Things you may not know about MTG Forge

1. In the Deck Editor you can sort the cards by clicking on the column, much like Magic Online. Unlike MTGO you sort multiple times. For instance if you want to sort by color and type, first click on the column name “color” then “type”. Side note, you will get a different result if you click on “type” then “color”. You can also sort by mana cost.

2. The Deck Editor can also “reverse sort” a column by clicking on the column again. For example, click on “color” once and then click on it again. (As a side effect when you save your sealed or draft deck, MTG Forge will unintentionally “sort” it.)

3. When you are booster drafting, instead of selecting the card and then pushing the button “Choose Card” you can just right-click. Right-clicking chooses the highlighted card, not the card that the mouse is over.

4. MTG Forge was written by one determined, bored individual :)

5. Macintosh users seem especially glad to be able to play MTG Forge since MTGO is PC only.

6. MTG Forge is mentioned on the Wikipedia entry on Magic. And yes, I put it there.

7. The source code is pretty much horrible now. I’ve added little things here and there. The code works but it isn’t pretty (it smells). Smelly code isn’t necessarily bad, but in this case it shows that it is time to move on. That is why I’m working on version 2.0 in Python. Me and Java had a good run, but Python offers more flexibility (and more runtime errors).

8. The computer can’t play Counterspell (but you’ve probably figured that out).

9. You can use the computer’s activated abilities. This means that you can use that Royal Assassin if you really want to. I’ve meant to fix this, but I haven’t.

10. You target the same creature multiple times with Hex (destroy 6 target creatures). So if the computer has 3 creatures in play, you can target each creature twice and destroy them. Technically Hex should only be able to target 6 different creatures.

11. If you want to copy a deck, just use “Save As”. (I know this isn’t rocket science, but maybe it will help someone.)

12. The Generate Deck option works a little different for constructed and sealed. Constructed generated decks will have single copies of cards (singleton), while sealed will have multiple copies. Sealed decks will also have a maximum of 3 rares per deck.

13. At last count, MTG Forge has been downloaded over 11,000 times. I don’t know exactly how many times it has been downloaded since I have multiple versions and no central download site.

14. You can add creatures to MTG Forge by modifying the file “cards.txt”. Cards.txt supports a number of keywords such as flying, fear, haste, vigilance, trample, and unblockable. Also supported are mana abilities like Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves “tap: add G”. Note: a creature can only generate 1 mana. Other abilities include cards like Daggerclaw Imp “This creature cannot block” and Cloudcrown Oak “This creature can block as though it had flying”.