Menger Sponge

Ever find yourself with too many Magic cards? Not sure what to do with your sixth (or sixteenth) copy of that high-pick draft common? You could give them away to those less blessed with cardstock, of course—in fact, we highly encourage it—but sometimes that's still not enough. Your kid sister and her friends all have common play sets thanks to your generosity, the players at your local store are in the same predicament you are, and still you're awash in discarded commons, having trouble finding your floor beneath your piles and piles of cards...

Okay, maybe that's not so common a scenario outside the halls of Wizards, but it's just the situation that magicthegathering.com web developer—and avid Wizards Draft Club drafter—Dave Guskin found himself in... until web development manager Don Frazier linked him to this web site about fractal solids called Menger sponges—including instructions to make your own out of business cards—and said, "Hey, we should do this with Magic cards!"

Dave studied the instructions and, not long after, produced a Menger cube, the first step in creating a Menger sponge. We've got pictures, but be warned—if you're squeamish about seeing bad things happen to good Magic cards, you might want to look away!

The cube is created through careful folding—no glue or tape required—and once finished, it's quite durable. When you've completed two cubes, you can slip their flaps under each other to create a join that's surprisingly strong.

With twenty cubes—that's 120 cards—and a lot of patience, you can eventually produce a level 1 Menger sponge. Behold: