Even More Final Fantasy MTG Previews | The Mana Pool #726
The Mana Pool
The dorks are back, bouncing around the Card Image Gallery for the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set! As usual for UB, we're primarily checking out how well these cards reflect their source material. That's it really, you know the drill. There's probably one more episode of this coming, so be sure to let us know or come hang out live to let us know cards you want us to be sure we cover! Card Image Gallery: Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep...
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More Final Fantasy MTG Previews | The Mana Pool #725
The Mana Pool
Now that the full previews have begun, the dorks dive back into card from the upcoming Universes Beyond Final Fantasy set! We're hitting the mechanics as usual, then poking around to check out the main characters of some of the games. As has become our thing with these UB sets, we're going to be taking a look at how the card mechanics reflect the source material they're based on. So strap in, grab your giant sword of choice, and let's take a look! Mechanics: Gallery: Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on...
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The Video Games of Star Wars | The Mana Pool #724
The Mana Pool
Originally we were going to make this episode about everything Star Wars other than the movies, but it turns out we spent WAY too much time on the video games. There are SO MANY video games. And we only covered a fraction of them! We'll dive into 2D platformers, 1st and 3rd person action, racing, grand strategy, real time strategy, Virtual reality, flight simulator, and probably more that I'm forgetting! What's your favorite Star Wars video game? Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast...
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Supply Lines - Resource Management in MTG | The Mana Pool #723
The Mana Pool
Welcome to Supply Lines, a new running feature here on TMP where the dorks will be looking at resource management in games. What games? All games, because they all have a variety of resources that the player needs to manage to be able to play! To kick it all off, we're starting with the game that we and our audience probably have the most experience with - Magic: the Gathering. We'll sprinkle in some examples from other card games as they come up of course, but MTG is the primary focus of this initial episode. Be sure to let us know what you think! And please let us know what types of games...
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All About Roguelikes | The Mana Pool #722
The Mana Pool
What exactly is a roguelike? Well it's a video game...genre? Sort of? Genres are all made up and stupid. In this episode, the dorks will dive into what makes a roguelike a roguelike, with lots of relevant conversations about various aspects of the whole thing. And be sure to let us know your favorite roguelikes and why! Stay tuned for the end when Mike & Chewie get all caught up in...D&D stuff? Wait what? Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The...
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Episode 721 - Dragonstorm Has...Dragons?
The Mana Pool
Oh hey, the set about dragons has a bunch of dragons in it! Weird. Guess we should probably take a look at some of them huh? Card Image Gallery - Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: YouTube: The Deep End: Twitch: Discord: BlueSky: Instagram: Threads: Email: Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift –
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Episode 720 - Return to Tarkir
The Mana Pool
The dorks are back! First Chewie recaps Cheevos For Charity 2025, which was a glorious time that raised over $1500 for Trans Lifeline! After that we give Tarkir: DragonStorm the usual treatment. You know, looking at the mechanics and then bouncing around the gallery calling out whatever we like. Don't worry, we'll be back again to check out all the big scary dragons and stuff. Tarkir Dragonstorm Mechanics - Card Image Gallery - Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch Become a Lifeguard on Patreon! – Podcast RSS Feed: ...
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Episode 719 - Status Effects in Games
The Mana Pool
If you've ever been slept, poisoned, charmed, stunned, slowed, or...made an atheist (?) then this episode is for you! The dorks are talking about (as the title says) status effects in games. Of course we spend a lot of time on RPGs, but status effects are common in all kinds of games. We brought up several different action games and card games just to hammer this point home. Let us know what you think! Corrupted Blood Incident: Design Doc - What's the Point of Status Effects: Design Doc - Weird Status Effects: Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish)...
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Building Toys & Old Cartoons - Dorks Just Chatting
The Mana Pool
The dorks couldn't come up with something to talk about this episode, so we asked the Pooligans in our Discord community for some ideas! Mycroft wanted to know if we had anything to say about building toys, from Lego to Gunpla, so we talked about that for a while. Then Pana was curious which cartoons we thought might be good to bring back for another run, sort of like DuckTales or She-Ra or any number of other excellent examples. And we spent WAY too long just talking about old cartoons. Don't blame us when you have to go look up old cartoon theme songs. Even though it's totally our...
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Episode 718 - The First? Final? Fantasy (Episode)
The Mana Pool
The dorks take their first look at the long-awaited Final Fantasy Universes Beyond MTG set! We're all FF dorks to one degree or another, so we're doing like we did with the Lord of the Rings set - taking a look at how the mechanics of the card matches up to the thing it is depicting. Between the four of us we have all the games covered (for the most part) so this should be fun. Find out which commander we think is terribly done, who we think is just boring, who is horribly overrated, and which ones are absolute home runs! And be sure to let us know what you think too! Final Fantasy Gallery - ...
info_outlineIf you've ever been slept, poisoned, charmed, stunned, slowed, or...made an atheist (?) then this episode is for you! The dorks are talking about (as the title says) status effects in games. Of course we spend a lot of time on RPGs, but status effects are common in all kinds of games. We brought up several different action games and card games just to hammer this point home. Let us know what you think!
Corrupted Blood Incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident
Design Doc - What's the Point of Status Effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThDVGP4UB30
Design Doc - Weird Status Effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEPeGx6IVUQ
Come join us in the future! The show is live on Thursdays around 8pm(ish) Eastern time on Twitch
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Intro & Outro Music: Diamond by Swift – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vAs5HIBkUPbuoN5b5GWTE