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Episode 229 – Mike’s Demonic Defects
Mike's face courtesy of Jars
We begin by taking a quick look at the Avacyn Restored Event Decks, in all their glorious whatever-it-is. After that, we have a riveting discussion about what happens when you cast Eaten by Spiders on Avacyn. Another listener-inspired topic that we tackled is a simple one: What was the first card you ever really coveted? This leads us to all kinds of nostalgia and manages to infiltrate the main topic of the episode.
Main topic you say? Well AVR has lots of shiny new angels and a fair number of new demons, but what about the old guard? Both have been around since the first printing of Magic, but what are we dealing with here? What have these two types looked like throughout the history of the game? We’ll discuss some of the ancient creatures of each type and throw out plenty of personal experiences with them too of course.
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Tags: casual magic, Magic the Gathering, MTG, podcast, The Mana Pool
Different Shades of Red
by Daniel Beach
My favorite thing about Magic: the Gathering is the strategic depth, and the Commander format permits strategies that are not viable anywhere else to have their five minutes of fame. Mono-red, however, has a reputation of being linear and simple; this just isn’t so. Despite not having certain valued abilities ready at their disposal, mono-red decks are still capable of operating in varied and complex ways. This is a point Mike has alluded to a couple times in talking about his Big Red Standard deck, and here I will show it by comparing his mono-red Commander deck to mine.
A couple years ago I built a mono-red Commander deck. The general was Rakka Mar. I built it badly and it failed miserably. But when Mike built Fumiko, I was curious to see if he could get it to work. After The Dorks took a crack at fixing it and Mike put the deck up for listeners’ suggestions, I decided I would take a second crack at a mono-red Commander deck.
Posted in Articles, The Deck Box2 Comments
Tags: casual magic, Commander, EDH, Guest Dork, Magic the Gathering, MTG, MTG Commander, out of the deck box
Episode 228 – The Helvault Experience (Play Boros)
Photo courtesy of @EricMTGCast
Yeah, we just had 3 episodes of previews, so you know what that means – the Prerelease episode! Bill Bloodworth (you know, @SqueeGoblnNabob) joins us for this one, since he was the cause of the funniest thing any of us have seen at a Prerelease for a VERY long time. Brian talked about his experience, Bill told his story, and Mike and Chewie covered their two apiece. Definitely a lot of fun. So be sure to tune in to hear about the bitch scoop, slamming the door, How to Miracle (from Bill), How Not to Miracle (from Mike), Chewie Righteously Blowing things, and of course…GRISELBRAND!
Of course, before we get to the Sealed events, we have a few things to discuss. In a quick message on DailyMTG by Helene Bergeot (and aren’t they all quick?), it was revealed that Guillaume Matignon’s suspension was cut in half. If you’ll recall, he was one of the Guillaumes responsible for GuillaumeGate. Guillaume Guillaume. Okay, I think that’s out of my system now. But he was one of the guys behind the New Phyrexia godbook leak. Or so we thought…*dramatic pause*
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Tags: Avacyn Restored, casual magic, guest host, Magic the Gathering, MTG, MTGAVR, News, The Mana Pool, tournament report
Mike’s Fumiko CMDR Decks Video
A few months ago, Chewie talked me into filming a marathon session of videos for the CMDR Decks channel, and we sent them over to be placed in the queue for future release. Presumably you’ve already seen the Dakkon Blackblade video (check it out, if not), and the second one is the second Commander deck I ever built: my Fumiko the Lowblood deck. Note that I go and make tweaks to my decks fairly often, especially if I get to thinking about them for some reason, so some of the details aren’t exactly accurate anymore. You can look it up on TappedOut to see the up-to-the-minute current list. As always, let me know what you think in the comments here, or in the comments section on YouTube if you feel so inclined. To be honest, there’s no guarantee I’ll read the YouTube comments, as I do my best to avoid reading any YouTube comments as a general rule (that stuff will rot your brain). Recording all these videos was a lot of fun, and I want to thank Uriah Oxford and Gathering Magic for featuring them on the CMDR Decks channel.
Posted in The Deck Box, Videos5 Comments
Episode 227 – All the AVR, All the Time
This episode, there’s not much going on other than the full reveal of Avacyn Restored. So we go through each color, pointing stuff out. Powerful cards, awesome (or gross) art, cards we can’t wait to play with, stuff that we think is utter crap. You know the drill. Everyone’s doing it this time of year. But we do it with our own dorky style! There’s actually not much else to talk about on this one, so I’ll leave you with a link to the full set so you can check it out yourself.
Avacyn Restored Card Image Gallery
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Tags: Avacyn Restored, casual magic, Magic the Gathering, MTG, MTGAVR, previews, The Mana Pool