Oh, hi! It's Andy from Lucky Paper.
We've been hard at work on a lot of new stuff this spring, but if you don't read anything else in this email I want to make sure you, at the very least, know that our surveys for March of the Machine and March of the Machine Commander are up! Go forth and fill them out!
We're also accepting voice memo hot takes to feature in our community set review in a couple weeks time, so if you have any big ideas about specific mechanics or cards from March of the Machine, don't hide your light under a bushel — let it shine! You can send me recorded voice memos by responding to this email.
If you've filled out one of our past Cube set surveys, you will notice that our card rating system has been updated. Cards are now graded on a scale from 1-10 instead of 1-3. Originally, we chose a three-point scale because we identified three describable attitudes towards testing a new card. We were able to explain the difference between a “1”, a “2”, and a “3”, compared to a ten-point scale where describing the difference between a “6” and a “7” was much more difficult. However, our old, three-point system was much less intuitive. A card that scored highly might have had a rating of “2.7”, but “2.7” does not intuitively feel like a high score. In addition, the three-point system with only one significant figure only created 21 different possible average ratings: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2... through 3.0. As average ratings naturally tend towards the center many cards ended up with identical averages, erasing nuance and making comparisons more difficult. The new, ten-point system has 91 possible average ratings, allowing for higher fidelity without added complexity. The question we are asking has not changed: respondents are still scoring their subjective attitude towards a given card in the context of a specific cube of theirs. Given that this question is relative, we have decided to retroactively translate past survey responses to the new scale. A “2” in the previous system is now a “5”, a “3” is now a “10”, and so on and so forth. A note has been added to all the prospectives whose responses were collected with the three-point system and have since been translated for full transparency. If you have any thoughts about this change we'd love to hear it!
We've also released the first video in what I hope will become a series of "cube coaching" sessions. Basically, I hired Brian Coval of Boshnroll to coach me through a recorded match from my main cube. Feedback on the video has been overwhelmingly positive, so if you're interested in that kind of thing and want to see us make more in the future, check it out.
Finally, Anthony has taken the subject of building a cube from one's collection, previously discussed in a podcast episode, and written a succinct article about how to build a cube from cards you already have laying around. We know podcasts aren't for everyone, and we had some requests to put these ideas into article form, so if you have someone in your life who is interested in building their first cube I hope you'll send them this article as a starting point.
Is that everything? I think that's everything, but there may be something I've missed. Anyway, I hope you're well.
Andy