Alternate Deck Editor/Creator for Forge

[Salasnet]

This is a long post, but worth it if you wish to have a really nice card database and deck builder for use with Forge. (See the screenshot at the end of this post.)

I have been using Nate's Deck Builder for creating and editing my decks for Forge. Now, Nate's Deck Builder does not directly support Forge by default, but since it is easily customized and tweaked, I have done just that to seamlessly integrate it with Forge. It is also a Java application, which means it works cross-platform, just like Forge.

If you wish to try it out, here are the steps to get it set up for Forge. It should take you 10-15 minutes tops to get it working and configured following the instructions below.

First, install the program and updates from this link:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=464&start=225#p44967
and follow the instructions there to set up an install of Nate's which is current to Scars of Mirrodin.


Now, there are two things you need to do to integrate Nate's for usage with Forge.

1. Nate's Deck Builder database includes all the cards for Magic, but what I wanted was to be able to limit the card display to only those cards available in Forge. Nate's has the ability to assign "flag colors" to cards, so what I did, is go through and flag all of the cards that Forge uses with a "blue" flag. Then, I can tell Nate's to only display cards with a blue flag and my card display is limited to only those cards which exist in Forge.

Since I have done all the work for this already (current to the Dec 30 2010 SVN build), all you need to do is unzip the attached file called "userData.csv" and place it in Nate's Deck Builder folder. It goes at the top level, in the same place where the DeckBuilder.jar is.

userData.zip

userData.csv with all of the Forge cards flagged as blue

(39.59 KiB) Downloaded 245 times

While in Nate's, you can do a search for "f=b" (flag is equal to b), and the card list will limit itself to cards which exist in Forge. (You can see this in the screenshot below)

When new cards are added to Forge, you can simply update Nate's by flagging the new cards available with blue flags. Since 5000+ cards are already done for you, worrying about new cards added to Forge is a manageable task.



2. Nate's Deck Builder can export quite a few deck formats. However, Forge was not one of them. I have created a template to use with Nate's which will export a created deck in Forge format. Unzip the attached file called "Forge (dck.).st" and place it in the "templates" folder of the Nate's Deck Builder folder. You will now be able to Save As.. directly to Forge .dck format.

Forge (dck).zip

Nate Export Template for Forge

(263 Bytes) Downloaded 223 times

Please note that Nate's will only read CSV, Apprentice, MWS, MTGO formatted decks. Export to Forge is a one way street. What I do, is keep all of my decks in MTGO format to save and edit, and then export them to Forge. Attached is a zip with all of the decks from the 11-30 release in MTGO format already converted.

forge decks mtgo.zip

Forge 11-30 Deck Colletion in MTGO format

(98.45 KiB) Downloaded 233 times

3. OPTIONAL - Nate's gives you the option of displaying no card art, fetching the card art automatically from the Wizards Gatherer website, or using a local HQ copy. For the smallest install, and most hassle free way of doing things, set your card image display in the View menu to use Wizards. If you wish to use Local HQ card art, you will have to rename your Forge card art to match what Nate's is expecting. Save yourself the many hours I spent doing this, and use the Gatherer option.


Please feel free to post any questions in this thread. I have been using Nate's for a few weeks now and REALLY like it. Now that I can easily see only the cards that are in Forge, and have direct export ability to Forge, the feature set of Nate's makes it a very nice alternative to the built in deck editor of Forge.

Nate's abilities are pretty well documented too. Just select the Help... menu.

Some additional features of note...
-Full rules database, for looking up rules.
-Card prices
-Select any set, or combination of sets and view only those sets (including presets for Standard, Extended... etc. All easily modifiable as they change in the future.
-You can search just about for anything, including the text on the cards.
-Deck constructor and sideboard
-Search buttons for quick searches. Right-click to quickly select/unselect an entire row of buttons.

[DennisBergkamp]

Cool stuff!
Another thing that should be possible is to just include some modified version of Nate's deck editor within Forge, since it's written in Java after all.

[friarsol]

Cool stuff!
Another thing that should be possible is to just include some modified version of Nate's deck editor within Forge, since it's written in Java after all.

I like this option the best. This way there doesn't require any updating of what is in forge, and we can get our deck editor improved at the same time.

[Salasnet]

Updated "userData" file. Just noticed I missed a few M2011 cards. Doh!