ML3 basic Playdeck brainstorming

[stassy]

Argh, most of the EDH decks use uncoded or banned cards, had to strip them and redo Korath Playdeck, well glad we have yours Nexhro.

Also as Korath are directly taken from real tournaments or Magic official website, they are a bit less fun to play (the usual best cards are in there), but the AI doesn't care and plays many of them quite well.

[Nexhro]

Are you going to merge Korath's and Brewin's submissions with the general PlayDeck archive once you're done converting?

Also as Korath are directly taken from real tournaments or Magic official website, they are a bit less fun to play (the usual best cards are in there), but the AI doesn't care and plays many of them quite well.

Those competitive decks can still make for fun games, as long as they're not brought to free-for-all EDH tables. 4 competitive decks battling it out usually makes for grindy games without much diplomacy involved, which is pretty much the opposite of the format's purpose. Then again, many EDH players argue that 1v1 EDH games beat that very purpose, while I personally find them more intriguing and challenging than regular (Standard, Legacy, Modern, Vintage) duels.

Even those goodstuff decks or counter-heavy Vendilion Clique builds have their charm imo. The AI usually prioritizes the spells at its disposal at a given time quite well (albeit having difficulty prioritizing targets) and combined with the wider range of possible boardstates compared to traditional formats, this makes for more satisfying matches.
I've played roughly ten times as many Vintage matches on Spells of the Ancients enhanced Microprose Magic during the late 90s as EDH matches in the past years, but have lost way more EDH matches to the AI than Vintage ones. That's right, folks: losing to the AI is indeed possible (without keeping Enter pressed for 2 minutes).

[stassy]

The issue is still the dupe decks and uncoded ones :

- For Brewin Playdeck , if we merge, we have to put them in separate folder, then each update we need to put away those folders before PDA check then put back, which is a bit of a hassle.

- For Korath Playdeck, half of the card pool is missing and he said he wanted to code them so the current folder is a temporary workaround. I first wanted to make a replace list but it will be a hassle to track and revert back cards that will be coded (I couldn't track back the current official Playdeck decks that got a replace list but Orion79 ones, hate myself for not keeping the replace list).

About the AI, it's the same for me, because EDH is slow paced, has larger card pool and more possibilities for AI to come back, games are less one sided and a bit more rewarding when you come back

[stassy]

Korath, Brian and official updated to CoRM15

Decks added in Theros foldr :

BNG Bant Ramp.dck
BNG Boros Token.dck
BNG BR Devotion.dck
BNG Naya Auras.dck
BNG Orzhov Aggro.dck
BNG Rakdos Midrange Demon.dck
BNG RDW.dck
JOU Azorius Aggro.dck
JOU Boros Burn.dck
JOU BRW Midrange.dck
JOU BUG Sliver.dck
JOU Fates Forseen.dck
JOU GW Pillow Fort.dck
JOU Izzet Scry Burn.dck
JOU Monoblack Devotion.dck
JOU Monoblue Control.dck
JOU Mortals of Myth.dck
JOU Pantheon's Power.dck
JOU RG Devotion.dck
JOU Voracious Rage.dck

Funniest deck played is Pillow Fort, an alternative staller lifegain deck

[Nexhro]

G'day, ladies and gentlemen!

I figured it's time for another update and made the following changes to the general structure of the archive:

Added /PlayDeck_Brewin folder - all files from "PlayDeck_T1_Vintage_Conv_12-09-2014.zip" are now in there.
Added /PlayDeck_Korath folder - all files from "Korath Playdeck 12-09-2014.zip" are now in there.
Added /PlayDeck_Nex folder - all files from /Degenerate/EDH folder are now in /PlayDeck_Nex/EDH.

Furthermore, I added some Pauper decks using the curent offcial banned list.
Some of those have been successfully piloted to top8s of numerous Daily Events on Magic Online by my buddies and me, others are strictly casual. Given the generally low level of card complexity, the AI has little room to make severely bad decisions and usually proves a bit of a challenge. Since it sucks at micromanaging its resources, a factor that is of special significance in Pauper matches, beating the AI is still fairly easy if one is somewhat accustomed to the decks and their key pieces.

Unfortunately, some key cards like Grave Scrabbler, Kaervek's Torch and Roiling Terrain, that make certain Tier 1,5 & Tier 2 strategies viable, are missing, so some of the decks are but a shadow of their original versions. Maybe the devs will glance over my ever expanding wishlist one day and code some of them *wink wink* .

The root of all evil is the AI's current inability to handle the Ravnica block bouncelands when it controls less than 3 lands. Games where it plays one of the decks using them (and half of the decks I added do) are little fun, since it will stop playing lands as soon as it has a bounceland in hand, often resulting in it skipping multiple turns at the beginning of the game until it decides to discard that land.

Decks added:

Pauper_Nex_Affinity.dck
Pauper_Nex_Ally Mill.dck
Pauper_Nex_Blightning Aggro.dck
Pauper_Nex_Blink.dck
Pauper_Nex_Blue LD.dck
Pauper_Nex_Burn.dck
Pauper_Nex_Ceta Tron.dck
Pauper_Nex_Dimir Trinket.dck
Pauper_Nex_Doorkeeper.dck
Pauper_Nex_Dreadwaters.dck
Pauper_Nex_Dredge.dck
Pauper_Nex_Esper Infinity.dck
Pauper_Nex_Extort.dck
Pauper_Nex_Faes.dck
Pauper_Nex_Filtered Elves.dck
Pauper_Nex_Fog.dck
Pauper_Nex_Gnaw.dck
Pauper_Nex_Goblins.dck
Pauper_Nex_Goodstuff Bant.dck
Pauper_Nex_Goodstuff Blink.dck
Pauper_Nex_Goodstuff Jund.dck
Pauper_Nex_Goodstuff.dck
Pauper_Nex_Hexproof Aura.dck
Pauper_Nex_Izzet Delver.dck
Pauper_Nex_LD.dck
Pauper_Nex_MBC.dck
Pauper_Nex_Melody Elves.dck
Pauper_Nex_Merchant.dck
Pauper_Nex_Mill.dck
Pauper_Nex_MUC.dck
Pauper_Nex_Ping.dck
Pauper_Nex_Rakdos Control.dck
Pauper_Nex_Ramp.dck
Pauper_Nex_Rebels.dck
Pauper_Nex_Rogues.dck
Pauper_Nex_Slinger.dck
Pauper_Nex_Slivers.dck
Pauper_Nex_Stompy.dck
Pauper_Nex_Suicide.dck
Pauper_Nex_Swarm.dck
Pauper_Nex_Teachings.dck
Pauper_Nex_Tron.dck
Pauper_Nex_Turbocloud.dck
Pauper_Nex_Unblockable.dck
Pauper_Nex_Weenie.dck

Lastly, there is the usual EDH decks update. Since Gargaroz made Metalworker legal for use in EDH decks with the release of CoRM15 mini3, all decks now respect the latest banned list change (unless I missed one or two).
Then there's a plethora of new decks and the usual changes to the older ones. People interested in the latter can find a list of changes in the attached .txt file.
I was on the fence regarding the inclusion of Council's Judgment. It's current code makes the AI vote for a permanent the player hasn't voted for, making it unrealistically more powerful. I put it in nonetheless, hoping the code will be revised some time in the near future.

Decks added:

EDH_Nex_Ashling (Pilgrim).dck
EDH_Nex_Athreos.dck
EDH_Nex_Cromat II.dck
EDH_Nex_Dromar.dck
EDH_Nex_Ephara.dck
EDH_Nex_Ghave II.dck
EDH_Nex_Gisela.dck
EDH_Nex_Horde of Notions II.dck
EDH_Nex_Ith.dck
EDH_Nex_Jeleva.dck
EDH_Nex_Johan.dck
EDH_Nex_Jolrael.dck
EDH_Nex_Kami.dck
EDH_Nex_Karona II.dck
EDH_Nex_Keranos.dck
EDH_Nex_Kruphix II.dck
EDH_Nex_Lazav.dck
EDH_Nex_Maga.dck
EDH_Nex_Momir Vig.dck
EDH_Nex_Numot.dck
EDH_Nex_Numot II.dck
EDH_Nex_Omnath.dck
EDH_Nex_Phelddagrif.dck
EDH_Nex_Riku II.dck
EDH_Nex_Ruhan II.dck
EDH_Nex_Saffi Eriksdotter.dck
EDH_Nex_Sedris.dck
EDH_Nex_Sharuum II.dck
EDH_Nex_Sliver Hivelord.dck
EDH_Nex_Sliver Hivelord II.dck
EDH_Nex_Sliver Queen II.dck
EDH_Nex_Sydri.dck
EDH_Nex_Teferi (Archmage).dck (Placeholder)
EDH_Nex_Teneb.dck
EDH_Nex_Thassa.dck
EDH_Nex_Thromok.dck
EDH_Nex_Treva.dck
EDH_Nex_Ulamog.dck
EDH_Nex_Vish Kal.dck
EDH_Nex_Xira Arien.dck
EDH_Nex_Yisan.dck

You need the latest bugfix for the CoRM15 patch in order to make the EDH decks running Metalworker legal.

Enjoy!

stassy, if the changes I made to the folder structure are fine by you, would you please update the OP? It's still providing the March 2014 version of the archive. Maybe you have better ideas regarding the inclusion of the decklists submitted by Brewin and Korath?

[stassy]

As long as there is no dupe elsewhere which conflict with PDA, it's fine for you to have your own dedicated folder since Orion79 has one too, though in the long term it would be nice to have a real basic folder with primer decks that any newbie would want to pickup then custom decks selection provided by players.

Going to update that asap.

[stassy]

Updated Playdeck folder to KTK expansion

Added official KTK decks to its folder and a few recent custom/tournaments winners ones:

KTK Abzan Siege.dck
KTK Jeskai Monks.dck
KTK Sultai Schemers.dck
KTK Temur Avalanche.dck
KTK Conquering Hordes.dck
KTK WG Aggro.dck
KTK UB Control Discard.dck
KTK Abzan Midrange.dck
KTK Jeskai Tempo.dck

Not really fond of this expansion, still creature oriented and new effect are somewhat meh (effect after attacking). AI love it though, chain casting and swarming players with huge mobs :p

For some reason one deck didn't get PDA approval (apart from the Korath playdeck with some uncoded cards):

PlayDeck_Nex\Pauper\Pauper_Nex_LD.dck
Invalid Format. Either the PlayDeck has fewer than 10 lines,
or the 10th line doesn't start with a period.

And I found out it was missing a ; in the last comment line :p

[Nexhro]

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you...

...the latest EDH decks update!

Decks added:

EDH_Nex_Atogatog II.dck
EDH_Nex_Bruna.dck
EDH_Nex_Grenzo.dck
EDH_Nex_Halfdane.dck
EDH_Nex_Kamahl (Fist) II.dck
EDH_Nex_Laquatus.dck
EDH_Nex_Marchesa.dck
EDH_Nex_Narset.dck
EDH_Nex_Narset II.dck
EDH_Nex_Oros,dck
EDH_Nex_Purphoros.dck
EDH_Nex_Saffi Eriksdotter II.dck
EDH_Nex_Sidisi.dck
EDH_Nex_Skullbriar.dck
EDH_Nex_Starke II.dck
EDH_Nex_Surrak Dragonclaw.dck
EDH_Nex_Tariel.dck
EDH_Nex_Zirilan.dck
EDH_Nex_Zurgo Helmsmasher.dck
EDH_Nex_Zurgo Helmsmasher II.dck

Then there's the usual adjustments to the catalog, which this time took countless hours thanks to the KTK gainland cycle introducing new enemy color duals.
Keep in mind I took the naive approach to adding recently coded cards, meaning that cards which are currently bugged (albeit supposedly fixed with the release of the next patch) have been added to many of the decks. A list of new additions can be found in the attached changelog.

All in all, contrary to stassy's opinion, I think KTK is an above average set providing a decent amount of EDH fodder: new wedge commanders, enemy color spells and duals, and some instant format staples like Hardened Scales, Clever Impersonator, or See the Unwritten. Looking at the other formats, it should be noted that it spawned a new combo deck in both Standard and Modern, which is a brilliant feat especially in respect of the former.
The big one for EDH, Commander 2014, is just around the corner, and I'm already having nightmares about tweaking all 173 decks - one at a time.

Enjoy!

Edit: One deck was missing and another had been copied from the wrong folder (hence had Anafenza instead of EDH rules card), so I reupped the files. My bad, stassy.

[stassy]

Playdeck updated to latest FRF patch :

Added VladVoivode PlayDeck_VladVoivode folder to root folder with the following decks :

| Open

DB adunnson's White Weenie.dck
DB Bryce Thomas'sDong Gain .dck
DB Fire on the Mountain.dck
DB Karl K's UR Delver.dck
DB kevin brown's Rites.dck
DB kevin brown's Wizards.dck
DB Thomas Van Borm's WR.dck
DB Tigarius's test .dck
DBjclarke2011'sred-black vam.dck
DBPhilip Lam's URW Midrange.dck
TOUT Abzan Enchantress.dck
TOUT Abzan Lifegain.dck
TOUT Assassin of the Gods.dck
TOUT Avacyn and Gisela.dck
TOUT Big Boros.dck
TOUT Competitive cows.dck
TOUT Crazy BallerModernElves.dck
TOUT Goony Green Guys.dck
TOUT GWB Assassin Token.dck
TOUT Hadal Depths.dck
TOUT Hydra Overkill.dck
TOUT Martyr.dck
TOUT Milling Wave.dck
TOUT Millions of Wolves.dck
TOUT Mono Black Vamps.dck
TOUT Nylea's Hunters.dck
TOUT Orzhov Agony.dck
TOUT Pack Rattrap.dck
TOUT PostRotationGolgariValu.dck
TOUT Presence of the Gods.dck
TOUT super rats!.dck
TOUT Swarm and Conquer V 20.dck
TOUT The Downward Spiral.dck
TOUT Tribal Smash.dck
TOUT Unique Turbofog.dck
TOUT Vintage Discard.dck
TOUT Waste Not Discard.dck
TOUT White Control.dck
TOUT WinnerWinnerWolf Dinner.dck
TOUT You Shall Not Cast!.dck
TOUT You're on borrowed time.dck
TOUTNo!MyMonstersAreStaying.dck

Added FRF Intro Pack decks to \Mono Set\Fate Reforged folder
FRF BG Grave Advantage.dck
FRF BG Profit.dck
FRF BW Unflinching Assault.dck
FRF UBG Power and Profit.dck
FRF UBG Power.dck
FRF UG Surprise Attack.dck
FRF UR Cunning Plan.dck
FRF WR Stampeding Hordes.dck

Added 1 deck to \Mono Set\Fate Reforged folder
FRF Rakdos Aggro Reanimator.dck

Added 1 deck to \Mono Set\Khans of Tarkir
KTK Mardu Discard Control.dck

Aded 1 deck to \Mono Set\M15
M15 Blue Artifact.dck

Added Fizanko Elspeth vs Tezzeret duel decks to \Mono Set\Duel Decks folder
DD-Elspeth-Tezzeret.dck
DD-Tezzeret-Elspeth.dck

Added 2 decks to \Degenerate\Tribal
Tribal Artifact Gargoyle.dck
Tribal Pegasus.dck

Added 5 decks to \Degenerate\Combo
Combo Apostles Emrakul.dck
Combo Azorius Erayo Ethersworn.dck
Combo Blue Control Boomerang.dck
Combo BUG Counters.dck
Combo Mono Green Squirrels.dck

Added 1 decks to \Degenerate\Themed\ControlNonblue
[baka]the_boring.dck

Funniest decks in the lot are of course Boomerang and lolsquirrels, though the latter is quite long to pull off

[Korath]

WOTC Daily Deck lists, from the end of the previous package (2014 May 2) to the column's demise on 2015 December 11. Converted via script, which is included.

As with the previous package, plenty of these have cards that aren't in Manalink. I haven't done any analysis of which. Sideboards aren't included.

[Korath]

And here are 131,530 decks from mtgdecks.net, by way of Agetian's conversion to Forge. Most of the caveats in that post apply to these Manalink versions of the decks too, of course. Sideboards were removed.

Also attached are the 44,525 decks with one or more cards not implemented in Manalink; and listings of each unimplemented card for both Manalink and (the current development version of) Shandalar, sorted by the number of decks each appears in.

I omitted three decks that each have a single un-set card, since they're probably errors at the source anyway. They can be viewed here (Spell Counter: possibly implementable for multiplayer by watching the chat window, but that presupposes that multiplayer is someday fixed), here (Little Girl: either fractional mana or fractional power/toughness would be enough to make this card never happen), and here (Growth Spurt: could be programmed right now).

Sorry about the obscure-to-Windows compression formats, but plain zip was more than twelve times as large. 7-zip can handle them if your decompressor of choice cannot. And yes, I'm well aware that gzipping a bzip2ed file is largely pointless, but .gz is an allowed attachment suffix while .bz2 is not, plain gzip produced files about twice as large (still much better than zip), and I figured simply renaming the files would be more confusing.

I'm really not happy with mtgdecks.net as a source; there's many hundreds of close variants of most decks, and a real dearth of non-tournament-quality casual decks. I'd appreciate suggestions of somewhere to pull a mix of maybe a dozen or two representative decks per Standard season, ranging from spiky tournament to dumb casual theme decks. WOTC's daily deck list column was great for this until they discontinued it last year.

[stassy]

I use TCGplayer for tournament deck search, though for most mtg tournament websites their content might be the same since mtg competitive scene is well tracked everywhere.

For causual/theme deck I still use tappedout, force of habits, quite old and unintuitive but some original & fun decks can be found there.

For staple, there is the mtg salvation forums which can provide some basic insight on primer deck building

[Korath]

The 228 decks from the Daily Deck List column at gatheringmagic.com, which started around the same time the WOTC one stopped. No purely-casual decks, but a good mix of tournament formats, no hundreds of trivial variants of the same deck, no hundreds of decks listed with a dozen or less cards.

Only one deck is complete in Shandalar (Master of the Domain.dck). Manalink fares much better, with about 170 valid, but that's with a dev build - a lot of these decks are for Kaladesh Standard, so won't be complete in release yet.