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Andy and Anthony send off Andy’s Degenerate Micro Cube. After many years, Andy has decided to take apart the Cube, reclaiming its cards, sleeves, and mental space. The Cube attempted to capture something about the most high powered vintage games with a twist on the typical draft format and a tiny deck size. They talk about why Andy’s decided to take it apart, it’s highs, and lows, and lessons learned from playing with it over the years.

Discussed in this episode:

• Final Fantasy and Commander Set Surveys
• The Degenerate Micro Cube
• An Introduction to the Degenerate Micro Cube
• Neoclassical Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• LPR covering Andy’s experience with Ensnaring Bridge in the Degenerate Micro Cube
• Eggs for Four

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 0:00 - An Announcement Regarding Future Set Reviews
• 7:00 - A Eulogy for the Degenerate Micro Cube
• 10:50 - What was the Degenerate Micro Cube
• 17:29 - How Combo Is or Is Not in Dialogue with Fair Archetypes
• 20:30 - The History of The Degenerate Micro Cube
• 24:22 - On the Deck Size Requirement in the Degenerate Micro Cube
• 28:39 - What Andy Still Likes about the Degenerate Micro Cube
• 38:11 - The Cost of Rules Modifications
• 42:18 - The cards Andy is going to miss playing with most from the Degenerate Micro Cube

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This episode was recorded a few weeks ago, so forgive the untimely references to the Rhystic Studies video on 100 Ornithopters. At our weekly cube night, Andy and Parker swapped drafts of eachother’s simple cubes: Andy playing Parker’s cube Atavus and Parker playing Andy’s cube Sacred Geometry. On this episode we dive into the goals for each of these cubes, both of which focus on simple cards and strive to be an approachable cube to new drafters, and hear a draft report from both Andy and Parker. Finally, Anthony, as the elder statesman of ‘clean’ cubes, weighs in on who has better realized their goals.

Discussed in this episode:

• TCG Player Boycott
• Atavus
• Sacred Geometry
• Regular Cube
• Eldrazi Domain Cube
• Ryan Saxe’s Buildaround Cube
• Every Cube Night has 12 Losers by Parker LaMascus

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 5:25 - Introduction to ‘simple’ cubes and an overview of The Regular Cube
• 10:20 - An overview of Atavus, Parker’s simple cube
• 18:40 - An overview of Sacred Geometry, Andy’s simple cube
• 27:55 - Parker’s draft report of Sacred Geometry
• 42:30 - Andy’s draft report of Atavus
• 1:07:32 - On color hate in Atavus

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Andy and Anthony walk through (some of) the history of modal mechanics: cards that offer players choices between multiple effects. Starting with alpha they look at the different manifestations of modality, how they compare and contrast, and how they impact gameplay and fit into their Cube design philosophy.

Discussed in this episode:

• An 11 hour game of commander ends in a draw and irrecoverable footage
• RhymeZone
• Neologism
• Episode: 243: In which Parker shares his criticism of Cycling

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:44 - Introduction to main topic
• 5:40 - What is a modal card?
• 8:15 - The history of modal effects
• 9:36 - Charms, Commands, and Confluences
• 22:41 - Bloomburrow’s Pawprint Mechanic
• 24:42 - Cycling
• 33:31 - Kicker
• 38:05 - Split Cards
• 43:47 - Morph
• 47:38 - Entwine
• 49:36 - Overload
• 53:35 - Channel

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Andy and Anthony are joined by Jane (a.k.a. maramas) and Arlo (a.k.a. gaytransmulldrifter) to talk about taste and aesthetics in Cube design. Building off recent discussions on the show, they question if there is such a thing as “taste” in cube design and what it means.

Find more of Arlo and Jane, along with a motley cast of Cube designers, on their new podcast Pack1, Slick 1s.

Discussed in this episode:

• Trump’s ‘One, big, beautiful bill’ would ban care for transgender people on Medicaid and Obamacare
• A4TE Condemns House Budget Cuts as Cruel Attack on Trans Lives and Lifesaving Healthcare
• Pack 1, Slick 1s
• Andy’s Tangle Wire Reddit Post
• Pack One Slick Ones - Episode #8 - Bitter Foods and Drafters’ Moods
• Invitation to a Banquet by Fuchsia Dunlop
• Trap Street
• Reading Rainbow Cube
• Jeff Koons
• Yves Klein
• Glenstone Museum
• Untitled Blue Sponge Relief by Yves Klein
• Mark Rothko
• Pack One Slick Ones - Episode #4 - Is Cube Punk Rock?
• Inland Northwest Cube Fest
• Upcoming Cube Events on Lucky Paper
• gaytransmulldrifter on YouTube
• Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953
• Punxsutawney Phil

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 6:27 - Tangle Wire Corner
• 19:53 - What does it mean to develop one’s taste in Magic?
• 35:57 - Is there such a thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ taste?
• 56:08 - Is a Cube a painting?

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Andy and Anthony talk about saprolings, sort of. Our hosts talk about aesthetics and their own personal tastes, and how that applies to their preferences in Magic. Anthony somehow tries to make the case that saprolings connect to a pattern of affinity for systems thinking, complex iterative processes with emergent properties.

Discussed in this episode:

• Episode 211 — Book Club: The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz
• Episode 251 — Book Club: Playing Oppression by Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
• The Design of Everyday Things
• Why Fish Don’t Exist
• A Pattern Language
• Reading Rainbow (Cube)
• Cod by Mark Kurlansky
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• Law of the Instrument
• The Neoclassical Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• Sacred Geometry
• What if the 4-Card Limit Was Abolished in Modern? by Frank Karsten
• Saproling’s and Thallid Cards over Time
• Meander Artwork by Robert Hodgin
• Mandelbrot Set
• L-system fractals
• Chaos & Fractals: New Frontiers of Science
• NileRed
• WARNING Little Guys Spotted

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:39 - Introduction to episode
• 4:50 - What are Andy’s broad aesthetic sensibilities?
• 12:59 - How do these aesthetic preferences relate to games?
• 18:33 - What are Anthony’s aesthetic sensibilities?
• 27:52 - Anthony’s love/hate relationship with Slimefoot
• 33:12 - Andy’s application of his aesthetic values to Sacred Geometry
• 38:59 - How the aesthetics of Magic have changed over time
• 43:50 - River corner
• 48:17 - Dynamic equilibrium, Magic meta games, and power creep
• 54:14 - “The Fractal Perspective”

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In the second episode of the Lucky Paper Radio Book Club, Andy, Anthony, and Parker discuss Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson. The book explores the history of colonialism in games - the many roles games have played inculcating explicit propaganda or normalizing colonial value systems in their aesthetics and mechanics. Our club members, including call ins from listeners, talk about what they took from the book and whether it’s changed their perspective on games.

Discussed in this episode:

• Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
• Free PDF of the Book
• The First Book Club Episode
• Nose Dive
• A Pattern Language
• The Doughboys
• Untitled Goose Game
• ‘Kriegsspiel! How Napoleon Accidentally Invented Strategy Games’ on YouTube
• Wingspan
• Photosynthesis (board game)
• Spirit Island
• A People’s History of the United States
• Cole Wehrle
• Root
• Molly House (concept)
• Molly House (board game)
• Citizen Game
• Rusty Cash Box of Goblin
• Polytopia
• Ogre Battle Tactics: March of the Black Queen
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:26 - Pickle Corner Returns
• 5:15 - First impressions of Playing Oppression
• 11:05 - On the format of the book and whether it’s the best means to convey the message
• 16:28 - Getting on board with the core conceit of Playing Oppression
• 19:41 - Are games descriptive or prescriptive of our culture?
• 25:07 - What is a “Goose Game”
• 30:42 - Are video games to blame for gun violence?'
• 37:02 - The German Colony Game and why rehearsing violence is perhaps more visceral than witnessing it
• 42:23 - How are colonial and violent values baked into games that don’t have explicitly colonial flavor?
• 45:26 - How post-war Germany gave rise to the modern Eurogame
• 52:22 - How do you subvert these colonial themes in game design?
• 57:14 - Our experience playing the ‘anticolonialist’ games mentioned in Playing Oppression
• 1:15:01 - Fascism as colonialism and imperialism turned inward
• 1:16:29 - How does all of this relate to Magic
• 1:20:42 - Polytopia and whether or not a better skin would make a difference

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Andy and Anthony talk about a paradox they occasionally face in Cube design. Sometimes a particular card to strategy over performs and as curators we want to add cards that offer counter play. Often those cards end up being just as potent played alongside the problematic cards as they are against them, only making the problem worse. Our hosts talk about specific times they’ve faced this paradox in their own cubes, and different strategies to break out of the paradox.

But first, they go on a long digression on Anthony’s latest fermentation project, growing koji.

Discussed in this episode:

• Flavorama, by Arielle Johnson
• The Noma Guide to Fermentation
• The Art of Fermentation
• Anthony’s First Koji Test
• 100 Ornithopters
• Degenerate Micro Cube
• Regular Cube
• Evergreen Ability Tier List Episode of Lucky Paper Radio
• Mono Black Cube
• The Turbo Cube
• Turbo Cube Changes with Julien Episode of Lucky Paper Radio
• Lucky Paper Events Page

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 0:57 - Pickle Corner
• 8:48 - The Nature of the Cube Design Paradox
• 12:52 - Disenchants in 100 Ornithopters
• 17:03 - Ensnaring Bridge in the Degenerate Micro Cube
• 24:52 - Red in the Regular Cube
• 27:23 - The Defunct Mono Black Cube
• 29:59 - Combo Decks in the Turbo Cube
• 37:17 - Constructed Magic Precedent for the Cube Design Paradox
• 43:21 - Andy’s barely baked theory of power distribution’s impact on decks most likely to be drafted
• 53:57 - Tools to Navigate the Cube Design Paradox

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Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about the results of the cube community survey for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. They discuss the sets new mechanics and how they function to support a the set’s themes and limited environment and how that relates to goals of many Cube designers. They also talk about the top cards catching interest on the survey and honorable mentions featuring new mechanics or exploring new space.

Discussed in this episode:

• Community Survey Results
• Spice 8 Rack’s video on the history of Tarkir
• The McElroy Brothers will be in Trolls 2
• Not just white men’s privilege, but just one time

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 5:35 - What is it like to be back on Tarkir?
• 10:01 - Set survey overview
• 11:25 - Harmonize
• 24:20 - Omens
• 39:19 - ‘Twobrid’ mana
• 45:43 - Honorable Mention: Frontline Rush
• 49:27 - Dishonorable Mention: Skirmish Rhino
• 53:20 - Honorable Mention: Kishla Skimmer
• 56:56 - Honorable Mention: the Monocolored Utility Lands
• 1:00:37 - 9. Rotcurse Rakshasa and Renew
• 1:05:38 - 8. Sunpearl Kirin
• 1:09:32 - 7. Surrak, Elusive Hunter
• 1:15:43 - 6. Desperate Measures
• 1:19:52 - 5. Tersa Lightshatter
• 1:23:30 - 4. Sinkhole Surveyor and Endure
• 1:28:36 - 3. Voice of Victory and Mobilize
• 1:31:18 - 2. Cori-Steel Cutter and Flurry
• 1:39:01 - 1. Descendant of Storms

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As they continue to attend more and more local, grassroots Cube events, Andy and Anthony find themselves asking: do people like these ‘tournament report’ episodes? They try to talk through their drafts at Boston Cube Party Two more quickly, but it still takes almost an hour to get through them. The episode concludes with a brief look at the decklists from Andy’s new cube, Sacred Geometry, which was only drafted three times prior to the event. The cube is still very much in its infancy, and Andy and Anthony’s discussion serves as a model for how to digest a very small sample size of gameplay results and turn those results into some high-level goals

Special thanks to Judge Bones for conceiving, writing, and recording the voiceover for this week’s intro!

Discussed in this episode:

• Tarkir: Dragonstorm Cube Survey
• Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Cube Survey
• Sacred Geometry
• Doubleton Synergy
• 555-Jank
• Esper Cube
• Spicy Ramen Cube
• Hoopin’
• The Cascade Cube
• The Devoid Cube
• Andy on Cubereviews talking about the Neoclassical Cube
• Anthony on Cubereviews talking about the Irregular Cube
• Alex on Recross the Paths

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:55 - Should we do a tournament report for every tournament we attend?
• 5:30 - Boston Cube Party 2 Overview
• 8:55 - Andy’s Tournament Report
• 10:52 - Andy’s Draft of Doubleton Synergy
• 18:53 - Andy’s Draft of 555-Jank
• 24:20 - Andy’s Draft of The Esper Cube
• 29:35 - Andy’s Draft of the Spicy Ramen Cube
• 35:33 - Anthony’s Draft of Hoopin’
• 41:25 - Anthony’s Draft of the Cascade Cube
• 49:09 - Anthony’s Draft of the Devoid Cube
• 53:08 - Closing thoughts on Boston Cube Party 2
• 55:05 - Sacred Geometry Initial Impressions

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In the final installment of ”The Barash Files” (at least for now!), Zach — game designer at Wizards of the Coast — talks with Andy and Anthony about playtesting. The three talk about how they approach getting feedback on their specific different environments and how they use that information.

Discussed in this episode:

• Episode 15: Playtesting & Theorycrafting
• Episode 231: The Barash Files 001 — The Principles of Game Design
• The Cascade Cube
• Neoclassical Cube
• Old Border Foil Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• Regular Cube
• The Mono Black Cube
• The Null Hypothesis
• Kill Your Darlings
• The Turbo Cube
• UMA+ Cube

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:44 - What is ‘playtesting’? How do you ‘playtest’ a cube?
• 9:55 - What kinds of feedback can players be trusted to give?
• 16:22 - How does Andy ask for feedback on the Neoclassical Cube and 100 Ornithopters?
• 28:24 - How does Anthony ask for feedback on Regular Cube, the Mono Black Cube, and the Turbo Cube?
• 40:14 - How does Zach ask for feedback on The Cascade Cube, and what is the story with Crashing Footfalls?
• 52:17 - The ballad of Aura Shards in 100 Ornithopters
• 1:06:54 - A note on ego when you receive feedback