A Deck Builder's/iPad User's Dream

I've been an Apple device user for a long, long time. I've owned all kinds of iPods and computers and recently bought an iPad 2. Ever since I've owned an App capable Apple device, I've been looking for a Magic the Gathering app that allows me to create decks, store card images and shop for cards. It's been about 3 1/2 years since I started looking, and FINALLY, I have found the perfect app for it: Decked Builder.

Decked Builder is everything I could have wanted in a Magic the Gathering app, especially when used on my iPad's large screen. It has a fast, easy search engine that has every card to date in it. The cards it pulls up are in stunning HD. The controls are far from complicated. It also has features that will allow you to test play your deck to make sure you get good draws with each hand, and that show you the stats of your deck, from color and card type balance to mana cost balance. The app also has a pricing guide for every single card and a way to buy the cards right from within the app using TCGplayer.com.  The thing I love most about Decked Builder? When you've added cards from the database into one of your decks, the image for that card is stored in your iPad's memory, so you can view it offline, which I think is amazing.

I hope you don't think I'm being paid to advertise for this app, because I'm not. I just think it's amazing that someone finally made an app that was just what I was looking for. I've been wanting one since I bought my iPod Touch. I've been using Microsoft Excel to document my decks, and every time I typed up a deck, I wished for something that was easier and that would show me what each card looks like. The downside, and this is a very small downside, is that the app is not free, like many of the other MTG apps on the App Store. The iPad version costs $5.00. For me though, that's not too much to pay for what the app gives you. My only wish for the app would be to make it possible to do one really big download of all the images of all the cards so that people like me that only have a Wifi enabled device can still use it when we're not connected to the internet. The webpage for the app says that they are considering doing this and having it cost an additional $3.00, which would give you a download of all the HD card images and allow you to download future sets for another year. To me, this is a brilliant idea and I would be willing to pay the $3.00 for it. Just the thought of being able to search for a card from anywhere in the world regardless of internet makes me excited. Think of how easy it would be to build decks on the go.

What do the rest of you think? Have any of you tried Decked Builder? How do you like it? What would you change about it? What about any other deck building apps/programs that you've tried? Do you have any to recommend? Let us know in the comments.

(The Decked Builder app is not just available for iPad. It is also available for iPhone and iPod Touch users as well as anybody who has a Mac desktop or laptop.)

A Rather Large Project

Welcome back to a Gathering of Magic the Gathering! Today I'd like to talk about, and get ideas on, the topic of sorting and cataloguing cards. It's something that I think most collectors do no matter the size of their collection, and I think we could get some good discussions going about how everybody organizes their cards.



Does your card collection look something like this?



As far as sorting goes, I think the long white boxes you can buy at most hobby shops are a MTG enthusiasts best friend. They usually only cost around a dollar and each one can hold hundreds of cards, making them the best way to store your cards without spending a ton. I've been using the white boxes for years now and I can't think of a better way to store and sort my cards. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to my cards, so I tend to go a bit overboard on my sorting of them. Each color (Green, White, Red, Black, Blue & Gold) gets it's own box, or set of boxes. After I've sorted them by color, each color is also sorted out into the types of card. (Creature, Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, etc.) Once I've finished that, it's time to sort each type of card into rarity. (Mythic Rare, Rare, Uncommon, Common.) You're going to laugh, but when I've done that, I sort each of those groups once more, this time alphabetically. Artifacts get a similar treatment, but instead of sorting by Creature, Instant, etc., they are sorted by Artifact, Artifact - Creature, & Artifact - Equipment. Lands are sorted in much the same way. (Yes, Lands get their own box(es)). I know, it's a bit extravagant, but it's how I work.

Recently, I've been buying the Fat Pack for each set that is released. Aside from getting 8-9 booster packs, the Fat Packs come with a custom card box for that particular set, which has made me think that maybe I'd like to sort my newer cards differently. Instead of all my cards being in one big group, I've thought that maybe it'd be cool to have the new sets organized into a box just for that set. Instead of my super complicated way of sorting the cards, I could just use the Card-pedia that comes with each Fat Pack to sort each set into the numerical order they appear in in the set. It's just an idea right now, but it's one that I kind of like. I'll have to give it a try and see if I like it.

My collection of cards has gotten big enough that I have many, many of those white boxes full of cards. For the longest time I had them in stacks on my old computer desk, but that wasn't really the best way to organize them, plus the desk took up a lot of space and I was really only using it for storage purposes. On a whim one day I cleaned off the desk, tore it apart, and threw it away and began searching for a cabinet of some kind that I could use to store my cards. It only took an hour or two and I found a solid wood armoire at the D.I. (Utah's version of Goodwill.) I bought it and began figuring out the best way to store my cards in it. I didn't realize how nice it was going to be for that purpose. It has drawers for the boxes as well as a large cabinet for the other random boxes. It has plenty of space for all of my cards. If you have a lot of cards and boxes like I do, I highly recommend getting something similar to it to store them in.

That all works well and good for my non-deck cards, but I needed a way to keep my decks in a safe place, but in such a way that they were easy to haul around to places. The deck boxes I usually use don't fit in the white boxes, so I had to find another way. Now, don't judge too harshly, but I had seen a few episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh, and had seen that one of the characters keeps his cards in a briefcase. I loved this idea, so I started looking for a decent briefcase. I was lucky enough to find one (again, at the D.I.) and it works perfectly. I can fit all of my custom built decks as well as most of the pre-built decks I own. The briefcase has a dual lock, so I don't have to worry about my decks falling out when I carry it around. Again, if you need a way to transport a lot of decks around to tournaments or what-have-you, I recommend a briefcase.



Or even this?



Now, on to the topic of cataloguing. I've been meaning to make an official catalogue of all my cards for some time now, but with how large my collection is, the task is rather daunting. I need to buckle down and actually do it though. I've talked to a few people about how they catalogue their cards, and most of them use Microsoft Excel. I use Excel to create my deck lists, so I know it would work well for a full catalogue. The only problem at this point is actually sitting down and creating the list. It's going to be time consuming for sure. Now I just have to decide how I want to catalogue them. Should I do it by set? That seems like it would be the easiest. I think I'll go with that.

What about all of you? How do you organize, sort, and catalogue your cards? Are you a fan of the white boxes? Are you as OCD about your cards as I am? Let us know in the comments. (Just an FYI: feel free to comment about your card habits even if you collect a different game.)

Introduction

I'd just like to say welcome to everybody who visits this blog. In case you can't tell by the title, this is going to be a place for myself and my friends to post ideas we have about Magic the Gathering. Be it deck ideas, deck builds, ideas we'd like to see implemented in the game, or anything, really. It'll all be welcome here and we'll always be looking for ideas, suggestions and input from anybody who visits here.

I'll let the other authors introduce themselves on their own. For now, I'd just like to give a brief history of myself as far as Magic the Gathering is concerned. I've been collecting Magic cards since about 8th grade, which for me was about 12 years ago. Oddly, I didn't actually start playing the game until about 2 years after I started collecting. About 5 years ago my entire collection of cards, which was roughly around 10,000 cards strong, was stolen out of my car, forcing me to start my collection over again. I'm proud to say that today my collection has exceeded what it was when it was stolen. At this point, I have 10 decks that I've built either on my own or with the help of my friend Mike H. (Mike is going to be one of the authors on this blog.) While I enjoy pitting my decks against other's and hoping to win, it's not something I do very often. I really enjoy just collecting the cards and building decks with them, even if those decks don't get played very often, if ever. I like going through my cards and finding combinations that I can build a killer deck around. For the most part, I play Green and Artifact decks. There's just something appealing about those two types of cards. I love the enormous creatures you can get in Green decks and I love building decks that allow me to get them out fast, then beef them up even more. As for Artifact decks, I just like the way they seem to play off each other, as well as the anonymity of using colorless cards. The Mirrodin blocks (both the original block and the one that is currently being produced) are my favorite sets of cards. It shouldn't be a surprise why; big green creatures and a focus on artifacts abound in Mirrodin.

Anyway, that's enough about me. Keep a watch on this blog for all kinds of posts about Magic the Gathering. Hopefully you'll get something out of it each time you visit.