Revised Precons w/ Sideboards

[otherright]

I'm a huge fan of the precons that Wizards designs for magic. For years now Gos has been collecting, archiving, and posting magic decks for us to play and for that I'm very grateful. Unfortunately, his archive has become so huge that it is getting unwieldy. So, to help me better track the precons, I arranged them by set. When I got to DotP, I figured I could improve on it by adding the unlocks to the sideboard so you could swap out cards like you do in the regular DotP games. Then I remembered event decks have sideboards as well, so I added them.

Anyway, here they are, just to give some organization to the precons and some variation to DotP. Of course, there are a few, and it really is very few sideboards that are missing a card, for example Odric isn't in Forge, so he's missing in the Peacekeepers sideboard.

Gos, as the main deck archivist do with these revisions as you will, and thanks for your continued hard work.

[gos]

I'm a huge fan of the precons that Wizards designs for magic. For years now Gos has been collecting, archiving, and posting magic decks for us to play and for that I'm very grateful.

My goodness, you're right - it's been two years already! And you're welcome

Unfortunately, his archive has become so huge that it is getting unwieldy. So, to help me better track the precons, I arranged them by set. When I got to DotP, I figured I could improve on it by adding the unlocks to the sideboard so you could swap out cards like you do in the regular DotP games. Then I remembered event decks have sideboards as well, so I added them.

I do this as well when I add decks to my database, and exactly the same thing for DotP For a long time, of course, forge didn't implement sideboards, so I didn't really think about them that much when made .dck files to post to this board. After sideboards were implemented I include them in the files if they are fully implementable when I add the decks, although I have to admit I haven't been fully consistent on this point.

Anyway, here they are, just to give some organization to the precons and some variation to DotP. Of course, there are a few, and it really is very few sideboards that are missing a card, for example Odric isn't in Forge, so he's missing in the Peacekeepers sideboard.

My policy (so far) is to include sideboards if they are fully implementable, i.e. all of the cards are forgeable. This means most of the .dck files (especially those for competitive decks) are legal (for the time when the deck was played, at least). It also means that decks are in one of two discreet states: "sideboard forgeable" or "sideboard not forgeable".

Gos, as the main deck archivist do with these revisions as you will, and thanks for your continued hard work.

Thank you. When I have free time and the energy to do so, I think I will add code to my current process to check for sideboards becoming forgeable and add them to the archives at that point and afterwards.

I'd like to add that this is provisional. If my way of doing things, naming conventions, and so on, inconvenience those of you that are actually using these decklists, I'm open to change

[friarsol]

Hey gos,

Could you give us an update on which remaining cards are most commonly featured in unforgeable decks? I'm sure Sorin and Mindslaver are pretty high, but just curious about the rest.

[Diogenes]

Thanks, Otherright! This project really does have the best userbase.

I'd like to add that this is provisional. If my way of doing things, naming conventions, and so on, inconvenience those of you that are actually using these decklists, I'm open to change

Your file naming convention would be perfect if we had subfolders and more sortable metadata (date, format, and source,) in the decklists themselves (which I'm hoping for, eventually.)

At the moment, I keep your release lists organized in The Guide, and pretty much launch that whenever I launch Forge. It would be helpful to have a datestamp header ("020206 Nicolas Labarre's Fish", for instance,) since everything just kinda wants to be arranged chronologically most of the time. I don't know about other users, but I dump entire packs into decks\constructed as I use them, and other than daily decks and top decks never have more than one pack in at a time, so including a set code before or after the date would probably be more hassle than help.

I'll vote for using Otherright's naming system for precons (I think this one specifically should be changed, since the decks are meant to be played together.)

Anyway, sorry if this came about as demanding - I'm in a rush and I just dumped my thoughts. Thanks again, both of you!

[otherright]

I think it would be even better to do it by article as well. I started going back to some of the decks I really like and doing just that.

Daily Deck - 051513 - Izzet Strings
BoaB - 072711 - Gravitational Shift
From the Lab - 030112 - Death Clock

Furthermore, when it comes to decks I build in Forge, I use 00 - as the prefix. If it is a deck that I have actually built for play with our group, I use 01 - MRD - (MRD being My Real Decks).

[Xitax]

If you were to go back and check for Forgeable sideboards on already released decks every couple of months or so, that would be excellent and well appreciated! I have a feeling that the first time you do this it's going to be a pretty big update.

[Diogenes]

I think it would be even better to do it by article as well. I started going back to some of the decks I really like and doing just that.

Daily Deck - 051513 - Izzet Strings
BoaB - 072711 - Gravitational Shift
From the Lab - 030112 - Death Clock

That's what I meant by "set code" (poor choice of words, admittedly - "source tag" would be better.) I like the way this looks, but I'd recommend category-YYMMDD-source-deckname over source-YYMMDD-deckname. The reason is that a BoaB deck from November 2010 benefits more from being close to a Daily Deck from the same month than it does being close to another budget deck from Kamigawa block.

I think the appeal of source-date is that it suggests you can load *all* the decks at once and it would simplify use. I don't think that's true, however: if you did load everything, there would be 14 articles worth of decks between a given week's Top Decks and that week's Daily Decks. On the other hand, I really like the idea of having the top tier, combo, and budget decks (conveniently labeled as such) of any given environment right next to each other.

By "category", I simply mean article/precon/World-Championships/etc. Examples would be: "Article 121221 Feature - DoogieH - Pauper Delver", "Preconstructed - Torment - Insanity", or "World Championships 1998 - Mark Le Pine - Speed Red".

Furthermore, when it comes to decks I build in Forge, I use 00 - as the prefix. If it is a deck that I have actually built for play with our group, I use 01 - MRD - (MRD being My Real Decks).

I use 00 for my test decks too.

[gos]

In a perfect world, we could add various fields (date, source, column, format, deck builder, deck player, tournament, etc.) to a deck's metadata and then sort by whichever field we want at the time

Also, we could organize whatever folder structure under /decks/constructed/ that's convenient to us, and forge would recursively read those subdirectories.

Any devs want to chime in about the possibility of this happening?

[otherright]

So how about approaching them about it?

[moomarc]

In a perfect world, we could add various fields (date, source, column, format, deck builder, deck player, tournament, etc.) to a deck's metadata and then sort by whichever field we want at the time

Also, we could organize whatever folder structure under /decks/constructed/ that's convenient to us, and forge would recursively read those subdirectories.

Any devs want to chime in about the possibility of this happening?

So how about approaching them about it?

Max already put in some groundwork for tags a while ago, but his interests are elsewhere in the project (predominantly getting Forge network-play capable) so he left it for another dev to build from. Myk had it on his to-do list, but has been inactive for a short while now due to real-life commitments. So it is still waiting there for another dev to take up. Once the tags are implemented, I imagine it could cover most of those categories through filtering. I would have taken it on myself but its beyond my limited java knowledge.

[gos]

Hey gos,

Could you give us an update on which remaining cards are most commonly featured in unforgeable decks? I'm sure Sorin and Mindslaver are pretty high, but just curious about the rest.

Here's the top 100 (with the amount of decks they are in):

Mindslaver 147
Spellskite 100
Command Tower 63
Boseiju, Who Shelters All 42
Summoning Trap 42
Gauntlet of Power 41
Pandemonium 39
Mycosynth Lattice 37
Jötun Grunt 36
Sorin Markov 34
Shining Shoal 32
Gemstone Caverns 30
Artificial Evolution 27
Caged Sun 27
Precursor Golem 26
Nacatl War-Pride 25
Power Conduit 24
Plunge into Darkness 23
Paradox Haze 22
Clockspinning 21
Gilded Drake 19
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 19
Patron of the Nezumi 19
Archive Trap 17
Wort, the Raidmother 17
Chain of Plasma 16
Arena 15
Dream Leash 15
Odric, Master Tactician 15
Confusion in the Ranks 14
Patron of the Orochi 14
Quicksilver Dragon 14
Commandeer 13
Djinn Illuminatus 12
Stranglehold 12
Harm's Way 11
Mana Reflection 11
Phyrexian Colossus 11
Restore Balance 11
Soul Burn 11
Volcano Hellion 11
Wild Ricochet 11
Jester's Scepter 10
Leonin Arbiter 10
Puca's Mischief 10
Radiate 10
Shadow of Doubt 10
Spinning Darkness 10
Trade Secrets 10
Well of Lost Dreams 10
Choice of Damnations 9
Master Warcraft 9
Reins of Power 9
Static Orb 9
Wall of Shards 9
Battlefield Scrounger 8
Endless Whispers 8
Evangelize 8
Manaforge Cinder 8
Patron of the Kitsune 8
Razia, Boros Archangel 8
Sheltering Ancient 8
Timesifter 8
Tunnel Vision 8
Weatherseed Totem 8
Aphetto Dredging 7
Candles' Glow 7
Captain's Maneuver 7
Death Match 7
Dichotomancy 7
Fate Transfer 7
Giant Oyster 7
Jinxed Choker 7
Krark's Thumb 7
Lava Burst 7
Mind Bend 7
Panglacial Wurm 7
Psychic Battle 7
Quicksilver Elemental 7
Reborn Hero 7
Research // Development 7
Shape of the Wiitigo 7
Spawnbroker 7
Test of Faith 7
Thoughtbound Primoc 7
Arcanum Wings 6
Butcher Orgg 6
Divine Deflection 6
Fathom Trawl 6
Lethal Vapors 6
Liege of the Hollows 6
Patron of the Akki 6
Psychogenic Probe 6
Spellweaver Volute 6
Standard Bearer 6
World at War 6
_____ 6
Autumn Willow 5
Chain of Acid 5
Contamination 5

[Xitax]

Please don't rename all the decks by date unless Forge gets a better deck search function...! Although if we do get one, this would be an excellent idea.

[Max mtg]

Please attach the list of cards unsuported cards ordered by their importance somewhere in developer's corner to remember of them.

[Max mtg]

We have implemented a number of cards from the list above, so the top 100 is expected to change a lot with the next beta release.

Gos, will you spare some time to generate and publish an updated list after the beta is out? (If there is some kind of script that helps you build the list)

[gos]

We have implemented a number of cards from the list above, so the top 100 is expected to change a lot with the next beta release.

Gos, will you spare some time to generate and publish an updated list after the beta is out? (If there is some kind of script that helps you build the list)

I have a SQL script. It takes a ridiculously long time to execute however

I will post an updated list in the thread in the developers' corner, unless you prefer it elsewhere.