Updated Deck Editor

Deck Editor 2.0 - What is it and why do I need it?

Manalink has a 2000 card limit (i.e. only 2000 cards can be in the game at one time). However, more than 2000 cards have been coded for this game. Deck Editor 2.0 allows you to create decks using all the cards that have been coded, and automatically update your custom version to include the required cards.

Also, Deck Editor 2.0 has many search features that are not available in the original deck builder.

Some people have a very hard time getting this tool working. If things do not work out easily for you, you may want to consider abandoning this tool.

Installation

This add-on must be installed separately from the latest Manalink patch. Here's how:

• Download the latest Manalink release and art if you don't have them already
• Find the folder where your Magic.exe file resides. This is often in C:/Magic/Program. We henceforth refer to this as "the main folder".
• Create a new folder within the main folder called custDeck. This is where decks for the custom version will live. Create a sub-folder custDeck/all as well.
• Copy any decks you would like to use into custDeck/all (your current decks are in the playdeck folder). If you already had decks in custDeck, move (not copy) them to custDeck/all as well.
• Create another folder within the main folder called cardArtCus. This is where your art will go for this version.
• Download and unpack this 1-time only download to the main folder: http://www.mediafire.com/file/nz1493ct9ie3dsg/deck_editor_1_time.zip

If you make changes to your custom set and then re-download this file, you will clobber your changes.

• The main file to use is DeckEditor.exe. If you try to run that and you get an error that you are missing files, try using this installer first, and then re-download the above file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ndzm1jnwktz/set editor.zip
• Run DeckEditor.exe. You may be told that some of your decks have illegal cards in them, because the name of the card is invalid. To fix these errors, either manually correct the name in the deck file, or load and save the deck again in Manalink, or remove the deck file.
• The first time you run this, some setup is required. Check the 'Custom' radio button, and then choose Include/Exclude decks. Choose all of your excluded decks (you can multi-select) and click >> to include them. Choose Update My2000 and take a break while all the cards in your decks are incorporated into your custom magic version.
• Once that is finished, choose 'Refresh My2000', and choose to only update the art. This will take just a couple minutes.

Now your cardArtCus folder should be updated. Setup is complete.

• Once you have closed DeckEditor, run patch.exe. Choose to update the custom version. This will bring in code changes that were made since I uploaded MagicCustom.exe.

Usage

• To run this application, run DeckEditor.exe

Running DeckEditorWrapper.exe will not work.
This program is very slow to load (up to a minute). Do not close the DOS window that appears.

• Now just edit your decks and include whichever cards you like.
  
• To run your custom version of Magic you can either:
  

(1) Run MagicCustom.exe -or-
(2) Run Magic.exe and choose Switcher -> Custom

FAQs

Q: I get runtime errors. What's wrong?
A: Try installing Servicepack3 and the latest VBruntime

Q: My art is wrong is the custom version
A: Follow the directions in the installation section to refresh all art from the database.

Q: Why does the number of cards included > 0 even before I add decks?
A: Some cards have their ids hard-coded in the binary exe files. These cannot be removed.

Q: Why would I want to refresh everything the database (besides art)?
A: If data entry errors are corrected in the original versions, those updates will not automatically be applied to your custom version. To apply them, you need to refresh your database. This refresh can take several hours, though, so it is recommended you start this and let it run overnight.

Q: How does the Custom version interact with updates and fixes? Let's say that now I spend a couple of hours to create my custom library, but then you release a new official version where you fix some cards Then what does happen to my custom version? Will it still be bugged or will it automatically update?
A: Any code changes to modern cards (i.e. cards coded after March 2009) get applied automatically to every version, since they share the same code base. However, some bug fixes require changes to Magic.exe or the csv files. Those changes will not come over to the custom version since they use different files. To get those changes applied to your custom version, you need to run the refresh script that takes about 8 hours.

Q: How do I use the search boxes? A: Here are some valid search terms: "graveyard from" would look for that exact string. Without the quotes, it would look for any cards that include both graveyard and from, in any order. Using the minus sign (ex: graveyard -from) would search for all cards that include the word graveyard but NOT the word from.

Notes for developers

1. Do not use hard-coded ids when writing code. Ever. Use get_id_by_name instead.
2. Challenge mode relies on all the cards in the challenge decks still being in the constructed version. Do not remove them.
3. If you want to to update cards 1 at a time, you can use My 2000 Installation and FAQs