Podcast

This is probably the reason you’re here, but I’ll explain just in case. Started in November of 2007, The Mana Pool is a podcast for all the things that casual Magic players might enjoy. We talk about new cards, old cards, decks we’ve played, Commander/EDH, drafting, tournaments we attend, flavor, tribal, basically anything we can think of. We answer rules questions for listeners. We have segments like Out of the Deck Box (showing off our decks), Story Circle (building a deck on the fly live on the air), Magic Mad Libs (just what it sounds like), Mortal Instinct Fighter Calibur Vs (a flavorful random creature tournament fight), and several others that show up from time to time. Whenever we all get together, we record a live episode of us playing games, which listeners seem to enjoy because it gives more insight into who we are rather than because of the games themselves. Hope you enjoy!

Episode 574 – Historic Anthology: TMP Edition

By The Mana Pool | Published November 24, 2019 1 Comment

The dorks are back with more timely content! First up we have to comment on the recent massive B&R update, because it was pretty big. But then we’re shifting to the Historic Anthology announcement for Magic Arena! They’re adding 20 cards from the pre-Historic era (can’t believe we missed that joke on the show!) to Arena for use in the new format and Chewie thought we could totally do that too!

Each of the four dorks picked out five cards of our own to add to Historic! We each came at this from a different angle, so we ended up with a pretty sweet Historic Anthology: TMP Edition. Let us know what you’d put into Historic!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:31 — 36.6MB)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

1 Comment Tagged Arena, discussion, Historic, MTG Arena

Episode 573 – The Return of the Story Circle

By The Mana Pool | Published November 10, 2019 1 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)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

1 Comment Tagged 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)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

2 Comments Tagged 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)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Leave a comment Tagged 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)

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Leave a comment Tagged Mythic Conscription, urza's saga