Magic: The Gathering (TCG) Catch-all

There's no lobby support in MTG:O, or any other way to open packs in front of another player?

If not, then I would suggest a live stream of opening the packs, that's a lot simpler. Twitch.TV is free and easy to setup using Open Broadcaster Software. Start the stream, open your packs, post the link in the thread. It's recorded for you, and you don't need to schedule something with another person.

ahrezmendi wrote:

There's no lobby support in MTG:O, or any other way to open packs in front of another player?

If not, then I would suggest a live stream of opening the packs, that's a lot simpler. Twitch.TV is free and easy to setup using Open Broadcaster Software. Start the stream, open your packs, post the link in the thread. It's recorded for you, and you don't need to schedule something with another person.

I'll tweet the devs to double check, but I don't believe there's a way to do it internally.

Your method may be better than mine as a workaround.

ahrezmendi wrote:

There's no lobby support in MTG:O, or any other way to open packs in front of another player?

If not, then I would suggest a live stream of opening the packs, that's a lot simpler. Twitch.TV is free and easy to setup using Open Broadcaster Software. Start the stream, open your packs, post the link in the thread. It's recorded for you, and you don't need to schedule something with another person.

Would that be a reveal after league is over, or do people get to study opponents card pools?

I'm totally down for league, if we can overcome the logistics.

I used to have a program that I wrote that simulated sealed - you would extract you collection and my program would then make a deck file using the appropriate number of rarity. I even had a sealed league because I had another part of the program that would simulate ante. If you won, you'd get a "free" card from your collection, if you lost, well, you lost a random card from your sealed deck. In our league we had it if you lost too many games, you got a free pack ( i.e. another 15 cards from your collection added to your sealed deck ).

Not the same as cracking packs, but it was a cheaper way to play

I assume that was using some 3rd party Magic software rather than MTGO for the actual games? I'd be less interested if so.

TheWalt wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

There's no lobby support in MTG:O, or any other way to open packs in front of another player?

If not, then I would suggest a live stream of opening the packs, that's a lot simpler. Twitch.TV is free and easy to setup using Open Broadcaster Software. Start the stream, open your packs, post the link in the thread. It's recorded for you, and you don't need to schedule something with another person.

Would that be a reveal after league is over, or do people get to study opponents card pools?

I'm totally down for league, if we can overcome the logistics.

I can't think of a good method that keeps your pool private, so I'm guessing the pools will have to be somewhat public. Ahrezmendi's method is totally public, whereas my method would have one other person seeing your pool.

I'm fine with either, and in neither case would your opponent know for sure what 40 cards you're actually playing.

Having your pool secret is optimal, and we could have a gentleman's agreement not to scout each other. However, I played in a Grand Prix Trial IRL yesterday, and after the second round everyone in the place seemed to know I had Angel of Serenity.

It used MTGO for the actual games. You exported your collection into an excel spreadsheet, my app would then make a deck file in text format. I had a hand made database that had missing information (i.e. spell type, etc ) to fill in the blanks of what the export missed. You'd then load that deck and there your cards would be. We would play best of 3 so we could sideboard.

I'm not sure I still have the source code for the app, I'll have to hunt around my archives.

TheWalt wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

There's no lobby support in MTG:O, or any other way to open packs in front of another player?

If not, then I would suggest a live stream of opening the packs, that's a lot simpler. Twitch.TV is free and easy to setup using Open Broadcaster Software. Start the stream, open your packs, post the link in the thread. It's recorded for you, and you don't need to schedule something with another person.

Would that be a reveal after league is over, or do people get to study opponents card pools?

I'm totally down for league, if we can overcome the logistics.

Sounds to me like it's just a means to ensure everyone is actually playing from sealed packs, since MTG:O doesn't have a way to do your own sealed event. I wouldn't mind people being able to see the card pool of other players, it doesn't change the cards you have nor their options to respond.

Haha, well when you have one of the most powerful cards in the block word spreads kinda fast.

Same thing happened to me at a draft for Darksteel back in the day, and I drafted a Pristine Angel.

Cragmyre wrote:

It used MTGO for the actual games. You exported your collection into an excel spreadsheet, my app would then make a deck file in text format. I had a hand made database that had missing information (i.e. spell type, etc ) to fill in the blanks of what the export missed. You'd then load that deck and there your cards would be. We would play best of 3 so we could sideboard.

I'm not sure I still have the source code for the app, I'll have to hunt around my archives.

How would this work for people like ahrezmendi, who don't have existing collections online?

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Cragmyre wrote:

It used MTGO for the actual games. You exported your collection into an excel spreadsheet, my app would then make a deck file in text format. I had a hand made database that had missing information (i.e. spell type, etc ) to fill in the blanks of what the export missed. You'd then load that deck and there your cards would be. We would play best of 3 so we could sideboard.

I'm not sure I still have the source code for the app, I'll have to hunt around my archives.

How would this work for people like ahrezmendi, who don't have existing collections online?

It would not. It also, in a way, favors smaller collections because you'll be able to make a tighter deck. But, if you are like me with a very large collection, you'll never know what you will get. It was mainly a way for me and others, from a guild I once belonged, to be able to play with our collections in other ways.

An online league would be awesome! Though I probably wouldn't be able to play due to the time difference. I think it's 3pm on the west coast when it's midnight here and I presume most would want to tap their digital cards in the evening

Still one suggestion:

Another way of doing a league online would be to just do it with the golden planeswalker cards. Cheap, limits the pool and rules out cheating, still allows for interesting decks.

It's not the current set though which might be what puts people off, but it's still Magic. Maybe it's even more fun because there is no meta for those cards.

I don't currently play MTGO, but I'd be willing to try a sealed league with goodjers.

Registering for MTG:O isn't free? I thought it only cost money to buy cards, but Wizards is now saying it's $10 just to make an account.

I think you can try it for free with a trial account to check it out but once you register you have to pay.

I don't see a trial option. Whatever, I'll wait until there is or is not going to be a sealed league and just register based on that.

In the old days I think you paid the $10 but got $10 free store credit.

LeapingGnome wrote:

In the old days I think you paid the $10 but got $10 free store credit.

This. And the trick is to buy tickets (not Cube tickets, btw) from the store front, and then to buy the actual packs from trade bots, which sell them cheaper than the store does.

Also, Meater: I'd have to look into the Planeswalker cards; they do sound like a good deal for a constructed league with an identical cardpool, although it would still cost money.

Not sure how to deal with the time zone difference.

The sign up says that your $10 now gets you:

1 2013 booster pack
4 new player tickets & 2 event tickets (whatever these are)
5 avatars
1 planeswalker deck pack
300 cards (I'm guessing lands & commons?)

The wording is really awkward, it's not clear if you get all this for the $10 or if you get some of it and access to the rest simply for playing MTG:O.

ahrezmendi wrote:

The sign up says that your $10 now gets you:

1 2013 booster pack
4 new player tickets & 2 event tickets (whatever these are)
5 avatars
1 planeswalker deck pack
300 cards (I'm guessing lands & commons?)

The wording is really awkward, it's not clear if you get all this for the $10 or if you get some of it and access to the rest simply for playing MTG:O.

You can sell or trade the 2013 booster pack, though I haven't checked prices lately.

The "new player tickets" are for new player only events, like New Player "Phantom" drafts, where you don't keep any of the cards you play with.

Event tickets are the currency that the Magic Online economy runs on. Those are what you spend to buy packs from bots.

Avatars are mostly cosmetic, except for a Momir Vig avatar - dunno which ones you get.

The planeswalker cards are the cards mentioned before that can't be used in tournaments.

I'm guessing you're right about the 300 cards.

Btw I received a reply from the head of MTGO, and he also suggested streaming technology for what we're looking to do. Looks like you're the big winner for best suggestion!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

This. And the trick is to buy tickets (not Cube tickets, btw) from the store front, and then to buy the actual packs from trade bots, which sell them cheaper than the store does.

Also, Meater: I'd have to look into the Planeswalker cards; they do sound like a good deal for a constructed league with an identical cardpool, although it would still cost money.

Not sure how to deal with the time zone difference.

There is no way to deal with time zone difference Let's see who signs up and if it makes sense, maybe some people are from the east coast or want to play around noon. If it makes sense I'm in otherwise I'll depend on someone streaming their games (if you do stream the pack openings why not stream the road to victory?)

Might be due to the currency conversion but I think tickets are cheaper at shops like mtgotraders.com or cardhoarder.com. At least they were when I last bought some. But they often run out. They might also sell packs.

When I started MTGO last year the 300 cards mentioned above were planeswalker cards (at least I'm sitting on A LOT of gold bordered cards and would not know where else I got them) and they were not random. Not sure if they are different now. The planeswalker deck is a new thing but you can also buy it in the MTGO Store for $4.99. But the planeswalker thing is only interesting if it is roughly the same pool for everyone I would say. This list looks like they change the pack every year.

All right. I've created a Google Docs to get this thing started.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuvjLJqb5T6ldFc3Z0IwV25DU3R5NE1PbjVENDFNX0E&usp=sharing

We can paste our card pools by exporting them as text from the MTGO client. I'm going to suggest that we utilize the standard sealed pool of 2 Dragon's Maze, 2 Gatecrash, and 2 Return to Ravnica boosters, so we can either just crack-a-pack or actually play an MTGO sealed pool and reuse the same cards in the GWJ tournament. Unless we're all ponying up some sort of big ante, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to do a recording of pack opening.
There's a lot of trust in this community, and I personally don't mind extending that trust to this tournament, but I'll go with whatever the group feels is appropriate.

All of this depends on getting a critical mass signed up.

In the old MTGO, you would get points for your first 5 matches each week, then tiebreakers for all games beyond those first five. After having participated in a few of the Ascension tournaments, I have no doubts that we'll be unable to match this format with this group; the logistics are just too difficult. However, depending on the number of people signed up, we could use something like MTG Arena to create a Swiss tournament structure. Again, I'm open to the groups thoughts on this.

See above note on people signing up.

I'm assuming one match a week, possibly a 5-game match rather than a standard 3-game match.

I do think it's important to record card pools, not because there's a lack of trust , but it just creates an environment where no one is likely to have hard feelings about my two Angel of Serenity, foil Supreme Verdict deck since they know it's legit.

I'm planning to use Swiss pairing software to generate the matches, although we can decide how many rounds after we see how many sign ups we get. If it's a manageable number, round robin (everyone plays everyone once) is even better - and would allow everyone to schedule their matches at will, come to think of it.

ahrezmendi, could you make a post about the streaming software and how-to?

Everyone else, sign on up and we'll see how this is looking! I'll probably make another thread in the next day or two to consolidate information. Thanks!

The doc needs to be opened up for people to enter their tags.

Here's the quick 3 steps to getting streaming working on a Windows PC:

1 - Head to Twitch.TV and sign up.
2 - Head to the OBS project page and download OBS.
3 - Follow the instructions here to configure OBS to your Twitch stream.

Then just start the broadcast in OBS and you're golden.

5 games per match sounds like a bit much for me, especially if this will be on a weeknight. I'd like to keep each match to 2 hours or less if possible.

Ooooo. This sounds interesting. Will need to investigate. Lots of terminology I'm not getting.

In case anyone wants to read up on the cards in the Ravnica sets I can recommend Luis Scott Vargas' Set Reviews over at channelfireball.com. Just search for "set review" on the link.

How do you guys want to play? 1 Match each week and the players who get matched up schedule the time?

I might be able to play late in the night on the weekends but probably not every weekend. Or maybe very early in the morning before work during the week. Both might match west coast play time. Anyone care to add their UTC to the table on sign up so we can figure out if that can make sense?

I think the round time in magic online is always 30 min per side for a best of three so 2 hours should be out of the question. But maybe I just never played custom games where you can change that.

For those who never played Magic Online I would recommend to at least get some practice matches done to get used to the interface. It can also be tricky to execute some things like keeping priority to choose additional targets or do other stuff that certain cards might require.

ahrezmendi wrote:

5 games per match sounds like a bit much for me, especially if this will be on a weeknight. I'd like to keep each match to 2 hours or less if possible.

Three games is allocated 50 minutes total in official Wizards tournaments. 5 games should never take a full two hours, imho.

And thanks for the Twitch instructions!

MEATER wrote:

How do you guys want to play? 1 Match each week and the players who get matched up schedule the time?

Yes, exactly, unless there are few enough people that we want to just go round-robin, which is everyone playing everyone else once, in which case people can do as many matches in a week as they can schedule.

MEATER wrote:

I think the round time in magic online is always 30 min per side for a best of three so 2 hours should be out of the question. But maybe I just never played custom games where you can change that.

Yes, in custom games you can change the time limit.

MEATER wrote:

For those who never played Magic Online I would recommend to at least get some practice matches done to get used to the interface. It can also be tricky to execute some things like keeping priority to choose additional targets or do other stuff that certain cards might require.

This is excellent advice.

FYI I plan to put up a separate thread for this tonight, and I'm thinking we take sign-ups through the weekend. Cool?