The Mana Pool

Ah, summer. The sun shines brightly, the birds sing sweetly in the trees, and a young dork's fancy turns to thoughts of the last few Eventide preview cards we'll be talking about before the big event this weekend. Mike here again, as Chewie insists that the posting of the show goes much faster whenever he doesn't have to write the show notes himself (it does). First, we finally conclude tribal "mo...

Hey, this is Mike here, filling in for fearless leader Chewie, who is currently busy eating ice cream and playing Rock Band (or watching The Muppet Show; he wasn't very clear on that point).  In this episode, Brian is back above the weather, giving us our customary cadre of dorks.   It turned out that the massive weekend info dump to the visual spoiler that we totally didn't expect to happen actua...

In this episode, we are without Brian, who is feeling under the weather. With the lead rambler missing, you'd think this episode would be shorter, wouldn't you? Shows you what you know, we can all ramble just fine whether we have Brian or not. Sorry for yet another long episode. But what an episode it is! First off we go over the results of the Onslaught vs. Lorwyn Tribal Wars for Wizards! Mike an...

In this episode, we take on the nine new Eventide cards that have been previewed on the Magic site since the last episode. Not only the cards in the visual spoiler and the day's articles, but also a few cards that showed up in the Eventide primer video in Monday's Arcana. Tuesday's video had no new cards, but it's a good way to familiarize yourself with Chroma, the new ability word in Eventide. He...

In this episode, we give you the result of the Onslaught vs. Lorwyn Goblin Tribal War thing. The captain for the Onslaught deck was the Goblin Warchief, and the Lorwyn deck got the Mad Auntie. Who won? I'm not going tell you. You'll just have to listen. You can find the decklists for these two decks here, eventually: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/tribal-month-t179.html Then, Tribal Month gets pr...

In this episode we are Dirkless. Whoa, that looks like a real word. Playing the role of Dirk in this episode is Thomas, Mike's brother, who you may remember from the episode that discussed how Time Spiral had several hints about the tribes that were going to appear in Lorwyn. Okay, so he's not playing the role of Dirk. He's playing the role of Thomas. He's a natural for the role, oddly enough. Sin...

Welcome back to Tribal Month! This time, we start off with a quick discussion of the Eventide Booster Pack preview that showed up on the Magic website for a few days. Here's the link that worked for us after they took it down, hopefully by the time you read this it'll still be working. Be sure to run your mouse over the Overbeing of Myth to see the full text. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=m...

Well, this was going to be our first Tribal Month episode, but Wizards went and threw a curve ball at us. There's a big bunch of announcements that appeared this week, and we're here to give you our two cents' worth. Well, there's four of us, so that's eight cents. Don't spend it all in one place. We discuss the changes, talk about some of the things Mark Rosewater said about the changes, and then...

In our triumphant return from a vacation hiatus, we promptly decided to skip the show we were going to do and do this one instead.  Please forgive the quality of this episode, both content and sound quality, as it was kind of slapdash.  On Memorial Day, your host dorks got together along with Chris (PhoenixRising422 on the forums) and Michael (Science_Fixes_Everything on the forums) to do a bit of...

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...