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:

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate Cube Set Review Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

View all cards mentioned in the episode →

View the full survey results →

Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, reviewing the results of the Cube Survey and what the new and returning mechanics offer for cube designers.

Special thanks to Kennedy McAlister for this week’s intro music.

Timestamps:

5:53 — New Mechanics
6:09 — Backgrounds
9:57 — The Initiative
15:43 — Myriad
17:00 — Gates
22:59 — Survey Overview
29:00 — Archivist of Oghma
34:15 — Displacer Kitten
38:43 — Young Blue Dragon
41:34 — Delayed Blast Fireball
45:28 — Greatsword of Tyr
53:05 — Noble’s Purse
55:28 — Gut, True Soul Zealot
59:25 — Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes
1:09:01 — Closing Thoughts

Discussed in this episode:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

16 weeks to Cube Con!

If you have a question for the show, or want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube, email us at mail@luckypaper.co. Please include how you’d like to be credited, your pronouns, a link to your cube if relevant. You can also find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord.

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.

Regular Cube Draft Along Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

Andy and Anthony collaboratively draft a deck from Anthony’s Regular Cube, discussing how they approach the environment and the roles individual cards play. From the individual cards, they jump into bigger conversations about the environment and what they think successful draft strategies look like.

Follow along with each pick of the draft to see the full set of cards in each pack. Draft the same seat on Cube Cobra to compare how your own approach.

Discussed in this episode:

Timestamps:

4:01 — Introduction to the episode format and the Regular Cube
9:57 — Pack 1
34:10 — Pack 2
47:27 — Pack 3
54:53 — Deck Construction
1:03:21 — Evaluation of final deck
1:08:34 — Conclusion

17 weeks to Cube Con!

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

A Deep Dive on Disruption Density in Cube Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

After teasing it on their Centennial Retrospective, Andy and Anthony are revisiting the topic of one of their notable past episodes, number 31: Bread and Butter Breakdown. With some small revisions to his categorization system, Andy tallies up the density of disruptive cards in the current iteration of his Bun Magic Cube and compares them to the numbers from January of last year, with some surprising results. What starts as a nuts-and-bolts discussion of how the density and quality of disruption affects an environment turns into a reflection on how much Andy’s cube has changed in just 17 months and how much our biases about cards influences our assessment of their power level.

View cards mentioned in the episode, organized by how they are categorized in the Bun Magic Cube.

Check out the tables of the numbers discussed on this episode on our website.

Timestamps:

6:28 — Pack 1, pick 1 from the Bun Magic Cube
15:07 — Definitions of categories of disruptive cards: hard removal, conditional removal, soft removal, stack interaction, hand interaction, and grave hate
24:16 — How has the Bun Magic Cube’s disruptive suite changed since January of last year?
32:12 — What disruption has been cut from the Bun Magic Cube?
37:48 — What is the makeup of the targets for removal spells in the cube? What does the toughness and mana value distribution look like?
50:43 — Concluding thoughts

Discussed in this episode:

The Members of the Band Of Montreal

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

Centennial Retrospective Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

On their milestone, 100th show, Andy and Anthony reflect on important past episodes and things they’ve learned in the last two years of Lucky Paper Radio.

Timestamps:

4:15 - Overview of a Self-Indulgent Episode
6:49 - "Pack 1, Pick 1" (The Whitemane Lion Tier List)
18:58 - Episode 5: The Problem with 5 Color Good Stuff
24:03 - Episode 17: How and Why to Build a Cube
29:10 - Episode 24: Setting the Tempo
31:41 - Episode 31: Bread and Butter Breakdown
36:17 - Episode 39: A Flat Power Level
38:25 - Episode 41: Cube is Not a Monolith
44:18 - Episode 48: Playing to Win: Evaluating New Cubes and 58: A Cube Player’s Guide to Manabases
46:48 - Episode 71: The Use and Abuse of Archetype Driven Design
49:00 - Episode 90 and 91, aka the Ballad of Rock, Paper, Scissors
51:22 - Stuff Andy has been wrong about
1:04:08 - Why haven’t we started a Patreon?

Discussed in this episode:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

How To Build a Cube From Your Collection May 30, 2022

Show notes

Have you always wanted a Cube of your own? Do you have a box full of jank and draft chaff taking up space that you can’t bring yourself to get rid of? You’re in luck! On this week’s show, Andy and Anthony discuss how to build a Cube from your existing Magic collection. They talk about the pros of working within novel constraints. Building from a collection likely means working with cards you already have some connection and familiarity with. The unique constraint fuels coming up with unique and creative designs. It also comes with unique challenges, making it hard to find existing experience and resources to build off off. Talking about the Cube and getting feedback becomes more difficult.

They propose a process for designing a Cube this way, separating exploring the collection, and then editing down to a final list and offer some suggestions for goals to aim for while editing.

Follow along with all the cards mentioned in this episode with our visual spoiler.

Timestamps:

5:36 — Introduction to Main Topic
8:38 — The Advantages of Building a Cube from Your Collection
15:12 — What makes building a cube from your collection uniquely difficult?
23:22 — How to Begin: Writing vs. Editing
29:04 — How to Make Cuts: Mana Curve
36:46 — How to Make Cuts: Densities and Distributions of Effects
41:58 — How to Make Cuts: Power Distribution
45:50 — Do you need to establish themes or archetypes for your cube?
49:41 — How many fixing lands to include?

Discussed in this episode:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

Are Synergy and a High Density of Interaction Incompatible? May 23, 2022

Show notes

After watching Caleb draft his Powered Synergy Cube on Magic Online for hours, Andy is dying to support some more sweet, synergistic decks in his Bun Magic Cube. After some reflection, he’s not sure if that would even work, so he’s bringing his hopes and dreams to Anthony to discuss whether it’s even possible to support Bazaar of Baghdad, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, or Molten Vortex in a cube that is over one-third interaction.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Donald K. Magic’s “Balanced Budget” Cube. Special thanks to Donald for being the first person to help us annotate old episodes. If you’d like to be as handsome and well liked as Donald, you too can help us add robust metadata to old episodes of the show.

View cards mentioned in the episode

Timestamps:

4:06 — Listener Submitted Pack 1, Pick 1
8:57 — Donald’s Follow Up Question: What is an overlooked card under 50 cents?
13:33 — Are synergy and interactivity at odds?
17:44 — Proposed Definitions for “Synergy Decks” and “Interactive Decks”
23:53 — Reviewing the Deck’s Caleb Posted to YouTube, Beginning With His Favorite Deck He’s Ever Drafted
32:00 — Comparing Densities of Interactions in Decks Between Caleb and Andy’s Cubes
34:06 — One Change to Andy’s Bun Magic Cube in the Name of Synergy
39:36 — Finding More Room For Synergy In Your Cube
42:06 — Synergy and Interactivity in Anthony’s Regular Cube
47:50 — Summary Thoughts

Discussed in this episode:

21 weeks to CubeCon! Blackjack!

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

Lands That Do Things: All About Fetch Lands May 16, 2022

Show notes

If you’d like to support the show, we’d love help annotating old episodes!

Andy and Anthony are going deep on fetch lands. They discuss the long tail of exciting interactions, the powerful mana fixing, and the real costs to gameplay experience associated with them. What are their benefits as a player? What are their benefits as a Cube designer? What are their biggest downsides?

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from LuckyLooter’s Amonkar Desert Cube where players have to start making hard choices about lands from the first pack they open.

View cards mentioned in the episode

Timestamps:

2:41 — Pack 1, Pick 1 from LuckyLooter's Amonkar Desert Cube
9:56 — What is a fetch land?
14:25 — The benefits of fetch lands from a player perspective
23:12 — The most controversial benefit of fetch lands: deck thinning
32:01 — The benefits of fetch lands from a cube design perspective
34:35 — Do fetch lands enable 4-5 color good stuff decks?
45:13 — The downsides and costs of fetch lands

Discussed in this episode:

Keep an eye on Cube Con for featured Cube candidates coming soon!

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

Streets of New Capenna Cube Community Set Review May 09, 2022

Show notes

Andy, Anthony, and Parker discuss the results of Lucky Paper’s Streets of New Capenna Cube Community Set review. They talk through the top cards most appealing to the largest portion of the Cube community, theorize on why cards may appear where they do, analyze interesting outliers, compare the results to past sets, and offer their own opinions of cards in the new set.

View cards mentioned in the episode

Timestamps:

2:42 — Explanation of Show Format
3:52 — Overview of New Capenna Commander
5:21 — 5. Grand Crescendo
7:57 — 4. In Too Deep
10:42 — 3. Caldaia Guardian
13:48 — 2. Currency Converter
19:44 — 1. Lethal Scheme
26:48 — Overview of Streets of New Capenna
40:32 — Honorable Mention: Ledger Shredder
45:32 — Honorable Mention: the Common Dual Lands
47:44 — 11. Jewel Thief
52:31 — 10. Titan of Industry
55:23 — 9. Goldhound
58:54 — 8. Ob Nixils, the Adversary
1:04:16 — 7. Inspiring Overseer
1:08:23 — 6-2. The Triomes
1:15:32 — 1. Tenacious Underdog
1:21:53 — Closing Thoughts

Discussed in this episode:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

The Powered Synergy Cube with Caleb Gannon May 02, 2022

Show notes

Our Streets of New Capenna survey is open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new set.

Caleb Gannon joins Andy and Anthony to talk about his Powered Synergy Cube which is about to be featured on Magic Online! Caleb goes into detail about the environment, which takes what’s loved about the MTGO Vintage Cube and dials up the synergistic aspects while tuning down other themes and cards that win the game on their own. The Cube is full of complex, overlapping themes and multi-card combos, and you can play it yourself starting this Wednesday, May 4th.

View all the cards mentioned in the episode.

Check out the full show notes, including linked timestamps, on our website.

Discussed in this episode:

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

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

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.

Cooking & Cube, Breaking Bread & Cracking Packs Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Our Streets of New Capenna survey is open! Please take a few minutes to let us know what you’re testing in your cube from the new set.

Andy and Anthony take a step back and talk about Cube and Cooking, the many things two of their favorite hobbies have in common, and what they love about them. Both are creative endeavors that are interesting things to master in their own right as well as tools to bring people together and serve as an entry point for broader personal growth.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from Tortured Existence’s The Box.

View cards mentioned in the episode

Timestamps:

5:07 — Pack 1, pick 1 from "The Box"
14:01 — Games and Food are both High Art Forms
25:07 — Opportunities for creative expression
28:52 — Building on accumulated history and knowledge
40:18 — On Food and Cooking and using what you love as an entry point for learning and continued personal growth
43:46 — A caveat about the distinction between loving a game and loving a product
48:45 — What is on your Mount Sausagemore?
52:28 — Closing thoughts

Discussed in this episode: