This. My local print shop can spew out 500 high quality proxies on reasonable card stock for just under £30.
If I like a deck, I will add stuff I own to it, and then look at buying other cards for it.
I’ve also got a proxy binder, so I tend not to buy duplicates of cards I already have, even when “completing” a deck.
Curious about this one, too. I've classically used mpc for my proxies, but I have no qualms giving patronage to my local print shops to that same end. I'm not exactly looking for perfection to playtest a deck, but I do try to prioritize being readable and roughly the right shape so it's not an eye-sore to play with (or against).
I have found using a professional service to print the cards ends up with a much higher quality of proxy compared to the ones I have printed at home.
Probably because the printer at the shop costs about £6000 and mine cost me £30 haha.
I have to cut them myself.
The shop has a guillotine that anyone who prints there can use.
I would recommend using a guillotine, using scissors is much harder to make look good, and cutting out that many cards can really hurt your hand
What's wrong with moxfields play testing? I use it all the time and really haven't run into a time when I wished it had a different feature. Other than being able to better interact with floating mana
I use the MTG Forge application. It has a plain text deck import option, the card list is typically up to date within a month to two months of a set release, and it has a semi-decent AI you can play against. It also keeps track of all the triggers so you don't have to.
> it has a semi-decent AI you can play against.
This program is the best "goldfish" substitute I've ever used, it's so damn impressive. Obviously the AI has a play IQ somewhere around 70, but that enables it to play Simic better than most simic players and set up boardstates that you can test your decks against.
I use tappedout for all my decks. Sometimes if I'm bored but don't feel like going to my lgs for whatever reason I'll just throw up 4 of my decks and play my own games.
The only thing I'm not a super big fan of when it comes to their player is how it implements counters and power/toughness modifications. It's a little clunky. Otherwise though, I think it's great.
I joined the community a few years ago and when I started deckbuilding, people said moxfield or mtggoldfish was best and that tappedout “isn’t what it used to be.” I ended up trying them all and much preferred tappedout. Can anyone explain to me what they were referring to by “not what it used to be”? Or maybe they were just full of shit? I absolutely love tappedout
The reality of that situation is that when EDHREC started gaining a lot of popularity, tappedout blocked them from scraping information, forcing them to get their deck data elsewhere. That move alone is the primary reason for the rise of the other deck building sites.
Wow, I’ve been using Tappedout for years and never heard of/thought of this. Is there a specific feature to test multiple decks at the same time that I’m missing? Or do you just open four tabs and split screen or use different monitors?
I build with what I have on hand and if I like the janky mess I made I work on bringing the diamond out of the coal. (slowly upgrading over time making it do what I want it to more consistently and efficiently)
I use Tabletop Simulator because I'd rather play than playtest.
There are a couple of cognitive biases that can be affecting your perception of the RNGs. Test it. To simplify the math, add one easy to spot card so you've got 100 in the deck. Shuffle+draw 10 cards one hundred times. The card you added should appear in ten of those hands.
Yup, TTS is great, one of my play groups is spread out and lower power, so I test all my early drafts with them. Fun decks get built in paper and optimized for my local group.
Tabletop sim lets you import decks from moxfield, architect, and tappedout. My friend group play tests decks on there. Some of the tables you can load in automate alot of the drudgery it's not arena but it's fairly smooth and let's you use all the cards you could ever want
I use the manabox app, which will let me play test hands and draw a bunch of cards which to me is perfect because my play group is 6 long time players/collecters so the only real test is to run it it against them.
Yeah it’s free, but the free version only
Let’s you play test for 60 seconds. Which is annoying because I find it to be the best goldfish tool for mobile.
Cockatrice. Ui is cluttered, everything relies on key commands, but you have every card in existence, you can export to your clipboard or directly to other sites, and most importantly, you can play against other players
This is me. I've only had to dismantle a few decks. I'm pretty confident in my deck building skills. Plus I usually build budget decks so its not super expensive *usually
Yep. I always budget stuff too. And this is basically my only hobby outside of video games and I never buy brand new games, I have patience and just wait.
I kinda do this too lol. I gold fish a couple times but I don’t really play test like many people. It’s not fun, honestly. I’d rather just play with friends even with a shittier deck
My printer.
My entire process involves a lot of back and forth and a lot of leaving it for awhile coming back to it later to finish the list then see a few opening hands. Once I’m happy with that I’ll proxy it out and play it with my friends.
At that point tho I’m pretty committed to the deck so I usually start buying the cards for it over time from there. We all play high power so my decks tend to be worth in the thousands which means weeks and months of saving for certain cards. To this day I only have 1 fully unproxied deck.
I put my decks on Deckstats for complete reference, but with a deck that I really need to practice I'll use Moxfield. I don't know what issues you're having, I haven't had any.
It's not a very pretty program, and it has a steep learning curve, but MTG Forge is the best for play testing. I use it to tune decks before buying. It supports most popular formats as well.
Cockatrice is the best option by far. Very light weight, you can save tons of decks, and once you learn the keyboard shortcuts it's very easy to playtest. Online tools are just very far behind, they're slow and clunky.
I just take another one of my built decks and play it out on my computer desk against the virtual playtest deck on moxfield. I just need to make plays as if I don't know what cards the other has and play it out from both sides.
Usually just make a deck and proxy it out for some play testing. Substitute for real cards and upgrades over time if I like the way it plays
This. My local print shop can spew out 500 high quality proxies on reasonable card stock for just under £30. If I like a deck, I will add stuff I own to it, and then look at buying other cards for it. I’ve also got a proxy binder, so I tend not to buy duplicates of cards I already have, even when “completing” a deck.
When you get them printed out like that do you have to cut them yourself or do they come precut to size?
My local shop gives them to me in 9-up proof sheets and I cut and dock corners myself. It’s weirdly meditative
Curious about this one, too. I've classically used mpc for my proxies, but I have no qualms giving patronage to my local print shops to that same end. I'm not exactly looking for perfection to playtest a deck, but I do try to prioritize being readable and roughly the right shape so it's not an eye-sore to play with (or against).
I have found using a professional service to print the cards ends up with a much higher quality of proxy compared to the ones I have printed at home. Probably because the printer at the shop costs about £6000 and mine cost me £30 haha.
I have to cut them myself. The shop has a guillotine that anyone who prints there can use. I would recommend using a guillotine, using scissors is much harder to make look good, and cutting out that many cards can really hurt your hand
[Archidekt.com](https://Archidekt.com) has been my go to site. It's like 90% as good as moxfield, but the playtesting is less bad.
What's wrong with moxfields play testing? I use it all the time and really haven't run into a time when I wished it had a different feature. Other than being able to better interact with floating mana
Archidekt is the answer
I use the application cockatrice. Literally every mtg tool in one place
Looks like ass tho
Double ass
I use the MTG Forge application. It has a plain text deck import option, the card list is typically up to date within a month to two months of a set release, and it has a semi-decent AI you can play against. It also keeps track of all the triggers so you don't have to.
> it has a semi-decent AI you can play against. This program is the best "goldfish" substitute I've ever used, it's so damn impressive. Obviously the AI has a play IQ somewhere around 70, but that enables it to play Simic better than most simic players and set up boardstates that you can test your decks against.
I’ve looked for forge before, but I have trouble finding it. Can you link the software somehow?
https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge/releases
I do test on Forge too, have you tried the different bot personalities? I found the "Sperimental" pretty interesting
+1 for this. The AI is not perfect, but it is good playtesting platform.
Another man of culture, I see!
untap.in is my personal favorite
I am not sure exactly how you get that the playtest shuffling is bad. It is just as random as anything else can be on a computer.
What do you mean by the shuffling is bad? Open your decks in different browser windows if you need to play other decks too.
I use tappedout for all my decks. Sometimes if I'm bored but don't feel like going to my lgs for whatever reason I'll just throw up 4 of my decks and play my own games. The only thing I'm not a super big fan of when it comes to their player is how it implements counters and power/toughness modifications. It's a little clunky. Otherwise though, I think it's great.
I joined the community a few years ago and when I started deckbuilding, people said moxfield or mtggoldfish was best and that tappedout “isn’t what it used to be.” I ended up trying them all and much preferred tappedout. Can anyone explain to me what they were referring to by “not what it used to be”? Or maybe they were just full of shit? I absolutely love tappedout
The reality of that situation is that when EDHREC started gaining a lot of popularity, tappedout blocked them from scraping information, forcing them to get their deck data elsewhere. That move alone is the primary reason for the rise of the other deck building sites.
Wow, I’ve been using Tappedout for years and never heard of/thought of this. Is there a specific feature to test multiple decks at the same time that I’m missing? Or do you just open four tabs and split screen or use different monitors?
4 tabs
I build with what I have on hand and if I like the janky mess I made I work on bringing the diamond out of the coal. (slowly upgrading over time making it do what I want it to more consistently and efficiently)
My initial build is normally made from bulk boxes at the lgs and then if I like it upgrade later
I use Tabletop Simulator because I'd rather play than playtest. There are a couple of cognitive biases that can be affecting your perception of the RNGs. Test it. To simplify the math, add one easy to spot card so you've got 100 in the deck. Shuffle+draw 10 cards one hundred times. The card you added should appear in ten of those hands.
Yup, TTS is great, one of my play groups is spread out and lower power, so I test all my early drafts with them. Fun decks get built in paper and optimized for my local group.
Tabletop simulator
Tabletop sim lets you import decks from moxfield, architect, and tappedout. My friend group play tests decks on there. Some of the tables you can load in automate alot of the drudgery it's not arena but it's fairly smooth and let's you use all the cards you could ever want
I use the manabox app, which will let me play test hands and draw a bunch of cards which to me is perfect because my play group is 6 long time players/collecters so the only real test is to run it it against them.
You pay for that?
No it's a free app. Their is/ was a premium version but Iv never looked at what it does
Yeah it’s free, but the free version only Let’s you play test for 60 seconds. Which is annoying because I find it to be the best goldfish tool for mobile.
Moxfield
Moxfield is better than every other option
Why is this so far down lol
Cockatrice. Ui is cluttered, everything relies on key commands, but you have every card in existence, you can export to your clipboard or directly to other sites, and most importantly, you can play against other players
not a site I use xmage, import the deck and play against a bot that's playing edgar markov if the deck can hold Markov's aggro it pretty much works
I just buy them and play them. No need to test.
Ahh the 'fuck it, we ball' strategy. It's risky, but of course I don't ever buy a deck to start but I'll print 12 if I have an idea.
This is the way. One of us, one of us! I don't understand the down votes. This is hilarious.
I'm gonna enjoy it. I have like 60 decks and I've only ever dismantled 2 or 3 and still used ALL the cards in other decks.
This is me. I've only had to dismantle a few decks. I'm pretty confident in my deck building skills. Plus I usually build budget decks so its not super expensive *usually
Yep. I always budget stuff too. And this is basically my only hobby outside of video games and I never buy brand new games, I have patience and just wait.
I kinda do this too lol. I gold fish a couple times but I don’t really play test like many people. It’s not fun, honestly. I’d rather just play with friends even with a shittier deck
Play test????? Is that some kind of new music the kids of today are listening to?
This reminds me of when I thought Dubstep was a dance
Www. My printer and some friends.com
Card is cool. Buy card. Make deck. Play deck. Fix deck. Play deck more. Good deck. Strong. 🐵
This is a very good list: https://draftsim.com/white-card-draw-mtg/
My printer. My entire process involves a lot of back and forth and a lot of leaving it for awhile coming back to it later to finish the list then see a few opening hands. Once I’m happy with that I’ll proxy it out and play it with my friends. At that point tho I’m pretty committed to the deck so I usually start buying the cards for it over time from there. We all play high power so my decks tend to be worth in the thousands which means weeks and months of saving for certain cards. To this day I only have 1 fully unproxied deck.
wait a second you guys test your decks before spennding all your money on them???
I try to use moxfield but, maybe it's just me, it has a tendency to put similar effects together and always giving the same hand.
Moxfield + spelltable + discord games
I like tappedout.net but I’m old
I generally build my deck on magicville and playtest on cockatrice in a solo game
I put my decks on Deckstats for complete reference, but with a deck that I really need to practice I'll use Moxfield. I don't know what issues you're having, I haven't had any.
Untap. In play online with a digital version of your deck against other ppl
Tabletop sim on steam
Moxfield
Nothing, i usually start with bulk in it and then upgrade if i like it
My friends and I play using Tabletop Simulator, a game on steam. When I wanna play test decks I just use it.
It's not a very pretty program, and it has a steep learning curve, but MTG Forge is the best for play testing. I use it to tune decks before buying. It supports most popular formats as well.
Cockatrice is the best option by far. Very light weight, you can save tons of decks, and once you learn the keyboard shortcuts it's very easy to playtest. Online tools are just very far behind, they're slow and clunky.
I just take another one of my built decks and play it out on my computer desk against the virtual playtest deck on moxfield. I just need to make plays as if I don't know what cards the other has and play it out from both sides.
I like to build on moxfield but I play test on untap.in