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Andy and Anthony discuss how they think about themes within cubes. As always, our hosts beginning with a thorough defining of terms. They talk about how they think about thematically related sets of cards and how many they think can fit, or would want to, in a Cube. Andy has been exploring fitting a tight network of synergistic cards in his cube Take Five.

They also talk about a new app Anthony built specifically for mapping synergies between cards within a cube. It lets you create a force directed diagram of every card in a cube and draw connections between individual or sets of cards. Give it a try with your own cube!

Discussed in this episode:

• Regular Cube
• New App: Cube Synergy Mapper
• Take Five Cube
• Andy’s Take Five Videos
• Commander Spellbook - Magic Combo Database
• Sacred Geometry
• Shoebox
• Magic Card List Spellchecker

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:01 - Cube Packages and Themes
• 9:56 - Theme's in Anthony's Regular Cube
• 14:41 - New App For Mapping Synergies withing a Cube
• 16:46 - More Regular Cube Themes
• 21:13 - Take Five and Combos
• 23:07 - Theme Density
• 25:12 - The Take Five Clown Car
• 28:05 - Game Speed
• 30:26 - Themes vs Good Cards
• 34:35 - Fitting More Themes in Your Cube
• 36:51 - Thematically Disconnected Cards
• 40:29 - Synergies in Context
• 47:03 - Wrap up

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Andy and Anthony talk about the concept of power level band or range in Cubes. It’s sometimes said a Cube should have a pretty even power level, with the strongest card being not too much stronger than the weakest, is a good idea. Our hosts talk about why that doesn’t always make sense and strategies for making Cubes with a wide band of power that still make sense.

Discussed in this episode:

• Regular Cube
• Sacred Geometry
• Recross the Paths
• Neoclassical Cube
• Bun Magic Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• Irregular Cube

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 4:48 - Power Levels
• 16:34 - Against a Narrow Power Band
• 19:55 - Absolute vs Relative Power
• 24:09 - Bombs
• 26:37 - Enablers vs Finishers
• 32:01 - Absolute Game Impact
• 36:28 - Power Curve
• 46:35 - Summary

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Andy, Anthony, and Patrick recap their experience at Lunch Box, a 1 day Cube event in their home town of Baltimore raising funds for the Maryland Food Bank. They discuss the cubes they drafted, the highs and lows of their matches, and their overall experiences at the event.

Discussed in this episode:

• Lunch Box
• Twilight Cube
• Red Terror
• Library of Babel
• Science Cube

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:34 - Lunchbox
• 7:33 - Andy Draft 1 of Maggie's Twilight Cube
• 13:45 - Patrick Draft 1 of Red Terror
• 16:19 - Anthony Draft 1 of Red Terror
• 20:04 - Andy Draft 2 of Library of Babel
• 27:16 - Can we lose graciously?
• 36:46 - Patrick and Anthony's Draft 2 of the Science Cube
• 42:39 - Event Highlights

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Andy and Anthony talk about Star Magic, a unique multiplayer format that also happens to be a way to accommodate a draft with 5 players — a notoriously awkward number.

In a Star Magic game, 5 players engage in a free-for-all game with a specific win condition. The game ends when any one player eliminates the two others seated furthest from them. Players sitting next to each other are neutrally affiliated but are motivated to collaborate by their one shared enemy, or not to if another is about to defeat both of their enemies.

Our hosts talk about their recent exploration of the format and how they feel it’s a multiplayer experience that both applies to their own gameplay tastes, and to a typical cube not intentionally designed for multiplayer, than a full free-for-all game.

Discussed in this episode:

• Star Magic Draft Format Explanation
• Star Magic on the MTG Wiki
• Sacred Geometry
• Regular Cube

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:32 - Star Magic
• 6:20 - Rules
• 17:14 - First Impressions
• 21:48 - Scaling from 1v1
• 25:46 - Politicking
• 33:22 - Choosing a Cube for Star Magic
• 41:22 - Munchkin
• 46:54 - Final Thoughts

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It’s been said that Cube Will Outlive Magic, but would it really? Andy and Anthony wildly speculate on the future in a thought experiment: what if Wizards of the Coast stopped existing tomorrow and no new cards were designed or printed. They theorize about how it would impact different elements of the player base and how it would impact their own relationship to the game, despite their relative independence from the flow of new cards.

Discussed in this episode:

• King of Collectibles on Netflix
• Netrunner

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:16 - The Death of Magic
• 10:39 - Optimism
• 12:49 - Pessimism
• 15:02 - Playgroup Decay
• 22:40 - Content Creators
• 26:16 - Kitchen Table Players
• 36:17 - Logistics
• 44:59 - Spending Money on Cards is Kind of Dumb
• 47:33 - A Called Shot
• 53:36 - Netrunner

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Andy and Anthony each draft the same seat in a virtual pod of Andy’s Sacred Geometry Cube. They talk through each of their picks and their overall draft strategy and the final decks they end up with.

If you want to draft this same seat as well, either before or after listening to the episode, follow these steps:

• Download the predetermined booster packs
• On Draftmancer:

If you enjoy this episode, check out our previous draft episodes.

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 7:28 - Pack 1
• 41:48 - Pack 2
• 53:03 - Pack 3
• 01:03:59 - Draft Results

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Andy and Anthony discuss feedback received by a fellow cube designer: that particular decks are sometimes too dominant when they go uncontested, or as they put it “The Open Lane Problem”. They talk about whether or not this is a real problem in different contexts and ways you might be able to mitigate it.

Discussed in this episode:

• 100 Ornithopters
• Bun Magic Cube
• Regular Cube
• Neoclassical Cube
• Turbo Cube
• Support The Podcast on Patreon

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:43 - Mailbag!
• 7:35 - The Open Lane Problem
• 14:19 - The Effect of Narrow Cards
• 26:44 - Powering Up Archetypes
• 35:36 - Player Preferences
• 42:09 - Solving the Open Lane Problem
• 45:34 - Changing Cube Size

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By popular demand, Andy and Anthony rush back into their series exploring modal mechanics through Magic’s history. Continuing where they left off, they talk about mechanics from Return to Ravnica to Fate Reforged. They argue over some mechanics fit a useful definition of “modal” and what the mechanics, and individual modal cards, offer to Cube designers.

Discussed in this episode:

• Song-Poem Documentary
• Modal Mechanics 001 — Some Nonzero Number of Mechanics Are Kicker
• Modal Mechanics 002 — Some Modal Mechanics Evoke a Strong Response
• Reading Rainbow Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• The Design of Everyday Things
• Lucky Paper Patreon

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:03 - Modal Mechanics: Part 003
• 4:44 - Scavenge
• 9:03 - Bloodrush
• 17:17 - Fuse
• 27:30 - Bestow
• 36:03 - Monstrosity
• 37:59 - Will of the Council
• 42:27 - Sieges
• 48:41 - Planeswalker Addendum

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Andy and Anthony look back at their last year playing Magic. They talk about their highs and lows, playing cube while engaging little with Magic’s release cycle, the continued grown of community, and Lucky Paper’s projects.

Discussed in this episode:

• Lucky Paper Events Page
• 100 Ornithopters in a Cube-Shaped Box by Rhystic Studies on YouTube
• Lucky Paper Patreon
• Cube Fellowship and Supporter Pins
• How to Quickly Shuffle Your MTG Cube Anthony’s Article on the Broadcast Shuffle
• List Formatter
• List Differ
• XKCD Is It Worth the Time? and Automation
• The Ball Pit

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:52 - Year In Review
• 7:22 - High: Regional Scene Development
• 11:47 - High: Weekly Cube Nights
• 12:56 - High: Ignoring Magic Product
• 16:32 - High: Rhystic Studies Video
• 18:23 - High: Patreon
• 21:13 - High: Cube Fellowship
• 22:41 - High: Playmat V2
• 24:18 - High: Deepening Relationships
• 26:58 - High: Broadcast Shuffle
• 29:46 - High: List Formatter
• 31:07 - Low: Klug Alter
• 33:43 - Low: Less Friends at Cubecon
• 38:19 - Low: Playgroup Growth Woes
• 44:10 - Low: Pins
• 46:46 - Low: Website Maintenance
• 50:32 - Magic: The Gathering
• 58:08 - Cube Person of the Year
• 1:32:59 - State of the Pod

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Andy and Anthony talk about bad cards. Why do “bad cards” even exist? Can’t all the cards just be good?

Our hosts talk about why they like playing with bad Magic cards and how Cube gives them the flexibility to play with whatever cards they like regardless of how they stack up to the other 30,000 cards in the game. They talk about ways they conceptualize a bad card in different formats and the inevitability of their existence. They also reflect on the differences between thinking about Magic as a player vs a designer and how player mentality and hamper design thinking. And also, for some reason, wolves.

Discussed in this episode:

• Mark Rosewater’s When Cards go Bad
• Parkers Article on Bad Cards
• The Alpha Myth Episode of Unexplainable about Alpha Wolves
• Andy’s Take Five Brainstorming Videos on YouTube
• The Oldest School
• The Ball Pit
• Turbo Cube

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:55 - Bad Cards
• 6:42 - What is a Bad Card
• 22:05 - The Fundamental Constants of Magic
• 29:44 - In Defense of Bad Cards
• 35:18 - Bad Cards in Cube Design
• 43:58 - Combat is Beautiful
• 49:30 - Recontextualizing Bad Cards