Shandalar Card List (Updated December 2016)

[Rawky]

Greetings gents,

Is there a way to export a simple text list of all current cards in the latest (Mar 2016) Shandalar update?
(Just to clarify: all cards in the game, not just the new ones)

If so, which file should I be looking at?

Alternatively, is there such a list already available?

My intent is to import that list into Magic Assistant (https://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgbrowser/) so I can use the filter to select cards and build decks.

BTW, yet another great update.
Thanks for all the excellent work!

skip to Magic Assistant collection file
skip to "Shandalar Card List" Excel file

[stassy]

From the latest update patchnote, you have all info needed for command line :

Running in the windows command prompt Shandalar -c will show all the coded card listed by their csv id, so it's easy to input a Shandalar -c > cardslist.txt to create a file called cardslist.txt in the root folder with the whole list (incidentally I am looking for a way to make a much more refined list for card test purpose, like filtering by expansion and such)

[Rawky]

incidentally I am looking for a way to make a much more refined list for card test purpose, like filtering by expansion and such

This could perhaps be done with Magic Assistant, but the list would have to include a copy of each card for each set that it was ever in. That is, unless you only care about the first set it was in. Unfortunately, MA requires each card to be associate with a set, since they are treated as representations of actual cards that are owned in a real collection. Alternatively, I might simply use whichever set listed the card at it's lowest commonality*.

For example, Ivory Tower was Uncommon in AQ, but Rare (or even mythic) in every reprinting afterwards. Whereas, Savannah Lions was Rare from Alpha until 9th Ed, then Uncommon in Masters Ed. IV. IMO they are both fine at Uncommon.

Back in the day, Ivory Tower was insanely powerful because the game as a whole lacked enough cards to provide aggro decks good enough tempo and versatility to overcome it with consistency. To play an Ivory Tower now and presumably hold back cards to benefit from it, even in limited (ie Shandalar), you sacrifice so much tempo that you could still lose if the opponent has a good enough deck/draw. You'd be better off using active life gain from batches of more efficient spells (Congregate, Gerrard's Wisdom) or effects (Wellwisher, Loxodon Hierarch).

[rant]This is actually one thing that frustrates me about Shandalar. I find certain more-powerful cards too easy/inexpensive to buy and vice versa. IMO original dual lands should be treated as more than merely 3 gems or a couple hundred gold. I'd love to have more than 4 tiers of gem-buys and much higher gold values on the best of the best cards. I might even go so far as to use real-world dollar values as a guideline for setting in-game gold values. Not 1:1 mind you, but similar scales. Unfortunately, the mono-color quest rewards override any such layered-value efforts. But this is all my problem.[/rant]

* Either way, many thousands of tinkering clicks to set all the details in place. Might only take a week if 2000+ were done per day, which seems like an overly-generous and unrealistic estimate. If you want a copy of the database that I (hope to) make, I am happy to share it.

I should mention, Magic Assistant can export to .dck format, but it probably doesn't have the most up-to-date list. I expect more problems when I get to that stage, but I'll deal with that then. Maybe it can be updated with the new card index values. Not functional.

[Rawky]

Day 0: The database contains 1231 cards.
Before I had the card list, I was using the in-game card picker.
Day 1: 2398
I also learned that I can export to excel or other tabled formats.
Day 2: 3389
Been busy with other things, which will happen since I am doing this mostly at work.
Day 3: 4773
Day 4: 5656
Day 5: 6201
Day 6: 6798
So. Many. Cards.
Day 7: 7164
Stressful days seem to be unproductive days.
Day 8: 8022
Only 8 sets to go. Then I'll do comparative sort & scan with the original card list to correct any mistakes (that step might take a few days). After that I can just merge the two so all the Shandalar card codes are listed with the sets, rarity, release date, and whatever else anyone wants. As well, I will post the database file (sans Astral set).
Day 9: 8561
Unexpectedly busy day. Still 2 sets left.
Day 10: 8789

[Korath]

Is there a particular output format that would make this easier? I'd happy to plug it in, so long as it's remotely reasonable.

Re your [rant]:
I don't plan on doing anything at all with Shandalar's meta myself until I'm close to out of cards to add. Part of the problem can be fixed by you or anybody else in the meantime by editing Shandalar.ini; and, yes, putting the Unlimited duals into [Nochoose] would be an excellent first step. I'm perfectly happy for folks to distribute such changes, probably in the form of auxiliary ini files with instructions to add them to the [Configs] section at the top of the base Shandalar.ini file.

Also bear in mind that my main target audience at this point is modders, not people who just want to play the game. If there are specific things I can do to make a project like that easier, I'm perfectly willing to consider them. "Add more rarities" would have covered this, but that's neither specific nor feasible (there's an artwork requirement, to start with). "Make the gem costs configurable" (so you could, say, change the common/uncommon/rare/mythic progression from 1/2/3/4 to 1/3/6/10 or 1/4/9/16 or whatever) would be easy. "Be able to flag specific cards as costing extra gems" would be more work, but still doable.

[Rawky]

Is there a particular output format that would make this easier?

I've not looked at every single deck building app or site, but the prevalent theme in their design seems to be that you must build decks from card objects which each have a specific set and commonality. They won't let me batch import cards merely by name without assigning which set they came from. Given that, I've stopped looking for the perfect option and I'm just cutting and pasting, card by card, and selecting the first printing of each card's greatest commonality (common > uncommon > rare > mythic). This might leave a few questionable results, but there are too many cards to go through to fine tune them one by one. They can be adjusted after the fact if something stands out. I just finished Ice Age, moving into Homelands. It's a lot of monotonous replication, but it's better than some alternatives. I'm okay with it. I want the result more than I care about the pain to get there.

editing Shandalar.ini

I'll look into this bit by bit over time. Sometimes this stuff is overwhelming for me and I need to quit and take recharge breaks. I'm better at many other things, but I want to be better at this.

putting the Unlimited duals into [Nochoose]

This would be awesome. I feel like a schmuck taking them for three gems. I'd much rather have them randomly awarded or stolen from only the strongest foes. I'm planning a full revamp of enemy decks, but I'm guessing this is too common a thing to really make a big deal about on here. When I'm done, I'll share them for those that are interested. Regarding their design, let's just say that I prefer to win by the skin of my teeth and that I hate handing a card to the AI that it cannot play well. However, I'll try to keep better notes on cards that I think are mishandled by the AI.

change the common/uncommon/rare/mythic progression from 1/2/3/4 to 1/3/6/10 or 1/4/9/16 or whatever

Didn't know it was possible, but I like it.

New Question: Is it possible to have some cards as [Nochoose] in the mono-color card list, while still available in a gem or gold buy list? Or is there just one setting for their visibility in all lists?

New Question: Can I change the value for minimum deck size? Normally it is 40, but I want to change it. I have several things in mind for a new thematic environment, this being one of them.

[lujo]

I'm having trouble with exporting the cardlist, the cmd stuff doesn't seem to work with this patch (and neiter do custom shortcuts for some reason). Could anyone who has the list upload it?

I need it to update forge so that I can finally get back to that big deck overhaul with all the new stuff.

[Korath]

New Question: Is it possible to have some cards as [Nochoose] in the mono-color card list, while still available in a gem or gold buy list? Or is there just one setting for their visibility in all lists?

New Question: Can I change the value for minimum deck size? Normally it is 40, but I want to change it. I have several things in mind for a new thematic environment, this being one of them.

Not currently for either, no. The second will probably happen sooner than the first.

I'm having trouble with exporting the cardlist, the cmd stuff doesn't seem to work with this patch (and neiter do custom shortcuts for some reason). Could anyone who has the list upload it?

Attached.

This is getting pretty irritating. I use this functionality every day (many times every day, for shandalar --test), and it works just fine in a sane environment. Windows's built-in command-line is anything but sane, though, and I'm tired of working around it. I'll change --cardlist to output to a file and --help to display in a popup in the next patch; I think everything else already gets output to shandalar_dll.log in addition to stderr.

[lujo]

That was hepful and I updated my forge shandalar set with the new cards, but a much bigger problem seems to be that --deckbuilder doesn't seem to work. And the old way of singling out shandalar-only cards (select block only) doesn't either.

And the accessible manalink deckbuilder doesn't seem to have several cards I ran into on the first try - Afflict, Tribal Golem, Hornet Harasser ... It's always possible I messed up somewhere, but being able to enter the shandalar-only deckbuilder would at least help me figure that out.

I'm using XP sp3.

[Korath]

As a workaround until I release AS2, you can force the Manalink deckbuilder to show all cards (including cards not in either Manalink or Shandalar) by editing Manalink.ini and changing "ViewAll=0" to "ViewAll=1".

[stassy]

This is weird, line commands and shandalar external deckbuilder are working for me (but the shandalar main game launch), I upgraded using Korath procedures except I used a duplicate copy of my ML3 BFZ2 version instead.

[lujo]

Thanks Korath, I'll try.

Which OS are you on, and what do you mean by duplicate copy of the ML3 BFZ2 version?

EDIT: The override worked, so now I can make decks, but I still can't really test them without the infinite duel commands. And all they do is start the regular shandalar game for some reason.

[stassy]

In the update thread, the requirement for AS is an updated BF2 copy, and there are links to Korath clean Manalink 3 Theros game(so you are supposed to get this one, update to BFZ2 then update to AS).

For the infinite duel, try to use folder name instead of specific deck and put your deck alone in it, something like :
shandalar.exe -e Playdeck
with an empty playdeck folder but your test deck (remove also any subdirectory as it also check for any) for mirror duel

[Rawky]

Here's a little Excel file I made by merging the data from my Magic Assistant collection and the Shandalar card list. This is just a byproduct of the database that I made. Not sure if it's useful to anyone, but there it is. I haven't ironed out every single imperfection, but it's presentable in its current form. Tomorrow I'll share the MA collection file with an explanation on how to get it up and running.

Shandalar Card List.rar

(1.11 MiB) Downloaded 711 times

Shandalar Card List (97-2003).rar

Sort method lost. Compatibility Report included as 3rd tab. Re-sort at your own peril.

(624.23 KiB) Downloaded 448 times

[stassy]

Thanks very much for the list, is it possible to convert it to pre-xlsx compatible format? (office 97/2003 compatible?)