Customizing Mad Wizard

[ubeefx]

Without programming it is possible to do some customizations to Mad Wizard.

The first thing to do is unzipping the release, for instance MadWizard-3.7.jar, to a new folder.

With the following command the game can then be run in the folder.

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java com.magic.main.MagicMain


It is possible to replace several theme assets, it will be best to keep the same image dimensions.
Some examples :

• in screens replace screen1.jpg with https://wallpaper.dog/large/142678.jpg
• in avatars replace 001.jpg with https://artbreeder.b-cdn.net/imgs/ddbf2ec442b1dca3f2e2f512.jpeg
• in neon replace neon1.jpg with https://www.shareicon.net/download/256x256/2015/08/17/86676_cat_256x256.png

It is possible to add cards if they are supported by the engine.
For instance Diving Griffin. To do this, in sets add the card to one of the files, for instance p22.txt.

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name=Diving Griffin
cost={1}{W}{W}
type=Creature
stats=2/2
rule=Flying, vigilance
url=https://scryfall.com/card/8ed/17/diving-griffin


Also the deck themes can be modified. In decks, put the following in w_random.dec.
It is best to look at the existing deck themes to see by example how they are defined.
The full set of supported cards is copied to the clipboard after startup of the game.

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!w,Griffin
!Diving Griffin custom deck

# 36 creatures
36,36 {
Diving Griffin
}

# 24 lands
24,24 {
Plains
}


A new jar can be made of the customizations by zipping all folders back in for instance Wizard.jar.
This can be executed with this command or double clicked to execute if Java is installed.

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java -jar Wizard.jar

Finally these are the results. Enjoy modding!

[ubeefx]

I have some more modding tips for today.

In Magarena 2.0 and Mad Wizard Blue 3.9 the cards are all in cards.txt in the data folder.
This makes it even easier to modify the cards in the game by adding or removing cards.

It is possible to remove deck themes, just delete the ones you do not want in the decks folder.
In this example I removed all but 5 deck themes. The campaign now only has 5 opponents.
Also I replaced in the themes folder the wood and marble textures.

It is also quite easy to modify the save files in the Mad Wizard saves folder.They can be opened with any text editor.
In this example I replaced 10 cards of the player deck with Raging Goblin and put the number of opponents to 11.

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opponents=11
p1.card10=Raging Goblin
p1.card11=Raging Goblin
p1.card12=Raging Goblin
p1.card13=Raging Goblin
p1.card14=Raging Goblin
p1.card15=Raging Goblin
p1.card16=Raging Goblin
p1.card17=Raging Goblin
p1.card18=Raging Goblin
p1.card19=Raging Goblin


Happy modding.

[ubeefx]

Now it is time to add some custom cards.
This will only work for cards with rule text that is supported by Mad Wizard.

Take for instance these 4 Angel themed cards from https://mtgcardsmith.com.

• https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/elemiah-warding-angel
• https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/deathless-angel-1
• https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/angels-blessing-11
• https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/avacyn-angel-of-hope-55

Add the cards to the cards.txt file at the beginning.

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name=Elemiah, Warding Angel
cost={1}{W}{W}
type=Legendary
type=Creature
subtype=Angel
subtype=Cleric
stats=2/2
rule=Flying, lifelink
rule=Other Angel creatures you control have hexproof.
url=https://scryfall.com/card/7ed/341/plains
name=Deathless Angel
cost={4}{W}{W}
type=Creature
subtype=Angel
stats=5/7
rule=Flying
rule={W}{W}: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
url=https://scryfall.com/card/7ed/342/plains
name=Angel's Blessing
cost={3}{W}
type=Legendary
type=Enchantment
subtype=Aura
rule=Enchant creature
rule=Enchanted creature has +3/+3 and has flying, haste and vigilance.
url=https://scryfall.com/card/7ed/343/plains
name=Avacyn, Angel of Hope
cost={5}{W}{W}{W}
type=Legendary
type=Creature
subtype=Angel
stats=8/8
rule=Flying, vigilance, indestructible
rule=Other permanents you control have indestructible.
url=https://scryfall.com/card/7ed/344/plains


Start the game, in release 3.9 there will now be 3902 cards. Download the 4 new images with Images button.
Then in the scans folder of the MadWizard data folder, replace the Plains images with the proper images, for instance 7ed-341-plains.jpg by the image for Elemiah, Warding Angel.

I also created a quick theme deck for these cards by replacing w_random.dec in decks with this.

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!w,Angel
!Custom angels

24,4 {
Segovian Angel
Inspiring Overseer
Elemiah, Warding Angel
Deathless Angel
Angel's Blessing
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
}

# 16 lands
16,16 {
Plains
}


Restart the game and pick the Angel theme. It should look like this.
Notice that also the wood texture in themes is replaced this time with an angel themed texture.

Finally lets play a quick game against the Green deck.

All of this is possible without a single line of code. Enjoy!

[ubeefx]

All these customisation examples are now much easier to do in Mad Wizard 4.

[Cyril]

Cool! The increasing customisation of Mad Wizard brings it close to Wagic which is a game I admired (actually, admire - as it still exists and is being developed) for how easy it is to personalise.

You say that

This will only work for cards with rule text that is supported by Mad Wizard.

Is there documentation somewhere about the rules/mechanics Mad Wizard does not support?

[ubeefx]

Hi Cyril, there is a lot of rule text that Mad Wizard does not support.
Internally the engine works with translation of rule text using regular expressions into actual code.
Depending on the rule text there is some flexibility like the amount or the card name that can vary.
As an example both these are supported, so likely gaining 4 life would also work.

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Destroy target enchantment. You gain 2 life.
Destroy target enchantment. You gain 3 life.


I have attached all unique rule texts that are currently supported.
Cards that have similar rule text could work. So making custom cards is possible to some degree.

[Cyril]

Thanks - that's comprehensive! Interesting that the engine works with natural language expressions - I didn't expect that!

[ubeefx]

This is the updated list of all rule text for cards supported by Mad Wizard 4.6.

rules46.txt

Mad Wizard 4.6 supported rule text

(249.45 KiB) Downloaded 638 times

There is no source code provided for the Mad Wizard engine jar, but it is actually very easy to obtain.
With jdec.app the MadWizard4.jar can be uploaded and it provides easy browsing of the decompiled Java source code.
Another one that works is decompiler.

[ubeefx]

The supported rules text file is now part of the project.

[memorablereceive]

there are a lot of rule texts that Mad Wizard doesn't support. how can i do it?

[ubeefx]

I updated the supported rules text. It is true a lot of rules are not supported.
Of the total card pool of 50565 cards, 14395 or 28 % of the cards are supported.
The main idea is if someone wants to have custom cards, it could be possible by mixing and modding the existing rule texts and checking if the engine can handle them.
Usually supporting new rules will require all kinds of changes to the engine code, ranging from minor to very large.
What specific new rules would be interesting to add and which new deck themes would they enable?

[Cyril]

Hi ubeefx. I think the questioner is probably a bot... But in terms of new deck themes, landfall would be quite an interesting archetype to play. I'm tempted to say land destruction too, but lots of people hate that so maybe not!

It's noticable that search library effects are not possible in Mad Wizard. But I suspect that this would be very, very difficult for the AI to use properly - and the excellent AI is a real strength of the game so compromising that would be a shame.

[ubeefx]

Hi Cyril, landfall is a nice suggestion and should be already feasible.
Land destruction can indeed be annoying to play against.

Searching the library is technically possible, would require work for both UI and AI.
As you state, it might be a challenge to let the AI pick the best card, it would require some custom decision logic to make it work well.

[AbrahamAnthony]

Hi Cyril, landfall is a great suggestion and should already be feasible. While land destruction can be frustrating to play against, it's an interesting mechanic to consider. Searching the library is technically possible but would require significant work on both the UI and AI. If you're up for a challenge, it might be worth exploring, just as you might explore new strategies at our . The AI would need custom decision logic to ensure it picks the best card effectively.

[ubeefx]

A follow up on the request for new deck themes from Cyril.
A mono red deck theme combining land destruction and artifacts is now available in 5.x latest release.
It uses already available cards, so this could have been made as custom content by any user.
As shown in the screenshot, if it plays out well, your opponent will suffer.
Fast decks still have a fighting chance.