Magic: The Gathering Online Play

[Azhtek]

So, as some of you may be aware, when people wish to play a game they log on to Games I Play, and have a match through there. If you haven't been there recently, things are a bit buggy. You currently cannot create new decks, the match layout is a bit rigid, and they don't update to the newest cards too quickly.

I've done some fucking around with a piece of software which installs a Magic database of all the cards on your desktop, loads images, and you can essentially play computer to computer. It appears to be more stable, faster, more flexible in gameplay, has more features, and has access to the latest cards thanks to a more open source community providing content, such as card images.

So, if anyone is interested, following is a guide on how to set up the software, which is called Magic Workstation.
First things first, you're going to want to download the program, which can be obtained here. Take note that if you are running Windows 7 or later, you will need to change the default installer path from c:/Program Files/... to something else. For example, change it to C:/MWS.

Once that's installed, you're going to want to load it up with the database of cards. This can be obtained here. What you'll want to do is download the latest card database and install it. It will seek out the installed location of Magic Workstation and sort itself out.

Now, you have two options from this point. You can go the quick and easy option and download cropped images of the cards. What this means is that you will be downloading the artwork of the card, which will be applied to the relevant card in the Magic Workstation database. The frame and text of the card is generated automatically by the program based on the information in the database, but the artwork is assigned to suit.
You can download these images from MWS Games on the link above. You'll download the two files, Alpha up to Avacyn Restored, and Magic 2013 up to Ravnica Restored, and install both files. Again, they'll track down the install directory and sort themselves out.

The second option is to download the full card image from a scanned card. This gives you the actual image of the card, as it was printed and uploaded by the community. This, of course, is a much larger download and requires a tiny bit of additional work.
If you wish to proceed with this option, I've taken the painstaking liberty of compiling all the images into a single archive for your relative convenience. You can download this file here. You will need WinRAR to open this archive, but I'd recommend that every computer come with that program anyway.
Moving on, once you have downloaded the image archive and have opened it with WinRAR, extract all of the file locations to the Pics folder inside the folder you installed Magic Workstation. So for example, you will be extracting them to C:/MWS/Pics. Accept any mergers that Windows would like to perform.
Take note that the cards you see are on your local machine only. If someone else wishes to view full scans, they'll have to download the file too.

Okay, so the program is installed, you've got your cards, now it's time to start the program up.
Load Magic Workstation from the shortcut on your desktop.

If you have opted to use the full card scans, you'll want to get this out of the way first. If you're using cropped images, skip this part.
Open Magic Workstation's preferences (Either by going Tools>Preferences or by pressing F10.) and click on Image View. Set MtG Interactive Encyclopedia Pictures mode to Full Card Image, and do the same with External Picture Priority. This will make it so that the full card images will load for you by default.


Now, the program itself. First thing you want to do is look around. I'm not going to cover the program too in-depth, it's probably best if you learn what to do on your own, or through playing with other people because honestly, it's a quite extensive piece of software.

But I will advise of two things; how to create your deck, and how to join/create a public game.

To create a deck, I'd recommend going to View and changing to Deck Edit Mode. Here you have the entirety of the available Magic cards in a pane to the left, and to the right you'll have a section for your cards to slot into your deck.Click File>New Deck and save it as whatever you'd like this deck to be named.
A search bar is located above the list of available cards, so you may search for cards that tickle your fancy, and you can add or remove them from your deck by double-clicking, using the  coloured arrows between the two panes (Blue is Add to Deck, Green is Add to Sideboard, Red is Remove from Deck.) You can also use the + and - buttons above the deck pane.

Anyway, once you have all your cards added, click the save button (Again, above the deck pane) and now you're ready for online play.

I should state here that if you join a game now, it will use the last deck you've loaded. You can either open a deck by going to File>Open Deck, or by opening the Deck Browser (Also in File menu) and navigating to where you've been storing your decks.

Now, online play. Easiest way is to press Ctrl+I. This will bring up a small window with a field where you can enter an opponent's IP. By default, this will be set to mwsplay.net. This is fine. Click Call, and you will be presented with a window displaying available games (Which you can request to join, if they are not in progress) and even create games of your own.
Your name will be displayed as Player until you change it, however.This can be done by opening MWSPlay from  the other shortcut placed on your desktop, going Options>Preferences and changing your display name.

The rest I recommend you just figure out by messing around with the software. Try a few solo games to get a feel for the system, or challenge other people on FW.

I realise this was a big block of text, but one hopes it's made enough sense for people to start playing Magic together again.

[Nellie O.]

As an additional note....

It is very important as you are building your deck that you use the BLUE ARROW BUTTON to add the cards to your DECK.  Any cards saved to the SIDEBOARD using the GREEN ARROW BUTTON will be inaccessible in a match. 

If you open your deck in-game and you find that your cards won't load or the card total for your deck seems inaccurate, go back to the Deck-Building Mode and check that all of your cards are under a category name ("//[Creatures]," "//[Spells]," "//[Lands]") and NOT under "//[Sideboard]."  You WILL need to look up the cards in the database and click the BLUE ARROW BUTTON in order to add them correctly.

#themoreyouknow

[Fen]

Protips for MWSplay.

Clicking and dragging works for putting things into play, and letting you adjust the field so you can keep things in order. This works as well for drawing cards (click the library and drag to your hand), moving cards from the field of play (from play to graveyard, from play to Removed from game, and even back on top of the library).

Also be sure to load your deck before beginning a game. Usually it will try to play the last deck you worked on via the Magic workstation. If you are making a room, make sure to pick the deck you want to play with first before starting.

Right clicking and dragging from your card to another card makes a red arrow for targeting. (Helps designate activated abilities as well as blocking.)