Lucky Paper Radio

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about board stalls and Cube. They talk about what they don’t like about this particular genera of board state. They theorize about some aspects of a cube’s design would lead to more stalls, and ways they might, as a designer, try to minimize them. This weeks topic was suggested by listener MZ. Thanks, MZ! Discussed in this episode: Luc...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about the logistics of tokens for Cube. They talk about different ways they’ve managed them over the years and for different Cubes. They make recommendations for the best way to approach the problem, and even how their Cube design is influenced by token makers. Discussed in this episode: InfiniTokens MPC Autofill Example Token Page on...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony are joined by Jake and Parker to talk about their shifts in approach to each of their eternal cubes. While Jake, Parker, and Andy have long maintained generally “power motivated” eternal cubes, they’ve each grappled with concerns about aesthetics, complexity, or gameplay in the last few years of Magic releases. They talk about how they’ve c...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Riffing on  last week’s slightly divisive  topic, Andy and Anthony talk about cards in their own cubes that players hate. They comb through their cubes discussing the many reasons players might dislike a card and why they might still be justifiable inclusions. Discussed in this episode: Numberphile Episode 307: Hate Cards in Cube Sacred Geometry Regular Cub...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about hate cards, and how they fit into Cube design in particular. Of course, they start by trying to define the term. They talk through the pros and cons of them and how different types may play a role in Cubes. They go through a number of their own cubes, analyzing them from this perspective. Discussed in this episode: Take 5 Sacred...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony scour the cutting room floor for unfinished gems. They offer up some of their half-baked, unfinished cube ideas for you to steal. Andy shares his ideas for an aesthetic sun-bleached cube, a cube where your deck is your life total, and an environment built around wishes. Anthony digs up an  all alternate win conditions cube  and a battle box...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony are joined by Cube Person of the Year 2024, Ollie, to talk about whether it’s irresponsible to present a cube for drafting without any playtesting. What is the difference between ‘playing’ and ‘playtesting’? Can you design a cube iteratively without playtesting? Just how bad can a cube really be? Discussed in this episode: Upkeep NY/C4AC Bo...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony are joined by the de facto Cube judge — Bones! The three recap The Salt Box, a small Cube event in Baltimore. At this event, Andy debuted  Take Five  and Judge Bones  Arcane Lessons . They share what they learned from players drafting their cubes for the very first time and their own experience as cube designers drafting cubes for the first...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony are joined by returning guest Zach Barash. They talk about about different lenses Cube designers can use to approach designing a new cube. They finish on a  pack 1, pick 1  from Andy’s new cube  Take Five . Previous episodes with Zach: 001 The Principles of Game Design 002 On Terminology, Communication, and Community 003 Reflections on Cube...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony and joined by Adam, a local player who suggested a novel way to cube. All players involved built what they thought would be the best deck that could ever be drafted from Anthony’s  Regular Cube . They talked about the decks they built, their processes for building, and what it revealed about an environment which is typically intended to be...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Following their previous episode about  playing with Young Pyromancer  Andy and Anthony talk about how to win with proactive green decks. They look back at some of Anthony’s successful decks and try to get some insight into what makes them tick, exploring card types and distribution and gameplay heuristics. Discussed in this episode: Deck Photos Episode 299...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Celebrating 300 episodes, Andy and Anthony answer listener submitted questions. They address their favorite gummy candies, opinions on the free will of jellyfish, the most technologically advanced things they could build from scratch on a desert island, and so much more. Discussed in this episode: Arena Cube Shoebox Shrimp Welfare Project Erich’s Packing Ce...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about one of Andy’s all time favorite cards Young Pyromancer. After a recent draft of a  peasant cube  at their weekly cube night, Anthony realized that despite it’s iconic status, it’s not a card he feels like he know’s how to optimize. Andy shares his experience with the card, what he thinks it takes to support it, and a handful of h...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Most of the time when listeners suggest topics we’ve already recorded a whole episode dedicated to that subject. Sometimes we’ve even recorded three. It turns out almost six years is a long time to have a weekly podcast about a niche interest like Cube design. So when someone recently suggested we record an episode about ‘colorless cards’ I was surprised to...

View all cards mentioned in this episode In the third  book club Episode , Anthony and Parker talk about Donald Norman’s  The Design of Everyday Things . Originally published in 1988, the book was an influential criticism of the built world and interfaces establishing many concepts fundamental to user interface and industrial design today. It also introduces a metric ton of jargon per page. Our bo...

View all cards mentioned in this episode In this explicit episode of Lucky Paper Radio, Andy, Anthony, and Patrick recap their experience at Shoebox in St Paul, Minnesota. Shoebox celebrated a range of casual formats including team limited, pauper, and, of course, Cube! They talk about highlights from the weekend and the decks they drafted. Discussed in this episode: The Monster Fuck Dee Dee Mega...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony finally just talk about epistemology and sort of address Magic: the Gathering. They talk about the way we all generally learn things and incorporate them into our understanding of the world around us, and how that manifests in the smaller world of the game. Discussed in this episode: ContraPoints  on YouTube The Beginning of Infinity  by Da...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk with Greg about his  Companion Cube . In this Cube, each player chooses a card from their deck before each game to be their ‘companion’, which their guaranteed access to. They talk about the history of the cube and the difference between the early days of frequent edits and the longer stable phase with less frequent changes. Greg is al...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about cutting a long-standing, controversial card from  100 Ornithopters : Echoing Boon. They talk about gameplay experiences with the card and why Andy decided to include a conspiracy in the cube in the first place. The ‘always on’ nature of conspiracies put certain constraints on the cube’s design. Andy talks about some of those limi...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony discuss how they think about themes within cubes. As always, our hosts beginning with a thorough defining of terms. They talk about how they think about thematically related sets of cards and how many they think can fit, or would want to, in a Cube. Andy has been exploring fitting a tight network of synergistic cards in his cube  Take Five...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about the concept of power level band or range in Cubes. It’s sometimes said a Cube should have a pretty even power level, with the strongest card being not too much stronger than the weakest, is a good idea. Our hosts talk about why that doesn’t always make sense and strategies for making Cubes with a wide band of power that still mak...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy, Anthony, and Patrick recap their experience at Lunch Box, a 1 day Cube event in their home town of Baltimore raising funds for the Maryland Food Bank. They discuss the cubes they drafted, the highs and lows of their matches, and their overall experiences at the event. Discussed in this episode: Lunch Box Twilight Cube Red Terror Library of Babel Scien...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony talk about  Star Magic , a unique multiplayer format that also happens to be a way to accommodate a draft with 5 players — a notoriously awkward number. In a Star Magic game, 5 players engage in a free-for-all game with a specific win condition. The game ends when any one player eliminates the two others seated furthest from them. Players s...

View all cards mentioned in this episode It’s been said that Cube Will Outlive Magic, but would it really? Andy and Anthony wildly speculate on the future in a thought experiment: what if Wizards of the Coast stopped existing tomorrow and no new cards were designed or printed. They theorize about how it would impact different elements of the player base and how it would impact their own relationsh...

View all cards mentioned in this episode Andy and Anthony each draft the same seat in a virtual pod of Andy’s  Sacred Geometry  Cube. They talk through each of their picks and their overall draft strategy and the final decks they end up with. If you want to draft this same seat as well, either before or after listening to the episode, follow these steps: Download the predetermined booster packs On...