Mtgdb.Gui: search MTG cards, build decks, manage collection

[hidalgo]

Does this program have something like a blueprint feature? Like it sifts your collection and makes a deck/ gives you a good base to make a deck on?

No, it doesn't. The application is basically a search engine + storage for your collections and decks. It has no knowledge on how good or bad the deck plays.

I have an idea how to get around it, but keep in mind, It is a theoretical advice, I do not do it myself.

To make the app help you find a strong deck from your cards, give it a bunch of supposedly good decks.
Then look which of these decks you can build from the cards you have, this is achieved by searching / sorting the deck list

The next question is where do you get the list of good standard decks.

One option I can see is import decks from some mtg deck related website, slow, one deck at a time.

Ideally you want a ready list of deck files, because then you can import them all in 1 step, by dropping the directory into Mtgdb.Gui, like https://github.com/NikolayXHD/Mtgdb/wik ... .com-decks

[proud]

Hi Hidalgo,

Sorry for the trouble with MTGJSON. I believe Zach is trying not to make any more changes to IDs.

Anyway, if you have questions or feedback, let me know and I’ll pass it along (or find us on Discord).

[hidalgo]

Sorry for the trouble with MTGJSON. I believe Zach is trying not to make any more changes to IDs.

Like they say, those who don't make mistakes are those who do nothing.

Turns out ID thing is more fragile than one would think.

It can even break without any changes in Mtgjson code. Take for example "Nissa, Sage Animist // Nissa, Vastwood Seer".

I believe between MTGJSON releases multiverseId returned by Scryfall changed from 398438 to 398432. After that it's only a matter of luck whether OriginalText field changes thus breaking ID.

Maybe a sort of test could be introduced to verify that the cards from the previous release are all found by IDs in the following release.

[Qumojo]

Hi, I am enjoying 4.0.0.4 update, as always, good job.

Importing and exporting some cards, I could find that there is something weird going on with these split cards like:

1 Appeal/Authority
1 Turn/Burn

If added to a deck and exported as MTG_Online format, they simply despear, well, depending on the selected side of the split card.

Examples:
as mtgdb.gui format all good but

test_deck_json.txt

(1.28 KiB) Downloaded 322 times

as MTG_Online format some of the cards are missing

test_deck.txt

(22 Bytes) Downloaded 256 times

Happens as well when exporting the collection, they simply don't come up at all.

And as per the pic

pictures are facing the wrong way, not sure if it is just me and I need to redownload them or it is due to the update.

Thanks for looking into it

[hidalgo]

Hi Qumojo, 4.0.0.6 fixes the issues you reported, thanks for input.

[boxian]

Hi Hidalgo,

Would there be a way to implement deck version tracking or a changelog for decks?

Also, would your program work well for tracking a cube outside the changelog?

The other feature I am interested in would be the ability to tag cards in a deck/cube for the purpose inside that deck.

Thanks very much

[hidalgo]

Hi Hidalgo,
Would there be a way to implement deck version tracking or a changelog for decks?
Also, would your program work well for tracking a cube outside the changelog?

Hi! it's not clear to me how version tracking within Mtgdb.Gui could help you.

If I wanted to have a chain of deck versions, I would save them in different files, like

mydeck.v1.dck
mydeck.v2.dck and so on

If I then wanted to track what changed between v1 -> v2 or between v2 -> v10 then I would use a comparer application, for example WinMerge.

Could you explain why do you want to have version tracking, and why do you want it to be within Mtgdb.Gui ?

The other feature I am interested in would be the ability to tag cards in a deck/cube for the purpose inside that deck.

I am adding this feature to the backlog, I think it should be handy.
In practice it means whenever I fill inspiration to start a big new feature, I'll do it, which is probably a matter of month or so.

[boxian]

Could you explain why do you want to have version tracking, and why do you want it to be within Mtgdb.Gui ?

I think it would be more organized to have it all within one file instead of spread across dated files or version numbers. I also think that it would make it easier to revert changes or see the evolution of a deck over time (this is especially helpful for eternal format decks).

Especially things like tagging the functionality of a card in a deck, things like that could allow for better deck building via looking for best purpose replacements and not losing the work put into past versions and rationalizations of the decks.

No problem if it's not a thing that you want to implement.

Thanks for working on the direct cube support later on.

[hidalgo]

Thanks for working on the direct cube support later on.

It's a shame to admit, I do not even know what a cube is. I suppose it's a pool of cards from where the players draft before the match.
How do you want Mtgdb.Gui to support cubes? Something like draft simulation?

[hidalgo]

I think it would be more organized to have it all within one file instead of spread across dated files or version numbers. I also think that it would make it easier to revert changes or see the evolution of a deck over time (this is especially helpful for eternal format decks).

Especially things like tagging the functionality of a card in a deck, things like that could allow for better deck building via looking for best purpose replacements and not losing the work put into past versions and rationalizations of the decks.

No problem if it's not a thing that you want to implement.

The thing you want to achieve is called source control, this is how we programmers track the changes in our code.

To solve your task of version tracking you need a so-called repository.

You save the deck you are editing (along with tagging info added in the future) in a file (allways the same file)

Whenever you want to save a new version then you overwrite the previuos file and do a so-called commit, providing a brief description of the change (like the purpose, any other important details hard to read from the changes themselves)

Using source code control tool (such as git) you can view the previous versions, observe what specifically changed between them and also revert the file to any previuos state whenever needed.

From my side I can help you with that by providing a deck file format, which you can read and see card names & your custom tags instead of useless for human reading card IDs.

Below I put some examples to help you familiarize with the concept of source code repository

https://github.com/NikolayXHD/Mtgdb/com ... ublish.bat

the link above is the history one of the files from Mtgdb.Gui source code. You can see the list of commits. By clicking on any commit you see what changed.

https://github.com/NikolayXHD/Mtgdb/bla ... ublish.bat

The other way to see the file is a so-called 'blame'. you see the current state of your file, and the origin of any line: when did it become the way it is, and for what purpose (the message you put with commit)

[Peeves]

This program seems amazing! The filtering takes a bit to get used to, but once you get used to it, it really flows. The UI is big and looks great, and the tooltips are amazingly helpful. Thank you for the hard work!

There are three suggestions/questions I have -

- Could Scryfall syntax be added to the program (as aliases maybe?)

- Is it possible to add a Maybeboard to decks? (I assume this would not be saved when saving to MTGO format etc.)

- Is it possible to hide the Mechanics row at the top?

Thank you again!

[hidalgo]

Hi preeves, thanks for input!

- Could Scryfall syntax be added to the program (as aliases maybe?)

Scryfall-like field aliases can be done. Added to backlog
Truely supporting scryfall syntax would be a huge task.

- Is it possible to add a Maybeboard to decks? (I assume this would not be saved when saving to MTGO format etc.)

Not difficult to do, added to backlog

- Is it possible to hide the Mechanics row at the top?

Currently you can only hide all filters at once, see highlighted button in window title in the screenshot below.


Added to backlog possibility to control filters visibility in a more granular way

[boxian]

Thanks for working on the direct cube support later on.

It's a shame to admit, I do not even know what a cube is. I suppose it's a pool of cards from where the players draft before the match.
How do you want Mtgdb.Gui to support cubes? Something like draft simulation?

I'm mostly thinking of an offline view mode like you would find at CubeTutor (CCGHQ forum rules won't let me post directly to one, but the basic one would be a fine example) with the ability to filter inside just that card base, perhaps to see the tags once that gets off the backlog. It would be cool to also have another filter window of the full card database to compare, so that additions and alternate cards could be investigated and added/removed.

It's maybe outside the scope of the project though. Thanks again for all the work!

[hidalgo]

with the ability to filter inside just that card base, perhaps to see the tags once that gets off the backlog

What do you mean by offline view mode? That cards are displayed as Text without image & details?

I believe managing the cube can already be achieved, not ideally though.
Create a new deck and save it under the name 'my_cube' in deck list or as a file.
Use filter manager to show only cards from the current deck which would be your cube at the moment.



In the screenshot above the filter manager is set to show only cards from current collection.
For your case you would want the next button, which filters search result by cards from current deck.

It would be cool to also have another filter window of the full card database to compare

- open another window (a button next to undo / redo in window title)

The filters in different window are mutually independent

Whenever you want to create another deck by picking cards from 'my_cube'
- save your current collection (if you have it) to file for backup purpose
- copy the cube deck 'my_cube' into clipboard
- paste it from the clipboard as a collection
- use filter manager to show only cards from the current collection which is now 'my_cube'

[aidscoi168]

My collection been messing up again, i will send the file here from 4.0.0.7 hope you can help