Eternal Durdles

Become a Paid Subscriber: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/eternaldurdles/subscribe Eternal Durdles is a weekly Magic: the Gathering podcast focusing on the Legacy format. Hosted by long-time MTG veterans Zac Clark and Phil Blechman.

Eternal Durdles is a leisure podcast hosted by EternalDurdles, with 1,000 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

EternalDurdles hosts Eternal Durdles, a leisure show with 1,000 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Eternal Durdles

  Stop Letting Corporate Slop Define Magic

  Oct 7, 202627 min

  Gatekeeping gets a bad reputation in Magic: The Gathering—but not all gatekeeping is bad. There’s a huge difference between telling another player they don't belong and deciding that a format, community, product, or style of play isn't for you. In this episode, I’m making the case for the good kind of gatekeeping: protecting the things you actually enjoy about Magic. Pasted text Pre-Modern is a great example. The format has clearly defined boundaries, but those boundaries don't have to be hostile. The community can preserve what makes the format special while still finding ways to invite new players through the gate. Pasted text We also get into: Why community formats don't need to become massive competitive ecosystems Why it's okay to keep a format small and local Battle boxes as a way to introduce people to Classic Legacy and Pre-Modern Why gatekeeping your time and money can be a good thing The problem with engaging with products you actively dislike Why negative engagement is still engagement What Magic can learn from the way communities support their own formats How to actually grow a community format without talking down to people Why teaching someone to play a format is more powerful than simply telling them it's great The goal isn't to keep people out. It's to protect the things that make your version of Magic worth playing—and then invite people in who genuinely want to be part of it. Pasted text If you've ever built a Battle Box, played Pre-Modern, Classic Legacy, Peak Legacy, or another community format, this one is for you. 00:00 — The GOOD Side of Gatekeeping Magic 01:00 — Gatekeeping Formats Without Gatekeeping Players 02:18 — How Pre-Modern Uses Gatekeeping 04:39 — Building Communities Around Shared Culture 06:58 — Why Community Formats Don't Need to Go Big 09:17 — Gatekeeping Your Time & Your Magic 11:42 — Gatekeeping Your Wallet From Bad Products 14:10 — Why Negative Engagement Still Helps 21:38 — How to Actually Grow a Community Format 26:10 — What's the Goal of a Community Format? Chapters

  ListenShow Notes
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  Eternal Durdles

  Stop Letting Corporate Slop Define Magic

  Oct 7, 202627 min

  Gatekeeping gets a bad reputation in Magic: The Gathering—but not all gatekeeping is bad. There’s a huge difference between telling another player they don't belong and deciding that a format, community, product, or style of play isn't for you. In this episode, I’m making the case for the good kind of gatekeeping: protecting the things you actually enjoy about Magic. Pasted text Pre-Modern is a great example. The format has clearly defined boundaries, but those boundaries don't have to be hostile. The community can preserve what makes the format special while still finding ways to invite new players through the gate. Pasted text We also get into: Why community formats don't need to become massive competitive ecosystems Why it's okay to keep a format small and local Battle boxes as a way to introduce people to Classic Legacy and Pre-Modern Why gatekeeping your time and money can be a good thing The problem with engaging with products you actively dislike Why negative engagement is still engagement What Magic can learn from the way communities support their own formats How to actually grow a community format without talking down to people Why teaching someone to play a format is more powerful than simply telling them it's great The goal isn't to keep people out. It's to protect the things that make your version of Magic worth playing—and then invite people in who genuinely want to be part of it. Pasted text If you've ever built a Battle Box, played Pre-Modern, Classic Legacy, Peak Legacy, or another community format, this one is for you. 00:00 — The GOOD Side of Gatekeeping Magic 01:00 — Gatekeeping Formats Without Gatekeeping Players 02:18 — How Pre-Modern Uses Gatekeeping 04:39 — Building Communities Around Shared Culture 06:58 — Why Community Formats Don't Need to Go Big 09:17 — Gatekeeping Your Time & Your Magic 11:42 — Gatekeeping Your Wallet From Bad Products 14:10 — Why Negative Engagement Still Helps 21:38 — How to Actually Grow a Community Format 26:10 — What's the Goal of a Community Format? Chapters

  ListenShow Notes
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  Eternal Durdles

  Legacy Has Become a Goldfish Race

  Oct 6, 202645 min

  Legacy is a turn-two format now. With Eternal Weekend North America approaching, we’re looking at the results from the 74-player DMV Legacy League Season 3 Invitational to figure out what the post- Reality Fracture Legacy metagame is actually doing—and what you need to be prepared for in Pittsburgh. Pasted text The Top 8 is fascinating: Elves, Epic Storm, Blue-Red Prowess, Selesnya Depths, Aluren, Boros Energy, and more. And while the decks look incredibly diverse on the surface, Phil sees a much stronger through-line: Almost everything is trying to kill you on turn two. We break down the major decks from the event, including: Badger-Mole Elves and the return of Elves How Elves is adapting around Orcish Bowmasters Epic Storm cutting Brainstorm Why Urza's Saga is replacing traditional cantrips The new Blue-Red Cory Steel Cutter Prowess build Why this Prowess deck is cutting Daze and even Murktide Regent Selesnya Depths and its Reality Fracture upgrades Carnivorous Cultivator and why putting your deck in your hands matters Why Marwin the Preserver didn't make the successful Depths list The return of Aluren Why Azarakh has completely streamlined the Aluren combo Boros Energy as one of the most accessible top-tier Legacy decks The return of Canadian Threshold-style tempo Felia, Quantum Riddler, Tamiyo, and the modern Legacy control/tempo shell The Selesnya Depths list is particularly interesting. Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes showed up as a one-of Green Sun's Zenith target, while four copies of Carnivorous Cultivator give the deck another way to access its lands. Pasted text And then there's the bigger question: Is Legacy actually healthy right now? The diversity of the Top 8 certainly makes the format look healthy. But Phil argues that there's a deeper problem: the format is so dominated by powerful snowballing cards and fast combo strategies that the incentive is increasingly to kill your opponent before those cards take over. Pasted text So if you're heading to Eternal Weekend, the question isn't just “What's the best deck?” It's: Can your deck survive the first two turns? 00:00 — The Post-Reality Fracture Legacy Meta 01:00 — What the DMV Top 8 Tells Us 02:49 — Selesnya Depths & Reality Fracture 05:07 — Is Legacy Actually Healthy? 08:12 — Why Everything Wants to Kill You on Turn 2 10:38 — Badger-Mole Elves Returns 13:19 — Epic Storm Cuts Brainstorm?! 16:18 — The New Blue-Red Prowess 20:52 — Selesnya Depths Finds Its New Build 26:43 — Aluren Is BACK 32:59 — Boros Energy & the Budget Legacy Deck 37:00 — The “Control” Deck Is Actually Canadian Threshold

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Eternal Durdles

  Legacy Has Become a Goldfish Race

  Oct 6, 202645 min

  Legacy is a turn-two format now. With Eternal Weekend North America approaching, we’re looking at the results from the 74-player DMV Legacy League Season 3 Invitational to figure out what the post- Reality Fracture Legacy metagame is actually doing—and what you need to be prepared for in Pittsburgh. Pasted text The Top 8 is fascinating: Elves, Epic Storm, Blue-Red Prowess, Selesnya Depths, Aluren, Boros Energy, and more. And while the decks look incredibly diverse on the surface, Phil sees a much stronger through-line: Almost everything is trying to kill you on turn two. We break down the major decks from the event, including: Badger-Mole Elves and the return of Elves How Elves is adapting around Orcish Bowmasters Epic Storm cutting Brainstorm Why Urza's Saga is replacing traditional cantrips The new Blue-Red Cory Steel Cutter Prowess build Why this Prowess deck is cutting Daze and even Murktide Regent Selesnya Depths and its Reality Fracture upgrades Carnivorous Cultivator and why putting your deck in your hands matters Why Marwin the Preserver didn't make the successful Depths list The return of Aluren Why Azarakh has completely streamlined the Aluren combo Boros Energy as one of the most accessible top-tier Legacy decks The return of Canadian Threshold-style tempo Felia, Quantum Riddler, Tamiyo, and the modern Legacy control/tempo shell The Selesnya Depths list is particularly interesting. Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes showed up as a one-of Green Sun's Zenith target, while four copies of Carnivorous Cultivator give the deck another way to access its lands. Pasted text And then there's the bigger question: Is Legacy actually healthy right now? The diversity of the Top 8 certainly makes the format look healthy. But Phil argues that there's a deeper problem: the format is so dominated by powerful snowballing cards and fast combo strategies that the incentive is increasingly to kill your opponent before those cards take over. Pasted text So if you're heading to Eternal Weekend, the question isn't just “What's the best deck?” It's: Can your deck survive the first two turns? 00:00 — The Post-Reality Fracture Legacy Meta 01:00 — What the DMV Top 8 Tells Us 02:49 — Selesnya Depths & Reality Fracture 05:07 — Is Legacy Actually Healthy? 08:12 — Why Everything Wants to Kill You on Turn 2 10:38 — Badger-Mole Elves Returns 13:19 — Epic Storm Cuts Brainstorm?! 16:18 — The New Blue-Red Prowess 20:52 — Selesnya Depths Finds Its New Build 26:43 — Aluren Is BACK 32:59 — Boros Energy & the Budget Legacy Deck 37:00 — The “Control” Deck Is Actually Canadian Threshold Chapters

  ListenShow Notes
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  Eternal Durdles

  The Pre-Modern Meta Is Completely Different in Paper

  Oct 5, 202643 min

  Is the Pre-Modern metagame actually the same online and in paper? Cyrus “Crucible of Words” Bales joins us to dig into the latest Pre-Modern data and, more importantly, the huge differences between Magic Online Challenges and real-world paper tournaments. Cyrus collects and analyzes tournament results across multiple sources, tracking metagame share, Top 8 conversion, event wins, and “over rep” to determine which decks are actually outperforming their representation. Pasted text And the results are fascinating. Online, Stiflenought and Enchantress are among the strongest performers, while decks like Landstill and H FEB can look much worse than their reputations suggest. Psychotog is also undergoing a major resurgence thanks to new technology like Sickening Dreams and evolving mana bases. Pasted text But once we look at paper events, the picture changes dramatically. Landstill goes from severely underperforming online to heavily overperforming in paper. Enchantress goes in the opposite direction. Replenish is another huge paper performer. And there are some fascinating explanations for why the two environments produce such different results—including the difference between the Magic Online chess clock and a paper tournament's round timer. Pasted text We also get into: Stiflenought vs. Enchantress Why Goblins may be better than its numbers suggest Psychotog's resurgence Sickening Dreams The surprising performance of Black-White Control Landstill's massive paper/online discrepancy Moneyball Black's disappointing paper numbers Why Enchantress may be held back by Reserved List costs Replenish's enormous paper overperformance Why random rogue decks can spike a paper tournament Stasis, Merfolk, Blue-Green Madness and Zombie Infestation Blue-White Control and Tsabo's Web Why paper Pre-Modern players don't necessarily update their decks every week The incredible diversity of the format And perhaps most importantly: Pre-Modern doesn't necessarily need you to play the statistically best deck. The format has room for Stiflenought players, Goblins players, Psychotog pilots, Stasis freaks, rogue brewers—and people who just want to bring their favorite deck to a tournament and have a great time. Pasted text With roughly 50+ decks appearing in the larger data set, Pre-Modern may be one of the most diverse ways to play old-school Magic. Pasted text If you're preparing for a Pre-Modern event, this is the data you want to see before registering a deck. 00:00 — Pre-Modern Paper vs. Online 01:53 — How Cyrus Collects the Data 02:57 — Stiflenought, Enchantress & Goblins 06:23 — Psychotog's Huge Resurgence 09:50 — Why Landstill Is Struggling Online 12:34 — The Surprisingly Good Black-White Control 15:10 — What Paper Pre-Modern Actually Looks Like 23:26 — The HUGE Landstill vs. Enchantress Difference 30:06 — The Master Pre-Modern Meta 33:14 — Why Control Is So Hard to Categorize 37:35 — 50+ Decks and Why Pre-Modern Is So Diverse Chapters

  ListenShow Notes

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