Red Mage Blue Mage

Today we’re tackling our first ever fan-submitted topic, one of the most beloved and hated tribes of all time—Slivers! Our journey into the hive mind takes us many places, and we somehow find time to complain about Lovecraft monster design, horror movies, and Changelings. Shout out to @AdeptXander—you gave us a really great topic to discuss!

We touched on Modern Horizons in an Extra Turn (our occasional bonus Friday episodes) right in the midst of spoiler season. But now we want to revisit the topic in a bit more depth. The set has lots of sweet stuff for players of all kinds—Modern players (obvs), but also Commander, Pauper, Cube, and even stinky Goblin aficionados! We’re talking the cards we can’t wait to shell out $30 a pop for!

Echo Roanoke, of @echoroanoke fame, joins us once again, this time talking about all manner of people and critters and existential nightmares that dwell in the margins of our collective and social consciousness. We’re considering two questions today. 1) What cards have the most interesting lore that is never ever explored in any depth? And 2) How is Magic doing at representing the wide range of identities that exist among its players? Join us for one of our favorite discussions.

Energized by her victory in the Cube Draft, Amber once again seizes the reins of her scrap destiny to try to make a clean sweep. Kenny, however, won’t go quietly into that good magic night. He’s pulling out all the stops, leveraging the power of Teferi, Temporal Archmage, in a monoblue superfriends grindfest of a Commander deck. It’s planeswalker vs. planeswalker in this battle royale featuring giant spells from both sides of the table. Monored. Monoblue. Only one will emerge victorious.

Today we are so excited to have our first ever guest on the show—Echo Roanoke! (@echoroanoke) We’re catching up on a bunch of very-serious-not-serious Magic that all three of us played in the semi-recent past at RollPlus Con, prize tournaments of Planechase Commander and a big Cube Draft. Echo stayed super on brand with their Esper sphinx Commander deck, and god damn if it isn’t nice to have another blue player in the studio :’) After that, we have a lore discussion on one of Echo’s favorite MtG characters, Ashiok, the Nightmare Weaver, and what makes the mystery of Ashiok so compelling.

We’re diving back into the Cube for a Winston Draft, and there’s a lot on the line. Amber’s looking for her first recorded victory, and is willing to dive into unexpected strategies in order to do it. Kenny is sticking to the tried and true, but will his beloved countermagic be enough to save him this time?

Amber and Kenny are both pieces of shit. But they sure have fun! This week they both bring cool and interesting ideas to the table and then proceed to not take it sufficiently seriously for the other’s liking. But that’s also basically the brand? This week we’re talking top fashion icons of Magic as well as a spicy new commander deck from….Kenny???

Modern Horizons spoiler season is out in full force and it’s a whacky, anything-goes, every mechanic but the kitchen sink monstrosity—but is it cool? Yeah, it’s pretty fucking cool. We discuss the power of nostalgia and whether or not Modern Horizons manages to dodge the pitfalls that Time Spiral fell into all those years ago. PLUS! Amber adds another newspaper clipping to her growing Charlie Day conspiracy board.

Coming fresh off a sweet and savory deckbuilding brainstorm sesh, our heroes are ready to dive back into battle, squaring off with new commander decks. In this corner, a literal trash goblin Charles Xavier looking motherfucker who’s ready to scrap (in more senses than one!)—DARRRRRRRRETTI! And in the other corner, half T-Rex, half gelatinous cube, and 100% gonna steal yo girl and yo graveyard—THE MIMEOPLASM! You bought the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge!

There was no darker or more evil creation in all the multiverse than that of the overburdened SD card. We lost half of this episode to the void, but have no fear! Amber and I don our acting caps and put the collective casts of GoT and the entire MCU to shame with our genuine human reactions. Then we’re on to a big old debate talking about the Magic logo. One of us hates it, and one of us doesn’t mind—care to guess where we land?

It’s time once again to enter the Combat Phase. This time, Amber and Kenny go head to head in a game of commander, and you probably won’t believe the commander that Amber has selected for herself. A cosmic battle ensues, featuring +1/+1 counters, golems, rhinos, Shania Twain, Twizzlers, and more shuffling that you can rightly imagine.

Woo! It’s been a minute since we last caught up on the Magic that we’ve been playing, and there’s a lot to discuss. Kenny’s been playing loads of Cube, Commander, and even Planechase(!). Amber has been playing some Commander herself, and speaking of that, we’re workshopping her first ever Commander deck on today’s episode! We’re taking the Built From Scratch preconstructed deck as a foundation and building it up from there. Tune in for our spicy modifications to the deck, and to hear Amber geek out about artifacts hehehehe

It’s time for our mages to put their mana where their mouths are. It’s time to enter...THE COMBAT PHASE. That’s right, it’s the beginning of a new regular segment, where Amber and Kenny will duke it out on the planes of battle. Only one can emerge victorious to claim bragging rights for the week. Today we’re doing a Winston Cube Draft, which is a really fun way to draft when you only have two players. Press play to learn how it works, and to see who will emerge from...THE COMBAT PHASE...combat phase...combat phase...

Amber and Kenny kick things off today with a very unintuitive (but very interesting) Pick a Card prompt—what are your favorite (nonlegendary) creatures (that don’t share a creature type)? Would it shock you to learn that a GOBLIN made it onto Amber’s list? Would you be aghast to discover one of Kenny’s functions as a COUNTERSPELL? Haven’t had enough impossible revelations? How about learning the burning secrets of the multiverse? How about learning why Nicol Bolas would want to unleash MULTIVERSE-ENDING THREATS from their prison? How about learning why Amber finds this all hilarious? Is that good for you???

Modern Horizons is just over the...horizon. Eh. But it’s exciting! For everyone except Amber, that is, who is literally foaming at the mouth with anger. What is she angry about? It’s not at all clear! But we’re bound and determined to get to the bottom of it, and in the process, we just may discover that one of Magic’s most beloved characters is in fact a narcissistic psychopath hellbent on the protection of their own ego at the cost of any number of sentient beings they’ve willed into existence. Or maybe it’s fine!

Jeeeeeeesus Christ we go off the deep end on this episode. In a new segment, Construction Zone, the mages try their hand at some “collaborative” deckbuilding, which is really just Amber talking about her (rad as hell) Goblin Angel deck, cackling madly at Kenny’s suggestions for other possible card inclusions while shaking her head no. Future episodes featuring the segment will include listener suggestions for decks to build as well as submissions of decklists. That’s right—you too can have your dreams laughed at by Amber! (You’re not alone.)

Extra Turns are short and sweet bonus episodes, usually with our quick takes on news in the Magic world. Today, though, is something even MORE special. We’re debuting a new ongoing segment, Fanfic Theater, where Amber writes her own vignettes of magic stories and characters that she knows virtually nothing about. Yes, this means inevitably Kenny will be made to sit through some sort of Sorin/Tibalt slash fiction. All in due time!

For only the third time ever, Kenny and Amber battled head to head in combat through the medium of Magic the Gathering and you’ll never guess who came out on top (not really spoilers but it was Kenny duh of course). After we recap some thrilling cubic action, Amber weaves the twisting, sordid tale of pretty much the most hated character in Magic’s history, Tibalt the Devilmans. She tells us why he’s dumb, and why that makes him kind of sweet, actually. And then, ON A WHIM, we try our hand at designing a better version of the world’s stinkiest planeswalker.

For 25,000 years, Nicol Bolas has plotted to claim true omnipotence, and it feels like we’ve been waiting for spoiler season for just as long. Amber is foaming mad once again, but even she can’t deny how hype all this shit is. There’s even a new Tibalt to carry on the mantle of mediocrity! We’re talking new mechanics, spoilers, and first takes on War of the Spark!

This week is jam fucking packed people. I mean it. We start picking cards at like the two minute mark because we have so much shit to discuss. We’re debuting a brand new segment, wherein we discuss everyone’s favorite instant that costs UU. Is it good for the game? Is it an unholy abomination that will cost you friends, careers, and the sweet taste of a life well lived? Guess you’ll just have to tune in to find out won’t you ;))))))