Manalink *Minor* Update - 8th Edition

[jatill]

http://rapidshare.com/files/306542846/Manalink.zip

Out of the 25 uncoded 8th edition cards, I was able to add 15. I am adding these only to the Zendikar/Limited version. To get these cards, download this link and put them in your magic/versions/zendikar directory. Then run the switcher to launch the Zendikar version. Once someone prepares the arts, I'll merge this into the main release.

Coded:
Blinding Angel
Brass Herald
Furnace of Rath
Gaea's Herald
Hammer of Bogardan
Lone Wolf
Mind Bend
Mind Slash
Oracle's Attendants
Phyrexian Colossus
Redeem
Rhox
Spreading Algae
Story Circle
Teferi's Puzzle Box

Not Coded:
Cowardice
Deflection
Guerrilla Tactics
Ivory Mask
Living Terrain
Natural Affinity
Relentless Assault
Sacred Ground
Thieves' Auction
Two-Headed Dragon

Note: I do not plan on doing this for Legends, since most of the missing cards are really, really terrible.

[0rion79]

About legends, what about just Recall and... humm... ... ....
Probably there would be just a bunch of extra cards worthy of being coded but maybe we could discuss it in another tread and, anyway, I agree with you, of course: I don't see anything without which we can't live

[aww1979]

Nice job! I wasn't expecting something like this, so it is a pleasant surprise.

I think most of the good legends cards have already been coded. I certainly don't care about Great Wall or stuff like that. (Though I'll have no sideboard answer to Righteous Avengers! Oh no! )

What about stuff like:

Clergy of the Holy Nimbus
Hell's Caretaker
In the Eye of Chaos
Nether Void
Presence of the Master
Recall
The Wretched

I just went through Gatherer on a legends search, and those are probably the only ones left I might use, other than stuff I know can't be coded due to not being able to identify a spell's controller. In the Eye of Chaos and Nether Void could probably be approximated with the same knowledge that Sphere of Resistance and such were coded with, and Presence of the Master could probably be done by making enchantments cost 100000 mana or else just lock them out like in one of the challenge modes. Hell's Caretaker is much like Goblin Welder, and we have effects like The Wretched and Recall already; no idea if Clergy of the Holy Nimbus is possible, but I think he would be fun in white weenie.

[joemuz]

damn jatill, there isn't any way you could code Shelkin Brownie and Unholy Citadel?

[0rion79]

damn jatill, there isn't any way you could code Shelkin Brownie and Unholy Citadel?

Do you really like those cards? Tastes are tastes, but I bet there is much better...
I know that such decisions are unpopular, but it would be very funny, at least for me, to create some home-made cards as this one:

Valley of Kings, Legendary land. |T: add 1 to your mana pool. All Legendary creatures have banding. Valley of Kings is indestructibile

.

Now, just to make brainstorming and share some ideas, I think that it would be nice to create a true "best of" of Legends & Darks. Jatill, of course I'm writing what follows only as inspiration for you, not as a "must do" instructions. Maybe, doing so, I'm showing something that you may like too.
For this purpose, I would be incline to remove the following cards, for the following reasons (of course in my humble opinion):

Legends.557 Aisling Leprechaun - can't find any application, there are better pixies
.577 Barktooth Warbeard - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.669 Hell Swarm - surpassed by Marsh Gas
.667 Headless Horseman - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.676 Hunding Gjornersen - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.689 Jedit Ojanen - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.695 Kasimir the Lone Wolf - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.708 Lady Orca - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.727 Mold Demon - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.748 Princess Lucrezia - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.744 Planar Gate - too mana-expensive for being used
.757 Raging Bull - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.759 Ramirez DePietro - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.776 Riven Turnbull - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.790 Sivitri Scarzam - vanilla and/or ugly creature
.388 Word of Binding - just ugly
.721 Mana Matrix - too mana-expensive for being used
.620 Elder Land Wurm - vanilla and/or ugly creature, personally would like to see it "upgraded" to Alabaster Dragon or another nice white dragon.
.621 Elder Spawn - vanilla and/or ugly creature

Instead, I wouldn't remove Righteous Avengers because it may be a nice sideboard card in Sealed Deck and would never remove the ugly (I know) Akron Legionnaire for affective values: when I was a kid, I did a deck with Urza's Land, Angelic Voices and only Artifact creatures to use the Legionaire and I love to have it here on the PC

Dark
.308 Coal Golem - useless mana source
.314 Erosion - out of flavor for blue, useless
.937 Goblin Rock Sled - ugly even as sidebard card vs. red
.335 Hidden Path - self-suicide card
.343 Mana Clash - useless and ugly
.345 Martyr's Cry - ugly and extremely limited
.948 Squire - made obsolete by tons of better cards, useless even in sealed deck
.950 Tivadar's Crusade - too specific and useless, since we don't have a sideboard
Also, even if it is not so bad by itslef, I would prefer to see Angry Mob upgraded to Crusading Knight.

Instead, there are some other cards that may be nice to see "in", both for tribe, sealed deck or competitive play:
Legends
Arboria
Avoid Fate (is it broken now, since it may counter even common instant spells as Terror or Sword to Plowshares?)
Ayesha Tanaka
Blazing Effigy (just for fun)
Caverns of Despair
Demonic Torment (sort of black pacifism)
Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore
Field of Dreams
Floral Spuzzem
Giant Slug
Halfdane
Hell's Caretaker
Imprison
Invoke Prejudice
Juxtapose
Land's Edge
Lesser Werewolf
Livonya Silone
Master of the Hunt (love token-generator creatures)
Nebuchadnezzar
Nether Void
Presence of the Master
Primordial Ooze
Psychic Purge (but if you couldn't with Guerrillia Tactics, I doubt you could with this one)
Rasputin Dreamweaver
Recall
Reverberation
Rohgahh of Kher Keep
Sentinel
Shimian Night Stalker
Stangg
Sword of the Ages
Wall of Putrid Flesh
Wall of Shadows
The Wretched

Instead, from Dark...
Dance of Many
Dust to Dust
The Fallen
Frankenstein's Monster
Gaea's Touch
Giant Shark (lol! XD)
Goblin Wizard
Grave Robbers
Living Armor
Nameless Race
Necropolis
Orc General
Preacher
Runesword
Scarecrow
Skull of Orm (may allow weird combos)
Standing Stones

[joemuz]

damn jatill, there isn't any way you could code Shelkin Brownie and Unholy Citadel?

Do you really like those cards? Tastes are tastes, but I bet there is much better...

.

sorry my attempt at humor. i guess not everyone finds the "bands with" ability as funny as i do... or think that shelkin brownie is as terrible as i do... or maybe i should have just included one of

anywayz.... jatill, i was wondering. i know you said you weren't going to code the other legends but how about this idea: there are currently 116 legends and 40 dark cards which are still not coded. for completeness sakes, how about taking out the zendikar cards from the "best of" version and adding the rest of the legends and dark? (and if you want to be really complete, the few missing A/B/U (5), arabian nights (3), and antiquities (1) ). that way, we can enjoy complete sets of all the old cards and since you made a version with all the zendikar, we can still play with those with the switcher. i know it is a lot of work and i would actually really like to help you in any way i can. i don't know how to program but i can learn pretty quick. i also have a job that allows me to basically work whenever i want so time is not an issue and i plan on learning whatever it takes to be able to help you since you've done so much for us.

anyway, let me know if this is something you'd consider. either way, thanks again for all the time you've taken to code the cards we have now.

[0rion79]

Ah, I got it now Well, I'm famous for loving ugly cards so at first I thought that I've met somebody like me, but with different tastes.
Anyway, if I'm allowed to express my very personal opinion, I really have no interest in having 100% of Darks & Legends coded. They have so many bad cards inside them, most of which are obsolete or fillers, that it would only be a waste of space in the CSV, time and energies. Also, some of them are probably really complicated!
And, also, I've already built many decks using Zendikar cards with the other ones and just don't want to have any trouble in revising for the X time my decks (I have more than 350) due to the loss of those cards. I'm much more interested in a "best of", that anyway is already completed as it is now and I can also live without any further change to Legends and Dark in our PC game.

[scherbchen]

I would have murdered for Blinding Angel a couple of weeks ago btw still nice to see it, one of my all-time favourites.

Puzzle Box would have been splendid before I ruptured a blood vessel in my brain with march of the machines 2 :p

[mathusalem]

Ok, I tried to do it fast, So I just retrieved the arts that Mok had put in his original release. not hi-rez but they look ok. I'll upgrade latter if need be

http://rapidshare.com/files/307356989/arts.rar

[Triadasoul]

I have another idea about planeswalker's: is it possible to write an exception for them in "destroy target enchantment" cards ?

[jatill]

I have another idea about planeswalker's: is it possible to write an exception for them in "destroy target enchantment" cards ?

Sure, if I was willing to rewrite all those cards. How big is the list?

[scherbchen]

Allay
Creeping Mold
Demystify
Disenchant
Mortify
Naturalize
Tranquility
Indrik Stomphowler
Aven Cloudchaser

pretty sure I'm forgetting a ton but these are off the top of my head.

[aww1979]

There's lots more than that, and some are more problematic, like Pernicious Deed or Nevinyrral's Disk since they destroy shrouded things.

[0rion79]

[OT] since the discussion is going on, may I ask for an off-topic matter? At CSV slot 1963 in "best of" what card do you have? Form of the Dragon or Essence Sliver? I got a paradox on my version while revising all of my decks.

[scherbchen]

There's lots more than that, and some are more problematic, like Pernicious Deed or Nevinyrral's Disk since they destroy shrouded things.

neither of those target enchantments.