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Text File | 1995-01-31 | 18.5 KB | 353 lines

ULTRADECK(c) 1995 Alexander Schonfeld "Wield the magic..." - Lightning Deck/Card Management System for Magic: The Gathering{tm} 0.0 INDEX: 1.0 Files Included 1.1 Copyrights 1.2 Purpose 1.3 Updated Datafiles 1.4 Credits 2.0 General Use 2.1 Keyboard Commands and Cursor Movement 2.2 Keyboard Commands in Text Editing 3.0 What It Displays, LISTING Details 4.0 ULTRADECK Functions, GRID Details and more 5.0 Using ULTRADECK to Create a Deck 6.0 Deck Making Tips (IMHO) 1.0 FILES INCLUDED: ultdeck.exe - The executable program ultdeck.ud - The data file, updated monthly or sooner ultdeck.doc - The documentation, this file allcards.dck - A deck of all the cards pal.sav - A save file for the palette features.txt - A text file of features whatsnew.txt - A text file of info on various releases register.txt - How to register and why readme.1st - Basic info, very brief 1.1 COPYRIGHTS: This document is copyrighted (1995) by Alexander Schonfeld. Some of Wizards of the Coast{R} copyrighted card names are used inside of it. See ULTRADECK for other copyrights. This document can only be distributed with the rest of the ULTRADECK package. It is illegal to distribute the WotC{R} card data for profit. It can be done for free, however. The data is free. The ULTRADECK software is NOT free. Do NOT distribute the REGISTERED version. The SHAREWARE version MAY be distributed for free. Please upload the SHAREWARE version to BBS's everywhere! 1.2 PURPOSE: "Wield the magic..." The purpose of the ULTRADECK project is to make an EASY system for creating and evaluating decks that doesn't require shuffling cards or writing on your lands. From finding the lowest casting cost blue island walking creatures to estimating total dollar deck cost, ULTRADECK can do it efficiently and quickly. ULTRADECK can also manage whole card collections with relative ease. *blatant plug* If you use this program, please show your support and buy the registered version. It doesn't cost much and it would encourage a next version. See "register.txt". 1.3 UPDATED DATAFILES: New ".ud" data files will be released with new data (prices and card data updates) and for future expansions of the game. These will work with any version, as will your ".dck" files (see pressing F5 to update data). Updates will be available monthly/odd weekly for FTP at: MARVIN.MACC.WISC.EDU /pub/deckmaster/misc/utilities/pc The newest shareware version will also be here. Updates of the REGISTERED software are available to registered users for $3.00. 1.4 CREDITS: Software - Alexander Schonfeld (alexs@cs.pdx.edu) Price list - Cloister Bell (kindly distributed often) Check out his WWW page: HTTP:WWW.HHHH.ORG/~CLOISTER/MAGIC Card data - Lots of nice people on the net. (please tell me about mistakes) 2.0 GENERAL USE: There are two basic states: cursor movement and editing. You move the cursor with the arrow keys. When you press "Enter" or activate some functions you might go into a text editing box. You have full cursor control and can toggle between insert and overwrite mode. Pressing "Esc" will abort the editing and not change the text. "Enter" will keep the text and continue. Sometimes you will be asked a "yes or no" question. In this case to ANYTHING other than "y" will be a "n"o response. The questions are set up so that "n"o does not harm anything. To add cards simply type in your closest approximation in the "New Card..." edit box. The card will be added with the comment and number you have selected in the new card row. To delete move over an item and press the "Delete" key. 2.1 KEYBOARD COMMANDS IN CURSOR MOVEMENT: Delete = Deletes current card, *VERY USEFUL* Tab = Changes from HELP to GRID to CARD TEXT 0..9 = Changes current card # to number pressed + or - = Increments or decrements current card # Page Up = Up a page Page Down = Down a page Home = Go to top card/new card End = Go to bottom card Arrow keys = move cursor Alt + key = Activate highlighted (key) function Enter = Change current card, "Enter" again when done F1 = Save palette F2 = Load palette F3 = Random palette (useful, no?) F4 = Dump the data file into program with DEL ALL NUM as the # for each card, (no warning prompt so be careful) F5 = If you download a new data ".ud" file and want to update your ".dck"'s data, this will re-read all the data from the new data file, making all the data current. Re-save after this. 2.2 KEYBOARD COMMANDS IN TEXT EDITING: Any text keys = Edit the name Arrow keys = Move cursor right and left Enter = Accept text and continue Esc = Don't change text and continue Ins = Toggle overwrite and insert mode Home = Go to front End = Go to back 3.0 WHAT IT DISPLAYS, LIST DETAILS: Name = This is the name of the card color coded by card color. Comment = A general comment you can enter on the card, maybe how many you still need for your deck? Sidebar? # = The number of that specific card you have? Type = The card type. (ie. Summon, Enchantment, etc...) This is also color coded, by my best guess! Cost = The casting cost of the card. These values are as seen on the card. These are also color coded. Rarity = Color coded printing (f,a,etc...) and rarity (C,U,1,2,etc...). The higher the number the more of them printed on each sheet. The "+" on some "a" cards refers to a misprint. On half the cards the cost were a darker gray. The lighter circle is more valuable, sorta. Value = An average dollar representation gained from a frequently posted internet price list. This value is not always the best gauge as it is based on auction sale. Sometimes there are not enough data points for a reasonable guess. Some cards are "$0.00" because of spelling differences. I will fix them soon, look for a new ".ud" file. 4.0 ULTRADECK FUNCTIONS, GRID DETAILS: TAB (grid information) - This key cycles through the different views available at the bottom of the screen. These include: ? = The help screen showing what various things in the rarity column and others equal. # = A grid presenting the number of cards in each category, color and type. The sections with color in the background actually represent CASTING COSTS NOT numbers of cards. The totals on the bottom row represent ACTUAL NUMBERS of cards. Casting cost is statistically more valuable than the number of cards for deciding how much land you should have and deck planning. Knowing the number of "summon" spells is also valuable, thus the bottom row is actual numbers of cards. % = A grid presenting the percentages of the data in the number grid described before. $ = The dollar values of cards and such based on color and type. Casting cost is not involved here. TXT = The text of the card your cursor is currently over. Nicely colored? FILE, SAVE, LOAD - Normally to start ULTRADECK one will enter a command line parameter, like this: "ultdeck allcards". This will load the "allcards.dck" file. The extension ".dck" is assumed if not added. Inside the program there is a function, Alt+F, that allows you to edit the first 8 characters of the dos filename. The ".dck" extension is automatically assumed within the program as well. Once a filename is specified you can load (Alt+L) and save (Alt+S) the ULTRADECK data to that file. This data is not viewable in a text editor. PRINT, TO - Once you have selected your output destination, using Alt+T select Alt+P to print it to that location. Alt+T selects the destination which can be either: lpt = to the printer attached to your lpt1 port txt = a text file named FILE name + ".txt" CLEAR - This function (Alt+C) basically removes all the cards you have selected. RESTRCT - This function (Alt+R) restricts your current deck and zeros all the cards that are not tournament legal. It also limits normal cards and such. Delete - This deletes the card under your cursor. DEL - This function (Alt+D) removes all cards from the list with the number specified by NUM (Alt+N). This is handy for creating decks from "allcards.dck". + or - or 0..9 - These keys set the card number your cursor is currently on. SORT 1,2,3 - Pressing "Alt+1" cycles the current top level sort. If this is "colr" then it will sort based first on color then inside color on the 2nd sort selection. This process is continued on through the third level. So you can find the lowest casting cost blue summon by sorting by "colr", "type" and "cost". This feature is set to all "alph" in the shareware version. Please register for the full version. DRAW - This function (Alt+A) allows the user to draw a sample hand from their deck. The card names drawn are presented with a percentage chance for each. This chance represents your percentage chance of drawing that card. You can then choose to have the cards removed from your deck and continue drawing. Saving (Alt+S) is recommended before removing the cards. QUIT - Exit the program (Alt+Q). 5.0 USING ULTRADECK TO CREATE A DECK: ULTRADECK's main function is to create real play decks. The best way to do this is simply start adding cards you think are useful. You might first want to some planning with the "allcards.dck". Get an idea of the kinds of cards out there. Once you come up with a general strategy use the "allcards.dck" file and sort to find the ones that fit your strategy. You might work with the "allcards.dck". Increment the cards you want and then at the end sort by number to review them. Then delete the rest with the DEL ALL NUM function (Alt+D). Another option is just to enter all the cards you want in the new card space. Adjust any numbers that were not entered before you typed the name. Then press RESTRCT (Alt+R) to check your deck is legal. Look at the casting costs, do they form a pyramid? Can it do damage quickly? If not are there some defenses? Can you say every card serves a purpose or better yet, many purposes? Is the deck exactly 60 cards? Are there any better ways of doing the things my cards are doing, more efficient? SAVE (Alt+S), then start DRAWing (Alt+A) a few random hands. Look at the cards, are you getting combinations? Is there some defense? Try to continue drawing, do you find your deck losing momentum? Remember this is completely random. Different types of shuffling can do different things to increase your odds of drawing land and such. ReLOAD (Alt+L) and look at the charts (Tab). Am I dependent on one type of card? Is 20% of my deck enchantments, artifacts? Will a "shatter storm" kill me? Is my deck all creatures? What happens when they cast "wrath of god"? Do I have the most "mana" for my highest percentage of casting cost totals? Is there one card which will kill me? Is my deck totally reactionary? Last, but not least, can I afford to buy the cards in this deck? Do I want to find those four "ydwen efreets"? Look at the dollar values. Usually these are relatively high, with a little shopping, lower values can be found. 6.0 DECK MAKING TIPS (IMHO): Start to think about what are some good card combinations. What casting cost will these cards take? Do I have to get them together? An example might be "Manabarbs" and "Drain Power". This would require a red and blue deck. It would also require the game to have progressed some time and that you still be alive. There are a few important elements to think about: 1) What kind of deck is mine? Defensive or offensive? How does it progress as playing continues? Take for an example a red speed destruction deck. If someone pops out a red circle and they are at 2 life you are in trouble. Not only because of the circle, but because a red speed deck will not have the cards necessary to kill a "Serra Angle" without using say two "lightning bolt"s. This brings us to point 2. 2) You have to think about progression. As time goes along does my deck build in strength at an adequate rate? Usually think of a pyramid. Lots of low casting cost cards at the bottom, moving up to higher casting costs at the top. You want a few high casting cost cards at the top. This is not always true. By changing the amount of land in your deck you might adjust so that getting to higher costs is easier. Or play alternate "mana" supplies such as creatures that produce "mana", "artifacts", etc. This can allow you to get a lot more "mana" early in the game. You would thus be able to bring out high casting cost creatures early or do massive damage. Don't make the mistake of assuming you will have the "mana" to cast a "juggernaut" early in the game. The main point is that as the game progresses you want to use all your "mana" supply. Thus, later in the game you should be doing MORE damage with FEWER cards. This is not always true if you are playing around certain combos or playing a defensive deck. 3) What matters in this game? There are a few things: TURNS, CARDS and your OPPONENT'S LIFE. What you want to do is decrease your opponents life to 0 using the least number of cards in the least number of turns. You want to maximize your deck around these concepts. If you find yourself using 3 cards to destroy one of your opponents cards you are in trouble. If you see your opponent always disenchanting your "ornithopter" with 2 "giant strength"s on it you are in trouble. The problem is they are using one card to destroy 3 of yours. As far as turns, games tend to get very nasty after about 10 turns. Combination moves start to become all too common. Your 20 life is in jeopardy. Think, am I not getting a creatures out early in the game? Is that why his first turn "juzam djinn" is killing me? This rule does not only apply to creatures. Your deck might include "counterspell"s or maybe some "swords to plow"s doing the job just as well or better. These work as well as any low casting cost creature. Your deck should be able to kill before you are killed in a reasonable amount of turns. There are a few ways to do this. Plan around the different card types. They all do damage. Think, can you defend against all types of cards? The types include: "enchantments", "instants", "interrupts", "sorceries", "summons" and "artifacts". Permissions or "counterspell decks" can be good because of their ability to shut down any type of deck. Their fatal flaws are that they do not do enough damage, sometimes take more "mana" to stop cards than the casting cost and take on a defensive posture. There are of course ways to make these types as deadly as any other. One other way is to not worry about defense and take a totally offensive posture. Usually a deck should only have minimal defenses for things like "vises" and "manabarbs". Four "disenchants" is what I call adequate. Then think about what you are going to do to kill them. How does my deck do damage? Does it do it quickly, or long term? How long do I have to stay alive to kill them? Are there any cards that can shut my deck down? A red circle can shut down almost any red destruction deck. Do I have a similar problem? 4) Remember combination is the key. Almost no game can be won on all cards being used individually. Clever combinations are the best way to fool an opponent into death. Make sure your whole plan doesn't hinge around one card. Using multiple combinations can be very useful. Say you want the power of "goblin grenade"s, but don't want your goblins sitting around waiting to die. Put in some "blood lust"s and "fork"s to give the goblins something else to do. Leading us to 5. 5) Never become dependent on combinations. Or at least have combinations which can slowly make themselves evident. For example you may put down a "winter orb" and then 5 turns later find your "black vise" with relative ease. Don't make it so cards REQUIRE each other unless you have lots of them (ie. 12 goblins for your "goblin grenade"s). Don't make it so your cards require your opponent have certain cards unless they are sidebar and color/land/etc... specific and you KNOW they have them. 6) Total number of cards. NEVER go above 60. There is no reason to and it may decrease your odds of drawing the most important cards in your deck. You want to maximize your odds of drawing your most important cards such as a "black vise" first turn. 7) You should either have low casting cost defenses or some way to get cards and "mana" quickly into play. 30 percent "mana" is adequate for a deck with only a few cards at a casting cost of 3 "mana". If you shuffle it in it can be adequate for higher costs. Watch out for land destruction! 8) Shuffling is another key point. Usually before a tournament I will do a round robin on all my cards in nice stacks of type. Then lastly shuffle the land in evenly. You might want to do this before each game as well. Sort out your land and then shuffle it in. Then shuffle it in few more times to make your opponent reassured. If you notice your opponent doing this make sure they shuffle at least as much as you did. 3 times is usually fair for both players. 9) Sidebars should contain a good mix of cards that target other colors specifically. Maybe target the color you are weakest against. Be careful of falling into traps which expect you to cast certain offensive cards. If you have space left over, put in some land for land destruction. Make sure you have cards in your deck that you would be willing to take out. If you are playing an all red deck with your blue and white deck you might want to replace "counterspell"s with "elemental blast"s. 10) When playing semi-intelligent people, with good decks, its mostly luck anyway!