The Planeswalker Guide

Trying to find our own blind spots is tough.  By definition, we can’t see what we can’t see and so we can often wander, convinced that we just need a little more practice (which is often also true), when maybe we have a revelation and a real level up waiting for us if only we could see it. Well, if you can’t see your own blind spots, allow us to help a bit by pointing out… Amie’s.  Specifically, for David Ochoa to point out Amie’s and for it to spark a discussion between them and us that was so important, it took us a whole extra week to record it!  There were actually no technical issues at all on my part, just a desire to completely practice this episode at least once to get it juuuuuuust right before bringing it to you.  And here it is! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Episode-55.mp3 We mentioned the Fearless Magic Inventory, something that started with Sam Stoddard’s article way back in the ancient times of 2007 and was revived by Graeme McIntyre last year.  Take it, be honest, and see if looking deep into yourself can revel something you’ve been missing!

Hello again everyone!  One of the most magical (yes, I went there) things about our game is the way so many different people from all different backgrounds can play together.  I’ve been able to share a game of Magic with someone who I didn’t share a language with, but we both understood how to tap cards, cast spells, and that Inferno Titan into Wurmcoil Engine was a pretty good play. But personally, I’m not content with the people we have: I’m constantly wanting more!  More coworkers, more kids, more random people who happen to be nearby when I’m idly shuffling cards to come and join us.  Amie and I talk this week with Hallie Santo, Community Manager for Card Kingdom (my personal LGS) about the fun of teaching others and some tips for doing so.  Have a listen! Oh, did you need even more of a reason to listen?  How about some brand new Battle Decks from Card Kingdom!  Battle Decks are a great way to get someone who’s learned the game a little deeper in and they’re a lot of fun even for those of us who’ve been around a year or 5.  Listen to the show, tweet at us (@plnswalkerguide) with your tips for teaching new players, and we’ll send you the new ones as soon as they’re available.  Thanks Card Kingdom! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Episode-54.mp3

Once again, spoiler season is upon us and once again, Magic delivers.  Personally, I always expect that maybe this time I won’t be as excited for the new mechanics, the new art, the Thing That Seems Too Good To Be True But Actually Isn’t, and the Thing That Doesn’t Look That Good Yet But Then OMG This Is Exactly What Was Needed In My Bew 42 land Swans Kiki Jund Affinity deck.  And yet, I’m always excited.  Every time.  That’s why I’m still here. And, to be 100% serious, is actually Important.  To have something that lets us unplug and unwind.  To give us reasons to go out and meet new people and have new experiences.  To give us all a shared language that’s one of happiness.  So yeah, we get a little political in this one, and a little philosophical too.  Because play and rest and happiness are all just as important as the Big Important Things that might be otherwise occupying our time and minds and hearts.  If you feel like listening to us talk about a game for 90 minutes is a guilty pleasure, let Amie and I remind that there is no such thing and take a well deserved break with us. http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Episode-53.mp3

This seems obligatory: I’m sure there’s a ridiculous combo here somewhere, but we don’t mention it on this show at all.  In fact, apart from one passing mention of 42 land Swans, we don’t have anything to say about cards today.  Instead, we decided to look at and around the side of our favorite game that is always there, but often glanced over: the business.  Want to know why Standard is stale, why mistakes are made, why Tournament Organizers exist and why we trust Channel Fireball in 2018?  Its because those dollars are pretty important to the people who not only love the game and want to see it succeed, but whose rent and car payments are dependent on it doing so.  If you believe in seeking first to understand, there’s maybe something here to be enlightened by.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Episode-52.mp3 Oh, and 42 land swans?  IT IS GLORIOUS.

Can we all take a moment to realize that Amie really is living the dream?  Like… the dream.  The one you had as a kid when you realized that ice cream was awesome and it has to come from somewhere and so you were going to be the president of ice cream or the pope of ice cream or at least some kind of Ice Cream Executive and wouldn’t that be amazing? Well, Amie is that president/pope/executive, so we’re giving her a break this week to do her own brand of delicious magic while I call up Mario so we can talk about ours.  Specifically, about esports, Magic, and how one of these things is not like the other, but would really really like to be.  Also, we both think the Invocations from Amonket look pretty cool and we’re not ashamed to say it.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Episode-51.mp3 Want more thoughts about esports?  Mario recommends an excellent vlog post about watchability in esports, which is totally a word despite the red squiggles that are trying to tell me otherwise.  You can see it here:

Well, a bout of laryngitis almost meant that you all didn’t get an episode this week, but fortunately we get by with a little help from our friends.  In this case, our friend is the lovely and talented Erin Campbell, who comes on every 25 episodes (we’ve just discovered) to grace us with her wit, charm, and perspective.  We talk about how incredibly busy Erin’s life is as part of the Magic community, interactivity and fairness in Magic, whatever the hell 150 card Scapeshift is, and the fact that I am not now, nor will I ever be, pregnant with a human child.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Episode-50.mp3 150 card Scapeshift!?! That can’t be real… can it?  Want more Erin Campbell?  Well, get in line. The line starts with the Girlfriend Bracket, which you can find over here. And it continues with Magic Mics, which you can find here.

We had one thing to talk about this week.  ONE THING.  And then, well, things happened.  Listen and see what I mean… http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Episode-49.mp3 The finals of the MOCS (Magic Online Championship Series) was this weekend and a big congratulations to Josh Utter-Leyton for taking the whole thing down.  This is a great event to watch and, if you missed the live show, there are still some replays you can (and should!) see over here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/mtgochamp16 Also, in case you missed the flood of announcements this last week, Modern Masters 2017 is almost upon us and the flood of value we are forecasting is absolutely incredible.  So many great cards getting reprinted means that the Modern format should be that much more accessible to everyone and we couldn’t be more excited.  If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can check out the visual spoiler for the set over here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/modern-masters-2017-edition And finally, Cube!  There are a lot of great cube resources, as we mentioned on the show. Cube Tutor, a great repository of cube lists.  Cube building advice from Melissa DeTora.  Cube playing advice from Reid Duke.  And finally, Nick Nobody’s cube blog, which is some of the most thorough analysis I’ve seen of cube designs.  

Amie and I have talked a lot this year about what it’s like for us to work on becoming good Magic players.  This week, we take some time to look at what exactly being ‘good’ might mean.  For us, it certainly goes beyond tournament results and competitive play and reaches into the heart of a kind of mastery of a craft that we both have experienced in other areas of our life.  We talk a fair bit about martial arts, cooking, and philosophy this week, but it all manages to circle back to this question; what does it mean to us to get good at something?  Have a listen and find out! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Episode-48.mp3

No, it isn’t the title of a Woody Allen movie (…or is it…  No.  No it’s not).  Brad and Jose join Amie and I on this week’s show to get an update from them on learning Magic and getting involved while still playing casually.  It’s easy for competitive players to forget, but most people simply aren’t into the tournament scene, but they’re a huge part of our community and being able to draw more people in is good for everyone.  Hear us talk about learning to play, Magical Taco Tuesdays, and why Battle Decks are just so awesome. http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Episode-47.mp3

So yeah there was a Pro Tour this weekend and making infinite cats is less of a thing than many people thought it would be and it turns out that disintegrating things (with or without a license) is actually far more effective than some people thought it would be and seriously people do you really need to be told that?  I’ll happily take the role of the disintegration hipster, vaporizing things long before it was cool and not letting The Man stop me with licensing fees and excessive mana requirements. But since the Pro Tour failed to capture our attention, we’re chatting tonight about deck tuning with Amie’s latest Modern deck, as well as talking about her play experience with it so far.  She’ll be posting the deck lists soon, but you can hear her commentary RIGHT NOW by clicking here: http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Episode-46.mp3 As mentioned, hypergeometric calculation is both an incredibly nerdy thing to say and also super useful.  You can use the internet to avoid learning math by clicking here: https://www.geneprof.org/GeneProf/tools/hypergeometric.jsp Finally, Gavin Verhey’s excellent articles over on the mothership are here too, along with a brief summary of the points he discusses: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/beyond-basics/one-all-2016-11-03 The card creates inevitability The card is a tutor target The card is an occasionally unwieldy, occasionally high-impact draw You’re splitting or supplementing The card is a surprise that can turn the game http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/beyond-basics/take-two-2016-10-13 The card is extremely situational The card is uncharastically expensive to cast in your deck Your deck has the time to find it You’re splitting or supplementing You don’t have enough information http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/beyond-basics/threes-company-2016-08-25 You don’t want to draw this card in multiples The card is expensive to cast for your deck The card requires setup The card is best against certain kinds of decks You’re splitting or supplementing http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/beyond-basics/four-kind-2016-08-11 You need to draw the card early on The card is good at all stages of the game The card is inherently very powerful The card is a combo piece The card is even better in multiples

While Amie and I take great joy in bringing you this podcast ourselves, sometimes we need a little help to bring you the very best.  This week, we got that help from YOU (for 25 distinct values of you) at GP San Jose as Amie took a few minutes to ask everyone a few questions about Magic and their place in it. Personally, this might be my favorite show (and not just because I barely had to talk!) because it really does showcase the community of people that we belong to.  We both encourage people to not just learn to play the game, but to participate in the whole Magic ecosystem and it’s great to hear from everyone who is already doing so and encouraging others to do the same.  Give it a listen! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Episode-45.mp3 Hannah mentioned the group Play It Forward, a non-profit group providing assistance and incentive for more women to join the pro Magic community.  You can find their website here:  http://www.playitforward-magic.org/#/

As someone who doesn’t really get into any other winter holidays, my vote is for Winter Set Prerelease as the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.  There are new cards, new strategies, new archetypes, special little prerelease boxes, monkeys with really festive goggles, basically everything I could ever ask for.  Did you go?  Were you excited to get your first taste of what we’ll be drafting and opening for the next 3 months? Or were you, perhaps, reeling from the Banhammer striking your Standard deck for the first time since Jace The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic?  Evidently enough people were touched by the noodly appendage of the Emrakul, The Promised End, run over by errant Smuggler’s Copters and… er… reflected? by Reflector Mages that all three of those cards needed to be sent to a nice farm upstate where they can play together with Skullclamp and BloodBraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman (please, someone, draw me this farm).  Amie and I have a chat about both of these things and start to get ourselves excited for some upcoming GPs on this weeks show.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Episode-44.mp3

There’s also some stuff in this episode about our homework and crazy combos and strange brews and how excited we are for a pair of upcoming GPs.  And that’s all great, but really, you’re here for the monkey: He has goggles!  And he’s a pirate!  What more could you ask for! Well, if you do ask for more, maybe you’d want to see Ragavan and all of his friends over on the Aether Revolt spoiler.  Or maybe you want to see the inspiration for Amie’s new Modern deck, Double Moon Walkers over on MTG Goldfish.  Either way, you can listen to our voices as you look at all of these things and remember that, no matter how you feel about any of it, Magic now has a Legendary Pirate Monkey and so we can all rest a little bit easier at night.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Episode-43.mp3

We may not have the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything, but what we do have is another episode!  Amie and I are both excited about brewing this week and we’ve given ourselves a little homework in honor of that.  If you’re looking for a place to start with your own brew, you’re in luck because that’s exactly what we’re talking about this week. If you’re an abstract thinker, or a lawyer, or you jsut want to know what Amie was talking about at the end of the show, you can check out some of her trial work here: http://thefocalpoint.com/cases/securities/158 How will this apply to Magic you ask?  It’s all about what isn’t here; boiling things down to their essence and telling a story that everyone can understand.  Getting your deck to do just that will be a topic for the next show.  In the mean time, enjoy this one and we’ll both post our own brews during the week! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Episode-42.mp3

Are you playing in a GP this year?  Maybe more than one?  If you haven’t thought about it, we both think you should.  Big tournaments have kind of become conventions in the last few years and they offer a little something for everyone, from the most hardcore folks looking for pro points to those who just want to get in a draft or two with folks from out of town. If you are planning on going, we have some things you might want to think about on the show this week, from how to prepare yourself ahead of time to what to expect when you get there.  Overall, we think there’s a lot of fun to be had and recommend you getting ready to have as much of it as you can stand.  Enjoy! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Episode-41.mp3

So… it’s kinda empty around here… Due to a combination of factors, I missed a critical notice from our hosting provider and we lost all of the website content last week.  All of it.  Words can’t express how hard that was for Amie and I both, as we love everything we’ve created and to have so much go missing all at once was devastating.  If anyone reading this has anything saved, especially anything before episode 30 (I have backups of everything after that), please let us know.  You can reach us both on twitter or email and we’d love to be able to recreate, even just in part, the website that was here before. But we’re not just here to cry on your shoulders.  We also talk a lot about tilt this week (no coincidence!); about how devastating and how personal various things can be and how to start to be aware of it, which is the first step toward beating tilt so it doesn’t beat you. http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Episode-40.mp3

I’ve said it before and I will repeat it until the universe ends:  I LOVE to draft. We finally had some time this week to talk about my actual favorite Magic-related topic and gave ourselves material for another show at least while we consider how much goes into this one variation of the game.  This week is all about good general advice on finding and picking the best team; everyone would love to just have a deck full of Gandalfs, but since you can’t have that, finding your Samwise Gamgee is perhaps the more important skill.  We have a few tips and hopefully we’ll share more as we go forward, assuming nothing huge happens in the Magic community in the next week or so. As we mention at the end of this episode, we’d love to talk to or about YOU!  Yes you.  The one pointing yourself.  We can see you through the internet.  You enjoy Magic enough to listen to us; we’d love to listen to you.  Feel free to comment or catch either Amie or AJ on Twitter and help us make the show even better.  Thanks for listening! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Episode-38.mp3 As I mentioned, the different situations in which I evaluate cards for limited was blatantly stolen from Limited Resources, and specifically from Brian Wong’s first appearance on the show, though it’s become a staple since then.  Any episode of theirs is well worth your time if you want to get better at Magic.

We’re back!  We missed you too.  Even taking a brief break seems to be all it takes to get something to happen and suddenly we have well over an hour’s worth of stuff to talk about.  This week we’re springboarding off of the discussions around “rules lawyering” and the harsh side of competitive play to talk about what we expect, and how we react, to playing Magic at every level. Here’s a spoiler in case you can’t wait to get to the good stuff: you do you.  You get to choose, you get to decide, and in the end, you get to help shape the community that you’re going to be a part of.  It can’t make everything perfect, but we’re both strong believers that each and every person out there gets to take their own corner of the Magic community into their hands and shape it to their own standards. Not that that little summary means you should miss the show.  We also have something to say about sharks, gluten, and Pandemic: Legacy, which is not something you can get just anywhere.  Have a listen! http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Episode-37.mp3

So we had this whole thing lined up, a meticulously planned (or possibly thrown together at the last minute.  Whatever) chat about drafting and some of the subtleties around it.  It was going to be insightful and nuanced and, like, all kinds of good stuff.  Seriously.  It totally was. And then this was a Pro Tour weekend.  So we watched that instead.  And talked about it, because it was great. Maybe you’re like AJ and you sit in front of the TV with a tablet and some way to take notes and some themed snacks and just enjoy the Stanley Madness Bowl of Magic that comes around 4 times a year.  Maybe you’re like Amie and you get to explain what exactly this is to the people in your office or wherever you happen to be.  Or maybe you’re not, but you know it’s a thing people get excited about.  Either way, you might find something good in this week’s episode where we talk about awesome decks, the power of great teams, and the Magic-playing kaiju that is Shouta Yasooka. http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Episode-36.mp3 If you missed it, you can find all of the replays and written coverage over on the mothership here.

We’re a little nervous about this one folks. Amie and I get together to talk about race, representation, and diversity in this podcast. If we seem a little more awkward than usual, it’s because this stuff really is so important to us both, but we can’t just leave it to everyone else to address this kind of stuff. We chatted a little longer than usual, but we think the conversation is worth it. http://planeswalkerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Episode-35.mp3 If you care about this (and we hope you do), you should really be listening to/following Shivam Bhatt on twitter at @elektrotal  or on his tumblr here. Amie mentioned Das Racist and their music is pretty sweet. Check them out on Bandcamp here.  The intro/outro music this week is from Digable Planets. You can find them over here.