There is a lot of discussion going around about the upcoming June 20 Banned and Restricted announcement from Wizards of the Coast. What do you guys think is going to happen? With tournament attendance supposedly declining, is now the time for action? Tune in to your favorite podcasts this week to hear a few thoughts.

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.

CommanderCast #28 – Losing More Than a Game

Running time 1 hour 36 minutes

• Andy, Carlos, and Donovan are joined this week by Horde of Notions host and ManaDeprived.com writer Chris Lansdell.
• Community: Free-For-All Roundtable: Poison

• When the group last discussed poison way back in Episode #4, it was decided that they should really wait to see what the entire Scars of Mirrodin block would bring to the table. Well, now that the block is complete and we have a pretty good picture of what the Phyrexians have to offer Commander, the guys revisit the concept in a bloody and poisonous free-for-all battle.

• Community: Spotlight

• Andy spotlights CMDRDeck’s YouTube channel, where you will find a ton of great video deck techs and more.

• Community: Growing Your Game

• The group offers a few suggestions and thoughts on what each of us as players and ambassadors of the game can do to embrace and encourage new Commander players whose first exposure to the format will be this summer’s Commander preconstructed decks.
• This was a great segment, and I truly believe we should all make an effort to get down to the local game store to help new players get excited about Commander.

• Strategy: Archetype Breakdown – Token Swarm

• The guys discuss Commander decks whose plan of attack revolves around tokens.

• Strategy: False Idols – One-for-Ones are Bad

• In another excellent False Idols segment, the guys discuss the common misconception that one-for-ones in Commander aren’t good enough.
• The most common example of this is the choice of board-sweepers over spot removal, but the group discusses the concept of spot removal having its place in the format and even being completely necessary in many instances.

• Technology: Secret Tech

• Chris provides three commons, three uncommons, and three rares that he loves in Commander.

The Eh Team – #38 – Fine Young Cannibals

Running time 1 hour 21 minutes

• With the Magic news landscape relatively quiet this week, the boys of The Eh Team take an hour or so to just talk decks.
• Scotty talks about his Bant-colored Persist Commander deck (which I will be building in short order . . . @MrScottyMac should really post a list).
• Jesse provides us with a description and breakdown of his recent Birthing Pod deck (full list available at 60cards.com).
• The whole group discusses Standard so that KYT can have some help in deciding what deck he should play at an upcoming PTQ.
• Talk of Standard provides a great jumping-off point to discuss the upcoming June 20 Banned and Restricted announcement. JayBoosh believes that Wizards of the Coast may very well ban Stoneforge Mystic (which many, many people around the Internet seem to want very badly), but Scott and Jesse disagree. There is a little argument and things get heated, but in the end, everyone can be bros again. Jay and Scott hug it out, b**ch, and the show moves on.

Limited Resources #85 – The End Game

Running time 2 hours 19 minutes

• This episode of Limited Resources was really great, yet heartbreaking in a way. This was Ryan’s very last episode before joining Wizards of the Coast.
• While this episode was intended to be a break from their regular strategic content, the guys do spend a little time at the beginning of the show discussing draft strategies in triple New Phyrexia drafting (which is still available as of this writing).
• Triple-set drafting is a fun way to get your hands on the latest and greatest new cards. It also provides a very different draft environment from Block Draft.
• Ryan and Marshall then recount Ryan’s career and journey into the game industry and through to his dream job: working for Wizards of the Coast.
• Finally, the guys give a heartfelt thank-you to all of their loyal listeners, and a number of shout-outs for listeners, guests, and peers who have really helped or supported the show.
• I hate to see Ryan leaving the show, but I know that Limited Resources will likely continue and will always maintain its level of excellence (Marshall has mad skills for churning out top-quality shows). Everyone should tune in to hear Ryan’s send-off and to join Marshall as he begins his journey to determine what the show will become without one of its founders.

Monday Night Magic #262 – Duels of Our Lives

Running time 1 hour 35 minutes

Show notes:

• Join Tom, Jack and Adena as they run through a magic weekend, Commander previews, some GP / PT info and more! And some ice skating references and lots of uses for foldable furniture.
• We jump right into the Commander Preview weekend and run through the current spoilers (on MTGSalvation), including our first view of Join Forces, and Tom gets his baby with The Mimeoplasm. Congratulations to Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa for winning GP Singapore with CawBlade. PT Nagoya is coming up next week, so put your hands together and clap loudly for Conley Woods. Gavin is all over the magic world giving us some new info on the SCG Open series events and big news for season 2 of the SCGLive coverage. He also is spear-heading the Over Extended format and it even has it’s own website now, mtgoverextended.com. Rumors swirl as the icon legend for DoTP 2012 shows icons for both Shadow and Fading.
• Tom then bores us all to tears telling everyone what an awesome time he had at the first MTGCast Listener Event in Seattle. A big thank you to Card Exchange for hosting our motley crew, BJ Shea and everyone from the Morning Experience on KISW 99.9FM, Andrew from WoTC for hand-delivering a Snow Mercy to Tom, Jamie / Alex / Jesse for a slew of memorable casual games, Dan at for showing us a crazy night at Cafe Mox. And to David, for putting this whole thing together!
• Happy Birthday to Chris on June 9th turning the big 38!
• Listener Emails

• Corrections about MTG and Dr. Pepper abounded, and a secret recipe for Ecto Cooler wait inside this section.

• MTGCast News

• Chris will be previewing DoTP 2012. If you play MTGO, make sure to join the ‘official’ MTGCast MTGO Clan — Limited Resources — Ask “MalachiConstant” on MTGO to be added to the Clan. They are on track to break the Top 5 Clans in gross earnings of boosters by the end of 2011.

Untapped #12 – Commanding Old Medina Back

Running time 1 hour 54 minutes

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.

Horde of Notions #9 – We’re Still We’re Still Brewin’ for the Block

Running time 2 hours 2 minutes

• Show notes:

• Chris, Adena and Noyan are deserted by Jack early on but overcome their grief to discuss Slag Red and Suicide RB in Standard, Child of Alara in EDH and Artilleromancer in Modern. They also look at some ideas for the upcoming Block Pro Tour, breaking Etched Monstrosity in the process*, and discuss some offbeat deck ideas for you to try out. All this and the usual HoN nonsense!
• Child of Alara EDH deck
• Do A Barrell Roll: Sorrow’s Path
• Moments of Geekery

• Dr. Who S6
• Dancing fiddling chick
• Gunslinger Girl

• *Etched Monstrosity may not actually get broken

In Contention #48 – In Contention at the SCG Invitational

Running time 1 hour 10 minutes

• Show notes:

• In this episode, Sam recounts his run at the SCG invitational, then Sam and Kranny discuss the state of Legacy a month after Misstep, as well as Commander and M12 spoilers.

The Mana Pool #181 – Cycles of Compleation

Running time 2 hours 2 minutes

• Show notes:

• This time around, we've got even more listener mail! Reading the mail leads to some interesting conversations. We discussed cheating a little bit, complete with judge-type commentary by Bryan from the Avant-Card Show, who happens to be a Level 2 Judge. There's a little bit of speculation about Innistrad (completely baseless, the best kind!). And just in case we're right, you heard it here first! Innistrad's going to deal with things dying and possibly life totals. HA!
• We've also got another listener-supplied Mad Lib! This one is from Tosus, our old buddy out in Germany, and it's a good one.
• Then we finally get to talk about the cycles in New Phyrexia, after a brief discussion of what cycles are in the first place. Then we realized...there really aren't that many cycles in the set. The Praetors, the Chancellors, the Exarchs, the Shrines, and the Souleaters. I think that might be it. But we went into detail for each cycle, so it works out well. Let us know if you have any thoughts on the cycles of New Phyrexia.

Mana Screwed #48 – Free Pizza (From TANGENT) With Every Download

Running time 1 hour 6 minutes

• Show notes:

• (Editor: Contact Tangent directly for your Free Pizza(s)!)
• Thank you our friends at GatheringMagic.Com your one stop source for everything and anything in Magic.
• With FNM promo cards, why are they mostly useless. June’s card is Rhox War Monk, this card was not a staple during its time. Should they at least give cards to people that are useful in legacy and extended.
• The Men of Magic podcast is heading towards number 50, who do you want to see interviewed soon on the show?
• With the Community Cup coming soon. The match up of the event will be Ryan (formerly of Limited Resources) vs Marshall (Host of Limited Resources) in a SoM draft format. Who do you got to win when they go head to head!
• An Article written by Brook Gardner-Durbin on Quiet Speculation talks about the 5 most underrated cards in standard. Lets review them and see if we agree or if you think there is another card that should be in.

• Phyrexian Revoker
• Leyline of Sanctity
• Duress/Despise
• Mirran Crusader
• Spreading Seas

• Finally we are in the process of getting all women podcast together. The positives and/or negatives of this happening.
• Professional Player Jonathan Randle who writes for Blackborder.com has a list of his 10 most impressive players he has played against. Is there a list of players that have impressed you as a magic player

10. Gaudenis Vidugiris

9. Guillaume Matignon

8. Kenji Tsumura

7. Shoota Yasooka

6. Yuuya Watanabe

5. Raphael Levy

4. Tomoharu Saito

3. Robert Jurkovic

2. Paulo Vitor Damo de Rosa

Shuuhei Nakamura

• Chapin writes this week about cards he saw in Legacy that made impacts during the GP. At the end of his articles he asks this question “Is Mental Mistep good or bad for legacy?”
• With Paulo winning the GP and now 2 points from 300 lifetime before 24 years old, can he be in the list of top 5 all time?
• The other amazing stat that happened from this weekend is Owen Turtenwald has his 3rd straight top 8 gp in 3 different formats your thoughts on this?
• Going into Pro Tour Nagoya the race for player is Owen with 36, Ben Stark 34, Paulo 26 all 3 are Channel Fireball teammates could this be the year of CFB dominating POY?
• Leg 1 of Fantasy Draft starts this week: Pro Tour Nagoya – We pick 5 players each, their finish in the tourney equal how many points you get. Lowest point total wins.

• Charlotte – Paulo – ketita – Nelson – Utter-Layton – Vidugiris
• Chris – Owen – Kibler – Mat Marr – Watanabe -Black
• Robert – Shuuhei - Vidugiris – Levy – Juza – Ochoa
• Jack – LSV – Conley- Estrada – Grafensteiner – Pat Cox
• Tangent – Nojowaj – Maynard – Randle – stark – jurkovic

MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic #47 – MJ Scott

Running time 1 hour 4 minutes

• Show notes:

• In this episode of the MTGCast Interviews the Men of Magic, Presenting series, the Host(s) interviews: MJ Scott
• Artist, mom, one of the new cohosts of all female podcast Serra’s Angels. We go through her love of magic, art, and why an all male Men of Magic podcasting calendar would be a disaster, also why did Conley wear a velvet Jacket at GP DFW?

Pauper to the People #11 – tenslash11.B

Running time 47 minutes

• Show notes:

• One man, haunted by the voices of the past, stands alone at the precipice of insanity. Armed with only a microphone, ravishing good looks, and his G/R Infect deck, Chris must traverse the wilderness of the podcast landscape alone. This is his journey. This is Pauper to the People.

Scrubland #43 – Caw-rection

Running time 1 hour 35 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week, Scrubland has invited former Pro and ’99 U.S. National Champion Kyle Rose on to chat about Caw-Blade and the various answers that exist in the format. Later, DSale makes yet another argument for the banning of Jace, and then we break it down with our terrible crowd-sourced BUG deck. Fuzzy Porn, Comical Blue Alligators, and an HD-DVD vs Blu-ray debate keep up honest as we close out Episode #43. WELCOME TO THE SCRUBLAND!

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.

Inside the Deck – SCG Invitational

Running time 10 minutes

• GatheringMagic.com has a new video series hosted by Jonathan Beach!
• Jonathan, along with show writer and director Richard Castle, bring us an incredibly impressive look at the recent Star City Games Invitational.
• The video quality of this show is unreal. HD video combined with Castle’s excellent editing make for a very pleasant viewing experience. Kudos!
• Jonathan weaves interviews with players, judges, and Magic personalities in with footage of the event to provide an excellent overview of what the event was all about.
• Jonathan wraps up with an interview with Invitational winner Pat Cox, getting his thoughts on Standard, Legacy, and more.

Red Cast Wins #4 – Power Sink

Running time 1 hour 12 minutes

• Show notes:

• Chas Andres from ChannelFireball joins us tonight for some commander talk. Charlotte Sable is with us and gives us a bit of insight as a Level 2 Judge, at least until someone cast power sink. More prizes added to the pool for getting Luis to GP Montreal?!

RTFC Podcast #3 – Stoneforge

Running time 1 hour 37 minutes

• Show notes:

• A review of the M12 and Commander Spoilers, Tournament reports, and abject stupidity. Also, Modern Magic and the Deathly Hallows.

Mana Sculpting #8 – Brian David Marshall Special

Running time 46 minutes

• Show notes:

• In this episode we talk with Brian David Marshall from www.top8magic.com about the current state of standard, what he expects to see on the pro tour extravaganza coming up, some of his favorite things from the past, a few entertaining punt stories, and some deck building theory topics and this and that. (Basically BDM dropped knowledge and wisdom on our cast and for that we are very grateful!

MTGBrainstorm #2 – Brainstorm News, Strategies & Reviews

Running time 1 hour 23 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week we talk about Tyrone FNM and what he faced and Phil talks about what he pulled out of his fatpack and he gives you the top ten cards in New Phyrexia. The new member to the team Toby is Brainstorms Deck doctor and he lays out 5 decks for us and gives information on each one. Head over to the website to get the card of the week and the five decks we talked about in the show.

The Show #3 – Playing Favorites

Running time 4 minutes

• Mashi, Paul, and Matt discuss their favorite mechanics in Magic’s long history.
• Matt picks Kicker as his favorite mechanic because it allows your spells to scale up as the game progresses.
• Paul loves Flashback because of the added value that those spells provided and the additional options it allowed.
• Interestingly, Mashi’s favorite mechanic was Fading. I say “interesting” because I’ve read that this was not one of the more popular mechanics among players.
• All in all, another interesting and quick episode of The Show. Check it out. This promises to be a good series.