started...   Oh wait, I guess that's when it was. Never mind then. Mike, Brian, Squanto and I (da Chewie, of course) discuss the 13 new Morningtide preview cards to come out since our last look. This was supposed to be a quickie episode, but with 13 cards to talk about, we're...

In this episode Squanto, Mike, Brian, Dirk and I (da Chewie!) take on the issue of proxies.  When is it okay to use proxies?  When is it not okay?  And what should you do when confronted with someone using proxies?  And what about using your foil lands in place of normal lands at a Limited event?  We tackle these hot-button issues right here in the Mana Pool.   Next up we hit even more Morningtide...

It's the Best of 2007 show for the Mana Pool!  Squanto, Brian, Dirk and I (da Chewie!) discuss all the best things to come out of the Mana Pool in 2007.  This includes but is not limited to the Best Single Card We Never Got Around To Discussing, the Thousand-Year Elixir.  We go over the Chris Millar article that discusses the Elixir, and talk about Brian's experiences both with and against it.  He...

In this episode Mike, Brian, and Thomas join me (the Chewie!) for some scrumptious dorkiness! This time we go over some of the Standard decks that did well and made it big at Worlds this year. The big standout is the return of Dragonstorm, this time in mono-red with Spinerock Knoll as the super-secret tech. But we cover several other big decks too. In the middle of that there's a very short rant a...