I realize that we are no longer on the official board but I think this thread would get just as much views from their staff here as it did there. If you want I can every 6 months reply to someone saying "we are viewing this" or "we will start interacting more". We might even get more views here. I think the flavor section actually has wizards employees who sometimes post over there.


My first suggestion is the same thing I have wanted since open beta and missed the most since v3 was torn away from my loving keyboard:
I would like to get a binder view of the "collection". It doesn't have to be the default view nor need to be used in deck building but I would not mind it as an option there. I just want some visually appealing way to view my collection. There were many times in v3 after I had a particularly bad draw to oust me from a draft that I would go and just view my collection and be made happier. It would actually get me to open the client more and probably had me drafting more. Also in encouraged me to draft more to fill out my collection more. Now it just feels like I have a cluttered pile of cards that I don't care about or take pride it. I have also not played much in several months even though there were a couple flash back drafts I wanted to play.


So what is your suggestion? You may have an important one that would make playing even easier or a frivolous one like me.

I stand by my initial tweet about this (v4):
22 Aug 2013:
@mtgworth #mtgo1 A single Change to MTGO? Restart the beta with new crew of designers and devs.

I'd like a convenient method to keep track of cards I've loaned out to friends. I don't want to do this manually. Perhaps something like "create a want list populated with the cards I'm trading away in this trade". This is much simpler than them implementing a system for loaning cards, though, that would also be fine.

I vote for a full scale system for loaning or renting out cards. I have a large selection of format staples just collecting dust. It could reduce the entre barrier for some players if they just rented the cards instead of buying them - I think.

Off the top of my head:

I want decklists to saved to my computer, and saved when I click save (or at least the option to turn off auto-save)

I want a Color Identity field in the collection/deckbuilder, and to search by color ID (maybe a toggle to color for CI turned on/off)

I want to be able to put the sideboard below the deck (thirds vertically like V2/3)

I want to be able to change binders while in the trade screen

I want to be able to highlight and move things that are off screen (e.g. if I want a binder of all my foil commons - I should be able to select all and move to binder; but I can only highlight the cards on screen, and anything that scrolls off screen loses its highlight)

I want to vertically resize the left pane (filters/Decks) separate from the deck/collection itself. If I have to drag the deck screen up to see all of my piles, the filters become so collapsed they are hard to use. (searching subtypes with only 2 or 3 options showing is a pain)

I want deck details to show me all formats for which the deck is legal, and be playable in each of those formats (as opposed to "open new copy" > change format. If I make deck changes I have to remember to make the changes in all versions of the deck.

I want to be able to "solitaire" playtest decks offline. I should be able to launch this from the collection screen with a "playtest" button

I want to be able to "multi-sort" fields in collection. Either V3 functionality (if I sorted by CMC then type, for example, I would get types sorted by CMC - not types alphabetically) or maybe something like some web spreadsheets (click first sort column, hold shift and click second, third, etc)

I'm sure there's more, I'll think on it.

You can change binders on the trade screen. It is the last item on the list of things to do on your left on that screen. Sometimes it is closed so you may have to open it to see the binders.

I am surprised you didn't mention a collection screen that is not an editor screen as well. (Because manipulating a collection is NOT the same as manipulating a deck.)

Guess you can tell I trade that much since V4, when did they implement that? Or did I just never see it?



I don't really think of it as a collection, since it just seems like an advanced version of the V3 deck editor. And that probably speaks volumes.

Its been there for as long as I remember. It might not have been in the initial open build but its been there a really long while.

I like this 'frivolous' suggestion the best. I miss the old 'binder' view of collection.

I wish I could take credit for it but someone brought it up in the Ryan Spain presentation of v4 Beta. I would only venture into the v4 beta when we were forced to or rewarded with going in. When they brought it up I realized it was one of the things I missed very much but could not put my finger on it before hand. It has been brought up and ignored enough times to where I don't think its going to happen. I have hit a personal lul in my magic playing and this is a feature which would usually keep me opening the client even during a lul back then. So in relation I have not been using the client as much as I would if it was in there.

Another thing I would like to see is the ability to resize the panes in the home screen. Mostly making the buddy list larger. It seems like they shrunk this in size when they added the leagues information. Now I have to scroll through the list.

I would like a way to view previous trades. I trade with friends and family and "sometimes" there are discussions over who "owned" a card originally. I would LOVE to have a way to track trades.

From my understanding all the people involved in making and maintaining MTGO have a super account that gives them unlimited everything. While I feel this is great for being able to test in game issues I also view this is something that disconnects them from their customer base. Which is probably why they put in no effort into trading, the store, and collections. I would really like to see them have to build up and maintain new accounts that are the same as the ones we use. Where they have to do trades to get cards. They have to use the store to buy products. Then they also would of used their own money on cards and want some kind of sense of ownership and pride in the collection. My thinking on this suggestion would be that this would force them to fully use the client how we use it. Then we might see vast improvements in other areas where by default they have no interest simply from the unique way they use the client.

Pantera Canes. Of course that is the nail head that you've found. Sadly hitting it home does not seem to have any effect on the decision makers. In fact I'd say they went into this deliberately blind to the sort of thing you are talking about.

I also miss the binder view. In V3 I tried to complete playsets of as many cards as possible, so basically collecting. V4 gives absolutely no feeling of having a collection. It is all about card functionality now. My theory is that this is also what killed foils alongside the horrible foil implementation.

I have a list. I've even mentioned them on the official thread. I don't have much hope of them ever being implemented, but...

Right now, my priorities are:

Put exiled cards in the exiled zone and use the "arrow when moused over" effect on cards in the exile zone to indicated which permanents (if any) are responsible for their exile. Right now, cards exiled by permanents like Ashiok and Detention Sphere sit on the battlefield. In 1v1 it isn't as big an issue, but in the cramped 2hg screen, they can cover other permanents and actually block interaction with covered cards. I've actually seen games where one player couldn't tap his lands because there were too many exiled cards sitting on the battlefield. We have an exile zone... lets use it, right?

Streamline trigger stacking. F7 only gets you so far. Cards like Blood Artist can be hella annoying to stack because each trigger needs to be targeted, requiring 2 clicks per trigger. Having an "Always target same" option that would allow F7 to work would be a huge time saver. Also, when you have lots of triggers from multiple sources all needing to be stacked, maybe have a short cut like holding the shift key to instastack all of the same type. For example, if you have Blood Artist, Blade of the Bloodchief, and Grim Haruspex in play someone sweeps killing several other creatures in addition to the Artist and Haruspex, you end up having to stack all of the Haruspex triggers, 1 at a time, then all of the Blood Artist triggers, also 1 at a time, before F7 kicks in and stacks all the Blade triggers. Being able to hold down a key while clicking on one of the triggers to have all triggers of that type get stacked would be a huge improvement.

Redo the chat interface. I could write a book on all the things wrong with the current implementation, but it boils down to that I rarely want to team up with people that I can't interact with on some other platform like Skype or Dolby Axon. Trying to manage multiple chat windows in a running game is way too hard. V3's chat wasn't perfect, but it was worlds better than this garbage.

Port some of the improvements to the 1v1 dual scene to multiplayer. We still don't get those nifty little zone icons that you can click on to expand or hide other zones.

Some good ones TFM. You are probably right about the implementation short term at least. It may take a few years to get back to where we were before v3 went dark.