The Mana Pool – Magic the Gathering Podcast |

Episode 573 – The Return of the Story Circle
The dorks discuss the Commander products for 2020, the design of legendary creatures, and do our first Story Circle in over a year!

Episode 572 – A Brief History of Magic Formats
The dorks discuss the history of competitive Magic formats, from the creation of Type I and Type II all the way up to the creation of Pioneer!

Episode 571 – Brian Talks Brawl Rotation
Brian leads the discussion about rotation and its effect on Brawl, using his own decks as examples!

Episode 570 – The Saga Conscription
The dorks come back from a two week break to do a Mythic Conscription for a notoriously overpowered set - Urza's Saga!

Episode 569 – Throne of Eldraine Prerelease Field Recordings
Three dorks and a Sam head to the Eldraine Prerelease!

Episode 568 – Happily Ever After
The dorks dive back into Throne of Eldraine previews as they finish up cycles and dig into even more awesome & flavorful cards!

Episode 567 – Run, Run As Fast As You Can
The dorks are back to cover even more fairytale goodness with Throne of Eldraine previews!

Episode 566 – The Eldraine Adventure
The dorks cover lots of cards in the first big wave of Throne of Eldraine previews!

Episode 573 – The Return of the Story Circle

By The Mana Pool | Published November 10, 2019 Leave a comment

The dorks are back with a big episode all about Commander! First off we have to discuss all the Commander products that were announced for 2020. We’ll also address the potential for supplemental product fatigue that might come from these products, but it’s not as bad as you might think at first blush. Plus, find out who finally has a suggestion of legs after all these years…

From there, we’re turning our attention to The Mana Pool Story Circles. Turns out it’s been over a year since we did one! We’ll spend a good while discussing how the changing design of legendary creatures over recent years has affected the Story Circle.

But then it’s time to do the thing! I found a perfect candidate for a Commander to build around, not too narrow but not too wide open – Kykar, Wind’s Fury! Twitch chat even got in on the action and helped us flesh out more cards for the deck!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:07:04 — 43.6MB)

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Posted in PodcastLeave a comment Tags: Commander, discussion, EDH, story circle

Episode 572 – A Brief History of Magic Formats

By The Mana Pool | Published November 3, 2019 2 Comments

Pioneer was announced as a brand new competitive format, which is something that hasn’t happened on this scale since Modern was announced 8 years ago. We thought it would be cool to go back and look at the history of competitive Magic formats since the beginning. We’re talking Type I, Type II, Type 1.5, and even Type 1.x. Remember Extended? Poor Extended.

To clarify, we’re only talking about Constructed formats that were sanctioned for paper to play at premier events. No online-only formats (though we will mention a couple standouts) and no casual formats (though Commander and Brawl do get honorable mentions for being officially-sanctioned casual formats).

And go easy on Dirk, who is 100% kitchen table and didn’t even know what Pioneer was until we got to that part of the episode. We forgot he doesn’t pay any attention whatsoever to Magic news.

And we finish this episode up with two quick Magic Mad Libs from Magnor Criol!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:09:38 — 44.5MB)

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Posted in Podcast2 Comments Tags: discussion, formats, history, pioneer

Episode 571 – Brian Talks Brawl Rotation

By The Mana Pool | Published October 20, 2019 Leave a comment

Since Standard rotated with Throne of Eldraine that means Brawl rotated too! And our own rambling dork Brian is ALL ABOUT some Brawl, so he wanted to do an episode about it! So we’re gonna hit what left Standard and what that means for Brawl, with Brian’s decks as an example. There’s a good amount of discussion with the live Twitch chat too, which is why you should come join us live on Thursday nights!

If you have any Brawl plans in the new post-rotation format, let us know!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:23 — 31.0MB)

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Posted in PodcastLeave a comment Tags: Brawl, rotation, standard rotation

Episode 570 – The Saga Conscription

By The Mana Pool | Published October 13, 2019 Leave a comment

The dorks are back from a two week podcasting break, and we’re coming out firing! We’re giving the Mythic Conscription treatment to a notoriously overpowered set, Urza’s Saga! In this discussion we’ll point out the difference between powerful cards and, well, design mistakes. Which color is loaded with potential mythics? Which color just doesn’t seem to have much for the discussion? And what about Tolarian Academy?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:43 — 36.3MB)

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Posted in PodcastLeave a comment Tags: Mythic Conscription, urza's saga

Episode 569 – Throne of Eldraine Prerelease Field Recordings

By The Mana Pool | Published October 6, 2019 Leave a comment

It’s Prerelease time again! Chewie, Mike, Brian, and Sam (!) all went to House of Cards in Winston-Salem NC to play! First, Chewie tells the story of the weekend of Scott’s wedding and the horrible, horrible sunburn while he & Mike are in the car on the way to the shop. We didn’t get any pre-tournament recordings with Brian & Sam because they were playing a game of Brawl.

Once the tournament begins you’ll get to hear from us all between rounds as we discuss how the games went. Which dork will be undefeated? Which dork couldn’t win even if his opponent left halfway through the round? I guess you’ll just have to listen!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:10:15 — 24.1MB)

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Posted in PodcastLeave a comment Tags: live episode, Prerelease, throne of eldraine