Super Secret Tech
(Not the Unhinged One)
Note: today’s article references yesterday’s installment extensively. If you have not read that yet, please do so now.
Alternatively, if you don’t care one whit about my piddly little drafts, you can skip down to the section labeled Huh? Know that you’ve wounded my feelings immensely, and that I have reinvoked the blood oath.
The Deck
Yesterday I presented you with a challenge: build my draft deck. Little did any of you suspect that was just a ploy so I wouldn’t have to keep writing.
Anyway, for all of you that participated, here’s the winning deck.
1cc
Akki Avalanchers
Bile Urchin
2cc
Glacial Ray
Kuro’s Taken
Kuro’s Taken
Skullsnatcher
Soulless Revival
Wicked Akuba
3cc
Hanabi Blast
Horobi’s Whisper
Rend Flesh
Akki Coalflinger
Ghost-Lit Raider
Shinen of Fury’s Fire
Skull Collector
Takenuma Bleeder
4cc
Torrent of Stone
Spiraling Embers
Kami of Empty Graves
5cc
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Frost Ogre
Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker
Sokenzan Spellblade
8 Mountain
9 Swamp
I don’t very much like it, either. This is one of those examples of too much deck, too little space.
The removal spells are all good. They’re really good. Thing is you’ve got creatures fighting with them for deck space. Ya can’t build a deck of just removal spells.
Other thing is, there are a few spells that would ordinarily pretty easily find themselves in a deck like this. Also, what creatures get the cut? How many lands? CBS is an 18-land format, but can this deck get by with 17? 16?
I’m not sure there’s one perfect build, because a lot of cards become far better or worse in certain matchups (though very few would normally be considered sideboard cards). I’m very interested in what you guys came up with, but unfortunately I’m writing this shortly before yesterday’s article goes live, and my time machine only goes about fifteen minutes into the future. (Lousy flux capacitor.) We’ll just have to leave it at that.
The Games
At this point I’d usually give a rough outline of what happened during the games: hands I should’ve mulliganed, bad plays by me, misclicks, et cetera. There’s little doubt in my mind that this is the least-read part of these types of articles. Describing matches just isn’t all that interesting or useful. Wouldn’t it be great if you could watch them yourselves?
Guess what? You can!
Huh?
Not long ago, My Good Friend Craig Edwards (a.k.a. Dannik on IRC and Magic Online) and I got fed up with the limitations of Magic Online’s replays. For one, you can never watch non Premier Event draft games. You can’t even watch those for much more than a few hours. League games disappear even faster. Additionally, any of your own replays in the My Games area disappear each time you log back in. (This was not always the case, if I recall–the 2.0 fiasco had something to do with it.)
Well, we figured out how to bypass all of that nonsense.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Magic Online Replays
I’ll be blunt. I don’t think the Magic Online team will be very happy with this revelation. I believe they disabled replays for a reason (likely to minimize server load). Yet, from what I can tell, they’ve never said this outright. The Adepts are as clueless about the situation as anyone else. The Help Desk only refers to replays as a "disabled feature." I’ve personally got no qualms about exposing this dirty little barely-obfuscated secret.
So here’s the deal. The file mygames.your name.dat essentially contains links to where your replays are located on the Magic Online servers. The trick is that every time you log on, this file is cleared. Whenever you log out (exit the program), the file is written to with the replay data. All you gotta do to save replays is to back this file up whenever you log out.
Simple, right? For those of you still not satisfied, I’ll go into this in quite a bit more detail. I do hope I’ll not offend the technologically challenged by making this too complex. Likewise, I hope my more advanced readers won’t feel too insulted by how I dumbed this down.
Saving Replays
Play a game, or as many as you like, on the same session of Magic Online. As far as I know, this can be any type of game. If you’re not sure if it’s something you can replay later, check if it’s in My Games. If it’s there, you can watch it later.
Exit Magic Online. (Make sure you don’t log back in without following the next steps, or the crucial file will be overwritten.
Locate the file mygames.your name.dat (include any spaces. If there’s no space in your login, there won’t be a space in the file. For example, my file is called mygames.Pugg Fuggly.dat) in the root Magic Online directory. By default, this directory is C:Program FilesWizards of the CoastMagic Online.
Using whatever method you prefer, back this file up. Copying and pasting it to another directory is probably the easiest. I would also recommend renaming it, perhaps to a description of the type of game it represents plus the date on which it was played. This isn’t necessary, but if you ever back up more than one replay, you’ll run into problems when two files with the same name compete in the same directory.
That’s it! Consider your replay backed up. Now when you log back into Magic Online, mygames.your name.dat will be overwritten, but your replay will be safe.
Viewing Replays
Ensure that Magic Online is not currently running. Once you do, log into Magic Online. Don’t actually do anything within the program yet.
Delete the file mygames.your name.dat. It shouldn’t contain anything useful if you’re logged on to a fresh session. Yes, you’re deleting this file while Magic Online is running. You shouldn’t get any error messages for doing so.
Find a saved replay. This could be one you’ve saved yourself, or it could be one from a friend! It could even be one you’ve downloaded from some fictional character’s article on a hypothetical website.
Transfer this file (i.e. copy and paste it) back into your Magic Online directory, unless it was there already. Rename it to mygames.your name.dat, unless it was named that already.
Go back into your running session of Magic Online. Click on My Games. Note that replays come up on that screen. Watch the replays. Rejoice.
If you want to watch another replay from a different file, you must log out and log back in before you can do so. Apparently My Games will not refresh itself unless you actually play a game, so even if you copy the new replays My Games will still display information about the old ones.
So it’s not exactly simple. I’m hoping that’ll be just enough to help this information barely slip under the radar.
Still, imagine! Magic Online can once again properly be considered a learning tool. Watch your own old games. Watch other people’s old games! A noted stand-up comic popular in the 1980s has even been heard saying that in Soviet Russia, other people’s old games watch you. The possibilities are endless.
If this doesn’t make them get rid of replays for good, that is.
Back to the Point
So, knowing what you know now, you can watch my draft! Not the part where I drafted the cards, but the games. In fact, I believe said games are handily linked right here. [They will be about the time this article goes live. – Knut]
Tiny file, isn’t it? Remember, if you plan on watching, rename the .dat file to mygames.your name.dat. Not my name. I’ve got nothing to do with your computer. Note that the replays generally come up in reverse chronological order, that is, the one on top was played most recently. Use the game numbers to tell which you should watch first (watch the lowest game number first). The date reported is useless.
There are a few limitations on the system. When you watch your own old games, you see the cards in your hand. When you watch other people’s games, you don’t. So basically what I’m saying is that you don’t know some of the plays I made were mistakes.
Yes, this draft didn’t wind up going well. That’s sort of why I picked it for a walkthrough. My cards were excellent and my draws weren’t terrible (yeah, so I missed a few early land drops). My opponent’s cards and draws were just better. I was pretty furious after the draft. Pretty really furious.
Maybe you can learn something from my anguish. Enjoy the replays while you can. Tomorrow, another draft.