View all cards mentioned in this episode Zach Barash joins Andy and Anthony for the first episode in a series where he shares his game design expertise. In this first episode, the three talk about the first principles of game design, including the iteration loop most game designers follow (and similar processes in other fields!). Starting with ideation, then forming a hypothesis, finally prototyping and playtesting, designers feed the results they learn back into the beginning of the process. Th...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 231
View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about the essential digital tools and workflows for Cube designers. Starting with finding and gathering cards on Scryfall , to sculpting and sharing lists on Cube Cobra and tools for analyzing and comparing lists, they talk about how to leverage resources to make designing and playing Cube easier. Our hosts also share about some of the tools they’ve built to address their own needs that come up regularly in Cube design. Discussed in ...
Dec 16, 2024•57 min•Ep. 230
View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony are Joined by Jenn the Judge to talk about “5 Color Good Stuff” decks in cube. They talk about what aspects of a Cube enable 5 color decks, and the impacts these decks have on the feel and fun of an environment. They talk about some of the strategies they employ in their own cubes, including Jenn’s Ravnica Cube , to control what kinds of multi-color decks are likely to be drafted. Discussed in this episode: The Oldest School Cube Jenn’s R...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 229
View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the Foundations Cube Community survey . They talk through the top cards that have Cube designers most excited and theorize about what’s catching people’s interest and some of the patterns in the results. They talk about the associated Jump Start set with one major stand out: Scythecat Cub which is apparently both highly anticipated and polarizing. Finally, they can’t help but talk about the trends, stand out...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 228
Andy and Anthony talk all things board wipes in Cube. They talk about the varieties and boundaries of cards that reset the board state and how they effect gameplay and add strategic depth to games with or against them. They talk about the roles of board wipes in their main Cubes. View cards mentioned in this episode > Discussed in this episode: Foundations and Jump Start Cube Surveys Lucky Paper Upcoming Cube Events Page Andy , Anthony , and Parker on BlueSky Timestamps 1:22 - Topic introduct...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 227
Andy and Anthony talk about their Cubes included in CubeCon 2024: Andy’s 100 Ornithopters and Anthony’s Regular and Turbo Cubes . They talk about what they learned about each from players’ feedback and the decklists after the event. They also talk about potential changes they’re considering based on that feedback. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Lucky Paper Events Page LSVs Draft of “6 Ornithopters” Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 3:34 - Regular Cube Feedback 1...
Nov 18, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 226
Andy and Anthony talk about Foundations, Magic’s latest set, akin to old Core Sets. The set fills multiple roles including being an approachable set for beginners, a nostalgic set to invested players, and a way to support standard with basic effects that stay in the format longer. Our hosts talk about their overall impressions of the set and individual cards they’re interested in for their own Cube projects, including Andy’s new Cube: Sacred Geometry . View all cards mentioned in this episode Di...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 225
In the wake of CubeCon 2024 , Andy and Anthony talk about how they approach drafting new Cube environments. They talk about their general draft strategies and heuristics they start with to get a sense of what’s going to be important in the environment just by looking at the packs being passed. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Anthony’s Big Bottle Opener Episode 48: Playing to Win: Evaluating New Cubes Episode 215: Using Little Pieces of Paper as a Supermassive ...
Nov 04, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 224
Andy and Anthony, are joined by perennial favorite, Patrick, to recap their experience at CubeCon 2024 . They talk about how they approached the event, the Cubes they drafted, and the highs and lows of every deck they drafted throughout the event. Growing to almost 600 players in it’s third year, CubeCon continued to deliver on being an opportunity to play a huge range of novel environments, and catch up with old or meet up with new friends in the Cube community. View all cards mentioned in this...
Oct 28, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 223
Andy, Anthony, and Parker, belatedly discuss the results from the last two standard sets’ Cube community surveys, Bloomburrow and Duskmourn: House of Horror . They talk about the top cards that have the attention of the most Cube designers as well as their general observations about what from each set the community is responding to. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Documental The Steel Curtain Bloomburron Community Review Results Duskmourn: House of Horror Comm...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 222
Andy and Anthony talk with Ryan Saxe about his latest Magic passion project . Inspired by one of his favorite video game genres, AutoBattlers, Ryan has been working to create a Magic variant that incorporates the feeling of quick mini-games and constant upgrades and expansion of your arsenal. In his format, players face of in a series of mini-games with only a few cards available to each player. After each quick game, players get to modify and expand their available pool of cards to use by tradi...
Oct 14, 2024•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 221
Andy and Anthony take a step aside from their typical focus on Cube and reflect on the recent shake ups in Commander. They talk about the major bans that have rattled the format and their feelings about Wizards of the Coast formally taking control of the fan-made format which has become the dominant form of the game. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Commander RC banned and restricted announcement WotC’s announcement on taking over the Commander format WeeklyMTG...
Oct 07, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 220
Andy and Anthony talk about a big batch of updates to Anthony’s Turbo Cube . In this Cube, all spells and activated abilities cost {2} less. They talk about their general philosophy of updating Cubes, what types of strategies Anthony is hoping to bolster with these updates, and talk through the changes card by card. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: The Turbo Cube Frank Karsten’s Mana Math Good Morning Magic: Unfinished Land Cycles in Commander Decks BoshNRoll: ...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 219
Andy and Anthony reflect on the Mark Rosewater’s reflection on the past year in Magic. Every year, Magic’s lead designer shares lessons learned and strengths from each booster set. This year’s felt lacking a bit of thematic focus, but maybe the lack of focus is emblematic of this last year in Magic. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Mark Rosewater’s State of the Game 2024 Episode 163: State of the Game 2023 Episode 109: State of the Game 2022 Episode 206: The Jo...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 218
Andy and Parker look back on all the sets currently cycling out of standard and talk about their overall impressions and how individual cards from each have aged in their various Cubes. Anthony’s there too, kinda just vibing cause he’s been updating his Cubes at an agitated non-newtonian fluid pace. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Parker’s Retrospective Article Survey Archive Search Parker’s “The Ship of Theseus” Cube Video of non-newtonian fluid wtwlf’s Tweet...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 217
Andy and Anthony revisit randomness in Magic with more resources and input form listeners. They talk about decision making at large and small scales in games: strategy vs tactics, and how randomness impacts what kind of planning are rewarded. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Stardew Valley bdouble0 on YouTube Florian Gadsby on YouTube Board Game Design Day: White, Brown, and Pink: The Flavors of Tabletop Game Randomness Andy’s coaching video with Brian Coval Th...
Sep 09, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 216
Andy and Anthony talk about randomness in Magic, and specifically just how much randomness there is in a Cube draft. They talk about where randomness comes from and how different mechanics use the library or other sets of cards as a random source to make them work. They also go into their own preferences and how they thing about randomness in their Cube designs. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Bloomburrow and Bloomburrow Commander Surveys “Names of Large Numbe...
Sep 02, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 215
Andy and Anthony talk about some of the past and pending Cube events they are attending. This year has seen a proliferation of new small Cube events. Anthony reviews his experience at the Capitol Cube Champs and they talk about what they’re excited about in the upcoming Cube 4 Charity hosted by Upkeep New York. View all cards mentioned in this episode Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 2:42 - Capitol Cube Champs Tournament Report 22:04 - Mailbag 25:01 - Anthony’s Irregular Cube Preparation for Cube ...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 214
No regular episode of Lucky Paper Radio this week, sadly, but in an effort to not leave y’all empty handed and to help highlight a great new Cube podcast, we’re bringing you and episode of Kade Goforth’s Recross the Paths. Discussed in this episode: Bloomburrow and Bloomburrow Commander Surveys Recross the Paths on Spotify Recross the Paths RSS Feed Squares that Cube: Fitting Cubes to Your Community with Maramas UberCube...
Aug 19, 2024•34 min
Andy and Anthony each rank every evergreen creature ability and then, tier by tier, discuss what they love each adds (or doesn’t) to the game. View all cards discussed in this episode. Discussed in this episode: Bloomburrow and Bloomburrow Commander Surveys Evergreen Keyword Abilities Tier List Maker dinrovahorror’s Draft of the Neoclassical Cube The Oldest School Flash Gordon Theme Song Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 0:30 - Tier list and evergreen keyword ability overview 3:45 - F Tier 8:56 - D...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 213
Andy and Anthony take a first look at Bloomburrow, breaking down the mechanics, flavor, and the cards their interested in giving a try in their on Cube environments. View all cards mentioned in this episode Discussed in this episode: Bloomburrow Community Survey Commander Set Survey Bloomburrow Mechanics Overview Episode 193: 100 Ornithopters in a Trenchcoat Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 2:46 - Bloomburrow Flavor and Vibes 6:11 - Mail bag 8:28 - Offspring 11:24 - Gift 15:32 - Forage 16:58 - Val...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 212
In the first “book club” episode, Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz. The book sets out to defend the thesis that games are artistic works (or, more descriptively, “aesthetic works”) worth the same level of appreciation as other art forms and teach sophisticated, systems-thinking. After reading the book, our hosts talk about what they took away from the book and some aspects they were a little more critical of. Thank you to the listeners who joined the book c...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 211
Andy and Anthony talk about complexity in Magic. After their discussion on the previous episode on Andy’s Neoclassical Cube comparing arguable simplicity of old school Magic cards, and continued discussion on the MTG Cube Talk Discord , they talk about the nature and different types of complexity. They compare cards which are simpler to read vs to play with and how different types of complexity effect the feel of the game. View all cards mentioned in this episode on our website. Timestamps 0:00 ...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 210
Andy and Anthony talk about Andy’s Neoclassical Cube . They talk about some of the changes Andy’s been making leading up to it being played by a wider audience at Steel City Cube . They talk about how the design philosophy has evolved and their recent experience playing the Cube. View all cards mentioned in this episode. Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction and Airplane Corner 6:04 - Overview of the Neoclassical Cube and why old school Magic might appeal to players due to its simplicity 10:44 - The Be...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 209
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the Modern Horizons 3 Cube Community Set Review . As usual, we asked the Cube community to share what cards from the set they’re interested in trying in their Cubes, for whatever reasons that are relevant to their own curation goals, and how confident they are the cards will be hits. We compiled the results and our hosts talk through the top cards, as well as some trends and interesting patterns in the communities expectations for the set. View all...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 208
Fresh off of Boston Cube Party, Andy, Anthony, and Patrick recap their weekend of Cubing. They talk through highlights of the event and the Cubes they drafted over a great weekend of Magic. View all cards mentioned in the episode → Discussed in this episode: Boston Cube Party Episode 206, with Richard Garfield Andy’s Twitter thread recapping the weekend The Devoid Cube Creatureless Cube Da Cube Zone Ixalan - M20 Standard Cube The Sci Fi Cube The Buildaround Cube The Altered Cube Isabella Gardn...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 207
Andy and Anthony are joined by Richard Garfield, legendary game designer and the creator of Magic: the Gathering . Richard talks about how he got interested in modifying and tweaking games, his concept that players can be loosely understood as either ‘honers’ or ‘innovators’, and why some games with great mechanics have no soul as a result of overdevelopment. Andy and Anthony also take advantage of this opportunity to ask Richard about his relationship to Cube, getting insight into how he design...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 206
Anthony is taking a break this week and it takes no less than two other people to fill his shoes, so Andy is joined by two other friends from their Baltimore playgroup to discuss two recent roto drafts of the full vintage card pool. They share their strategies surrounding this complicated draft format and talk about whether or not it led to actually fun games, while also touching on how this exercise informs their own Cube designs and why some cards from Magic’s history are just miserable to pla...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 205
Andy and Anthony take a first look at Modern Horizons 3. The latest installment of this Time Spiral-esque series continues the tradition of a huge range of cards and an abundance of callbacks and remixes of classics. Our hosts talk about their overall impressions of the set and go into individual cards their interested in generally and for specific Cubes. View all cards mentioned in the episode → Discussed in this episode: MH3 Community Review Survey and the Commander Set Survey The Beauty of ...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 204
Andy and Anthony talk about the history of architecture and the design of the physical spaces we inhabit. They draw parallels to design more broadly, the design of games as mental spaces, and specifically Cube design. Discussed in this episode: The Beauty of Games Buckminster Fuller Tech Won’t Save Us, Episode 221: Tech’s Plan to ‘Ethnically Cleanse’ San Francisco Cod , by Mark Kurlansky GeoGuessr Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Nine Men’s Morris No One Knows How to Make a Computer Mouse TED Talk — ...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 203
