General Tips for using MODO better

[Jason Waddell]

From my end, here's what I learned:
- don't do trade duties and stream at the same time

- keep in a notepad a list of all players who took cards
- in the chat, type the number of cards taken by each player

- at the start of night, note the number of cards in the account. should line up at the end.
- end of night, double check key cards. Filter to a search of "sacrifice pay 1 life" to confirm that all fetchlands are there. Filter to PWs to make sure those are all there. Check creature count to make sure it didn't change.

Can others add what they learned? I think we had quite a few hickups, but that we can do things about 5x better in the future.

 

[Suicufnoc]

Whoever is trading needs a list of people in the drafts MODO names so they don't give away cards.

I wonder if there's a way to get a text list of cards traded for. If somebody already own some on the cards in their deck, it could be hard to remember which ones they are borrowing.

Also the different card versions is a pain in the neck, maybe there's a fix for that.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Yeah, I don't know how to handle the different card versions, everybody seemed to have issues with that.

 

[Dom Harvey]

The way I've done it in the past:

- When the draft is finished on the site, press 'Download' to get a text file
- Send that text file to the person distributing cards
- They load the file as a new trade binder on MTGO; this lets you trade the cards without doing any more work, and you have a record of which edition the cards were if that's an issue
- Once a player receives their cards, they load that text file as a new deck and start building; they can load it as a new binder when they want to trade back

 

[Jason Waddell]

The way I've done it in the past:

- When the draft is finished on the site, press 'Download' to get a text file
- Send that text file to the person distributing cards
- They load the file as a new trade binder on MTGO; this lets you trade the cards without doing any more work, and you have a record of which edition the cards were if that's an issue
- Once a player receives their cards, they load that text file as a new deck and start building; they can load it as a new binder when they want to trade back

I can try this. I really think that being the host is already a lot of a pain, so I would prefer the process that doesn't put more obligation on the host.
From what I could tell, adding cards one-by-one to the trade binder at the end usually worked, but I get that this is annoying as a drafter.

 

[Quirk]

It's possible to download a text file from draft.wtf directly as a drafter - the problems are a) it appears to have no version information and b) it doesn't include the utility land draft.

a) is the bigger nuisance but it should be workable round - if draft.wtf can't be tweaked to give us the right version, then a really simple script that transforms a draft.wtf download into a correctly versioned import using a lookup table should do it. b) I added quickly manually, though automating this step as well would be good.

The bits which involve importing the list work mostly pretty well. Import as a deck, add the cards you haven't got to your wishlist (one click), add the cards you have already got to your wishlist (many clicks). Trade. To trade back, import the same file again as a trade binder.

I think an interim workaround without changing anything would be to import the deck and make the wishlist and get the cards; it will then complain half your deck's cards are missing but you can right click and update to versions you have. I theorise that if you then re-export this deck you should be able to reload it as the trade binder used to transfer back with the correct versions in.

The most finicky bit, I think, revolves round cards the drafter already has. They need explicitly added to the wish list in order to make it across. If the drafter doesn't get them in the first place, they'll lose their copy when importing as a binder and trading back. Drafting is hence more of a pain the more you have on MTGO.

I may be missing some giant ways to make this easier - the MTGO interface could stand to be a little more intuitive. If anyone spots something I'm missing please weigh in and set me straight.

 

[Aston]

I think an interim workaround without changing anything would be to import the deck and make the wishlist and get the cards; it will then complain half your deck's cards are missing but you can right click and update to versions you have. I theorise that if you then re-export this deck you should be able to reload it as the trade binder used to transfer back with the correct versions in.

Exporting your deck and then importing it as a new trade binder is what I did, it works to get all the right versions as you hoped.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Exporting your deck and then importing it as a new trade binder is what I did, it works to get all the right versions as you hoped.

Did we get all the cards on the first try? I can't remember who did what.

 

[Suicufnoc]

is the bigger nuisance but it should be workable round - if draft.wtf can't be tweaked to give us the right version, then a really simple script that transforms a draft.wtf download into a correctly versioned import using a lookup table should do it. b) I added quickly manually, though automating this step as well would be good.

The bits which involve importing the list work mostly pretty well. Import as a deck, add the cards you haven't got to your wishlist (one click), add the cards you have already got to your wishlist (many clicks). Trade. To trade back, import the same file again as a trade binder.

The first part is the same as my thought.

On the second part:
Can you export a wishlist? that would solve the "many clicks" part. Don't trade for the cards you already have, and don't trade them back.

 

[Chriskool]

What are you using to draft?

I have bookmarked this thread to revisit it when my brain works and offer advice. I can say that promo and foils were terrible last time I tried something like this on MTGO (and that I used the method Dom described).

 

[Jason Waddell]

What are you using to draft?

I have bookmarked this thread to revisit it when my brain works and offer advice. I can say that promo and foils were terrible last time I tried something like this on MTGO (and that I used the method Dom described).

drafts.in for the main draft.

A spreadsheet for the utility land draft (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ajdoWQPfHEuqhyxllE-rSmx-jp9awYCn2J6yW2Zjl6Y/edit#gid=0).