Andy and Anthony welcome Justin Parnell on this week’s episode of Lucky Paper Radio. Justin was one of the first Magic writers to write about Cube and graciously shares stories from the format’s earlier days. From curating his own cube to designing environments for open, competitive play, we get a glimpse into how Justin thinks about Magic.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Dan’s “Ancient Times” cube. Thanks, Dan!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Do you like your podcast episodes to be carefully planned and tightly edited, with the hosts staying laser focused on the topic at hand? If so, then this episode of Lucky Paper Radio is probably not for you! This week, Andy and Anthony are jumping around between a couple of topics, some only dubiously related to Magic, so let the timestamps be your guide if you think musings on world geography are a waste of your time.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Pablo’s cube “Fundies”. Thanks, Pablo!

Discussed in this episode:

Timestamps:

Anthony’s Recipe for Soy-Pickled Mushrooms:

Original recipe from Momofuku by David Chang

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

On this week’s Lucky Paper Radio, Andy and Anthony are answering a question from listener Nate about how to decide which cards to “ban” from his Peasant Cube. To date, Nate has used the Legacy banned list for his cube, but the recent addition of Arcum's Astrolabe has him wondering if he should drop this restriction. Then, they discuss the video “Should Cubes be Singleton?”, recounting their own experiences designing for both singleton and non-singleton environments. The confluence of these topics leads to a lengthy and detailed discussion about the role that restrictions play in cube design.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Forrest716’s Three-Color Cube. Thanks, Forrest!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

View the Rotisserie Draft Discussed in this Episode

Use the Template in Your Own Rotisserie Drafts

On this week’s Lucky Paper Radio, Andy and Anthony are returning to one of their favorite ways to play Cube in the time of covid: online, asynchronous rotisserie drafting. Our heroes are in the midst of the matches following a recent rotisserie draft of Anthony’s “Regular” Cube and they’re discussing everything Anthony has learned from the experience. In their chat they touch on what rotisserie draft is, Puppet Conjurer, what you can learn from doing one with your own cube, how to talk trash effectively with your playgroup, the game of chicken that decides when the eight copies of Prismatic Vista get taken, and how drafter biases affect normal and face-up drafts differently. Plus, Anthony introduces a new, new vanilla test!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

As a follow up to last week’s Kaldheim Set Review episode, Andy and Anthony are going back to first principles and asking, what is card evaluation? How do we look at a piece of paper with a bunch of text on it and make predictions about what that piece of paper will do to other pieces of paper, and ultimately our win percentage, in the future? Is card evaluation important for Cube design? Why or why not? Why did they reference Limited Resources so much in this episode? How many Relentless Rats is too many Relentless Rats?

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week is from Mikko’s Mirrodin Extended Cube. That has a nice ring to it. Thanks, Mikko!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Our Kaldheim Prospective is out! Thank you to everyone who participated.

Buckle your seatbelts and charge up your podcatchers, because this is our most in-depth set review ever and our longest episode to date. Andy and Anthony are joined by Jett, the author of Lucky Paper’s set prospective series, for a detailed discussion of the results of our Kaldheim Cube survey.

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

This is our last chance to complete our Kaldheim Cube Survey! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new set.

Every once in a while, something in your head clicks and the way you think about your cube changes forever. On this episode, Andy and Anthony take some time to reflect on each of their personal biggest Cube design level-up moments.

Anthony’s level ups are:

Andy’s level ups are:

Because this topic is a little deeper than our normal subject matter, our hosts decide to skip the listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 segment and get right to the main discussion. Don’t stop sending in those cube lists, though!

Discussed in this episode:

No timestamps in this episode — just the main topic straight through.

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

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

As Andy tinkers with two lower powered and novel cubes, he finds himself presented with a question he hasn’t actually confronted in depth before: what percentage of a cube should be removal? Or countermagic? Or cantrips and card draw? With higher-powered cubes you’re often constrained by the available card pool, and end up playing as much of these effects as you can without sacrificing individual card quality, but at lower power levels, the density is entirely up to you. In preparation for the discussion, Andy tallies up all of these different “bread and butter” effects in his and Anthony’s main cubes, as well as the Degenerate Micro Cube, and our hosts discuss the results and what it says about their respective environments — or whether it really says anything at all.

View the table with all the values discussed in this episode on our website.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week is Max’s Junk Cube, submitted by listener Quinn. Thanks, Quinn!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Given that we’re in the throes of spoiler season, Andy and Anthony are giving their first impressions on the mechanics of Kaldheim and how they relate to other mechanics in Magic or might be integrated into a cube environment. They also do a pack one, pick one from listener Arjan’s Legacy Cube. Thanks, Arjan!

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Try as they might, our beloved hosts just can’t stay on track. On this episode, Andy’s attempt to tie up a few loose ends from last week’s episode ends up leading our heroes down another rabbit hole about the Cube design process and how it relates to the player psychographics. It was not a fruitless journey, though! On this episode, Andy and Anthony propose the application of the “Vision Design” and “Play Design” distinction that exists within Magic R&D to Cube design. Tune in to learn all about Midnight Cube, The Ballmer Peak, and second-hand Drive to Work episodes.

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.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.