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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 his cube draft decks it headlined.

View the full decklists of Andy’s referenced drafts on the cards page.

Discussed in this episode:

• Library of Babel, Local Peasant Cube
• Deck Pics!
• Alternate Timeline cube by Joe Donkey

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:03 - Sorting Cards
• 9:07 - Helping Anthony with Young Pyromancer
• 18:40 - Card Quality
• 24:06 - How to Draft the Young Pyromancer Deck
• 29:33 - Why Blue-Red Pyromancer
• 34:51 - Modal Double Faced Cards
• 36:20 - How Many Counterspells
• 37:34 - Mulligans
• 44:30 - Off-Strategy Splashes
• 49:42 - Wrap Up
• 55:17 - Andy is Bad at Big Games

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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 discover that we have never actually dedicated an entire episode to the subject, and it turns out we have a lot to say!

If you have questions for our 300th episodes please send them to mail@luckypaper.co with the subject line ‘Episode 300 Question’.

Discussed in this episode:

• Hedron Network
• Regular Cube
• Turbo Cube
• 100 Ornithopters
• Bun Magic
• Sacred Geometry
• Neoclassical Cube
• Devoid Cube

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:22 - Hedron Network Data
• 3:47 - Episode 300
• 6:39 - Colorless Cards
• 11:20 - Thinking About the Color Pie
• 13:05 - Sacred Geometry Diversion
• 16:37 - Balancing Colorless Cards
• 20:30 - Hole Filling
• 22:19 - Supporting Monocolor
• 28:29 - The Colorless Deck
• 35:02 - Colorless Cards and Mana Fixing
• 37:33 - Colorless v Colored Arifacts
• 38:42 - Mana Rocks
• 42:05 - Noosegraf Mob Sidebar
• 43:37 - Pseudo Colorless Cards
• 45:48 - Stax
• 52:00 - Eldrazi
• 54:46 - Colorless Cubes

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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 book club members talk about how these concepts apply to game and Cube design and their thinking about things more broadly.

Discussed in this episode:

• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Enshittification concept and book by Cory Doctorow
• Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change by W. David Marx
• Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century by W. David Marx
• Blood In the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
• Other Book Club Episodes

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:42 - The Design of Everyday Things
• 7:43 - Mental Models
• 12:04 - Trouble With Mapping
• 16:58 - Cube REL/Humility
• 19:40 - Don Please Turn off the Podcast
• 21:03 - Types of Errors
• 26:30 - Games are Intentionally Bad Design
• 32:04 - Constraints
• 34:55 - Knowledge in the World
• 42:28 - Learned Helplessness
• 48:20 - Neologisms
• 50:59 - Choosing the Next Book

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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 Doo Doo
• Arties Cube
• Shoebox
• Eiganjo Drift
• Aquaone Powered
• Penrose Cube
• HeatherCube
• Boudican Destruction Horizon
• 100 Lotuses

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 7:23 - Fistfights
• 12:04 - Pottery Studio
• 16:28 - Weather and Planes
• 18:58 - Microfame
• 20:32 - Andy’s Draft of Artemis’ Cube
• 24:19 - What is Shoebox
• 29:41 - Anthony’s Draft of Eiganjo Drift
• 32:09 - Patrick’s Draft of aquaone Powered
• 36:51 - Andy’s Draft of Penrose Cube
• 41:33 - Anthony’s Draft of HeatherCube
• 45:31 - Andy’s Stone Soup
• 53:30 - Anthony’s Stone Soup
• 55:19 - Patrick’s New Friends
• 57:22 - Pizza Time
• 63:03 - Andy’s Draft of Boudica
• 68:33 - Patrick’s Draft of Boudica
• 72:10 - James’ Microcube
• 72:56 - 100 Lotuses
• 78:17 - Closing Thoughts
• 79:36 - Anthony’s Draft of Companion Cube

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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 David Deutsch
• Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts
• 100 Ornithopters
• Regular Cube
• Cascade Cascade
• Cube Map

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 4:55 - Epistemology
• 11:43 - The Enlightenment
• 14:43 - Authority
• 20:29 - Empiricism
• 26:49 - Explanations
• 29:58 - Science as a Creative Process
• 33:18 - Knowledge in Magic
• 37:04 - Emergent Properties
• 41:54 - Aggro-Midrange-Control
• 45:53 - Cube Experiments
• 51:10 - Mailbag!

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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 also one of the organizers of Shoebox an event happening next week in St Paul, Minnesota. Shoebox will prominently feature Cube as well as other formats that don’t usually get center stage and much more.

Discussed in this episode:

• ”Still Alive” from Portal
• Companion Cube
• C4AC Stream
• Shoebox
• Museum of Modern
• Take 5

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:27 - Greg AKA Dinrovahorror
• 4:16 - Shoebox
• 10:35 - Companion Cube
• 15:57 - Cube as Nostalgia
• 18:48 - Power Level
• 27:49 - Responding to Feedback
• 32:22 - New Player Pitfalls
• 35:42 - Comparing Companions
• 40:49 - Control Decks
• 42:37 - Clones
• 46:13 - The Future

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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 limitations and changes he’s planning to make after they’re gone.

Discussed in this episode:

• 100 Ornithopters
• Cube For a Cause
• Rhystic Studies Video on 100 Ornithopters
• Shoebox, St Paul, Minnesota, Mar 13-15, 2026

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 4:46 - Echoing Boon
• 13:20 - Why Cut Echoing Boon
• 22:30 - Regrets
• 25:23 - Leyline of Resonance
• 30:55 - Blazing Shoal
• 33:39 - Reverse Dunning-Kruger
• 35:46 - “Must Cuts”
• 38:20 - More Additions
• 47:29 - City on Fire
• 50:06 - Lunar Frenzy
• 51:25 - Slip Through Space
• 53:12 - Actual Cuts
• 54:35 - Time Sieve
• 57:51 - Mailbag

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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.

They also talk about a new app Anthony built specifically for mapping synergies between cards within a cube. It lets you create a force directed diagram of every card in a cube and draw connections between individual or sets of cards. Give it a try with your own cube!

Discussed in this episode:

• Regular Cube
• New App: Cube Synergy Mapper
• Take Five Cube
• Andy’s Take Five Videos
• Commander Spellbook - Magic Combo Database
• Sacred Geometry
• Shoebox
• Magic Card List Spellchecker

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please consider backing Lucky Paper on Patreon or leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

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

You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:01 - Cube Packages and Themes
• 9:56 - Theme's in Anthony's Regular Cube
• 14:41 - New App For Mapping Synergies withing a Cube
• 16:46 - More Regular Cube Themes
• 21:13 - Take Five and Combos
• 23:07 - Theme Density
• 25:12 - The Take Five Clown Car
• 28:05 - Game Speed
• 30:26 - Themes vs Good Cards
• 34:35 - Fitting More Themes in Your Cube
• 36:51 - Thematically Disconnected Cards
• 40:29 - Synergies in Context
• 47:03 - Wrap up