The Blue Envelope Podcast

We're on our Christmas/New Year break at the moment, so instead of a live episode we're bringing you a selection of our favourite 'off-air' moments from the first 15 episodes. Thanks for listening, and see you soon for the first new episode of 2015!

It's the end of the year, and a whole lot of Magic has happened. We look back over 2014 and discuss our favourite, least favourite and most memorable moments, as well as looking ahead to 2015 and predicting what the new year might bring. Happy new year everyone!

It's the Christmas special this week, so we're all fun and games — some old, some new, and none of them blue. We also open those secret Santa presents we mentioned a few episodes back. Oh, and Rich Hagon makes an impromptu appearance as our 5th host this week. That was fun.

We're a man down this week, and Matt Light's not with us either, but Rob and Matteo are still here trying to hold the fort. We couldn't leave you with another 2-week hiatus, could we? It's a slightly shorter episode than usual, what with the team running at 50% capacity, but we still manage to squeeze in a load of chat relating to World Championships Magic Cups, the judge conference Rob went to last week, and 52-card Magic — a socially-acceptable Magic alternative that you might want to try out during the down-time of upcoming Christmas holidays. Thanks for listening, The Blue Envelope Team

We have a lot of winners this week — and we're not just talking about the podcast. We talk about Neil, Matt and Rob's various tournament successes, while discussing our thoughts on the tournament organisation and formats involved. Matteo's just championing a slight crippling chill and post-long-weekend exhaustion, but that won't stop him joining the discussion. We try a slightly different game today, called Entweet the Angels. The name's a work in progress, but the game went pretty well... no prizes for guessing the theme. Other things on today's discussion roster: -Nick Lovett Loving it Back in't'day, when he managed to do pretty well at a World Championship and get on the tour for a year without ever winning a PTQ. -Kahns of Tarkir Limited — raw power or synergistic decks, and how many Dead Drops are too many Dead Drops? -What's everyone's favourite card? Everyone apart from Matt that is, because we forgot to ask him. -The MSI/Dark Sphere championships that took place in London last weekend. -Uncle Rigby's favourite Magic Metaphors. You know you want to join in.

We talk about the upcoming MSI events, as well as recounting a load of old magic stories, some famous and some not so much.

To commemorate having made it to the 10th episode, we run through some top 10 lists - the top 10 most irritating draft cards, the top 10 most influential pros, and the top 10 most commonly-held magic misconceptions. Yup, it's episode 10.

This week Rob tells us about a somewhat recent Back in t'Day, which really goes to show how quickly a player goes from unknown to household name after a good result or two. We segué seemlessly into a natter about cheating, which kind of what casting Treasure Cruise feels like - our next topic of discussion. A couple of the usual games are on, and we go through the mistakes we made at the Pro Tour in terms of deck choice, while also talking about our philosophy on deck choice as a whole. And, of course, there's a Story Time. It involves turtles. Links on the website - tbepodcast.com

Matt and Matteo are joining you from Sunny Kailua, on the isle of Oahu, Hawaii. Rob and Neil are in grey and boring blighty. But with the powers of technology, we still get to bring you our thoughts on all things KTK limited (well, in reference to colour choice at last). We also talk to another PTQ winner, and have cameo appearances from a smattering of pros.

This week we talk about nationality and WMCQs, before being joined by guest Sam Rolph — last week's online PTQ winner — who stays with us through a couple of games and a discussion of KTK limited as well as his PTQ journey.

It's a bit of a rushed one this week, as Neil's got to run to another prerelease. We talk about our experience of the first day of Khans prereleases, then bosh through a couple of games while Neil's still with us. And, as ever, a quick story time to end it.

Today it's Matt's birthday, but that doesn't stop us recording another episode. We talk about Gerry T's recent article on power creep, try out a new game, attempt to end the playmat debate once and for all, and do all the usual features on top of all that.

Spoiler season, controversial concession chat, weird Japanese professions, listener's mailbag and story time with Rob

On this week's episode we're a man down - Rob's gone and double booked himself. He's left us with detailed notes though, so Neil takes over in telling us about Back in the Day, we have a long and serious conversation about the changes to block structure, Matteo hosts a game of Fact or Fiction, and we talk about a brand new feature to the show. Oh, and there's another episode of story time, of course.

Rob Wagner has another installment of Back in the Day, Matt talks about what's happened this week in Magic, Matteo plays a game of Fact or Fiction and we end with another dose of Story Time.