Hey, guys! I’m happy to see you all—again!—this week. We are going to try “Cast through Time” on Fridays to see if it will better suit the publishing schedules of the shows I discuss. Posting on Tuesday was somewhat problematic because of the number of shows published on Friday.

So, you get a double dose of “Cast through Time” this week, and from now on, expect to see me on Fridays. Let’s tune in!

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 #29 – The Man in the Mimeoplasm

Running time 1 hour 46 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week CommanderCast is BREAKING ALL THE RULES (that don’t matter)! Only three hosts? Spoiler discussion? Who are these rank amateurs? If you think you can stomach this, we’re talking about SPOILARZ from the new Commander set… but don’t worry, there’s some real content in here too. Barriers to entry for new players, ramp decks, and favourite one-mana spells are also up for discussion.
• Next week’s episode will be a special edition of CommanderCast discussing our hands-on experience and first impressions with the new Commander product. However, to maintain our policy of shunning theorycraft and worthless conjecture in place of experience and battle-tested strategy, we will be posting CommanderCast one day late; expect next week’s episode to drop on June 21st. Want to help out? E-mail your experiences or awesome findings with the new product to CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com to get in on the mailbag segment.

The Eh Team #39 – Let’s All Be a Team

Running time 1 hour 45 minutes

• The Eh Team crew (minus Jesse) is joined this week by Jake Meszaros, who recently made Top 8 of an Ottawa PTQ with a “Blumanji” deck (also known as the Glass Cannon).
• KYT (who played Caw-Blade) and Jake discuss their experience playing at the PTQ.
• At Scotty’s inquiry, Jake confirms that Spellskite is in fact the real deal.
• Confident with the Blumanji matchup against Caw-Blade, Jake feels that our current Standard is actually ok, with no changes necessary.
• Jay, Scotty, and KYT talk a bit about the Standard metagame and whether Caw-Blade continues to disrupt the format.
• Apparently, Jay and Scotty are also starting a crusade against local game stores? The last half of the show is a pretty serious rant against brick-and-mortar shops that are less than willing to maintain flexible pricing models in the face of the ultracompetitive online MtG singles market. I agree with a number of the opinions voiced on this topic, but in typical Eh Team fashion, I think the delivery may have been laced with more vitriol than was intended. The guys’ opinions are not entirely out of line, but I think the message is lost in a barrage of harsh language and hyperbole.
• Finally, at the tail end of the show, Jesse joins in to discuss the new video series Inside the Deck and a few other miscellaneous topics before the show moves on to shout-outs.
• This was another good episode of The Eh Team, and possibly one of the most controversial as a result of the local game store debate. Tune in to ManaDeprived.com to check out the comment section on this show! At this writing, there are eighty-eight comments, which is more than I’ve ever seen on one of their shows, with the debate spilling over onto Twitter on June 14 as well.

Limited Resources #86 – Community Cup Roundup

Running time 1 hour 6 minutes

• Marshall is joined this week by a few of his Community Cup 2011 teammates to discuss their strategy heading into competition with the titans of Wizards of the Coast.
• Will the community prevail yet again? Tune in and be sure to cheer for Marshall, LSV, and all of their teammates.

Monday Night Magic #263 – Tween Wolf

Running time 1 hour 52 minutes

• Show notes:

• We have two special guests this week joining Tom, Jack and Adena. David who helped organize the Seattle MTGCast event AND Justin “The Reverend En Fuego” from the BJ Shea Morning Experience on 99.9FM KISW in Seattle.
• Big news is that we have the entire Commander spoiler to run down, and we also say “WE SORRY” about our complete FUBAR’ing of Join Forces last week. We also have a slew of fairly crappy M12 cards to also review. Congratulations to David Sharfman for winning PT Nagoya (Block constructed then Draft) with Puresteel Paladin being the true stand-out.
• What Have We Been Playing?
• Chris talks about his SCG Open Series: Denver experience and playing some Caw Blade in Standard and very awesome Mono-U in Legacy.
• Listener Emails
• Link to Steve W’s “god bless america” photo. Read more about Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Universal Life Church monastery.
• Jump forward to 1:21:37 to hear about the guaranteed smash-hit new TV series, Tween Wolf.

Untapped #13 – Taking it Ta-Back

Running time 1 hour 31 minutes

• Show notes:

• This episode features Trick, Frank and JR while Jon is off on some secret mission. Lots of laughs within, enjoy!
• SCG Invitational
• Pro Tour Nagoya (including a bet on Koths and Tezzerets in Top
• M12
• Standard discussion, is this format the greatest ever?
• SCG’s sudden change to invitation policy
• Community Cube

Yo! MTG Taps! #68 – Err & Foresight

Running time 1 hour 9 minutes

• Show notes:

• “…this is the worst we’ve screwed up since Mirrodin.” – Aaron Forsythe
• Did R&D make a mistake in allowing the pieces come together to create the current Standard? Joey and Bigheadjoe discuss the results of the SCG Invitational, and then—spurred on by a tweet from Aaron Forsythe—decide to look ahead at what Standard might look like if something is banned at the end of the month.
• Grand Prix Singapore Coverage
• SCG Season 1 Invitational & Open Series Coverage
• Sam Stoddard’s “The Importance of Randomness in Magic“
• Brian Kibler’s Tezzeret Aggro Deck
• Changes to the SCG Player’s Club

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.

Dredging For Humor #15 – Fiesta de Quince

Running time 1 hour 17 minutes

• Show notes:

• The Band: Spellskite.

  The Dood: S-K-I-T-E

  The Band: No, Spellskite.

  The Dood: What spells kite?

  The Band: NO! SPELLSKITE!

  The Dood: I just did, duh.

• and now an excerpt from the Journals of Glissa: By renowned romance writer Melesha Nornman

• …at sunset the sweaty and manly pure steel paladin rode in on a flashing chrome steed to guide her Phyrexian needs. She was wanton, wet, and prepared. No master splicing would be permitted. He approached her boldly showing due respect. She began to part her cathedral membrane as he equipped his pulsating batter skull, and lunged, at her, again and again: an insatiable soul eater of desire. The were now connected, stuck, even, like a throbbing humming soul conduit, yet he was unable to locate her surge node. If the paladin could not find her node before he hit his quicksilver geyser….

• We hope you enjoy the show!!!
• REMEMBER: We love to hear from you, our audience, so look below to see how to talk to us.

The Mana Pool #182 – Commander & Conquer

Running time 2 hour 12 minutes

• Show notes:

• After a few Skype problems that apparently cleared up just a short while before recording (for everyone but Brazil and Dirk it turns out) we finally got an episode started. And after Dirk reinstalled Skype, he joined us too. We started this episode off by catching up with our email! Yes, we covered EVERY email we had in the inbox!
• If you couldn’t tell from the title, we spent the rest of the episode talking about the Commander previews. We’ve only seen a couple days’ worth at the time we recorded this, and it’s already ridiculous. And these are just the new cards! I’m sure some of the stuff they’ve reprinted to put in these things is equally nuts.
• Commander Image Gallery
• And watch out for a small rant at the end by Chewie. If you have any contact with Wizards, please refer them to this rant. Thank you.

Mana Screwed #49 – Return of the Thoctar

Running time 55 minutes

• Show notes:

• Thank you from our friends at GatheringMagic.com your one stop shop for articles and so much more.
• Last week at SCG invitation in the standard event R/B Vampires won with 2 Twin Exarch and 1 Naya Shaman. The rest where all caw-blade, could this be a trend?
• The main event with even more diverse with RUG, Cawblade, Mono Red, Bant aggro, RUG Vengevine, RUG Twin Exarch. (Remember that this was a split format!
• Attendance at SCG Denver: less than 200 for Standard Open despite a full room. Legacy Open number almost certain to exceed this. Thoughts?
• Is a banning going to happen in Standard? If so, what should be banned? One card? Many cards? Stoneforge, Jace, Valakut, Vengevine, Batterskull?
• Pro Tour Nagoya results – what you do think? Discuss block decks of interest: Tempered Steel, Puresteel, Big Red, 4 Color Tezz…
• PT Challenge/Draft scoreboard:
• Charlotte – 432 (PVDDR – 64, Ketita – 31, Nelson – 303, Utter-Layton – 26, Vidugiris – 8*)
• Tangent – 639 (Noworaj – 195, Maynard – 42, Randle – 364*, Stark – 17, Jurkovic – 21)
• Jack – 721 (LSV – 8*, Woods – 326, Estrada – 364*, Graefensteiner – 15, Cox – 8*)
• Robert – 891 (Nakamura – 193, Froelich – 364*, Levy – 11, Juza – 19, Ochoa – 304)
• Chris – 958 (Turtenwald – 85, Kibler – 300, Marr – 46, Watanabe – 197, Black – 330)
• According to article by Trick Jarrett on GatheringMagic regarding pro points and what they mean. The projection of how many pro points it will take in order to make the hall of fame is going up at steady rate by 2015 the average will need to be 400 lifetime pro points who do we think will be able to accomplish that feat?

• Shuuhei Nakamura 403
• Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa 298
• Luis Scott-Vargas 234
• Gerard Fabiano 219
• Yuuya Watanbe 194
• Ben Stark 188
• Patrick Chapin 185
• Paul Rietzl 172
• Gerry Thompson 152

• Tangent discusses the MTGCast Listener Appreciation Event

MTGLeaks #11 – Commander

Running time 52 minutes

• Show notes:

• Featuring guest Robby Rothe aka @mtgcolorpie. The longest episode yet, entirely about Commander and the spoilers that we’ve gotten so far.

Pauper to the People #12 – The Pauper Player’s Toolkit

Running time 1 hour 14 minutes

• Show notes:

• Sometimes you try to answer an e-mail, and a podcast happens. Join Chris and Tuna as they design a Deck Builder’s Toolkit specifically for the Pauper format. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll probably throw up in your mouth a little. Keep it around 20 tickets. This is Pauper to the People.
• Send us an e-mail
• Challenge us online: GrayCatRecords & Matuna
• And make sure you check out the other quality podcasts on the network, including Limited Resources, Monday Night Magic, the Third Power, and Dredging For Humor.

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.

MTG Brainstorm #3 – Brainstorm News, Strategies & Reviews

Running time 1 hour 11 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week on Brainstorm we talk about two decks that Tobi put together that are very good and are great for new players that want to play at their FNM. Then I have my friend Jones joining us in the second part of the show talking about the new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 and he gives his opinion on the differences of playing it on different gaming systems ( PC, Xbox360, PS3).
• Deck 1
• Deck 2
• Coming in the following weeks Mtgbrainstorm will be holding an online contest so please check back in a few weeks and we will have all the information you need on these contests.
• Tobi’s email
• Tobi’s Twitter

Public Enemies #1 – Unleashing the Trolls

Running time 1 hour 10 minutes

• Show notes:

• Public Enemies is a podcast hosted by some of the more polarizing members of the Magic community. Jay Boosh, Dr. Jeebus, and Tangent come together to speak their minds and tell it how it is on a variety of magic topics. There will be no sugar coating here. Only real opinions from some of the most opinionated personalities in the game.
• In this first episode the BAMF’s get together to discuss these questions:
• Did WoTC make a huge mistake with NPH and should card bannings result?
• Why is everyone freaking out about every commander card?
• Brick and Morter stores versus Online Stores.
• Do elves suck?

The Scoop Phase #3 – To Affinity and Beyond!

Running time 1 hour 8 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week, we have a special guest on the show! Do you know this illustrious person? …Probably not, but who cares? GUESTS = CRAZINESS! We also talk about the SCG Open and the Invitational. We delve slightly into the Pro Tour Nagoya format and finally, we introduce the BUDGET DECK OF THE WEEEEEEK. Any and all feedback is appreciated, guys. Let us know how we’re doing
.