Card Talk: The World's Greatest Magic: The Gathering Podcast

Chris & GCB welcome their first guest, the much-talked-about Skylr Chamberlin, inventor of a deck that has made some noise recently on the PTQ circuit. We talk Gatecrash spoilers and learn Skylr's keys to deck innovation. This is probably our most coherent and educational 'cast to date, but we promise it won't become a trend.

GCB & Chris talk about big wins, new mechanics, and if there's anything to do in Standard other than Thragtusk. Happy New Year! Also, when we discuss Cipher, the answer is: "It's not horrible."

Chris tries to convince you not to get better at Magic using a hair-brained theory called "gains induced from time". Brian Kibler is used as an example for everything. GCB faces a challenge from a 12-year-old. Chris get's confused about the mailbag. GCB brags about his good fortune. The boys go back in time to play Masters limited. GCB tells another tail from the early days of competitive Magic. GP Champion David Stroud helps GCB identify one of the worst cards in Magic history. This episode is fun. It's also long. The audio is also kind of cavernous. We're workin' on it!

GCB really wants to talk about a PTQ that he did ok in. Chris shares his conspiracy theories about Magic Online. Sealed deck is discussed, but only partly played. Chris talks a lot of trash about 12-year-olds. GCB doesn't know what legends are. All that, and healthy dose of "pickle" jokes, from the world's classiest and most thought-provoking Magic: The Gathering Podcast.

Chris & GCB, tacetly admitting that their standard decks have been pretty embarrassing so far, move on to Return to Ravnica Limited! Chris makes outlandish claims and asks GCB to justify them. GCB gives outlandish draft advice and flounders to prove its truth. This week introduces, and hopefully concludes, the Chris & GCB advice for ladies series. Here's how the draft went down:   Pack 1 pick 1:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 2:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 3:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 4:   My Pick: We wanted Cackler here, but got disconnected and goof-grabbed the eyes.   Pack 1 pick 5:   My Pick: This was a 3-second snap-pick. The Rhino or the Skywatch is better.   Pack 1 pick 6:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 7:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 8:   My Pick:   Pack 1 pick 9:   My Pick:  

Chris & GCB podcast after an evening at the bar. GCB's rants about how bad Pack Rats is, mis-describes a long series of cards, and then the boys take the Battle to Magic Online.

Chris & GCB play a different twist on Delver as the format moves towards irrelevance. Chris makes a painful discovery about himself, and then confesses it publically. GCB is unable to repeat things he was just told like 2 seconds ago. The boys gush about a new Planeswalker for a bit, too. This week's special guest: Battle of Wits!

Chris finally talk GCB into playing some mediocre midrange control deck. GCB makes unfounded assertions about Return to Ravnica & reminisces about old magic cards. We play our first game with our audience & our first game with Chris as the contestant, and none of it works out the way we're hoping. Chris also continues to broadcast his phone number on the podcast, which is just baffling. So enjoy that.

GCB is finally onboard with the Zombie Apocalypse, much to Chris' confusion. Chris invents yet another game, but his PC screws up the recording so you don't get to hear it. In our first episode recorded in the Chris Murray Home Studio, you get to hear hungry babies, yapping dogs, and creative swears. And we lose all of Gatherer to audio issues. Here's the deck we played. You can see the version GCB Top 8'ed with here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/4182443 Head over to timevaultgames.com to thank them for sponsoring this week's 'cast! 4 Gravecrawler 3 Butcher Ghoul 4 Blood Artist 4 Bloodthrone Vampire 4 Phantasmal Image 2 Diregraf Captain 4 Geralf's Messenger 3 Phyrexian Metamorph 1 Disciple of Bolas 1 Mortarpod 3 Gut Shot 3 Birthing Pod 1 Woodland Cemetery 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Cavern of Souls 11 Swamp Sideboard3 Vampire Nighthawk 3 Duress1 Birthing Pod1 Gut Shot1 Surgical Extraction1 Spellskite1 Nihil Spellbomb1 Skinrender3 Dism

GCB goes on and on about his PTQ failure, Chris explains what it is to be a gentleman, Chris asks the worst rules question yet, and the boys can't think of a value 4-drop in standard to add to Bant Pod, even though every other Bant Pod list has Solemn Simulacrum in it. Chris demonstrates emotional denial about an upcoming life-changing experience (which has now taken place.) Here's what we ran. I recommend getting the Deadeye into the maindeck (perhaps over Sun Titan), and a Simulacrum. Maybe you can cut a Borderland Ranger. A second Acidic Slime somewhere would suit my style but your mileage may vary. 4 Birthing Pod1 Phyrexian Metamorph1 Acidic Slime4 Avacyn's Pilgrim4 Birds of Paradise4 Blade Splicer2 Borderland Ranger1 Deceiver Exarch3 Elvish Visionary1 Frost Titan1 Geist-Honored Monk1 Mist Raven2 Phantasmal Image4 Restoration Angel1 Sun Titan2 Thragtusk Lands7 Forest2 Island2 Plains2 Gavony Township4 Hinterland Harbor4 Razorverge Thicket3 Seachrome Coast Sideboard:1 Deadeye Navigator1 Slayer of the Wicked

We (accidentally) welcome our first guest, prompting Chris to (self-consciously?) insult our listeners. GCB tells tales from the 90's wild west of competitive Magic. Chris obsesses about whether or not PTQ's are fun. Chris leans into the microphone and talks loud while GCB leans away from the microphone and mumbles. GCB talks about how being wrong doesn't bother him, then gets so bitter about being wrong that he accuses Chris of cheating. Chris & GCB try out a deck for new standard by playing a deck from old standard. This is approximately what we played (credit to Travis Woo, with the original new-standard version, here) 15 Forest4 Razorverge Thicket2 Gavony Township4 Gitaxion Probe/Mental Misstep (Should be Arbor Elf)4 Llanowar Elves4 Birds of Paradise4 Avacyn's Pilgrim4 Palladium Myr4 Elvish Archdruid4 Somberwald Sage4 Soul of the Harvest1 Primeval Titan2 Craterhoof Behemoth4 Green Sun's Zenith Sideboard(Should have 3 Thragtusk)2 Gavony Township1 Plummet1 Acidic Slime3 Gutter Grime1 Melira, Sylvok Outc

GCB & Chris eat pizza IN YOUR EAR. Chris freaks about the shifting face of counterspells in standard. GCB deceives himself into thinking that the new M13 mythics aren't that good. The only card that is accurately described is Battle of Wits, so that's useful. Then Chris convinces GCB to play with Humans again. We apologize to our listeners: we promise we will learn something about podcasting someday. Decklist (not recommended): Champion of the Parish x 4Doomed Traveler x 3Gideon's Lawkeeper x 1Geist of St. Traft x 3Restoration Angel x 3Silverblade Paladin x 3Blade Splicer x 4Grand Abolisher x 3Nearhearth Pilgrim x 1Thalia, Guardian of Thraben x 3Honor of the Pure x 4Mana Leak x 2Sword of War and Peace x 2 Glacial Fortress x 4Seachrome Coast x 4Cavern of Souls x 4Moorland Haunt x 3Island x 1Plains x 8 SBAngelic Destiny x 1Dismember x 1Fiend Hunter x 2Gut Shot x 2Leonin Relic-Warder x 1Mana Leak x 2Mental Misstep x 1Mirran Crusader x 2Oblivion Ring x 1Sword of Feast and Famine x 1Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

I promise, this isn't a re-posting of an earlier episode even though Chris immediately contrives a reason to bitch about EDH & complain about forum-trolls as if they were the most important of commentators in Magic. Chris teases GCB about his Magic collection. GCB teases Chris about his "work" obligations. GCB teases GCB about this one embarrassing Magic game he once played. Chris teases Chris about his sex life. Chris & GCB try out a new podcast game, then try out a completely irrelevant standard deck. Listed. Do not play this deck if you want to win. Champion of the Parish x 4 Doomed Traveler x 3 Grand Abolisher x 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben x 4 Lightning Mauler x 4 Kessig Malcontents x 4 Fiend Hunter x 2 Silverblade Paladin x 4 Hero of Bladehold x 4 Gather the Townsfolk x 2 Cloudshift x 1 Sword of War and Peace x 2 Cavern of Souls x 4 CLifftop Retreat x 4 Plains x 12 Mountain x 4 SB: Mirran Crusader x 3 Grand Abolisher x 2 Celestial Purge x 3 Zealous Conscripts x 1 Hero of Oxid Ridge x 4 Gut

Chris complains about selling cards to demonstrate his poor understanding of economics. We accidentally have our first "reader hate mail" section. GCB mumbles through the whole episode, and both Chris & GCB never learned to read. Also, even though we talked about Food Chain earlier in the podcast, we missed it's application with Misthollow Griffin when specifically trying to figure out what to do with Misthollow Griffin. CHRIS CHOSE THAT HORRIBLE MUSIC.  Sorry. Here's what we played.  You should cut a Snapcaster & a Mentor (or two) and add 4 flashfreezes to the sideboard.  Put the Mortarpod & dispatch maindeck. Puresteel x 4 Snapcaster Mage x 3 Gather the Townsfolk x 4 Mentor of the Meek x 2 Trinket Mage x 3 Flayer Husk x 4 Hex Parasite x 1 Memnite x 1 Mortarpod x 3 Sylvok Lifestaff x 1 Avacyn's Collar x 4 Sword of War and Peace x 2 Dispatch x 2 Ponder x 4 Faith's Shield x 1 Mox Opal x 3 Glacial Fortress x 4 Seachrome Coast x 4 Moorland Haunt x 2 Plains x 5 Island x 4 Sideboa

Chris manages to avoid getting asked about the homework he obviously didn't do.  GCB babbles about how good players play more lands, then insists on playing a deck with too few lands.  Louis Scott Vargas is predictable. 4  Delver of Secrets2  Dungeon Geists4  Geist of Saint Traft2  Invisible Stalker4  Snapcaster Mage 4  Thought Scour4  Gitaxian Probe4  Ponder2  Gut Shot4  Mana Leak3  Runechanter's Pike4  Vapor Snag1  Faith's Shield4  Glacial Fortress7  Island3  Moorland Haunt4  Seachrome Coast Sideboard2  Celestial Purge2  Dissipate2  Dungeon Geists1  Negate2  Phantasmal Image1  Revoke Existence1  Steel Sabotage1  Surgical Extraction1  Sword of Feast & Famine (Should be War & Peace: we didn't have one)2  Timely Reinforcements

(click the funny icon next to the title to listen) In our inaugural podcast, Chris & GCB introduce themselves, talk about Lingering Souls in control decks, & speak over each other. Chris rants mindlessly about some annoying people he once met. GCB half-answers some questions that you already know the answer to. Reading is assigned, stupid games are played. Please let us know what you think: what to try again, what to give up, etc. Chris played with some robot-reader software from the 80's to create an intermission in which the decklist we tested is "read". We apologize in advance for being too lazy to edit it out, now that we can include the decklist in a useful format.  GCB says: "Realized after that our decklist is probably missing Evolving Wilds." 2 Sun Titan3 Gideon Jura1 Karn Liberated. 3 Day of Judgement2 Oblivion Ring4 Lingering Souls3 Dissipate2 Forbidden Alchemy4 Mana Leak3 Think Twice 2 Phantasmal Image1 Snapcaster Mage 2 Ratchet Bomb3 Pristine Talisman 4 Glacial Fortress4 Seachrome Coa