Cube and the Soul of Limited With Ryan Saxe

Andy and Anthony are joined by Ryan Saxe for a deep conversation on Cube design. They talk about the design of “low power” Cubes, lessons we can take from limited sets and apply to Cubes, and the important impacts of power level disparities on gameplay.

View all cards mentioned in the episode →

Discussed in this episode:

• The Iron Giant
• Limited Resources
• R House in Baltimore
• Who’s on First?
• The Degenerate Micro Cube
• Ryan’s Buildaround Cube
• Internet’s Pauper Cube
• Using the Other Half of Your Cube
• Zach Barash on Twitter
• Anthony’s Irregular Cube
• Playing the Irregular Cube on Stream
• Anthony’s Turbo Cube
• Andy’s Day Zero Prediction About Companions
• Ryan’s Constructed Cube
• Ryan on Twitter
• The Cube Map
• Graph Theory
• Topology
• Regression Learning
• UMAP Projection
• Hypercube

Timestamps:

• 2:16 — Rotisserie Corner
• 4:30 — Is Cube somewhere between Limited and Constructed?
• 8:51 — What does “limited” mean to Ryan and Anthony?
• 17:41 — Heuristics vs. Cards — The Rules of Engagement of a Format
• 27:53 — Why a Flat Power Level Isn’t Necessarily a Good Thing
• 36:21 — Describing the Value of a Speculative Pick
• 43:47 — What percentage of a Cube is glue?
• 46:27 — The Irregular Cube and the Nature of Power Outliers
• 57:49 — Slot Equity
• 1:01:01 — What does NOT count as a “Limited” Cube?
• 1:10:14 — Does a truly flat power level ruin the draft?
• 1:18:50 — Designing for the Draft

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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.