Lucky Paper Radio

The Common Pitfalls of First-Time Cube Designers

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Andy and Anthony talk about common pitfalls new Cube designers fall into. There’s no right way to build a Cube, but new designers very often fall into similar patterns and a few pieces of feedback consistently come up.

  • Play more mana fixing lands
  • Lower the average mana cost of cards
  • Increase the amount of interactive spells
  • Lower the number of multi-color cards
  • Don’t let power outliers outshine the fun
  • Don’t feel obligated to adhere to 10 themes for each two color pair
  • Be aware of the high cost of rules modifications

    • Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Garrett Townsend’s Frozen Solid Cube. View all cards mentioned in the episode →

    Timestamps:

    • 2:59 — Regular Cube Draft Recap
    • 13:12 — Common Pitfalls of New Cube Designers
    • 15:38 — Mistake Number 1: Including Too Few Lands
    • 21:52 — Mistake Number 2: Having Too High a Mana Curve
    • 27:05 — Mistake Number 3: Not Including Enough Interaction
    • 30:10 — Mistake Number 4: Including Too Many Gold Cards
    • 33:17 — Summary of Mistakes: Focusing on Cards Instead of Decks
    • 36:04 — Mistake Number 5: Overshadowing Synergies with Power Outliers
    • 40:11 — Mistake Number 6: Rigidly Adhering to Two-Color Archetypes
    • 42:42 — Mistake Number 7: Underestimating the Cost of Rules Modifications

      • Discussed in this episode:

      • MagicCon Philly
      • Neoclassical Cube
      • Dear Gonti, Love Sophie
      • Neoclassical Cube Want List
      • Guardian Project Podcast
      • Regular Cube Games on YouTube
      • r/mtgcube
      • How Many Lands Should You Include in Your Cube?
      • Lucky Paper Radio Episode on Archetype Driven Design
      • The Trolley Problem

        • 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

          • If want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube submit it on our website. Send in questions to the show at [email protected]. You can also find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord.

          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.

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          Lucky Paper RadioBy Andy Mangold and Anthony Mattox
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