Deciding Which Cards to Cut from Your Cube

View all cards mentioned in the episode →

Most Cubes are ever-changing, with a constant stream of cards being added as new sets are released and the designer’s sensibilities evolve over time. There is a dark side to the joyous, Christmas-morning feeling of putting new cards in one’s cube, though: making cuts. On this episode, Andy and Anthony talk about how to find cuts from a cube, tackle some common pitfalls newer designers often fall into when removing cards from a Cube list, explore high-level theory around Cube curation, and take a walk down memory lane, defending some of their more contentious cuts from their own environments.

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from wowitsarlo’s Fair ‘Nuff Cube. Thanks, Arlo!

Timestamps

• 2:59 — Pack 1, Pick 1
• 10:19 — Don’t take cuts too seriously
• 13:31 — Avoid like-for-like cut mentality
• 17:16 — Ask yourself — do you actually NEED to make a cut?
• 20:37 — Don’t only cut the “bad” cards
• 25:56 — Make cuts based on your overarching goals
• 34:17 — Cut known quantity cards to maximize information gleaned from play testing
• 37:17 — Cut power outliers to activate lower powered cards in your cube
• 39:20 — Walking down cut memory lane

Discussed in this episode:

• Donate to your local abortion fund
• Card Kingdom Starter Cube
• Anthony’s Turbo Cube

If you’d like to support the show, we’re looking for people to help annotate old episodes.

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

15 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 [email protected]. 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.

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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.