Andy and Anthony talk with Ryan Saxe about his latest Magic passion project. Inspired by one of his favorite video game genres, AutoBattlers, Ryan has been working to create a Magic variant that incorporates the feeling of quick mini-games and constant upgrades and expansion of your arsenal. In his format, players face of in a series of mini-games with only a few cards available to each player. After each quick game, players get to modify and expand their available pool of cards to use by trading with a random new selection of cards from the Cube list. Players are eliminated as they accrue a certain number of losses leaving one the champion.
The three talk about the design process, challenges and successes Ryan’s had through iterating on the rules system, and their experience drafting the AutoBattler cube.
View all cards mentioned in this episode
Discussed in this episode:

George W. Hart’s Geometric Sculptures
Pai Gow
AutoBattler Cube Rules and Card List
Ryan’s Autobattler Discord
Ogre Battle Tactics: Match of the Black Queen
Team Fight Tactics
Loading, Ready, Run AutoBattler Stream
Slay the Spire

Timestamps
0:00 - AI Corner
13:01 - Introduction to Ryan’s new format
14:20 - What is an auto battler?
17:59 - How did Ryan go about applying the patterns of an auto battler to Magic?
28:42 - How does Ryan’s auto battler format work?
46:16 - Designing the rules system vs. designing the cube list
53:22 - A deep dive on the design details of the auto battler
1:33:45 - How Anthony would teach the auto battler format
1:35:40 - Is it productive to describe this as an auto battler?
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. You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:
Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211
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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

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