MTG Studio 1.6.4

MTG Studio 1.6.4 is designed as a professional program that can allow you to create magic decks to play with and organize your own paper card collection. The product ships with the most complete MTG database in the world. The database includes over 19600 cards from all editions ever released.

In addition, MTG Studio has the unique feature to open and edit many decks simultaneously.
There is support for almost any known Magic deck format such as MTG Online II, MTG Online III, Apprentice, Magic
Workstation, Magic Suitcase, MTG Interactive Enciclopedia, MTG Play, OCTGN, Shandalar, Duels of the Planeswalkers, Mana Link, Mana Link 2.0.
The decks created with MTG Studio can be exported to various office formats such as HTML, Excell, XML, Txt.

The program has advanced multiple-criteria filtering and grouping.
MTG Studio is 100% localizable in any foreign language.
MTG Studio offers Deck Legality check routines, Manalyzer, Probability Analysis, Starting Hand, Rulings, Oracle Texts an lots more. MTG Studio currently has more than 70000 in over 100 countries across the world.

Major Features:

1. Magic Content:
   
   • Card Database for over 19'600 cards including the latest Conflux set. New feature
   • Help with the latest General MTG Rules, MTG Glossary, Banned-Restricted Cards list, FAQ, MTG Books on various cards and editions
   • Card text and rulings from Stephen D'Angelo Card Rulings, which provides the latest errata on all cards. The rulings are automatically synchronized with the current card selection.
   • Full integration with fancy card rulings during navigation within decks. Card Rulings are syntax highlighted, can be printed or exported to .txt, .rtf, .html format. For those cards which do not have card rulings, automatically rulings are generated.
   • Support for official Wizards of the Coast Oracle texts
   • Over 500 pages of card information such as frequently asked questions, card name lexicon, card gameplay suggestions and more.
   • Support for user defined card notes
   • MTG Studio comes with more than 1'900 decks - preconstructed, championship winners and sample decks. The decks are available in 10 different file formats.
   • Card prices from ABU Games, magic Traders, and Hastur Hobbies online card stores.
2. Registration:
   
   • Registered users receive lifetime license. (read more)
   • MTG Studio is constantly updated and all updates are free of charge
   • You have support in the online forum or via email
   • Join a community of over 150'000 users (ever downloaded MTG Studio)
   • MTG Studio has thousands of registered users
3. Deck Editing:
   
   • Multi-deck editing - allows you to edit multiple decks simultaneously
   • Cut, Copy, Paste cards between decks
   • Edit deck headers: author, creation date, authors email, deck notes, etc.
   • Easy to use shortcuts for fast navigation through decks
   • Most Recently Used list of decks
   • Automatic bind between card and rules with help file
   • Print cards selection
   • Copy cards selection to clipboard
   • Export cards selection to: .html, .xls (Excel spreadsheet), .xml, .txt
   • Deck Legality column in Cards Grid showing the card legality for 20 MTG and MTG Online formats
   • Check Deck Legality - check a whole deck legality against chosen format
   • Extended deck information: file name and 10 different deck Security Codes
   • An error log is provided when loading unrecognized cards found in decks
4. Deck Formats:
   
   • Support for the following deck formats:
   • deck - MTG Studio deck
   • dek - MTG Online III deck  New feature
   • dec - MTG Online binary deck
   • txt - MTG Online text deck
   • mwDeck - Magic Workstation deck
   • dec - Apprentice deck
   • dck - Shandalar/Duels of the Planeswalkers/Mana Link deck
   • dck - Mana deck
   • mdb - Magic Suitcase deck
   • xml - OCTGN, MTG Play, and MTG Interactive Encyclopedia deck
   • tinydeck - Tiny deck
   • The supported deck formats can be opened, edited, saved and used back into their original program.
   • Collection (aka Inventory):
   • Ability to organize your collection of paper cards:
   • Collections is saved in an binary file format for maximum performance with .collection extension New feature
   • Visualization features such as: Sorting, Grouping, Printing, Exporting to .xml, .txt, .html, .xls
   • A card in your collection has the following attributes:
   • Quantity - how many copies of this card you have
   • Condition - sealed, brand new, mint, near mint, fine, good, fair, poor, misprint, signed, foreign
   • Foil - whether the card is foil
   • Notes - user defined notes
   • Storage - the physical location of the paper card (a bin, folder, volume, etc.)
   • Used - how many copies of the card have already been used in one of your decks
   • Needed - how many additional coies of this card you need
   • Buy - define whether toy buy and/or exchange this card New feature
   • Buy At - specify the price you are willing to pay for a card
   • Sell - define whether you sell and/or exchange this card
   • Sell At - define a price at which you sell this card
   • Desired - define the amount of copies you wish to own
   • Price - the average price of the card from the most popular card stores
   • Group - be able to tag and and organize in groups your cards
   • Print Type - is your card paper, digital or a printed proxy
   • ... and lots more like Target, Excess, Legal, Color, Type, Rarity, Cost, PT, Text, Flavor, Artist, Power, Toughness, CMC.
   • Import of collections/iventories from other Magic software packages:
   • Magic Workstation - full support for importing .mwInventory collections New feature
   • MTG Studio - easy upgrade of collections from previous MTG Studio versions New feature
5. Price Lists:
   
   • Support for card prices from Online stores such as:
   • Magic Traders prices
   • ABU Games prices
   • Hastur Hobbies prices
6. Card Art:
   
   • Recognized card art image formats - *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.jpe, *.bmp, *.png, *.gif
   • Card Preview for large Card Art images stored in multiple directories and ordered by preference
   • Card Preview for images from MTG Interactive Encyclopedia
   • Preview Card Art directly from www.wizards.com
   • Export Card Art image to .jpg, .bmp, .png, .wmf, .emf, .tiff image formats
7. Search and Filter:
   
   • Advanced user-friendly visual filtering
   • Card Pool filters - All Cards, Mtg Online, Mtg Interactive Encyclopedia, Shandalar, Magic Workstation, Magic Suitcase valid cards
   • Filtering by card's edition, legality, power, toughness, card name, rules, flavor text, artist, color, card type
   • Filers by card CMC (Converted Mana Cost)
   • Filters by card abilities (flying, trample, etc.)
   • Filters by mana production (Ex. Filter cards which produce 1 green mana -> Birds of Paradise)
   • Filters will be saved as *.flt files for later use. Filters can be reopened and edited visually
   • Filter which hides the duplicated cards with the same name and leaves only the card from the latest editions
   • User defined bookmàrks.
   • Incremental search by card name - just type within the card grid to locate the needed card
   • Grouping and sorting in columns
   • Abilities - cards are ordered in a tree structure by their abilities and mechanics. Over 250 abilities are supported.
   • The deck editor and the help are content sensitive in both direction. You can read about a card in the documentation and quickly locate it within the cards grid and vice versa
8. Statistics:
   
   • Mana Curves
   • Manalyzers
   • Mana breakdowns by card color
   • Deck statistics by color, rarity, card type and edition breakdowns
   • Probability analysis
   • Starting Hand Generator - tool for fast review of a really random generated starting hand
   • Utilities:
   • Online Tools - Online Preview, Online Rulings, Online Judge, Online Gatherer
   • Card Art Validator - unique in-build tool for validating the available card art images against the MTG Studio card database
   • Online automatic check for new versions of MTG Studio
   • Visual Macro Recorder - record your moves with the mouse and keyboard pressed keys
   • Artist Browser - this tool provides detailed personal information for Magic artists
   • Notepad - a simple text editor with some Magic specific capabilities such as searching fast for card names or rapid embedding of HTML tags
   • Translation Tool - a in-build tool for full application localization
   • Reports - you can print your deck as an official Deck Registration Sheet
9. Other:
   
   • MTG Studio runs on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Windows 7.New feature
   • MTG Studio runs on Mac OS X under Parallels and runs on Ubunty under VMWare.New feature
   • MTG Studio can be run under limited user account.New feature
   • Ability to customize the short keys for any command.
   • Support for Windows XP themes
   • The application can be localized at 100%. It has in-build tool for creating custom language localizations.
   • The program ships with English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Bulgarian languages.
   • The application is fully drag-and-drop enabled and integrated with Windows Explorer
   • The application is fully customizable and complies with all requirements of "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo program.
   • The program can be minimized in tray and can be password protected. The password is stored encrypted. Restoring the minimized program can be down with a single key combination.
   • Anti-Boss protection - quickly hide the program in the tray and change its caption and icon to some standard software package like Internet Explorer or Word.
     

Enhancements:

1. User Interface:
   
   • The user interface will be greatly improved with gradients, shadows, enhanced drag-and-drop and docking
   • The program can be switched to Full Screen mode by either using the Shift+Alt+Enter shortcut or pressing the "Full Screen" toolbar button
   • Support for Windows Themes and custom skins (comes with Windows XP, Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2000 themes and 16 custom themes)
   • Ability to quickly switch between deck editing and multiplayer duels from a list placed in the upper right corner of the toolbar
   • "Common Tasks" panel will be added. From this panel commonly used tasks (such as "Add card to deck" or "Save Deck") will be accessible.
   • New Start-up Page with list of the decks last edited and common commands to be executed. It also displays whether a newer version of MTG Studio is available and the MTG Studio news
   • Ability to choose the start-up action: No Action, Open Last Edited Deck, Open Last Viewed Deck, Open Last Viewed Decks, Show Start-up Page
   • MTG Studio will allow you to run multiple instances
2. Card Pool:
   
   • Added new columns to the Card Pool - Block, Creature Type, Foil, Short Name, General Type, Language, Main Type, Notes, Released, Subset, Version
   • Oracle Rules and Oracle Rules are is planned to be available as a new columns in the Card Pool
   • Added ability to add comments & notes for a card in the card pool
   • Added Spell Checking support for the card notes
   • New filter row on top of the Card Pool for faster filtering using predefined Magic keywords
   • Thumbnail preview of the cards in the card pool
   • Ability to create custom editions
   • Ability to write own SQL queries against the card database
   • Display an icon with the flag of the country in whose language the card language is printed
   • A tool tip will be displayed while scrolling the card pool showing the current card name
   • "Live Scrolling" (moving the card pool scroller scrolls the cards in the pool) can be turned off. If Live Scrolling is off, scrolling the card pool will refresh the table only after the mouse button is released.
   • Export of the card from the card pool in .rtf, .mht, .pdf formats is planned
   • Collector number will be in X/Y format as it is printed on the card (For example: 3/350). Currently the column displays only the collector number, but does not display the total number of cards in the set.
   • A card row in the pool can be highlighted (marked with different color) using new highlight schemes:
   • by block, if legal for Standard, if legal for Extended, if legal for Legacy, if legal for Vintage, if supported by MTG Online, if available in MTG Interactive Encyclopedia,
   • Also additional row highlighting is planned:
   • by edition, if owned, if card art is available, if supported by Shandalar, if supported by Magic Workstation, if supported by Magic Suitcase, if the card is last reprint or has a newer reprint, by the language of the card, by release year
3. Deck Editing:
   
   • Deck and Sideboard cards are separated in two views, allowing to hide the rarely used Sideboard
   • Allow moving the grid cards up and down in the Decks
   • Allow marking cards in deck by using flags with different color
   • Allow writing custom comments and notes for a card in your deck
   • Allow grid synchronization (when Fog is selected from the Decks the Fog in the card pool is located and shown vice versa)
   • Pressing the middle mouse button over a deck page to close the deck
   • Add "Close All but This" menu to the context menu of the deck pages. It will close all opened decks except the currently visible one
   • Add "Open Containing Folder" menu to the context menu of the deck pages. It will open the folder where the deck is physically stored
   • Support for Undo and Redo operations is planned
   • All columns from the Card Pool will be also available in the Deck Grid (currently some of them are missing)
   • Introduce new feature called "Quick Hints" - warning symbols will be displayed in front of the cards in the deck warning about deck inconsistency. (Example: you put a land in the sideboard, or use a card which has a newer reprinted version)
   • For some of the "Quick Hints" warning a "Quick Fix" can be applied by right-clicking over the warning icon. (For Example: right-clicking over a Quick Hint saying "Lands are not allowed in sideboard" will ask you whether to remove the land card from the sideboard.)
   • Information whether the deck is legal for Standard, Extended, Legacy, and Vintage formats will be displayed in the status bar. There will be a tool tip displaying the reasons why the deck is not legal for the respective game format.
   • Ability to upload your deck to a central deck database marking your deck as "private" or "public". You can use this feature to keep an on-line/backup copy of your decks.
   • Ability to download your or other players' public decks from Internet
   • "Rate Deck" feature - allows you to rate published on-line decks
   • Ability to choose the encoding when exporting a deck in .txt format
   • "Copy as Text" - ability to copy the deck to Windows clipboard as text
   • Shift + Add Card adds exactly 4 cards
   • Shift + Remove card to remove all the cards from the deck
   • Do not allow more than 4 copies of a card (except for the Rats). Count also the versioned, reprinted and alternative art cards. (Currently reprinted and versioned cards can be added breaking the "4 copies of a kind" rule)
   • When importing a deck from a deck format different from *.deck format the file creation time stamp to be taken as the creation date.
   • Drag and Drop - when a card is dragged from the card pool and dropped over the a deck, the card to be inserted at the row where the cursor is currently pointing. Currently the card is appended at the end of the grid.
   • Ability to choose the default folder where new decks are stored
   • Ability to add special symbols in the .mtgs deck properties
   • MTG Studio will detect changes from Windows Explorer of the deck file (updated, deleted) and prompts you whether to keep the deck content or to update/close it
4. Deck Legality:
   
   • The list of banned and restricted cards in maintained in a easier to edit XML format
   • New game formats added. By default 32 formats will be supported (including Highlander, Prismatic, etc.)
   • Ability to define your own game formats (editing Formats.xml format definition file) with allowed editions, banned and restricted cards, deck and sideboard card restricttions.
   • Ability to check your deck against all 32 supported formats. (Currently only Standard, Extended, Legacy, and Vintage formats are checked)
   • Deck Statistics:
   • MTG Online-like probability analyzer for creature types
   • Manalyzer to have an option whether to to take into consideration the cards from the sideboard
   • Power-Toughness statistics - total values, similar to manalyzer add powerlyzer feature for P/T
   • Statistics per set: average casting cost, total casting cost, color breakdown, card type Breakdown, rarity breakdown
   • Card Pool statistics: total casting cost, color breakdown, card type breakdown, rarity breakdown, total cards in set
   • George Baxter's Analysis
5. Card Preview:
   
   • Card images are downsized (if bigger than the viewable area) using Photoshop quality bicubic algorithm and text anti-aliasing and smoothing
   • Support for MTG Online .pig card art file format
   • Planned "Flip Card" feature - a small transparent icon at the left bottom of the card images will allow you to flip (rotate) the card image of a flip card
   • Automated download of high quality card images (312 x 445 pixels)
   • Ability to define (using scripts) own card art templates for searching for images from from local drives or downloading them from Internet
   • Information about the quality of the card scan will be displayed in the Card Preview area. The quality of the scanned will be determined using the image dimensions, bits per pixel, file size in bytes
   • Ability to calculate the total price of your cards in a deck
   • Keyword abilities (displayed as tool tips in the card rules) to be loaded from external KeywordAbilities.xml file
   • If the card image is downloaded from Internet, display download status in the status bar
   • The tool tip of the card image to display the image file location, file size, dimensions, number of colors, and its quality
   • Ability to choose a card back of your own. (Card back image is shown if the card face image is not found and during card image download from Internet)
   • Display blended label "Out of Print" for cards which are out of print.
   • Add tool tips describing what is a "banned", "restricted card", "illegal for the format" set
6. Card Rules:
   
   • Cards similar to the selected card will be displayed
   • List of the card reprints and alternative art copies will be displayed
   • The editions in which the selected card has been printed will be displayed using the expansion icon instead of its abbreviation
   • Display information when the card was first/last printed (set, release date)
   • Card Reviews, Ratings and Prices from WizardsCupBoard.com will be shown in the card preview area
7. Filter:
   
   • Ability to filter the deck and sideboard cards (currently only the Card Pool can be filtered)
   • Ability to filter cards using regular expressions
   • Planned new filter criteria: Released after Date, Released prior to Date, Released within the interval X Date – Y Date
   • Ability to search for cards with names containing the apostrophe escaped as "'"
   • Online Tools:
   • E-bay - search for the selected card at ebay.com
8. Abilities:
   
   • Considering redesigning the card abilities and attaching all abilities to cards
9. Starting Hand:
   
   • Enhance the starting hand features with the ability to draw additional cards, take a mulligan, and deal again
   • Ability to see the seven cards coming after the current dual
   • Artist Browser:
   • Display the total number of cards drawn, the date the first of the artist's cards was released and the date of the last one
   • Some artists have nicknames. Clicking on a nickname will display the information about the real artists and his real name
10. Validate Card Art:
    
    • Tool for validating the availability of the card scans on the local drives. Former "Card Art Validator".
    • You can download all the card images from Internet sources and store them on your local drive.
    • Collection (aka Inventory):
    • Support for import/expert of the inventory in Magic Workstation and Magic Library file formats
    • Visualization features such as: Filtering, Exporting to .mht, .rtf, .pdf
    • Ability to build decks directly from the Inventory.
    • Apart from the standard card characteristics the collection will include additional columns:
    • Print Type - physical, virtual, proxy
    • Need - how many of that card I need
    • Buy at - the price I am wiling to pay
    • Sell at - the price at which I am selling this card
    • Proxies - the number of proxies you have
    • For sale - whether the card is for sale
    • Price - shows the current prices from a chosen Online store
    • Ability to highlight the deck cards considering the card availability in the Collection (not available, not all copies available, all copies available (exact match), the collection has more copies than the number of copies used in the deck)
    • Collection Properties - name, version, created, modified, author, email, decryption
    • When collection is imported the creation time property to be set the same as the creation time of the imported file.
    • "Bargains" module with ability to track your card purchases, sells, exchanges
11. Price Lists:
    
    • Support for price lists from Online stores such as:
    • cardshark.com,
    • cardkingdom.com
    • coolstuffinc.com,
    • wizardscupboard.com,
    • collectmart.com,
    • The user can choose the currency exchange rates and choose in what currency the prices to be displayed
    • Sealed Deck Generator:
    • Ability to create sealed decks
    • Messages:
    • The windows with program log, program exceptions and import/expert deck warnings to be separated.
    • Print Proxy:
    • Ability to "Print Proxies"(tournament illegal paper versions of the cards in your deck).
    • You will be able which cards from the deck to print, whether to skip lands.
    • Ability to choose the border of the printed card: no border, white borders, black borders, rounded borders
    • You will be able to print a "Deck Card" describing the cards in the deck, the deck name, and creator
12. Combos:
    
    • Ability to define a group of cards as combo. Set description of the combo how it works.
    • The card preview area displays information about the combos in which the currently selected card participates
    • In the deck editing area mark in the grid indicator rows which form a combo
    • Counter Browser:
    • A helper tool showing which card can create, remove counters, their type and modifier values
    • Token Browser:
    • Shows which cards produce tokens. Shows the power, toughness, color, abilities, of the token.
13. Card Info:
    
    • A dialog displaying all the information for a selected card: all its characteristics, border, release date, versions, alternate art versions, promo versions, Oracle text and type, game format legality, abilities, Crysta Keep errata, Card of the Day information, user notes, card art availability, prices, collection availability, etc.
    • The card information can be printed as a report
14. Search in Decks:
    
    • Utility to search for a card in all decks on your local drive or Online published decks.
15. Online Draft:
    
    • Ability to take part in booster and roachester Online drafts
16. Reports:
    
    • A reporting module with lots of predefined reports
    • Report about the MTG Studio installation status
    • Report for the artists
    • Report for the card pool
    • Report for the edited deck. Prints the deck properties, cards, legality, statistics, availability in collection, total price
    • Report for the selected card
    • Printing checklists
    • Printing tournament sheets
    • Printing Collection of cards
    • Printing card art availability, file size, image dimensions, image quality
    • Report for a given set. Prints is characteristics, list of cards, card legality
    • Printing game mats. The user will be able to choose a background of his own.
    • Printing life counters. The user will be able to choose a background of his own.
17. License Agreement:
    
    • Displays information about the terms of use of the software
18. Forum:
    
    • Internet link to the support forum of the program
19. Registration Form:
    
    • The first beta versions of MTG Studio will be free but with limited beta-testing period.
20. Magic Links:
    
    • Magic-related web sites can be accessed directly from the Help menu. Former "Internet Links"
    • The list of Magic web sites is stored in MagicLinks.xml file and can be easily extended.
    • Report Bug:
    • Submit a report for MTG Studio missing or malfunctioning feature.
    • The report submits your logs and optionally a screen shot of the problem
    • You can choose to submit the report using an email client of your choice
21. About Box:
    
    • The about box will display whether you are using a trial version of MTG Studio or your copy is registered.
22. MTG Studio Help:
    
    • The help will be organized as a .pdf file. Adobe Acrobat Reader can be used for viewing it.
    • Add Feature matrix to the help
    • The help will have a topic for each MTG Studio feature with lots of screen shots and tips.
    • Add feature comparison between the Magic software tools: MTG Studio, MTG Online, Magic Workstation, Magic Library, Magic Suitcase, Apprentice, OCTGN.
    • The products will be compared in the following categories: support for promotional cards, support for alternate art cards, support for various deck formats, support for Inventory, is the product abandoned, price, download size, modern UI, etc.
    • Enhance the Glossary section
    • The "General Rulings" topic will be renamed to "Comprehensive Rules". "Rulings" is a made-up word for rules.
23. Installation:
    
    • Installation will be in common .msi (Microsoft Installer) format
    • The installation will check for the minimum requirements to run MTG Studio and warn you if your computer has lower characteristics
    • The program will be compiled during the installation at the client machine to take advantage of the new client CPU instructions
    • Auto update feature is planned to be added to MTG Studio. Each time you start MTG Studio and there is active Internet connection the program will prompt you for upgrade.
24. Localization:
    
    • MTG Studio will with run-time language switching support for English and Bulgarian languages
    • Other Program Characteristics:
    • Completely rewritten in object-oriented style with C# using the new Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0
    • over 3 times lower memory consumption (approximately 60 MB if all modules are loaded)
    • over 10 times decreased start-up time (approximately 1 second on 2 GHz CPU)
    • Removed dependency from Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). The new version uses a database format of its own.
    • Planned addin (aka plugin) support
    • The password screen of the "Minimize and Lock" feature will use the standard Windows password dialog
    • Ability to run from USB drive and read-only media such as CD-ROM, DVD
    • The program logs are much better and contain better bug tracking information. The logs' verbosity can be controlled by the user using program switches.
    • All lengthy operations will display status bar with percentage of completion, the estimated time left, and ability to cancel them
25. Dropped Features:
    
    • Reports form would not be present since the program log is enhanced to log the necessary bug tracking information during program start-up
    • Recorder will be dropped since it is not a true Magic-related feature and obscures the program interface
    • The e-Card creator feature would not be present any more since it is not used by majority of the users
    • We are considering dropping the ability to localize MTG Studio. MTG Studio localizations are usually done by our users but there hasn't been a consistent approach. MTG Studio will still be 100% supported in Bulgarian language.
    • MTG Studio will no longer support displaying banners. This feature is distracting and annoying.
    • Tips and Tricks will be added to the MTG Studio help system instead of being displayed as a dialog from the Help menu. The users prefer to read/print the tips from the manual.
    • MTG Studio installation folder will not longer be displayed in Windows Explorer using the MTG Studio "hand" icon. Instead the standard Windows "yellow folder" will be used. This feature was causing confusion since the user was thinking the installation folder is an application to start.
    • We are planning to remove the splash screen of MTG Studio since the program start-up time is less than a second.
    • The ability to redefine the MTG Studio shortcuts is planned to be dropped since it is not commonly used.
    • MTG Studio will no longer prompt you "Do you wish to close MTG Studio?" when closing the program. This is a Microsoft recommendation.
    • MTG Studio will not have time of usage limitations. Forcing the user to use the latest MTG Studio version annoys him/her.
    • Deck properties will not display the CRC-16, MD2, MD4, SHA1, Elf, Mod 10, Hash Code check sums of a deck. These check sums are rarely used by a regular magic player. CRC-32, MD5, and Apprentice Security Code check sums will be still supported.
    • MTG Studio will not support cropped images visualization. Wizards of the Coast and the respective artists have the copyright over the card borders and other visualization symbols such as mana symbol, tap symbols, flashback and brush symbols.
    WareSeeker Editor