Rival’s Duel 55- The Great Commander Draft Debate Part 2

Hello and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. It’s time to send off 2015 with the final part of our Great Commander Draft Debate. We are here with our final 9 debates. We also spend some time looking at the Oath of the Gatewatch leaks and talking about games journalism. Give us a listen and let us know what you think in the comments below. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 54- The Great Commander Draft Debate, Part I

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. The big day is finally here and it is time for our Great Commander Draft Debate. We are starting off with 6 different categories with the other 8 next episode. We also cover some Oath of the Gatewatch spoilers and talk about some listener comments. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 53- John Madden would be Proud

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week, the rivals are drafting their picks for the great commander draft debate. Give it a listen and see whose team you think is going take this down. The rules for the draft and are picks are all after the break.

Rival’s Duel 52- Commander 2015 Set Review

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. We are celebrating our annual Christmas from WoTC that is the Commander PreCon release. We are reviewing all the new commanders, cards, and reprints that get us excited. As per our tradition, no shownotes for review shows. Just click below, give us a listen, and leave us a comment where you think we messed up. We’ll see you in two weeks with our Commander debate draft.

Rival’s Duel 51- We Will, We Will, Rock You!

Welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. In this week’s episode, Eric and Nole are rocking out to some sweet mana rocks. Artifacts that tap for mana form a vital part in many decks: ramp and fixing (however, whether they should or not is a matter of some debate). Eric and Nole, are playing geologist (they are looking at rocks). Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments below. (Make sure you listen to the end for some big news.) As always, full show notes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 50- A Rival’s Retrospective

Hello and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week, Eric and Nole have broken out the party hats and champagne as we celebrate 50 episodes of Rival’s Duel. And what better way to celebrate than with a look back on the early episodes of Rival’s Duel. We hop back into our archives and look at the the first 50 episodes, as well as speculate on what the next fifty will hold. If you’ve ever wanted to hear about who the best Cat commander was, our thoughts on the banning of Sylvan Primordial, or what our thoughts on proxy cards in commander (and don’t want to actually listen to our whole back catalog), this is the episode for you. There are not shownotes this episode but you’ll still want to take a look after the break.



 

Rival’s Duel 49- Battle for Zendikar Set Review

Hello Everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. There is no need for much fanfare this week as it’s time to bury our noses in the Battle for Zendikar visual spoiler and see what cards have us excited for our favorite 100 card format. So without further ado, here is Eric and Nole’s take on BFZ!!! As is our review show tradition, there are no shownotes, just sit back and enjoy.

Rival’s Duel 48- Let’s Build “Does this Ever Work?” Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. In this episode, Eric and Nole prepare themselves for the upcoming battle against the Eldrazi menace (who are we kidding, we all know that both Eric and Nole are more the “power at any cost” type), that being said there are cool new toys to be had in the upcoming set and they go over a few of the things that have them excited about Battle for Zendikar. But (in the words of the immortal Billy Mays) wait there’s more! Not content to leave our episode with just spoilers of the Cthulhian variety, we say our parting farewell to Theros block and its time in standard by…doing a let’s build dedicated to one of the dark gods of that plane. (I’m starting to see a very disturbing trend here.) Eric and Nole give making mill work a go in commander with a let’s build around Phenax, God of Deception. Give it a listen and let them know how they did in the comments below. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 47- Angels, Eldrazi, and Charlie Sheen

Hello and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This, “Rock Star from Mars” Eric and “Vatican Assassin” Nole are taking about winning, specifically about what role winning should play in your games of Commander. They also talk about the pretty and pretty underwhelming FTV: Angels, and the beginning of the Battle for Zendikar spoilers. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 46- Baseless Speculation: Medication Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. Some times in the course of a podcast, you learn much more about the hosts than about the topic involved. This is one of those episodes. During this, Nole is on medication and is not on the top of his game. Specifically, we learn that Nole is the one who keeps the bus pointed down the road. This episode was supposed to be about the announcement of 2015’s Commander decks. What it became was us talking about the decks that could be, Wiley Coyote, and the evils of Skype. So, presented without shownotes, please enjoy this very special after school special entitled “Rival’s Duel- Drugs are Bad.”

Rival’s Duel 45- General Face Off: Wonderbread Edition

Welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week Eric and Nole return to the original format of the show, where they pick a topic they disagree about and argue about it until they get bored. This week the topic is mono-White, specifically what the best way is to play the (arguably) worst mono color for Commander. Eric chooses to argue that bigger is better with a Voltron strategy, while Nole goes wider with tokens. It’s a battle of quality vs quantity this week, give it a listen and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Rival’s Duel 44- This ain’t your typical core set

Hello everyone and welcome an another episode of Rival’s Duel. Magic Origins prereleases are this weekend and Eric and Nole are ready to give you there opinions and first thoughts on this final core set and how it will impact Commander. As always with these set reviews, there are no show notes. Just kick back, listen, and enjoy.

Rival’s Duel 43- The “Origin”-al Hype Train

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week, all 10 of the legendary creatures are out, so Eric and Nole are talking through all of them, from the awesome (Hello, mama and papa Naalar) to the awful (pretty much all the blue ones). Give them a listen and see if you agree with their blind assessments. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 42- Back with a Vengeance

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. While we apologize for missing our cast in two weeks but real life (if we can call GP Vegas real life) got in the way. We are really sorry but a now back in the saddle and ready to roll. This week is a big catchup on emails, stories from the last month, and the MtG world in general. To catch up with us, give us a listen. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival's Duel 41- Totally Saturated with Disappointment

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival's Duel. Due to some recording constraints (and the fact that our topic took less time than we thought it would) we are now back to the same
weight time as we were back in our teens. Today's theme is disappointment, as Eric and Nole seem to systematically underwhelm all of their core listeners. We are also looking at some 15 year old commanders that are also on the bad end of the bell curve. As always, full shownotes after the break.
             

Rival’s Duel 40- The Rivals go to the movies: Assembling the Avengers

Hello and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This may be our nerdiest episode ever, as Eric and Nole are taking about the soon to be number one movie in the world, Avengers: Age of Ultron. In order to prepare for this films release (OK, actually because they are both excited for it and couldn’t shut up about it.), The Rivals are getting their Vorthos on as they try to think of which generals best represent our band of heroes and what cards would have to be in their decks. Give it a listen and let us know what you think of our choices for the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Full Shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 39-All Aboard the Train to Brown Town

Hello Everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. On this episode, Eric and Nole are taking on the topic of artifact centric decks in a segment they are calling The Gauntlet. They have taken the top 10 (in their opinion) artifact generals and are pitting them against each other. Did your favorite mono-brown general walk away with top marks? Give it a listen and find out. As always, full show notes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 38- Rakdos the Defiler and a Big Tucking Problem

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This we was supposed to simply be another let’s build for Rakdos the Defiler (We promised we would do this for like 5 months, we are true to our word, if incredibly untimely). However, the Commander rules committee decided that they had to drop a big rules change on us so we’ve got to address the elephant on the battlefield (because we can no longer shuffle him into the library or bounce him back to your hand). As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 37- Dragons in a Timely Manner

Hello and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. For a change of pace, this time Eric and Nole are actually talking about the new set it time for the Pre-release. Dragons of Tarkir is full of sweet cards and cool new stuff. We go through all 7 remaining legends and all the cards we think are worth talking about. Give it a listen and let us know what cards you are excited for in the comments. As always full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 36- Enforcers of the Social Contract

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week, Eric and Nole take on something different. Commander players often talk about the social contract as a list of ideals for the perfect EDH experience. However, rarely do people talk about how to actually effect change in their group. Eric and Nole try to give tools to the listeners on how to be the agent of positive change for their playgroups. They also take a look at the first few DTK spoilers and put out a call for listener help to build an EDH deck. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 35- Let’s Build: Mono-Green Control Edition

Hello Everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This Week, Eric and Nole are heading to the drawing board and trying to build something very different. They are looking to build a control deck in a color best known for big monsters and mindless smashing. Can our two rival’s come together to solve this puzzle? Give it a listen and see how they did. As, always full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 34- Linear Decks and the Definition of Interesting

Hello Everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This weekmarks a return to the roots of Rival’s Duel, as Nole and Eric are on opposite sides of another debate and there is no reconciliation to be found. Today’s topic is which is worse to play against, Super linear decks (like Kaalia, Neckusar, or Arcum Dagson) or Goodstuff decks (like Reaper King, Child of Alara, or Anafenza). Which one do you think is more fun? Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments below. As always, full shownotes after the break.

Rival’s Duel 33- Forging Ahead

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. This week, Eric and Nole are knee deep in Fate Reforged spoilers. This set has some absurdly powerful cards and Eric and Nole are super excited to get their hands on it. Give it a listen and let us know which cards you are excited for in the comments below.

Rival’s Duel 32: A Rival’s Retrospective, 2014 Year in Review

Hello Everyone and welcome to another episode of Rival’s Duel. Fate reforged spoilers are upon is and wow that set looks insane. However, before we can dive into the new year, it’s important to look at the past and close the proverbial books on 2014. Eric and Nole are going through all the things that happened in the past year, as well as making their 2015 new year’s resolutions. (Also, we let time kinda get away from us on this one, consider the extra length our gift to you for taking Christmas week off.) As always, fell shownotes after the break.