And the black red deck is? And I quote "The article, however, will not be devoid of all strategic content as a discussion of a black and red control deck will be included at the bottom of the article." ... huh?
Some facts were a bit wrong i guess
@ tempest efreet.
"I love that prior to M10 you could block trade with this guy"
Should be,: Between 7th edition and M10.. but no one has ever played this card outside of shandalar.
As for the escape clausule, nothing went on the stack, you really needed an interrupt to counter that sort of stuff and there wasn't any.
However, your writing style is excellent, i really enjoyed reading through the article
As a dabbler in web design and a coder I don't often adhere to best practices because they tend to be "pie in the sky". With a program as complex as MTGO, it is my guess that the coders for it also felt similarly. You do what works and then iron out the bugs. And THAT is where the client fails. It has tons of UI bugs that have nothing to do with easy of use or user error. The Play First OK button is a great example. Sometimes it works perfectly normally (and then when someone double clicks it by habit it mulls them) and sometimes it requires two or three clicks to be functional. This is a coding problem not a design issue.
I don't think it is harsh to cite heuristic tests for good design/usability but I do think it is rather irrelevant to the average player. We want the client to work generally as expected. All the gui stuff that looks horrible or is a pain to manage etc is just icing on the cake. Function over form, is my prefered motto. Of course we want the dock to be useful and not annoying and we want various windows to look good etc but really all we want is for the games to work, our collections to not be bound by odd strictures and screwed up with lag etc, and to be able chat/trade reasonably well.
Posting that list of heuristics was a little over the top and way to harsh sorry. I'm not randomly studying textbooks checking definitions... I was just trying to say that usability issues are rampant within the client and would be easily identified by a usability expert. Is it right to suggest that the usability and interactions within interface are far from ideal? I think that is fair. I'm just telling it how I see it. For people that work in usability, they identify flaws and are paid to fix them. There is grey area in design but there are also a lot of best practices and heuristics can be used in that context.
The thing is I believe in user-centered design.. I want them to work on things the way i want them, as a user of the system.
I have seen far worse designs than MTGO. And just because you can open a book and point out a few definitions does not make it right. Not trying to be a dick but come on. I am in the field of design and modeling, If I see a flaw that doesnt mean I am going to open a text book and check some definitions of what is right and wrong, these guys are doing a darn good job at keeping this game running, I would really like to see just how good you could design a game that holds this much info and how smooth you could keep it running. They are working on getting stuff working the way they want it.
yep the grove is the only thing you have to drop to get out of classic, incremental growth would def be my choice over thrive because it gets faster counters tho the grove doesn't put out a lot of counters in the first place... either would work.. feral contest might be an interesting add to force blocking, but I'm not sure you'd have the mana when u wanted to play that when youd rather a crit.. maybe strength of the tajuru, don't have one yet so havent tried it... quest for the gemblades could be a great replacement because its a one time cast at a similar cost, but again i dont own it.. or rite of passage to act as another vigor
That was well written for a Magic article. The average article anywhere is merely proofread, but you have a concept of pacing. I flew right through it despite the length. Thank you! It was a pleasure to read even though I don't pay much attention to Standard.
I would've picked Omnath for gluttony, though. I don't see how Eldrazi Monmument is gluttony other than that it eats your guys. But then again, it is the most severe upkeep trigger currently in Standard. So if it's all about consuming then it's gotta be Omnath. Oh, no - DOOMGAPE! Aw come on! Maybe play Extended? Doomgape is so perfect.
Jund works for everything except envy and sloth. If you're ever stumped then just cascade into a Blightning. Everyone loses!
Envy could be a mill deck maybe? That, or neo-Jace doing a fateseal every turn. Haha. It's like Wand of Denial lockdown.
EDIT: WWK's legendary merfolk, Thel Adel I think, can steal artifacts right out of your opponent's library and put them into play for you. That's envy!
I work in the field of user experience and interface design and let me just say that MTGO is one of the worst designed interfaces I have ever seen. In graduate school you are intentionally exposed to some bad designs and most of those can't hold a torch to magic online. The thing about Magic Online is they can afford to be bad because they have a monopoly on "the magic experience" that you can't get elsewhere unless you want to play with real cards.
From the little I've read it sounded like wizards was hiring some usability experts a long time ago but I really have no idea what they are working on? I can only assume they are all assigned the the next magic online version? I love magic and I tolerate the interface but there is so much lost potential it is kind of sad. There are a lot of ways to evaluate and validate interfaces and interactions but I'll just leave with a list of design heuristics. This is a quick and dirty tool people in the field can use to quickly find problems within a design. If you take the time to look over these you can come with multiple violations for each of them(That is not a good sign).
Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
I know from reading boards you have been super supportive of wotc in the past. I've even seen you and hammy get flamed before, unfairly I might add.
I think that when certain people in the community voice their opinions, wotc usually listens. For instance, we got the 2-mans. I thought this was a great way for them to reach across the aisle and show they care about the players. Then on the same hand they turn around and mess up scheduling for classic PE/DE.
Like I said, totally agree with your constructive critism. Just thought it was funny that the last 2 articles with the most comments were based around cheating and complaining (or constructive critism).
While I am normally very complimentary of WoTC, especially their current staff in the digital landscape, I felt it had been too long since anyone had taken them to task for the lack of improvements.
Also - I'm not complaining. I would rather think of this article as constructive criticism - especially since I offered solutions to each and every thing. WoTC appreciates criticism very much and ignores complaining very well. I think the difference is apparent, and very very important to identify.
Disclaimer: I am not knocking this article or it's creator (got mad love for Danger and liked his ideas). I would just like to point out it is really funny/sad that this article has 66 comments. People write creative, informative and well said articles here all the time that get minimal amounts of comments or feedback. When it comes to complaining then everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
I know I will probably get flamed......but seriously, everyone has something to say when they want to jump on the Negative Train.
While this game isn't perfect, it provides so many other positive aspects that we far to often overlook (I know I am just as guilty). And no, I am not an employee of WOTC lol!
Magic online is enons ahead of the xbox game as it should be. The xbox game doesn't provide for things such as card making profit. I love the game itself and always will, but there is something to be said about the drive of competition. The drive of competition to get a good deal on a card or even make a gamble by buying cards with the sole purpose of turning a profit in the future. I am not a dealer, just a regular player who doesn't even have a bot. I just love the trade aspect of the game.
If magic was only an xbox game we would lose all of that. The graphic on the xbox game were pretty cool and the animated options were just ok for me. I really don't care to see a lightning bolt fly across the table and hit my opponent, I have imagination for that.
I downloaded that game for like 8 dollars so I wasn't expecting much and that is really what I got. I told my friend about the game who has never played magic and he enjoyed it, then I told him about magic online and now he is addicted to pauper. He even has said that the online version is far superior than the xbox and the xbox appears to be geared towards beginners.
I've said it earlier and I'll say it again......There are alot of things that annoy me about this game, but the biggest is lag.....my time is entirely to valuable (3 kids and a wife). Fix the lag already!
DotP is a great game for what it is. an introduction to new players of the game. The game has its faults but i believe that the non gameplay estics are far better then modo's. Ive been here since 2.5 and although there are frustrtaing things about this system it serves my needs very well. Yes it would be fantastic if things started working smoother or faster or better or at all, but this game is good enough to serve its functions and by all acounts wotc is working to make it better.
@ Mark, i've tested a bant version and it's really good.
I've replaced the chalices in my deck for +2 Wind Zedikon, and +2 Bant Charm
To be able to cast these i've switched the Celestial colonnades for Seaside Citadels.
Since i still don't have jaces online, i'm testing with 2 of the old version of jace and 2 negate on the elspeth and the third Jace spot.
The deck is stable even without the possibility of winning by mind sculpting.
I did some testing against jund in the tourney practise and found out that matches often become draw-go in fear of polymorph. I've already won six games today by hardcasting an Iona, all without the Everflowing chalice.
Current Version
4 Polymorph
2 Into the Roil
3 Wind Zendikon
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Island
1 Bant Charm
2 Bant Charm
1 Khalni Garden
1 Jace Beleren
6 Plains
2 Day of Judgment
1 Essence Scatter
3 Khalni Garden
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Spreading Seas
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Flashfreeze
1 Forest
2 Negate
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Cancel
1 Martial Coup
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Celestial Purge
Sideboard
1 Flashfreeze
2 Pithing Needle
2 Flashfreeze
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dispel
1 Day of Judgment
2 Celestial Purge
1 Refraction Trap
Lots of good things in your post to consider along with Dangers. I am not sure which xbox game you are refering to, but the one I downloaded sucks. The gameplay on it is way to slow (I actually have fallen asleep in between phases) and the cards you are given to play with are way to simple. Anyone who has played magic for more than a few months would be bored out of their mind with that particular xbox game.
Some really great points there! Thanks for the wish-list ideas.
It should be possible to link a deck list in the same manner as an {autocard}. The recipient clicks the deck, it opens up into a well formatted list along w/ options to save. What's so hard about that?
I'd like to see a way to block users who are not currently online. When I couldn't figure out how to do it, the adept online at the moment told me to add the person to be blocked to my friends list until they logged back in - how's that for problem solving?
How about the ability to customize chat macros? After seeing, "Hello and good luck," 40,000 times it began to feel a bit disingenuous.
Profanity filters that can be disabled for general chat but remain active in private chat are nonsensical.
I'd like for games that I create as being unwatchable to be unwatchable both during and after they're played - at present, any game can be viewed after completion. Since chat gets saved along with the gameplay, it'd be nice to be able to have a private game.
Instead of a binary "allow watchers" option, I'd like to be able to setup games that only my buddies can kibitz on.
Opening a few packs of boosters would be a lot more fun for a lot of players if they could challenge one or more buddies to a private sealed event - prizes not necessary. I know, it's less food for spikes - tough. Intra-clan leages and/or events, anyone? Yes, please!
Everytime I login, my privacy settings are reset. I have no way to hide my last login time and so forth.
The ability to navigate saved deck files is disgracefully hindered. I get "deck too small" errors when using the netdeck features, the dialog boxes don't seem to sort in any particular order by default, and it's just generally ugly. Now that we have XML deck files and the ability to insert arbitrary data fields, such as comments, it's time to make use of this in the game client.
Give me back the ability to hyperlink in private chat. Magic is a social game, and it's natural to link a YouTube video or a MTGOTraders card listing to a buddy while chatting. I could live with having to click a disclaimer before following external links.
Wishlists are great. Being limited to 75-card trades is not so great.
The support mechanisms in the game are kind of broken. If an ORC is an employee and they have the misfortune of being informed of a bug, they should take some ownership and initiative. Telling the user to go back to the website to file a report should be seen as a slap in the face. Whose job is it?
What exactly is it that they do every Wednesday that requires eight plus hours of downtime? By version three, whatever it is really should be more dynamic.
The rules engine is extremely poorly implemented. New cards and interactions are clearly hobbled together, as evidenced by poor ui behavior. Glitches where my baloths' landfall effects only auto-yield on the first land drop of a turn are indicative of problems that a simple ui redesign will not fix. And such problems are everywhere.
The move to a single client connection is nonsensical - multiple connections per user should be a lot more efficient on the server-side, as they allow you to do things like separate chat functions out into a different irc-like server.
.NET has proven to be a HUGE mistake. The game's performance is pathetic - it is absolutely inexcusable. Moving to a facebook format doesn't bode well for the future. I don't want a game client that runs at "web speed", I want one that runs FASTER. Searching a local card db should be nearly instantaneous on a modest PC - if a single webserver can run dozens of MTG card storefronts w/ searching capabilities and no noticable lag, my powerful gaming rig should do a MUCH better job than it does at present in the deck editor.
The X-Box version seems to be a great success - why not move in that direction (native code, looks like a GAME and not a spreadsheet). There have now been at least two other very successful licensed MTG video games. Is anyone from WoTC even bothering to look at what things the other games have done well and embracing them? Doh.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for considering my ideas.
Puremtgo.com has a special "Deck Creator" and we all use it. So I'm not doing anything special for decklist; I'm just using that Deck Creator.
You will laugh at me when you hear what I do for screenshots. No program, no futuristic software, nothing extraordinary. I'm at stone age actually!!! I hit "Print Screen" on MTGO, paste the image to Paint, save the image, go to Excel and size it and give it shadow so that it looks cooler, take again a screenshot of the Excel sheet, go again to Paint, crop the new screenshot from excel and save as jpg!!!
I'm sure you were expecting a much sophisticated answer but actually this is all I do! Sorry :(.
Videos? What are they?!?! :))
Joking aside, sadly I am not that familiar with computer softwares. Currently taking videos is beyond me. I'm sure there are easy-to-use programs but I never bothered to learn how to use one so far.
HEY!!! I'm even more than happy that I can at least use the MTGO client!!! :)))
And the black red deck is? And I quote "The article, however, will not be devoid of all strategic content as a discussion of a black and red control deck will be included at the bottom of the article." ... huh?
Some facts were a bit wrong i guess
@ tempest efreet.
"I love that prior to M10 you could block trade with this guy"
Should be,: Between 7th edition and M10.. but no one has ever played this card outside of shandalar.
As for the escape clausule, nothing went on the stack, you really needed an interrupt to counter that sort of stuff and there wasn't any.
However, your writing style is excellent, i really enjoyed reading through the article
As a dabbler in web design and a coder I don't often adhere to best practices because they tend to be "pie in the sky". With a program as complex as MTGO, it is my guess that the coders for it also felt similarly. You do what works and then iron out the bugs. And THAT is where the client fails. It has tons of UI bugs that have nothing to do with easy of use or user error. The Play First OK button is a great example. Sometimes it works perfectly normally (and then when someone double clicks it by habit it mulls them) and sometimes it requires two or three clicks to be functional. This is a coding problem not a design issue.
I don't think it is harsh to cite heuristic tests for good design/usability but I do think it is rather irrelevant to the average player. We want the client to work generally as expected. All the gui stuff that looks horrible or is a pain to manage etc is just icing on the cake. Function over form, is my prefered motto. Of course we want the dock to be useful and not annoying and we want various windows to look good etc but really all we want is for the games to work, our collections to not be bound by odd strictures and screwed up with lag etc, and to be able chat/trade reasonably well.
Posting that list of heuristics was a little over the top and way to harsh sorry. I'm not randomly studying textbooks checking definitions... I was just trying to say that usability issues are rampant within the client and would be easily identified by a usability expert. Is it right to suggest that the usability and interactions within interface are far from ideal? I think that is fair. I'm just telling it how I see it. For people that work in usability, they identify flaws and are paid to fix them. There is grey area in design but there are also a lot of best practices and heuristics can be used in that context.
The thing is I believe in user-centered design.. I want them to work on things the way i want them, as a user of the system.
I have seen far worse designs than MTGO. And just because you can open a book and point out a few definitions does not make it right. Not trying to be a dick but come on. I am in the field of design and modeling, If I see a flaw that doesnt mean I am going to open a text book and check some definitions of what is right and wrong, these guys are doing a darn good job at keeping this game running, I would really like to see just how good you could design a game that holds this much info and how smooth you could keep it running. They are working on getting stuff working the way they want it.
yep the grove is the only thing you have to drop to get out of classic, incremental growth would def be my choice over thrive because it gets faster counters tho the grove doesn't put out a lot of counters in the first place... either would work.. feral contest might be an interesting add to force blocking, but I'm not sure you'd have the mana when u wanted to play that when youd rather a crit.. maybe strength of the tajuru, don't have one yet so havent tried it... quest for the gemblades could be a great replacement because its a one time cast at a similar cost, but again i dont own it.. or rite of passage to act as another vigor
That was well written for a Magic article. The average article anywhere is merely proofread, but you have a concept of pacing. I flew right through it despite the length. Thank you! It was a pleasure to read even though I don't pay much attention to Standard.
I would've picked Omnath for gluttony, though. I don't see how Eldrazi Monmument is gluttony other than that it eats your guys. But then again, it is the most severe upkeep trigger currently in Standard. So if it's all about consuming then it's gotta be Omnath. Oh, no - DOOMGAPE! Aw come on! Maybe play Extended? Doomgape is so perfect.
Jund works for everything except envy and sloth. If you're ever stumped then just cascade into a Blightning. Everyone loses!
Envy could be a mill deck maybe? That, or neo-Jace doing a fateseal every turn. Haha. It's like Wand of Denial lockdown.
EDIT: WWK's legendary merfolk, Thel Adel I think, can steal artifacts right out of your opponent's library and put them into play for you. That's envy!
I work in the field of user experience and interface design and let me just say that MTGO is one of the worst designed interfaces I have ever seen. In graduate school you are intentionally exposed to some bad designs and most of those can't hold a torch to magic online. The thing about Magic Online is they can afford to be bad because they have a monopoly on "the magic experience" that you can't get elsewhere unless you want to play with real cards.
From the little I've read it sounded like wizards was hiring some usability experts a long time ago but I really have no idea what they are working on? I can only assume they are all assigned the the next magic online version? I love magic and I tolerate the interface but there is so much lost potential it is kind of sad. There are a lot of ways to evaluate and validate interfaces and interactions but I'll just leave with a list of design heuristics. This is a quick and dirty tool people in the field can use to quickly find problems within a design. If you take the time to look over these you can come with multiple violations for each of them(That is not a good sign).
Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
I know from reading boards you have been super supportive of wotc in the past. I've even seen you and hammy get flamed before, unfairly I might add.
I think that when certain people in the community voice their opinions, wotc usually listens. For instance, we got the 2-mans. I thought this was a great way for them to reach across the aisle and show they care about the players. Then on the same hand they turn around and mess up scheduling for classic PE/DE.
Like I said, totally agree with your constructive critism. Just thought it was funny that the last 2 articles with the most comments were based around cheating and complaining (or constructive critism).
just replace afiya grove with something...maybe thrive or incremental growth
Any ideas of good replacements to make the second deck extended? i cant play classic.
While I am normally very complimentary of WoTC, especially their current staff in the digital landscape, I felt it had been too long since anyone had taken them to task for the lack of improvements.
Also - I'm not complaining. I would rather think of this article as constructive criticism - especially since I offered solutions to each and every thing. WoTC appreciates criticism very much and ignores complaining very well. I think the difference is apparent, and very very important to identify.
Disclaimer: I am not knocking this article or it's creator (got mad love for Danger and liked his ideas). I would just like to point out it is really funny/sad that this article has 66 comments. People write creative, informative and well said articles here all the time that get minimal amounts of comments or feedback. When it comes to complaining then everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
I know I will probably get flamed......but seriously, everyone has something to say when they want to jump on the Negative Train.
While this game isn't perfect, it provides so many other positive aspects that we far to often overlook (I know I am just as guilty). And no, I am not an employee of WOTC lol!
Magic online is enons ahead of the xbox game as it should be. The xbox game doesn't provide for things such as card making profit. I love the game itself and always will, but there is something to be said about the drive of competition. The drive of competition to get a good deal on a card or even make a gamble by buying cards with the sole purpose of turning a profit in the future. I am not a dealer, just a regular player who doesn't even have a bot. I just love the trade aspect of the game.
If magic was only an xbox game we would lose all of that. The graphic on the xbox game were pretty cool and the animated options were just ok for me. I really don't care to see a lightning bolt fly across the table and hit my opponent, I have imagination for that.
I downloaded that game for like 8 dollars so I wasn't expecting much and that is really what I got. I told my friend about the game who has never played magic and he enjoyed it, then I told him about magic online and now he is addicted to pauper. He even has said that the online version is far superior than the xbox and the xbox appears to be geared towards beginners.
I've said it earlier and I'll say it again......There are alot of things that annoy me about this game, but the biggest is lag.....my time is entirely to valuable (3 kids and a wife). Fix the lag already!
Though some I would categorize as bugs and non-intentional. Such as the auto-yeild problems you are having.
Some I would categorize as "right on" :)
oh man.. well no one said math was my strong suit :P or common sense >.>
DotP is a great game for what it is. an introduction to new players of the game. The game has its faults but i believe that the non gameplay estics are far better then modo's. Ive been here since 2.5 and although there are frustrtaing things about this system it serves my needs very well. Yes it would be fantastic if things started working smoother or faster or better or at all, but this game is good enough to serve its functions and by all acounts wotc is working to make it better.
Fair enough. How would you compare the fit and finish of the game you downloaded versus that of MODO?
@ Mark, i've tested a bant version and it's really good.
I've replaced the chalices in my deck for +2 Wind Zedikon, and +2 Bant Charm
To be able to cast these i've switched the Celestial colonnades for Seaside Citadels.
Since i still don't have jaces online, i'm testing with 2 of the old version of jace and 2 negate on the elspeth and the third Jace spot.
The deck is stable even without the possibility of winning by mind sculpting.
I did some testing against jund in the tourney practise and found out that matches often become draw-go in fear of polymorph. I've already won six games today by hardcasting an Iona, all without the Everflowing chalice.
Current Version
4 Polymorph
2 Into the Roil
3 Wind Zendikon
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Island
1 Bant Charm
2 Bant Charm
1 Khalni Garden
1 Jace Beleren
6 Plains
2 Day of Judgment
1 Essence Scatter
3 Khalni Garden
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Spreading Seas
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Flashfreeze
1 Forest
2 Negate
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Cancel
1 Martial Coup
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Celestial Purge
Sideboard
1 Flashfreeze
2 Pithing Needle
2 Flashfreeze
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dispel
1 Day of Judgment
2 Celestial Purge
1 Refraction Trap
Lots of good things in your post to consider along with Dangers. I am not sure which xbox game you are refering to, but the one I downloaded sucks. The gameplay on it is way to slow (I actually have fallen asleep in between phases) and the cards you are given to play with are way to simple. Anyone who has played magic for more than a few months would be bored out of their mind with that particular xbox game.
yeah 2.7 for three ...lol now its 3 for 3
no most certainly not banned...lol, i know AJ and flippers i believe maybe LordErman have all run it at some point
Some really great points there! Thanks for the wish-list ideas.
It should be possible to link a deck list in the same manner as an {autocard}. The recipient clicks the deck, it opens up into a well formatted list along w/ options to save. What's so hard about that?
I'd like to see a way to block users who are not currently online. When I couldn't figure out how to do it, the adept online at the moment told me to add the person to be blocked to my friends list until they logged back in - how's that for problem solving?
How about the ability to customize chat macros? After seeing, "Hello and good luck," 40,000 times it began to feel a bit disingenuous.
Profanity filters that can be disabled for general chat but remain active in private chat are nonsensical.
I'd like for games that I create as being unwatchable to be unwatchable both during and after they're played - at present, any game can be viewed after completion. Since chat gets saved along with the gameplay, it'd be nice to be able to have a private game.
Instead of a binary "allow watchers" option, I'd like to be able to setup games that only my buddies can kibitz on.
Opening a few packs of boosters would be a lot more fun for a lot of players if they could challenge one or more buddies to a private sealed event - prizes not necessary. I know, it's less food for spikes - tough. Intra-clan leages and/or events, anyone? Yes, please!
Everytime I login, my privacy settings are reset. I have no way to hide my last login time and so forth.
The ability to navigate saved deck files is disgracefully hindered. I get "deck too small" errors when using the netdeck features, the dialog boxes don't seem to sort in any particular order by default, and it's just generally ugly. Now that we have XML deck files and the ability to insert arbitrary data fields, such as comments, it's time to make use of this in the game client.
Give me back the ability to hyperlink in private chat. Magic is a social game, and it's natural to link a YouTube video or a MTGOTraders card listing to a buddy while chatting. I could live with having to click a disclaimer before following external links.
Wishlists are great. Being limited to 75-card trades is not so great.
The support mechanisms in the game are kind of broken. If an ORC is an employee and they have the misfortune of being informed of a bug, they should take some ownership and initiative. Telling the user to go back to the website to file a report should be seen as a slap in the face. Whose job is it?
What exactly is it that they do every Wednesday that requires eight plus hours of downtime? By version three, whatever it is really should be more dynamic.
The rules engine is extremely poorly implemented. New cards and interactions are clearly hobbled together, as evidenced by poor ui behavior. Glitches where my baloths' landfall effects only auto-yield on the first land drop of a turn are indicative of problems that a simple ui redesign will not fix. And such problems are everywhere.
The move to a single client connection is nonsensical - multiple connections per user should be a lot more efficient on the server-side, as they allow you to do things like separate chat functions out into a different irc-like server.
.NET has proven to be a HUGE mistake. The game's performance is pathetic - it is absolutely inexcusable. Moving to a facebook format doesn't bode well for the future. I don't want a game client that runs at "web speed", I want one that runs FASTER. Searching a local card db should be nearly instantaneous on a modest PC - if a single webserver can run dozens of MTG card storefronts w/ searching capabilities and no noticable lag, my powerful gaming rig should do a MUCH better job than it does at present in the deck editor.
The X-Box version seems to be a great success - why not move in that direction (native code, looks like a GAME and not a spreadsheet). There have now been at least two other very successful licensed MTG video games. Is anyone from WoTC even bothering to look at what things the other games have done well and embracing them? Doh.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for considering my ideas.
I was thinking that Dragonmaster gives Shaman another answer to Moat.
Speaking of Kalastria and Bloodghast, by the way, is Buried Alive banned in Tribal Apocalypse?
Thanks for the comment.
Puremtgo.com has a special "Deck Creator" and we all use it. So I'm not doing anything special for decklist; I'm just using that Deck Creator.
You will laugh at me when you hear what I do for screenshots. No program, no futuristic software, nothing extraordinary. I'm at stone age actually!!! I hit "Print Screen" on MTGO, paste the image to Paint, save the image, go to Excel and size it and give it shadow so that it looks cooler, take again a screenshot of the Excel sheet, go again to Paint, crop the new screenshot from excel and save as jpg!!!
I'm sure you were expecting a much sophisticated answer but actually this is all I do! Sorry :(.
Videos? What are they?!?! :))
Joking aside, sadly I am not that familiar with computer softwares. Currently taking videos is beyond me. I'm sure there are easy-to-use programs but I never bothered to learn how to use one so far.
HEY!!! I'm even more than happy that I can at least use the MTGO client!!! :)))
LE