Lucky Paper Radio

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What makes a cube “balanced”? When a card or deck performs very differently in the hands of especially skilled players, are they using their greater knowledge of the game to exploit a balance issue that others can’t see? Or are they just having the predictable success you would expect from a more skilled player? Is the experience of strong players a better indicator of a cube’s balance because they use cards optimally? Or are they exploiting the cards in a way that, if balanced for, would negatively impact the play experience of the average player?
We sure as hell don’t know, but you can listen to us try to figure it out for an hour if you want.
Discussed in this episode:
Episode 322 With Ryan Overturf
100 Ornithopters
The Fire Swamp
The Red Terror
Anthony’s Obscura Cube Anti-War
Regular Cube
Monocolored Starter Decks
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
3:30 - Balance
14:56 - Fun
19:45 - Expectations
23:14 - 100 Ornithopters Balance
28:10 - Metagame Development
37:47 - Smash Ultimate
49:33 - Starter Decks

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Andy and Anthony talk with Brett about his Obscura Cube. Prompted with the phrase “Déjà vu” Brett explored some wild, logistically impossible ideas before settling on a cube filled to the brim with subtle repetitions. The feeling of things having happened before manifests in my ways from multiple copies of Accumulated Knowledge, Memory Lapses that create repeated moments, and repetitive single card engines.
Discussed in this episode:
Brett’s Déjà Vu Cube
C4AC Obscura
The Fire Swamp
Low Country Boil
Take Five
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
1:14 - Déjà vu
11:46 - One Card Decks
14:55 - Balancing
20:50 - Hatebears
26:02 - Defining Déjà vu
29:44 - Callbacks
34:44 - Postgame
38:08 - Familiarity
41:21 - Blue-White Blink
45:25 - Blind Cubes
47:53 - Tension
49:32 - Moodboarding
51:58 - Future Updates

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Andy and Anthony recap their experience at Capitol Cube Championship in Washington D.C. They talk about the five different cube drafts they did between them and their overall experience at the event.
Discussed in this episode:
Team Fundraiser for Birds of Paradise
100 Ornithopters Champion’s Draft Digital Qualifier
Capitol Cube Champs
The Score by C. Thi Nguyen
The Desert Bird
Upkeep Zine
Trinket Cube
Synesthesia
100 Ornithopters
Invasion to Kamigawa 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
4:36 - Capitol Cube Champs
4:52 - Andy’s Desert Bird Draft
16:49 - Andy’s Desert Bird Games
27:45 - Anthony’s Desert Bird Draft
33:27 - Anthony’s Desert Bird Games
37:36 - Alex Responds
39:02 - Trinket Cube Draft
49:09 - Synesthesia Draft
53:28 - Synesthesia Games
61:18 - Invastion to Kamigawa Draft
69:51 - Invasion to Kamigawa Games

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Andy and Anthony talk with Ollie about their Obscura Cube with the prompt “Dangerous.” Ollie’s interpretation of the prompt led them to build a desert cube where all lands cost life to generate colored mana. Limiting each player to 20 colored pips of mana over the course of a game reshapes the way player’s engage with their life total as a resource and creates a truly dangerous feeling sensation.
Discussed in this episode:
Ollie’s Dangerous Cube
C4AC Obscura
Hoopin
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
2:54 - Dangerous
12:45 - Lifegain
20:09 - Swamps
32:40 - Flavor
35:42 - Postgame
37:02 - Coverage
40:38 - Maintaining Dangerous
45:21 - Feedback
51:53 - New Cards

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Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about how to draft cubes better by framing their thinking in terms of the scarcest resource in any give context. Flipping the perspective, they talk about how to leverage a diversity of themes as a cube designer.
Discussed in this episode:
Birds of Paradise Fundraiser
Level Up Your Cube Drafting With Scarcity article by Parker
The Self-Defeating Irony of Cube Conceits article by Parker
Parker’s Articles on Cascade Cascade
Turbo Cube
Tupelo Honey
100 Ornithopters
Sacred Geometry
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
5:15 - Turbo Cube
16:11 - Tupelo Honey
20:18 - Scarcity
26:41 - Applying Scarcity to New Cubes
34:24 - Scarcity for Designers
41:29 - Metagame Degeneration
56:57 - CASCADE CASCADE