manalink .dck compatibility with Magic Album

[foolosopher]

Hi,
I was checking some deck builder programs and finally found how to make manalink .dck decks compatible with Magic Album. Some of you might know it already, but I thought I 'd share.
Anyway here it goes...
Manalink decks have the following form

Code: Select all

;vag-U-piou-control1
;
;foolosopher
;
;19/11/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.995   1   Coastal Piracy
.1000   2   Confiscate
.44   2   Control Magic
.48   1   Counterspell
.1005   3   Curiosity
.2285   1   Force of Will
.720   4   Mana Drain
.1078   2   Mana Leak
.446   4   Old Man of the Sea
.193   3   Prodigal Sorcerer
.1687   3   Rootwater Hunter
...


The first lines that are preceded by ";" are the header form manalink that contain deck name, player name etc. The next lines that are preceded with ".XXX" where XXX is a number (the card's ID as in the manalink.csv), then a tab space, then a number, which is the number of the same card appearing in the deck, then another tab space and finally the card's name.
In order to make this readable by Magic Album, one has to do the following:
- save the .dck file as a .txt file
- delete all the characters until the number of the card instances that appear in the deck.
- Replace all the rest tab and multiple space characters (usually within the card's name) with only one space character each time, like below

Code: Select all

;vintage-vag-RU-damage-draw
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;19/01/2013
;1
;4th Edition
;

1 Neurok Commando
1 Surrakar Spellblade
1 Sturmgeist
1 Mercurial Chemister
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
1 Suffocation
1 Illuminate
1 Needle Drop
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Izzet Charm
1 Flare
1 Zap
1 Electrolyze
1 Quicksilver Dagger
1 Fire|Ice
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Devastating Summons
1 Disintegrate
1 Fissure
1 Fork
2 Goblin Settler
...


And that's it!!! MA should be able to read properly your deck as a .txt file.
It appears that MA ignores the lines preceded with ";" so one can leave it in.
When MA saves your .txt deck it will
- delete the Manalink .dck header (lines starting with ";" and one empty line)
- move the lands at the top lines of the file
- add two lines after the last card. One empty and one with the word "Sideboard" at the start of the line.
Then in order to make it readable again from Manalink one has to
- rename the deck ".txt" back to ".dck"
- add again the Manalink .dck header (lines starting with ";" and one empty line). PDA will check the header and will try to correct it, BUT if no empty line exists PDA will add the ";" in front of as many cards' lines, as are missing from the header and as of that, these cards will be "lost" from the deck. If more than one empty lines exist PDA will not recognize the format.
- add in front of each card's number of duplicates in a deck, a ".X " character where X is a number and the space after the "X" can be a tab or space character.
- Delete all other lines after the last card of the deck, that may have been added by MA, probably the two lines I mention above. Otherwise the cards within your deck may be deleted from PlayDeckAnalyzer from the next step and only the header will remain.
- Pass it through CirothUngol's PlayDeckAnalyzer.
So far I came up with problems recognizing back dual cards like "Fire|Ice", but haven't tested thoroughly. It seems that MA will not recognize the " // " in dual cards' name and will probably delete it, so here's another step one has to take, if his deck contains dual cards.
You can test with the attached decks.

hmmm It seemed easier when I first tried it...