What a weird week in Magic: The Gathering podcasts! Several of our Format Staples seem to have taken a break this week. I suppose this makes sense, as things are usually quiet immediately after a set release, but the number of shows missing this week was kind of surprising.

Regardless, onward we march!

Format Staples

Format staples are my favorite shows and the shows I believe are the most important for someone interested in Magic: The Gathering and podcasts to be listening to week in and week out. You want these in your 75.

CrazyTalk #11 – You’re Fired

Running time 2 hours 43 minutes

• Legacy player and sometime Pro Tour competitor Rob Anderson joins KYT, Jonathan and Frank this week.
• Rob’s “The Five”

• How did you get into Legacy?

• Rob met Alex and as they continued to hang out he was introduced to the format and decided to stick with it.

• What’s your favorite Magic card and why?

• Dimir House Guard.

• What would you like to be known for in the Magic community?

• I want to be known for an epic top-deck for a huge win.

• Which Magic personality would you want to bring into a barfight?

• Alexander Hayne

• What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

• Went across town to meet some women he’d met online when he was fourteen.

• Rob discusses his experience playing Ali Aintrazi’s Metalworker deck. The deck was piloted by Aintrazi at SCG:Orlando to a fourteenth-place finish, but Rob felt that it has a lot of problems.
• Jonathan has had some experience playing the Metalworker deck and has had an opportunity to watch the deck’s original creator (Michael Bomholt) play it. Jonathan feels that the deck is playable but you have to be very knowledgeable about the deck and the matchups in order to pull it off.
• Alex joins the cast late to cover the Elf/combo deck that he has been playing recently and the annoying opponent playing Legacy Infect at the same tournament Rob attended.
• The guys talk about that Legacy Infect deck and whether it is actually viable in Legacy. Everyone seems to agree that if you want to play a deck that can win on turn one you should really be playing Belcher (Goblin Charbelcher combo) or ANT (Ad Nauseam/Tendrils combo).
• KYT and Frank recount their experience playing at a local Grand Prix Trial, which leads to an interesting discussion about intentionally making changes to your natural play style in order to get better results at events.
• Medina predicts Mental Misstep will be $10 by the time Grand Prix: Providence rolls around.
• The guys talk about an interesting-sounding Protean Hulk deck that no one seems to have the list for.

The Eh Team #36 – The Back Skeet Boys

Running time 1 hour 36 minutes

• All the guys are back on the show as KYT, Jesse, Jay Boosh, and Scotty come together to talk about their New Phyrexia prerelease experiences!
• Aside from recounting their experiences at the prerelease and their opinions on the three SOM/three NPH sealed (Spoiler alert: They hated it!) the crew talk about a few deck ideas in New Phyrexia Standard, including what the next evolution of Caw-Blade may be, what decks and cards beat the new kid on the block: Splinter Twin/Exarch and another one of Jesse’s home brews featuring Chancellor of the Tangle.
• There really isn’t much else to say about this episode other than it was just straight-up, classic, great Eh Team. Listening to this episode reminds the listener that you are hearing a group of guys with great chemistry talking about something they all love.

Magic TV Top 8 of the Week: Best Green Cards

Running time 12 minutes

• Tristan and Luis are joined by Humphrey to discuss the best green cards of all time.
• The Top 8 breaks down as follows:

• 8. Life from the Loam
• 7. Natural Order
• 6. Hermit Druid
• 5. Fastbond
• 4. Glimpse of Nature
• 3. Tarmogoyf
• 2. Survival of the Fittest
• 1. Oath of Druids

Monday Night Magic #259 – Commander Prison Rap

Running time 1 hour 28 minutes

• Tom, Jack, Adena, and Tristan are joined by Adam Styborski this week.
• Tom wastes no time getting right into news:

• There will be Commander Launch Parties to celebrate the release of the new summer Commander product. The launch party release information includes some interesting information that has the hosts excited and curious.

• Tom asks everyone to discuss the New Phyrexia cards they are most excited about for Commander.
• There will be an MTGCast.com listener meetup on June 4 in Seattle, Washington. Information is available in the show notes.

Untapped #10 – Hhhhashhad Miller

Running time 1 hour 44 minutes

• Rashad Miller joins Trick, Frank, Jonathan, and JR to discuss the week in Magic.
• Rashad delivers his complete Magical History.
• This episode of Untapped Cast functions as a very, very good interview with Rashad, and I recommend that you tune in. This was a very fun and interesting show.

The Sideboard

The Sideboard includes shows that may or may not record every week but are quality podcasts that you may be interested in. At a minimum, I will provide the show notes, but in the case of better-than-usual episodes will provide recap or commentary. You don’t run them in every deck, but they are often a great metagame call.

The Hardcast #13 – Look Ma, No Website

Running time 53 minutes

• Show notes:

• First and foremost – No Channelfireball this week!?!
• Exarch combo – Is it the new Standard? With Black or with Green?
• On the verge of a Legacy – How has Magic Online prepared players for GP Providence?
• Cube Question of the week: To run Praetors Grasp or not?
• This week in Magic TV: Hit or Mythic, two top 8 lists, and the month of Magic
• How can we create a GP/Pro fantasy draft that would work and how to score it?
• FNM Deck of the week – Mono-White

Horde of Notions #6 – Lots of Lots and a Plethora of Plans

Running time 2 hours 2 minutes

• Show notes:

• The gang’s all here as Chris, Jack, Adena and Noyan talk about what they want to do with New Phyrexia, debate the relative quality of 1cc discard, question the viability of Soul Sisters 2.0 and look at how Hawkward can get better with NPH. All this plus talk of text-based adventure games, giant swords, meth and awesome baseball players. How can you possibly miss this?

In Contention #46 – Preparing for SCG Kentucky

Running time 1 hour

• Show notes:

• Mark Sun joins Sam and Kranny to discuss standard and legacy in preparation for the StarCity Open in Louisville this weekend. We take some viewer questions, and discuss the recent announcement of Modern as a format for the Magic Online Community Cup.

The Mana Pool #178 – Serious Fun with Adam Styborski

Running time 2 hours 25 minutes

• Show notes:

• We are joined this week by a very special guest, Adam Styborski. He writes the Serious Fun column for the mothership, he writes for GatheringMagic, he’s the Casual Editor over at Quiet Speculation, and he writes a Pauper Cube blog. The links are down below!
• We talked to Adam for a while about his writing, his playing, and whatever else Brian thought up. Then we all discussed the New Phyrexia Prerelease, which most of us ended up attending. One of us was gunslinging, can you guess which one? After that, we did one of our nonsensical but fun Magic Mad Libs! And yes, Stybs helped out!
• Then we started talking about Equipment. Which ones we love, which ones are awesome, which ones are awesome for multiplayer. Whatever we could think of. Adam had some especially interesting things to say on this topic, so pay attention. You, in the back! Head up off the desk!

Mana Screwed #46 – Mana Screwed Challenging Deck Builders Everywhere (aka the Return of Dr. Jay)

Running time 59 minutes

• Show notes:

• Do you think a podcast that is popular should look for some sort of sponsorship?
• How did your prerelease go?
• If someone sets up a time to join your podcast and stiffs you what’s your opinion on it?
• Even with the Sword of War and Peace in existence it seems a lot of the deck builders are looking at Mono Red as viable deck do you think it will work?
• It also looks like Shrine of Burning Rage is going to make RDW over the top, your opinions on it?
• After reviewing the set it seems like the Chancellors are going to see play in constructed?
• Cawblade is getting corrected Darkblade and everybody’s favorites removal card Dismember
• Will anyone have the balls to run mono-black in standard because of Phyrexian Obliterator?
• The tokens with Beasts within and Fresh Meat and Karn? Karn really?
• Kibler discussed that phyrexian mana could end the playability of infect decks correct?
• Lets review the top 10 cards according to TCG player from all decks in the NPX standard decks list.

Mana Sculpting #6 – New Phyrexia Impact on Standard

Running time 54 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week’s episode covers the impact New Phyrexia has shown in competitive standard.
• Intro
• Release Tournament

• I played. Same result as Pre-Release. Played UB infect.
• All-Stars: Phyrexian Ingester, Enslave, Strata Scythe, Blighted Agent and Viral Drake

• Edgar Flores UW Caw Blade
• Grixis Twin
• RUG Twin
• Listener Questions

• Spellskite: What it can and can't be used for.
• Order of events when using a spell bomb: You draw first. Because the cost of the first effect is paid and put onto the stack, then the draw ability is put onto the stack. When the abilities resolve you draw first and then search.
• Controlling an opponent's creature when it goes to the graveyard, who gets the effects? Necropede says “When Necropede is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.” The “you” on the card refers to the controller, not the owner. The graveyard it enters is irrelavent.
• Melira and her interactions:

• Melira + Carnifex Demon: will give you a Demon without -1/-1 counters on it. Not exactly what you want as the demon is great removal. If you play Melira after the demon is in play then when you remove counters from the demon, counters won't be placed on your creatures when the ability resolves.
• Melira + Etched Champion: It a 10/10 for 5 mana.
• Melira + Glistening Oil: it allows you to give your creature infect without the downfall of it getting -1/-1 counters. Sounds a lot like Phyresis which also doesn't get played. Although, using it on the creature that is beating you down, will allow you to block it all day without your creature dying.

• Giveaway!!

• Comment on the Podcast with your Twitter Name, add us to Twitter
• Entered into a drawing for a playset of Mental Missteps

• Shout Outs-

• Lake Geneva Games
• Evil Squirrel Comics
• Dan Deja for Top 4 at the release

MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic #43 – Rashad Miller

Running time 55 minutes

In this episode of the MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic, Presenting series, the Host(s) interviews: Rashad Miller

This weeks Men of Magic is with the man who gives us more magic than anyone — Rashad Miller. Find out about what the grind of doing coverage is and so much more.

Pauper to the People #8 – Gravy Cake

Running time 57 minutes

• Matt and Chris, with special guest Travis, discuss Mono Red Burn, Slivers, and culinary misfortunes. Travis and Chris “lighten” the mood by playing a voicemail from their old drummer, Frank. Other podcasts you listen to get +1/+1 if you download this episode. This is Pauper to the People.
• Links discussed:

• http://www.facebook.com/paupertothepeople
• www.mtgpad.com
• www.mtgoacademy.com

In Development

Shows in development are newer podcasts. I will keep you guys up to date on new shows as they arrive on the scene, at a minimum providing show notes and possibly providing recap and analysis (I'm more likely to start writing about new shows once they've made it through five episodes and have begun to hit their stride). Consider these shows the cards you play with for the first time at the prerelease: You are excited to try them out but no one is sure how much play they will see.

RTFC Podcast #2 – Works in Progress

Running time 1 hour 4 minutes

• A review of the upcoming meta-game shifts in standard, with some tips and tricks to help you prepare for PTQ season. Also, Phil's anger flames are stoked, while Kirk and Tony make a ridiculous Prop Bet.