Brian David Marshall is joined by special guest Roman Fusco at Magic Con Minneapolis, where they talk about the Pro Tour, team drafting, and Roman's work on the March of the Machine cinematic trailer.

Continuing their triumphant return to Top 8 Magic, Mike and BDM discuss all the battles from March of the Machine!

BDM and Michael J make their triumphant return to Top 8 Magic to talk March of the Machine! With a slew of new mechanics what cards will pop out as the stars of the set?

The decklists are not fully revealed at the time of this recording but the metagame has been made public and many players have already shared their lists on social media. Omnath is towering over Standard with 72% of the field playing either one of the two big decks that have sprung up around the elemental. Only NINE players chose to play without it in Standard.

Omnath has even nabbed the top of the metagame list for Historic at 34%, pushing Jund Sacrifice, Rakdos Arcanist and Goblins, which had been such a big part of the last event down into much smaller percentages of the field.

Brian David-Marshall and Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz talk their way through the metagame breakdowns, look at the various publicly known lists, and make their predictions for who they think will emerge on top of the insanely competitive field.

Your Hosts:

https://twitter.com/TheZvi

https://twitter.com/Top8Games

With less than a week until the Grand Finals Brian David-Marshall and Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz discuss the state of Standard post-Uro ban and pre-grand reveal of the 32 Standard decks the players will bring to the virtual tables.

Topics include:

Has the over/under on the number of Omnath's changed?

Why aren't people playing Arboreal Grazer in their Omnath lists?

Red Bull Qualifier decklist discussion.

What does the Walking Dead Secret Lair mean?

Has WotC lost our trust?

Has the Free to Play Arena business model hurt Magic?

Why are the NY Giants and the NFC East soooooo bad right now?

Your hosts:

Brian David-Marshall - @Top8Games

Zvi Mowshowitz - @TheZvi

Normally Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz would be doing a preview show for the Mythic Invitational -- showcasing the Arena-only Historic format -- but with the decks being revealed so close to the starter pistol for the event that was not possible. Instead they are looking through the decks while the early rounds of the event play out in the background.

Metagame Breakdown

Mythic Invitational Decklists

Your Hosts:

https://twitter.com/Top8Games

https://twitter.com/TheZvi

With Zendikar Rising previews in full swing, Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz go on a quest to find the most messed-up Magic cards in the set so far. The duo go through the 41 rares and mythics that had been previewed as of Thursday Sept 3rd looking for the cards that most like to party, which ones are going to impact your Commander games and which ones meet the highest honor Zvi can bestow upon a card -- "That's a messed up Magic card!"

Your hosts:

Brian David-Marshall - https://twitter.com/Top8Games

Zvi Mowshowitz - https://twitter.com/thezvi

With the Temur Reclamation dominated Players Tour Finals in the rearview mirror, Wizards of the Coast announced a huge swath of bans in Standard, Pioneer, Historic, and even Brawl. The announcement takes the total number of banned cards in this Standard format to ten -- a number of cards we have not seen banned at the same time since Urza's Block.

Brian David-Marshall and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz walk through the history of banned and restricted cards in Standard, talk about the impact of these bans in the various formats, and Zvi brews a Lukka deck for Standard that he is excited to play with in this new Reclamation-less Standard format.

Meanwhile... BDM has been playing Teferi Tribal in Historic and is now in need of a new deck. Badly. Ping him on Twitter and tell him what you are liking now that the format has been shaken up a little.

Your Hosts:

Brian David-Marshall – @Top8Games
Zvi Mowshowitz – @TheZvi

BDM and Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz climb back on the virtual bicycle to resume creating new episodes of the game's longest running (okay, okay, walking) podcast about all things MTG. In this episode the duo talk about:

• Zvi's wolf ratio -- how often has he cried wolf accurately and how many times has it just been a stray dog? SPOILERS Wilderness Reclamation was a MF'n wolf.
• This weekend's upcoming Player's Tour Finals Top 8 and the various weapons the 8 players will be bringing to the table.
• Their picks for the winner of the event. SPOILERS: Zvi does some math. Brian plays a hunch.. SPOILERS Zvi does some math. Brian plays a hunch.
• Gab Nassif's Historic control deck and what Zvi has done to tinker with it for the upcoming Historic Open.

The Hat Squad

2 Oath of Teferi (DAR) 200
5 Island (SLD) 64
4 Teferi, Time Raveler (WAR) 221
3 Plains (SLD) 63
3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (DAR) 207
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (DAR) GR6
4 Shatter the Sky (THB) 37
4 Shark Typhoon (IKO) 67
2 Elspeth Conquers Death (THB) 13
3 Mystical Dispute (ELD) 58
4 Mind Stone (WTH) 153
1 Dovin's Veto (WAR) 193
2 Omen of the Sea (THB) 58
1 Essence Scatter (IKO) 49
3 Narset, Parter of Veils (WAR) 61
4 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
4 Glacial Fortress (XLN) 255
4 Raugrin Triome (IKO) 251
4 Field of Ruin (THB) 242
1 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
1 Castle Ardenvale (ELD) 238

Sideboard
2 Aether Gust (M20) 42
3 Dovin's Veto (WAR) 193
2 Essence Scatter (IKO) 49
1 Search for Azcanta (XLN) 74
3 Grafdigger's Cage (M20) 227
2 Tale's End (M20) 77
2 Cleansing Nova (M19) 9

Your hosts:
Brian David-Marshall - @Top8Games
Zvi Mowshowitz - @TheZvi

The longest running Magic podcast is back with a new (and long-running) episode. Brian David-Marshall is once more joined by Magic Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz as the pair discuss the upcoming Players Tour, recent bannings, the changes to companions, and how Zvi's Stompy deck has found a lane in the Standard metagame.

With Magic 2021 spoilers coming fast and furiously they spend the rest of the episode going through the cards and trying to determine if the reprinting of Baneslayer Angel means that we are going to see R&D start to shift further away from Mulldrifters over the coming year in an effort to pump the brakes on the crazy Standard rollercoaster we have been on for the last year and a half.

Your hosts:
Brian David-Marshall - @Top8Games
Zvi Mowshowitz - @TheZvi

The much heralded Banned and Restricted announcement has come and gone. While there is some immediate relief for Vintage and Legacy players from Lurrus, if you are a Standard player looking to avoid getting paired against a Companion deck anytime soon you are not going to be happy.

There was an interesting nugget buried in the last paragraph of the "Other Formats" section of the announcement in which Ian Duke said, "If we see signs of long-term health issues resulting from high metagame share of companion decks, we're willing to take steps up to or including changing how the companion mechanic works."

So what does that mean exactly?

Brian "BDM" Marshall had one easy suggestion on Twitter while Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz prefers the nuclear option.

https://twitter.com/Top8Games/status/1262400478731796483?s=20

The two of them put on their snazziest R&D/Organized Play hats and triaged the different options which ranged from forced mulligans to killing access to sideboard during games to some kind of Bark in the Park alternative Standard format.

Zvi also talked about his Mono Green Stompy deck -- Senior Stompy as BDM call it -- and whether or not it could be a real deck in the metagame moving forward. Here are links to his deck and to a similar but more mid-range build that did well in the past weekend's Redbull Untapped event.

https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/zvimowshowitz-05182020-the-return-of-senor-stompy

https://mtgazone.com/deck/mono-green-stompy-by-rint-red-bull-untapped-international-qualifier-1/

If you have any questions, feedback, or even an idea for a show topic you can find the hosts on Twitter at

BDM: @top8games

Zvi: @thezvi

The now elusive MichaelJ: @fivewithflores