Cube presents unique drafting a deckbuilding challenges when it comes to manabases. Retail limited is our only benchmark for drafting, but non-basic lands are so few and far-between that they don’t have a meaningful impact on most drafts. In cube, however, we don’t have to settle for 9-8 manabases of basics only, but how do you navigate mana successfully in a cube draft? In this episode, Andy and Anthony put their cube designer hat aside and go deep on lands from the perspective of players. How ...
Aug 02, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 58
This week’s episode is the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Cube set review. A much less involved affair than our Modern Horizons 2 episode , we’re nonetheless touching on a number of noteworthy cards and how they may impact cubes of all kinds. Discussed in this episode: Grid Drafting the Turbo Cube on YouTube I Think You Should Leave Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Mechanics Episode Adventures in the Forgotten Realms testing: grid draft on YouTube Timestamps: 4:59: Creature Lands — Cave of...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 57
Andy and Anthony discuss their first impressions of Magic’s newest set, D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms . Setting aside individual card evaluation, they dive into the mechanics and flavor from a design and gameplay perspective. With dice rolling, dungeon adventuring, and D&D flavor the set brings a whole new twist to the game for D&D lovers and Magic players who enjoy seeing the game pushed in new directions. Discussed in this episode: Matt Tabak on Spindowns “Everything happ...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 56
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. ...
Jul 12, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 55
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. Discussed in this episode: The Chromatic Cube , Deck...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 54
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 com...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 53
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 intere...
Jun 21, 2021•3 hr 46 min•Ep. 52
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:...
Jun 14, 2021•56 min•Ep. 51
Timestamps 5:25 Introduction to Parker’s Cube 19:44 High fixing density, it’s effects and player expectations 23:08 What does it mean for a cube to be ‘hard to draft’? 28:50 Playtesting observations and notes 40:57 Synthesizing our draft experiences 52:26 Highs and lows drafting Mordor’s Cube 1:04:02 Pack 1, pick 1 from Parker’s Cube 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 Pap...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 50
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 card...
May 31, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 49
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 ...
May 24, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 48
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,...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 47
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: 0:00 Intro 8:28 Elite Spellbinder 14:43 Leonin Lightscribe (and white Magecr...
May 10, 2021•2 hr 47 min•Ep. 46
Our Strixhaven set review episode is coming to you next week. We weren’t able to do the episode in a timely fashion due to life circumstances, but we’re going to make sure we bring the quality. Thanks for your patience! On this week’s episode, Andy and Anthony talk about Cube and synergy. Synergy means many things to many different cube players and designers and is used to talk about both environments and decks. We tease out a few ways to define synergy, and how we use it to frame our goals as c...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 45
Our Strixhaven and Commander 2021 Cube surveys are open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new sets. Andy and Anthony talk about the new mechanics in Strixhaven and what they have us most excited for in cube. They cover the unique draft mechanic of Learn and Lesson and the ways it can be applied to cube, and the exciting expansion of spells matter and protection mechanics. Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from captainawesome’s...
Apr 26, 2021•58 min•Ep. 44
Our Strixhaven and Commander 2021 Cube surveys are open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new sets. Due to the loss of a close, personal friend, Andy and Anthony are off this week. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please consult the resources available from The American Association of Suicidology . If you’re able, please consider donating blood through The Red Cross . This week, guest hosts Parker and Kennedy discuss their most recent Cub...
Apr 19, 2021•30 min•Ep. 43
Our Strixhaven and Commander 2021 Cube surveys are open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new sets. This week, Andy and Anthony share a little of their personal history and how important their tools for critical discourse they learned in art school have been to their lives, Magic very much included. They talk about how they first met and the ubiquitous art school critique. From their pack 1, pick 1 of Jean’s Fast Multiplayer Cube they delve into ...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 42
This week, Andy and Anthony take aim at the dominating rhetoric about Cube which takes for granted it is a format showcasing the most powerful cards in Magic. They tackle the big effects that small patterns in language can have, excluding huge areas of creative cube design. Our hosts reflect on just how effective the Cube Map is at visualizing the existing diversity in the format, and hinting at the vast empty spaces yet to be explored. Our pack 1, pick 1 comes from the Nega Cube , currently tak...
Apr 05, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 41
This week, Andy and Anthony discuss changes to Andy’s Bun Magic Cube , updated to include a dramatic increase in the number of mana fixing lands and filling out a suite of fast mana. Our hosts discuss how this level of mana fixing changes a draft, and what questions they’re asking themselves to try to recalibrate expectations when drafting the shifted environment. Andy argues increasing the amount of ‘broken’ fast mana decreases variance, creating a more fun draft environment. And Anthony, uncha...
Mar 29, 2021•56 min•Ep. 40
The Cube Map: Exploring over 20,000 Magic: the Gathering Cube lists On this very special bonus episode, Andy and Anthony are joined by Jett to tell everyone about a project they have been working on for a long time: the Cube Map ! Read more about how the map was made in Jett’s in depth article . A huge thanks to Cube Cobra for providing us with the data to make the map possible. If you have the means, please consider donating to their Patreon to show your support for community driven, open-sourc...
Mar 24, 2021•21 min
Anyone who has spent any time in Cube design circles has heard the supposed virtues of an environment with a “flat” power level, where the worst card is no less appealing or less playable than the best. On this week’s Lucky Paper Radio , Andy and Anthony are unpacking this truism and discussing the impacts of individual card power delta on a given cube more broadly. They two also touch on Magic as a spectator sport, PVDDR’s Youtube channel and subsequent article on Star City Games , Andy’s bigge...
Mar 22, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 39
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: SCGcon Players’ Cube SCGcon Po...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 38
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 “Fund...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 37
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 top...
Mar 01, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 36
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 dra...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 35
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 ...
Feb 15, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 34
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: White 20:18 Blue 50:12 Black 1:15:38 Red 1:40:56 Green 1:51:08 Lands 2:12:20 Colorless 2:22:07 Gold 2:23:01 Discussed i...
Feb 08, 2021•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 33
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: Including many more fixing lands The value of hybrid cards as a counterbalance to a deep...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 32
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 witho...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 31
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: Speks Magnet Balls Kinder Eggs Licking Nintendo Switch Cartridges Streisand Effect Kaldheim Mechanics Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 6:29 Listener submitted p1p1 15:04 K...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 30
