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

First off, I changed the name of the app to Daily Arena Deck Advisor (I thought it sounds better than “MTGA Deck Suggester”). I also created an installer and added some auto-updater functionality so that once you have it up and running, you shouldn’t have to manually install further updates.

The download location of tool has changed, and there are new two separate download versions (this was required by the installer framework), one for 64-bit Windows and one for 32-bit (I think most folks should choose the 64-bit version):

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

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

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

Window Title Update

The Window Title has been modified to reflect the new name of the tool, and version/release information has been added there to make it easier to share that information if needed for support/debugging.

Deck Tab List Location/Styling

The Tab List for all of the decks has been moved from the top of the window to the right, making it easier to see more information at a glance. (The default window opening size was also increased slightly to better fit the information in the deck panels.)

In addition to decks that you already own all the cards for being colored Green, decks that you own the requisite wildcards to craft are now colored Blue.

Meta Report Tab

A static “Meta Report” tab has been added at the top of the deck list. This tab contains information such as:

A list of the top (up to 70) cards for you to craft, based on how often those cards show up in top decks, and how many copies of each card are included in those decks, on average.

A suggestion for the next booster set to purchase if your goal is building toward “the meta” (as opposed to building a specific deck).

A list of the top (up to 10) decks to build toward with the other “meta” information taken into account (these are decks containing high densities of cards that are played across many decks, such as dual lands). These are clickable links that focus the decks tab when clicked.

Meta Statistics by Card

In the card lists in the Meta Report and Deck panels, each card name is now followed by a percentage and a number. The percentage reflects the overall percentage of the archetypes that play this card, and the other number reflects the average number of copies of that card played in those decks.

For example, Watery Grave might be followed by “(31%, 3.1)”, which means 31% of decks play Watery Grave, and those decks play (on average) 3.1 copies of it. The higher the percentage, the more general-purpose the card tends to be. The lower the percentage, the more specific the card is to the deck(s) that play it.

Expected Booster Cost

This new field on the deck panel gives you an estimate of how many boosters you’d need to open to complete the deck. It consists of two numbers: the first number indicates the number of boosters you’d need to open (on average) to collect the cards you need for the deck without spending wildcards you already own, and the second indicates the number of boosters you’d need to open, on average, to collect the cards you need for the deck, if you also spent all the wildcards you had crafting cards for the deck first.

Also, a “booster cost” is now calculated separately for each card, and that information is used when determining the order the decks show up in the tab strip, and when determining the “Next Booster Set to Purchase” for each deck. This is a big improvement over the “needed wildcards” based estimate being used in the initial version.

Wildcards Owned

In the “Wildcards Needed” section of the deck panel, I’ve added the number of wildcards of that rarity you own.

Future Enhancements

I already have a long list of enhancements I’d like to make, and am going to list some of them now to try to head off too many repeat requests. 🙂

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 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. Optimization/Performance – Currently the code suffers from a lack of caching, and unnecessarily re-runs some operations.

– Currently the code suffers from a lack of caching, and unnecessarily re-runs some operations. Refresh – Ability to refresh the data and re-run the analysis without closing and re-opening the entire application.

– Ability to refresh the data and re-run the analysis without closing and re-opening the entire application. 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, etc., can be selected.

– Add a settings/options area or screen where different sorting options/criteria, 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 – Currently this tool is geared toward “Traditional Standard” only. Would like to include functionality for best-of-one, and possibly other formats (such as the upcoming “Historic” format and Brawl).

– Currently this tool is geared toward “Traditional Standard” only. Would like to include functionality for best-of-one, and possibly other formats (such as the upcoming “Historic” format and Brawl). 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 to support additional formats beyond Traditional Standard.

Progress Update

Last week I created a new “free to play” account to use for testing the deck advisor. After a week of grinding, I’ve put together the following Budget Mono-Red deck, and am having a lot of fun with it both in “Play” queues, and down in Bronze on the “Traditional Ranked” ladder.

Budget Mono-Red

Export to MTGA

I am pleased at the overwhelming positive response I’ve gotten for this tool, and look forward to supporting and using it in the future. Please let me know if you run into any issues or have any ideas for improving the tool!

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.