Casual Magic with Shivam Bhatt (Shivam Bhatt)

This week I'm joined by comedian and gameshow host Ify Nwadiwe of Dropout to discuss his comedy, his career, and Magic!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at Patreon.com/ShivamB. Thank you for your support!

This week we're joined by WotC Senior Game Designer Daniel Holt to chat about card frames, expansion symbols, designing commander decks and Kamigawa!

This episode is brought to you by Archidekt, CoolStuffInc, and Quiver!

This week on Casual Magic, I talk to one of my favorite comics on twitter (who played magic back in the day) about our lives on social media and the art of comedy in brief. This is admittedly one of my more self indulgent episodes, but it was a really great conversation!
Casual Magic is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quiver, and Archidekt!

Today, Spike Feeder Alex returns to discuss Rule Zero Commander decks, with his delightful Assemble the Legion deck as our model. We look at ways to build non-standard commander decks and why you'd want to, and celebrate the joys of working within limitations.

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt!

This week I'm joined once again by Magic's director of communications Blake Rasmussen to chat about everything from cards to communication to Magic Cons!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb.

Today I'm joined by one of the most brilliant and innovative minds in Magic, Sam Black. We discuss a ton of his philosophy and how he develops new deck ideas. Also Bread.

This week we celebrate our 250th episode with the mavens of Magic's Rules, Matt Tabak and Jess Dunks! It's a delightful talk and we laugh a lot.

Casual Magic is sponsored by Archidekt and Quiver and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. I am so, so grateful to everyone who has joined me on this journey for 250 conversations. Thank you.

This week we're joined by the the engine that keeps LoadingReadyRun running, Paul Saunders! We have a great chat about the LRR collective and how he has built a production system to keep all the shows running.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quivertime, and my patrons at Patreon.com/shivamb.

Today I'm joined by EDH Endboss Sheldon Menery to discuss the Rules Committee's thoughts on the future of Commander and the expansion of the Advisory Group and Rules Committees.

This episode is brought to you by Archidekt, CoolStuffInc, and Coalesce A+D.

Today I'm joined by my dear friend and colleague, Son Rebell, to talk about joining the CAG and the state of commander.

This Episode was brought to you by Cool Stuff Inc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt!

Today I'm joined by my dear friend Alex Kessler for a conversation about Modern and Pioneer in 2021, as well as some delving into Spider Man and Dragonball, alongside the usual meanderings of two long time friends sitting to chat.

This show was sponsored by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Coalesce Apparel!

This week we're rerunning episode 22 from the first season of the show, featuring the father of Commander, Sheldon Menery, in his first appearance on Casual Magic! New shows will resume in 2025.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quivertime and Archidekt, and by my patrons at Patreon.com/shivamb. 

Today on Casual Magic, proxy artist Sheepwave joins me to talk about her art, as well as her Shockbox project, which zaps players whenever they lose life in a game. Casual Magic is sponsored by CoolStuffInc, and folks can get 5% off their purchases with the code CASUAL.

Today I'm joined by my friend Adam Klesh, one of the designers at Card Kingdom, and we talk about building casual decks and even custom sets out of cards. We also have an interlude to talk about my Commander Jumpstart project.

This week we have master data cruncher and stats wrangler Sierkovitz on the show to help me understand the math of Magic the Gathering! 

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Joining us today is Kendra Smith (@theMaverickGal), mistress of elves, to talk about my favorite creature type in every format we could think of, from Pauper to Pioneer and all points in between.

Today I'm joined by Sheldon Menery to discuss working on the Silverquill Commander deck and the thought process behind companions vs learn

Today we are joined by Ben Brode, former director of Hearthstone, currently of Second Dinner, and diehard Commander player, to talk about designing decks for streams and entertainment. We also talk about digital card game design and the challenge of making magic electronically.

This episode was brought to you by Coalesce, CoolStuffInc, and Archidekt!

This episode we're joined by Pauper specialist Alex Ullman to talk about pauper format management, Golgari decks, and his journey as a writer!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quiver, and Archidekt.

This week on Casual, I'm joined by EDHREC writer and podcaster Dana Roach to talk about our approaches to the format and about content creation in the commander space. 

This show was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

This week Tim Willoughby returns to give us a seminar on the art of Zombie decks! We cover multiple color combinations and archetypes, and honestly, we didn't even cover half of his notes. 

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver, CoolStuffInc, and Archidekt! You can also support me on patreon at www.patreon.com/shivamb. Thank you for all your support!

Today I'm joined by Loading Ready Run's co-founder and frontman Graham Stark to talk about the realities of streaming a game you love and keeping your passion alive.

This week we're joined by Cary of The Splinter Bin parody account and one of the voices of the Vorthos Cast! We discuss tweaking wotc's nose and also go deep on the lore and story!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuff Inc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Today I'm joined by writer and vorthos AE Marling to sit and talk Oathbreaker, the planeswalker driven commander variant.

Today I'm joined by MTG Goldfish's Budget Commander, Tomer Abramovici, to discuss commander builds, D&D, MTGO and more!

This episode brought to you by CoolStuffInc, where the code Casual gets you 5% off your purchase, and by Coalesce Apparel and Design, where the code Casualmagic gets you 10% off, and the deckbuilding site Archidekt.

This week I'm rejoined by my dear friend Magic Man Sam, aka Rhystic Studies, to discuss everything from our friendship to finding art in suprising places.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver, Archidekt, and my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. 

This week Drew Levin joins me to help me edit and work out the kinks in my Neera Chaos spells deck, and broadly speaks about the process of deck building goals unto themselves.

This episode was brought to you by Archidekt, CoolStuffInc, and Coalesce A+D!

Today I'm joined by Rules Committee member Scott Larabee to talk more about the history of Commander from the inside of WotC.

Today I'm joined by MtG artist Aaron Miller to talk about what it's like making paintings for Magic.

This time around I have the fantastic card alterist SK Alters on to talk about the challenges of changing cards! We go through his alters and his inspirations and how to do it yourself.

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Today I'm joined by my good friend Ben Wheeler for a rambling excuse to just chat about things we like, from Commander Legends' Prismatic Piper to Nethroi reanimator. Today I'm joined by my good friend Ben Wheeler for a rambling excuse to just chat about things we like, from Commander Legends' Prismatic Piper to Nethroi reanimator. 

This week we chat with the extremely pleasant and entertaining merfolk master Nikachu about the trials of picking a deck and sticking with it through thick and thin!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quiver, and my patrons at Patreon.com/ShivamB.

Today my dear friend Serge Yager returns to the show to join me in discussing the existential challenges of burn out and content creation and rediscovering our love of Magic as a game.

This week we have Phil Gallagher of Youtube channel Thraben University to talk Legacy and the impacts of Lord of the Rings on eternal formats! 

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Today I'm joined by commander luminary and fellow CAG member Adam Styborski, affectionately known as Stybs.

Today D&D Senior Designer James Wyatt joins me to talk about the beautiful fusion of D&D and Magic that is Adventures in the Forgotten Realms!

Today I'm joined by Corey Bowen, lead designer of Commander 2020, to share design stories about the brand new precons!

This week I'm joined by my dear dear friend Ben Ulmer, member of the Loading Ready Run collective! We talk about improv, and pets, and being friends!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quiver, and my patrons at Patreon.com/ShivamB.

This week, Twitch streamer extrordinaire Jorbs joins me to talk about his new memoir as well as the ups and downs of being a popular streamer. We also talk about his lengthy experiences with Magic!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

This week I'm joined by one of the leaders of Team Handshake, World champs competitor Anthony Lee! We talk about the art of testing on a team spread across the globe, and what it's like to play at the highest levels!

This week I'm joined by professional MMA Fighter Zac Pauga to discuss his career as a fighter and his life as a magic nerd! 

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quiver, and Archidekt!

Today my friend K. Arsenault Rivera returns to discuss her stories for Crimson Vow, as well as our shared love of the Wheel of Time tv show. This is one of the saltier episodes of the show, so maybe skip this with your kids. This show is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce, and Archidekt!

Today I'm joined by long time player, grinder, and game designer Ben Seck, and we have a fantastic chat about what makes Magic such a compelling game!

This Episode is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce AD, and Archidekt.

Today I'm joined by WotC Senior Game Designer and friend of the show Gavin Verhey to talk all about the set that is going to change the face of EDH forever, Commander Legends. Enjoy this double sized extravaganza!

Today I'm joined by Corey Bowen, lead set designer for Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate! We discuss the mechanics of the set as well as my experiences playing with it.
This episode is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt!

Today's guest is none other than the biggest content creator and ombudsman in the history of Magic, my dear friend Brian, the Professor of Tolarian Community College (@TolarianCollege). We're sharing our opinions about various Preconstructed decks over Magic's History, and throwing in our opinions about Commander along the way.

This week we have an incredibly cool guest, Senatorial hopeful for Missouri Lucas Kunce! We talk about his love of the early days of Magic, his entry into politics, and his amazing collection of Wanderlusts. This show goes deep into the state of America in 2023, and is a great conversation. 

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

This week we're rejoined by AliasV to discuss her fantastic show Elder Dragon Hijinks!

Casual Magic was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Today I'm joined by CEDH's favorite pink haired AI, Rebell! She's a real gem of a creator and has a brilliant mind for commander, and this was a fun chat.

This week we're joined by an absolutely fabulous bubble of light, cosplayer and content creator Zenaide Beckham, aka ZBexx! We talk about her journey, cosplay, and eternal magic!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. 

This week we're joined by the incredibly brilliant and creative scientist and cosplayer Anna Margaret! She was incredibly wholesome and this was a great chat.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb.

Today I'm joined by CEDH content creator and good friend Jim LePage of the Spike Feeders to just chat and share thoughts about the value of community.

Today on Casual Magic, we are joined by Wizards of the Coast Senior Game Designer Ethan Fleischer (@EthanFleischer) to discuss cards from the brand new set Theros Beyond Death!

Today I'm joined by writer and financier Jason Alt to talk about my favorite way to play digital magic, Shandalar, as well as his brand new Commander focused news site.

This week I'm joined by Justin Parnell of Commander Vs. fame as we discuss the benefits of expressing joy and celebrating the hobby we love.

This episode was brought to you by Archidekt and CoolStuffInc!.

This time we have phenomenal content creator Nile Rivers to talk about the art of making high level Magic accessible to everyone.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver and Archidekt as well as by my patrons at Patreon.com/shivamb!

Today I'm joined by Kotaku's Ash Parrish, as we discuss casual engagement with Magic as well as, uh, Korean dramas. It's a great chat!

This week I'm joined by one of the winningest players in CEDH, Ian Flannery, to discuss playing high level tournament commander and still being casual about it!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quiver, and my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. 

Today I'm joined by Product Architect Mike Turian to discuss his hall of fame career in Magic, his time as a developer, and also get into the nitty gritty about Booster Fun and The List. We had a small mic failure in the beginning so I apologize for the sound quality.

This week we're joined by Esports evangelist and content creator Travis Gafford, and talk about Magic vs other games and how much better our Cons could be!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at Patreon.com/ShivamB. 

Today I'm joined by one of the kings of casual content, Seth, better known as SaffronOlive!

Today I'm joined by the Commander End Boss himself, Sheldon Menery!

Today, i'm joined by DJ of Jumbo Commander to talk about the many ways to personalize and trick out the aesthetics of your edh deck.

This week I'm joined by cosplayer extraordinaire Tappy Toe Claws for a wide ranging discussion of just enjoying good times.

By popular demand, my dear friend Ben Wheeler returns for a third visit, ostensibly to talk about deck building changes with the return of paper play, but really just to shoot the breeze about Modern Horizon 2 with me for a while. This one goes off the rails real quick, folks.

This week I'm joined by Alison Luhrs, former Wizards storyteller and community manager, to talk about our shared love of stories and the amazing arcs that she wrote!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. 

This episode I'm joined by Game Grumps Co-host and long time internet personality Egoraptor. We talk about everything from internet culture to Urza's Saga, and everything between. And in the Outro, Arin turns the spotlight back on me, and we have a lengthy bonus discussion about shepherding a format! It's a fantastic discussion with an absolutely lovely guy.

This show was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt.

This week we're joined by Alan, aka Mental Misplay, CEDH streamer, charity organizer, and all around great guy! We talk a lot about raising money for causes and being over the top in all aspects of our lives. Great chat!

Casual Magic is sponsored by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quiver!

Support me directly on my patreon at Patreon.com/shivamb!

This week I'm joined by writer, commentator, barkeep, and fellow Commander Advisory Group member Tim WIlloughby as we talk about his journey and commander play!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt!

Today I'm joined by James Hsu, host of the interview podcast Humans of Magic! We discuss his life in Shanghai, his work outside the game, and why he wants to interview folks. We also get real deep into the inside baseball of the art of the interview and share tips back and forth.

This show was brought to you by Archidekt, Coalesce Apparel and Design, and CoolStuffInc!

Today Magic's traveling trickster Gavin Verhey joins me to talk about Brothers War Commander decks! We discuss design, development, the set booster cards, and even go back and talk about the decks from Baldur's Gate!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Coalesce A+D.

Ben Wheeler returns to join me for day 1 analysis of Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, mainly so that we can just gush about how rad this set is.

This show brought to you by Coalesce A+D, where you can buy the brand new Casual Magic tshirt, CoolStuffInc, and Archidekt.

This week we're joined by journalist, scholar, and professor Cameron Kunzelman to discuss his forthcoming book about Magic the Gathering!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quivertime, and my patrons at Patreon.com/shivamb. Thank you for your support!

Today I'm joined by Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater for an amazing freeform discussion about casual play, commander, diversity, inclusion, culture and more.

This week I'm joined by Trick Jarrett, Content Strategist at Wizards, to talk about his content journey that led from his own podcasts to the mothership itself!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver!

Support me on Patreon at patreon.com/shivamb!

Today I'm rejoined by Magic soundtrack producer and youtube musician extrordinaire Jonathan Young, to talk about the joys of Commander and Explorer!

This show was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt!

Today I continue my conversation with Ethan Fleischer about Commander Legends and Kaldheim!

Today's episode of Casual Magic features prolific author and hardcore nerd Seanan McGuire, talking about her recent foray into Magic web fiction as well as what planeswalkers would eat, and writing during a Pandemic. This episode is brought to you by CoolStuffInc (use code CASUAL for 5% off your order) and Archidekt.

This week we're joined by former SCG Commentator, current LGS owner, and Cube afficionado Ryan Overturf! We discuss card frames and card communities and the art of making a cube, and what the hell a twobert is!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt, Quivertime and my patrons at Patreon.com/shivamb!

Today I'm joined by my friend Ellie Rice aka @ellieoftheveil to talk about a serious and difficult topic- Magic and the poor financial decisions we make to play the game we love.

This time we have the number one arena streamer on Youtube, CovertGoBlue! We talk about his incredible business acumen as well as the art of performing.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver and Archidekt! You can also support me directly at Patreon.com/shivamb.

This week we're joined by the phenomenal Magic artist Ryan Pancoast! We talk about his career and many of his significant paintings.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quivertime, and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb.

This week we have Pro Tour commentator Mani Davoudi talking about his road to the desk and what it's like to cover Magic tournaments!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver and Archidekt and my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb!

Friend of the show Chase Manacurves returns to discuss breaching hulls and a brand new commander variant they came up with. This show is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce Apparel, and Archidekt!

Today, we're joined by Chris Mooney (@ChrisKMooney), Associate Game Designer at Wizards of the Coast, to talk about the new silver-bordered box set Unsanctioned, and silver-bordered magic in general.

This week I'm joined by Amazonian, the world's premiere player of Brawl on Arena, to learn everything there is to know about this remarkable commander variant and her nearly 200 decks!

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quiver, Archidekt, and the fine folks who support me on patreon at Patreon.com/shivamb!

To start the fifth season of Casual, we're joined by one of the true legends of the judge program, the Dutch master Gijsbert Hoogendijk. He had a huge influence on the early days of commander and competitive magic overall! This was a fascinating chat and I could have listened to his stories for hours.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Archidekt and Quiver, and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb.

Today I'm joined by your favorite content creator's most important asset, tech support to the stars and uber Bolas fan Logan Isch! We talk about running content and our favorite shared commanders!

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quiver, and Archidekt!

Today I'm joined by fellow content creator and CAG member DeQuan Watson, as we talk about his remarkable life and what it was like to own his own store, and playing commander through the years! He also gives a ton of great advice on becoming a successful content creator.

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt.

This week I'm joined by Jim Lapage, Spike Feeder and newest member of the Commander Rules Committee. We discuss what we think the format actually is, and how to understand if the CAG and RC are succeeding at their roles.

This episode was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt.

This week we're joined by world reknowned fantasy author Tad Williams to discuss his new book The Navigator's Children, and what it's like to inhabit characters far from your core personality.

Casual Magic is brought to you by Quivertime and Archidekt and by my patrons at patreon.com/shivamb. 

For the 150th episode of Casual Magic, I'm joined by Lead Designer Mark Rosewater to talk about how designing for Magic has changed since the rise of Commander! I also want to take a moment to thank you all for joining me for 150 episodes of Casual Magic conversations =)

This episode was brought to you by Cool Stuff Inc, Coalesce A+D, and Archidekt.

Today I'm joined by host of the Commander Sphere Podcast and my CAG Colleague, Rachel Weeks. We talk about her philosophy towards the social challenge of commander.

This show is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Coalesce Apparel and Design, and Archidekt.

Today I'm joined by Sahar Mirhadi, British legacy and modern grinder, and we have a far reaching conversation about Modern, Legacy, tying your identity to your hobby, the challenges of being a minority in our hobby, and how sweet Scapeshift really is.

This episode was brought to you by Cool Stuff, Archidekt, and Coalesce A+D!

Today I'm joined by Dave Kosin (@daviekumd) to talk about keeping ourselves healthy in quarantimes.

This week beloved friend of the show TappyToeClaws returns to talk (ostensibly) about MagicCon, and then we go deeeeeeeep into Eurovision? It's a wild one, folks, so hold on tight!

Casual Magic is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Archidekt, and Quivertime!

This week I'm joined by commander streamer and MTG Ambassador Kurohitsuki, and we sit and share our vorthos love for the game! 

Casual Magic was brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quivertime, and Archidekt! Support me on patreon at patreon.com/shivamb

Today I'm joined by the hosts of The Memory Jar podcast to talk about Invasion and the joy of multicolor magic.

This week I'm joined by friend of the show Ben Wheeler as we discuss Canadian Highlander and our new show Shivam and Wheeler Love Magic!

Casual Magic is brought to you by CoolStuffInc, Quiver, and Archidekt!