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:

Open Drafting the Neoclassical Cube Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony each draft the same seat of Andy’s Neoclassical Cube and then talk about it. They discuss strategy, what they were thinking as they went through each pick, and how they ultimately feel about the decks they drafted. Follow along with each, and see all of the cards from each pack they drafted on the cards mentioned page.

If you want to draft this same seat as well, either before or after listening to the episode, follow these steps:

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
2:44 - Draft-along overview
5:32 - An Overview of the Neoclassical Cube
14:05 - Draft Breakdown — Pack 1
44:20 - Draft Breakdown — Pack 2
58:12 - Draft Breakdown — Pack 3
1:09:35 - Final Deck Thoughts and Lessons Learned

The Big, Beautiful World of Set Cubes with Jenn the Judge Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony are once again joined by Jenn who shares her expertise in designing set cubes. They talk about Jenn’s experience designing many many set and plane themed cubes and more broadly about the different ways to approach designing them.

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
4:49 - Cube Con 2025 Overview
12:31 - On Pack Collation in Set Cubes
13:15 - What is a set Cube?
23:56 - Multi-Set/Planar Theme Cubes
25:34 - On Breaking Singleton in Theme Cubes
29:55 - A Complete Introduction to Ravnica Idealized
32:20 - Balancing Mechanical Gameplay and Vibes in Ravnica Idealized
38:00 - Dealing With Power Creep in Multi-Set Cubes
42:30 - Set Cubes as a Means of Exploring Flawed Limited Sets
50:21 - Five Color Soup in Ravnica Idealized
54:39 - Andy’s Sacred Geometry Artifact Deck Fail
57:53 - Advice for First Time Set Cube Designers

A Eulogy for the Degenerate Micro Cube Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony send off Andy’s Degenerate Micro Cube. After many years, Andy has decided to take apart the Cube, reclaiming its cards, sleeves, and mental space. The Cube attempted to capture something about the most high powered vintage games with a twist on the typical draft format and a tiny deck size. They talk about why Andy’s decided to take it apart, it’s highs, and lows, and lessons learned from playing with it over the years.

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
0:00 - An Announcement Regarding Future Set Reviews
7:00 - A Eulogy for the Degenerate Micro Cube
10:50 - What was the Degenerate Micro Cube
17:29 - How Combo Is or Is Not in Dialogue with Fair Archetypes
20:30 - The History of The Degenerate Micro Cube
24:22 - On the Deck Size Requirement in the Degenerate Micro Cube
28:39 - What Andy Still Likes about the Degenerate Micro Cube
38:11 - The Cost of Rules Modifications
42:18 - The cards Andy is going to miss playing with most from the Degenerate Micro Cube

A Tale of Two Cubes with Parker LaMascus Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

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This episode was recorded a few weeks ago, so forgive the untimely references to the Rhystic Studies video on 100 Ornithopters. At our weekly cube night, Andy and Parker swapped drafts of eachother’s simple cubes: Andy playing Parker’s cube Atavus and Parker playing Andy’s cube Sacred Geometry. On this episode we dive into the goals for each of these cubes, both of which focus on simple cards and strive to be an approachable cube to new drafters, and hear a draft report from both Andy and Parker. Finally, Anthony, as the elder statesman of ‘clean’ cubes, weighs in on who has better realized their goals.

Discussed in this episode:

TCG Player Boycott
Atavus
Sacred Geometry
Regular Cube
Eldrazi Domain Cube
Ryan Saxe’s Buildaround Cube
Every Cube Night has 12 Losers by Parker LaMascus

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
5:25 - Introduction to ‘simple’ cubes and an overview of The Regular Cube
10:20 - An overview of Atavus, Parker’s simple cube
18:40 - An overview of Sacred Geometry, Andy’s simple cube
27:55 - Parker’s draft report of Sacred Geometry
42:30 - Andy’s draft report of Atavus
1:07:32 - On color hate in Atavus

Modal Mechanics 001 — Some Nonzero Number of Mechanics Are Kicker Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony walk through (some of) the history of modal mechanics: cards that offer players choices between multiple effects. Starting with alpha they look at the different manifestations of modality, how they compare and contrast, and how they impact gameplay and fit into their Cube design philosophy.

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
2:44 - Introduction to main topic
5:40 - What is a modal card?
8:15 - The history of modal effects
9:36 - Charms, Commands, and Confluences
22:41 - Bloomburrow’s Pawprint Mechanic
24:42 - Cycling
33:31 - Kicker
38:05 - Split Cards
43:47 - Morph
47:38 - Entwine
49:36 - Overload
53:35 - Channel

Every Cube a Painting with Jane and Arlo May 26, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony are joined by Jane (a.k.a. maramas) and Arlo (a.k.a. gaytransmulldrifter) to talk about taste and aesthetics in Cube design. Building off recent discussions on the show, they question if there is such a thing as “taste” in cube design and what it means.

Find more of Arlo and Jane, along with a motley cast of Cube designers, on their new podcast Pack1, Slick 1s.

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
6:27 - Tangle Wire Corner
19:53 - What does it mean to develop one’s taste in Magic?
35:57 - Is there such a thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ taste?
56:08 - Is a Cube a painting?

The One “About Saprolings” May 19, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony talk about saprolings, sort of. Our hosts talk about aesthetics and their own personal tastes, and how that applies to their preferences in Magic. Anthony somehow tries to make the case that saprolings connect to a pattern of affinity for systems thinking, complex iterative processes with emergent properties.

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
3:39 - Introduction to episode
4:50 - What are Andy’s broad aesthetic sensibilities?
12:59 - How do these aesthetic preferences relate to games?
18:33 - What are Anthony’s aesthetic sensibilities?
27:52 - Anthony’s love/hate relationship with Slimefoot
33:12 - Andy’s application of his aesthetic values to Sacred Geometry
38:59 - How the aesthetics of Magic have changed over time
43:50 - River corner
48:17 - Dynamic equilibrium, Magic meta games, and power creep
54:14 - “The Fractal Perspective”

Book Club: Playing Oppression by Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson May 12, 2025

Show notes

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In the second episode of the Lucky Paper Radio Book Club, Andy, Anthony, and Parker discuss Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson. The book explores the history of colonialism in games - the many roles games have played inculcating explicit propaganda or normalizing colonial value systems in their aesthetics and mechanics. Our club members, including call ins from listeners, talk about what they took from the book and whether it’s changed their perspective on games.

Discussed in this episode:

Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
Free PDF of the Book
The First Book Club Episode
Nose Dive
A Pattern Language
The Doughboys
Untitled Goose Game
‘Kriegsspiel! How Napoleon Accidentally Invented Strategy Games’ on YouTube
Wingspan
Photosynthesis (board game)
Spirit Island
A People’s History of the United States
Cole Wehrle
Root
Molly House (concept)
Molly House (board game)
Citizen Game
Rusty Cash Box of Goblin
Polytopia
Ogre Battle Tactics: March of the Black Queen
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

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
1:26 - Pickle Corner Returns
5:15 - First impressions of Playing Oppression
11:05 - On the format of the book and whether it’s the best means to convey the message
16:28 - Getting on board with the core conceit of Playing Oppression
19:41 - Are games descriptive or prescriptive of our culture?
25:07 - What is a “Goose Game”
30:42 - Are video games to blame for gun violence?'
37:02 - The German Colony Game and why rehearsing violence is perhaps more visceral than witnessing it
42:23 - How are colonial and violent values baked into games that don’t have explicitly colonial flavor?
45:26 - How post-war Germany gave rise to the modern Eurogame
52:22 - How do you subvert these colonial themes in game design?
57:14 - Our experience playing the ‘anticolonialist’ games mentioned in Playing Oppression
1:15:01 - Fascism as colonialism and imperialism turned inward
1:16:29 - How does all of this relate to Magic
1:20:42 - Polytopia and whether or not a better skin would make a difference

The Cube Design Paradox May 05, 2025

Show notes

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Andy and Anthony talk about a paradox they occasionally face in Cube design. Sometimes a particular card to strategy over performs and as curators we want to add cards that offer counter play. Often those cards end up being just as potent played alongside the problematic cards as they are against them, only making the problem worse. Our hosts talk about specific times they’ve faced this paradox in their own cubes, and different strategies to break out of the paradox.

But first, they go on a long digression on Anthony’s latest fermentation project, growing koji.

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
0:57 - Pickle Corner
8:48 - The Nature of the Cube Design Paradox
12:52 - Disenchants in 100 Ornithopters
17:03 - Ensnaring Bridge in the Degenerate Micro Cube
24:52 - Red in the Regular Cube
27:23 - The Defunct Mono Black Cube
29:59 - Combo Decks in the Turbo Cube
37:17 - Constructed Magic Precedent for the Cube Design Paradox
43:21 - Andy’s barely baked theory of power distribution’s impact on decks most likely to be drafted
53:57 - Tools to Navigate the Cube Design Paradox

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Cube Set Review Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

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Andy, Anthony, and Parker talk about the results of the cube community survey for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. They discuss the sets new mechanics and how they function to support a the set’s themes and limited environment and how that relates to goals of many Cube designers. They also talk about the top cards catching interest on the survey and honorable mentions featuring new mechanics or exploring new space.

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