Lessons From the Death of an Experimental Cube

After one last draft, Andy and Anthony look back on the now disassembled Mono Black Cube. They talk about highlights and lessons learned from the particular design. Unique constraints pushed Anthony to explore new space that will inform future projects. More broadly, they discuss the life-cycle of cubes: why it makes sense to start from scratch and iterate rather than circling around a local maximum to improve one’s Cube design skills.

View all cards mentioned in the episode →

Our listener submitted pack 1, pick 1 this week comes from listener donald_k_magic’s Changeling Cube.

Timestamps:

• 2:59 — A Very Special Listener Submitted Pack 1, Pick 1
• 14:25 — Kill Your Darlings
• 16:49 — The Value of Iteration and a Parable About Ceramics
• 20:36 — Final Reflections on the Mono Black Cube
• 38:00 — The Phyrexian Obliterator Question
• 42:51 — Building a Home for Every Card
• 50:57 — Some Logistics and Updates

Discussed in this episode:

• Anthony’s Mono Black Cube
• Episode 2: A Cube with No Color
• Brown M&Ms Rider
• Andy’s Tribal Tribal Cube
• Sunk Cost Fallacy
• Kill Your Darlings
• The Parable of the Pottery Class
• An Introduction to the Degenerate Micro Cube
• Cube Map
• Commander Map
• Set Prospective Archive Search
• Early Look at Anthony’s New MTG List Formatter

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

If want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube submit it on our website. Send in questions to the show at [email protected]. You can also find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord.

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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.