http://www.mananation.com ManaNation.com is a site which features a weekly video podcast about Magic: the Gathering as well as articles everyday of the week. Strategy, decks, limited and unbridled awesome. Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:07:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you watch VH1 and crappy TV you'll see a new Apprentice style reality tv show, "I Want to Work for Diddy." This one features some crazy people pushing themselves to their limits to work for Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, a mogul in both music and fashion. P. Diddy is an ... http://www.mananation.com/play-better-magic-with-p-diddy/ It never ceases to amaze me how frequently I see a Starbucks. It's become so omnipresent that it's a joke about Western Society. The comedians scream about the Starbucks being across the street from a Starbucks! Oh the humanity! Well this past week Starbucks announced the closure of 600 under performing ... http://www.mananation.com/lessons-from-starbucks/ First off let's give acknowledgement to Wizards for stepping up to the plate and making changes a public and official event. No being coy, no cuddly wrapping, they just make sure it is said publicly and in plain sight, though the announcements may smell strongly of PR speak.Starting with Shards ... http://www.mananation.com/of-ptos-and-prereleases/ For those who haven't been introduced to the player types before, they are something Mark Rosewater presented several years ago as the personalities of the common Magic players. Let me discuss them briefly. Timmy - This is the "simple" player. He's in it to experience something, while others are ... http://www.mananation.com/timmy-johnny-and-spike-weigh-in-on-shards/ In today's world of hot marketing, entrepreneuring and trying to hit the jackpot for any such idea, there is a thing called the "elevator pitch." The elevator pitch is a short, concise, to the point, description of some concept, usually your business. The origin of this is that every business, when ... http://www.mananation.com/the-elevator-pitch/ Good morning, it's 7:30 here on the West Coast. I'm up in the room watching the city slowly come to life. Yesterday was another awesome day for Magic, I watched Zvi Mowshowitz go from being out of contention (0-3 to open the tournament) all the way to 20th place. A big ... http://www.mananation.com/from-hollywood-day-2/ Coming to you from Round 10 the Feature Match table: Paulo Vitor Doma da Rosa (PVD) vs. Robert van Medevoort Game 1 They make the high roll, PVD wins and decides that he will play. He shuffles his hand and decides to mulligan down to six. He doesn't rush it, shuffling the ... http://www.mananation.com/from-hollywood-three-games-of-faeries/ With Day 1 brought to a close here in Hollywood, I can safely say that Standard is about to be rocked and that no one expected it. We've again been reminded why the French are so dangerous, with the likes of Guillaume Wafo-Tapa (undefeated after 8 rounds), the Ruel brothers, ... http://www.mananation.com/recap-from-hollywood-day-1/ As one of the Magic media, I'm always looking for "the noise." I use that in terms of signal vs noise. The signal is the main stream, the dominant ideas, theories and decks. It's the Faeries and Doran of the current metagame. What I want to find though is the ... http://www.mananation.com/signal-vs-noise-when-to-go-rogue/ Stories are told to newer players about "the Black Summer" when [card]Necropotence[/card] took over and the light of Magic was blocked out as Black was literally the deck to be played. There is nothing which can be said to compare it to today's battlefield except maybe to compare it to ... http://www.mananation.com/pure-hemi-engine-power/