Parker LaMascus
@parkerlamascus
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Following
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Scientist; editor & author @LuckyPaperMTG ; voracious reader; delinquent tweeter. He/him.
Joined September 2015
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Pinned Tweet
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MTG's Thunder Junction bothered me from Day 1. I was finally able to lay a finger on why, and it made me realize some things about the game I love.
(link below)
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TLDR: You can represent everybody/thing with the best intentions, but when MTG's rules engine is about combat where players treat creatures like pawns, then your game re-subjugates the land and the Diné-inspired characters in the precise way you wanted to avoid. ...
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... There's no "call to action" here wrt OTJ specifically. 1, I'm not the one with skin in the game, and 2, I doubt a critical mass of people will read this anyways.
But realizing that games can be "engines of enforced politics" was still informative.
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And as a Cube designer who "hacks" Magic's rules engine and components to make my own game, Magic's rules-enforced politics /are/ something I can change, unilaterally, for the better.
(end, thanks for reading)
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@YakobThrust
Give it a read and you'll see that 1) I explain it, and 2) I'm not asking you or anybody else to stop playing/enjoying OTJ :) I'm just thinking through my own relationship with the set.
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The one thing
@MTGCubeCon
was lacking this year was an old-school tournament report (complete with an unreliable narrator and goofy nicknames).
So I tapped into my inner Wario and got to work:
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@PastaTin_
"ludonarrative dissonance" didn't make it in the essay but probably deserved a footnote
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Three pods tonight for
#mtgcube
at
@phillygameshop
! New friends and slinging cardboard: name a more iconic duo.
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I’ve borrowed the manufacturer’s proof for a draft night, and can confirm this is a gorgeous, eminently functional playmat. (Plus I won all the games I played on it, so clearly it’s good luck too)
We've opened up pre-orders for our first playmat! I've been working really hard on it for a long time and am glad to finally be able to share it with everyone.
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Pulp Nouveau is officially submitted to
@MTGCubeCon
:
hope you like drafting your lands and splashing black
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I got to say hi to
@MelissaDeTora
at
@MTGCubeCon
last week and thank her for a 2013 article that was the first WotC mention of Cube as "fully customizable" (see above).
CubeCon wouldn't be as diverse/awesome as it is without that early message that "cube is for everyone"!
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@Rank4HT
@YakobThrust
Yes: creatures in magic are born to fight, and not just Atiin: pacifists (lambholt), priests, and healers, too.
It's a shame that MtG rules presuppose that fighting is the only way to solve problems... and yet I love this game anyways. The essay is me wrestling with that.
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We surveyed ~150
#mtgcube
designers on their opinions of Tales of Middle-earth. Here's the results! (1/x)
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The Philly crew is gonna show UP to this. Super hyped.
Hello world! We are so excited to announce Steel City Cube, a 64-player cube event on July 20th-21st just outside of Pittsburgh, PA! For more information, please join our Discord server:
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Ending my 7 year hiatus because of the upcoming MagicCon Philly. Excited to talk about
#mtgcube
as a panelist!
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Always a good time talking with
@luckypaperMtG
, but this cube was a particularly delightful subject!
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Every fall, my campus blows away truckloads of fallen leaves.
Every spring, they lay down truckloads of sod to do what the leaves would have done for free.
… Eventually, ouroboros will run out of tail.
A bright and shining example of the suicidal absurdity of technocapitalist society occurs every year at this time, all across the country.
1/n
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Thanks to
@luckypaperMtG
,
@Antknee42
,
@JParnell1
for their contributions -- and of course, to all the OGs who made Cube what it is today!
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Serra Angel is
#1
for me.
To help her hang with ‘23 threats like Solitude or Fury, I think Flash + Ward 3 would be a massive boost in power that echoes her past as premier control finisher.
Just, yknow… theoretically :)
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me, hearing about Fury's demise in Modern: 😢
lucky paper radio: "hey kid, did you know combos can't get banned from Cube?" *opens trenchcoat, 16 copies of Up The Beanstalk fall out*
This week on the show, we're touching on one of our most requested topics: combo decks in Cube. Check out video of the episode with card images!
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Just got mine! Excited to play some Magic in July! (now to see what the Pirates' schedule looks like that weekend...)
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@CubeCornermtg
how about a twist on that: violence that's explicitly about overthrowing oppression and reclaiming stolen land?
- an NPC deck (roughly "zombie horde" rules) 🇺🇸
- vs coop players 🇵🇸
(note: very much a WIP. 🍉🍉🍉)
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had a wonderful time taking about cube in a graveyard. 10/10 would do again! Many thanks to Steve for making it happen!
CubeHeads Talk Ep 1
The Parker LaMascus interview.
@parkerlamascus
is a great human. Designer of the Pulp Nouveau cube that will be at
@MTGCubeCon
. Participant in the Cube panel at MagicCon Philadelphia. (Link below) Philly cube community staple.
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the best way to end the week!
WE WON! This week, over 2000 Penn grad workers cast ballots. After eligible votes were tallied, the final count was 1807 to 97. It's official. The majority of eligible voters turned out to the polls. Penn graduate workers have resoundingly declared: WE WANT A UNION AT PENN!
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This one's on my shortlist for "most evergreen LPR episode," and one of the most applicable outside of the Cube world, too.
(And guests Tara,
@Jenn_the_Judge
, and
@niphette
conclusively set the new standard for guest quality. Great job y'all! ... I've gotta step up my game 😅)
This week's episode is another entry in this informal series, focused on how to make your playgroup accountable and inclusive.
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@MTGCubeFest
@PleasantKenobi
@thegunnibunni
@fireshoes
If I may: write for instant comprehension. "individual about whom..", "the two individuals"... Just say who you mean and dangle the preposition. People are getting confused on 1st read, then assuming the precise legalese is purposeful/malicious.
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I’m drafting my own Pulp Nouveau tonight, and I’m calling my deck “4-Color I’d sooner reanimate a literal demon than do anything for Kissinger’s corpse”
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The original Eldraine is how we started this article series. Can’t believe it’s been 4 years already but I still can’t wait to write this one!
Our Wilds of Eldraine cube surveys are live! I think this set could be an all-timer for our favorite format — let us know which cards you're most excited about
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I'm (loosely) organizing these "Philly Cube Phite Nites" and would love to see y'all there! DM me if you want to sign up or join the local discords.
Hi friends and cubers! If any of you are coming into Philly for PAX Unplugged and want to get into cube drafts, let me know! We have a signups list going in the Philly cube discord.
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@UberCubeMTGPod
Scrapwork Mutt -- my pick over Merfolk Looter any day in Reanimator/cheat, plus has many super-fair applications.
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@JoINrbs
It’s encouraging to hear you felt differently! ❤️ I’d love to read more game criticism wrt violence, if you have any favorite authors or sources.
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I adore
@Scottmirts
‘ Curio Cube! Really hope I get to draft it in October.
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Pulp Nouveau is a
#mtgcube
where the only freely available basic lands are Swamps. All other lands must be drafted!
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@RyanOverdrive
Really enjoyed reading about your journey. "I no longer ask myself *if* something can work in cube, but *how*" is gonna stick with me.
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Biggest local turnout yet! super fun!
TWO pods at Philly Game Store tonight.
@parkerlamascus
Noir Cube &
@AndProsser
Sharpie Cube!!
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@luckypaperMtG
@SamuelHBlack
We owe Sam a lot in the Cube world — not least for telling us to go to Swad for dinner during CubeCon ‘22. Highlight of the trip.
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@worklifevalue
Bringing my Pulp Nouveau cube -- the only freely available basic lands are Swamps!
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@Slick_Jagger_
"archetype in an envelope" -- something like 5-10 cards that are enable you to try out a Sneak n Show, KCI, or Naya Zoo package
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Super excited to be able to share your insights on MKM with the Cube world! A great complement to our community surveys, and a peek into how an OG cubehead makes the Magic happen!
Hey y'all, guess who's back making long articles about
#mtgcube
again!! Article's on
@luckypaperMtG
, and it's an article covering my ratings for MKM set ratings for my cube and overall thoughts.
Enjoy!!
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@luckypaperMtG
Nicol Bolas. Planeswalker.
He’s not very good these days, but what an appealing design!
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@MTGCubeCon
Notably, the only freely available basic lands are Swamps in this cube!
With that in mind, my top three picks are Weathered Wayfarer to help fix my mana, Sungold to exile key cards, or Dec In Stone. Feel confident that one of those three will wheel, so I'm on Wayfarer.
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@rcsaxe
Lucky Paper’s community set review will be addressing this — last I checked, 2/3rds of our survey respondents weren’t testing any toxic at all, and those who did mostly tested Skrelv and Bloated Contaminator. A few tested 5+ cards, tho!
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@humansofmagic
Thanks so much, and thanks for your work as a Magic historian!
(Your choice of words is ironic -- I *do* think Cube is the "greatest" casual format; it just isn't the most "popular"... yet 😉)
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I'm also curious when others got their start in Cube!
I'm a relative newcomer, even though I've been doing this half a decade. The influence of r/mtgcube was huge for me at first, but not MTGO VC itself, weirdly. I was picking up its influence secondhand.
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I drafted
@AndProsser
’s Sharpie Cube — P1P1 a Staggershock at a 1mv discount, end up in the first Twin deck of my life. 2-1 overall.
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that's me!
And be sure not to miss
@GwenDekker
,
@andymangold
,
@JParnell1
and Parker at their panel on the MagicCon Main Stage:
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If you have any feedback or comments on these community-focused Cube articles, let me know! (eg, how can I write more like Mike Flores?) And if you want to get in on the fun for Wilds of Eldraine, join our (infrequent, text-only) newsletter at . 5/5
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@ChillMtGTV
Some of your opponents had unkind things to say about Kaalia after this draft... but IMO that's just proof that you were doing it right 🤌🤌😉
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@matt_grenier
For sure! It’s only missing one key ingredient — nostalgia! (That’s what I find really compelling about
@AndProsser
‘s use of Sharpie errata, the ability to have 2023 play patterns with 1993 nostalgia.)
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@xJosh029x
@BasicMountain
Imagine we were already on the 3-yr schedule so that ZNR-AFR never rotated out — you’d have
Werewolf Pack Leader dodging Cut Down, more good cards in non-B colors, etc. So the argument is these power outliers will be more palatable/balanced in a 3y world
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@MtGCubeHeads
@ImproPhilo
Liked the short form. Text with card names and commentary was hard to read on my phone screen. But.. bangin’ soundtrack! 10/10 would rewatch
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@luckypaperMtG
@MTGCubeCon
Some effects in this cube look so dense (removal, fixing, cheap critters) and others look scarce, like lifegain and Jitte-tier threats. How do you know which of the dense effects are worth picking as ~highly as the scarce ones?
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New
#Ahsoka
rules. But the stab-wound "outcry" is insane. New Star Wars should inspire joy, not cross-referenced wiki entries to ensure canonicity. Fundamentalism-as-fandom is boring, & tragic.
I need a patented
@FullOfSith
ep to debunk this nonsense, ASAP. ur my only hope!
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Every time I read a quote from bell hooks, my brain autocorrects to “hell books,” and for a second I’m outraged that I’m only just finding out about this book series
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@Scottmirts
Gotta break in the fit before the tracksuit gang rolls up to
#CubeCon
this fall
This reminds me… I need to get shopping
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Privately, I wonder if Daybound and The Initiative have anchor-biased Cube's perception of uninteractable resources. The Ring Tempts is a wonderfully designed mechanic, but Cube owners are skeptical, with Sam as the most-tested card with The Ring. 3
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@jfk_420
@RedcapsCorner
Yeah, the last year especially, Philly Cube has taken off. Firing weekly with any # was the secret sauce, from the organizer perspective. But even that wouldn’t happen without so many awesome people supporting!
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@emmadpartlow
@EugeneBWhitaker
@BradenMTG
It’s the name of a major river; source of much of the Philly’s water, etc.. Pronounced “SKOOK-ull” with almost no “u” sound at all. From the Dutch for “hidden river” or “skulking river”.
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@dominharvia
what CubeCon cube are you most excited to try? Will you be bringing your cube for after-hours?
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@CulticCube
My theory is that the MOM’s power is just allocated to the team-up legends (gold casting costs, novel fx = hard to grok) and Battles (super new = overcaution).
The cards are powerful, but just don’t match most designers’ implicit vision of what power looks like.
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@rcsaxe
Strong rate in an eternal cube with lots of fixing. Can snowball or stall depending what you want (doesn't need as much synergy as you'd think). Only downside is that my brain edits 101 Dalmations into "Cruella Chevill" when I cast him
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@ahmattox
Forgot to mention — iirc you had concerns about the veggie dumplings last time, but this time they were 11/10 perfect
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@rcsaxe
Cabal Pit (and the rest of its cycle)
Field of Ruin (the right balance for “fair” Wasteland)
ZNR MDFCs (the higher density, the more I like them)
Roadside Reliquary
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@DroodHT
,
@gabnassif
,
@Gab_Tsang
-- Guillaume Matignon tells me that y'all might know the origins of the "Wagic" format? (I've been researching Cube's origins for
#MCPhilly
and am unsure how it differed from Wagic.) Thanks!
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@BearlyLupe
Awesome recs! Tomorrow^3 just got added to my list. As a fellow reader-who-mostly-tweets-abt-Magic, I read a paltry 40, but hit my highlights here:
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If I were a pirate atom for Halloween, I'd want a full ship, including my 3p subshell. It'd make a (E) difference. Argon, matey.
#oc_physics
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@DroodHT
@gabnassif
@Gab_Tsang
@humansofmagic
Thanks! Will push an update to the article this weekend to credit him.
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I drafted a powered cube with 6 others, found myself in my classic “5-color removal overload”, and went 4-1. Highlights were definitely the multiple Lotus-fueled Forths and Ravenlofts on turn 1. (And Library. Love that card.)
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@miguelsicart
@martinpi
@JoINrbs
@metasynthie
Just found Beyond Choices at my uni library. Extremely excited to read it!
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@tylerpug
@ChillMtGTV
@cubedraft
that was a good one -- and I was like "ooh, i bet i know what's being commentated soon" ;)
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@RollToTweet
@MTGCubeCon
❤️ thanks so much! coming up with the nicknames was one of the most fun parts, haha, but yeah it wasn't hard to find a name for ol' Three-o.
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Our survey respondents are a hyper-engaged subset of an already-invested niche of Magic, so we typically notice 1) survey results tend to mirror Constructed hype, and 2) preview hype is really bad at predicting actual hits. The One Ring wasn't even tested by 20% of submissions! 2
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@cuzack
No I get you, and agree that there's more nuance than my word count allowed. Like I said, WotC did their best.
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@TheResleevables
@evanmappleton
I primarily listened (and re-listened, repeatedly) to Resleevables on my commute or doing chores, and it always made the time fly. Bummed I won’t get to engage like that in the future, even if I’m still hyped for your return!
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I can walk anywhere because my shoes use dipole-dipole bonding (weak electrostatic interaction) to stick. Van -- Off der Waals.
#oc_physics
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There's "no clear" force that holds nuclei together despite Coulombic repulsion. It's also called the hadronic force.
#oc_physics
#bushism
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Who is the least exclusionary? Not your son. Meson--because it and others ignore Pauli's clique of quantum numbers.
#oc_physics
#extratweet
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@MiekeRuth
@PastaTin_
Actually I’ve never heard of them but I’m intrigued :) where should I begin?
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@worklifevalue
here's a Cube of mine that I fully built, playtested exactly once, and then scrapped:
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@thereal_dlarson
Unfortunately I'm not seeing your submission -- I'll ask
@luckypaperMtG
to check our email for it!
Your set cube looks awesome! Love the low player count design. I'm glad LTR resonated with folks enough to build projects like these!
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@misterorange
Thanks for your contributions!
And it happens to the best of us. I'm on record predicting this would be "Blue StP"... if anything, I hope owning our errors will let people relax and enjoy Cube without getting it "perfect" on the first try.
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Carbon14 is my fav pickup line-it never fails to let me date ancient rocks. And it's got such a long t1/2 that it never gets old
#oc_physics
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@worklifevalue
Sure, but maybe the other 7 people have, and are therefore at risk of seeing this as not-truly-novel gameplay? (sorry, my reply was unclear: "your thunder" -> "your cube's thunder", and the two "you've"s -> "one has".)
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@rcsaxe
It's not that they're "not real", it's that "i don't care to read, grok, and correctly play this game piece that technically doesn't work in the rules"
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