CommanderCast #24 – Screaming Muses, Like Monster Trucks

Running time 1 hour 27 minutes

• Graveborn Muse (Daryl Bockett), Seedborn Muse (Brandon Isleib), and Windborn Muse (Bruce Richard) of MuseVessel.com join Andy this week to talk about Commander.
• Community Segment: Deck Suitcase

• How many Commander decks do you have? How many is too many? What is the right number? The guys talk about the pros and cons of playing multiple decks versus focusing on one deck only.

• Strategy Segment: Keywords

• The guys discuss their most and least favorite Keywords in Magic's history, including which are the most advantageous in Commander.

• Strategy Segment: Balancing vs. Bandwagoning

• I know that this is a constant point of some contention in my playgroup, and so I imagine you guys come across this as well: What should you do when playing a multiplayer game and one other player begins to really pull ahead?
• I know my response is almost always to try to team up with the other opponents in order to either take out the person pulling ahead or to at least level the player field (balancing). However, another strategy is to jump on the bandwagon with the player pulling ahead to remove the other weak players in the hope that you can later stab your new ally in the back to steal the win.
• What do you guys think? How do you play this position?
• One final issue that falls under the same umbrella is that of king-making. For purposes of the discussion, king-making is loosely defined as a player who has no chance of winning taking action that serves no purpose in his or her own best interest, which results in one or another opponent winning the game.
• Just about every three-person Commander (and any other format for that matter) game I've played has ended in king-making.
• What do you guys think here? I personally prefer to hold back any action that doesn't have either an immediate or foreseeable long-term benefit to me. I don't like to take any action on a given turn simply because I don't have anything else to do.
• I think in the end it comes down to what you want to get out of a game of Commander. I always want to win and will always play to whatever out has the highest percentage chance of achieving that. My buddy Jeff loves to see crazy, unexpected things happen in a game because even if he doesn't win, he still has a great time just watching the unexpected happen. So he doesn't mind playing king-maker so much because if it's his turn and he has cards in hand, he wants to play them because that's how craziness happens. To each his own, right? I admit that even when I don't win, I have a good time when something truly nuts happens at the Commander table.

• Technology Segment: Secret Tech – Muse Vessel Edition

• To wrap up the show, the Muses each provide three "secret" tech Commander cards. Check out their recommendations. Cool stuff.

CrazyTalk #7 – 5 Cursecatchers, 3 Hours and 15 Mental Missteps Later

Running time 2 hours 47 minutes

• This week's CrazyTalk begins with Jonathan recounting his experience at a store-hosted Legacy event with a Mox and a Bazaar of Baghdad as the prize. He chose to play in this tournament rather than playing in Nationals Qualifiers. Listen in to hear his analysis of the risks of playing the Legacy Dredge deck.
• KYT talks about his experience playing mono-Blue Merfolk at a recent tournament. Being one of the newest Legacy players on the cast, he has a few questions about matchups for the other guys.
• Frank played a Blue/Black Reanimator deck in order to test it in a post–Mystical Tutor and post–Survival of the Fittest metagame. He felt that the deck was still very strong but not nearly as consistent as it was when Mystical Tutor was legal.
• Alex asks the group: If Grand Prix: Providence were tomorrow, what deck would you play?

• KYT answers Affinity.
• Frank would play Team America.
• Jonathan would play High Tide.
• Alex would play Ad Nauseam.

• With that, the guys move on to discussing the New Phyrexia spoilers, specifically focusing on Mental Misstep because it has such huge implications on the Legacy format.

The Eh Team #33 – Torpedo of Truth

Running time 1 hour 47 minutes

• KYT, Jesse, Scott, and Jay are joined by Magic pro and Rookie of the Year hopeful Matthias Hunt.
• To kick off the show, the guys discuss their experience at Nationals Qualifiers.
• KYT earned an invitation at his Qualifier, playing U/W Caw-Blade (Congrats, KYT!).
• With that out of the way, the crew move on to the real meat and potatoes of this episode: New Phyrexia spoilers! Rather than cover the entire set in this show, everyone picks the cards they are most interested in and discuss with the group.
• All around a great show with funny and interesting insight on the cards of the upcoming set.

Horde of Notions #3 – Hasty Vigilant Bastard of Doom

Running time 1 hour 30 minutes

• Chris, Jack, Noyan, and Adena meet up once again to talk everything rogue.
• Starting the show off, Chris and Noyan recount their experience playing in tournaments.
• Eschewing the rogue strategy for a day, Chris played an Elf deck that he piloted to a tenth-place finish, so big props to him!
• Noyan had a less successful day playing Legacy in a local tournament. He had bad beats, but it happens to all of us. Part of the game.
• Meanwhile, Adena has been playing some interesting kitchen-table variants, and Jack is testing Legacy for the upcoming Star City Games Open: Charlotte.
• Jack and Noyan have an interesting chat about Jack's deck choices: mono-Blue Merfolk or a deck I've never heard of called "The Gate".
• Obviously, the leak of New Phyrexia has to be addressed this week. Everyone offers their thoughts on the morality of the leaks and on unauthorized spoilers in general before moving on to discussing specific cards.
• The rest of the show is a good discussion of cards from New Phyrexia across all formats for competitive and rogue decks.

Limited Resources #80 – You Had Me at Immolating Souleater

Running time 1 hour 57 minutes

• Taking advantage of their relationship with CardKingdom.com, Marshall and Ryan offer a coupon to go along with Episode 80, which is the first part of their New Phyrexia set review.
• Before jumping into the review, the guys discuss the banning of Guillaume Matignon and Guillaume Wafo-Tapa in the wake of the New Phyrexia spoiler leak, and also make their bid for nominations to the Magic Online Community Cup.
• From there, your Limited Resources crew review the common and uncommon artifacts, White, and Blue cards in New Phyrexia. As always, listen in to get a grip on how to approach limited strategy when the set is released.

The Magic Show #230 – New Phyrexia Favorites

Running time 16 minutes

• Evan Erwin discusses his favorite new cards from New Phyrexia, provides us with the SCG Open series update on SCG: Boston, and discusses a few decks that may be interesting in today's metagame.

Magic TV #87 – 2012 Grand Prix Program

Running time 17 minutes

• Tristan Shaun Gregson and Luis Scott Vargas discuss Wizards of the Coast's recently announced Grand Prix schedule, which now hosts more events than recent years, and the announcement that Pro Tours will now be closed to the public.

MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic #37 – Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa

Running time 52 minutes

• Robert Martin interviews Pro Tour regular and ChannelFireball.com writer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.

MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic # 36 – Kar Yung Tom "KYT"

Running time 1 hour 8 minutes

• Robert Martin interviews Kar Yung Tom, commonly known as "KYT."
• KYT is the creator of ManaDeprived.com, and host of two of the most popular podcasts in MtG: The Eh Team and Crazy Talk.
• Tune in to learn more about a guy who has a real passion for this game and works hard to achieve his vision.

The Third Power #12 – Now You're Playing with Power! (or not)

Running time 1 hour 32 minutes

• Usman and Anthony spend some time this week discussing the use of the Power Nine and other fast-mana cards in Cube. Looking at a powered Cube from a holistic approach, the guys also talk about the cards that are made better by including the Power Nine and fast mana in your Cube.
• To begin to the show, Usman discusses his experience on the recent Cube Panel hosted on Limited Resources Episode #77.
• This week's Crack-a-Pack:

• Bogardan Hellkite
• Gideon Jura
• Misty Rainforest
• Cultivate
• Fire Imp
• Dromar's Charm
• Soltari Priest
• Rancor
• Staggershock
• Morphling
• Sword of Light and Shadow
• Wild Mongrel
• Sacred Foundry
• Pristine Angel
• Phyrexian Arena

• The guys both go with Sword of Light and Shadow as their pick and follow that up by ranking the Swords currently available.

Untapped #7 – Chancellor of the Tango

Running time 2 hours 12 minutes

• Trick is back this week to join Jonathan, Frank, and JR.
• The guys discuss the leak of the New Phyrexia spoilers and what it means to Wizards and especially to the smaller sites, which get a lot of traffic by spoiling preview cards.
• Trick gives us some details about the recent merging of ManaNation.com and GatheringMagic.com.
• Frank relates a story about a problem he had with buying a set of Underground Seas on eBay.
• From there, the guys discuss the New Phyrexia spoilers and the implications the cards will have across formats.

Yo! MTG Taps! #63 – Oh My Godbook

Running time 1 hour

• Joey Pasco and Bigheadjoe are back this week with their thoughts on the New Phyrexia spoilers.
• To start the show, the guys discuss their feelings about the leak. Both feel the way that a lot of us do: We're excited to see the cards because we love the game, but it totally stinks for Wizards of the Coast and all of the sites that usually get special preview cards.
• After covering the Prerelease and Launch Party promo cards, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Phyrexian Metamorph, the guys move onto their top five cards of the set.
• Bigheadjoe's top five cards are:

• Blighted Agent
• Dispatch
• Chancellor of the Annex
• Despise
• all of the Phyrexian mana spells

• Joey's top five cards are:

• Lashwrithe
• Gitaxian Probe
• Beast Within
• Batterskull
• Mental Misstep