Lucky Paper Radio
Lucky Paper Radio is a podcast about Magic: the Gathering hosted by lifelong friends Andy Mangold and Anthony Mattox. Focused primarily on sandbox formats like Cube, which are free of banlists, rotation, and net decking, the show is about the best parts of Magic and how to get the most out of the game.
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Submit your CubeEpisode 166
September 18th, 2023
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the Wilds of Eldraine Cube community set review discussing the top cards the community is interested in and shifting trends in Cube design.
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Episode 165
September 11th, 2023
Andy and Anthony break down everything about control decks in Cubes.
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Episode 164
September 4th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about their first impressions and the mechanics of Wilds of Eldraine and their own Cube addions.
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Episode 163
August 28th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about mechanics and cards that interact with drafting — with a special emphasis on Cogwork Librarian.
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Episode 162
August 21st, 2023
Andy and Anthony discuss Mark Rosewater's 2023 state of design and their own relationships to Magic.
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Bonus Episode
August 14th, 2023
Andy and Anthony's plan for this week's episode fell through, so instead they're sharing the audio from a stream in which they discussed Aquaone's legendary Powered Cube with the designer himself.
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Episode 161
August 7th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the cards Cube Cobra's analytic tools recommend they cut from their main Cubes, and about the limitations of, and necessary context to understand, these tools.
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Episode 160
July 31st, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about Cube restrictions. Designers impose all kinds of restrictions on the cards they put into a Cube to help them push boundaries, meet budges, or found a clear identity for an environment.
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Episode 159
July 24th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the unusually class of "wish" cards, why they're interesting, and the challenges they present in Cube design.
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Episode 158
July 17th, 2023
Andy and Anthony dig into two kinds of cheese: "cheesing people out" in games of Magic and how to serve it up when hosting game nights.
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Episode 157
July 10th, 2023
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the Cube community response to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
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Episode 156
July 3rd, 2023
Andy and Anthony take a first look at The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, discuss the mechanics, and talk about cards their interested in for their own Cubes.
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Episode 155
June 26th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about Andy's six month exercise in tracking the details of all of his Cube games and why he is abandoning the spreadsheet for a new model.
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Episode 154
June 19th, 2023
Andy and Anthony have three special guests in the studio to talk about their recent rotisserie draft of the Bun Magic Cube.
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Episode 153
June 12th, 2023
Andy and Anthony are joined by Ryan Saxe to talk about his approach to Cube drafting, and limited Magic at large, that may seem to run contrary to conventional wisdom.
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Episode 152
June 5th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about custom rules in Cubes. While Cube is a unique space that allows for creative takes on the game, altering the game fundamentally comes with risks to fun and accessibility. Not all changes work equally well.
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Episode 151
May 29th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about "Xerox Theory", a strategic Magic concept. Andy explains the history and origins of the idea and how it applies different to early and contemporary Magic.
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Episode 150
May 22nd, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the state of Andy's Neoclassical cube: how the environment's been playing out, things they want to tweak, and specific areas of potential change.
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Episode 149
May 15th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about ramp, how it fits in their cubes and broadly in green's identity.
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Episode 148
May 8th, 2023
Andy, Anthony, and James do a live review of Anthony's Regular Cube. They talk about how the environment has been playing recently, sift through potential cuts, and make a plan for the next iteration of the Cube.
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Episode 147
May 1st, 2023
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the March of the Machine Cube community set review, discussing the top cards appealing to the most designers, things that surprised them, and a deep dive on Battles.
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Episode 146
April 24th, 2023
Andy and Anthony follow up on their discussion with Sam Black on 'big' and 'small' games considering community feedback and attempting to quantitatively analyze their own Cubes.
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Episode 145
April 17th, 2023
Andy and Anthony take a first look at March of the Machine, considering the new mechanics from an abastract, game design perspective and also assessing individual cards that have a chance in their own cubes.
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Episode 144
April 10th, 2023
Andy and Anthony are joined by Chris and Tim from the Jank Diver Gaming Community to talk about how to play your own, custom-designed cube on Arena.
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Episode 143
April 3rd, 2023
Andy and Anthony are joined by professional Magic player Sam Black to talk about "big" and "small" games of Magic and the complex nature of card advantage.
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Episode 142
March 27th, 2023
Parker joins Andy and Anthony to talk about his newest Cube design project, Pulp Nouveau, featuring a dark, flavor focused aesthetic and a mechanical variation on a desert cube where players only have free access to basic swamps.
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Episode 141
March 20th, 2023
Andy and Anthony and special guest May talk about writing good Cube overviews. What goes into writing a concise, and practical introduction for potential players and designers.
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Episode 140
March 13th, 2023
Andy and Anthony are joined by Ryan Saxe to talk about the design of "low powered" cubes and what can be learned from the design of limited sets.
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Episode 139
March 6th, 2023
Andy and Anthony and joined by Justin Parnell and discuss their recent rotisserie draft of Anthony's Regular Cube at Magic Con Philadelphia.
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Episode 138
February 27th, 2023
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the ONE and ONC community set reviews, talking about the cards the community is most excited for and patterns and surprises in the survey results.
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Episode 137
February 20th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the state of their Cubes - recent changes they've made, how they feel they've changed, and how they expect them to change in the future.
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Episode 136
February 13th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the cards they're interested in giving a try in each of their own Cube environments, including Andy's eternal Bun Magic Cube, Anthony's low power 'Regular Cube' and a few more extreme environments.
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Episode 135
February 6th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about their first impressions of the mechanics and themes from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, which is full of new takes on classic mechanics.
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Episode 134
January 30th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about Andy's latest cube creation, The Neoclassical Cube, intended to capture the spirit of old school Magic.
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Episode 133
January 23rd, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about the most common pitfalls new Cube designers fall into and how to avoid them.
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Episode 132
January 16th, 2023
Andy and Anthony are joined by Aran to talk about designing Set Cubes, the spectrum of design approaches and how they can be a great entry point to Cube.
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Episode 131
January 9th, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about ways to draft Cube with any number of players.
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Episode 130
January 2nd, 2023
Andy and Anthony talk about growing a local Cube group, reflecting on what's been working in their group and challenges to overcome.
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Episode 129
December 26th, 2022
Andy and Anthony look back at 2022 and the highs and lows for Cube design and the Cube Community.
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Episode 128
December 19th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about updates to Andy's Bun Magic Cube, evaluating three drops that keep removal relevant in the environment.
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Episode 127
December 12th, 2022
Andy and Anthony analyze the types and distribution of threats in their main Cubes and talk about how threats relate to removal and shape how environments play out.
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Episode 126
December 5th, 2022
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results and most popular cards in The Brothers’ War Cube community set review.
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Episode 125
November 28th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about testing their Cubes. How do you create a feedback loop and assess whether or not your design decisions are having their intended effect?
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Episode 124
November 21st, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the individual cards from The Brothers’ War they're interested in giving a chance in their own cubes.
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Episode 123
November 14th, 2022
Andy and Anthony review the mechanics and themes from The Brothers' War, a set jam-packed with artifacts, in the context of Cube design.
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Episode 122
November 7th, 2022
Andy and Anthony look back at lessons learned from designing and playing Anthony's Mono Black Cube and why it makes sense to start from scratch and iterate on Cube designs.
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Episode 121
October 31st, 2022
Andy and Anthony recap the highlights of the inaugural CubeCon with Patrick, Daniel, and Theo.
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Episode 120
October 24th, 2022
Andy and Anthony respond to an episode of The Eternal Glory Podcast and discuss reasons and motivations to ban cards in formats. They compare the creative process of banning cards to Cube design.
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Bonus Episode
October 19th, 2022
Andy and Anthony share some details about their trip to Cube Con.
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Episode 119
October 17th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the fundamental element of the game: how to go about searching for cards and leverage Scryfall to master the process.
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Episode 118
October 10th, 2022
Andy and Anthony turn their attention to Anthony's "Turbo Cube" where all spells and activated abilities cost {2} less to cast, talking about how they approach drafting this novel environment and the cards and strategies that define the format.
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Episode 117
October 3rd, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss how to draft Anthony's “Regular Cube”, including the themes and strategies they think are the most powerful and key cards that overperform or shape the environment in some way.
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Episode 116
September 26th, 2022
Andy, Anthony, and Parker look back on the sets rotating out of standard in 2022 and discuss how their expectations of cards line up with their current Cube goals, as well as how prospective survey results line up with current data.
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Episode 115
September 19th, 2022
Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about the results of the Dominaria United community set review. They explore the results of the community survey including the top cards, highest rated cards, qualitative trends in comments, and some things that surprised them.
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Episode 114
September 12th, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss the new cards from Dominaria United they're interested in for their own particular cube environments, focusing on Andy's Eternal cube, Anthony's unrestricted mid-power cube, and a few other novel environments.
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Episode 113
September 5th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the new mechanics, themes, and their first impressions of Dominaria United and what they're most excited about for Cube.
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Episode 112
August 29th, 2022
Andy and Anthony are joined by competitive grinder, latent Cube content creator, and actually good Magic player Dom Harvey to talk about his relationship with the game.
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Episode 111
August 22nd, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about all things removal. They categorize the different types of removal and discuss how all these features impact gameplay in an environment.
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Episode 110
August 15th, 2022
Andy and Anthony revisit the age-old topic of Baneslayers and Mulldrifters and break down how Andy's thinking about them has evolved over time.
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Episode 109
August 8th, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss the state of Magic over the last year by discussing Mark Rosewater's State of Design article and expanding on their own feelings about the state of the game.
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Episode 108
August 1st, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about all the cards shared between their two, very different environments.
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Episode 107
July 25th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about how many lands to include in a Cube, drawing precedents from other formats and analysis of draft data from Cube Cobra.
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Episode 106
July 18th, 2022
Andy and Anthony prove that Lucky Paper Radio is not a “Cube” podcast by talking about their personal approaches to designing Commander decks.
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Episode 105
July 11th, 2022
Andy and Anthony run down the Magic podcasts, videos, and articles that they follow and why media about Magic is important to them.
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Bonus Episode
July 5th, 2022
Andy and Anthony are joined by Jett to announce Lucky Paper's latest project: the Commander Map! The map visualizes the wide world of EDH showing every deck on EDHREC organized based on the cards they contain.
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Episode 104
July 4th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the least fun aspect of Cube curation for many designers: making cuts.
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Episode 103
June 27th, 2022
Andy, Anthony, and Parker review the results of the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate Cube survey.
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Episode 102
June 20th, 2022
Andy and Anthony collaboratively draft a deck from Anthony's Regular Cube, discussing how they approach the environment and the roles individual cards play.
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Episode 101
June 13th, 2022
Andy and Anthony return to one of their most discussed episodes, Bread and Butter Breakdown, for a detailed analysis of how the Bun Magic Cube has changed in the last 17 months, with a special focus on disruption.
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Episode 100
June 6th, 2022
On their milestone, 100th show, Andy and Anthony reflect on important episodes and things they've learned in the last two years of Lucky Paper Radio.
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Episode 99
May 30th, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss building a Cube from your existing collection, including the pros and cons of working with what you have and a process for shaping a Cube.
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Episode 98
May 23rd, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the drafts of Caleb Gannon's Powered Synergy Cube posted to Youtube and whether extremely synergistic decks can thrive in an environment with a high density of interaction.
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Episode 97
May 16th, 2022
Andy and Anthony are going deep on fetch lands, discussing their benefits, to both players and cube designers, as well as their costs.
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Episode 96
May 9th, 2022
Andy, Anthony, and Parker discuss the results of our survey, reviewing the most popular Cube cards from Streets of New Capenna.
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Episode 95
May 2nd, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk with Cube designer, scientist, and artist Caleb Gannon about his Powered Synergy Cube, coming to Magic Online.
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Episode 94
April 25th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about two of their favorite hobbies, Magic and cooking, exploring what they value about them and all the things they share.
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Episode 93
April 18th, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss each card their interested in giving a try in their own Cube environments, including a high powered legacy Cube, low powered peasant-ish list and a few more novel contexts.
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Episode 92
April 11th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the headline mechanics of Magic's latest premier set, Streets of New Capenna.
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Episode 91
April 4th, 2022
Andy and Anthony revisit the tempo axis rock, paper, scissors theory, responding to listener feedback, and recapping an exciting weekend of Cube.
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Episode 90
March 28th, 2022
Andy and Anthony dissect the macro-archetypes of Magic and discuss whether or not any type of deck is intrinsically favored against another.
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Bonus Episode
March 21st, 2022
Parker LaMascus and Jason Waddell fill in for Andy and Anthony by discussing one of their favorite, non-Magic card games.
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Episode 89
March 14th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about their first experiences with Housman draft and other Cube draft formats for two players.
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Episode 88
March 7th, 2022
Andy and Anthony answer a question from the Cube subreddit about signaling cards and how we evaluate them differently as designers and players.
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Episode 87
February 28th, 2022
Andy and Anthony are joined by guests Andy Floury and Mike Coyle of The Guardian Project Podcast and talk about how they approach the game and focus on making the most of it.
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Episode 86
February 21st, 2022
Andy and Anthony are joined by Parker LaMascus to discuss the results of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Cube community set review.
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Episode 85
February 14th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the Neon Dynasty cards they're interested in giving a shot in their own various Cube environments.
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Episode 84
February 7th, 2022
Andy and Anthony analyze Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’s mechanics and themes in their first of three set review episodes.
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Episode 83
January 31st, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss a new Battle Box of Andy's design inspired by the Jeskai control mirror.
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Episode 82
January 24th, 2022
Andy and Anthony revist Battle Box with a discussion focused on changes in goals and gameplay in Anthony's new list.
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Episode 81
January 17th, 2022
Andy and Anthony talk about the language that has evolved around Magic, how that language shapes the way we communicate and think, and the positive and negative effects it has.
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Episode 80
January 10th, 2022
Andy and Anthony separately draft the exact same seat of Andy's Bun Magic Cube and discuss where their decks and card evaluations diverged.
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Episode 79
January 3rd, 2022
Andy and Anthony discuss what it means for a cube to be more or less powerful.
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Episode 78
December 27th, 2021
Andy and Anthony look back on the year and discuss the highs and lows for Cube and how their relationship with Magic continues to evolve.
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Episode 77
December 20th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about recent drafts of their Cubes and specifically break down rarity and power level disparity in Anthony's Irregular Cube.
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Episode 76
December 13th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about all things un-, the history of silver bordered Magic, and if and how to play these cards in Cube.
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Episode 75
December 6th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are dedicating an entire episode to the discussion of a single card — Brainstorm.
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Episode 74
November 29th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are joined by Parker LaMascus to share the results of the Innistrad: Crimson View cube community survey.
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Episode 73
November 22nd, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss the cards from Crimson Vow that they are going to be testing in their respective cubes.
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Episode 72
November 15th, 2021
Andy and Anthony take a first look at Innistrad: Crimson Vow, breaking down themes, mechanics, and cycles for Cube.
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Episode 71
November 8th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about the pros and cons of designing your cube with 10, two-color archetypes as the guiding light.
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Bonus Episode
November 1st, 2021
In a special episode we bid farewell to the first Cube management website, Cube Tutor.
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Episode 70
October 25th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about a few topics including novelty, Cube evaluation, and player feedback.
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Episode 69
October 18th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about a handful of nice cards from each of their own Cubes.
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Episode 68
October 11th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk with Jason Waddell about Cube, game design, and the complications of Magic as a hobby.
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Bonus Episode
October 6th, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss the imminent shutdown of CubeTutor and their plans to memorialize it — with your help!
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Episode 67
October 4th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are Joined by Parker to dive into Innistrad Midnight Hunt and all the cards and mechanics they’re interested in for cubes of call kinds.
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Episode 66
September 27th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about cube updates and beats and brags from a draft of Anthony’s Regular Cube.
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Episode 65
September 20th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about the ‘feel bad’ moments in Magic and the cards that are more likely to create them.
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Episode 64
September 13th, 2021
Andy and Anthony take a first look at Innistrad: Midnight Hunt breaking down the mechanics from a design perspective for Cube and other casual formats.
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Episode 63
September 6th, 2021
This week Andy and Anthony indulge themselves in discussing some individual cards in the context of Cube and jump from there to different aspects of their design philosophies.
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Episode 62
August 30th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about the role and importance of one mana spells — how the first play of a deck is the foundation of a plan, and mana costs dictate the sequence of gameplay.
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Episode 61
August 23rd, 2021
Live from Cube Weekend: Andy and Anthony are joined by the draft crew breaking down the highs and lows from a weekend of Cube drafts.
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Episode 60
August 16th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about the logistics of Cube — everything from storage and sleeves to basic basic lands and tokens.
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Episode 59
August 9th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about Battle Box, one of their favorite casual ways to play Magic, covering how the format works, what cards work well in this unique type of environment, and how to build your own.
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Episode 58
August 2nd, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss a challenge unique to Cube: how to optimize drafting and deckbuilding great manabases.
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Episode 57
July 26th, 2021
Andy and Anthony review the noteworthy cards from the newest expansion: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
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Episode 56
July 19th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about their first impressions of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, breaking down the mechanics and flavor of the set.
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Episode 55
July 12th, 2021
Andy and Anthony look at Andy's cube through the lens of Cube Cobras new 'popularity' feature and discuss under-rated cards and why they might be worth another look.
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Episode 54
July 5th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are joined by Wizards' own David McDarby to talk about the design process of The Chromatic Cube, currently draftable on Arena.
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Episode 53
June 28th, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss whether or not Magic, and Cube in particular, is hard to play, and how one might take that into account when designing their own cube.
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Episode 52
June 21st, 2021
Andy, Anthony, are joined by Jett for their most in depth set review yet — Modern Horizons 2. They discuss which cards provide support for classic mechanics, cards that enable new themes, exciting unique designs, and powerful stand-outs.
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Episode 51
June 14th, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss the logistics of playing cube including how to introduce a cube to your playgroup and how to host a draft.
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Episode 50
June 7th, 2021
Parker LaMascus joins Andy and Anthony to share his cube design experience and highlights from a draft of his midrange focused cube.
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Episode 49
May 31st, 2021
Andy and Anthony are discussing the nuanced differences in their approaches to Cube design, taking a few cards as case studies to help them articulate their goals.
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Episode 48
May 24th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about how they approach a new cube — what they look for in the list to set themselves up for success, and a good time, while drafting.
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Episode 47
May 17th, 2021
Andy and Anthony pick apart Anthony’s new ‘Irregular Cube’ which features a separate set of ‘rare’ cards and discuss what rarity can enable in Cube design as well as its challenges.
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Episode 46
May 10th, 2021
Andy, Anthony, and Jett are discussing the results of the Strixhaven and Commander 2021 Cube surveys and sharing some of their own thoughts about the standout cards in the latest sets.
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Episode 45
May 3rd, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss and try to come up with a definition of synergy, how it manifests in different Cube environments, and what it adds to gameplay. They talk about hot dogs again.
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Episode 44
April 26th, 2021
Andy and Anthony talk about the mechanics of Strixhaven and what they’re most interested in for Cube, from avant garde new draft mechanics to polished up classics.
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Episode 43
April 19th, 2021
Guest hosts Parker and Kennedy break down their most recent Cube experience to discuss how cards — and decks — change in different contexts.
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Episode 42
April 12th, 2021
Andy and Anthony get personal about their formative art school experiences and the hard learned lessons about the value of critical discourse.
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Episode 41
April 5th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are not holding back about how the predominant language, focusing on Cube only as “the best cards in magic” limits opportunities of a myriad other Magic experiences... save a few dozen caveats and qualifications.
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Episode 40
March 29th, 2021
Andy and Anthony discuss updates to Andy's cube: more lands and fast mana. Have we found the upper limit of lands? Can fast mana work in a fair environment?
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Bonus Episode
March 25th, 2021
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!
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Episode 39
March 22nd, 2021
Andy and Anthony are discussing power level and its impacts on designing a cube. How do big outliers affect an environment? Is a truly flat power level possible, or even desirable?
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Episode 38
March 15th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are joined by Justin Parnell for a walk down memory lane, discussing how Cube has changed over the years.
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Episode 37
March 8th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are going on a little stroll, conversationally speaking, and talking about GeoGuessr, Andy’s awful draft deck, and issuing a correction on Esika’s Chariot.
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Episode 36
March 1st, 2021
Andy and Anthony are answering a listener question and discussing a recent video, both addressing restrictions in Cube design.
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Episode 35
February 22nd, 2021
Andy and Anthony are talking about the recent rotisserie draft of Anthony’s Regular cube and all that you can learn as a designer from drafting your environment in this novel way.
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Episode 34
February 15th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are going back to first principles and asking the question, what even is card evaluation anyway?
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Episode 33
February 8th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are joined by Jett, the author of Lucky Paper’s set prospective series, for their most in-depth set review ever.
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Episode 32
February 1st, 2021
Andy and Anthony take some time to reflect on each of their four biggest Cube design level-up moments.
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Episode 31
January 25th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are doing the math on the densities of removal, countermagic, hand hate, card draw, and mana fixing in their respective cubes and talking about what it means, if anything.
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Episode 30
January 18th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are in the throes of spoiler season and give their first impressions of the mechanics in Kaldheim.
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Episode 29
January 11th, 2021
In a follow up from their last episode, Andy and Anthony are talking about how Magic R&D’s approach to “vision design” and “play design” might be applied to Cube.
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Episode 28
January 4th, 2021
Andy and Anthony are talking about what it means to be a “cube spike”, whether such a thing even exists, and how terminology is fraught in the Cube community.
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Episode 27
December 28th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are doing an episode made up entirely of pack 1, pick 1s from listener submitted cubes to close out 2020.
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Episode 26
December 21st, 2020
Andy and Anthony are discussing tribal synergies, parasitism, and their newly formed rivalry which a much more successful Magic: the Gathering podcast.
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Episode 25
December 14th, 2020
Anthony indulges Andy in a 90 minute discussion about the project he’s been working on almost non-stop since the beginning of the first COVID-19 lockdown: his Degenerate Micro Cube.
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Episode 24
December 7th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are talking about tempo — what it is, when it matters, and how you apply it to your Cube design and gameplay decisions.
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Episode 23
November 30th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are all over the place this week! With no specific topic in mind, the duo touch on four-color cubes, multiplayer cubes, and hypothetical cubes where you begin the game with only one life.
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Episode 22
November 23rd, 2020
Andy and Anthony are discussing how they would do about designing and building a Commander cube. How do you capture the spirit of EDH in a drafted environment?
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Episode 21
November 16th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are joined by a special guest to discuss Commander Legends and a very unique sort of cube.
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Episode 20
November 9th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are discussing how card choices affect how your players draft your environment and the different aspects of the draft to keep in mind when designing a cube.
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Episode 19
November 2nd, 2020
Andy and Anthony are discussing the suggested adds and cuts to their primary cubes from Cube Cobra’s machine-learning based recommender feature.
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Episode 18
October 26th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are answering listener mail, reviewing Andy’s recent changes to his cube, and talking about how important context is in cube design and card evaluation.
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Episode 17
October 19th, 2020
In a special episode directed at people who are interested in building their first Cube, Andy and Anthony are talking about why they love the format so much and how to get into it.
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Episode 16
October 12th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are talking about Mark Rosewater’s definitions for the three different types of complexity in Magic and how those concepts might be applied to Cube design.
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Episode 15
October 5th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are tackling a big subject in this episode: how do you turn experience playing your cube into informed design decisions that improve your environment?
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Episode 14
September 28th, 2020
Andy and Anthony are joined by Lucky Paper founding contributor Jett Crowdis to preview the results of our Zendikar Rising cube survey and talk about our evolving impressions of the set.
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Episode 13
September 21st, 2020
Andy and Anthony spend an entire episode talking about Anthony’s experience designing and playtesing a cube that features a teeny-tiny modification to the core rules of Magic.
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Episode 12
September 14th, 2020
Andy and Anthony talk about the concept of power creep as it applies to cube design and how it's easy to be unaware of subtle changes in your environment over time.
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Episode 11
September 7th, 2020
Andy and Anthony go deep on evaluating the new modal double-face card mechanic in Zendikar Rising by comparing it to a variety of existing mechanics from Magic’s past.
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Bonus Episode
September 1st, 2020
Andy and Anthony give their first impressions on the September 1st Zendikar Rising announcement.
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Episode 10
August 31st, 2020
Andy and Anthony talk about how difficult it is to design a cube. Then, they are joined by John Terrill of Cultic Cube to discuss the data he received from Wizards of the Coast about how players drafted his cube on MTGO.
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Episode 9
August 24th, 2020
Andy and Anthony bring you the long awaited conclusion of their rotisserie draft of Andy’s cube and discuss how profoundly player perceptions shape a draft and our resulting understanding of our environments.
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Episode 8
August 17th, 2020
Andy and Anthony discuss how Andy evaluates cards for his cube based on how they perform against opposing decks rather than on their interactions with other cards in the same deck.
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Episode 7
August 10th, 2020
Andy and Anthony talk about the nature of singleton. They explain why they each break this common restriction in their own cubes, in different ways, even though they adhere to the underlying spirit.
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Episode 6
August 3rd, 2020
Andy and Anthony are talking all things aggro. What are our hosts’ personal histories with aggressive strategies? What is the definition of aggro? How does it manifest itself in typical cube lists and how it might be approached differently?
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Episode 5
July 27th, 2020
Andy and Anthony discuss a pack 1, pick 1 from from listener Elle’s graveyard themed cube and Anthony talks about the recent 3-0 of his cube by a five-color goodstuff deck.
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Episode 4
July 20th, 2020
Andy and Anthony discuss a pack 1, pick 1 from from listener Chris’s “Dichotomy Cube” and Andy reflects on his repeated poor performances playing his own cube.
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Episode 3
July 13th, 2020
Andy and Anthony discuss a pack 1, pick 1 from Andy’s cube, their experiences with IKO and M21 sealed, a theoretical cube designed specifically for playing sealed, and how kitchen table Magic is the purest and best form of the game.
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Episode 2
July 6th, 2020
Andy and Anthony discuss Anthony’s array of cubes, and do a deep-dive on his Monoblack Cube, talking about its origins, how the environment feels, and some potential changes thanks to new cards from Core 2021 and Jumpstart.
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Episode 1
July 5th, 2020
Andy and Anthony introduce themselves and discuss the cards that interest them most from Core Set 2021.
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Arcane Denial — Xi Zhang