Our Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Cube survey is open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new set.

Make sure to check out a special video made by Jason Waddell to accompany this week’s intro.

Using Cube Cobra’s new feature to sort a cube by popularity of cards, Andy and Anthony explore Andy’s Bun Magic Cube. They discuss some of the factors that may influence card’s popularity among cube owners and talk through some notable unpopular cards.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Geena’s Unpowered 270 Cube

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

David McDarby of Wizards of the Coast joins Andy and Anthony to talk about The Chromatic Cube, designed by David and currently on Arena. They talk about the cube’s goals and how they contrast with those of other cubes on Magic Online and Arena. David shares his design process behind cubes and the inspiration for The Chromatic Cube.

They start things off with a pack 1, pick 1 from the cube and talk about their experiences with the cube so far.

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

In an effort to expand on past discussion about what makes a particular cube “hard” or “easy” to play, Andy and Anthony are dedicating an entire episode to unpacking what exactly makes Magic a difficult game. After being pressed by Andy to define seemingly simple terms, Anthony expounds upon his concepts of a “competency floor”, “mastery ceiling”, and overall “exertion”, and how each of these factors makes the game difficult in a different way.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from listener Cameron’s 1 Drop Cube. Thanks, Cameron!

Discussed in this episode:

Timestamps:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

Do some light stretches and grab some popcorn, because this is Lucky Paper Radio’s most in depth set review ever. Andy, Anthony, and Jett dive into Modern Horizons 2, a set with an unprecedented number of cards for cubes of all kinds. They explore support for classic mechanics, designs that can enable new themes, and the many powerful cards pushing the limits.

Conversation is guided by the results of our MH2 community survey revealing what in the new set is capturing the cube community’s interest, the most controversial cards, and appealing new options for the many facets of the community.

View the episode on our site for extensive, interactive timestamps!

Discussed in this episode:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

Andy and Anthony talk about the practical side of cube. For many of us, Cube is about bringing people together through our favorite game, but finding or creating a consistent playgroup can be a challenge. Our hosts share what they they’ve learned seeing their own group develop, treating a draft like a party, with food and clear communication, and playing with what can turn into a very pricy board game.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from The Oinkinator’s Cube.

Timestamps:

Discussed in this episode:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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

Our Modern Horizons 2 Cube survey is open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new set.

Cube enthusiast and Lucky Paper contributor Parker LaMascus joins Andy and Anthony to talk about his own cube and their experience with his midrange focused environment. They discuss a draft of the cube, reflecting on how Parker’s design goals translate to individual card choices, breaks in the tradition cube structure, and how these choices manifest in gameplay.

Parker elaborates on his goals to remove the rock-paper-scissors nature of the traditional aggro, midrange, and control archetypes to create a skill-testing environment emphasizing player abilities and careful decision making.

They finish the episode with a pack 1, pick 1 from Parker’s Cube where they apply what they learned from the draft and our conversation to drafting.

Discussed in this episode:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

On this episode, Andy and Anthony are discussing a recent draft of Anthony’s “Regular” Cube, in which Anthony made a stupid amount of mana with Hope Tender, making Andy question all of the decisions he made in his life that led to that moment. This dovetails into a conversation about the nuanced differences in what Anthony and Andy value about Magic and how they capture that in their respective cubes. What is the difference between having conditional cards as enablers vs having conditional cards as payoffs? What is the difference between having a power outlier 1 mana value card vs a power outlier 3 mana value card? Is there any kind of proactive deck that can beat two 3/2s for 3 generic mana? On Sword of Hearth and Home, which color is “Hearth” and which color is “Home”?

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from listener Simon’s Cubus Color Correctus. Thanks, Simon!

Discussed in this episode:

Timestamps:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

Andy and Anthony talk about how they approach drafting a cube they’ve never played before. What do they look for in the list to optimize their chances of success, and have a good time doing it. After discussing power outliers and big picture structure of an environment, they agree one of the most important aspects to focus on is the speed of the format, which shapes the tempo-value balance and the effectiveness of different strategies. It’s challenging to evaluate an environment just by looking at the list, and they share some heuristics they use to get a head start.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Ryan’s Peasantish Cube.

Timestamps:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

Andy and Anthony discuss Anthony’s newest cube project, Irregular Cube. Like his primary cube it’s a lower power environment with a variety of overlapping archetypes, but it also has a novel structure: a main set and a second list of ‘rare’ cards, largely composed of higher powered cards with a healthy helping of build-arounds. They talk about the many opportunities rarity offers, challenges it imposes, and what they’ve learned from initial playtesting.

To kick off the conversation, our pack 1, pick 1 comes from the cube in question.

Discussed in this episode:

Timestamps:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.

Our Strixhaven: School of Mages and Commander 2021 prospectives are out! Thank you to everyone who participated.

Andy and Anthony are joined by Lucky Paper contributor Jett for a deep dive on what they believe to be the noteworthy cards from Strixhaven and Commander 2021. In their discussion, they reference their Strixhaven mechanics episode and their episode on Card Evaluation and the Playtesting Paradox.

Timestamps:

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at [email protected]. Please include how you’d like to be credited on air, your pronouns, and if you’re submitting a cube for the pack 1, pick 1, a link to said cube.

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.