This was an interesting week in Magic podcasts. With everyone having talked Modern to death and the community anxiously awaiting Pro Tour: Philadelphia, podcasts were left talking about a broad variety of topics. Down here in Louisiana, we call a mixed- and mashed-up dish like that a jambalaya.

Let’s tune in to hear what everyone was interested 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 seventy-five.

CrazyTalk #19 – Medina Confession Hour, Part 1

Running time 1 hour 26 minutes

• KYT, Frankie, Jonathan, and Alex are all together this week.
• The show kicks off with Alex taking on “The Five”:

• How did you get into Legacy?

• Bought a deck from a friend who was leaving the game and never looked back.

• What’s your favorite Magic card and why?

• Gifts Ungiven

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

• The bad guy.

• What Magic player would you want with you in a bar fight?

• I actually could not make out Alex’s answer here. It was Peter someone.

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

• Got chased by wild dogs in Portugal, almost killed by a bear in the Yukon, almost drowned and had to climb a hundred-meter cliff in New Brunswick with no gear, snuck a sword past airport security, lost forty pounds in two months, quit drugs cold-turkey, and on and on.

• Jonathan then recounts his experience playing in a Legacy tournament with a Reanimator deck that only ran two copies of Entomb (not by choice).
• As Medina’s story wraps up, Drew Levin joins the cast.
• Drew jumps right into it by bringing up a discussion about allegations floating around the Magic community that Alex Bertoncini cheats regularly in high-level tournaments.
• Obviously something as big as this spawns a pretty lengthy conversation about cheating for the remainder of the show. Tune in to check out some pretty interesting views on cheating and how to handle it if you spot cheating in the wild.

The Eh Team #49 – One Year Later (Running time 1 hour 31 minutes)

• KYT, Scott, Jesse, and Jay are joined this week by Horde of Notions’ Chris Lansdell.
• The show kicks off with a brief discussion of Smitty’s latest brew, Mill-Blade.
• The main topic of the show this week is Canadian Nationals. Chris relates his experience trying to grind in playing with Mill-Blade.
• KYT also recounts his experience at the actual Nationals event, focusing on his need to improve his Limited game, as that’s where most of his losses were earned.
• I’m not sure if I’ve said this here before or not, but The Eh Team’s podcast editor Kerrydan is just the best. The sound clips and funny inserts elevate the show to a whole new level.

Inside the Deck – The Magic Collector

Running time 10 minutes

• Inside the Deck shines the spotlight on Magic misprint collector Keith Adams.
• Keith and some of the players at his local shop talk about his passion for collecting misprinted Magic cards.
• Check this out for sure to see this amazing collection. I can’t even begin to imagine how Keith has come across so many truly unique cards.

Limited Resources #96 – Tricksy Combatses

Running time 1 hour 47 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week on Limited Resources Marshall and Jon do a thorough breakdown on combat tricks for the main topic. Also discussed is the phantom limited announcement for MTGO, a clan update, some stories from the weekend, and upcoming PAX info!
• Here is the blog set up by long time listener Zach for Limited Resources listeners to have their drafts reviewed.

The Magic Show #241 – The Mistakes of New Phyrexia

Running time 11 minutes

• This week, Evan Erwin sings high praises of the successes of Wizards of the Coast Design and Development in Magic’s eighteen-year history, before tearing them down over the printing of spells using Phyrexian mana and the printing of . . . Brainstorm?
• I do see the point he’s making here, but I guess I didn’t realize that Brainstorm was negatively impacting Legacy. Is this a thing?
• Other than the Brainstorm tangent, I like the points that Evan raises about Phyrexian mana, the bleeding of the color pie, and what should be done moving forward about cards like Mental Misstep and Dismember.

Monday Night Magic #274 – Double Double Trouble Trouble

Running time 56 minutes

• Show notes:

• Wow, we have a BUTT LOAD of Innistrad news, including the verification of what everyone thought was a schizophrenic rumor about the Double-Faced Cards and the other mechanics to be seen in the set.
• A run-down of the new “Phantom” events on MTGO.
• Modern Format is now on MTGO, release events 8/24 – 9/7.
• A complete flame bait article on Gizmodo about some harpy women ragging on an OkCupid date with a magic player, but make that magic Jon MotherF&$*ing Finkel.

The Third Power #19 – Cube Multiplayer

Running time 1 hour 41 minutes

• Show notes:

• In this episode of The Third Power, Usman and Anthony get unearthed and/or flashed back with guest co-host Adam Prosak to talk about multiplayer in cube. What do you do with aggressive cards like Jackal Pup and Savannah Lions if you play multiplayer? What ways are there to play multiplayer in cube? How do you approach things like 2HG or other cube formats? Tune in to find out how!

Yo! MTG Taps! #77 – Casting with Bertoncini

Running time 1 hour 8 minutes

• Show notes:

• Bigheadjoe and SCG Boston Legacy co-champion Alex Bertoncini team up to discuss Standard, Legacy, and Modern, including some sage advice from Alex for improving your game.
• Coverage of SCG Boston
• Check out EPIPHANY, an award-winning comedy short…

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.

East West Draft Cast #24 – Aurant You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana

Running time 59 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week on EWDC Jeff and Greg weigh in briefly on Modern and create a brand new two part segment, “Forcing the Issue”. Tune in next time to hear the exciting conclusion.

Freed From the Reel #132 – Man Overboard

Running time 22 minutes

• Show notes:

• Join Keya and Sebastian as they take a look at the future of duel decks, speculate on Innistrad reprints and discuss the impact of Modern. What’s Tarmogoyf reached now?
• News:

• September FNM is Teetering Peaks! Wizards keeps their streak of nearly rotated promos alive
• Announcing DD: Koth v Venser (and an update on DD release policy)
• Unfounded Reprint speculation! Question of the week: What do you want to see comeback in Innistrad?

The Mana Pool #194 – Cleverly Titled Live Episode

Running time 2 hours

• Show notes:

• Holy crap, a live episode? Is this why there’s no Innistrad episode yet? I think it must be! Dirk, Mike, and Chewie gathered together to play some Magic, and so of course we recorded some of it for you. Because we love you guys. No really. You think we get together and have to put up with each other in person because we like each other or enjoy playing this game? Nope, it’s just to give our listeners something different to listen to, that’s it!
• First up we have a Commander game. Mike’s using his edited Mimeoplasm deck, I’m using Hanna, Ship’s Navigator, and Dirk is using his brand new Sharuum the Hegemon deck. This one was a lot of fun and fairly brutal. You’ll get a kick out of it.
• After that we played a 60-card game that was completely brutal. There was just little to no hope for those of us that didn’t win. You’ll hear it. We made up for that horrible beating by playing another 60-card game that was much more awesome. Since it’s such a great thing to finish on a good game, we called it there. We went on to play some Planechase, more EDH, and more 60-card games, since we were there another 5 hours or so, but sadly we couldn’t record them all for you. Trevor wouldn’t have let us anyway.

MTG Brainstorm #13 – Down With Those Net Deck Builders

Running time 54 minutes

• Show notes:

• Phil talks about his MTGO deck that he made and looking for some more ideas, if you got any ideas here’s the deck.
• Also we have a short interview from Tyrone local FNM shop owner and he talks how he feels about the new modern format

Pauper to the People #22 – Specu-Bation

Running time 1 hour 13 minutes

• Show notes:

• Chris gets all “Creative Writing Degree” up on Mark Rosewater’s Innistrad teasers in this episode. The themes of “Gothic” and “Horror Lurks Within” are analyzed, complete with 19th Century examples of the Gothic Horror writing style.
• Then, our duo gets all critical on the things that drive them crazy at their local game stores regarding bad player habits. Chris tells the story of the time he threatened a dude with violence over a match. All the while, PAX looms overhead. This is Pauper to the People.

The Scoop Phase #11 – Muddy Waters

Running time 1 hour 1 minute

• Show notes:

• Welcome back, guys. After a week off, we have returned with our outlook on the results from Richmond and Gencon. We go over the new Modern ban list and discuss lightly what we will be playing in this new, glorious format. The Midrange Deck of the Week is my own brew. Mud. Sure, it’s not 100% my idea, but my take on the deck.
• Decklists and other show notes can be found at our website at http://www.thescoopphase.com/

Scrubland #53 – Rocking the Metagame with Earthquakes

Running time 1 hour 6 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week, we’re taking a look at various Nationals decks that sparked our interest. Also, card alters, girls, and hard liquor. Stick around for our very scary earthquake stories at the end of the show, we promise you won’t be disappointed.

Voice of Seraphim #33 – Before and After Mechanic X

Running time 39 minutes

• Show notes:

• Welcome to Episode 33 of the Voice of Seraphim: Before and After. The Voice of Seraphim is your source for all the news and information related to Magic Online and the Seraphim Clan! Join hosts Dicax and Eldritch_song along with Pastafarian, Osric, Fist and Fracture to conjecture about the new Innistrad mechanic, do an M12 Crack a Pack and then get the breaking news about Mechanic X. Join us in our discussion Before and After the news of Mechanic X.

Yawgmoth’s Soap Opera #29 – Flash In the Pan

Running time 55 minutes

• Show notes:

• Hey-lo everyone, this week Zach and George take a look at the CQ Open results as well as more musings on Flash. Enjoy!

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.

Cast In Response #1 – Spare Change

Running time 34 minutes

• Show notes:

• This is the pilot episode. Kevin and myself go over introductions, Pro Tour Philadelphia, PAX Prime, and the new Modern format. We also introduce our segment called “The Lot.” “Spare Change” is named after the shock of a new eternal format.

Fatal Flaw #5 – Express Yourself

Running time 1 hour 14 minutes

• Show notes:

• Jay is back which means that the gang was all together again for FNM. Since there was not a whole lot of action we kept the cast simple this week. Talk points:

• 1. Re-cap of our Legacy tournament
• 2. Jay discusses his Humility deck and a Modern deck he is building- Living End
• 3. MTG accessories: What are your favorite accessories and do you use any custom gear?
• 4. Triple-play compare/contrast: Ponder, Brainstorm, and Preordain. We look at these three 1 cost cards and determine the pros and cons of each.

• Shout outs to Pauper to the People and Mananation Cast Through Time.
• Decklists will be up shortly on Jay’s blog:
• Again, if anyone has comments or suggestions for our decks or anything else we appreciate feedback!

Lowered Standards #6 – Goth Poetry Slam

Running time 32 minutes

• Show notes:

• This week on Lowered Standards, Jon and Steve discuss the huge amount of Magic news in the void of information before the PAX expo. During the LOWERED STANDARDS Deck of the Week, we take a look at the other 2012 Core Set Event Deck: Vampire Onslaught and discuss whether it’s worth picking up. The last and final topic this week feature more “Building on a Budget” advice, such as what sorts of cards to buy if you’re low on cash and what you can do to get the most bang for your buck.
• Link to the 2012 Event Deck page at Wizards:

Running the Gauntlet #7 – More Facepalms Than You Can Handle

Running time 1 hour 30 minutes

• Show notes:

• Sorry for the long wait, but we have had a nightmare getting eps done, but we’re doing everything we can to keep everything on track. We have special guest Chewie Slate from the Mana Pool with us, and we had a total blast recording with him.

Tapping it Taber Style #8 – Phone Calls

Running time 1 hour 5 minutes

• Show notes:

• The boys are back from their break and don’t really have alot to talk about. They play EDH, talk about FNM and Modern.