Hey everyone, after a week of going through the priority list of features and updates, I have a new release for you.

Most of the changes made this week are behind-the-scenes performance improvements and rearranging/documenting code in preparation for creating an open-source project (I wasn’t able to hit my goal of setting that up this week, but hopefully by this time next week it will be there), but I was able to sneak in some new features, including one that many people have requested.

Here are the download links for the application’s installer program.

64-bit Version: https://clans.dailyarena.net/download/advisor/x64/DailyArenaDeckAdvisorSetup.msi

32-bit Version: https://clans.dailyarena.net/download/advisor/x86/DailyArenaDeckAdvisorSetup.msi

Due to the fact that I made some changes to the auto-updater functionality that are incompatible with earlier versions (before version 1.0.2.0), I would recommend re-installing it if you already installed a previous version, as well as deleting any cache files created by older versions in the folder at C:\Users\{{Your User}}\AppData\LocalLow\DailyArena\DailyArenaDeckAdvisor (your drive letter may be different).

Here are the features that have changed since the previous version:

Formats

One of the top-requested features was to be able to “ignore sideboards”. I interpret that as a call for best-of-one support, which isn’t quite the same as dropping the sideboard off of best-of-three decks.

I have added a “Format” drop-down in the upper-right corner of the window, which (so far) contains three options: Standard, Arena Standard, and Brawl. “Arena Standard” contains best-of-one decks without sideboards. A caveat : the Arena Standard data currently comes from mtggoldfish, and isn’t of the same quality as the data for Standard and Brawl. The plan is to get higher-quality data for this in the future, likely from another source.

I know that Brawl has not been added to Arena yet, but it was promised, and Brawl decks can be great guides for Singleton, so I figured it was worth it to add…especially since the programming cost was relatively low.

Refresh

Next to the “Format” drop-down, two refresh buttons now appear. The first one refreshes the player inventory without re-downloading deck information, etc., from the server. This is useful for re-calculating the suggestions, etc., after you open boosters or otherwise collect new cards or wildcards. Just make sure to open your the Arena “Collection” page to dump the updated inventory information to the real-time log.

The second refresh button (with an exclamation point) re-queries the server to see if any data has changed, re-loads the card database and player inventory, and then re-runs all the calculations. Since all of the server-side information is now updated on a daily basis, this button is really only useful in the case where you leave the application running overnight and want to refresh it the next day.

Performance Improvements, Etc.

A bunch of under-the-hood performance improvements have been made. The biggest improvements come from implementing a daily job on the server side to update any server-side cached data, and adding a client-side cache to keep the application from going off to the internet to download information more than necessary.

I also changed code around some of the more computationally expensive operations that were previously getting executed multiple times unnecessarily, to store the results of the initial operation and re-use it instead.

Future Enhancements

Here’s an update of the list of work planned for future development:

Github/Patreon – I will be settings up a Github project (after some additional code cleanup/optimizion) for folks who would like to contribute as developers to the tool, as well as a Patreon to help support this and other tools and content. I hope to have those up sometime next week. (I started setting up a Patreon site but haven’t submitted it for review yet, and haven’t quite decided on tiers/rewards.) Edit : The Patreon page is now live!

– I will be settings up a Github project (after some additional code cleanup/optimizion) for folks who would like to contribute as developers to the tool, as well as a Patreon to help support this and other tools and content. I hope to have those up sometime next week. (I started setting up a Patreon site but haven’t submitted it for review yet, and haven’t quite decided on tiers/rewards.) : The Patreon page is now live! Optimization/Performance – There are some additional code optimizations that I want to do, but the most pressing ones have been done for this release.

– There are some additional code optimizations that I want to do, but the most pressing ones have been done for this release. Code Signing – I’d like to purchase a Code Signing Certificate and start signing the application’s executables with it so that Windows Defender/SmartScreen trust will start building up and we can get rid of the nag screens. Unfortunately the cheapest route to doing this costs around $100 a year, so that’s where I hope Patreon might help.

– I’d like to purchase a Code Signing Certificate and start signing the application’s executables with it so that Windows Defender/SmartScreen trust will start building up and we can get rid of the nag screens. Unfortunately the cheapest route to doing this costs around $100 a year, so that’s where I hope Patreon might help. Card “Tooltips” – Make it so mousing over a card name brings up a floating window containing the card art/details.

– Make it so mousing over a card name brings up a floating window containing the card art/details. Improved Replacement Suggestions – Currently the replacement suggestion algorithm is quite basic and just uses a fixed “score” on each card when making the suggestions, and especially when it comes to lands, it can leave something to be desired. For example, sometimes it will suggest Stone Quarry when Wind-Scarred Crag would be a better replacement, and it can over-suggest dual lands that always enter tapped when playing more basics would probably be better.

– Currently the replacement suggestion algorithm is quite basic and just uses a fixed “score” on each card when making the suggestions, and especially when it comes to lands, it can leave something to be desired. For example, sometimes it will suggest Stone Quarry when Wind-Scarred Crag would be a better replacement, and it can over-suggest dual lands that always enter tapped when playing more basics would probably be better. Settings/Options – Add a settings/options area or screen where different sorting options/criteria, font size, log file location (if non-standard), etc., can be selected.

– Add a settings/options area or screen where different sorting options/criteria, font size, log file location (if non-standard), etc., can be selected. Filters – Add filters to allow showing/hiding based on criteria like rarity count, resilience to rotation, only decks you have cards for, only decks you can complete with wildcards, etc.

– Add filters to allow showing/hiding based on criteria like rarity count, resilience to rotation, only decks you have cards for, only decks you can complete with wildcards, etc. More Formats – We’ve got Arena Standard and Brawl, now…after rotation Historic will be a thing, so I will want to add that once I understand how it will be supported.

– We’ve got Arena Standard and Brawl, now…after rotation Historic will be a thing, so I will want to add that once I understand how it will be supported. Data Sources – Currently all archetype information used in the Deck Advisor’s analysis is pulled down from mtggoldfish. I’d like to look into branching out to other/alternative sources, especially for data supporting Arena Standard.

– Currently all archetype information used in the Deck Advisor’s analysis is pulled down from mtggoldfish. I’d like to look into branching out to other/alternative sources, especially for data supporting Arena Standard. Mac/Linux Support – I’d like to look into better support for using this application on a Mac or Linux machine, either through more guidance on running it via Wine, or perhaps creating a non-GUI version of it that can run natively on Mac/Linux that just dumps out reports.

– I’d like to look into better support for using this application on a Mac or Linux machine, either through more guidance on running it via Wine, or perhaps creating a non-GUI version of it that can run natively on Mac/Linux that just dumps out reports. User Documentation/Release Notes – No tool like this can really shine without having a set of documents that users can go to to get help using it, and to see what changes come with new releases. So far I’ve just done these weekly blog posts, but want to get something better put together (this will likely end up being part of the GitHub effort).

Free Account Progress Update

After another week of grinding with the free account I created to test the deck advisor, I have some updates on my progress using that account.

I finally clawed my way up to Silver on Traditional Ranked using a (slightly improved) Mono-Red build:

Budget Mono-Red (Bo3)

Export to MTGA

Since adding the Arena Standard functionality for testing, I’ve put together a Bo1 Mono-Blue deck that I’ve gotten surprisingly good results with in the Play queue:

Budget Mono-Blue (Bo1)

Export to MTGA

And last but not least, I tested the Brawl functionality (and also blew some Wildcards) by building this sweet low-cost Golgari sacrifice-themed deck for the recent Planecation Singleton event:

Golgari Sacrifice (Singleton)

Export to MTGA

Thank you to all the users who have tried out this application, and passed it on to your friends. I look forward to making further improvements, and putting together other useful tools like this in the future!

As always, feel free to send any questions, comments and criticisms to me here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Cheers!

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.