Games

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.

Latest Episodes:

Vintage Cube Sucks Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony talk about why they think Vintage Cube sucks. Riddled with unintelligibly complicated cards, self-solving puzzles, and value generating haymakers that take no investment or strategy to maximize, it’s not our hosts’ favorite kind of Cube.

Discussed in this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
3:09 - Vintage Cube Sucks
5:19 - Disclaimers and Caveats
14:45 - What do we mean when we say ‘Vintage Cube’?
18:02 - Issue one: rampant card complexity, especially the Initiative
30:25 - Issue two: cards with no downsides encourage unfocused decks
36:13 - Issue three: modern power outliers are mostly unknown supplemental set cards, not iconic pillars of the game
42:30 - Miscellaneous ‘Vintage Cube’ cards that offend Andy and Anthony
45:06 - What to do with the knowledge that Vintage Cube sucks?

Debriefing Vertex Philadelphia & 100 Ornithopters Unite Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony recap Magic events they participated in this week. First, Anthony talks through his experience at Vertex Philadelphia, a ~100 person Cube tournament. Anthony had another solid run in his drafts, and the event was the first time his new Broadcast Shuffling method was tried at scale to reasonable success. Andy shares his experience helping organize and play in a charity stream for the Tabletop Workers United strike hardship fund. He ended up played in the event as an alternate and shares his complex experience drafting on stream.

Discussed in this episode:

Anthony’s Shuffling Article
Anthony, Roja, and Arlo’s episodes of Recross the Paths
Lucky Paper Events Page
The Cascade Cube
Anthony’s 3-0 Decks from the Weekend on BlueSky
The Jund Cube
May’s Fae Cube
May’s Fae Cube episode of Uber Cube
Cubereviews Podcast
Eiganjo Drift
The Dungeoneer’s Cube
Support the Tabletop Workers United Strike Hardship Fund on GoFundMe
Watch the 100 Ornithopters Unite Stream on YouTube

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
5:32 - Vertex: Philadelphia Tournament Report — Event Overview
10:38 - Anthony’s trajectory and improvement as a player
13:11 - Anthony’s draft of the Cascade Cube
18:22 - Anthony’s draft of the Jund Cube
23:35 - Anthony’s draft of May's Fae Cube
29:14 - Anthony’s draft of Eiganjo Drift
34:10 - Anthony’s draft of The Dungeoneer’s Cube
37:37 - Andy’s experience helping with the 100 Ornithopters Unite draft event

The Barash Files 003 — Reflections on Cube Drafts Past Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

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On the third installment of The Barash Files, Zach shares stories from his drafts of some of Andy and Anthony’s cubes over the last few years. He shares insights into how he approaches them as a player, and how effectively they deliver on their stated goals.

Discussed in this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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:

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Introduction to Topic
3:50 - Anthony’s Level Up Moment from Zach’s advice on Anthony’s gameplay in a single match 18 months ago
16:06 - Level up moments as a Cube designer
18:13 - Zach’s Reflections on Playing The Regular Cube
24:45 - Reflections on Playing The Bun Magic Cube
32:42 - Zach’s Reflections on Playing The Turbo Cube
44:00 - Zach’s Reflections on Playing 100 Ornithopters
1:09:00 - Zach’s Reflections on The Neoclassical Cube

Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211

Using the Foundations Starter Collection as the Base for Your Own Cube — with Carmen Klomparens Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony talk with Carmen Klomparens, lead designer of the Foundations Starter Collection, about the set and how it’s a great option for new Cube players looking for a starting point. They talk about what’s in the set, how and how it was designed, and then each offer ideas and specific cards they’d add and cut to use it as a cube.

Discussed in this episode:

Nile on Twitch The full list of cards in the Foundations Starter Collection Foundations Starter Collection on the mothership The Uncanny Valley The Regular Cube Sacred Geometry Carmen Klomparens on Bluesky

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro 4:33 - Did Magic R&D consider that the Foundations Starter Collection might make a great skeleton for a Cube? 6:29 - Limited and Cube as a proxy for kitchen table Magic 8:44 - What are the high level goals of Foundations 11:24 - Using mechanics to encourage your players to discover what is cool about Magic 14:49 - What is included in the Foundations Starter Collection 19:37 - What would Carmen, Andy, and Anthony would add to the Foundations Starter Collection if they were to turn it into a Cube 20:21 - Addition: a set of mono-color Planeswalkers 22:28 - Addition: Archangel of Thune 23:23 - Addition: Emeria Angel 24:18 - Addition: another cycle of fixing lands 27:29 - Addition: Remand 28:52 - Addition: Ravnica bounce lands 29:40 - Addition: more support for the ‘gates’ theme 33:24 - Addition: Viscera Seer 36:57 - Addition: Kess, Dissident Mage 39:28 - Addition: Faithless Looting 40:46 - Addition: Irencrag Pyromancer 42:11 - Addition: Future Sight 43:19 - Addition: A good black green threat 46:06 - Addition: Krosan Tusker 47:30 - Addition: Treetop Village 49:56 - What would Carmen, Andy, and Anthony would cut from the Foundations Starter Collection if they were to turn it into a Cube 50:21 - Cut: the color hate cards 51:24 - Cut: Hidetsugu’s Second Rite 52:07 - Cut: Wishclaw Talisman 52:50 - Cut: Feldon’s Cane 55:33 - Cut: Command Tower 58:19 - Cut: Fog Bank 59:33 - Cut: Rogue’s Passage 1:01:22 - Cut: Stroke of Midnight and Harmless Offering 1:03:45 - Cut: Sol Ring 1:05:57 - The lessons Cube designers can take from Carmen’s experience with Magic R&D 1:10:09 - Llanowar Elves vs. Elvish Mystic 1:14:52 - A thank you for Burst Lightning

Changing Patterns in Magic R&D Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony talk about changes to the design of Magic cards over the years: including some overt changes like “snap on equipment” and more subtle differences in how attack triggers are worded they feel would have been done differently in the past. They talk about how each changes the texture and focus of games and how they think about them as Cube designers, whether they add more options or are a reason to pick cards from particular eras of the game.

Discussed in this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:31 - Tofu Corner
3:18 - Introduction to changing patterns in Magic R&D
5:15 - Changing pattern: more enter the battlefield abilities on creatures
21:04 - Changing pattern: the proliferation of trinket artifacts like clues, blood tokens, map tokens, etc.
30:28 - Changing pattern: eliminating edge-case targets
38:58 - Changing pattern: ’snap-on’ equipment that attaches on entering
46:09 - Changing pattern: ‘whenever ~ attacks’ triggers vs. ‘whenever you attack’ triggers
59:08 - Closing thoughts and calls to action

The Barash Files 002 — On Terminology, Communication, and Community Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

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In the second installment of “The Barash Files”, Andy, Anthony, and Zach talk about Cube terminology. They talk about how the language we use effects that kinds of conversations we have which in turn effect the kinds of communities we build. New terminology can enable talking more efficiently about concepts that get condensed into a term, but also make it harder to communicate the nuance and variety in those concepts, potentially making communities harder to enter.

Zach shares his thoughts on different parts of cube design, including ideation before anyone touches a card, material choices, what happens during the draft, and in game rules. His hope is to offer new terminology to push the boundaries of what cube designers consider when building a cube.

Discussed in this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
2:04 - Zach’s Preamble
6:14 - What is a “Cube”?
20:09 - Where did the normative ideas of power-maxing and constructed ban list naming conventions come from?
29:50 - The need for new terminology for different kinds of cube design
38:36 - On strange, non-descriptive deck names and accessibility vs gatekeeping
45:15 - Zach’s Five Areas of Cube Design
58:11 - The costs of making design choices in unexpected areas of Cube design
1:10:07 - On calling small Cubes “Twoberts”
1:14:52 - On referring to Cubes as “Baltimore Singleton”

Always Be Cubing — 2024 in Review Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony close out 2024 reflecting on their year in Magic. This year Magic’s new direction as a product driven primarily by marketing goals fueled with cheap gimmicks and cross branding feels solidified. Our hosts talk, kind of briefly, on how their relationships to the game have changed because of that. More importantly, they talk about their personal highs and lows with the game this year.

Regardless of the direction Magic as a product is moving, the Cube community has surged in so many ways. Small, grassroots events have become a norm. The local Baltimore Cube community is hitting a stride. The interstate Cube culture is emerging and flourishing. They also talk about some of their struggles in taking on more ambitions projects and how the podcast has effected their relationship to the online community.

Discussed in this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
8:48 - Recap of last year’s recap
10:51 - How our relationship with Magic changed in 2024
13:34 - The perishability of joy, novelty, and discovery: why Andy and Anthony no longer listen to most McElroy brothers podcasts
23:34 - On decreased participation in set surveys
25:07 - Shared High: Small, Grassroots Cube Events
32:18 - Andy’s High: The Design of and Reception to 100 Ornithopters
37:35 - Anthony’s High: The Variety of Depth of What is Accepted as a Cube
42:28 - Anthony’s High: The State of Our Local Cube Playgroup
44:17 - Andy’s High: Having Richard Garfield on Lucky Paper Radio
48:36 - Anthony’s High: He’s Good at Magic Now
53:18 - Anthony’s High: Connecting with Magic Friends about Things Other than Magic
55:45 - Andy’s High: The Reception to Our First Playmat
57:04 - Andy’s Low: The Playmat International Shipping Fiasco
1:09:43 - Andy’s Low: His Sensitivity to Discussion on the Podcast

The Barash Files 001 — The Principles of Game Design Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

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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.

They talk about how cube designers can learn from the process, adopting the role and mindset of a game designer.

Zach works at Wizards of the Coast on the Arena team, designing many of the events available — his opinions on the show are his own. We’re excited to have him join us for four more episodes in the near future.

Discussed in this episode:

The Power Broker
Kingdom Death
Drawing Live: Zach’s Column for Hipsters of the Coast
Spaced Penguin Playthrough on YouTube
The Cascade Cube
The Turbo Cube
Reading Rainbow Cube
Andrew Elebogen Tween about Extrapolating from Too Small Sample Sizes
The Beginning of Infinity
The Modern Darlings Cube
The Museum of Modern Cube
Linguistic Relativity
Playing Oppression
Andy, Anthony, Parker, and Zach on BlueSky

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
10:02 - Game Design with Training Wheels
12:43 - Anthony’s History with Game Design
19:21 - The Basic Principles of Game Design: The Iteration Loop
33:56 - Balance is Overrated
47:32 - How does one go about uncovering truths about their cube?
59:11 - What does a cube designer mean when they say they want ‘balance’?

A Loom Made of Yarn: the Tools of Cube Design Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

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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 this episode:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
7:51 - Introduction to topic
9:09 - Scryfall
14:00 - Cube Cobra
28:14 - Spreadsheets
29:35 - MTGTop8
32:36 - Lucky Paper Cube Design Tools
38:15 - Commander Spellbook
41:34 - Honorable mention: sealeddeck.tech
44:10 - Collection management
46:38 - Listener Submitted Pack 1, Pick 1

Fixing is Cringe with Jenn the Judge Dec 09, 2024

Show notes

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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:

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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

If you’d like to show your support for the show, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
4:06 - The fixing in your cube is too good
5:02 - Ravnica limited formats and how they might inform fixing in Cube
8:10 - What is wrong with five color good stuff?
15:56 - On disliking Triomes in Cube
22:51 - The effects on less experienced players in fixing dense cubes
26:12 - How do players that spend high picks on lands still end up with super high card quality in their deck?
28:23 - The various factors that contribute to the viability of five-color good stuff decks?
35:21 - How does Jenn limit soupy decks in their Ravnica Cube
48:09 - Does the five-color good stuff deck self balance in draft?
53:33 - Are there different kinds of five-color good stuff decks? What are their various merits and downsides?
58:17 - Closing thoughts on five-color good stuff and mana fixing in cubes

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