Limited Resources 700 – Ryan Spain On Curating The MTGO Vintage Cube

Really wish Tanglewire hadn’t been removed Ryan. Maybe a reconsideration can be made in this case?

Cube is not just a game, it's a lifestyle

I agree with the Whiteplume Adventurer take, but I would like to add that in commander The Initiative is a godsend. Makes games much more fun, as it encourages attacking different players, and helps people hit their land drops, and the final room can lead to very fun and splashy moments. I have no problem seeing how The Initiative is bad for 1v1 magic, but I just want to point out how awesome it is for multiplayer

That last bit of the signoff about rarity of cards and the way they are selected from 'decks' was super fascinating. I hope LSV gets the chance to share his thoughts on this in the next episode!
Fantastic 'guest' by the way. I understand he used to be the co-host but this is the first time i've seen him and i'm very happy that he's at the helm of the vintage cube.

Loved seeing Ryan back on the show. I miss Going Optimal.

I haven't done my own research yet, but I wanted to ask here first to hopefully recieve a faster response. Is there a link to the card list for the magic online cube that updates when changes are made? I'd like to be able to proxy the list for my draft group. We just started getting into draft, and I made my first cube recently, so I wanted to add variety to our draft nights without having to spend $100+ on a box every other week. Thank you in advance!

Vintage cube is so imposing. How would you suggest starting drafting vintage as a long time limited draftee?

Regarding the idea of creating new cards, I love it. I don't think I would complete the Horizon Canopy lands necessarily; I would rather see a second set of fetch lands (perhaps the fetch is untapped but the land it fetches is always tapped). Anyway, love the idea overall.

Mr Spain did an unbelievable job. You guys were kinda hard on him. I think Vintage Cube is extremely fun and worth the money and time to play

"Twin combo" package would seem like a good thing to be "seasonal" (with time vault added in as a spice once in a blue moon).

Cutting the ~5 cards relevant to the twin combo is possibly enough to slot in a whole new archetype. I feel like blue has plenty of payoffs that win the game after they draw 7, take extra turns, or just play lots of counter spells until they draw it so they won't miss twin when it's "missing."

I think it would be fun if creature tribes were tried in that temporary slot. Give the mono coloured decks a seasonal flavour from time to time with payoffs for elves, goblins, and humans a run without it become a static architecture of the cube.

The collation you talk about in the sign off is totally mirrorable in paper. People do similar pooling of cards within their longboxes or whatever for set cubes to mirror retail pack collation. It's not perfect, but it'd be possible to have deck dividers splitting the cube into 15 sections, and each pack gets a card from each section. To make it easy to reassemble post-draft, you can mark the sleeve with a number 1-15 and you slip it back in its pool. Then you can manipulate each section the way you talk about deck files.

Been listening for about a decade, cool seeing og Ryan!!! Congrats on 700🎉

people play mana tithe

Congrats on 700 episodes! 🎉

Can we get some more likes guys, I know like 95% of us watched the whole thing cuz we're tryhards here at least hit that like 👍

discussing show and tell as 3rd tier is crazy when anyone who plays cube knows its an absolute brick

all those ideas from the signoff sound fantastic. The only one that could be somewhat worrying is making all new cards, which could be a slippery slope, but the examples Ryan brought up are great and give me faith that they wouldn't go overboard with it. I especially like doubling up on effects like fastbond or upheaval, which make for really fun decks but are just not quite consistent enough to build decks around when there is only one instance of that effect in the cube. And the highlander idea sound extremely fun as well.

I drafted on Ryan's right once in what I think was a Crimson Vow draft. Cool guy

Congrats on ep 700!!!

@lsv can you share your current version of your cube? The most recent I could find was ~2021

Paper cubes' packs are generally created by picking 15 random cards from the cube. Is this an option you are interested in exploring?

Canadian Highlander cube eh?

After hearing Ryan speak on it, I’m happy to have him curating the cube. Thoughtful of mainstays and beloved cards, but willing to shake things up within reason.

White plume adventurer is awesome, I don’t understand LSVs disproportionate hate for it

Great episode

Honestly I alway thought cutting lotus would be fine as it does not add any interesting decisions or game play except for actually opening it.

Can't echo enough what Ryan said about the rate of product, and the design of current product. Even uncommons now have paragraphs of text. Lets simplify some of these designs and allow more of these triggers to depend upon both players game actions

What an interesting conversation. I am not a great MTG player, but have enjoyed playing Magic since the mid-1990s, and even if Vintage Cube should not be a “museum”, I must admit that the nostalgia aspect is central to me. I only ever engage with Vintage Cube and Old School Magic, and I agree with some of LSV’s comments. As an old MTG enthusiast, I like that there is still content for me where I can see my old favorite cards in action together with new cards without feeling totally alienated by a host of new and potentially cryptic mechanics. I do not know whether you are reading these comments, Ryan, but I will pose my question either way (and hope that I will not come off as uninformed). Have you thought about including some of the following cards (if some of them have already been included, I am sorry for my stupidity): Demonic Consultation, Cadaverous Bloom, Concordant Crossroads, Neither Void, The Abyss, Final Fortune, Fire Covenant, Land’s Edge, Pendelhaven, The Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale, Copy Artifact, Howling Mine, Voltaic Key, Arcane Denial and Lake of the Dead? I know that everyone mentions potential “includes”, not the cards that you should take out, but I was simply wondering whether you had considered some of the above-mentioned cards.

The opening music always reminds me of the song "Some Kind of Stranger" by The Sisters of Mercy. What does it remind you of?

I don't mind a plume, if the other colors also get one.

I don't know why I missed this on release, but I'm very happy I got this one recommended. Was a great one!

I want dunlain crebain in the next cube.

I wana see more of those lunch boxes