Hey there, guys! I'm going to take a different approach to my article this week.

Over the course of my first four articles, I was trying to essentially write narrative summaries of what each of the podcasts I covered talked about. The thinking behind that was that these articles could possibly act as a substitute to listening to the podcasts yourself.

But the truth of the matter is that I'm covering these podcasts because I love them, and I want you all to love them, too. So the new approach I would like to try is to think of these articles as companions or supplements to the podcasts themselves rather than a replacement for them. I want you guys to be able to check in here to find out what's been going on in the world of MtG podcasts so that you can be sure to go out and listen to the episodes that interest you.

So, on that note, I'm going to model this article after Erik Linden's excellent "This Week in Magic" series.

The Eh Team #27: Pimp Slap of Death – Running time 1 hour 42 minutes

• JayBoosh is back! He's lonely on Twitter . . . holler at him.
• Jay kind of catches us up on his Magic experiences since returning from vacation, including some Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Besieged drafts and playing Boros in Standard.
• KYT wants to know the other guys' thoughts on Mirrodin Besieged draft pick order, including how high Ichor Wellspring should be picked, which ends up being an interesting discussion.
• KYT also brings up Grand Prix: Denver, the GGSLive coverage by Robert Martin, and how toxic the chatroom was while watching the coverage. This is the case every week on GGSLive. It's almost enough to make it not worth watching.
• I didn't expect it to, but KYT's comment about the chats on GGSLive led to an excellent talk about the current state of Magic commentator coverage, where it's heading, and what steps need to be taken to make it better. You guys know I love The Eh Team, but this was one of the best, most well-rounded, and expertly executed topic discussions the guys have had yet. I always enjoy their banter and their rants, but this was a mature, enlightened debate about a relevant topic. Well done, guys.
• Discussion of the state of live coverage provides an excellent segue into . . . Bigheadjoe of Yo! MTG Taps! joining the cast and serenading us with a beautiful rendition of a New Kids on the Block tune.
• Moving on to discussing what they've been playing lately:

• Smi77y talks about his recent Tezzper deck and how to approach the current metagame while playing it, his Blue/Green aggro deck, and Elves.
• ScottyMac discusses Martin Juza's Forgemaster combo deck, which is the primary deck that he's been playing.
• KYT is playing Caw-Blade, covering strategy when playing that one, especially against Boros, which can be a tricky matchup.
• As mentioned earlier, Jay has been playing Boros.
• Bigheadjoe has been playing a Blue/White Eldrazi deck, which you can read about at IWantMyMTG.com.

• Wrapping up the show, KYT asks Joe to discuss his experience and knowledge of Legacy, Joe discusses his history with Magic, and . . . hey! the "Cast through Time" column gets another little shout-out!

The Hard Cast #5 – Running time 1 hour

• Tristan-Shaun Gregson and Robert Martin review the week in ChannelFireball.com articles. The guys also review the new Deck Builder's Toolkit and what to play at Friday Night Magic, and Tristan provides his Top Five Buys and Top Five Sells of the week.

Top 8 Magic: CarmelloCasting – Running time 54 minutes

• Brian David-Marshall and Mike Flores are joined on this very special podcast by Steve Sadin and Mike's daughter, Bella Flores.
• Note that the first five minutes or so is pretty much nothing but basketball discussion, but after that, Bella joins in the discussion, which is really entertaining.
• Topics covered with Bella include: Sorin Markov as her favorite card because he can take away your turn; Jace, the Mind Sculptor because he can take away your deck; Grave Titan because he's powerful and makes zombies and wins a fight with Baneslayer Angel; and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn because he's so big and so powerful and can't be targeted.
• Also, Dark Confidant is bad because you could flip the top card of your library and it could be Emrakul!
• Basketball is the topic again beginning at the twelve-minute mark or so until roughly the twenty-two-minute mark.
• When the Magic talk starts up again, discussion moves on to the best Magic players currently playing without a Pro Tour Top 8. As an aside here, BDM really shows his stripes as Pro Tour Historian with his ability to recall how many Pro Points any given pro player has (though he may have had a cheat sheet . . . I'm not sure).
• This segues into a debate about 2011 Hall of Fame votes based on the results of Pro Tour: Paris. I didn't realize that there exists a list of five merits that voters are supposed to consider in making their Hall of Fame votes: tournament performance, play skill, integrity, sportsmanship, and tangible contribution to the game. If you are interested in the Magic community and the Pro Tour, etc., this was actually a very interesting topic.
• To wrap up the podcast, the trio discuss decks that might beat Caw-Blade, which is currently one of the most popular and powerful decks being played, and which is better: Sword of Body and Mind or Sword of Feast and Famine?

Limited Resources #72: Head Games – Running time 1 hour 16 minutes

• This week, Marshall and Ryan address the issue of keeping your head when unpleasant things happen in games. People often tend to "go on tilt" when things don't go well in a game. The topic this week is similar to how to avoid tilt but focuses more on situations that might lead to causing a player to go on tilt and how to think about them in a different way.
• Game situations cited in the show that tend to have a psychological impact are: having cards milled, discard effects, losing to poison, mana-screw, mana-flood, and having creature spells countered versus having them die to removal.
• This week's Crack-a-Pack includes:

• Mirran Mettle
• Burn the Impure
• Koth's Courier
• Copper Carapace
• Glissa's Courier
• Mirran Spy
• Ichor Wellspring
• Serum Raker
• Flayer Husk
• Flensermite
• Piston Sledge
• Choking Fumes
• Septic Rats
• Hellkite Igniter

• This Pack 1, Pick 1 debate hinges on Hellkite Igniter versus Burn the Impure. Marshall and Ryan both decide on Burn the Impure, but listening to their justification for the choice is valuable in learning about card evaluation. The guys invite listeners to chime in with their thoughts on Twitter or via e-mail.

The Third Power #8: Cube Centerpieces – Running time 1 hour 40 minutes

• This is an interesting topic for aspiring Cube builders and Cube players: cards in Cubes that can be built around. Usman and Anthony talk about those cards that define the decks they end up in.
• Many thanks to the guys for the shout out to "Cast through Time"!
• Usman and Anthony continue the Limited Resources tradition of doing a Cube Crack-a-Pack with the following pack:

• Berserk
• Terminate
• Laquata's Champion
• Spikeshot Elder
• Reanimate
• Whipcorder
• Maze of Ith
• Kor Skyfisher
• Hinder
• Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• Ancestral Vision
• Rolling Earthquake
• Wasteland
• Etched Oracle
• Char

MTGCast Interviews: Men of Magic #14: Gary Wise – Running time 1 hour 46 minutes

• Robert Martin and Chris Otwell are back with another installment of their excellent series to interview Magic Hall of Famer Gary Wise.

Crazy Talk #1: Introduction – Running time 1 hour 45 minutes

• KYT of The Eh Team podcast has started a new show centered on Legacy. KYT is joined on his new show by co-hosts Francois (Frankie) Richard and Alexander Hayne.
• For their inaugural episode, the hosts are joined by special guests Jon Medina and Yo! MTG Taps! co-host Bigheadjoe.
• Leave it to KYT to start up a new show that really fills a niche that was lacking as far as I can tell in the podcast arena. Legacy has been rapidly growing in popularity, mostly as a result of the Star City Games Open series. It's great to have a show available for anyone who isn't terribly familiar with it but is interested in getting into Legacy.
• The show really kicks off where almost any initial discussion of Legacy as a format should: the price of Legacy and why it's worth paying versus buying a new Standard deck once every three months.
• From there, the discussion moves on to various archetypes that are popular in the current Legacy metagame.
• The show is really funny and very informative if you are looking to learn about Legacy. I definitely recommend this one.

Monday Night Magic #248: Duel Decks Duke for Domination – Running time 1 hour 9 minutes

• Monday Night Magic is hosted this week by Tom, Jack, Gavin Verhey, and Adam Styborski.
• The guys have a number of news items to talk about this week:

• The Star City Games Open series in Washington, D.C., was attended by Adam, who competed in the Legacy portion on Sunday.
• Wizards of the Coast announces the next entry in the Duel Decks series: Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons and Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas. Gavin, Adam, and Jack provide Tom and me with some interesting facts about the naming conventions of Planeswalkers.
• Mark Rosewater gave an interview on a Seattle radio station.
• Deck Builder's Toolkit will receive an update with an updated version.
• 2011 Nationals Qualifiers can now be run by Advanced Level WPN stores in addition to professional tournament organizers.
• Awwww . . . The Mana Screwed podcast will be taking a short hiatus for a while.
• Awesome! MTGCast Network will be adding live coverage of events to their already great lineup of shows.

• Following this week's news items, the guys discuss what they have been playing and listener e-mails.

The Djinn's Playground #24: Memoirs of a 30k – Running time 33 minutes

• Djinn kicks off the show with a discussion of Star City Games' recent takeover of the tournament scene. Between hosting their increasingly popular Star City Games Open series and Wizards of the Coast allowing them to run Grand Prix: Denver, Djinn seems to be of the opinion that it's all a bit too much.
• Trucking right along, Djinn reflects on limited play, practice, and the thought that should go into both.
• Paul Cheon is Djinn's next topic. He makes a very strong case for Cheon being the best player in the game.
• I really like Djinn's Playground. Episode #24 was my first time listening, but I enjoy the nice change of format from most of the other shows I listen to regularly. This was just one guy (Djinn) covering topics of his choosing at his own pace. He's got a great podcasting voice, and I like the music playing in the background while he does the show. Plus, there was a story about strip clubs with two separate morals at the end.

CommanderCast #16: Parallel Adams – Running time 1 hour 27 minutes

• Andy is joined this week by regular contributors Jeremiah and Carlos, and by everyone's favorite casual player Adam Styborski, writer of the DailyMTG.com column "Serious Fun."
• In this week's Free-for-All Roundtable segment, the guys discuss the Odyssey rare Upheaval, which is currently on the Commander Rules Committee banned list. Should the card be banned? Would it still be a problem in today's game, or are there enough tools available to other players to keep Upheaval in check?
• Moving on to the Community segment, the topic of the week touches on Adam's "Serious Fun" article This Is an Arms Race. The question at hand is what playgroups should do about the (usually) inevitable arms race that results from playing the same decks against one another week after week.
• The Strategy segment in this week's episode includes a discussion of "prison" decks in Commander. Carlos leads the discussion about decks that aim to lock down opponents, how to play them, and how to play against them.
• The guys add a quick bonus Strategy segment to this week's show in which Adam and Andy relate stories of "legendary plays" experienced in games of Commander.
• Finally, Episode 16's Technology segment features a new "Break My Card." Listeners are asked to Tweet @CommanderCast with a Commander and card interaction to break the card in question. This week's card is Carnival of Souls.
• The guys wrap up with their weekly Secret Tech picks, which include three commons, three uncommons, and three rares that many people do not often consider in Commander.

Scrubland #29: From the Corner of 12th and I – Running time 53 minutes

• Scrubland hosts Chris Casby, Chris Burroughs, and DSale discuss the Star City Games Open series in Washington, D.C.
• Casby and Burroughs both played in the event, but DSale sat this one out.

• Casby played a G/W Vengevine deck.
• Burroughs played Valakut.
• The guys discuss the overwhelming number of both Caw-Go and Boros decks at the tournament.

• The guys also review their experience at the tournament hanging out and playing after not performing as well as they'd hoped. They discuss a few interesting decks they came across and surprise decks that did well in the weekend (Ali Aintrazi's mono-Blue Grand Architect deck and Sam Atkins's mono-Red Goblin Gaveleer deck.)
• Stepping outside of their usual comfort zone, the guys cover the Legacy portion of the SCG Open at the request of listeners.

Magic TV #78: Opening Mirrodin Besieged Product – Running time 20 minutes

• Tristan, LSV, and Humphrey are back with another installment of ChannelFireball's Magic TV series.
• This week, the guys are opening Mirrodin Besieged sealed product to discuss the quality of some of Wizards of the Coast's new releases.
• To kick things off, they open the brand-new Mirrodin Besieged Event Deck: Into the Breach. LSV gives his tips on what changes he would make to the deck if he were to sleeve it up to play in a tournament. Overall, the quality of the deck passes inspection.
• Next up, the guys crack open a few Mirrodin Besieged booster packs in a Limited Resources–style Crack-a-Pack.

The Magic Show #223: Magic Weekend: Paris, Part 2 – Running time 9 minutes

• Before continuing with Part 2 of The Magic Show's coverage of Pro Tour: Paris, Evan Erwin and Ben Bleiweiss have a little tongue-in-cheek fun with Magic Director of R&D Aaron Forsythe's March 20 Tweet poking fun at Star City Games' aggressive branding.
• To kick off the show's actual content, we continue with questions asked of the pros competing at Pro Tour: Paris:

• Mirran or Phyrexian: Who wins the war?
• What will it take to make Infect a Tier 1 strategy?
• What is the number-one skill for a Pro Tour player to have?
• Watching these guys on camera, talking about this game that they love, makes me realize that for the most part, I really like Magic pros. What a cool community we have going here.

Please let me know how you guys like the new article format and what you prefer. I think this new approach allows for coverage of a lot more content, which would seem to be much better to me.

Luke Sonnier

Luke.Sonnier at gmail dot com

@LukeSonnier on Twitter

Necrite980 on MTGO